5520/Joint Training

Joint Training
Date of Scene:	18 October 2017
Location:	The Shrine of Adversity
Synopsis:	A fight breaks out to test the newly opened Shrine of Adversity
Cast of Characters:	Priscilla, Kushiko, Reina Kinney, 632, The Kid, Haguro, Staren, Crys Gattz, 1129, Tanya Degurechaff

---

Priscilla has posed:
    The Shrine of Adversity certainly seems to be everything it was advertised to be. Already, the mini-island is bustling with activity, docks, transport tubes, and plazas overflowing with spectators, tourists, inspectors, and of course, actual competitors and training groups. Professional fighters are here for sparring, military units are here for live drills, extreme sports junkies are here to see what stupid stunts they can dream up and practice, and even some technical groups are here to assess its usefulness for training in things like bomb disposal and demon binding. The visitors' areas, rec centers, and shops, couldn't be more metropolitan if they tried. It'd be hard to argue that, true to the complex's name, conflict isn't a universal constant that binds most worlds together.

    The main simulation dome is obviously the place to be, though, and the Concord obviously have a solid reservation, with plenty of time on the clock and juice in the system, since they're paying for this one. Stepping through, there are points for various check-ins, changing rooms, secure storage, and other things to prep for a session. Going through the main doors, the simulation floor is in its completely blank preset, which immediately impresses just how huge it is. Made to accommodate as many exercises as possible, the circular area must be easily a kilometer across, with its perfectly flat, white surfaces illuminated from beneath, and the swirling onyx and cobalt dome ceiling overhead. The fact that the codenamed 'Ego Orb' can exert its influence over such a huge area is something impressive.

    It seems like there was a mixed scenario in mind, though. Priscilla had tried to pre-plan a little bit of everything, and when she gives the signal, the whole thing springs to life. The startup is much less dramatic than TRON-lines and swirling lights. The scene transitions almost as quick as blinking to a wide open area that appears to be outdoors. Quite convincingly, too. The sun, the open sky, the faint breeze and perfectly clear weather conditions, are all extremely convincing, to say the least.

    For lack of a tailored scenario, the surroundings are pretty simple, largely being grassy terrain higher up, and dry, flat lowlands sprinkled with rock formations. Generic white architecture fills several spaces, from various standalone walls (some chest high), arches, and pillars that are obviously meant to be used for shootouts, to elaborate staircases and towers meant to be climbed or scaled, to simple targets mounted atop pillars, to what looks like a fortified city block in the distance, and even some mixes of them, like compact mazes filled with cover and obstructions, and a perfectly flat, tiled ring, for traditional martial arts square-offs.

    The same white panels can be used to traverse the area, simply by standing on them, where they generate projected control panels that allow them to float around with extreme precision and high speed, to gain various lines of sight or to move from area to area quickly. There are many points that are very obviously set up to include targets, from the more basic firing range variety, to surprise ones in the maze, to live fire fields, to solo ones on flat arenas, but all of them are simply little balls of pulsing light at the moment, awaiting a configuration.

    It really just screams: knock yourselves out.

Kushiko has posed:
Given she was one of the individuals part of that expedition that brought back that... /thing/, that ended up making this place possible, well she just had to utilize it. Ironically (depending on how one views the Tenno) she had visited prior to take advantage of one of the areas useful for meditation--the kind one does before this sortof thing from one of the 'rec' areas.

So finished with such a notion, she had arrived fairly early to the time slot, the Tenno's frame of choice in this instance being Nova; least the Primed variant. Shimmering funnels of energy radiated gently from behind her head and the back of the technorganic suit, which... actually looked kind of 'cute' depending on one's personal sense of aesthetic.

Just never you mind the absolutely enormous, person-sized sword that was attached at a point behind her, ornate twinbarreled shotgun and similarly elegant sidearm.

That said, upon her arrival she was basically just evaluating the scenario laid out. The target fields, the mobility courses, the places for a traditional duel--all of which got a quiet and silent nod of approval from time to time as she contemplated really pushing one of the 'solo' fields with the raw destructive power. Just to give the thing powering this place a workout.

... naaaah.

Reina Kinney has posed:
A good member of GUARDIANS never stops training. No matter how high ranked they may be, they must always keep their skills sharp and their knowledge high. Even though she's not a member of the Concord, Reina still shows up here since it was open to those who were interested. Those who know her will recognize her immediately while those who don't know her will notice her immediately for the same reason.

Her hair.

Her bright, fiery red hair is always noticeable, and is always tied into a large ponytail. In fact, one might think she used an actual pony's tail for her hair because of how large it is. Just don't go asking her if she dyes, as that will REALLY have her seeing red!

Upon her arrival, Reina takes a good long look at the way things are set up, and she nods a little as she surveys it all. "Looks rather interesting, I have to say," She comments sincerely, not showing any signs of sarcasm right now. "This should serve as a real test of how elite I truly am."

A pause then a frown as she adds, "If Laia finds out about this, though, I dread to imagine what kind of new tests she'll put me through. Sure they're simulated but they're rough!" She runs a hand through her ponytail before shrugging. "No time like the present." She jumps around to get her blood flowing and does some light stretching.

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     Among the highest spires of white stone, a purple-cloaked figure darts between targets in midair, leaping from wall to wall and twisting in acrobatic gyres to clip the unshaped orbs of light with the edges of her curved arm-mounted blades. Each stroke is followed by a satisfying "pling" and a bit of kinetic feedback as the orbs change colors, turning translucent to indicate their 'tagged' status.

     Leap, swipe, pling. Leap, swipe, pling, pling. Septette tags the last orb just as she runs out of towers to leap from, plummeting hundreds of feet through the air to land on her feet in a huge plume of dirt. As the dust clears, she throws back her head and laughs giddily, standing waist-deep in a shallow 'crater' in the soft dirt.

     "This is FANTASTIC," the little robot calls out to nobody in particular. "It's so hard to find buildings that'll-" Abruptly, she catches herself, clearing her throat and shaking her head briskly, seeming to only now notice that there are other people nearby who just might've gotten lightly misted with dirt. Members of the Concord, no less- her gracious hosts! "Apologies. I understand that this facility was quite a labor to procure, though I don't know the details. I appreciate the invitation."

     She makes a polite movement not unlike a curtsy in the general direction of Kushiko and Priscilla, shallowly and a little awkwardly, and clutches her shawl tightly around her shoulders. It doesn't seem like a motion she's very used to making.

The Kid has posed:
    The Kid arrives, and lets out a low whistle as the simulation comes to life. "Damn sight fancier than the private place we had," he says as he strides along the grass and takes in the area. Based on what he's carrying, it's clear what he wants to practice today. A massive mortar cannon, and a bag loaded with ammunition for it hangs from his form.

    He looks about, spotting the tiny buildings, before cracking a small grin. "Long ranged demolition race," he calls out as he plants his mortar. "Pick a buildin', bombard it, first one to bring theirs down wins. Who's in?"

Haguro has posed:
Haguro might not have made much use of training facilities in the past, but her renewed vigor for training along with her involvement in the Shrine of Adversity's creation means the shipgirl can't NOT show up today. It'd look bad!

     "This is much more impressive than I expected... This was all from what we found?" Haguro's in awe at the sight, and her gaze focuses less on the buildings and more on the waist-high cover. "... Hmm. That could be a good place to practice..."

Staren has posed:
    Staren beams down in his old WMAT uniform -- compared to his usual outfit, the pants are black and the coat, pants, and boots are military style instead of his usual 'lab casual'.

    He arrives at the Concord's field more to watch and to continue studying the computer system than with any plan in mind for something to do himself. He doesn't seem super wowed by the simulation, but then, he already read up on what it could do, so why would he be surprised now? Only those who've seen what he could do with the Ring of Philosophy could guess what he's working on.

    Those here get a nod of greeting, and when he hears Septette he stops working and turns to her with a smile. "Septette! Always good to see you!"

    At the Kid's proposal, he turns and looks at him. "You'll have to set more rules than THAT. Like what weapons are you allowed to use? This is a simulation where we can make anything we want, after all." He's not especially interested in playing 'blow up the building', but he can't help but point out what is, to him, an obvious oversight.

The Kid has posed:
    Kid looks to Staren and offers a mighty big shrug. "Not really interested in makin' a whole game of it. I jus' need practice wit' this thing." He pats the Galleon Mortar hanging from him. "So I guess 'whatever you like?'"

Crys Gattz has posed:
This new set up had Cry's intrest to be sure but the long like multiverasl Elite had trended to mostly unremakable tasks since she joined the Concord. Or we should say when the League was consumed by them. It's not been so bad and the Paladins reminded her too much of WORKS and what happened with the Black Paper. She arrived a bit after Staren and she moves up behind him.

"Long range demo race huh? I'm not CAST though i'll damn well put money on Staren though."

She grins a little bit looking to Kid while she thinks of just what she wants to do, she's doesn't seemingly carrying any weapons but she does have that odd looking glove and brace on her arm.

Staren has posed:
    Staren smiles. "I /COULD/ just res in a missile or something, but I'm mostly here to just watch and study. I just felt I had to point out the obvious loophole in your proposed contest."

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     Septette startles visibly, then glances over at Staren as she pinpoints the source of his voice. Come on- she can't really be that oblivious, can she? She responds with a grin and a nod, leaning over to glance at what he's working on as a polite expression of interest. Doesn't seem like she makes head or tails of it, though! "Hey, Staren! I'm liking the outfit. Seems a bit more practical than that labcoat you normally wear, though maybe I'm not one to judge."

     She stares at the Kid's setup, chewing her lower lip for a moment before breaking into a mischievous smile. "Hey, I'd be happy to play a little game with you. I don't have much by way of long-range artillery, but I can run down to those buildings and play a bit of catch-and-return, if you're down for tennis. But if mutual shelling doesn't sound like your idea of a good time..." She trails off, rubbing the back of her neck, and shrugs. Doesn't seem like she expects him to seriously entertain the offer.

     On closer inspection, the left side of her face is blackened around the orbit of her artificial eye, like it's been lightly dusted with soot. A souvenir of earlier training, maybe? Or did she take that into the Shrine from outside?

Kushiko has posed:
Situations like this make it far, far easier to take proper stock of people and individuals; upon a second look, she realizes one could make a case for her cybernetic 'style' to be not unlike the Grineer, but only in terms of the limbs being thinner. Everywhere else, well, that's /far/ more aesthetically pleasing.

She does incline her head, the control surfaces on her head flexing slightly like a pair of antenna in polite greeting. As others begin to arrive, she ends up waving a little bit, like to Haguro; one could imagine by her body language she'd be smiling if she had a mouth to display otherwise. The Kid's suggestion gets a perky little response, <"We were thinking of experimenting a little ourselves. It's a little rare that our brand of destructive capability gets to truly be let loose."> Most people are terribly afraid of antimatter, even with her absolute (and possibly frightening conceptually) control of it.

Yes, that means those funnels of light /are/ related to antimatter. Funny, that.

Nonetheless, she pats her shotgun lightly, contemplating what they could do. <"Probably should just keep it simple, honestly.">

Staren has posed:
    Most of the work is in Staren's head, what with having cyberware and a wireless connection and all. When Septette comes to look at what he's working on, he explains to her, quietly, while pulling up a display of what looks like his robot form holding an alien-looking staff. "It's a training avatar for showing people what they might be up against in the Multiverse. It's a magic robot... kinda like you! Though more in the sense of a robot mage than a robot that operates on magic... Hmm, maybe I should add that golem mode trick though..."

    At the discussion of demolition, he rezzes a missile launcher in the air in front of Septette, assuming she'll catch it. It must weigh like 35 lbs, nothing for her but possibly difficult for anyone else to carry. "If you want to see if you can melt a building before he can blow one up, go nuts."

    Now that he's paying attention to Septette, he furrows his brow. "What happened to your eye?"

Haguro has posed:
"We could make quite a bit in here, huh? And we wouldn't have to worry about the targets suffering real wounds..." Haguro murmurs, half to herself and half in response to Staren as she glances towards the revolver at her side. "And even seeing how they react... I'd like to see how complex it can all become."

     Noticing the Kid's mortar, the shipgirl giggles briefly before turning to Kushiko and Septette. "Trying something different isn't a bad idea. I was thinking of getting in some marksmanship training myself. I can't always afford to use shells to bombard things, so training with more... Er... Focused fire is a good change of pace."

The Kid has posed:
    "Yeah, I'm sure you would know a lot about games, smarty-pants," Kid says to Staren with a slight sneer on his face. When Septette makes her offer, it takes him a moment to catch on to what she's suggestion. "What, you try and hit my shells back?" He seems a bit dumbfounded, but then his face lights up. "Sounds good ta' me."

    But now people are actually interested in a bombardment race, so he thinks for a moment. "Hey," he says to Septette. "Think you could handle a shellin' from lots of people?"

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     "It's a good trick," Septette replies as she peers at the display, "but to get the most out of it, you need to have a way to ensure that the golem 'health bar' isn't taking damage at the same time as its mechanical functions are failing. It's harder than it looks, though I'm sure you could figure out a way." She catches the rocket launcher in one hand, though she seems a little confused about its use: her handling of it is clearly impracticed and improper, not to mention the fact that her fingers only fit the grip clumsily.

     "My eye's fine," she replies, waving off his concerns. "I just haven't quite smoothed over all the little glitches after sparring the Flotilla. They helped out a lot, but it left me in bad shape- wish we'd had a place like this to do it in." Then her face lights up at the Kid's suggestion, and she nods briskly towards the unfamiliar man. "Of course I can handle it! It's just a question of 'how long', isn't it?"

     She takes off towards the buildings in the distance, covering the ground remarkably quickly- highway speeds, at least- before leaping up onto the roof of one of the blocky white structures and waving enthusiastically back towards the Concord elites. "Ready when you are," she radios back, and hoists the rocket launcher onto her shoulder.

Miari (1129) has posed:
"Simply amazing. Far surpasses the utility AND scale of a Vault of Woven Dreams." Whatever the heck THAT is, if it's anything like this place, and comes from Creation, perhaps it's best left unexplained.

    But Miari's eyes are all but popping out of their sockets.

    Knowing the scholar, she's probably had eyes on this place for some time in one form or another. A bound demon's, or her own, or... some other strange method. But now she is here in the flesh and her amazement is plain as day.

    "I DO have a very good test for how well this field can hold up in mind... but I just need a target. A small town should do." The Exalt sweetly declares in a tone that might or might not be so serious.

Kushiko has posed:
<"... mmn. We're going to have to modify ours for a moment."> As to why Kushiko would have to do that, she gestures with a hand, a control rod on her arm shifting out, twisting, then slotting back into the forearm in a blink of an eye. A pulsating *worb* sound is heard, and what is maybe a volley ball sized silver orb of solid matter.

Should Staren, or anyone else near have the techy wherewithall or even mystic senses, it's... /weird/. It's antimatter but made into some bizarrely stable format. The properties are evident as it floats slowly in front of her. Then she makes a second orb, after judging it. With a shotgun blast, the first orb goes inversely dark, with pinkish light flickering and chaotically swirling. Yet it's shape is criminally perfect.

With the same done to the second, she simply flicks her wrist, snapping the Tigris she's using open, then reloading both barrels. Away from Septette's position she guides the orbs, which begin to accelerate, and accelerate a little bit more. An interaction with one of the nearby systems to ensure it's going to be a properly destructible building yet strong enough to endure something obscene.

Because not long after, she gestures again, bringing the two orbs into the building.

An implosive wave of light, bizarre smoke and light like a fire but not as a buffering, near invisible shockwave radiates from both points. The building doesn't so much fall down as it is annhilated by the twin orbs of antimatter explosiveness. Put plainly: mass, energy and the use of antimatter is fun for the whole family.

Never you mind the way it sortof simply... eats away at it, reducing it to complete nothingness, only faint, lilac-colored motes of light in its wake before they too vanish.

Yet despite this little demonstration... there's the sense she's actually holding back; she is. She can keep this stuff from hurting anyone else she desires too after all, even at point blank range.

Priscilla has posed:
    As previously indicated, Priscilla is actually here for this one. There's no way she wouldn't examine the fruits of her Partners' efforts for her own. Besides, there is actually one thing she wants to test. Something she was a little coy about when Staren asked about her eyes being back to their symmetrical norm.

    When Priscilla steps out to the field, she takes her place on the grass, above a steep cliff into a generic, budget-saving, anime fight dust bowl, and hefts a rather large, cloth-wrapped item. "If thou shalt alloweth mineself a minute to acclimate, perhaps I shalt taketh thee up on such an offer, though shot for shot may be best." She says to the Kid, of all people.

    Yanking the cloth off, she reveals what she had worked on in private. To a couple, it'll be recognizable in style of one of Lordran's most iconic weapon classes, though to others, it can only be described as an utterly massive bow of asymmetrical limb lengths, taller than Priscilla is, and possessed of a huge, flanged spike at the lower tip. The string appears to be tightly wound threads of solid metal, with a heavy nocking point. Most outstandingly, the entire bow portion appears to be been carved or sculpted out of solid obsidian, though with a grain precisely like organic bone. Black, hard, and glassy, there's no way it could have any flex whatsoever, and the entire thing is painstakingly etched with multiple square meters of iconography and Lordran rune script. The flat, broad, flared part directly above the rest has a bright orange gem embedded in a cruciform socket, already glowing brightly.

    Priscilla takes after Staren and summons her chosen ammo. A dozen Dragonslayer Great Arrows fizzle next to her, jammed point down in the earth for easy access. The standard design is a solid iron lance as long as the archer's combined arm length and shoulder breadth, with a thick, triangular, and incredibly heavy midsection, with sharp flutes that taper down to a spearhead point. At Priscilla's size, this effectively means they're taller than anyone else here, and an order of magnitude heavier than anyone but Septette.

Reina Kinney has posed:
Meanwhile, Reina has snapped her fingers, and in her hands materializes her rifle. Of course she also has numerous TECHNICs at her disposal as well, but she'd like to keep those separate for the time being. She instead prefers to stick with her rifle, as it's her favorite weapon. After that, she takes off towards the others as well, not caring about the fact she's not a member of the Concord. It's an open training thing, so Reina is taking advantage of it.

Reina makes her way towards one of the other buildings and leaps up onto the roof of it quickly. She sweeps the area with her rifle and says, "All right, ready when everyone else is!" She grins.

The Kid has posed:
    Kid smirks as Septette heads down to serve as the target. "Right. First one to land a clean hit on her wins! Splash damage don't count." He also nods to Priscilla. "You heard the First. One shot at a time!"

    He loads a shell into his Mortar befre gripping it, slowly adjusting its angle. One he has it lined up with the Yggdroid, he grips the firing cord and gives it a hard yank. With a solid BOOM, the shell launches, arcing through the air before coming down.

    It doesn't even come close to her. He wasn't kidding when he said he needed practice.

Staren has posed:
    Staren smiles a bit as Septette takes off all jolly. Her enthusiasm is infectious.

    At Miari's question, he glances between her and Priscilla. "Did we /try/ simulating nukes yet?" He doesn't sound over-eager, just curious. His interest in nukes is as a solution to problems, not just to watch big booms.

    He quirks an eyebrow at Priscilla's weapon. He's seldom seen her use ranged weapons... but then, the nature of the contest kind of requires one, doesn't it?

    It seems the contest is starting in earnest and everyone's jumping in. Well... Staren shrugs, and then is suddenly clad in his robot armor and carrying a staff. On a sudden whim, he changes colors, going from all-red to mostly black, with some red around the waist and on the upper arms and legs. He flies up into the air, waiting for his turn.

Crys Gattz has posed:
Crys Gattz looks to Miari as she arrives for a moment, the one eyed woman could be mistaken for an elf with those ears of her sshe looks to Miari for a moment.

"I didn't think anyone would be replicate what the Union Training rooms used to be able to do, but it looks like enough Meseta and balls to go into those Falz pits? Well look here we are."

She seems pretty chill for a moment she look to her for a moment tiling her head at her.

"...You remind me of a mage I knew long time ago. Tell me do you destroy buffets as well?"

She seems to be in good spirits for the most part and not ashamed of much for the most part.

"So Miari right? Where you from the name's Crys Gattz last active member of the Crimson Flames in the multiverse, my team has more or less cashed out and retired to affairs back home if your wondering."

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     Well, one-against-many isn't fair at all... Septette holds her free hand in the air, making strange gestures with her fingers. A half-dozen softball-sized colorful drones, in blue, yellow, and red, materialize in the air on either side of her. Each one projects a hexagonal 'plate' of energy, providing both sensor coverage and elemental defenses. Don't hit the ones corresponding to your 'element', most likely: seems simple enough, especially since many of the people here don't use elemental attacks at all!

     Her reaction to Kushiko's impressive detonation is a little hard to make out at this distance, save for the fact that she turns around to look at the display of destructive power and shades her eyes. When one of the pieces of rubble nearly falls on her, she steps forward and cuts it in half with a limb-mounted blade: a hint of what the contestants have to look forward to!

     As the Kid fires his mortar, Septette takes aim with the rifle slung over her shoulder- she knows its trajectory won't put it anywhere near her, but it's still good practice! And... click. She's forgotten to disable the safety. Cursing the seemingly malfunctioning weapon, she throws it as hard as she can in a calculated parabola, striking the shell midair and erupting in an air-burst detonation.

Miari (1129) has posed:
"Did we try WHAT?" Miari glances over her shoulder back at Staren, blinking in clear incomprehension at the term. Though her attention skews over towards Kushiko demonstrating one heck of a fine demolition method...

    "... That?" Nope. She really has no idea what that is either, but her interest is piqued to say the least!

    It's Crys coming up and addressing her so personally that really jars her out of her thoughts though. The girl jitters in her skin and focuses hard on Crys' figure, eyes moving up and down and...

    ... settling on the pointed ears with a noticeably sharper breath than normal. Something about pointed ears that's an alarm bell for her, maybe...?

    Though if so, she hardly shows it apart from that. "Destroying a buffet... what's a buffet? Yes though, Miari! A scholar and sorceress."

    The young woman peers more closely, even leaning in slightly... and her eyes narrow.

    "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"

Priscilla has posed:
    "I believeth not, Sir Staren, though there hast barely been opportunity to do so with how new the facility is. I believeth likewise that it shouldst be possible, but would advise thee to do so with all others well clear." The Union had pretty much universally blackballed Staren's nuclear suggestions without question. Admittedly, Priscilla isn't hugely keen on them, but without Union bureaucracy in the way, she can certainly imagine a few scenarios where she may actually need to know how thoroughly the cat-scientist could reduce something to cinders.

    She looks . . . mildly consternated about Septette volunteering to be a target, and then the Kid actually challenging her to hit her first. That seems kind of mean-spirited. Still, the little yggdroid is enthusiastic about it, and Priscilla really needs the practice, so . . .

    A great arrow slides from the earth with a loud rasp, and then clanks into its rest, held between Priscilla's fingers as if the truck-length piece of steel were actually somehow balanced enough to be supported from one end, and then she slams the bottom spike deep into the rock to keep it anchored. It really goes to show just /how many/ goddamn souls Priscilla has soaked up over her years of Multiversal murder, because the fact she pulls it at all seems somehow kind of silly. Oddly, the obsidian /does/ have flex to it, much like a composite bow made of bone or horn, though the metal cable whispers plaintively first.

    Her stance is obviously a little amateurish. Her experience with bows is next to none, despite her exposure to them (and some long hours watching Gough especially). Her manual precision, however, is not, and the point of the arrow tracks with the smoothness of a naval turret. She makes her best estimate, and then the orange stone set into the bow flares with familiar, scorching light. A broad section of a chosen building down range corresponds with its own fiery glow, as if a wide spotlight were being projected on it, giving something like a laser sight effect to aiming it. She doesn't crank it up any further though. The idea is to hit Septette, not hurt her.

    Priscilla releases. She barely aims up at all. The colossal steel 'arrow' flies with tremendous speed, attaining a flat and shallow trajectory that zooms across the intervening distance, pretty much looking like the type of KEP usually fired from tanks, except way, way bigger. This is what the Knights of Gwyn used to take down dragons, after all; with her own twist on it. Being her first ever shot, her aim isn't fantastic, but it should be close enough to be dangerous, especially with shrapnel and physical shock considered.

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     High mass, very high speed. Allowing that kind of arrow to hit the building would likely be catastrophic, even if only from the explosion of shrapnel and loss of room to maneuver! Septette's eyes narrow and brighten to pinpricks of purple light that are visible even in broad daylight. There's less than a second from the twang of the bowstring to impact... and for one who sees the world as she does, that is time enough.

     She runs to the edge of the building and leaps off it, towards the arrow. For a split instant, it looks as if she's going to try to land on its shaft and leap off. But as her feet skim the arrow's shaft, she grasps it in tightly in her talons and twists in the air, firing a stream of magical fire to adjust her momentum. Wooden splinters erupt from the shaft as Septette's legs visibly stretch, subjected to the strain of abruptly equalizing her forward momentum with the arrow's inertia. As it turns out, her weight is comparable to the enormous wood-and-metal KEP, even if her speed is noticeably less!

     But rather than completely cancelling their momentum and simply falling to the ground, Septette launches a fireball from her hands at an odd angle, using a magical attack as an improvised thruster to adjust herself and the arrow in the air. With clever manipulation of momentum, she spins the enormous arrow around, trading its velocity for her own in a bewildering aerial dance!

     She's flung back in the direction she came from, skidding across the roof of a white building and digging deep furrows into the stone roof with her talons. Her legs spark and crackle as they recover from the mechanical strain. The arrow, imprecisely redirected, explodes into the face of a hill perhaps a hundred feet wide of Priscilla.

     Quite the inventive defense, all considered. But surely she can't keep that up...

The Kid has posed:
    The Kid scowls as Septette prematurely detonates his shot. He knew already it was going to be a miss, but not getting to see the precise point of impact makes readjusting his aim harder. But he does his best, making minute adjustments to the stand and the barrel, while he watches Priscilla fire her bow. He's never handled one that relatively big. Even for his size, his Breaker's Bow is a little shorter, but even he can tell her stance is clumsy.

    Althoug, Septette certainly treats the shot like a threat. The Kid's eyes bug out at her wildly elaborate method of dealing with it, ducking low as it flies back at them!

    "Heh... right, how's this?" He jams in another shell, adjusts his aim, and fires again!

                   ~In the distance, the rattling of chains~                    

    The shell, no matter what becomes of it, absolutely does not explode.

Crys Gattz has posed:
Crys Gattz says "A Buffet it's style of restaurant where you pay a fee and get assess to a wide assortment of foods general you either get a number of plates worth of food or until you can no longer or want to eat. Good way to try out new things."

She's about to say more than Miari drops a bomb on her.

"I'm a hunter, generally hunt hostile and dangerous Xeno Flora and Fauna. Some times I deal in other things as for ... that. Wait, how did you...?"

Her one eye looks at Miari for a moment before she adds.

"Such is the price to have a tomorrow for my world."

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     Despite her penchant for theatricality, Septette has enough good sense to not try and personally deflect something that might have a proximity fuse. She estimates the trajectory of the mortar bomb- considerably closer, this time!- and points two fingers at it, conjuring up a red magical circle in front of her hand. A bolt of fire erupts from the circle, scouring the bomb to try and detonate it early... and eliciting no reaction whatsoever.

     As a panicked second line of defense, three red drones try to interpose themselves between the mortar and Septette, and the bomb physically clips one of them, destroying it in the proces. Bracing herself for the worst, she rolls away from the point of impact and conjures up a thin wall of ice to muffle the blast wave...

     And it never comes. For a second, she suspects a trap. Soon, however, the drones' sensors confirm it: the bomb is nonfunctional. Weird. She straightens up and readies herself for the next attack, now with a hole in her drones' elemental screen!

Kushiko has posed:
Demonstrations aside, Kushiko turns her attention back to what's going on here. Or rather, she would, then realizes perhaps some of what she has isn't /quite/ as good for it as it could be.

All that being said, however, she does enjoy the show Septette herself is putting on. Any critiques; or places for improvement, she stows for now. Everyone has their own style, when it gets right down to it, and the ways both the Kid and Priscilla alike utilize their weapons is something the Tenno quietly, yet eagerly (in her own way) enjoys.

So in lieu of launching something terrifying at Septette herself, she simply lifts off the ground, bringing her legs up and sitting--floating--in a meditative posture. Totally watching, even if doesn't seem like she is.

Staren has posed:
    Staren, edgy black 'n' red OC edition, hovers in the air, watching the others play and Septette's results.

    They didn't set any rules, but rather than just summoning a giant missile, why not test out this construct's functionality? He actually does have a quick radio exchange with Septette to make sure she's cool with something other than a projectile.

    At a last-moment whim of artistic inspiration, he modifies the avatar's left arm into a brass-colored gauntlet, segmented with five armored wires running up from the base of the gauntlet to the knuckles, bracer-style plates on the back of the arm and hand, and a flickering black-red crystal eye situated behind the wrist, about where a watch would be. He levels the staff as if pointing a weapon... and Kid goes again. "Hey! Oh, sorry... I guess I didn't say, but I decided to take a shot after all." he rubs the back of his helmet. The tone of voice is just completely contrary to the appearance of the skull-faceplated avatar.

    And then Miari says, 'Is a nuke anything like this?'

    "Wait, what?" Staren turns to look at her, and then frantically starts casting barrier and haste spells on everyone nearby. Which probably isn't as good as just rezzing some kind of force wall, but that's snap decisions for you.

Staren has posed:
    The test avatar's 'casting' for the most part seems to just happen without much fancy words or the like. He points and gestures with the staff, but maybe he's just triggering commands like he would with any computerized weapon. The process takes nonzero time, though. The 'barrier' spell seems to give the target a copy of one of his forcefields.

Reina Kinney has posed:
Reina scowls a little, noticing no one is targeting her. Then she spots Miari and raises an eyebrow. "This could be interesting." Reina says as she moves towards Miari's location.

A few moments later, Reina has arrived close to where Miari is. She's got an evil smirk on her face and she says, "Well well, now, what are you up to?" She chuckles a little. "I doubt it's anything good."

Miari (1129) has posed:
"Oh... oh, no, I'd never pig out like that! How do you think I keep this figure?" Miari blurts more-or-less merrily with a lopsided grin at Crys. This of course is after hearing about her reasons... but it takes a moment ffor that to settle in. Miari blinks a few times. "Well... this is probably a topic for another time."

    Another time what? Miari spreads both her arms grandly while her face turns serene and relaxed. The winds gather and carry her aloft a good thirty feet... and then she brings both hands together above her head, fingers curved inwards to frame an empty bit of air...

    But it's not empty for long.

    The skies burst with motion as if a mighty hand had stirred the clouds into a vortex. They darken, rumble and flicker.

    Then, power erupts from Miari. Her soul unfolds in a whitish-green display of nauseating light that spreads outwards and forms a series of elaborate mandalas containing what appear to be spectacularly complex formula, save that they're written in something far from the numeric system most are familiar with. They unfold and spread like fractals to cover a few hundred feet in the phantom display.

    With a simple exhale, Miari tilts her hands slightly... and the skies blaze a disqueting sinister lime green. Motes of light coaelsce in the air by the hundreds and spiral towards Miari's open grasp, to be clenched tightly into a singularity that roils to life with an eye-searing emerald brilliance upon growing to the size of an apple.

    From the looks of things, this is one of those spells that takes a bit to charge.

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     Ominous charging displays, naturally, give time for dramatic defenses! The drone-net has yet to actually deflect anything- honestly, it's not that impressive of a defense- but Septette still takes the time to arrange it in an aesthetically pleasing pattern, changing from flat tesselating panes to an acutely sloped prism with its vertex directly in front of her. Her hand is extended in a sweeping gesture, arm-blade folded out as if she were prepared to somehow parry whatever's coming when the stained-glass field inevitably fails.

     Notably absent from her expression, if any here can still make it out, is any trace of anything but anticipatory glee. Even with her fearlessness and magical durability, she'd normally be scrambling to get out of the way of a blatant magical nuke like this- repairs are both difficult and expensive! But the Shrine of Adversity allows for a more cavalier, experimental attitude towards these things than her rigid pragmatism could ordinarily permit.

Staren has posed:
    Well. It looks like Staren has enough time to realize that Miari's obviously not going to use anything that would blow /herself/ up, so they're probably safe and he didn't need to panic. Of course, the whole point of the Shrine is that no true harm would come to them anyway, but he'd like to spare people the experience of getting magic-nuked, all the same.

Miari (1129) has posed:
After about ten, fifteen seconds of an ever-increasing amount of time gathering the motes to her grasp... it hasn't changed in size. If anything, after the first few pulses the gathered energy has SHRUNK down to the size of a marble, albeit one that glows far too brightly to gaze upon directly.

    This light is strange, as it does not cast any shadows where one can find reprieve.

    There's little time to meditate on that oddity though, as Miari draws the conglomeration of power down near her mouth and whispers something to it. Once more it roils... and she she releases it... then gestures at the far distant fortified city block...

    Now completed, the little spark flies off at meteoric speeds and vanishes into the distance...

    An intense feeling of palpable dread from SOMETHING being unleashed that, perhaps, should never be harnessed by any sane person flashes through the area for one brief moment between moments...

    And then the quiet is broken by a thunderous, bone-jarring roiling explosion, and the horizon turns green. An intense BEAM erupts in the far distance, shooting straight through the clouds... and it quickly starts to widen. At first, slowly... then faster, and faster. A wall of all-consuming emerald light, filled with a toxic MALICE intense enough that even the non-mystically inclined can feel, like a clawed hand grasping their heart.

    And to the ear, that explosion sounds an awful lot like mad laughter.

    Not from Miari. From the light.

    Mercifully, the light fades within about twenty seconds, leaving a scorched wasteland of molten glass in its wake.

Crys Gattz has posed:
Crys Gattz smirks for a moment. "Okay then that's something different. If you wish to press this I prefer to speak in private."

The Newman isn't mad but she's clearly troubled and she turns to watch what Miari is about to do. She lets her mouth hang open as the glowey green magic power is let slip. Okay there's a lot of charging here an the more she thinks about it, Miari does remind her a bit of her long missing friend.

Then comes the boom okay there is no doubt about it but the Malice she feels it, that is a malice she almost knows one she ran into a long time ago. She backs off part of her is trembling and she summons a scythe for a moment without thinking. She seems very on edge from that spell though.

Reina Kinney has posed:
Wait a minute... THAT came from Miari?

Reina finds herself in a spot where she's underestimated her target. "Oh Falz, what have I gotten myself into?!" She backs away a little, silently praying that Miari isn't about to attack her next...

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     The drones organize themselves in a hemisphere around the origin of the blast, and are promptly shredded. Non-elemental attacks aren't their purview in the first place, much less anything that can level a city block: at best, they hold it back for an almost-imperceptible fraction of a second. Septette raises the flat of her blade against the explosion, and for a brief instant is silhouetted as a black skeleton against the blinding green light as her cloak burns away.

     Molten glass. A sea of molten glass. There's nowhere to stand, and nobody of Septette's density could possibly swim, even in what amounts to magma. For a few seconds, nothing is visible save for the thermal distortion of air over the blazing lake like the horizon over a hot desert road. It gives the impression that she might have winked out of existence altogether to evade it, or perhaps been launched into the upper atmosphere, or even...

     And then, like a mirage, a dark shape materializes at the edge of the glowing pool. Septette wades out of the molten glass, wiping it off of her face, then her arms, and her legs. Her exoskeleton is blackened with soot, but she isn't missing any limbs, and the lights on her chassis are still bright.

     "I believe," she intones over the radio in dry and distorted tones, "that 'splash damage' was specifically excepted."

Staren has posed:
    Staren can only stare as Miari gathers energy, although not directly at it. And then, at the beam... and his eyes widen under the mask as he realizes where she fired. "SEPTETTE!" The beam expands... and expands... is it ever going to stop!? <"Septette are you okay?!"> He tries the radio. It's got to stop, right? His stance in the air sort of curls a bit, as if trying to defend against that sense of overwhelming malice...

    And then it's gone. And Septette is... okay, at least more than could be expected. He sighs in relief.

    And just stares at the results for a long moment.

    "...Something like that." he replies to Miari. "Except it doesn't just stop in a neat area like that. There's also the radiation and the blast wave that goes on for miles. You can... we can show you more about them later, if you're really curious."

    He takes a deep breath. The Shrine may be making it /look/ like he's a robot, but he's still organic under the illusion, or whatever it is.

    He turns to Septette again after she okays one more test. "Well. That's certainly going to make this a lot less impressive now, but I'll see if I can amp it up a little. Engage hype drives."

    <<Engaging hype drives.>> the gauntlet on his arm echoes, and there's a general burst of wind from around him as if he's Doing Something Powerful.

    With a dramatic flourish, he 'cocks' the weapon somehow, possibly just playing shotgun_pump.wav for dramatic effect, then levels it in Septette's direction. Anyone used to Staren's usual attacks probably isn't expecting what comes next: Power starts sucking into a small glowing ball at the tip of the staff, white tinged with golden yellow around the edges, crackling with golden energy.

    "MAAAAAAAAA... SEEEEEEEEN... KOOOOOOOO..." HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

    And then the energy suddenly explodes into a coherent beam -- wider than most portable energy weapons, travelling about as fast as a plasma shot or the like, but it just keeps stretching on, a continuous rather than discrete discharge. The front tip of the beam has some sort of shockwave effect going on, giving it the appearance of a spreading cap like a mushroom as it forces its way through the air. After a few seconds the beam emission stops.

    Finally, as if imitating a Velkan Device, the staff ejects a spent canister of spook juice, which clinks on the ground like spent brass, itself and the chamber it ejected from steaming hot. Hype drives, man.

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     Septette's arm comes up to block the projectile, holding her blade at an angle impossible for a human to ergonomically achieve in some exotic parrying stance. When she realizes that it's a beam and not a discrete projectile as would be Staren's usual fare, she tries to break to the side in an abrupt lunge- but, still knee-deep in liquid glass, she can only move so far before the beam hits!

     To her credit, where it strikes the flat of her blade, the beam diffracts off in dazzling and unpredictable patterns. But she can't maintain the defense for long enough to get out of the way: the shockwave jostles her arm, which causes an instability feedback loop as her blade drifts off-center, and eventually shoves it to the side. Her right shoulder takes the brunt of the attack, her spine twisting visibly as it kicks back, and a moment later she's forcibly launched to the side by the beam's impact.

     She bounces across the hardening ground once, then twice, then skids to a halt in a three-point stance with her armor still sizzling. The exoskeletal paltes are intact, if thoroughly blackened, but the internal components have clearly taken a beating.

     "I think," she says in an uncannily cheerful voice, "that does constitute a 'direct hit'."

Kushiko has posed:
That... well. All of that. Between Miari and Staren, is completely, utterly and totally ridiculous.

Might be making the kid in Kushiko (literally) giggle a bit, but when all's said and done, she's quite confident and--knowing the way this place works so far, not /too/ worried, though that might be just the fact being a Warframe like this means she doesn't show anything.

All the same, the notion of needing to potentially switch out means that quietly and quickly, did Nova leave as others talked, roasted marshmellows in the fires of the hype engines (or something) that she'd return--though this time in Valkyr's frame instead. A few little changes, matter-energy storage, etc, and well. If they keep going, they keep going, don't they?

The Kid has posed:
    The intense blast of green light has Kid on-edge immediately. It reminds him too much of what happened to Caelondia. He covers his eyes as it impacts the building... only to realize that Septette is still inside. "NO! Call it off!" he barks at Mirai, going to rush in once the area is glassed.

    Only for the machine woman to stride from the ruins. He boggles at her, before giving a single nod, a clearly impressed look on his face. When Staren wants to have a go, he backs off once more and watches as he charges up. It strikes him as impractical, these big attacks that need a charge time and invocation...

    But he can't deny that it's effective. He actually takes it. "Well, good job fella," he says. "Though, if ya can't do that out of here, what's the point? Sure it's fancy, but you're not practicin' anything that'll help you in the real world."

Priscilla has posed:
    Priscilla is starting to feel bad now. Probably needlessly, but seeing people constantly dumping all this absurd firepower onto poor Septette is inexorable sympathy material for the little robot who could, still keeping on ticking. Septette hardly constitutes an underdog, but it's the brave and cute look that counts when being blasted with magic nukes non-stop. She actually hesitates to do the thing she explicitly asked Septette about earlier: testing out her Greatbow's active Invocation; its expression of the power of the soul used to forge it, powered by a sacrifice of other souls.

    "If thou wouldst taketh the time to recuperate, I shalt gladly indulge it." she says, in an almost hopeful sort of tone. Priscilla will absolutely wait for any pending resets, if Septette chooses any, or even if Kushiko chooses to butt in, before withdrawing another gigantic, solid steel lance from the ground, and locking it on its titanite cable.

    When she sights the bow this time, she actually squeezes one eye shut; a totally rookie thing to do. When she does, however, the gem set into its cross-shaped mount blazes much brighter, and lets off a familiar, utterly awful, hot knives on a chalkboard in the brain keening, as the broadly glowing area focuses down on a narrow point like the dot of a powerful laser, 'painting' her target of the moment, and the building a few feet around them. Just above that spot, a marker of sorts appears, in the shape of a baleful, glowing eye, looking down upon the marked point. Somehow, it seems to subconsciously communicate the intent that being marked was really, really bad, and someone is a perilous state of affairs, facing immediate calamity.

    kalameet.wav, you know the one.

    Priscilla looses the arrow. The air cracks with the speed of the bowstring, and booms around the arrow's point. At just the moment it leaves the ledge, it spontaneously ignites, flaring with a churning, spiral wreath of clashing gold and jet black flames, which paint their two-tone streak through the air. The arrow seems better sighted this time for the 'laser marker', or perhaps even drawn to it, though the expected result is different.

    Rather than just crashing into it with kinetic force and blowing up a building with the impact, the marked section practically disintegrates as it is hit, shattering as if it were made of glass. The gold-black blaze around the iron shaft, now superheated to a white glow, slices straight through anything in its path, blasting a partially-vapourized hole through obstructions too quickly to to impart much of its kinetic energy. Unless stopped, it'll punch through a dozen structures in quick succession like that, before slowing down enough to plant itself solidly. When it does come to a stop, it almost instantly explodes, rupturing into a colossal fireball of weird, self-annihilating flame once the steel can stand the energy no longer. Though far less of an area than the previous spell, it flash-obliterates the terrain around it, leaving nothing but rising ash, and sprays a ton of supersonic molten shrapnel in every direction.

    Being hit head on by that is obviously really, really bad. Especially with the debuff mark. Stopping the arrow dead or hitting it with enough force to dramatically slow it will trigger the explosion too. The fire is an absurdly concentrated combination of dark and divine magical alignments that get along like matter and antimatter.

Staren has posed:
    "Holy shit." Staren says, after Septette's defense. "I didn't think you'd TANK it, I thought you'd deflect it somehow." He's impressed. But still...

    "I know you don't feel pain, but if your current state is in any way unpleasant, we should perhaps activate the Shrine's power and reset you." He kind of hopes she'll do so.

    To The Kid, he replies, "Testing that it works, that my understanding of operating the Shrine's more esoteric powers is correct. ...You're right, though, in that there'd be no point in me spending time target practicing with it."

    And now it's time for Priscilla's next shot! And holy hell, it's some kind of crazy ultimate attack too. Geeze. He never knew Priscilla or Miari could do what they've demonstrated here! The Shrine has certainly allowed for an educational experience.

    He tries to remind himself that Septette can't feel pain, but still, he's somewhat concerned. Having one's body in such a damaged state as these attacks induce must be unpleasant to some degree...

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     Wait, isn't the contest over?! Septette fortunately gets a moment to prepare for Priscilla's awful attack- and, after a moment of thought, decides to reset her physical state after all. Her body shifts and morphs back to its original state, reverting her accrued injuries. It's less that she's worried about suffering lasting harm- least of all in this place- and more that, on some level, she doesn't want others to know what her limits are. Taking Priscilla's second arrow head-on may or may not put her down, but more than she wants to find out, she wants others not to.

     A lady has to preserve some mystery, after all.

     The sea of glass she's standing on provides ample raw material. She leaps straight up out of it as Priscilla pulls back the drawstring, solidyfing its surface with ice magic before landing. Heat allows her to reshape it into sweeping- albeit rather fragile- walls; cold allows her to set it again, providing brittle jagged barriers that can obscure her movements, break line-of-sight, and perhaps slow the arrow's meteoric speed by a fraction before they shatter.

     Shatter they do. The arrow pierces the barriers. Septette raises her arm, in the last milliseconds, to guide the arrow through subtle deflection- not away from her, but towards the red spherical gem at her very heart. The thing the Abyssal God itself could not break. It will stop the arrow- but it may not save the rest of her. Having it detonate inside her ribcage isn't going to be remotely safe.

     She doesn't get the chance to find out if she can facetank it. Kushiko is a little too quick for that.

Kushiko has posed:
So far, this had been one hell of a demonstration. Between what Septette was /enduring/ and what everyone threw, she had been thinking about actually adding to it properly. Unfortunately, a combination of that warning Priscilla was giving plus what she sensed, what she felt, threw that to the wind.

It's funny; Priscilla's presence, much of the time, that odd little unnerving sense, linked well enough to that sound that was to come was something that was a comforting thing to the broken little child within. And yet, the potential that was coming... oh. Oh she had to taste it. To experience it. In every Tenno--she was no different--there was a hint of deathseeker. Completely uncaring of the pain, the suffering that would drive others inside, the Void within her, that madness gave her an appreciation for things like this, what was coming next.

So because of it, Valkyr was moving. She howled, in response, a resonant cry that bespoke a lifetime of pain and suffering, of torture, and the unrepentent fury. It was felt as much as it was heard as she crossed the distance with dizzying speed. There's a resonant noise, like white static pulsating but it's something... from the deep. It doesn't feel right save to a few.

Hysteria made manifest and she just /throws/ herself into it, using her claws, her body, her everything, to draw deep from that well of the Void within her to steady and just. Soak it. To wrap her own pain, to let it roil deep within her, to be drawn into her as a companion to the existential suffering and torture of times before.

It's completely absurd. When it makes contact, a hazy corona of energy just radiates outward from her, signifying the staggering degree of energy that /just/ got absorbed. It's as big as a city. It's easily the size of what Miari threw earlier, Valkyr's howl resonating throughout the rapidly expanding energy sphere. It won't actually /hurt/ anyone but it needs to be bled off, and that will take time. At least Septette will be spared a complete and total destruction of her body.

...oddly, for those who might be attentive: the screaming howls and cries of Valkyr don't sound like they're coming from any measurable speaker, or mouth. Weird.

Crys Gattz has posed:
Crys Gattz watches as Septette actually tanks thing she seems impressed with that but Crys is still a bit of a ghost, Miari had hit on something pretty important about her but she seems to be almost fading off a bit from the group. She watches the rest of the fights that are going on as best she can but she does not engage for now, she has an idea of what some of her allies can do now which will serve her better

Still she muses on what Miari said to her eariler and suddenly she's not so keen on training tonight. She starts to fade may back to go find a field to train on her own, and maybe take something out on.

The Kid has posed:
    Kid has been quiet as everyone else takes their shots at Septette. Mainly becaue after that dud, he's going through every aspect of his Mortar and shells. Considering them carefully, feeling the weight... and this leads him to a discovery.


The crank that adjusts the vertical angle can be pulled out some. Doing so changes what exactly is changes when you spin it. Specifically, it widens the barrel, just enough that he can cram in multiple shells. His eyes light up with this discovery, but he doesn't exactly try it out.

    After all, the target has her hands full.

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     Kushiko interposes herself in the path of the arrow, and Septette... falls. There is no ground, just a perfectly hemispherical crater full of ash. The 'splash damage' of divine fire, the expanding shockwave- all of that, she can deal with gracefully in lieu of a direct hit. And the freefall itself... it's almost relaxing.

     Relaxing if you can turn off your sense of hearing, anyway. God, that screaming is awful.

     It takes a few moments, but Septette finally crawls out of the crater- and only then thinks to check if Kushiko needs help. She leans back over the crater's edge, still smoldering a bit herself (albeit still looking largely intact and chipper), and shades her eyes. "Hey, uh... Ms. Kushiko? Need extrication?"

Tanya Degurechaff has posed:
    "I think I've seen enough."

    The voice belongs to a small blonde girl, floating in the simulated sky. Clad in her olive battle suit and the metal boot and support package of her flight unit, Major Tanya von Degurechaff lowers her binoculars. Glowing blue eyes squint at the field below. So there really is a system that can create a training environment like this... Her other hand lifts, and she averts her gaze to the control display projecting from the armband she collected at sign-in. Eyes narrow slightly, and she glances back towards the melee unfolding on the 'ground' below.

    This isn't training. It's just a beatdown. How wasteful. Tilting her head upward, her eyes travel back to the control display above her wrist.

    Well. There is always the option of adjusting this exercise to be more productive...

Kushiko has posed:
When the fire clears enough, the energy 'shell', the bubble that's been gradually decrementing itself over time, the smoldering wreck she and the now somewhat terribly stripped down given the sheer, unrelenting carnage of it all.

Speaking of smoldering, the suit itself. <"... that was... liberating..."> she almost savagely remarks. Oh the pain was real. It was dulled down, as it went down the Transference channel back to Kushiko itself. She shook, with the raw energy of it all, until she finally drew it back to a managable level... and seemingly /shucked/ it from herself. She staggers, if briefly, before being fully cognizant Septette said something.

<"N... no, we're okay, actually. That was amazing,"> she admits, making her way to Septette carefully. <"This frame is made for taking hits, though the degree you kept taking that was on another level.">

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     "I'm a survivor," Septette replies brightly, as if that explains anything at all. If Kushiko's coherent enough to scrutinize her, she'd notice a few interesting things about the little robot's design now that the cloak is gone- almost every mechanism in her body seems to be part of one motor system or another, as if she were constructed from the ground up to simply have as many redundant ways to stay standing as possible.

     It's the kind of absurd counterintuitive thing that seems like it'd have to be designed by committee, or maybe spat out by a dumb evolutionary-optimization design program. But given what she's shown today, it does work.

     "I'm impressed by you as well. That arrow sure did a number on you, but body-hopping affords you quite a bit of versatility I don't have. You'd be valuable to have around in almost any situation, I bet." Septette smiles warmly, leaning back from the edge of the crater. After all, if Kushiko is conscious, she won't need to be helped up- at worst, she can reset her physical state and then climb out!

Staren has posed:
    And Kushiko turns out to also have a body with incredible tanking abilities! Staren's glad to see they're both okay. He lands, with a loud sound effect and another burst of wind. Oh, right. He holds the left arm up near his mouth and whispers, 'Hype drives disengage.' <<Hype drives di-->> it starts to reply but he mutes it somehow. The wind stops.