348/NODE: The Game of Death 1

NODE: The Game of Death 1
Date of Scene:	04 August 2014
Location:	The Homeworld
Synopsis:	The first venture into Vruasa's node reveals that it is a LARP with a shitty GM. Shenanigans follow.
Cast of Characters:	40, Vruasa Telash, Fiora O'Brien, 347, 353
Tinyplot:	When They Return

---

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Opening the door is simple and easy. It's not barred or anything. But, of course, as per the norm, only Vruasa himself can seem to properly open it. The monitors on either side show constant streams of FLARP data, incessant rolls and random number generation, flashes of sheets and stat-sets. What's past it is is actually not too unusual. It looks much like the door; reinforced wood, sturdy in construction, designed like it's part of some kind of fortress, and rather plain. Oddly, Vruasa will be able to see a variety of FLARP statistics projected about each bit of construction, showing its resilience, but lacking any obvious flapstractions responsible for such projections.

    This time there's no convenient mirrors, windows, or other suchlike that Mr. Answers can be visible through, walking parallel along the Node Path, but despite that, he's as audible as ever once you get in there. The hallway is a long one, lit by anachronistic modern torches, and long enough it'll take a minute or so to get to the end, during which Mr. Speaks' voice can be heard, from "outside" the hallway.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "This is probably going to be a retarded clusterfuck."

    Vruasa Telash had invited few people along to this little excursion. He had picked people not based on preference, but based on a bunch of bullshit fed to him by a future iteration of himself. It stood to reason that he had probably already taken them, and therefore had no choice but to do so now. Either that or he was simply too lazy to deviate from the list. Whatever the case is, YOU have been invited here. Probably by means of dumb instant messenger communications or e-mail.

    As he always is, the Knight of Time is hasty. He presses on down the corridor towards the L-- Node that awaits at the end of it. Idly, he wonders if it WOULD have been easier to just use an Sburb install disk as his node generation object. Flarping is a little bit different, even if it was fundamentally a training ground for Sburb players. Oh well. The minutiae probably won't end up being more than entertaining fiddly bits.

    Though...

    He casts an uncertain glance towards the contents of his sylladex. That alternian heavy rifle had to come from somewhere, and here seems just as likely as anywhere.

    "You should probably assume that everything here is going to kill you, until otherwise proven." He adds, as an afterthought.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor Lamb, for her part, is packing today. Not like.. weapons, but instead a packpack full of supplies, including preserved food, both human and troll varieties, as well as her handy dandy trusty wrench. That said, she looks a little quizically at the whole plac,e murmuring a bit to herself. "I wasn't here for the generation, but what the heck did you use fot your generation object, Vruasa?"

Laer (353) has posed:
    Laer has turned up, as she usually does when actually requested. Also when not requested, but in this case her presence appeared to be semi-welcome. She is not particularly surprised by either of Vruasa's statements, in any case, as she follows a few steps behind, Nyarie tucked safeishly behind her ear.

    "It always is, and I usually do." Are her responses, as she studies the visible stats and other moderately confusing things.

    "I assume you'd rather we not start killing anything that doesn't try to kill us first, though?" She asks, though as usual her plan seems to involve keeping others between her and the front lines.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    "It's only respectful." Fiora admits. Or, in this case, Fiiora Obrien does.

    Grey of skin and yellowed of sclera, Fiora has taken on the appearance, and general guise, of a Troll.

    A purpleblooded troll, if the slight purple blush to her shoulders, cheeks, etc all accented.

    Her horns curl back along her brow, mostly out of the way, if woefully candy-corn colored.

    Her black flowing hair spills down her back, as she wears a black t-shirt with silver tentacle symbol, grey pants, and black shoes.

    She is the picture of a female troll ready for a FLARP session.

    "So." She grins fangily. "What's the holdup, lowbloods?"

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "Instruction booklet for a high-tech Alternian bloodsport called FLARP." Vruasa says to Eleanor, smiling fangily back at her. In other words, exactly the kind of thing that he has been excelling at for a very, very long time. It wouldn't surprise him if it ended up being just as bad as Rapture back in the day, only in a more... intelligently visceral sort of way. Rather than a bizarre apocalypse at the bottom of the ocean. The means are different, but the results are equally violent.

    To Laer's inquiries, he shrugs lightly. "I don't expect there to be a lot of peaceful moments, but it's always more efficient to convert enemies than it is to kill their asses. We may not have the luxury too much in here, so don't worry about it too much if you have to kill somebody and feed them to a monster sea goat or some shit like that. For now, let's listen to what Mister Exposition has to say and take it from there."

    As for Fiora and her troll getup, Vruasa gawks at her visibly for a moment, and smiles a much more threatening smile than he had been a moment ago. Coming from him though that's probably just an indication that he approves of what she's done with herself for this.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Mr. Speaks does his namesake. "This session is meant to provide an understanding. Not just of what it means to build, but what it means to defend what you have built. This session is also about leaders, and what they truly mean to those who they have lead if their threats are no longer quite as direct."

    "This world is not what most would turn their attention to. The games played by deposed royalty are an irrelevance to those who concern themselves with what's real. But you of all people should know the real worth of games. The good Emperor Piexes has no empire left, but she demands to remain an Empress, even if it means building something new in someone else's rules, and subjugating those rules to her whims."

    "The Game of Death welcomes you, Vruasa. It just hopes you can win."

    Mr. Speak's voice progresses past the end of the hallway, where another matching door can be found.

Laer (353) has posed:
    Laer nods in response to that, making a noncommital noise. She'll listen along, to the exposition whenever it might come, of course, but in the meantime.. Well. She failed at actually recognizing Fiora until she speaks up, which gets an alarmed look from the elf.

    "Isn't that.. a little uncomfortable?" Laer asks, examining it perhaps awkwardly closely to see if it's an illusion or makeup and such.

    Mr. Speaks will resolve that, at least, getting Laer's attention once more. This one sounds awkward and interesting, but dealing with deposed royalty was a speciality of Vruasa's she knew.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    A snicker from Eleanor. "So, lethal games for a lethal species already entrenched in one game of death and now being lead into yet another. I am hardly surprised by all of this."
    Eleanor huffs quietly at all this. Terribly familiar, only this time... "You didn't get the message about corruption, Vruasa. Odd." She shuffles behind the group though, and grins at Fi's disguise. "Should I be in costume as well?"

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    If he'd been paying attention, Vruasa would have leaped on the opportunity to pretend to be offended that Laer thinks being a troll looks uncomfortable. He wouldn't actually be, but he could get a lot of mileage out of flipping his shit for no reason. As it is though, he's too busy listening to Mr. Speaks. Most of what he has to say is... expected, after a fashion. But there is a detail that catches his attention and prompts his face to fall. This had better be some kind of motherfucking joke. It's probably not, but it had better be.

    Just to be sure, he rings up The Moderator and gets him to searching for internet services local to the node, using Vruasa's connectivity to look around. It probably won't net much just yet, but he figures it can't hurt.

    "Bring a costume next time if you want. I don't fuckin' care. But if there are a bunch of trolls on the other side of this corridor, they're probably going to be horrifyingly racist to anybody who doesn't look enough like them. I sure as hell was. For a while." Considering his most significant relationships, it's quite clear that this is no longer the case for Vruasa. Nevertheless, the superiority bullshit would definitely come up.

    Only... Speaks said that she didn't have an empire anymore. So what the hell is going to be out there? The only answer is to press on, and press on he does.

    "What message about corruption?" He asks of Eleanor, distractedly.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor taps her lips a bit as she follows. "Ah, when I opened up the Sea of Life, I'm fairly certain that Speaks said something about the node being 'corrupted' and bits were being transposed from other Nodes. I could have sworn that was the case with some of the others." She bites her lip, wracking her brain.
    Think think think.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Fiiora seems bored, tapping her foot. "So it's a death game." She flashes another fangy grin. "Sounds about right. Don't get your buldge-holsters in a twist because it's all crazy." She shrugs, before stretching upwards with her hands. "And... What? It's just a costume." Fiora replies, quite normally, to Laer. "A bit of creative alchemy and some wardrobe optimization, and I get to step into my role quite nicely. Plus, I think Vruasa deserves to see the great and powerful highblood that I was supposedly outed as, so many years ago." She offers, before hem-heming, and returning to her confident swagger-posture.

    "So let's get this carnival rolling before we all die of old age."

Laer (353) has posed:
    "If we really need to look like trolls, I'm up to at least that much illusion work." Laer says, after the talk of costumes. "And I usually don't go all that far with my own. I can never remember any of the troll blood stuff, anyways; too much childhood training to dip trolls in acid or fire and avoid their blood."

    No, she probably won't explain that.

    "I wonder whether there's still an empire and they just don't control it, or this is some kind of cataclysmic thing..."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Outside is looking a little strange.

    The door is all on its own, set into a wall without any structure around it. There is a lot of wilderness out here. A LOT. Which is to say, pretty much as far as the eye can see, this place is foresty. There's a silhouette that looks like it might be some kind of castle off in the distance, but it's a ways away, a long, long ways away.

    Surrounding the group are a variety of MUTLI-EYED, MULTI-ARMED BUG CREATURES. They don't flicker in the way traditional of flapstractions. But they do jitter, inhumanly, with disgusting speed and energy. There's a small "pack" of them investigating something on the ground off in the distance. The FLAPSTRACTION BARS above their heads show no damage. Noticably, though, the FLAPSTRATION STATS are applying to the various trees and chunks of rock that poke up in the foresty environment. It looks like RESOURCE NODES, which Vruasa will recall from his FLARPing manual.

    The creatures themselves seem to have not detected the part, but based on their black bars, Vruasa can see that they're hostile NPCs. The Clouder hasn't spoken up yet, so it's not confirmed if it's really the Empress just yet...

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "Oh my fucking god. Remind me to never generate some shit like this again. This is worse than I could have imagined." Vruasa gripes pointlessly. He'd expected it to be a little less game-like than this... admittedly, the whole idea had been to put it in a context that HE can fight best in. The fact that FLARPing is something he was quite good at doesn't escape him, even if he finds the form that it takes rather aggravating. He doesn't wait for direction from anybody, because he figures that whoever is running this session probably isn't even paying attention again.

    "Ulixes, wake up and engage tandem. The rest of you motherfuckers, go kill that shit." He points towards the FLAPSTRACTIONS in the distance. Or rather, specifically to the hostile creatures. Since he's using a GREEN-TYPE ABSTRACTUM, Vruasa figures it may be a good idea to be a back-lines fighter while he's here. He floats up into the air to get a better view of the surroundings, and though he issued orders for the others to open up, he does plink at the distant creatures himself.

    With shitty, wooden spears that he could make an arbitrary number of without ever spending too much grist. Vruasa probably won't be doing a lot of damage with those... and in fact, the wooden spears probably can't withstand his strength at this point in his life. Oh well.

    Regarding pretending to be a Troll, he gives an indifferent shrug, "I'll fix something up for everybody next time, if you guys are really determined to wear the alien equivalent of blackface. Right now, don't worry about it too much. We may not be running into many trolls. I'll give you an overview of the hemospectrum later if you're really dedicated to your future disguise, but I don't see how you're going to spoof that particular detail reliably."

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    "What, I've got plenty of racist noble assholes in my blood, Vruasa, who do you think I am?" Elenaor huff puffs, and happily unslings her backpack. She loosens the collar of that sweatervest, and flexes Utopia. "Alight, it's time to see what one of these can do."
    A look over to Fi, and Eleanor plucks out the GREY cartidge she recieved. "This can't possibly go wrong. Utopia, time to chip up." She slots in, and pulls her wrench. These things seem like a Holo-combat simulation, but she's not taking chances, like Vruasa advised.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    "What's there to know that I don't, Vruasa? I'm the highest blooded land troll, which means I'm not a fishfaced loony, I get crazy chucklevoodoos instead of psychic powers, I theoretically beat people with my fists and/or juggling clubs, and I sub-juggulate people. Also, theoretically, be a juggalo, but fuck that last part. All the rest? Well, well within my wheelhouse." She offers with a sinister flash of teeth, as she cracks her knuckles. Then she strides forward, Hecate being floated along near her to provide ENLIGHTENING COMMENTARY.

    She really needs to buy a gloves form for her broom. Otherwise, punching things would get annoying, fast.

    And she really just feels like punching things.

Laer (353) has posed:
    "I don't really care about that so much if it's not necessary. Oh, there's some things we're supposed to kill?" Two green types with such a small group is a little bit awkward. Mostly because it puts Laer back into doing the front lines thing; she'll consider using one of her own cartridges for it, but she's rather saving those.

    Also, she likes Nyarie's personality and isn't really inclined to having her go either mysterious or super-shy for the moment, and she can't just use one of Hecate's with Eleanor doing the same. That would be like showing up to a party in the same outfit.

    Still, that leaves her in a bit of an awkward spot. She might have to actually do some work. "Fine. Nyarie, I guess I'll be using my own abilities for this one, mm? Feel free to just take some copious notes for later." She'll begin to whistle after that, fire gathering at her fingertips as she flies up and over towards the bug things.

    That's going to be launched in a fireball ahead of herself, of course. She doesn't really want to get close enough to punch the things.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Fiiora pauses as Laer decides to take on a direct combat approach, underhanding a RED cartridge at her. "Here, borrow this - it's Psyber's cartridge. Turns off friendly fire." She offers, with a rakish grin and all the implications that brings.

    Oh yes. Indiscriminate magic use? Now a-OK.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    The jittering, twitching pack of bugmen immediately lock their heads into focus on Vruasa. Their shuddering heads face directly at him no matter which way the rest of their bodies turn. They rush, suddenly, into combat-ready positions! But... They don't seem to move.

    They hold still, as if in dramatic standoff, for a while.

    Meanwhile, Ulixes comes back with the data. "Flapstraction wireless." It says, quickly. "Some kind of massive version of the network. I can't identify any relay points. I'm going to try to avoid the traditional obliviousness most people would have, and tell you that I think the entire Node is the relay point, not just a bat. This already seems really out of hand and I actually don't like this part of the shitty twist."

    "Tandem Paradigm aligned. Asserting primacy." Ulixes then speaks in a brief, severe monotone as the others light up.

    Meanwhile, Utopia speaks up. "Cartridge installing." Its lights go dark, but it's still active. Stealth mode! "I'm sure you'll understand if I still do everything I can, even if things can't go wrong." It says, in a way that's both good-humored and fatherly.

    Hecate chuckles. "Oh, I'm sure you'll find pretty shortly that to-attack bonuses on artifacts like us ought to be veeeery critical." Whatever the hell that means.

    Nyarie speaks up brightly and enthusiastically. "Oh-kay!" The notes it takes will, inevitably, be exaggerated and excessively grand in their retelling about what Laer just did. Oddly, though, the fireball doesn't leave Laer's fingertips. It stays harmlessly, but only for a moment. The cause for this will be obvious: A voice speaks up...

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "I was racist as a southern baptist two years back. You get over it pretty fucking quick when you're doing life-or-death shit with people." Vruasa replies to Eleanor. His attention quickly turns towards Fiora and her references to the goddamned juggalo cult. He shakes his head at her, "Oh come on! Even Laohus was sane enough to keep his head out of that koolaid jug. You can come up with a better brand of insanity than being a dumb murderous clown. That's the worst kind of insanity, and only the Empress with her gaudy ass taste and bad sense of humor thought it was funny or original."

    He might be slightly sympathetic to Laer if she hadn't just cast him in the role of HERO OF AGES, but for the moment Vruasa seems indifferent to Laer's plight. He's got some good ideas on how to make optimal usage of her later, but that can be saved for another venture into the node. It'll involve splitting the party, and having Laer run one half while he runs the other.

    These adventures will occur objectively simultaneously, but externally will appear to be entirely separate operations so as not to tax the man behind the curtain.

    "Ulixes, if there's a chat network of any kind out there, fucking connect to--" Vruasa pauses, to look around and listen to the voice as some things seem to get... suspended. Mostly, Laer's fireball.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    There's a heavy sigh. What comes next is clearly over a chat network, but yet still quite audible.

)(IC: whos it this time
)(IC: ugh never mind i dont even give a fuck
)(IC: hey whoever
)(IC: we gonna roll this shit
)(IC: ugh how do i get this shit poppin this time
)(IC: ummmm
)(IC: bad bugmen shit got the treeline advantage
)(IC: or somethin
)(IC: plus five on initiative
)(IC: fuck

    They do not actually have any advantage.

)(IC: whoops and looks like you lose the roll
)(IC: DWI

    Laer's fireball can't be suppressed for long, but the awful monster bigmen are suddenly MUCH closer, as if, for example, they had rushed for several seconds due to having an inititive advantage. The group of five immediately move to disembowel the combatants with their sharp claw-arms, two going to Laer, two to Eleanor, and one for Fiora.

Laer (353) has posed:
    Laer will catch the cartridge in her not-firey hand, and she'll slot it in just as soon as her spell actually manages to fire off. Which may or may not be anytime actually soon, because she's going to be slightly distracted - Nyarie's at least not taking up a hand, but one is casting a fireball, and the other is handling the cartridge, which leaves her a whole zero hands with which to manage her defense against the two bugs clawing at her. She'll twist out of the way of the first, but the second lands an actual, solid blow, opening a fairly deep cut across her side.

    "Oh, come on!" She cries out, flicking her wrist in the direction of one f those bugs repeatedly, trying to get her blasting the shit out of it on even as her blood starts to flow. It's red, so she may have trouble passing as a troll regardless anytime soon.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Okay! Bugmen! In her face! Eleanor squeaks faintly, sucks in a breath, and smiles. "Come and get me." And then she fanishes into a cloud of mist and smoke, likely not the usual pink and purple this time though. She ducks under one of the bug men and eats a swat along her arm from the second, a gout of blood in the simulated BATTLESPACE.
    What she's doing is positioning herself to set both her feet, reach out to the bug-things, and grab onto them while discharging a massive charge of bio-electric energy.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    Well, that answers that. How the hell does it work? Vruasa doesn't really waste a lot of time finding out. He just uses Trollian to connect to it. A mechanical, vaguely female voice projects across the Node:

deusexLongcoat RIGHT NOW opened memo on board The Game of Death
DL: holy shit
DL: why @re you @live
DL: ple@se kill yourself fishtits
DL: @lso your shitty mobs need to roll to not be on fire
DL: bec@use they just w@lked into the godd@mned b@d

    As for the troll himself, VRUASA TELASH is hovering over the battlefield with his shades on, surveying the situation. Not nearly enough of those enemies went after Fiora. He wonders why? Maybe it's because she's put on the blood caste nonsense, so she gets some GM favoritism. The Empress always DID like the highbloods... just not the other seadwellers, so much. Either way, he's trying to abuse trollian's ability to interface with any and all chat networks to get a direct line to the GM.

    And also, to try and act as a Clouder along with her. Vruasa isn't certain that that will work, but typically FLARP games have one on each side so he figures it's worth a shot. Failing that he can just scream at 'Empress Peixes' because he's pretty sure that'll be entertaining as hell no matter how it ends. For now however, he takes no other physical action.

    "All of you focus fire on the one attacking Fiiora! Eleanor, didn't you have a power to vomit bees or some bullshit nonsense like that? If you do, fuckin' use it, we can abuse the fact that they're a swarm of separate mobs to stack a goddamned ridiculous coordinated strike and flanking bonus at the same time!" Vruasa is pretty much making shit up as he goes along, but he's pretty certain it'll work. Exploiting the rules is a time-honored troll tradition, after all.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    As only a SINGLE SOLITARY MONSTER comes at Fiiora, the 'Highblood' just laughs. Large red rents appear almost comedically over her character's chest, which is... her chest, but they quickly return to normal. Her GEL VISCOSITY is fairly top-class, even if her class wasn't precisely a frontliner. Unless, of course, that didn't really work, in which case her shit got ripped up. Either way, the wounds didn't seem to bother her. "Step your game up, Condesce! If you think these loser trash whatever-monsters will harsh my buzz, you've got another thing coming." She calls, before sliding her broom into position behind her as she is savaged.

    Then she suplexes the bug backwards, head-first into Hecate's wooden pole-end. It's brutal.

    Spines are most likely removed. Get rekt, shitbug.

    "I don't even need to roll for beatdowns, I just hand that shit out like it's a class feature."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "This is complete bullshit." Ulixes says, with a frank sort of honesty. The little eyelid is cocked to one side, as if the abstractum were raising an eyebrow at maximum incredulity. "I know it's a little tactless to say, but really. A giant flapstraction world and the Clouder is already cheating."

    Meanwhile, Vruasa's orders take effect. The self-defense attacks aren't enhanced, but they probably don't need to be. The fireball from Laer blasts her first target down, charring the carapace and stunning them for a long while, knocked to a distance. Luckily, the flames that wash out and away from Laer don't hurt anyone!

    The suden discharge of electrical power blasts through the bug's body, stunning it as well! Both of those combatants should be out for a long time.

)(IC: aw what
)(IC: ugh
)(IC: gonna kill these bug jams at this rate
)(IC: uhhhh lets roll some stun resist cause
)(IC: i dunno
)(IC: natural habitat advantages

    The monsters don't move.

)(IC: fuckin lucky rolls all of you
)(IC: shit b dumb i wanna get some murder
)(IC: ugh fuck you blue text
)(IC: wait blue text
)(IC: what

    While she's busy with that, Fiora uses a buff from Vruasa to suplex her foe straight into Hecate's shaft. The broom does its best to help out, and does so by crushing its way straight through the exoskeletal skull.

    The two remaining keep up their assault with no change, automatic, like robots.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Bees? Did someone order Bees? BEEEEEES!

    From the cloak of her Houdini plasmid, Eleanor's voice cries out. "AYE AYE, SIR!"

    And then she unveils herself, standing near the two remaining bugmen, both arms outstretched. In a rather... grotesque display, her forearms crust over with wax and honey comb and pollen... and from the comb erupts a massive swarm of bees and wasps, seeking to both overload the simulation systems as well as sting the fuck out of the bigger bugs.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
DL: ye@h hi
DL: you're rustier th@n @ sunken derelict
DL: @nd your lusus is so f@ there w@sn't enough room in all the oce@ns for it to dodge @ godd@mned @steroid
DL: oh look @ th@ it's bees
DL: fl@nking bonus
DL: coordin@ed @t@ck bonus
DL: defense pen@lty
DL: seriously there's not even @nywhere to dodge
DL: get rekt

    "Yeah," Vruasa admits to Ulixes, "but it's pretty fucking fun." This is the sort of demented person that he is. For all his complaining and carrying on when they were coming in here, the Knight of Time sitting there in the air berating the Condesce and directing the game seems to be having a goddamned blast. The fact that Fiora's going all crazy zealot motherfucker on those bugs down there helps, too.

    "FIORA! Sweep those motherfuckers into a neat line. LAER! Lightning the shit out of them. You can do lightning, can't you? Whatever just knock them down like bowling pins. Here, use this if you need to." He retrieves the ALTERNIAN HEAVY RIFLE from his inventory and throws it towards the elf. Vruasa has the captcha code, so there's no sense in hording it. It's not like he can use it as-is anyway, and neither can Fiora. Or... or Arthur. Wow, none of them can use guns.

    "Eleanor, do whatever is complementary with bees! Like... I dunno, can you control other bugs? These things are pretty much bugs. Control those bugs!" He meanders around, trying to remember what other powers that Eleanor has.

Laer (353) has posed:
    Laer at least managess to finally get her first spell of the battle to go off, and the burst of flames seems to be at least somewhat effective. She's not following orders, but she's not blowing up anyone else, which is for the best.

    Hopefully Nyarie at least got some decent notes out of that one.

    Laer manages to not get further disemboweled for the moment, snagging the gun that's tossed to her. She's actually not at all proficient with guns herself, but hopefully following along with a leader's order will make up for that. Because she'll start spraying the area with it.

    Hopefully Fiora was correct about protection from friendly fire happening.

    "I left the eclectic bass at home," is her explaination of why she's not lightninging them all to death.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Fiiora nods quickly, hearing her orders and getting to them, which mostly involves charging one of the shitty bugs and grappling it with her FISTKIND boosted close combat prowess, before tossing it into line with the other bug, well into Laer's firing arc.

    "It's not really a blueblood's place to order /me/ around! I'm JUDGE!" She cries, her body surging a purple-tinted black as she slings a few bolts of voidy nonsense at them to ruin there defenses.

    "JURY!" She continues, reaching back and grabbing Hecate.

    "And EXECUTIONER!" She cries, while muttering. "Make me look good, broom!" while she swings for the fences at the bug. Her Strike drivers are garbage, of course. Thankfully, she's bouyed by broomkind!

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    )(IC: fuck off kiddo
)(IC: water u doin with this shit
)(IC: like im gonna get all mad bout some old seathing
)(IC: aint gotta rule no trolls anymore
)(IC: got a new porpoise
)(IC: good work killin the low level basics
)(IC: dunno if yr a troll or whatev but gonna be p. dead either way soon

    "Yeah, it is." Ulixes agrees. "Kinda." Vruasa immediately grognards the enemies via Eleanor's tactics. The pair of bugmen that still remain on their feet are suddenly attacked by the swarm!

)(IC: oh whale if thats how were gonna be
)(IC: lets try to make em one unit
)(IC: fuck no doesnt work then
)(IC: ugh you win this round blue buoy
)(IC: now clam up i got some other trash 2 be killin

    The bees seem to create massive debuffs on the bugmen for some reason, and their combat efficiency is hugely increased because of Vruasa's bugs.

    Fiora's arranging of the stunned enemies means they won't be able to get back up before Laer can get to them! Convenient. There'd be a whole nother round of this if they could.

    Then, gunfire riddles all of them, Laer slaying them in an exploitation of the mechanics. And they're wiped! This is normally the part where the Clouder would give some kind of loot, but the voice hasn't come back and doesn't seem to intend to, so apparently no loot. What a JERK.

    on the ground, now visible because the obscuring bugmen are gone, is the thing they were investigating. Scraps of cloth that got caught on a tree. At the very least, the group gets the info that there are still other living people out here, who wear clothes and theoretically might not be assholes.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor really doesn't have much experience with the Role Playing Games, but she does know Dismissive Jerks well enough to know this IC person is a Dismissive Jerk. The Bees and the behives fade away, the wax crusting off her arms and sloughing to the floor/grass/ground as she whews, and pats Utopia. "Good work, Uncle, though I think... that was supposed to have gone differently at some other point in time."
    She looks up at the others. "The Rules for this seem to be being circumvented repeatedly. Or is this one of those 'you make the rules up' sort of things?"

Vruasa Telash has posed:
DL: oh fine i c@n come up with better
DL: is this you? --> https://imgur.com/0ZGiMp5

    Vruasa floats over towards where the battle took place. A HISS issues as a time capsule opens and deposits a record player that starts playing some music for all of them. Some of this music may or may not be familiar. At any rate, it's not something that he pays much attention to because there's something much more interesting to look at here. Scraps of clothing, huh? He slides his sunglasses down to get a good look at them. What kind of color patterns do they have?

    "GG." He says to them, unironically. This is probably not at all out of the ordinary for flarping stuff like this is. Vruasa makes a mental note to review the actual flarp manuals he still has, because it'll probably be incredibly useful for sorting out the best way to game the system.

DL: bitch m@ke the tre@sure sp@wn
DL: you @re the worst GM

    A glance is cast towards Fiiora, eyebrows lifted slightly. She is taking this role seriously, and Vruasa has no idea how to deal with it. He mostly played with the bloodsport aspect of flarp. Playing the role of a character never really appealed to him. It was just a vent to his aggression. Maybe he should've paid more attention to that. Would've made being the Knight of Time easier.

    "Not my place, but you still took the motherfucking orders. You want to take charge? Take charge!" He responds to Fiora, with a devilish grin. As for Eleanor's question, Vruasa turns to look at her and gives a toss of his head as his initial answer. "The rules exist, and they do have structure. You're encouraged to cheat as much as you can get away with, and they're set up so there's a lot of bullshit to exploit. Stacking a bunch of minor mobs on some douchebag so he has to eat an impossible penalty is one of them. She'll probably try it against us later, which I'm counting on so don't worry about it."

    "I'll make you all a copy of the manual later. For now, don't worry about it. Laer." He looks over towards her. "This game requires a clouder -- or a GM -- for every group that's running. I know you don't really want to be fighting on the front lines so we'll bring a bigger party and split into two groups so we can both be exploitative fucks next time. Oh... and I guess..."

    Vruasa looks at Fiora, "... You should probably come up with a role to play. Might throw Empress Hairmetal off her game later on. Especially if you cultivate more than one."

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Fiiora giggles, taking a moment to flex.

    Also, crush the bugs' skulls under her boot. "Verdict? Guilty of being shit." She sneers, working her heel into it, before shrugging at Vruasa. "Eh. We each have a role. I just don't want you to /like/ reaching above your station." She accuses, jabbing a finger into Vruasa's chest, before flopping back onto the ground. "Tell me when we're leaving. I'm going to bask in the gore and glory."

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "We're leaving." Vruasa states, pretty much exactly when Fiora has gotten herself situated in the GORE and GLORY. He glances out towards the greater environment around them, "We'll all have a look around some other time. I need time to review the manual, make copies for the rest of you, and maybe recruit a few other people."

    He gestures for 'Fiiora' to come along, and soon after leads everyone back through the entrance, into the Homeworld.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Fiiora had been getting her /roll/ on as she basked in all the GORE and also GLORY.

    "Damn this feels good. I've even come up for a name for it! I'm basking in the GLOREY. Don't take this from me, lowblood. I'm enjoying myself." She calls from the ground.

    Finally, with a pout, she picks up her broom and follows Vruasa out. She is positively soaked in all the GLOREY.