2013/The Antipodal Reverie

The Antipodal Reverie
Date of Scene:	13 April 2015
Location:	The Homeworld
Synopsis:	Samael wants to play a game.
Cast of Characters:	Kirito, 2, 40, Vruasa Telash, Fiora O'Brien, 183, 219, 253, 347, 455, Riva Banari
Tinyplot:	When They Return

---

Samael (455) has posed:
Homura had found a fragment, and had gathered everyone here to investigate it. For those who weren't here during the last incident, Fragments were snippets of the past, data from previous cycles of the Abstractum conflict that could be experienced for real. Sometimes, it thrust people into the roles of others, sometimes, they were their own predecessors. It varied from time to time. In any case, this one was...pretty obvious to find. Almost too obvious.

Whenever a fragment was loaded, it was normal to have the entire room, holodeck style, slowly disappear into blackness, but there was something strange about this one. The usual odd console hadn't appeared, and the room was completely black, with no light. Sooner or later, there was the sound of someone pulling one of those lights that had a chain attached to it to turn it on, and illumination suddenly filled everyone's eyes.

"Oh, hello everyone!" came a familiar voice. Samael, who was in her usual appearence, wearing a coat, a hat, and a scarf appeared in the middle of the room, her hand on the light's chain. What the room was appeared to be an apartment, bare of anything apart from white walls, and a small CRT TV set, set up in the middle. An old video game console, the type that took cartridges (not the Abstractum type,) was hooked up to it, complete with a controller. Anyone looking outside the one window would be greeted with nothing but inky blackness.

"So! I know it's been a while, but I wanted to prepare something for allll of you. Something fun! Something cool. So, I did this!"

A game cartridge was produced, and it looked like those old games, but it seemed to be completely unmarked, devoid of any art or title. "I made something super special, so that it'd be more interesting than just looking at things. Anyway, any questions before we start~?"

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    Finding a Fragment has traditionally been a lot of work.
    Either looking, fighting, or both.
    But this one?

    This one might as well have had a neon sign pointing to it saying "FRAGMENT HERE, NOT A TRAP AT ALL" with boxes of cash and gold next to it. So, you know. All sorts of red flags. Red flags that have resulted in Homura calling in a fair number of allies to dive in. Come ready for a fight, take it seriously. Better be surprised if it's safe than surprised it isn't.

    And that's why you're here.

    Also why Homura is already transformed.

    Skip to now, post everyone having gathered, and the Fragment having been loaded. Homura frowns at the sight of Samael, only surprised by the fact it's her specifically, not so much the fact something went wrong right away.

    "I'll bite. How did you make or modify a Fragment? Are you here, or is this a sort of recording you slapped in?"

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Never one to let Homura go off alone, particularly in light of recent events, Psyber is here to help out with a Fragment. Plus, some of the Fragments were actually fun, so all the more incentive to attend. The half-angel is keeping Adjudicator in his most portable form: Gauntlet.

    He'll mostly hang out near Homura, though, and keep his arms crossed, "Samael. As nice to see you as it ever is. I was beginning to worry you'd got bored and sector hopped into someone else's jurisdiction. How've you been?"

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor is likewise here, likewise in her sleek Sister Suit, holding the helmet of the device under her arm in case they don't actually need the head-cover for anything vital. She's glowering though, staring little daggers at Samael. "Lady Wrath, so.... nice... to see you."
    She's got Utopia in it's usual spot, Primacy of place underneath her massive needle.

Ariel (219) has posed:
Naturally, Ariel was here. She had great interest in all the Fragment stuff... or Abstractum in general. Unlike Homura and Psyber, she squeaks lightly when Samael reveals herself, eyes going wide. Yes, she's more surprised than the others, and if she were someone more into feeling fear, she'd probably hide!

But this is Samael... someone powerful and amoral enough to be feared, but whom Ariel had found she felt more comfortable treating in a friendly fashion. "Ah! Samael! It's been a while. Um... I hope you didn't work too hard on this, it seems like it'd be a lot of... I dunno. Tinkering." And thus boring.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Things like this, things in the open, things that were easy to find, to grab a hold of, to turn over and think about, were a sight apart from the normal things Fiora dealt with. Things she usually was tasked around were things like slippery black eels swimming around in dark ink. Frustrating things, hard to put a finger on. They were her white whale. As unfortunate as that color comparison was to her.

    So, there she was, in a room, with the Obviously a Trap-a-rino fragment, plopped down on her floating witchy broom. "Well isn't this straightforward. Downright homey."

    She tips the edge of her hood like one might tip a hat. "Much appreciated. So what's on today's menu? Adventure? Enlightenment? Wham-bam beat-em-up action?"

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva's new to the Abstractum thing, and as such she's here to help get more familiar with the more... esoteric parts of possessing one.

Or PERHAPS DIVING IN HEADFIRST and hoping it's not the shallow end.

So when Riva gets here, she's already fidgeting with Daemon. She's used her one trick, being mostly unfamiliar with the potential scope of her Abstractum's power. She's playing it by ear and hoping she doesn't slam facefirst into a wall when it really matters so far.

BEST PLAN.

So it is when Riva arrives in this weird place she watches Samael warily. This is the person who gave Sieg a thing that made them blow up /everything/?

She has no idea how to take this yet. Hrm. So she starts with the basics. "Hi! I'm Riva Banari. Nice to meet you, your present to another person vaporized me." Just letting you know.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    It's been a while since Vruasa has been to one of these, but his impatience hasn't changed in the slightest. He appeared only once the 'boring starter phases' got done, and people started talking about things that were important instead of just generically introducing themselves. He comes out of ultraspeed in time to see Samael handling what looks like an ancient video game... and around them is an apartment. Kind of a shitty apartment, if you ask Vruasa, but he's always been able to have ludicrously extravagant homes. Even when his planet was destroyed, his home just got bigger and bigger.

    "What the fuck is this?" He demands of nobody in particular, looking around towards Fiora. Vruasa seems to expect an answer from the Witch, because she's usually the one with answers. Mostly in the form of a summary of what he skipped through, followed (at times) by a chastisement of skipping through things. It's not a thing he does so much at home anymore.

    But out here, where there's more filler than a shounen anime that's pulled ahead of its manga? Oh hell yes. Way too much of that nonsense.

"Wait, shit. Have I given you your present yet?" He asks of Samael, apparently just remembering his godawful Christmas gift idea, but not whether or not he actually followed through with it.

Samael (455) has posed:
    Samael stretched, before spinning the corner cartridge on her finger as she looked towards Homura. "Magic. And as for me, personally...well, telling would ruin everything, wouldn't it? Am I just a bunch of recorded phrases? Or am I a direct copy, one that's completely independent of the original me? One that you could try something against, maybe, I don't know, set me plotting against the other one who's doing something else. Orr, am I just a remotely controlled avatar who somehow's able to hijack Clair remotely and interact with you in real time? Any of those, or none at all could apply!"

Psyber received a shrug, before the cartridge was caught. "You know how things are! Places to be, people to set up in horror movie style deathtraps, ice cream places to sample! Or, well, maybe I didn't do one of those things."

    In response to Ariel, Samael shook her head. "You see, everything's easy for me. Well, most things. Buuuut I digress."

    At Riva's introduction, Samael clapped, dropping the cartridge on the floor and walking forward towards her. "Oh! You're new, super new. I havn't seen you before...oh, vaporized? That must mean you have some way of coming back!" The girl looked here and there over Riva, coming uncomfortably close (but not touching!) as she examined her. "It's not obvious though, so...hmm. Ah well, I guess we'll see it sooner or later!"

    Fiora got a glance as Samael strode over to pick up the cartridge, and a small chuckle escaped the girl. "Oh, well, what do you think goes into a great game. Drama, fighting, adventure...though, I had to cut it down a bit. Towards the good parts. The end."

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    It's been too long since Mizuki has spontaneously elected to follow Psyber, though today that isn't the -only- reason she thought to come by. Equinox was being a bit more 'talkative' today, for lack of a better word, which tipped her off.

    Still, it's been an awfully long time since she last had cause to come to the Homeworld. Was it for her Node last...? Oh, no, it was Homura's. But today, there's someone new here. Among a plethora of faces she's already accustomed to, she sees one unfamiliar: Samael's. She can immediately guess at her identity thanks to things she's heard in the past which only makes her all the more curious. All the rest of them seem to know the 'Envoy of Them', and goodness knows that she hates to be out of the loop. This is just one more loose end.

    Her lack of prior experience with this... caricature, since 'person' does not fit as neatly as she might like, might have something to do with her ability to respond with some more low-key warmth of her own. She smiles and bows her head faintly, adding succinctly, "I'll look forward to seeing what you've prepared for us, then." In some capacity, she is in earnest, but she's never been one to miss the subtext in her being so chipper, either. In spite of appearances, she'll be on her guard.

Kirito has posed:
    Anyone looking for Kirito's going to be surprised. There is someone here who looks kinda like Kirito, but the familiar Spriggan - or human of comparable height - is nowhere to be seen.

    There's a shorter person in very similar black gear with a metal breastplate and fashionable black buttcape. Over their back, Double Fault's resting in a scabbard. One side of this person's belt has a small gun, the other has a weird metal cylinder.

    This can't be Kirito for one simple reason: they look WAY too girly. In fact, by face and build alone one'd easily mistake this person for a girl.

    But the reaction is all Kirito when the lights flick on and SAMAEL's there. Wide-eyes, body tensing up, flikers of panic and terror being swallowed down as soon as they rumble up...

    "You sure show up in the weirdest places."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    The virtual, simulated unspace that composes the environment is, as always, processed through Clairvoyant Rush. "Ummm... Okay, this looks... L-looks like it might be an autonomous process, ummm... I can try to abort, but, it's not... I don't think it's harmful for me to process, Miss Akemi. I mean... Not any more than a virtual fight is, and..." The disembodied voice trails off nervously, and retreats back to letting the Samael-entity do as she will.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "I'm not sure if this is the real Samael. Resonance could let her be here in a way, but it may otherwise." And Adjudicator, on Psyber's hand, is gently glowing with growing power. Normally it's rude to turn on yuour strife drives in conversation around company, but Samael's an exception.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "It's always educational." Utopia says, in a gently calming sort of way, to Eleanor. "Don't worry. There's going to be no space stations dropping this time, all she can send our way is data, the only troubles coming now are the ones we choose."

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    "That's fine, keep this running. Just warn us if we go too wildly off the script or strain you too much," Homura answers her Abstractum, before turning her glance back towards Samael. "Fair enough. So what's in it for us if we get through this? Besides entertaining you, no doubt."

Samael (455) has posed:
    "Present? Noooo, I didn't get one...though, you'd just be dropping it in the room here if you did, so, don't bother! Not yet, anyway! I wanna see what it is!" Samael said, her smile going wider at the sound of the word 'present,' and she did a little spin, placing her hands behind her back.

    At Mizuki's words, the girl tilted her head in curiosity. "You're also new too! Ooooh, this is going to be fun, I love sharing things with new people! I really hope you'll like it."

    ...then, Kirito. Samael dropped the game cartridge again as she clapped her hands over her mouth, before running towards him and grabbing him in a big bear hug. "Oh gosh, you've changed so much! I knew I should've been keeping up with the VRMMOs, but I've been soooooooo busy, and and I had loads of stuff to do. I kind of like it, though! It's like you're having a kind of visual kei thing going on. But anyway...as to what you get? Well...I'll think of something. You'll see."

    The cartridge was picked up (again,) and the girl plopped it into the game system, but not before blowing the bottom of it. Suddenly, the TV disappeared, and something that looked like a projection with no discernable source appeared on the wall. Letters, like those from the opening crawl of a movie, appeared in 8-bit retro style.

THE WORLD IS VEILED IN DARKNESS. THE WIND STOPS, THE SEA IS WILD, THE EARTH ROTS, AND THE WORLD BURNS. THE PEOPLE WAIT, THEIR ONLY HOPE, A PROPHECY. 'WHEN THE WORLD IS IN DARKNESS, FOUR WARRIORS WILL COME...'

AFTER A LONG JOURNEY, FILLED WITH BATTLES AND ADVENTURES, FOUR WARRIORS ARRIVE AT THE CASTLE OF DARKNESS, EACH HOLDING AN ABSTRACTUM.

THEY FACE THE EVIL QUEEN'S MINIONS, WHO ALSO WIELD ABSTRACTUM, BUT THEIR JOURNEY IS NEAR THE END, THEIR OBJECTIVE IN SIGHT.

There's even music. Go figure. http://tindeck.com/listen/etvqi

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Well... Just because we're enemies doesn't mean she doesn't care about us, in some... Strange sort of way." Harmonious Diea says, in its usual "kind aunt" sort of tone of voice, and maybe a little sad there too. Of course, that doesn't mean the abstractum isn't taking this very seriously, and so it's insisting on being in shield form already, just in case.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Yeah, you struck me as more of a fan of Froyo than Ice cream," Psyber wryly jokes in response to Samael's list of things she did. The hand in his gauntlet curls its fingers as the powers start to flow into it. He can tell Jude is holding back, because if the entirety of its powers were spooled up, this would be a much more disruptive event. Still, the gauntlet was uneasy and this carried over into Psyber.

    Of course, cartridge was soon in and the intro was going. It was pretty cheesey, but it was at least informative, "There's way more than four of us here," Psyber points out, noting the inconsistency.

Samael (455) has posed:
    As an aside, the girl placed a finger on her chin, looking back. "Lady Wrath? I like that! Though...you know, you might not've been the first to call me that! Though, of course, it was a long time ago, so..." She grinned. "So, if you want to keep calling me that, it wouldn't be inaccurate!"

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "It is called a menu because we choose what we eat." There's Hecate, Fiora's broom, again, smug and cryptic as ever. "In a way, I expect what comes next will have its share of all of them. One more consistently than the others, and an optional side of the rest, for those with the appetite."

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor glances over at Samael, and murmurs. "Don't think I don't know about the nature of your name or... the way you've acted."

    But as the EXPOSITION plays, she sighs. Heavily. There's a little bit of a grumble and she shuffles her feet at the FOUR HEROES. "I've been in this game, for a Witch once. It was awful and I do not reccomend it. I think I still have the outfit that showed up." A pouty frown.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Art can have a profound effect, but only with the proper effort. She seems like the type to put her all into her craft. Be careful of this present, the way you were careful of the last." Daemon says. As always, mature, and almost professor-ish with the tone. "Strange. A story of sorts. I'm intrigued."

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    "So what is happening is..." Fiora begins, crossing her legs and gesturing towards the dark room they find themselves in. "We are all here because of capital-R reasons, to observe a thing in progress. I'm sure the crypto-broom could spin it better, but I'm just here because..."

    She fingerguns at Homura. "Got a call from timey-wimey over here, that she had a thing with Samael. So, you know."

    Fiora laughs. "Same 'ol same 'ol, with a twist. You like video games? This... Japanese RPG stuff never really did it for me." She grumbles, as the OPENING CRAWL happens. "Wow, ok, sure. So, are we the heroes, the villains, the players of the game, or... watching one of those talk-you-through-the-game things?" The Witch wonders, being singularly unhelpful to Vruasa while musing to herself likewise unhepfully.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    As the world fades out, Mizuki asides to Psyber, "Perhaps we won't be taking the place of the heroes. Perhaps we're meant to watch this one. Or maybe the number is completely irrelevant. All I hope is that this 'game' doesn't somehow set us on opposing sides. It would be too similar to... other things that have happened of late." She feels compelled to critique the narrative itself somehow, but there's... really not much -to- critique thus far. So she just waits for now, arms folded behind her back, eyes forward.

    Her sword flashes into hand some time thereafter.

Samael (455) has posed:
    "Ssh. It'll explain how that worked, sooner or later!" Samael said to Psyber and Fiora, picking up the controller. Little 8-bit representations of a figure in a fancy hat wearing a blue, rougish outfit, a figure wearing a red karate gi, a figure dressed in full yellow armor with a sword and shield, and then a figure in green robes, wielding a staff. They all seemed to be making their way towards a castle, as little art cut-ins showed off action stills of the characters fighting random generic monsters.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "I'm not tracking any chronological inconsistencies that indicate your future selves have done anything about a present like that." Vruasa gets his compass talking again, as always trying to act the reliable secretary in a way. "This is a digital simulation reconstructed from data retrieved from the shattered fragments of a Node from past cycles." No time wasted in giving the explanation. Ulixes NEVER wastes time.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Well at least it's better than those robot fighting games. The cut-in art is less fan-servicey," Psyber comments as he watches Samael play. He sighs and crosses his arms in a different way than before, the uneasiness of the situation more than a little worrisome for him.

    He spares a glance towards Mizuki and says, "You would do best not to say those ideas out loud. Samael draws her inspiration whimsically, and she might yet overhear that idea and find it interesting."

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva is a little confused at Samael. Kind of. She tilts her head a bit, watching her carefully. "I hope not. It's usually kind of terrible." She sounds a little glum, though, because with how lethal the Multiverse is... It's bound to happen eventually. Again.

The story begins, and Riva brightens up. "This is pretty amazing! Are we going to be the heroes?" She pauses to look at her paintbrush Abstractum. "Oh, don't worry about it, Daemon, we'll make it all work out!"

NOOB ALERT.

She watches the others, though, thinking about how all her friends are handling this. They seem to be pretty relaxed. At this point, all she can do is PREPARE for what is coming!

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    "I can't tell if you lured us here to play video games with us, to teach us about something, or to somehow combine the two," Homura says as Samael starts-- well, for a lack of better terms, playing the video game, which projects onto the wall from no source.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki's eyes bulge at Psyber's remark, but really, should she have expected any less? After a deep breath and a long, long exhalation, she stutters a "R-Right."

    Earnestly, you would expect her to assume this sort of thing.

Ariel (219) has posed:
"Mnnn..." Ariel mumbles, patting Diea. She is watching the screen, but after a long moment she rubs the back of her head. "I don't play many video games, and this one doesn't look much like the ones mom plays. Diea, I might need your help figuring out this one."

Ariel shuffles in closer to watch, glancing at Samael innocently as she asks, "Where's the squat button? That's the one mom uses a lot, I thought it was important."

Kirito has posed:
    Kirito likes to appear like a BADASS. Hence the outfit, often a confident smirk and-- and none of this matters when he's suddenly being BEAR HUGGED. HWAGH!

    The boy flails like a kid, squeawking embarassedly and arms going every which way. "S-Samael, aghkrgh, what the--" Struggle struggle squirm!

    He's left feeling rather emasculated after the whole debacle, and making a rather soggy kitten -_- face.

    Not that this lasts. Things get cracking again and he turns his attention to the scrolling story. Still soggy-faced, but increasingly alert. Wait, what?

Samael (455) has posed:
    "Terrible...oh, that's something that's been used to describe me before. I don't think it's bad, though." The little sprite people made their way through an overworld, passing through forests, caves, dungeons and such before finally approaching a castle.

    "Oh, you're good! You like stories and stuff, right? Well, you know that the most epic confrontations are always near the end. Which is why I just cut everything out except this last bit."

    If I wanted to play videogames with you, all I'd need to do is threaten to kill a looooaaad of people unless someone came and played video games with me! I wouldn't need to do something this elaborate!" she said to Homura offhandedly, in the most cheerful way that someone could say that.

    "Squat button? Oh! There isn't, but this is all just story. The real gameplay'll start in a bit."

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "Who the fuck knows. We're just along for the ride, either way." Vruasa gripes back at Fiora, equally unhelpfully. He hasn't got Ulixes plugged into his eyesocket, but the compass lights up and start talking from his chain around Vruasa's neck rather abruptly. He gives a great big grunt, "Ugggh. That means I haven't even gotten the ectobiology done. I hate dealing with wrigglers. I mean, I can abuse half a dozen things to deal with the acceleration of the growth process, but it's still annoying until I'm done. Little fuckers don't know when to stop screaming. And I doubt Samael wants an /actual/ baby."

    "Do you want an actual baby?" He asides to Samael, ominously.

    This guy has some of the worst ideas.

    "So let me guess," He continues his side conversation with Fiora, prompted by her lack of interest in RPGs, "you were more into mystery games. Or maybe... maybe Sims. I bet you liked deleting all the doors and setting them on fire."

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    With the coming of Samael's next remark, Mizuki can only hope that her suggestions haven't cued her somehow. Regardless, she cups a hand around her chin, responding, "Yes, I've read my fair share; perhaps more than some would consider healthy, earnestly. And as such an avid sojourner of the pages, I can certainly appreciate your particular fascination with moments of finality, but that said," She raises an expository finger, "I'm afraid I have to be boring and suggest that those confrontations lose much of their charge and meaning without prior experience to build them up. 'Scaffolding', right? Gradual revelation? There can be no climax if there's nothing to compare it to."

    "But ah," She flattens her palms in a half-shrug, "this is your tale. Please, share it how you will."

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    "Oh, no, I played... Murder-mysteries. Point and clicks. Things that could be played on that ungodly fossil I called a computer. I had to do some black magic to make the Godfather Online work, and even then I was stuttering around like I was playing a slide show. Things with gritty announcers, film noir, that was my gig. Random acts of violence? I was more the dark, brooding poetry type. Ugh, /awful/ dark poetry too." Fiora grouses, as she watches Samael dispatch the pixellated foes quickly.

    She goes about quickly scribbling into reality some couches and chairs that look like shit but are fairly comfortable, in the way old cheap beat up lived-in couches are comfortable. They smell a little bit like ink. She flops down in one, placing her broom across her lap. "Well, it's a story, so, let's experience it! Unless ya'll want to just stand around. That's cool too!"

Samael (455) has posed:
    "Oh, you know, I generally just snack on them while sitting on a throne that says OBVIOUSLY EVIL." Samael said to Vruasa, most of her attention being taken up by pressing one button over and over. "Oh, here it goes!"

    The party finally entered the castle, and a very odd thing happened. Little sprite representations of all that were gathered here, with the exception of Samael appeared. There was an odd *whoosh* sound as the walls of the apartment simply fell backwards and disappeared and with them, the console and Samael herself were gone as well.

    The surroundings was now an odd room, perfectly square and large, and the walls and floor were all made of stone. There were no windows, but the place was oddly perfectly bright, with no visible source of light. Everyone would find themselves standing in front of a heavily fortified door.

    On the other side of the room, four figures would enter. One was a man wielding a sword and a shield, in full armor. However, his weapons had almost melded to his hands by way of brown stone with yellow, glowing veins. Bits and pieces of his armor were covered with the odd rock as well, with crystals appearing on it here and there. A figure dressed in an orange karate gi came in after him, his fists and hands covered in bandages, and the air around him was blurry, like there was a source of extreme heat coming from him. A man in a fancy blue hat with a matching fancy coat, complete with cravat and smart looking pants came next, and in his hand was a blue, glowing rapier. Water dripped from the entire blade, and now that you took a closer look, there were little droplets of dew on the man's clothes, shining like jewels. The last to come was a female figure in green robes, wielding a staff. Little gusts of wind came blowing here and there, creating a constant billowing effect with every movement and on cue, all four of them stopped in front of the group. What was remarkable though, that in any place where a face or exposed skin would normally be seen, it was all just a sort of inky black blurryness forming a rather indistnct head, foot or hand.

    Samael's voice suddenly sounded as she suddenly peaked out from behind the bulky warrior, and she grinned. "So! I told you this was going to be a little more fun! Though, you might not want to be sitting down for this. Oh, and, I don't think you want to try and talk or reason or flee. Because...well...you might die. For realsies."

    More music began to play. http://tindeck.com/player/v1/player.swf?trackid=jmkxm

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Dibs on the big one," Psyber says immediately, slowly rolling his neck as he steps forward. The half-angel had expected a fight, and perhaps even wanted one. A fight was something that let him really cut loose, even if he risked injury. A fight was substantially less complex than the socio-political quagmire he found his life in these days.

    Without too much waiting for coordination, after all he's a red and not a green, Psyber elects to launch forward in a sprint. There's a flick of his wrist and arm as the gauntlet folds out off of it and into its greatsword form, "Jude. All Strike Drives to Full. We're going all out today."

    If Samael wants them to fight? Psyber is more than willing to fight.

    He heads in towards the Knight and swings his sword in a heavy, sweeping attack.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor Lamb sighs and reaffixes her helmet with a grump. Right, well. If It's to be conjuror versus Sister, the least she can do is to give the Water Mans a good drubbing. Hands lift up into a ready position, and she shoves her energy into Utopia, into her body and all she's got. "Come, Utopia! Let us show them the true power of the Ocean. LET US DANCE."

    There's a kicking leap and the rather odd sensation of leaping in this semi-artificial space, and with speaker-filtered yell, she dives for her foe.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Adjudicator jumps right into sword form immediately, likely tapping rather gently against... Is that Claire? We'll see in a moment, anyway. For now, what Jude does is relatively simple. In seven sequential bursts of brilliant red fire, it amps up to maxed-out strike drivers and amplifies the strike to something like being hit by a truck on a highway.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "Your poetry is fine." Vruasa says to Fiora, with a dismissive wave of the hand. It's possible that he's simply been respectful enough not to read the truly awful stuff, but it really is hard to tell with this jerk. Still, he does still have -one- poem she wrote for him. He's not nearly talented enough to reciprocate that sort of thing, though. Instead, he just gave her an incredibly biblical gift. Which is to say, it required a bunch of heavily injured trolls to provide it.

    As for Samael's answer, he waves her off as well. "Eating babies is too boring for you. You'd do something else with one. I guess I'll just make sure the present is an adult, then. Oh well." One of Vruasa's many spears materializes in his hands. It looks to be made of wrought iron, with a card-diamond themed tip to it. With a dramatic SWISH, he points towards the Conjuror in the middle of the other group. "Focus fire and get rid of this asshole first! I'll lay out a kill order on the rest as we go along."

    Vruasa triggers his COAT to produce an illusion, turning himself into a series of floating, numbered arrows in the air. He flies over the top of the Conjuror, marking him as the PRIORITY target. The other numbers are currently rotating rapidly in an epileptic seizure-inducing blur of color, if anybody troubles to pay attention to them.

    As for the Time God himself, he... doesn't do shit! Looks like he's going to be mostly commanding today, if anything.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "We'll certainly drown them, Elle. Powering Strife Drives." There's a soft blue glow at Eleanor's hand now, and it begins regulating, stabilizing, and making sure Eleanor can access her maximum potential without turning into a mindbroken wreck. For now: Essentially an accuracy boost.

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel is shocked at first, but it's not much of a delay before she realizes what she has to do. Even if she doesn't want to kill the heroes, she does want to defend her friends. "Diea, Green Chroma. Tandem up with everyone else with Ulixes," she says immediately. "Psyber, take on the knight, hard and fast. Kirito, you're fast and hard-hitting, you take the one with the Rapier. Homura, handle the monk, keep out of his reach and use your usual tactics. The rest of you, pile on the conjurer and keep him from getting any spells off. Take the opening Kirito gives you." She doesn't give orders to Fiora, of course.

Meanwhile Ariel slots a HOMURA 2 and an ELEANOR 1 Cartridge for now. She isn't sure what they'll do in this situation, so she herself will focus on finding a good spot to command from, hunkered by her shield, and expand her Sorcerous senses. She's going to keep that mage from casting any spells with countermagic until the others can get to helping her.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    By the time Mizuki has had an opportunity to draw another breath, Psyber is already off. Her own rapier moves to its rightful position in front of her face, parting her features just so, as she studies each of her options. She notes their blurred faces -- to make that region of their bodies indistinct, specifically, is quite clearly a gesture meant to unnerve. It's at least a slight boon to her, then, that in addition to reading her fair share she's also seen a large quantity of surrealist art. That sort of thing cannot phase her anymore than it would the other, more seasoned fighters present.

    After much deliberation, she decides that her abilities would be best served in conflict with the MAGE. The warrior has defenses that could trump her quickness, the monk is likely swift enough of their own to dodge her, and the conjurer can likely call upon beasts just as hardy as the warrior to aid him. So, in conclusion, the mage was the only choice... even if they have their own methods of bolstering their endurance.

    Goodness willing, they won't get the chance before she reaches them. She takes the initiative, attempting to preemptively place herself -behind- the mage with a leap through time. Once there she attempts a rapid flurry of jabs at her sides and appendages, perhaps trying to flick the rod out of her hands if she sees an opening. She does not suspect that she will, but she supposes that it's still worth the attempt.

    She is entirely focused on her quarry, of course, so any outside interruptions -- including interruptions contributed by the mage themselves -- would catch her off-guard.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    "That figures," Homura frowns.

    "Well then."

    The Puella Magi disappears, appearing in Psyber's trajectory to activate the COMBO FRAME she has with him, before she suddenly reappears by Ariel, giving a nod. The thunderbolt blade of Tyrfing is in one of her hands, while the other holds a standard-issue bolt pistol from the Imperium. Three cartridges plop in: PSYBER-2, VRUASA-1 and FIORA-1.

    And then, a series of thunderbolts and bolter rounds crash towards the MONK, while the Puella Magi stays safely by Ariel. A few stray shots may catch the CONJUROR to stick with Vruasa's order and try to benefit from both sets of orders at once.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Vruasa activates PRIORITY TARGETING. "Tandem paradigm aligned. Asserting primacy." And Vruasa's prioritization on the Conjurer is immediate and active! A harsh green fire is quite active whenever anyone attacks that particular target, giving them a substantial offensive boost! The others have a much more chaotic and lessened boost.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Some time before rushing off, Mizuki would load the cartridge that Homura had given her so many eons ago. Now seems like a fairly good time to try it out.

Kirito has posed:
    Well THIS gets a sour look from Kirito. He was hoping to not jump immediately into a fight! Not that he could avoid it now. Thankfully, Kirito's an experienced fighter - one of the best there is.

    And he's also an RPG nut. It takes him all of a few seconds to size up the group that's coming in on them. "Count on Samael to complicate everything." The boy mutters...

    With a sigh he reaches up to clasp Double Fault's grip... but once his fingers close about the sword his expression becomes steel-hard. The PROPER SWORD - which might be just SLIIIIIGHTLY too long for him based on height in his current avatar (not that this matters, given his strength) feels much better in his hands than the small metal cylinder he picks up in the other!

    "Ready, Double Fault?! We're taking out the caster first!" If he knows anything, it's that mages tend to be VERY GOOD at Area DPS.

    They don't need that right now.

    A thousand little grumbly curses flicker through his thoughts, but go unvoiced. Really doesn't want to aggro Samael right now!

    "She went and cast us as the villains in this twisted parody..." He just can't help it - Kirito smirks a bit.

    Once, he played the villain 'for realz.' He was honestly hated for it. Uncool. But he can't exactly say that he didn't enjoy playing it up.

    But then Ariel's instructions comes in and he decides to change course. "Or we can do that!" Confidence revvs up, and off he goes at full speed for the Conjurer! For now though, he's only swinging Double Fault around in a swift flurry!

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Green Chroma!" Harmonious Diea calls out, swapping from shield to cloak form over Ariel's body with a sudden, ethereal green light on its interior. Her orders are immediately put into boosts and buffs. There's a major boost for Psyber, Kirito, and Homura on their respective targets; offensive boosts for Psyber, agility boosts for Kirito and Homura, and another offensive boost against the conjurer.

    Ariel's chosen cartridges provide an AUGMENTATION STABILITY and ATTACK-UNDO/REPEAT ability! They're installed with a dramatic hiss!

Samael (455) has posed:
    The greatsword was met with the raising of the knight's shield, and almost immediatly, earth spontaneously appeared on the shield, grasping, forming around Jude and then hardening into solid stone. It seemed that the impact had caused a crack in the stone below the man, however, but...the strength of earth was something that was pretty hardy. The knight immediatly started to bring his blade down, but opted to instead try and smash Psyber in the face with the pommel of his blade.

    The man in the fancy hat, however, received Eleanor's blow...or not, as it seemed that Eleanor simply dove into a column of water. The figure of the man reformed, and he raised a hand towards her before clenching it into a fist. The water immediatly became hard, freezing instantly and attempting to trap Eleanor's limbs.

    The MAGE, on the other hand, raised her staff. The entire room suddenly became filled with a strong wind, and invisible barriers of wind surrounded her compatriots. Strikes would find themselves buffeted by compressed air, projectiles would be assaulted by wind to blow it off course, and every now and then, an offensive bit of wind would try cutting into someone. In response to the jabs, the first hit their mark, sending the mage flying - but she remained in the air, only to sweep her staff to try and send Mizuki straight into the ceiling with a sudden and violent tornado.

    The MONK, on the other hand, rushed forward, straight into Homura's barrage of bullets. When the first hit, however, the monk's figure suddenly became a fireball, melting the bullets. The thunderstrikes went into the fireball, cutting away at the flame, but the fireball landed at Homura's feet with an explosion, with the monk reappearing at the end in a crouch. From there, he threw a barrage of extremely quick blows at Homura, an explosion happening with every hit.

    Kirito would find himself slicing into water as well, but as his blades were covered in moisture, the Conjuror swung his blade, causing an arc of liquid to slam into the swordsman. There was the smell of something chemical filling his nostrils, before suddenly, the burning of acid would soon become apparent.

Samael (455) has posed:
    The lightning, however, seemed to catch the conjuror as it coursed through his body, and it stopped the man in his tracks after pulling the little water trick a second time with Kirito.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber slammed his sword right into the shield with no hesitation, his whole body jolting from the Abstractum-enhanced force of the swing. The stopping power of the shield causes him a bit of startling, but the shield was legit and it had stopped his blade. Psyber swings it back around and tries to pull it out of the embedded earth, "Heh. Nice. Not many people can stand up t-"

    Right. Don't take a moment to talk.

    Psyber takes a pommel right to the center of his face. His cheek gashes open and some bones in his skull crack from the sheer IMPACT of the attack, causing him to stagger back a bit with a spray of blood. At least he'd drawn the aggro of the tank, so the others could go after their targets.

    Psyber flicks the sword, "Jude. Shift as high as we can manage." Psyber commands, waiting for the telltale lines and ripples before he swings again. This time, though, the swing is one-handed. Psyber, as he swings the blade, abruptly slams in a level 2 Homura cartridge, trying to stutter-step his attack PAST the shield and hit the knight.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eelanor's body is suddenly immersed in Water, but she's not fretting. This is her natural habitat, ice or no ice. The porthole of that helmet glows RED as she sifts deeper into her Selves, digging for energy and fortitude deep inside of her gene.
    The Sister's hands grip right back at that ice, and she hisses behind the watertight seal, growling. "Please let go."

    There's a sudden magnetic shift in her presence, right up before she electrifies her body, attempting to deliver a Shocking Grasp.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Fiora's Shitty Furniture is unneded, as things shift to confronting the characters in the game. As things shift to the castle. Fiora nearly falls on her butt on the stonework, before saving herself, standing up straight and hoisting her broom over her shoulder lightly, like a lance held at standby. "Wow, gheez. I don't really think I've got crazy good effects. Ah, right, no, I remember." Fiora remembers. "Let's just stick to Psyber's level one cartridge." She notes, making sure that's squared away, before looking at the situation as it unfolds. The Conjuror seems to be the target du jour, as directed by both Ariel and Vruasa. She gives a sloppy salute, reaching out to tap the bristle-less end of her broom onto Ulixes. "And a combo frame. I'll go try to beat up..."

    She turns, seeing the watery man use all sorts of crazy-neat water/ice powers. "Well, Mister Freeze here, el capitan." She offers, before wandering in.

    "Right! Right, before we really get going, we need a little mood. Think the Hype drivers can make this Appropriately Dramatic?" She wonders over her shoulder at Hecate. "Or... Well, yeah. We'll just do us for now." She shrugs, before moving to back up Eleanor and Kirito, throwing a handful of inky power from her hand to splash on the ice that may be hobbling her and trying to simply delete it. "Watch yourself, he's... Ugh, slippery? Why can't I think of better quips?!" She groans, before throwing another few inky globs at the Conjuror, to keep him honest... Or eat his face off, either-or.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    COMBO FRAME! The ring that Homura's wearing looks a little digitally distorted -- Clairvoyant Rush is pulling double duty as both reality and abstractum -- but the combo frame does fit! Psyber-2 gives damage per unit violent intent, while Vruasa gives improved accuracy, and Fiora makes it much more difficult for Homura herself to be tracked as the source of these projectiles! The combo, the sheer power, and the cartridges are boosting it to offensive power levels outrageous, at least for Claire.

    And so all of her projectiles ought to have a tremendous boost, alongside hopefully keeping some aggro off of her.

Samael (455) has posed:
    The blade stuttered through the shield and hit the knight himself, leaving a carved out incision in the man's armor and causing him to stumble back. It was almost instantly covered by more rock and crystals, however, and the man stepped forward, rock and earth climbing up his blade to form a very heavy mace. There was a swing with the stony hammer, and it sought to simply smash anything in the way.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Of all the things mage's are stereotypically capable of, why does this one have to be skilled in the use of wind? As she's flung skyward, she deeply laments that they could not have been adept in the use of fire instead, or even ice. Lightning! Lightning is something she has ample experience with, but -Wind-. She summons her wings as she's thrown skyward, flapping them against the whipping currents to lessen her impact with the ceiling, but that's all that she's able to do: lessen it. In any event, she's dealt a dull yet painful blow, and gentle flecks of cyan filter off of her person. Those closer to her here would know that, in lieu of blood, she sheds light.

    Thankfully, a single encounter with a hard surface is not going to incapacitate her, but the wind -will- keep her held against the roof if she doesn't think of something. So she does: she is at least able to wrestle her arm out of the wind's grasp so the she can cleave a hole in space -- a portal -- on to the ceiling beside her. Then, immediately before rolling into it, she opens another on the ground via a shockwave.

    Moments later she emerges from the latter opening, and she wastes no time: she withdraws her wings and keeps close to the ground, holding her blade out for a running slash as she passes by the mage. Hopefully before she can be caught in another windward stream she stakes her blade into the ground, holding on to it firmly while she retrieves her revolver. A trio of shots are loosed from its barrel, each one quickened by a field of temporal influence which comes to surround them. Hopefully the more powerful velocity will mitigate the effects of the cutting wind.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    HOMURA CARTRIDGES appear to have an especially potent effect on Mizuki's Abstractum. Normally they only allow the User to queue attacks or functions on delays, but for Mizuki, slotting them into the pocketwatch, it overdrives the TEMPORAL MAGIC Mizuki can use, meaning her revolver will have tremendously amplified output. It seems to be quite useful for right now, making near-instant attacks!

Ariel (219) has posed:
The wind cutting throught he room makes Ariel tense and brace, before her own magic lashes out to cut it as it heads toward her. It still shears at her body, but now she has a better idea of what to do. "Nnn. It's so obvious," she realizes. "NEW ORDERS!"

Focusing her attention, she quickly assesses the abilities of the people here. "Eleanor and Homura, electrical attacks against the blue guy. Psyber, you keep hitting him and just try to hold him while we get the rest of them taken care of. Mizuki, flow around the wind and RESTRICT THE MAGE. The wind doesn't do well when restrained, there's nowhere to go! Force anything he does toward the KNIGHT. Kirito, switch off to work on the monk for now. Ah... everyone fighting the water conjurer, try to get him near the monk, I have an idea."

As for her idea? She tries to start working on her best spell, the gravity trap. She's going to need to alter it a little, so this needs some time.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "I got it!" Double Fault calls out, shouting! "BARRIER DRIVER!" A flat circular wireframe interposes itself between Kirito and the water, but is quickly eaten through. "Gah! Corrosive stuff's anti-barrier, keep off!" It channels more of its AGILITY and REFLEX-boosting, intending to make Kirito get away from this as fast as possible! Dodging is going to be what he needs to focus on! But the sword hums with its usual rhythmic power, and if he can begin striking to the beat, it'll start doing huge boosts in power!

Samael (455) has posed:
    The electricity again courses through the Conjuror's body as she remained in the still crouching stance, but with a pained gesture, he swung the rapier again. The ice holding Eleanor suddenly became boiling hot, but somehow wasn't doing the thing where water vaporated into steam, though it was more painful than damaging at the end of the day. The wind suddenly came blowing, buffeting Fiora's inky globs of stuff to the side, and the man tipped his hat at his friend. Suddenly, he placed a palm to the ground, and instantly, a huge block of solid ice surrounded him.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    Oh that's not good. The MONK is in her face.

    The martial artist just plowing through her attacks gives him ample surprise to land several of the first hits onto the girl, and she's not exactly made of sturdy stuff. Hopefully Claire kicks in with some Barrier Drivers to lessen the blows-- but one way or the other, she gets punched and scorched several times alright. Might be something broken already. She disappears mid-flurry, replaced by a plasma grenade. That's... one way to do the ninja substitution trick, sure.

    She reappears by KIRITO, per Ariel's orders for him.

    "Kirito, peel him off me!"

    In the meantime, Homura produces her bow, the bolter discarded, due to its empty clip. She places Tyrfing onto the bow like it's an arrow, the blade turning into a brilliant purple lightning bolt of an arrow, which she aims at the CONJURER.

    She does her best to predict what position he'll be in momentarily to slam him as directly as possible with the lightning-sword-arrow.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva is boggled to see what's going on. She thought they were supposed to be the heroes! But then, there were only 4 heroes, how would they...

"Ugh, villainy? For real?" Riva grumbles for a moment, allowing herself a moment of childish irritation as she flicks her Abstractum in the air. "Well, if we're going to do this, we're going to do it right!" Vruasa calls out to focus on the Conjurer. Is that a healer? Who knows. Either way, Riva needs to offer support in some way and now she needs to do it fast. While everyone else is boosting up and loading cartidges, Riva scurries through the chaos of the battle, trying to stay unnoticed as she tries to get behind enemy lines. How is she going to mess with things? So far, she's been able to paint things into existence, changing the area based on her creative actions.

So what would be the most disruptive thing she could do? Riva tries to sneak up behind the Conjuror. Orders come in from Ariel. Get the Conjurer near the Monk? Okay! Riva ducks and begins painting a series of chevrons on the floor tiles, pointing towards the Monk.

With video game logic, this should make the floor some kind of old school conveyor belt, right? And you have to ride those to the end!

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Provided she has the time, Mizuki would follow up on her prior contributions by finally taking Ariel's advice. That means she briefly stores her revolver in a concealed pocket and uses her newly freed hand to conjure a slowing field that encapsulates a wide, spherical area around the MAGE. Normally this effect would not be able to extend itself to the entire battlefield without involving ridiculous energy expenditures on her part, but thanks to her Abstractum and Homura's cartridge she might just be able to slow -all- of the fighters, or at least the Conjurer and the Mage. At the very least, though, it should be able to seriously mitigate the negative impact of the wind on the others present.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    At the moment, with so much chaos, only SHIFT 1 gets managed! But lord does it get managed. Brilliant red lines blast up Psyber's body, suddenly overcharging his offensive abilities as scripture becomes visible all the way up to his cheekk. The Homura-2 cartridge endows certain useful properties of TEMPORAL SHENANIGANS, and hopefully this means Psyber's feint can pull through! The sheer, overwhelming offensive power is even MORE severe on this one, of course, things escalating very quickly.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    In response to Ariel shifting the targets, Vruasa adjusts his specific target list. The Conjuror becomes #2, while the Mage becomes #1. Since he's really just hovering around being a bunch of numbers in the air though, he makes the decision to actually take a whack at one of these motherfuckers. They're ignoring him so far, which is just as well since he is in fact not doing anything to them directly. Unfortunately, he can't actually move around a lot while serving as a target marker, so he's going to have to improvise things a little bit.

    And by improvise, we mean blatantly abuse time travel.

    At least five iterations of VRUASA appear abruptly in silhouettes of red light, and their collective goal is just try to PUNCH the shit out of that mage from every possible angle. Every single one of them coordinate to use their mechanical arm to do it, because some of these guys seem to like using weird shit like ice walls to defend themselves. It's way easier to punch through ice walls when your hand is this solid.

    Though... now that they think about it, the rest of their body is that solid too.

    "Fuck," The last of the Vruasa clones complains, "I've been such a lazy shit I forgot about that. We are seriously fucking out of shape. We should just go looking for trouble for a few weeks and get back into the rhythm of this bullshit."

    The other Vruasas agree by way of attempting to turn their collective punch into a collective one-two, using their organic arms for the second swing.

Samael (455) has posed:
    The windy mage turned around to meet Mizuki's sword strikes with her staff, creating a *CLASH* as metal met metal, but the shots were another thing entirely. The projectiles tore through the robes, knocking the mage out of the air, but she caught herself, hovering just above the floor. A wave of the staff, however, and little blurry spheres started to appear next to everyone. In a second, however, they all suddenly disappeared with an EXTREMELY LOUD BOOM as compressed air suddenly rushed into a vacuum. The sound was extremely loud, high, and sudden, apparently made to disorient everyone as much as possible.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    PSYBER CART 1 means Fiora can't do FRIENDLY FIRE now! Incredibly useful. The cartridge hisses gently as it enters, emitting steam as it does. "I think appropriate levels of drama are something you can always depend on me for, Fiora." Hecate says, with the usual smug tone. And from here on out, it's blasting shockwaves of wind, rumbling, gushing gray fire, and doing all sorts of other things that let Fiora's attacks LOOK a lot more powerful than they are.

Samael (455) has posed:
The monk froze for a second, apparently faced with an explosion, and that was enough for him to be sent flying by the plasma grenade, blue fire eating the burning orange. He recovered in the air, however, with a burst of flame accompanying his landing, and with extreme speed, moved towards Psyber's rear. His arms reached out to grab him, and if successful, Psyber's body would suddenly be engulfed in a column of flame.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Assuming nobody interrupts RIVA, she'll find that her dutiful academic sort of paintbrush helps her. Painting the environment does work, and it's especially good for environmental changes, just as much as it is for adjustments to objects. Unfortunately, doing large-scale structures seems to consume copious amounts of the slowly-generating INK. Since this is following Ariel's orders, though, it receives a substantial BOOST! Meaning that the brush gets much less ink expended in trying to manipulate the environment.

    Riva will intuitively note that while she doesn't have to be right next to the Monk and Conjurer to do this, she will be very obvious as the cause of what's going on over there due to the BLUE GLOWS that are emitted by her brush.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor's helmet shivers at the rather odd sensation of scalding ice. She staggers a bit, lifting up at her bindings, and attempting to wrench herself free. Though that's less a struggle and more a sheer application of leverage and TK. Her mind shoves UPWARDS at the Conjuror's hold, and she attempts to swing her needle around to swat at the mad with the fellow rapier.

    "ENGARDE!" She's also frantically trying to call up a memory of fencing.

Samael (455) has posed:
    The mage folded her arms, curling up into a ball as the blows rained onto her, made somewhat soft by the pockets of air, but she was still being knocked around significantly. It was enough to make her return to the floor, but taking advantage of a small gap in the punches as the synchronized, she slammed the base of her staff on the floor, raising her hand and standing still. All the alternate Vruasas would suddenly find that their heads were encased in a sphere of pure vacuum, with no air whatsoever.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber hits the ground with a thud as the hammer connects with him, frustration briefly playing at his features from the sheer durability of this warrior. The half-angel is sent tumbling end over end from the impact and he rolls across the ground, digging the blade in to carve himself to a stop as the Shift turns on, "Sonuvabitch I'm sick of this guy, Jude. That one got at least six ribs and ruptured something."

    As Psyber pulls himself to a knee, the half-angel levels his sword as if holding a rifle. And, with some shifting of metal and parts, he is, "Lex Talionis. I wanna go through the shield and take out his head. He dies." Psyber notes, spooling up a Morality Paradigm that he knows and loves before firing it off with a loud BOOM from his sniper rifle.

    Of course, a moment later he's forced to let out a cry of pain as fire erupts all around him, engulfing him in its burning heat, scorching him black in several parts, and causing him to roll on the ground a bit to try to put it out.

Kirito has posed:
    "gegh---!?" Though caught by surprise by the flowing water defense, Kirito's not a complete moron. His reaction comes a millisecond before the Conjurer's blade starts moving. His whole body leans backwards and he kicks off the ground for a swift flip just as Double Fault puts up the barrier. Between thet wo, it's enough to prevent him from getting ENTIRELY doused with the acid - it splashes ALL over the back of his clothes but misses most of his skin.

    Nevertheless it sizzles and burns, and the warrior's HP meter starts decreasing slowly but surely. On the other hand it's not decreasing nearly as fast as it ought. It decreases by four and then goes up three, basically!

    Battle Regeneration is crazy. "Nice timing!" Are his words for his sword just as he hears Ariel's orders. Electric attacks, smart.

    He'd be employing elemental Sword Skills now, if he had them. But he doesn't.

    Instead he spirals around just as Homura appears. "Got it! Look out for the rapier user's water body and acid spray!" Well maybe Homura saw it in her MOMENTS BETWEEN MOMENTS but good teamwork is good teamwork.

    Moving with all the boosted Agility he's got, Kirito ducks low and charges, screaming furiously in a plunge at the MONK.

    With a *SNAP-HISS* the unused cylinder sprouts a glowing purple blade certain to catch any stray glances. Pure energy!

    And Kirito wastes no time attempting to begin a carefully timed flurry of slashes in-between flips, dancing all around the Monk and trying to keep him hedged in!

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    As the compressed air begins to screech around her, Mizuki winces. No, she isn't affected quite so intensely as the others might be by attacks that involve sensory overload, but it's still fairly unpleasant to feel like there's a metal drill inside of your ears. Considering that others are dealing the the same phenomenon, though, she doesn't attempt to deal with the windy orb directly -- rather, she plays at being much more hurt than she is. She crumbles to her knees and cups a hand over one ear, but keeps the other hand firmly at her sword. And the moment that she sets upon Vruasa? She breaks the facade, attempting another quick, arcing slash through the mage's staff.

    She allows this strike to carry her to the mage's other side whether she's successful or not, and would likewise attempt a sustained flurry of sword strikes. She continually disappears and reappears around the mage, jabbing at her, stabbing until she's somehow interrupted. These strikes are not meant to be fatal by any means, though; more to confuse. Anything that might interrupt her concentration and keep her spells from reaching her allies.

    Since they were successful before, a few gunshots might be attempted here and there as the situation permits. If she's allowed to come in close, she might even fire the thing off right against the mage's ear. For karma's sake.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    LEX TALIONIS is a wonderful little damage-based morality paradigm. "Activating." Jude says, sounding like someone gritting their teeth. The sword seems damaged a bit by the harsh defenses so far, which seems to enhance Lex Talionis' performance! Now, Psyber's DAMAGE OUPUT gains a buff corresponding to his DAMAGE SUSTAINED. "I'll go for the head." And it does, in fact, try to increase speed and accuracy in targeting the neck.

Samael (455) has posed:
With all the attacks against the Conjuror's ICE BLOCK from Homura and Eleanor, it became cracked as well as much smaller before it finally got shoved along next to the MONK, the KNIGHT, and Psyber. Still though, the Conjuror seemed to not be doing much of anything while in the rapidly disappearing barrier.

Samael (455) has posed:
    After releasing Psyber, the monk turned around to face Kirito, and unfortunately, it seemed that he was just as fast, parrying the sword with his bare hands with expert precision, just enough that the blades would not cut him. Still, with how fast he was, none of his attacks were fast enough to meet with Kirito's body, and the two seemed to be just in a blurry exchange of super-fast strikes, neither gaining the advantage over the other.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Fiora gets a target swap notification from Ariel and Vruasa as they decide that maybe the support-healy-type-sort needed to get their ass beat into the ground first, which, in retrospect, was elementary 'murder the other guys' strategy.

    "Wow we /are/ out of practice!" Fiora notes, her own God Tier Hoodie/robes futtering with wind and hype and smoke as she looks like some sort of awesome post-edit theatrical juggernaut, when she's pretty much just herself.

    And her man is getting choked out by the Lack of something. That's...

    That's kind of insulting. She sweeps her hand, a wave of destruction tearing forth from her palm, that leaves not even dirt or a cloud of bad shit in its wake. She clashes with this airy force that grips Vruasa, directly, while looking... Aloof. And a little mad.

    "Don't fight me on the battleground of lack. I'll /win/." She growls. Which, while theoretically is true... Is actually never something that's ever been tested!

    Then again, swinging a broom around is kind of a dorky way to fight, but, hey, she LOOKS REALLY COOL DOING IT!

Samael (455) has posed:
    The Knight, seeing his foe temporarily disabled, turned around to look at the others. Earth, it seemed, didn't mean slow as the man dashed across the room, jumping into the air. As Mizuki aimed to stop the concentrating mage from choking Vruasa's alternate selves out, her blows and bullet shots slammed into the shield of the Knight, and the man swung the stony hammer that was formed out of his sword, aiming to pummel her straight into the ground.

    Unfortunately, it seemed that Fiora's effort to stop the vacuum was enough and made things meaningless anyway, as the Mage lost control, snapping out of her constant casting as the spell was disrupted.

Ariel (219) has posed:
The conjurer is next to the burning monk. That's what Ariel wanted. Ariel is staggered for a moment, though, by the loud boom next to her. That's not something she can absorb, and the little unicorn girl nearly falls over from lack of balance. "Muh..." She shakes her head a few times, rattled, and this is making her spell slightly delayed. Hopefully it won't matter too much.

She doesn't issue new orders yet, though. Right now she wants them still fighting, and she isn't sure what she can issue. All that matters is the monk is close to the conjurer. That's when she releases her spell, the sudden roar of higher gravity pulling things in sent to... the monk. With the aim of yanking the conjurer, barrier and all, into the flaming fighter in a clash of elements.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    Ariel seems to be handling the MONK and CONJURER, so Homura turns towards the MAGE, who is still marked as current priority target. It is without flashiness or ceremony that the magical girl just disappears and reappears within melee range of the MAGE, two Regiswords out. She chooses her moments very carefully-- doesn't want to get in Fiora or Vruasa's way, after all.

    Inbetween attacks, she slips in, trying to deliver single, simple sword strikes, drawing from the cartridges and Combo Frame to boost the strength of the swings. Mostly they're thrusts and attempts to disarm (literally if need be) the spellcaster.

Samael (455) has posed:
    The sniper rifle shot that had been aimed at the Knight, however, wound up cracking the man's helmet, letting it fall. An indistinct, generic black head was all there was, but...maybe if someone hit it, things would happen? A small gap in the knight's defense may have opened.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki's sword collides with the knight's shield. It bends uncomfortable as tension builds at its blade, and it eventually flicks itself into the air. It spins far out of Mizuki's reach as the knight rushes at her again with his hammer.

    For a moment, she seems entirely helpless. Her expression, full of bewilderment, would suggest the exact same. Thankfully, though, her sword is as much an extension of her being as are most people's arms. She calls the thing back into hand at the last second, holding it horizontally to serve as a makeshift shield before the hammer comes down on her, and --

    -- she fails. Rather miserably.

    She's driven into the ground effortlessly. As the blunt end of the hammer rises, it's accompanied by a massive conflagration of those same vital flecks that stormed out of her body when she was pressed against the ceiling before. For a moment, she's entirely still, but eventually her eyelids peek open again. She staggers to the ground, picking up her sword to use it as a borrowed leg. She attempts to use her time magic, something these four heroes must be growing quite ill of by now, to appear just beyond where the knight would have the means to block. Then she pours temporal magic into her blade and her body to (hopefully) give the next strike delivered by the former power enough to pierce this man's armor.

    If this attempt falls through, her blade goes flying again. If it doesn't, the blade would remain stuck in the knight's body. In either case, she attempts a quick jump back before firing off the remaining three rounds in her revolver's barrel.

    To herself, she deeply laments that she does not possess a shield as well.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Homura's TWIN REGISWORDS are empowered with copious amounts of offensive power through crimson red WITCH RUNES that appear all along its length, but they're also granted greatly increased defensive resilience, hopefully letting Homura have more parrying and defense options in her melee attacking! This extra element would normally be a bit beyond Claire, but the COMBO FRAME it shares with Adjudicator gives it enough power!

Riva Banari has posed:
Huh. The more she learns about how Daemon works, the cooler he gets. Riva starts thinking as she pulls back, continuing to try to keep lost in the shuffle. Speculatively, she listens to the others to get some more direction and gets nothing too much in specific.

Therefore, she decides to deal with the MAGE like the number say. That's what they say, right? RIGHT?!

With a wiggle of the Abstractum, she reaches out, and with a flare of blue starts painting in a bucket over the MAGE'S head.

After all, you have to be able to see things to mage at them, right? This makes perfect sense to her.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    It's a bad idea to leave Psyber unattended, even when gravely injured. The half-angel is always one to grit it and push through, especially when he needs to do it to protect others. So as soon as the Knight takes time away from Psyber, the half-angel is up on his feet again in a flash.

    He's staggering a bit and certainly has an odor of burnt flesh around him, and at one point he keels over to hock up some blood, but he's gross like that and it doesn't slow him down TOO much as he charges back into the fray. The knight is targetting Mizuki, someone Psyber is naturally protective of.

    "Jude, Gauntlet," Psyber murmurs as he runs. He hopes Mizuki's attack will provide the distraction he needs, because right now Psyber is going to take a big risk and try to go for that exposed head. Sorta. In an admittedly slightly flashy way. He's going to need even more STRENGTH than normal, so he slams in a Himei Cartridge.

    As Mizuki makes her attack, Psyber tries to dart up behind the knight. If he CAN GET THE GRIP WITH ADJUDICATOR, Psyber will spin the man around by his shoulder. Hopefully, HOPEFULLY, the rest will connect:

    Psyber tries to hook his arms under the Knight's own arms and hoist the man up over his head and off the ground before driving him head first into the ground below.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    The whole 'vacuum around his head' thing is a problem Vruasa hadn't really considered. He's a few seconds into considering killing himself to get around it when a combination of factors axe the effect. Alright, if they're going to deal with wind resistance as a defense, he's just going to use a weapon that has nothing at all to do with physical force at all. His duplicates vanish from the battlefield, returning to their time period, and the prime iteration of Vruasa -- who is acting as a target priority arrow -- swaps his weapon to a great, blazing column of light.

    It's generous to call the thing a spear, since it's just a great big mass of temporal energy. It's also distinctly unpleasant to come into contact with, however little, if you're anybody but the guy wielding it. And there's nobody else here with the temporal prowess and specialization to weaponise THIS particular mass of temporal energy.

    Were he swinging a regular spear about, Vruasa would use quite a bit of force out of sheer annoyance with the clever little work-around to his toughness that the Mage seemed to have picked up on.

    But, he doesn't need to get a direct hit to do massive damage with the Scratch. He swings it in a wide, almost lazy arc towards the Mage. Pretty surprisingly quick, though.

    "Thaaaanks," He asides to Fiora, "We need to get back into the habit of doing this more often. I don't like being so fuckin' rusty."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    VOID POWERS are usually a bit imprecise, but with Hecate here to provide a very effective focusing point, the broom can make sure the void's boundaries are precisely defined and optimised in what one hopes is precisely the best way for Fiora's attacks to work, hopefully increasing ACCURACY! While also making it look FLASHY and NOTICABLE, meaning that maneuvering, herding, feints, and similar are all being improved.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Mizuki's TEMPORAL BACKSTEPS and dodging about find Equinox activating its own special power too! As Mizuki uses her time powers, it COMPRESSES space and time harshly, pulling those points in time until they overlap in a wrinkle, such that Mizuki's attacks both occur at once! She's both standing there and striking with the blade, AND shooting from a distance, both at once, for a moment, as the pocketwatch activates its power.

Samael (455) has posed:
    The elements clashed as the vacuum-like spell went off, bashing the ice block into the flaming monk that was currently fighting Kirito. An explosion of flame and water went off as the two smashed into each other, causing both of them to be sent to the ground in pained crouches. The two looked towards each other for a moment before nodding, and the two stood up, back to back.

    A bucket is a stupid thing. It really shouldn't work. But a moment's distraction was all that was needed for Homura's shots to hit the mage, only for Vruasa's strike with the Scratch to rip into her and send her flying. This sent the knight looking her way, with just enough time for him to be struck a few times by Mizuki, and Psyber to grab him under the arms. Unfortunately for Psyber, the man was prepared just enough to glue his feet to the floor, the stone melding with his boots, but instead of fighting back, he had dropped his weapon, reaching out to the mage.

    Time seemed to stop as the entire scene suddenly froze. The entire arena went black, before a screen appeared in front of everyone.

    "...you're doing...that?"

    "You won't come back from it."

    "I have to. I swore I would protect her. They hurt her."

    "But we still have one more fight to do!"

    "...I trust all of you to finish it."

    The lights came up again, and everything was gone. The figures, the suspiciously large stone room, everything. All there was just a white, blank area, with Samael standing in the middle in front of everyone.

    "So! Did you see it? Did you see what happened? It was educational, wasn't it? Shift...ah, but those were simple concepts. Very simple. I chose simple because it'd be easier to get the message across."

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor's no longer constrained by the ice now and she's free to actually engage the Conjuror, that porthole flashing yellow as she steps in, the needle coming around. But now the whole mess is moving away from her and Elle actually has to keep up with the jumble of slush and ice and bodies and she stumbles a moment, pulling up her Fencer memories again-

    And then she's stuck in midswing as the 'lights come up' for the little cutscene, and once that's over with, she crashes to the ground with a slightly undiginified thump of metal and fabric and oof.

    "...Bother."

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    The unexpected end to the fight causes Homura to awkwardly pause mid-swing, and then dismiss the blades to straighten herself back up. Dust herself, wipe the blood off her face. Try to ignore whatever the monk broke when he unloaded on her. Samael provides a good distraction for the pain, really.

    "The... Knight Shifted all the way up to save the Mage?" At least, that's what this makes it look like happened. Seems too simple. "Is that where this Fragment ends? We can't see the result of that?"

Samael (455) has posed:
    "Oh, you will. But...not now. I think that deserves its own little thing. It'll still be in here, though. And I know you were expecting a big thing at the end of this encounter, but there will be! You can come back and experience that later, but, I have something special for you right now." Samael stated, nodding at Homura.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber's dream of using pro-wrestling moves to defeat boss-level encounters will continue to be denied. Some day he will get the satisfaction of suplexing or otherwise powerbombing someone, but tonight will not be that night.

    So instead, as the lights come up, Psyber thinks about what he had just seen. What he had just done. Of course there were only four heroes, and they had played the villains. In the end, as Homura guessed, a sufficiently high shift had been used that there was no coming back from. That Shifting that high had such an effect was public knowledge. Heck, Psyber had bribed that information out of speaks a while ago. But it made him think...

    "How high? Was it 9 or 10?"

    Psyber conjectures on this for a long moment, "They're both right on the cusp or too far gone. But in a group of people like that, it's entirely possible some Romeo and Juliet shit happened. He went to 9 to save her, she went to 10 to bring him back."

    As he asks this, Psyber thinks over what would cause him to Shift that high. A few things come to mind.

Riva Banari has posed:
When the battle suddenly ends, Riva looks shocked at the conversation. Samael elucidates, and explains what they just dealt with. A Shift? "Shift..." Riva says, looking back at Psyber. He did a writeup on them that was very... educational. "What would people do for those they care about, huh?" Riva pauses, thinking. "That's a hell of a commitment."

Kirito has posed:
    Fire and sparks fly by the hundreds as Kirito and the Monk clash. Fists and blades meet a half-dozen times a second. "Faster... MORE SPEED!" Growls the Black Swordsman, blood boiling and thouhts hitting a trance.

    Even if it's a death of a thousand cuts, he'll slice that Monk's hands off and try to overpower him!

    Not needing to breathe really helps in a situation like this. His real body lays somewhere else, breathing just fine... if in the midst of an adrenaline rush.

    His virtual body is completely unbothered by such trivial concerns - it reacts to his every thought... even those at the very edge of what should be humanly possible. Perhaps even beyond!

    Then Fire and Water meet, collide... Kirito disengages with a leap backwards but stays low enough to dash back in at a moment's notice. He can't help but shiver though at the sight of two ready to go at once though.

    Then everything FREEZES! He's left blinking... then rising up to stand straight again and focus.

    Aha. It's over.

    "... " One day he'll figure out just what Samael's trying to DO with them all. ONE DAY.

    "... uweh... did we have to play the villains?" He mutters, sheathing Double Fault and putting away the beam saber. "You guys picked up on it too? Yeah, I figured they were about to get serious."

Samael (455) has posed:
    "Oh, it was up there. How high exactly, I think, I will leave to you to discover for yourself when you see it. But you know all about that already, don't you? I think you need to experience it." The girl said to Psyber, before tilting her head to Riva.

    "It makes sense, right? Tragic, romantic, all the right words. I wanted you to know how much control, and experience what it took, what it would take, for you to go that far. For the stakes to be that high." A grin came to her face as she sat on...seemingly nothing, hovering in mid air.

    "Of course you did! It's something to read about something, it's another thing to be directly involved."

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor's popping her helmet off now, sucking down a breath of 'fresh air'. "It's not something I would suggest myself. There's... well. I'm not sure I have the experience of that sort of relationship so I can't say... what lengths."
    She sighs, lying there on her back as she looks to the rest, and especially Kirito. "We played the villains because not all who carried the Abstractum or noble or righteous. And we're not always going to be 'heroes' either, Kirigaya." A grump as she sits up and looks to Samael. "Maybe you simply derive enjoyment from making us be Awful People."

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    As the likeness of the knight fades out in front of her, Mizuki quickly dematerializes her sword to avoid any complications and... takes a deep breath. Then, as is her custom, she brushes off the skirt of her dress and does her best to regain her prior composure. Always so violent! Normally she doesn't have to work so hard to get through a reading, but at least she came through unscathed. Mostly. She has her friends to thank for that, though. She gives Psyber and Vruasa each grateful, warm nods before pulling Equinox out of her pocket and gingerly tapping their lid with a finger in appreciation.

    Samael's response to Homura garners a small grin from her. Speaking of 'scaffolding', it seems the next chapter in this lesson-story will have to wait a while. She has no qualms with that so long as the promised information does come, eventually. She contemplates a myriad of her own questions, but decides to withold them for the time being. The others seem to have the inquiry process well in hand, and she's yet to develop her own mental glossary of terms that might help her posit her own, so she yields to their input. Still, that won't keep her from wondering why They insist on being so antagonistic when her allies would have no qualms with ending Them. That -is- what they wish for, right? From the cursory glance of an uninitiate, it looks like their tactics of self-destruction have subverted themselves.

    This... has likely all been covered in previous excursions, but she wasn't present for any of that. So now she's doing her utmost to grab at what straws she's able to find.

    She glances to her allies -- Riva, Psyber, Kirito, Eleanor -- as they make their various contributions. Eventually, her arms fold at her back, and she locks eyes with Samael for a brief period. There's no real meaning behind it, but she has a habit of trying to study people's eyes to glean some hint as to their intentions. Some are glossed with a light of hope, others are dimmed by anguish... and still others show nothing at all.

    Which, she wonders, are hers?

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel grimaces as she reappears in the realm of the not-8-bit. She straightens up and adjusts the cloak that is her Abstractum, silent for a long moment. "I don't really like playing the bad guys," she finally says in a quiet tone. Obviously not, but she also looks thoughtful.

In fact, she's looking so thoughtful she's not talking, so if people want to know what's on her mind they'll have to ask her.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber is slowly coming out of Shift One, the runes and markings on his arm and neck fading down and going back into the gauntlet on his arm. He looks to Samael, "I doubt I could experience such an emotional outburst. Not because I am incapable, but because I do not view my life in the same sense that most do. It is a currency, and to make such a trivial would be trivial if the reward outweighed the cost."

    Psyber's definitely changed since the last time Samael was around. He seems more detached and distant in both tone and poise, "It would not be an emotional decision to shift that high. Simply an act of the Greater Good." This is, of course, a lie on some level. But it's a lie Psyber believes, that he could never be that emotional.

    Attacking people close to him made him angry, he'd throw his life down to protect select people around him, but it had always been in his nature to be that way. It was not emotional, in his eyes, so much as duty-driven.

    "But if you wish to see me Shift that high, perhaps some day you shall see it, Samael."

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "What kind of DLC concludes in the middle of a fucking boss battle? This game is awful." Vruasa complains, apparently finding no deeper meaning in any of this. Or at the very least, refusing to show it to anybody here. The truth is that he's not actually willing to go terribly far to -save- someone. It's meaningless for somebody like him to die saving somebody like Fiora. The end result would be worse than if they just both died. Which isn't to say that he wouldn't try, but heroic sacrifices are for those without a pragmatic view of things, and that's just not for him.

    Alas, his thoughts on this subject are flawed.

    The terrible, disproportionate vengeance he would bring in reaction to Fiora's demise would be so colossal that few other triggers could result in a more just death for the God of Time. As it is, his solution to dealing with such things is simply never involve himself in matters too deeply, so as never to allow these circumstances to come about. This plan of action is entirely unconscious, and one that -- so far as he's seen -- is shared by Fiora. They mess around, they don't make themselves major players. Not much, anyway.

    A glance is cast towards Psyber. Strictly speaking, Vruasa isn't the most perceptive person in the world. But man, even he can see that some Shit's gone down. He jerks his head in the half-angel's direction, "That way of talkin' doesn't suit you much. You sound too much like whatshisface. The wizard guy."

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva watches Psyber for a little longer. He began Shifting too. What would it take for him to go that far?

But he did go that far. What will it take for him to do it /again/? And would someone be there to try to bring him back?

She looks back to Samael, and smiles a little. She can't help it, she's so... perky. "Thank you for letting me be a part of this. It was very educational." She says, bowing. Ugh, she can't even stay mad at her now that she sees what Samael is actually like! Then again, her anger was semi-irrational anyway, but oh well. In the meantime, Riva's eyes are the way they always are, bright and curious and full of amusement and mischief.

Samael (455) has posed:
    "Well, you know. Empires do bring things to people. Medicine, education, public order, and a few other things. People do like those, you know. Or did you think that all who got an abstractum were righteous?" Samael gave a little spin, and as Mizuki caught her eyes, it seemed that the girl was filled with nothing but...well, fun. In fact, she seemed to be really excited about something. Something coming soon.

    "So! Since you all worked soooooo hard, I wanted to give you something that you could definitely remember. Or, rather, an opportunity!"

    There was a thing on the floor that wasn't there a second ago. Samael picked it up, and it appeared to be a rather plain sword.

    "You've all never seen me actually bother to touch a weapon or fight directly, have you?" she stated, tossing the thing up into the air. It spun around, and she caught it on the point with the tip of her finger, before tossing it up again and gripping it.

    Her wings suddenly unfurled, but instead of the technological look they normally sported, they looked a lot more...traditional. Feathers.

    "One more experience. I'll show you what they were fighting so hard to reach."

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    When things turn back to the room, Fiora sort of shakes her head, replacing her broom under her to float as a seat, considering.

    When it's pointed out they're the bad guys, she gives a little smile. "Well. It's better to be in the story, right? A catalyst. we experienced it, though. And that's something. It's just a story. Fragments of a memory. We didn't actually..."

    She pauses. "Think of it like a teaser trailer. Or, maybe a cutscene stopped it. Is it really material? We're learning what shift can do. Super high shift. In action."
        Fiora looks to Samael. "An opportunity?"

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Idly, Mizuki would glance in Psyber's direction. As she did with Samael before him, she tries to get a good look at his eyes. People have been bombarding him with inquiries pertaining to his mental health, and while she's not so inclined to do the same, she is... concerned. It seems like a mirror of what happened before -- when he started taking cues from Nathan. Only now the behavior seems even more stubborn.

    ... but what can she do? Tell him to reserve some time for peace? She knows, unfortunately, that he won't listen. So she leaves him be... whilst conjuring some thoughts of how she might bring him around sporadically as she ruminates on the affairs of the Abstractum.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber manages to look to Mizuki and give her a smile. That's turned into a sheepish grin a few moments later and turned on Vruasa, "Heh, sorry. I'm fine, really." He says to the troll, rubbing the back of his head with the gauntlet he's wearing and then turning his attention back towards Samael.

    As his hand reaches into his jacket and pulls out a flask, putting it to his lips a moment later and tilting it back, he adds as he puts it away: "Sure. Show me what they were fighting to reach."

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva nods, listening some more. "That makes a lot of sense. Not all good things from from good actions or good people... And vice versa."

She raises Daemon again when Samael prepares to GET DOWN TO BUSINESS. "Well then, if we're going to get a look at what was in store for them, let's do this thing!" Hey, she's enthusiastic about getting her butt kicked, at least.

Kirito has posed:
    Kirito spins around. Slowly his hand rises up to again grasp double fault.

    He's got a very, VERY bad feeling about this.

    There's only a few reasons she'd know what they were fighting, after all.

    "Hardly. The Abstractum don't seem to care about morality on the whole. Everyone's idea of what being righteous is also differs." He states cleanly, all tense.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Then she follows up with another glance to Samael. In her unusually severe tone, Mizuki replies, "I derive no joy from this. I battle where I must, but if we're to continue our discourse in the context of a story, 'conflict' is filler at best from my aperture. I would request permission to abstain from this fight and instead observe the proceedings so that we might keep a written record of what you're capable of. That seems a far more practical usage of my presence here -- after all, if our number are to avail against you my power will not be what tips the scales. That's more Psyber's domain, or Vruasa's." With that, her wings fade, and she recalls her sword to open a new portal from which she retrieves a large tome and a complementary quill.

    She keeps her sword held in case Samael declines. Otherwise, she flips open to a blank page, putting the pen to paper at the first sight of an offensive gesture.

    At some point before the brawl begins anew, Psyber gets a smile and some words of encouragement in kind: "Godspeed, Psyber. As always."

Samael (455) has posed:
    "Ohoh. You really want to do that? Well, go ahead. Unfortunately, I won't be showing you everything, mostly because...well, overkill's kind of a thing. Oh well. If you guys REALLY want me to take the first swing..." Samael stated to Mizuki, walking straight up to Psyber.

    "Oh, wait, hold on. I just have to make sure this thing won't break...simulations have rules, after all, and I didn't make this super special or anything." she said, pausing for a moment and closing her eyes. "There we go. Now. Don't be all chivalrous or anything! This isn't one of those movies where you wait patiently for your turn to go up against someone."

    Samael swung downwards with the blade. Suddenly, images, concepts filled everyone's head. They were nothing to her. Their only purporse was to submit, and be cut down like so much chaff. It was hopeless, after all, in the face of someone so dominant. Someone who had obliterated armies with a wave of her hand. Someone who turned an entire kingdom into a hole in the ground, where fields and forests were once, simply a massive chunk taken out of the earth. Images of an entire castle, civilians and all, dying instantly as feathers pierced their hearts flittered through everyone's head, as if the memories of that particular cycle flowed into their head. The voices...no, more like the /feeling/ that they should just roll over and die grew ever stronger, and it started all when Samael brought the sword down.

    Outside of everyone's minds, however, the blade would come down. If blocked, Psyber would find himself forced down into the ground from the massive amount of power behind the blow, and the floor would explode, sending bits of pure white...stuff every which way.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    VRUASA TELASH is completely oblivious to nearly everything going on. This is because his mind is so closed to outside interference and messaging that even his Abstractum can't hijack him without deliberately finding a workaround external to his existence. He stares blankly at Samael exercising her not-inconsiderable might against Psyber (and the ground), but at the end of the day he can't perceive what's different from the last time he encountered her power directly. He cocks his head to one side in confusion, looking around towards the others, and then back towards Samael and Psyber.

    "Well, fucking yeah, we knew you could knock us into next week if you wanted to. You DID that to me the first time we got into a brawl, remember?" Much as he has been through this entire thing, Vruasa misses the point almost completely. At least this time it's not entirely his fault. He scratches his head and asks, "I guess the point is that it's way worse when you're using a weapon...?"

    Yep, clueless.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    Like Vruasa, Homura does not intend to just go up against Samael on a whim-- especially when the point and purpose isn't clear. The troll brought it up as well as it'll ever be. The pressure is definitely there-- the feelings, the dread, it's all felt, but it's nothing NEW. They knew Samael was a monstrous force of nature already, so what is she trying to prove? That with a generic sword it's even worse?

    That sounds way too dumb to be it.

    Maybe the point is 'she doesn't NEED a weapon'.
    But that seems too simple too.

    "Your wings. They're different. Why?"
    As good as anything else to ask.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki isn't participating in this fight directly, no, but that does not bar her from experiencing the full menagerie of demoralizing thoughts which Samael forces into all of their minds. In spite of herself, Mizuki quivers. She has to pause a moment before she can begin writing to take a breath that steadies her hand. Her resilience to physical attacks comes at the graver cost of susceptibility to exactly these sorts of mental attacks. Dreams are her domain, after all, which makes her as adept in their handling as it does instigate a sort of profound vulnerability when her fief is encroached upon.

    She sets upon her writing as soon as she's able. 'Debilitating mental influence' are the first words placed upon the page.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor's sitting up now, so at least she isn't metaphorically knocked over by the assault, but she isn't about to be standing up physically any time soon. Unlike Vruasa, the mental assault 'thing' hits her pretty hard, and she bites at her lip to stifle more than a grunt of surprise.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber stares Samael dead in the eyes as she walks up towards him. The usual casual look at his red gaze carries seems duller, less glimmering, detached. The ruby color is instead a dulled down blood red. He watches her and then tilts his head.

    A million images fill his head all at once. So many of them, all about this person who obliterates armies. Who brings Kingdoms to heels. Who... destroys lands wholecloth. It was oppressive and subjugating, beating down into him. But then... a flash of memory. A man who had the same claims comes to his mind. A man Psyber had given every piece of himself to defeat once before. He uses this memory as leverage, wedging it in to pry clarity out of the images that overflow in his mind. A single phrase rings out:

    'It would not be the first time that a curse was turned into a blessing by its bearer. It certainly will not be the last. I wouldn't have suggested it to a man who hadn't already reached some measure of peace... but I imagine you'll be fine.'

    Followed by a second, in the same voice: 'This boy is beyond this curse's ability to scourge with his mistakes. But keep trying. You are on to something.'

    The plan that forms in the time that sword comes down is a TOTAL Wild Card. He has NEVER used this ability offensively before, he only has the faintest inkling it HAS any offensive protential, and he's digging deep for the Hail Mary of Desperation plays by even trying it.

    So as her sword comes down, his right hand (wearing Adjudicator as a gauntlet) comes up. White blazed in with the red hue the Abstractum always had as Psyber attempts to catch the sword in the metal gauntlet, bracing himself and for good reason. As soon as he absorbs the blow, everything under him crumples and dents down, cratering and exploding the ground as Psyber is forced down into it from the overwhelming force.

    But against that blade and even as he's driven down, Psyber shifts his hand. Where once his fingers were around the sword, instead the back of his knuckles are bracing it, "NOW JUDE. EVERYTHING WE'VE GOT."

    Psyber, attempting to synergize a wildly unexplored and unpredictable power with his Abstractum, swings a desperation counter-haymaker towards the solar plexus of Samael. With every last thing he can muster in his personal strength, Abstractum powers, and unpredictable abilities.

Samael (455) has posed:
    "Oh, you see...back then, I was a little different. I can grow too, you see. I was a lot more kind of... freeer with the explosions and everything! Now a little past that since it got kind of boring after the...well, after a lot of times. And it just got so dull, because it was all the same. So in the present day, I just don't bother to fight directly anymore. It makes things more interesting, since it's much easier for people to have a chance against me. I can control eeeverrything a bit better." Samael replied, nodding.

Kirito has posed:
    The mentality shift is so abrupt and total that Kirito's gaze goes glassy for about half of the sword swing. Not only that... but he staggers, about ready to clutch ihis gut!

    Never before has he been psychically assaulted... but he has known despair, hopelessness, and a hollow desire for everything to end so it stopped hurting.

    Then the EXPLOSION OF DEBRIS knocks him straight out of a brain-crushing stupor into a reality-crushing stupor. Captivated and awed by the casual devastation and power at work, he's left wide-eyed and stupefied like a little boy witnessing a bomb going off.

    No WAY. Is she pulling things with the simulation chamber?! Maybe somewhat, maybe not...

    One thing's for sure.

    He can't imagine any scenario where he'd defeat her alone. That's chilling, disheartening, and aggravating ALL AT ONCE.

    Double Fault's wrenched free of its scabbard, twirled several times and rested squarely across Kirito's shoulders, the youg man inhaling deeply with a hand extended. "Are we just toys to you?!" Instead of angry or indignant, his tone is instead SCORNFUL, as if he expected -BETTER- out of Samael.

    WHOOOOOOOOOOSH!!

    Moving quick as the wind he crosses the whole distance to Samael in a single lightning-fast step, trying to land a mighty blow into her shoulder!

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Catching the sword blows off a large portion of Adjudicator's form, exposing Psyber's hand and prompting blaring emergency noises, not to mention likely leaving him with some severe wounding. But he specifically calls for his Abstractum's help. And so it does. The red light rushes up Psyber's arm again, over his body, inscribing line after line of scripture all the way up to his cheek. The massive, stone-like halo forms, hovering at his back. In ethereal light, seven balancing scales light up, aligned in space parallel from Psyber's wrist to his elbow. And as he strikes, they all come to precise balance all at once, firing off seven strike drivers like a pile-driver going off in a huge red bursting impact.

    The ensuing shockwave will, at least, be quite similar to Samael's own. It will also dispell the Shift 2 halo in a titanic blast.

Samael (455) has posed:
    As the blade was caught, Samael tilted her head in curiosity. The punch came up, and...even with all the strike drivers firing, Samael had caught the blow. The feeling of how weak Psyber's attack was, how powerful Samael was, how completely she controlled and dominated the entire fight filled his mind as she grasped a little tighter on his hand. She shook her head as she started to speak again."I see what you're trying to do. Ah, this is so similar to stuff in the past...but. How can you do that to someone who's simply being true to herself? I think I'll respond to that with the same thing I said ages ago." she leaned down, only to whisper something in his ear. "##." What came out was, at one point, 'No,' but along with that was what felt like earsplitting burst of static, something that conceptually forced the concept of refusal into everyone's brains.

Kirito, on the other hand, was met with an extended blade, and Psyber would find his fist released. Samael had grabbed Kirito with a smile, and she tilted her head, meeting Kirito's eyes. Thoughts of just how unmatched he was flooded into his head. He would be lucky if she let him walk away, after all, what could he do against her? He should beg for his life, since he didn't even deserve that much for having the gall to stand up to someone so powerful. So dominant.

With that, however, Samael simply placed Kirito down back on his feet, and gave him a pat on the head.

    "Well, I think that's that! Make sure you write eeeverything down, and maybe you should ask Psyber and Kirito about what they went through." she offhandedly said to Mizuki, and to Homura...

    "Oh, Yui says hi. She's been getting along fairly well, I think. Anyway. Just activate the fragment when you want to see what happened. Bye bye!"

    And with that, everyone was left sitting in the fragment visualization room.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Adjudicator has pieces broken off of it, the back of Psyber's hand is cut straight to the bone and torrenting blood to the ground like a waterfall as the blade severs some major vein, and his attack... the attack he had put EVERYTHING into was simply caught.

    He stares her heart in the eyes as she says her phrase to him, "Because Adjudicator once told me: People like you. People like Him. You eventually run out of corpses to pile and scale. You can only force sacrifice on the world for so long, while I sacrifice nothing but myself. While I like you, I really do, my challenge to you will not cease for so long as I have anything left to gi-"

    The word she whispered in his ear BUCKLES him to the ground, especially when she released him. He collapses to his knees in the little crater she drove him into, one hand in the 'dirt', one hand bleeding through the remains of his gauntlet. Injuries, as well as conceptual words icepicked into his brain, keep him from standing up for a while.

    Eventually, though, he does. The arm wearing Adjudicator sort of dangles at his side limply as he murmurs, "I'm going home."

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki locks her eyes with Samael's for a final time as the cover of her book shuts. Her eyes narrow faintly, though the reason -- annoyance? contempt? curiosity? -- is uncertain to all but the most astute of eyes. She gives no verbal reply before the envoy departs, turning instead to Psyber. She gives him a small, sympathetic nod before opening a portal home. She offers him a chance to retreat to the cruise before heading home just in case, though she assumes that he will decline. In either case she heads on through after making the offer, keeping the portal open for a few extra moments just in case he decides to do so.

    Honestly? She's kinda tired, too. Kinda exhausted.

Kirito has posed:
    Going from WHOAH to nothing in a single instant leaves Kirito jarred, rattled, almost choking. His AmuSphere even threatens to cut him off - as his heart rate starts climbing with eyes locked against Samael's!

    In only his vision, a heart rate monitor starts climbing rapidly and giving huge warnings!

    Wide, terrified eyes clench shut from all the effort he's expending to reject those gut sensations. All he manages to do though, is get his arm budging a little. He lacks the strength.

    So he's dropped, emascualted again.. and ends up leaning on Double Fault, panting and gasping rather uncharacteristically...

    This has NOT been a good day.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva never had a chance.

The purity of concept that slams into them defies definition. Is it domination? Subjugation? Hopelessness? Despair? She can't even grasp the form of Samael's attack as she simply crumples before the wash of mental influence.

By the time the battle is over, Riva is still staring forward, tears running down her face without pause as she wrestles with the horrifying emotions and throughts railing through her mind.

When Samael vanishes, Riva shakes her head, crushing her eyes shut and suddenly wiping her streaming face. "Th... That..." She chokes for a moment, trying to search for words.