2813/WMAT BQ2 Staren vs Alice Margatroid

WMAT BQ2 Staren vs Alice Margatroid
Date of Scene:	15 August 2015
Location:	WMAT Arena - Devil's Hand
Synopsis:	After their losses in the first round of qualifiers, Staren and Alice Margatroid face off! Dolls and spellcards and magic lasers versus powered armor, missiles, and regular lasers! Who will triumph?
Cast of Characters:	Staren, 807
Tinyplot:	WMAT 2015

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Alice Margatroid (807) has posed:
    Afternoon out in the Devil's Hand, for Alice it's round two and who knows who she's facing this time, but after the last one she had, she knew it was going to be interesting. Hourai and Shanghai float around the dollmaker as she walks along one of the spires, kicking off to float in the air. "Mmm. I wonder where they are." she mutters, looking around, "It's been a good while since I've used a few of my cards."

    Hourai shakes her head, "I would be wary, we don't know the capabilities of the one we're going against. If it's anything like Dorotea, it will be a tough battle. Are you sure you're ready for it?" Shanghai grins, "I know you can do it Alice! We're here for you and I know Marisa would be glad to see you move along too! Especailly after capturing that cat!"

    Alice gives a soft chuckle, slipping a few cards into her sleeves, nodding. "Shall we?"

Staren has posed:
    Staren walks out of the warpgate, in his powered armor as usual for WMAT matches. Well, the ones where he doesn't decide to put his robot body to the test, anyway... He raises his arms and waves to the crowd, then approaches the starting area. His visor is up so people can see his face, and his expression turns from a smile for the crowd to a curious, scrutinizing look at Alice and her... dolls? That gets a raised eyebrow. Once again, he's up against someone he knows nothing about. Last time was close, but he couldn't keep The Bloody Crow from getting past his defenses. Hopefully he'll do a better job this time.

    Staren nods slightly in greeting, and raises a hand. "I'm Staren. Nice to meet you. "Yeah, let's." He smirks, and his visor covers his face as he drops into a fighting stance, watching her... waiting for her to make the first move, and hopefully reveal what sorts of powers he might be dealing with today!

Alice Margatroid (807) has posed:
    Alice, Hourai and Shanghai give a soft blink towards Staren then share a look between each other. Alice floats down a bit and gives another studious eye about the armored catboy. "Alice. A pleasure." she states curtly, "I trust that you're my opponent this day and you're wanting to get past me to move on?" She eyes the two colored armor... "Such an atrocious color, but it does not matter. Your powers are a mere twenty eight point five seven one four percent compared to mine!"

    With a small magic circle coming to bear, a small doll is placed in Alice's right hand, a small card slipping to the left. "I've had luck with this in the past, let's see how it can crack that metal you wear! Spellcard! Demonic Possession - Return Inanimate!" with a windup, Alice LOBS the doll towards Staren and upon impact with him or the ground, explodes into a pillar of blue flame.

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods in response to the first question, then tilts his head as she pulls 6 significant figures out of nowhere. The heck? His computer also quickly confirms that that's 1/3.5. Huh.

    "I..." Staren starts to reply when she quips about cracking metal, but he's stunned as she /throws a doll/. What kind of attack is that? He tries to dodge, but isn't expecting to get caught in a sudden pillar of fire! His armor is scorched all over now, the outermost plate layer cracking and melting in a few spots from the sudden, supernatural heat.

    The catboy starts running around her in a circle, raising his right arm and firing one of the energy cannons on his armor's forearm, a glowing, fiery beam streaking out towards her.

    For the tournament, he's modified his energy weapons to act primarily as shocking, stunning weapons on living flesh, though there might still be burns it's nothing the healers can't quickly fix. He doesn't want to kill anyone, after all!

Alice Margatroid (807) has posed:
    Alice's doll explodes and the crack and melt from some of that armor brings her a nod, quickly taking on speed she moves to reposition and ready up another card, but with Staren... "Oh ho! You want to play danmaku then!" the laser strikes home and causes the girl to stumble while Hourai's lance and shield and Shanghai's sword form into view, moving in front of the dollmaker in a defensive posture. "Hey! I didn't know you could use a laser too!" "At least it isn't a curvy laser...."

    Alice shakes her head a bit, coughing some as the side of her dress gets incinerated and leaves a painful looking mark on her side, thankfully, she could take it as a youkai. "Lasers huh? I have just the thing." Another card is dropped from her hand as she dives in close and with another hand, six dolls form in front of her with Shanghai and Hourai taking point. "Spellcard!" she shouts, the unnamed dolls seeming to have lances pointed in various directions with Shanghai and Hourai pointing theirs at Staren himsef. "Spy Sign - Seeker Dolls!"

    As soon as the declaration is given, a wide arc of interlocking lasers is fired, small bits of diamond shaped safe spots dot the spellcard attack as she keeps the lasers going, "Keep it up!" Slowly, she starts to move left then right to sweep the arc of lasers.

Staren has posed:
    "Danmaku? And actually, that was a particle beam. Shoots high-energy nuclei and electrons. The rifle I'm carrying is a laser, though!" Staren exposits.

    So. Some kind of card-based magic. Cards and dolls and card-summoned dolls?

    Staren doesn't know what to expect, but he certainly wasn't expecting /that/. /Lasers everywhere/! However, when they hit Staren, an amber sphere of force becomes visible around him, glowing white where the lasers hit it. Staren quickly spots the safe spot and, some kind of translucent orange energy wings, like a stylized insect's, appear behind him and buzz as as he leap-dashes to one of the safe spots. The brief contact with the lasers doesn't seem to have done much to the forcefield before it fades from view again.

    Thoughts run through Staren's head: 'Lasers don't look like that!' 'How much power is it wasting to make them visible from all angles?' 'Shut up, it's magic, for all you know the visibility is part of some conceptual thing that makes it /stronger/.' 'NOW IS NOT THE TIME GOTTA FIGHT!' 'They're everywhere!' 'Wait no, I see a safe spot!'

    "Hm. Interesting." Staren pulls the pistol from his belt and points it at Alice. He might not have room to stand and aim properly, but thanks to his smartlink, he can see a reticle on his HUD that shows where he's aiming without actually looking through the sights. "You've shown me your lasers, I'll show you mine." He pulls the trigger three times. There's no sound and no visible beam -- just a lot of energy dumped into the two pinpricks of matter the two barrels are aiming at, hopefully heating them to a violent explosion -- or delivering a shock if it's flesh, anyway.

    "I admit, yours /do/ look cooler."

Alice Margatroid (807) has posed:
    "What's a particle beam?" Alice questions mid spell, but with the declaration of showing her his lasers, the three invisible shots manage to smack right into the magician, the spellcard dissipating and large burn marks are made on the clothes and skin of the youkai. She grunts a bit in pain, but still seems to be flying. "Nnngh. Danmaku is beauty. Danmaku is grace. Danmaku is showy at times... and in Gensokyo, danmaku is a way to resolve differences!"

    Though, what differences, Alice doesn't say, however, she looks between her dolls and that armored catboy... 'What's with the armor?' 'How is he hitting me without hitting me?!' 'Alice, get to work, you have more spellcards.' 'Punch him...'

    She's saving /that one/ for last. For now, Alice throws up a few dolls that so far do nothing, though with soft glints, there's 'string' connecting them to the dollmaker and then each other, before she lobs one more doll in front of her that rapidly flies towards Staren. "Spellcard... War Sign - Little Legion!" As the card activates, the doll starts spinning around and around, extending a sword before it splits into six more dolls that rush in to try and chop the cat up into strings, or at least make dents in the armor!

Staren has posed:
    "Mm." Staren grunts. "Unfortunately, I don't have danmaku, or I bet we could put on quite a show for them." He waves his hand to indicate the audience.

    Alice is calling her attacks! Staren expects those dolls to do /somewething/, especially when Alice calls an attack with the word 'legion' in it. So Staren keeps an eye on her even as he starts trying to run to the side, away from the flying doll.

    He doesn't expect the /one/ doll to become /six/, though. All swinging swords at him! They cut into his armor, leaving a lot of scratches and dents but also a few deeper cuts where they hit armor, some cutting into wires and electronics under the plating. "Ah! Get off me, get off me!" Staren tries running, he tries flying again... finally he drops to the ground, pulls a grenade from his bag, then sets it to detonate a split-second after he flying-leaps away. Hopefully that gets them. "That's a nice trick. I guess I'd better not let you use those dolls you're gathering, huh?" One of the missile racks on his shoulders rotates into position, showing that it's loaded with three mini-missiles several inches long. One fires, programmed to airburst if it misses Alice. Plasma expands over a 30' diameter fireball, modified the same way as his other energy attacks. He's hoping to burn away the prepared dolls... although, with how quickly she can summon more, maybe it won't really matter.

    Nice fireworks for the crowd, though!

Alice Margatroid (807) has posed:
    Alice shakes her head and as the dolls finish their attack, they retreat back into a magic circle, ready for use once more, though with the threat of not letting her use some dolls, she gives a blink. Her setup... Alice quickly darts away from the dolls, but with those missles making a wide burst of plasma, it sears through and burns a good portion of the dollmaker's open skin... her arms and face having black marks on them from the explosion and her outfit's seared up in places.

    "So much for using Trip Wire... but." she starts to float up into the air, another card going into view, "I don't need tricks for what I'm going to do. I'm going to further myself, Staren. I need to for my dolls!" and another card and a magic circle appears behind Alice. "Spellcard! Elegant Sign - Spring Kyoto Dolls!"

    Twelve dolls surround Alice with Hourai and Shanghai taking up the thirteenth and fourteenth slot in the spell and, with an elegant spin, the dolls start spinning too and move around Alice as if in a rotating dance. Now, it would be a beautiful sight if danmaku shaped like shards wasn't being fired out from every direction with most waves of danmaku making circles with very small gaps between them and some even overlapping between each other. One wave, though, is a completely random danmaku spread, rapidly fired out from every direction and each wave slowly rotates through the colors of the rainbow... all seven colors.

Staren has posed:
    Uh oh, what's it gonna be /this/ time? Although, part of Staren wonders, what the point is of taking down a few dolls when she can summon /twelve/ at once. It looks overwhelming... but soon Staren sees the patterns. He has to use his wings, but he's able to move through the openings... /man/, this attack is going on for a long time. He /has/ to do something. He's about to fire another missile when he realizes it would probably just hit the danmaku and explode, possibly right in his face. Phew, that was a close one. He draws his pistol again and tries to fire through the cloud of danmaku at the dolls, with both it and the beam cannons.

    Once he's made enough of a dent that he can progress, he flies towards her, holstering the pistol and unclipping the cylinder from his belt, which splits into two, one for each hand. As he comes close, the plasma swords activate, 'blades', or perhaps just rods as there's no 'sharp edge', of glowing purple energy. He gets up in her face and slashes, trying to stay close and keep her off balance. "There's one place you always have to leave a safe spot -- right around /you/!"

Alice Margatroid (807) has posed:
    Each spin pours out more danmaku and Alice takes a stoic look... he's dodging everything... this isn't good. The attack connects and the spellcard dissipates into nothingness, the dolls dissapearing and danmaku shards just fading out of existance and the purple 'blades' make quite a few bruises upon the dollmaker's body, a small card, red in color, slipping out into her hand... "And I will keep my safe spot, mind you!"

    White energy seems to surround the youkai as the red card dissipates, "Spiritual Strike Talisman!" and that energy bursts out into a concussive force, throwing the armored catboy away from the Dollmaker with immense force though, the blast doesn't actually do any damage, it does allow her enough time to set up another card. She thrusts Hourai forward and another card comes sliding into view. "Curse Sign - Hourai Doll!"

    Hourai grins at this, her favorite spellcard (not because it has her in name...) she thrusts out her lance and copies of Hourai start spinning outwards as red lasers start spewing forth in a circle aimed towards the knocked back catboy!

Staren has posed:
    Staren is sent flying back. "Woah!" He's flying, though, so there isn't even hitting the ground to damage him. He rights himself and starts flying towards her when the laser lances come out. The forcefield comes up again, but /this/ time... the lasers are able to stay on him, and instead of briefly discoloring the field, it seems to 'heat up', the white, cloudy discoloration spreading across the whole thing until a layer shatters, quickly-fading sparkles falling around Staren as the next layer comes under fire. He flies this way and that to evade, shooting at the dolls, but can't shake the lasers. Two more times, the field pops, and three of the five discs on his chestplate crackle with electricity and then pop, letting a puff of smoke out.

    "Rrrgh... I don't /have/ to be close to you to hit you, you know." Staren flies away to land atop one of the Devil's Hand 'fingers'. How well can she aim at long distance? Let's find out. Staren, meanwhile, pulls the rifle off his back and drops prone, resting the barrel on the very tip of the 'finger'. His cameras aren't /that/ great, so at this distance he actually has to use the scope to aim at more than a few blurry pixels. The armor helps soften his movements, damping out the unsteadiness of his hands as he does his best to hold the crosshairs over her. He fires, three laser pulses more powerful than the pistol's firing within a fraction of a second.

    "Bang." he mutters to himself.

Alice Margatroid (807) has posed:
    Hourai comes back towards Alice, all three of them watching him run away. "Eh..?" she questions, her eyes glowing just slightly to see where he's going. Wait... is that another gun?

    WHAM! One shot hits her left shoulder...

    WHAM! Another shot slams into her right...

    WHAM! And a third shot hits directly in the chest, knocking the wind out of the dollmaker and causing her to slump over in mid air.. "Alic..alice?!" Hourai shouts, taking a quick look at the dollmaker before turning her attention to Staren and the long distance. Maybe Shanghai's focused laser could hit.. but at this distance...

    Shanghai pushes on Alice.. "Wake up... wake up! You're not done yet.. come on Alice!" and with a groan, the Dollmaker coughs and sputters... conciousness regained and everything looks blurry. "Alice... Alice? Quick, dive into that fog. I have an idea!" Shanghai starts tugging down on Alice's skirt, pointing to the fog. With a wordless nod, all three move to dissapear under the fog layer and start to fly towards the pillar that Staren is on.

    "Alright, Hourai. Shanghai. We're going to come up behind and use that..." both dolls nod and start climbing out of the fog behind the catboy, a whisper... and a magic circle appearing in front of them... "Dolls - Lemmings Parade..." comes the declaration as soon as the tip of that spire is reached, the magic circle spewing out at least sixty dolls that, if they hit Staren, explode with a heavy force!

Staren has posed:
    Staren grins as he sees that he hit. Did he win? No, not yet...

    Staren frowns as Alice dives into the fog. He fires a few shots into the fog blindly to keep her on her toes, then decides that's pointless. Whatever, when she finally clears the fog, they'll be closer, and he'll be ready for them to shoot eachother again.

    Magic flight is silent. Staren has no clue they're behind him until too late.

    Staren gets exploded. Before he can react, more dolls leap onto him and explode. He's knocked off the spire, more dolls jumping after him and exploding...

    When he finally regains control, the armor is a mess. In some places, it's just cracked and dented, but in others, armor plating is so warped that it's poking into the inside, damaging internal machinery, or just shattered and broken off completely, baring circuits and hydraulics to the air. His faceplate is cracked.

    Staren starts to fly back up, then thinks better of it. There could be more exploding dolls up there waiting to pounce. No... He grabs onto the rock, and reaches into his bag, fishing out a camera drone and hurling it up into the air. Its thrusters come online, it steadies itself, and it pops up over the edge.

    if Alice isn't there, Staren deploys a couple more to check around the 'finger' and watch the fog. As /soon/ as one spots Alice, Staren fires his remaining minimissiles. The five of them streak through the air on trails of smoke, shifting direction as they home in, then finally exploding together in a great big fireball!

    Staren watches through his drones tensely. That /has/ to have finished her, right...?

Alice Margatroid (807) has posed:
    Once that spellcard is finished, Alice is on the move once more, keeping herself around the 'finger'. Of course, there was a couple more dolls up in the tip that pounce on the camera drone and explode... but the ones that actually find Alice? Alice sends a small stream of danmaku and takes off, the missiles streaking towards her... The explosion is huge but Alice, in a fit of defiance for wanting to get hit, grazes the outside of that fireball and spins around to face Staren.

    "I.. I am surprised you didn't get knocked out with that... you're sturdier than I thought in that armor. Or what is left of it." she gives a bright smile, "You're as tough as Dorotea, I'd be happy to have tea with you next time." Alice points Shanghai towards Staren... "But I saw that one a long ways away... it did ignite some of my outfit, so good job. Is this what the outside world has for magic?"

    She shakes her head and frowns, "Spellcard. Curse - Shanghai Doll." Shanghai cheers a bit and spins around before pointing her sword at Staren and letting loose another large red laser towards him, hoping to damage some more of those internal components! "Shall we finish this?"

Staren has posed:
    Staren's eyes widen in surprise as he sees Alice. But he can't help but smile as she speaks to him. "Thanks. I built it myself." he nods a bit at the offer of tea, then shakes his head. "No, this is technology! Though, if your magic is applied knowledge, I suppose they're the same thing..."

    Laser hits forcefield. It's supposed to be optimized against energy weapons, but it seems Hourai and Shanghai are especially strong... or maybe it's because they're magic lasers? Another layer is shattered, a hole is blasted through the last layer, and Staren takes the last of the hit to the chest, some circuitry being blasted away and revealing a patch of bright red... Oh, that's the shirt he's wearing underneath. The hit sends him flying back tangential to the side of the 'finger', and again he steadies himself. He slings the rifle over his back, then flies towards her, and curves into the wall -- so he can land his feet on it and push off in a flying leap -- and he draws the swords again, this time slashing at her one way in hopes she'll dodge into where he's about to /stab/ with the entire blade! Normally that'd mean burning a hole through something, but in this case it should be a hell of a shock!

Alice Margatroid (807) has posed:
    "Technology. I wonder how it can help my dolls." she wonders out loud as she sees the effect of Shanghai's laser. She did a good number on it and with that.. the catboy lunges at her again with those swords! Hourai moves to push Alice out of the way, bringing up her shield to block the one slash, but as that happened, the other sword connects with Alice and the stunning shock sends her back with a loud scream of pain! Danmaku isn't lethal, and it doesn't really become painful but this... this is not good for her.

    She stumbles back in the air and groans out... the girl's battered, bruised and burned all over and at this rate, will need a new outfit by the time the match is done, but... she's stll up and she's still got a chance... "Hff...hff... You're good." she whispers, slumped over as a card comes out of her sleeve. "Magic Pot!" a small blue glow surrounds the youkai magician. "I'm wanting to win this..." she comments, pulling out one more card.. she doesn't have the closeness to use this one... and with one more pull. She gives a nod, this will have to do. "Spellcard!"

    That declaration... the magic barrier around her... and a single, lone doll that shoots out from it. "Crimson Sign - Holland Doll!" suddenly, the doll starts emitting four lasers in each cardinal direction and starts spinning those lasers around, slowly at first but it picks up speed after a while, dissipating after a good ten seconds before the doll retreats... hoping that this last laser would do it.

Staren has posed:
    "Probably lots of ways. Sensors, weapons... I've combined it with magical constructs myself." Staren answers the wondering.

    More magic lasers! He tries to dodge, but the doll spins them after him. The forcefield reappears, having closed the hole, but the laser quickly powers through it. Still, it might buy Staren precious seconds. He draws the rifle and turns to take the laser on one of the few less-damaged parts of his armor. Still it cuts through wires and circuits, warnings blaring in his ears and flashing around the periphery of his HUD. There are redundancies so he can lose some of the parts, but only so many! His armor could fail at any moment...

    Staren flies up, and aims the rifle down. There is no more time for words, only action! "Raaagh!" He fires!

Alice Margatroid (807) has posed:
    Alice doesn't have much left in her, not much even left to dodge anything that comes her way and when that boy brings up his rifle again Hourai and Shanghai move in front of her. "Nnngh, we won't let you get her!" "You'll have to move us away!"

    WHAM! Hourai gets a bullet smashed into her shield and slammed back into Alice.

    WHAM! The other bullet smashes into Shanghai's sword and shatters it.

    That last shot hits directyl in her chest once more, eyes blanking out as she falls forward... floating there unconcious. Shanghai moves over... tugging on Alice a bit, "A...alice... Alice! No... she lost again.. She wanted to go far too!"

Staren has posed:
    Staren narrows his eyes at the dolls. He intends to blast through that shield with raw, high-tech power... and it works.

    She falls over, and he dives to catch her... but she keeps floating there. He lets out the breath he didn't realize he was holding. Floating there catching his breath for a couple of seconds. "Is she okay? ...Sorry. I lost last time, and only so many can advance. That's how it goes." He looks from the dolls to her. "You all fought really well. You're really powerful."

    Something on Staren's armor shoots out some sparks and smoke.

    "...Iiii should probably get this off before it stops working. Good game. Maybe after this we can talk in a less... combative context." He smiles, then flies down towards the warpgate to land. He tries to wave to the crowd, but his arms have lost their full range of motion. Struggling against the weight of the armor, he manages a slow wave, then sort of hobbles through the gate.