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Vruasa Telash	You know what the boring part of this whole mess is? It's the part where everybody gathers at the door and mills around before actually doing anything of substance. VRUASA is sick and tired of this particular part of everything, so he decides to arrive approximately .5 seconds after the last person filed in, and then accelerated everyone past the awkward introductory phase and into the entry into the node itself. THEREFORE, all intended participants rapidly find themselves fast forwarding through a minute or two of their lives, skipping this dreadfully tedious portion of the scene.     The fast forward stops upon ENTRY past the initial corridor.     VRUASA TELASH is currently simply himself, though he seems to be taking this seriously. He's clad in his captain's coat and carrying one of his actually effective spears -- at the moment, the diamond-tipped Regispear -- with Ulixes plugged into his empty eye socket. He grins fangily at nobody in particular and opens up a dialogue box in trollian. DL: hey DL: hey bitch DL: w@ke up bitch     "I don't remember inviting like half of you. Welcome to the motherfucking party. We're gonna go find some assholes living out in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. If you ask too many questions or nitpick the minutiae too much I'm gonna vote you off the island." Vruasa addresses everyone assembled. He sounds pretty amped to be here, the harshness of what he's saying aside. Evidently he really enjoys picking at the antagonist of this node for whatever reason.
Psalm	Goodness, that's a rush. Awkwards greetings and hugs and shit be damned, we're skipping this cutscene.     Miss Songsteel finds herself rushed through the explanation of this particular place and straight into things. Acceptable. Maggie still manages out a wave to Fiora and Psyber and the others, most of whome she knows from Sburb and Sgrub. What is new for her is the Node idea, and more so actually using Clef. She adjusts the tiara a bit, and pokes at his braid. "Wake up, soldier."     That said, she's got her armor, she's got her sword and she's ready to be Maximum Pest. Life is Good.
Homura Akemi	HOMURA AKEMII (not very creative on the name, sadly) shows up, wearing... grey shorts and a black shirt. There is a copper gun on it. She has applied shitty grey makeup and put on a pair of fake troll horns, possibly casual bits of candy corn cobbled together correctly, which aren't symmetrical. One is vaguely bullet shaped and the other is curved backwards.     "Did I do this correctly?"     She did pick one of the lower blood colors on the chart, going for copper. That was probably the point, so she can just follow Vruasa's instructions without breaking character. Presumably if it were up to her she'd be wearing purple, but that tends to be royalty or something? She's not sure.     Either way this should totally suffice.     Suitably, she's holding a wooden rifle, vaguely copper-colored as a result. Looks like a fancier musket, but nothing too great either.
Guest Psyber	There is no PSYBER here today. Instead, there's PYRBES LEGNAS. A troll warlord and battle expert, he is most famous for never losing a fight so long as his lieutenant was with him. While not painted grey, he has huge fake horns on his head that may be elk horns painted orange. He is wearing a black t-shirt with a rust-colored pair of wings on it to be his emblem. Otherwise he is wearing blue jeans and sneakers. Scotch-taped to his shirt is his Nathan Hallkind card.     The reason he is famous for never losing when his lieutenant is around is because of this card. FOR ACROSS HIS BACK IS THAT LIEUTENANT. His name is NATHAN HALSUX (read: Adjudicator). The greatsword has been dressed up in a white long-sleeved shirt and slacks. Over the shirt is a sweater vest. Fitted across the eye of the Abstractum is a pair of lensless glasses. He figures the sword has lived with him long enough to emulate Nathan.     "Sup?" He asks to everyone, looking around, "Try not to worry my lieutenant too much." He says, jerking a thumb at his back.
Vruasa Telash	"You guys look perfect. Just like this guy." Vruasa whips out a TINY PRINTER and prints an image to show to Psyber and Homura.                         https://i.imgur.com/OMQFN0y.jpg                             It's unclear if he is encouraging them to be horribly offensive or not.
Staren	Staren arrives a few minutes beforehand. He's wearing what looks like his ALO outfit (with clear crystals integrated into the design here and there,) plus a dark red wizard hat and cape, and, of course, his Abstractum, Eureka on his left hand. A subtler difference is that his bandana and his coat collar are pulled up a bit to cover more of his face, perhaps to help compensate for the lack of a helmet.     LIVIN' IN FAST FORWARD     "Umm... asking questions is kind of my thing, just let me know if I'm doing it too much?" he asks, slightly nervously.     Also... Suddenly, fake trolls everywhere. "Aww man, nobody told me I was supposed to dress up as a troll! Um... shoot. Should I like, leave and come back?"
Fiora O'Brien	SPEAKING OF PURPLE.     FIIORA OBRIEN does not arrive, so much as is flopped over on a convenient rock near the entrance, her 'costume' less a contrafaction of costuming things and appears, for all intents and purposes, is her body. Or, the closest illusory equivalant.     She is dressed in a black t-shirt (with a purple squid punch-out on it), grey jeans, and black shoes. Her skin is troll-grey, with purple highlights on her elbows, shoulders, cheeks, eyes, etc. Her normally red hair is black, and her candy cane horns curl back from her brow into her heinous mane of hair.     Sitting up, she laughs at the other people, sneering lightly with a toothy grin. "Alright, grubbos, fall in! For everything boring, look to Vruasa! For anything interesting..." She cracks her knuckles, pulling Hecate out from behind the rock, slinging it over her shoulder. "Point me at it, so I can /break/ it and roll around in the GLOREY!"     She pronounces that more akin to 'gore' than 'glory'. It is an obvious portmanteau.
Abstractum.Net	What's past the door that Vruasa brings the group to is looking a little strange.     The door is all on its own, set into a wall without any structure around it. There is a lot of wilderness out here. A LOT. Which is to say, pretty much as far as the eye can see, this place is foresty. There's a silhouette that looks like it might be some kind of castle off in the distance, but it's a ways away, a long, long ways away.     There's also the beginnings of Vruasa's defensive structures, the myriad bits of architecture crafted out of the local game systems when nearby resources were abstractly harvested and converted into construction.
Abstractum.Net	Vruasa, of course, gets a response. )(IC: ugh its blue text boy again )(IC: water you want scumsucker )(IC: busy keeling some other dumb bassholes right now )(IC: make it snappery
Abstractum.Net	"I'm ready." Clef says, simply. "I'm hre to help as soon as you call on me, Songsteel." The tiara's got a rather soldier-like posture, but it might just be that it doesn't have any other postures.
Abstractum.Net	Adjudicator seems to not particularly like this costume. Its disapproval face, in as much as it can have a face at all, seems to be doing overtime here. But it's keeping mostly quiet at least. "Yes, /please/ do not mind." It says, simply.
Vruasa Telash	DL: wh@ DL: @re there other re@l people in here DL: who the hell @re you even killing DL: @nyw@y m@ybe i just like h@ssling you DL: @ctu@lly check th@ i fucking love h@ssling you DL: you're hil@rious     Vruasa looks around at the 'defense structures'. What the hell is he supposed to do with this? Build up into a-- oh. Oh god, no. You've got to be fucking kidding. He makes a disgusted face and shakes his head. This had better not be what he thinks it's going to be. It would be the... second? Third? Fourth goddamn time.     "I don't feel like checking out the OBVIOUS ENEMY FORTRESS in the distance yet. Let's go exploring and see if we can find some other assholes getting murdered. Pretty sure the godawful GM here is busy focusing on them right now, because she's aggravated that I'm talking to her." Vruasa says to the others, and he doesn't wait for an affirmative to start drifting off from their "starting point". Since they had a clue from last time, he decides to fly in the direction of that area with the cloth trapped on branches.     Maybe they can find a trail.     "This DOES count as boring, right?" He asks Fiiora, who is technically supposed to be in charge.     To the rest he asks, "So what the hell have you guys been up to outside this nonsense? None of you ever has a boring life, so there's no way you don't have a story to tell. Me, I've been making robot clones of things trying to make some shit for this node. Hasn't been working out though."
Homura Akemi	"That's incredibly offensive but seen that way I can see how you might be seeing us that way right now," Homura comments to Vruasa, before Fiora gives a speech. It's odd to see the Voidy Witch use the direct path like that. Or plan to use it, anyway. She must be thoroughly enjoying the ability to do so.     She will accompany Vruasa, although the wings she uses to fly probably look a bit out of place with her costume, being angelic pink wings and all. A bit blurry towards the purple end of the pink spectrum, but not so much as to constitute corruption yet. They'd be black if it was, anyway. And not angelic at all.     "Oh, erm... school, mostly. University. There's a thing with lovecraft-based giant robots going on I pitch in sometimes. Mostly other people's Nodes and various Homeworld matters. It's not as exciting as you would think. I'm probably a bad storyteller anyway," she answers, not making a big deal out of her involvements.     "What do you mean, robot clones of things, anyway? The 'of things' part confuses me. What have you been making robot clones of? People? Trees? Rocks?"
Guest Psyber	"Uuuuuuh. A city I was watching over got attacked and I managed to talk the invader into calling her troops off. Then I had an argument with Nathan Hall. I fought a traitor who managed to cut me in the side so hard some organs fell out. Uhm... I had dinner with someone the other night at the Boston docks. Lovecraft robots. Some sort of weird concept girl I help out. OH, I negotiated a treatise and put to rest a grudge that was over sixteen hundred years old. I'm helping out in a world where the dead won't stay dead. Mostly, though, I've just been teaching Homura's college classes. And that's mostly just the past month or so," Psyber says, rubbing at his chin as he walks and answeres Vruasa's question with a quick review of his usual activities.     "So nothing too new, just juggling the same old shit. What about you?" He asks, not paying much attention to how upset his sword is. He's just gonna follow Vruasa.
Psalm	Maggie happily trundles along with the party, smiling up at Clef. "We'll find something for you to yell at."     She's confused by the Blackface thing, but seems to be more a culturatl refrenece so she blowsthat off. The question gets her to smile though. "Oh, would you believe I've stuck my nose in yet another end of the world post apocolypse scenario? This time with actual catpeople and elfs rather than internet fake ones."     The redhead adjusts her gear. "It's been nice putting my armor back to good use, let me tell you. Oh, and then I've been harassing Arturia and her Consort. That's fun."
Staren	When Staren hears there's another group to find, he decides to take to the air -- Vruasa seems to have the same idea, so he flies after.     "Outside this? Uh... Dealing with some asshole who wants to turn nice bunnypeople into monsters and then use them as an army. Having my head invaded by some kind of memetic parasite. Mizuki got it out. Oh, helping Mizuki with /her/ world. Her evil side is trying to take it over. Let's see... trying to figure out how to make the future alternate universe version of my girlfriend a little friendlier, but apparently everyone she used to know is now out to get her so I can kinda see why she wouldn't be friendly. Uh... Let's see, what else am I missing..."     Staren blinks at Homura. "I've been wondering what the deal is with that actually..." Then he looks surprised at Psyber. "You teach classes?" Then back at Homura. "Wait, you're going to college?" Finally he looks to Psalm. "/Another/ end of the world? What is it /this/ time?"     Staren suddenly remembers something. "Oh! Oh! Speaking of internet fake people, I went back to Kirito's node. Somehow, the people inside have access to the internet, the jerk messing everything up there is livestreaming his escapades to an actual multiverse website and he's the #2 most popular on it," *sigh* "but when I asked them for his IP it just pointed back to Kirito's node. So, all that stuff, basically. What about you?"
Fiora O'Brien	Fiiora, the Purple Blooded Land-Tyrant just sort of looks intensely bored. "Yeah, yeah, it's boring. It's all boring. Tactics are boring. Planning is boring. Organization? Boring. Gathering information is for nerds. I want to get into a fight, kill whatever I'm fighting, and roll around in all the Glorey. It's bluebloods like YOU!" She jams a black-nailed finger into Vruasa's chest, with a huge grin on her face. "To find the fights, plan the fights, and do all the stupid, fiddly boring shit. THat's how this works. Oh, and it's my job to JUDGE you for it. That's right. So, chopchop!" She offers, tokking him on the head gently with Hecate.     "Oh, what I've been doing? I dunno. Eating food. Sleeping. Being a huge entitled bitch to everyone? You know, the usual." She jokes, wandering around below the group and letting her voice carry up.     She's very casually conversational as she wanders boredly along.     "Hey, Pyrbes. Tell me something insightful. Or funny. Do a trick!" She urges.
Vruasa Telash	"Working on non-sapient things at the moment. I tried making a robot clone of a mime and a clown but it didn't work out." Vruasa doesn't explain the situation any further than that. Given how he views everything ever, 'didn't work out' probably means something profoundly horrible. It's probably best not to inquire further on that subject. With regards to what he's been up to, he shrugs, "/I've/ been boring lately, apart from experimenting with the ectobiology machines on and off. Even I've got to take it easy once in a while, I guess."     "Oh man, the people I associate with sticking their noses in apocalypse scenarios. What a fucking shocker. Man, it's like some asshole out in the sky just sits around coming up with these and throws them at the wall until they stick and people go avert them somehow." He rambles, in reaction to Psalm's tales.     Vruasa tilts his head in Staren's direction, offering him what may or may not be a sharp look. It's hard to tell with those sunglasses. He shakes his head, "I'm not surprised, and I'm pretty fuckin' sure we'll see more bizarre instances of node-based interaction with the Multiverse at large."     To Fiiora, he says, "We live in the same hive, bitch, I know what you've been doing. I'm sure we'll find something you can kill soon." There's no real bite in those words.
Guest Psyber	Psyber responds to Staren with, "Interim Dean of Occult Studies at Miskatonic University," He notes rather simply, "Filling in for a friend on sabbatical. It was part of a favor I did to get Homura into the University." He explains, hands falling into his pockets as he walks along.     To Vruasa, he simply replies, "My life has a fever and the only prescription is more apocalypses."
Homura Akemi	"A... clown and a mime." He did say not to ask for more details. She decides she really does not need to know. This sounds like the beginning of a horror game story anyway. 'You've been hired to watch over the clown and mime animatronics at the restaurant during night-shift,' or something like that.     She shudders and files it away for now.     "I could do with less apocalypses, but as I don't see what happening any time soon, the sane solution seemed to be to just get used to it and roll with it," Homura finally settles on for an answer, then she glances ahead.     "So, the gamemaster. Do you think she's your antagonist here?"
Psalm	Maggie crsses her arms and her chainmail clinks. "Look, buddy, i can't help it if I'm good at resolving apocalypses. It is a Thing I do, alright? Only this time it's not a death game and the world isn't quite dead."
Abstractum.Net	Another response, sent to Vruasa. )(IC: duh )(IC: plenty )(IC: none of em are dressin up like trolls )(IC: thats new )(IC: whatever doesnt matter )(IC: what do you think i just sit around playing games )(IC: by myself )(IC: nah this is gon be new empire eventually )(IC: just gotta work the barnacles off the thing first
Abstractum.Net	Heading out into the woods brings the group into the clearing they found before, which is the area where they fought the bugmen. There are, of course, plenty of other similar flickering bugmen, adorned with bars and readouts that are apropos for a FLARP setting, but they appear to mostly be alone, or lower level than the group that was initially cleared out. Some might attack if you approach too quickly, but the GM seems disinterested in running them!     There is no trail. However, there IS indication of what the others come here for: Resources! Specifically, the resource collection nodes in the trees and rocks here are lightly depleted. So it's a question of how you'd analyze their depletion, when it comes to figuring out how to deal with this.
Guest Psyber	Most of what PYRBES LEGNAS does is try to one shot as many nearby bug men with his weapon to see what livers or bug asses he can harvest off them for later vendor trash purposes.
Vruasa Telash	DL: why would you even want to take this place over DL: why do you want an empire at all DL: i thought you were done with that     Vruasa looks vaguely aggravated with this entire situation. He kicks at a 'drained' tree, and doesn't bother engaging the local flapstractions. They're too low-level to be worth engaging, and even if they all bunched up they wouldn't be worth much of anything. Especially with the GM gone like this. Alright. That's not really particularly helpful overall, but it's a start. It means that somebody keeps coming back here.     "Ulixes, rev up and turn back the clock on my visuals in your side of things to when these guys were here last. I want to just follow them back to wherever they came from." Technically, from the future of them actually having been here. Vruasa looks around towards Fiiora, and points at her, "Unless you just want to punch bugs--" PYRBES is already doing that, "-- maybe you should use some of your spooky mystery powers to, I dunno. Figure out where the fuck we're supposed to go to find these chucklefucks."     He's pretty sure it doesn't work that way. Regardless, he is uncharacteristically unable to offer suggestions as to how people could exploit their abilities to get them where they're probably going.
Staren	Staren nods in response to Vruasa's instructions to Ulixes. "That sounds like a good plan." He waits for Vruasa to show which way to go.
Homura Akemi	"The only thing my powers will be good for is for putting holes everywhere once we actually get there. Or in people. Which is something you can also do, anyway," Homura comments, as she checks the trees out. So this is the sort of game where the players aren't just expected to wander about killing people, but actively gather resources to build things? Hm.     "What about setting traps, though? Find a place with rich resource nodes that hasn't been tapped yet, put... I don't know, nets, mines, holes and such under the ground with something to alert you when they go off, and wait it out. Keep a tyrannical grip on your resources, ensure people get the message they're yours and nobody else's," she does offer, though.     That might tickle Fiiora's fancy more than Vruasa's though.
Psalm	LUCKILY, Maggie's not just good looking. She's also got some smarts when it comes to How To Find Things Out. Also, she's sneaky.     Psalm steps on over towards one of the EMPTY ASS ROCKS and kicks at it a little bit, turning in place a few times as she plucks out her greatsword. This gets planted tip first into the ground, and the bard leans her forearms on it, starting to hum a merry little march, starting to trickle energy into the area, empower it, set it alight.     She smiles, and right along side Vruasa, tries to call up the recent past herself. She's even putting Clef on this one. "It's a party, Clef, they've got to have Marching Orders. Where did those Orders take them?"
Abstractum.Net	Another response, sent to Vruasa. )(IC: work out the kinks and we can get this ship sailin )(IC: and no im just done with the whole troll jam is all )(IC: i mean )(IC: was great for a while )(IC: controlling reality just kinda does it easier )(IC: im empress i do what i want
Fiora O'Brien	Fiiora has whipped out a very violent sounding game slotted in a game system, and was pressing buttons and doing shit with her handheld gaming device than actually pay attention. But, when they finally arrive, she looks up at the tree full of RESOURCES, and delivers a swift kick to it. "Thiis iis bullshiit." She grumbles, before snapping her finger. "I've got an idea. Hey, nerd." She points at Staren. "Do that Psychic Imprint shit you do." She points at Psyber. "You're a fucking badass. You're with me. Vruasa, baby, hurry the boring shit up. Work with timey-wimey mismatched horns over here to make this all lickety-split, because intrigue is shit and boring. While that's happening, Team Smart Assholes put your think-pans together, come up with a way to stripmine this shit fastlike and cram it in our warchest, and we've got a plan. Then fast forward through it all, because it's INTENSELY BORING AS HELL." She barks, before grinning at Homura. "I hate any planning that isn't how to get me to a fight as fast as possible, and all preparation that's not crushing fools and mudbloods over my knee. So get this place scoured and stripmined and let's move on to crushing the assholes who think this is their place to harvest. Because they're wrong. It's ours."
Staren	Staren looks over at Fiiora. "Shouldn't that be 'Ii've got an iidea'?" He shrugs. "Anyway, I thought of that -- DL's looking into the past is better but I can give it a try. But umm, I thought we were gonna team up with this other group to fight the bad guys?" He flies down, pulling on one of the protoabstractum psychometry gloves and touching one of the depleted resource nodes that he thinks is outside the agro bubble of the bug things.
Abstractum.Net	Psyber aggros several of the bugmen, who attempt to viciously savage him with melee attacks. The GM is inattentive, though, and being especially petty and unfair tonight, so he seems to be getting no loot, even though by the rules of the game he's supposed to.
Guest Psyber	"This GM blows giant dicks," Psyber comments after brutally slaughtering enough bugmen for it to become apparent their loot drops are non-existent rather than nigh-non-existant, which is a very important distinction. He looks over at Fiiora and then says, "Yeah, sure, boss. You point at what needs smashing and I'll get right on it. Don't wanna disobey a purple."
Homura Akemi	"Yes ma'am," Homura says, and she whips out... a pickaxe. She has a couple in case of emergencies. This is not really an emergency at all, but hey. She's going to swing a few times at a not-yet-exhausted rock node, see if there needs to be actual effort involved in mining or if just poking it tells the place she's harvesting.     She is going to use explosives if real effort is needed, yes.     Possibly some time bullshit to make it go faster.
Fiora O'Brien	Fiiora just grins devilishly at all this. Especially the validation. "Right. OH! WAIT!" She points at Psalm. "You! See if you can narrative us up some SWEETLOOT. Yeah, spin us a tale while we slay. Come, Bardblood!" She cries, before drawing forth her great... broom.     "Strong assholes and anyone not cool or special or me! Kill the stupid bugshits so we can score sweetloot and treasure!" She cries, before going off to BROOM and BEAT some BUGS. She, in fact, mostly lets Psyber wreck shit.
Abstractum.Net	Ulixes seems to be working together with Clef on this. They're both green-types, so a quick TANDEM is easily sustainable. It looks like Ulixes doesn't have a lot of clarity with the huge density of bugmen that keep winding up, and Clef can't normally tap into orders given far in the past, but it looks like the resource-gathering person who was attacked before was someone who came from a fortress a ways off. Exactly WHAT happened is another matter entirely, which they're not able to directly view just yet.     Together, though, Psalm and Vruasa will be able to get a nice, covnenient green light lighting up a path that goes further off into the woods.
Vruasa Telash	DL: empress huh DL: you know i've learned something about that kinda shit over time DL: being the person on the throne usually sucks a bag of dicks DL: troll or otherwise DL: now that you're free of that i don't really get why you'd want to go back to it in any form DL: you can do basically whatever now DL: so why DL: why just make another big ass throne DL: why not just fuck off to space hawaii or something     It's an incredibly pointless conversation. Vruasa is pretty certain that a bent towards ruling is built into the psychology of the upperclass. His gaze follows the trail highlighted by Ulixes, and he points through the trees in that direction. "We're fucking shit up in that direction. Come on, let's get moving. We're burning daylight. Or night time. I don't know." He checks the sky, wondering if it's more like Alternia or Earth, or if it's just kind of whatever time it narratively needs to be. It'd be pretty shit if it was like Alternia.     He whacks trees with his spears, floating at a leisurely pace along the trail designated by Clef and Ulixes. No sense in getting ahead of the others, after all, and they've got their own shit they're doing.     Vruasa pauses, however, to look at Fiiora over the top of his sunglasses. "/Mudbloods/?" He echoes, incredulously.
Psalm	Maggie gets a Visually Rewarding Green Line to show for her efforts, and happily hoists the Gleamsong over her shoulder.     A look up at Fiiora though, and she purses her lips. "A song, eh? Treasure and Riches? LOOT UNIMAGINABLE? I can do that."     And she starts singing a Dwarven marching cadence!     GOLD GOLD GOLD GOLD     GOLD GOLD GOLD GOLD     GOLD GOLD GOLD GOLD     GOLD GOLD GOLD GOLD     GOLD GOLD GOLD GOLD     It is an amazingly varied and wonderfully nuanced lyric in the native tongue though.
Abstractum.Net	Staren examines the PSYCHOMETRY of the location, showing a mix of agitated survival instinct and a sudden rush of animalistic motivation prompted by a flag of 'RESOURCES ARE BEING GATHERED'. Staren will be able to tell, from a rough psychic imprint of the resource-gatherer and the monsters who attacked them, that the act of resource-gathering attracts the local monsters.
Staren	Staren reads psychic impressions and gets something maybe-useful? He nods to himself, puts the glove away, and pulls out a magic bead. "Well, if I'm gonna play along... Eureka, troll me." Normally, it covers the user with an illusion making them look human. Should be a simple Rotation, right?     "Looks like gathering resources automatically aggroes the bug monsters. That's all I got, boss." he says to Fiiora.
Abstractum.Net	There's some drain on these resource nodes, though it gets worse the further the group moves towards wherever the other resource-gatherers from the other party went. Homura Akemi should have no trouble doing the harvests, though; tap a rock or a tree with the pickaxe, and it starts draining the resources off of it. Useful! Very RPG-like. Vruasa finds approximately the same thing as he smacks the trees.     COINCIDENTALLY, local bugmen are becoming agitated and approaching the group in greater numbers, ravenous for resource-gatherer blood. They're targeting the people who did the resource-gathering specifically, madly dashing in and intending to tear them open.     More messages from the empress, though this is to the whole group.. )(IC: okay guess were doing this then too )(IC: ugh )(IC: bug jams got )(IC: i dunno )(IC: ambush advantage?     There is no ambush happening. )(IC: w/e plus five to initive cause fuck you for that picture is why )(IC: lets get fights on     The twitchy, flickery bugmen suddenly aren't several dozen feet away but right in the faces of Homura and Vruasa, trying to tackle them and start ripping open important organ-containing body sections.
Fiora O'Brien	"Good job! Now, do some crazy shit to get all the resources, smart guy!" Fiiora calls back to Staren. "Surely, you, the both most intelligent and nerdiest troll I know, has all of the best tools for stripmining! Be efficent. If the bugs attack us when we gather, then we should do all the gathering SUPER FAST! You and Homura handle that, maybe with a little time boost... And... Oooh." Fiiora notes, now slaying to a HOPPIN' DWARF BEAT. Dwarves have a dozen words for 'gold' and almost all of them involve getting RICH AS FUCK.     She likey.     "OH YEAH? WELL I CAST SUPER CONTEXTUAL INTANGIBILITY ON ALL THE NOT-FIGHTY PEOPLE!" She cries, swinging Hecate back to point at the group that... Well, the group that isn't Psyber. They all wink out of existance. "It lets them skill check as much as they want on anything, as long as they don't attack. So there."     She grins. "Oh! And my Voidy Aura removes all enemy advantages based on terrain, ambush, or positioning!" She crows.     The latter thing doesn't actually happen. The former... Well, people are generically voidy-smokey.     It doesn't actually do anything actually but buff their stealth, but... You know, it's a fun thing to try.
Abstractum.Net	More responses to Vruasa specifically. )(IC: do waterver youre good at )(IC: dont need you judgin me bluetext )(IC: got a dumb fool i need to krill )(IC: gotta krill him with a real empire )(IC: whatever who cares )(IC: what you think you are )(IC: my glubbin mother grub )(IC: dont need some random guy givin me life advice
Guest Psyber	[BA:] joke's on you, bitch. I was already in combat, so they can't get ambush advantage. 0>:|     And then Psyber is moving in ahead of any initiative order, since he already HAD his initiative roll from prior instances of combat, and immediately swings a cleaving strike at the Bugmen with Abstractum.Net.Halsux
Homura Akemi	Fortunately for Homura she may as well have the Alert feat. Screw you! She can't be surprised and gets a massive initiative bonus. That is to say, there is a brief ripple as time bends to her whims, and she appears about a dozen feet away from her original position, looking a bit more exhausted than moments earlier. Conveniently REPLACING Homura is a stack of C4 and a proximity sensor.     Also she is now much stealthier when she reappears, apparently. She chooses to take her pickaxe to other nearby nodes and verify Fiora's claims while her explosives do the fighting for her.
Psalm	GOLD GOLD GOLD GOLD     GOLD GOLD GOLD GOLD     GOLD GOLD GOLD GOLD     GOLD GOLD GOLD GOLD     SNEAK SNEAK SNEAK SNEAK     SNEAK SNEAK SNEAK SNEAK     SNEAK SNEAK SNEAK SNEAK     Maggie is now invisible and singing and how does that work? It's a goddamn paradox that's what. She generally busts out of the Dwarven though, and stamps her boots in the dirt, kicking energy up and into Clef. "You heard the lady! PSYBER! Clear the path for the lazy ass mining! STAREN! Bullshit us some magical cat magic into those bugs, I want them DEAD. FIIORA, keep being a bitch that's amazing!"
Vruasa Telash	VRUASA employs the fact that he is BASICALLY INVINCIBLE to take zero damage from the oncoming MOOKS. This is probably exactly as aggravating as you'd expect for a GM to experience. He looks up at the sky and replies: DL: i thought we WEREN'T doing this DL: by which i mean DL: i thought you were specifically hassling some other assholes DL: and not us DL: also you can play the offensive picture game too DL: or are you above that DL: anyway i've been working on some surprises DL: let's see how this works out     There's a HISS as the Knight deploys something from his sylladex. A PROXY STATUE pops out. It is a clown. Evidently, Vruasa is relying on clowns having HILARIOUSLY OVERPOWERED STAT SETS in this system, and he just sets it to rolling a ball and spraying seltzer at the bugmen to support whoever else is in the area. DL: huh DL: so you actually want to do this DL: to make a new empire DL: to rule with an iron fist DL: are you for real DL: you could go do anything DL: are you just a ghost DL: a broken record repeating past patterns infinitely DL: you could be rich and powerful and have no responsibility DL: wait DL: fuck     That must be the plan NOW. It certainly was before. Which raises the question: Who's the figurehead going to be this time around?
Staren	Fiiora commands rapid resource gathering and makes him invincible and fast while he does it? Cool. Staren walks up to the nearest research node and presses his finger to it, rapidly shaking his hand to tap it about 8 times a second or so.     And then Laer starts giving orders. He gives her a 'Whaaaaa?!' look, since he was told not to attack, and then to attack. How is he supposed to do that?     And then he gets an idea.     Staren pulls a half-doozen magic stones from his bag and tosses them on the ground around him, shouting, "I use my" he lists off some of the resources the flapstraction interface informs him he gathered "to construct golem bodies and then animate them! This doesn't count as a direct attack since they're attacking, not me!"     And then he goes back to rapid-tapping the resource nodes.
Abstractum.Net	Another response to the entire group )(IC: fyi so you do less embarrassing yourselves )(IC: you guys dont actually get to do what im doin )(IC: the whole roleplay reality thing i mean where you decide that stuff )(IC: thats just me and im busy with some other guys so i dont give a fuck )(IC: about your stuff like that )(IC: step off turbonerds dont jack ma rules-messing swagger )(IC: 3B) )(IC: back to murderin the other guys     It looks like the effects of her abilities only deal with the monsters, though, she's yet to actually alter the group's abilities in any substantial way. Psyber's initiative claim doesn't work, but that doesn't matter because he wasn't being attacked in the first place, and so he's easily able to swing through a small cluster of bugmen that were descending on Vruasa.     Fiora DOES successfully drop them out of the game's perception, essentially, allowing the noncombatants to remain noncombatty while Hecate lights up with a gray light to optimize it against the prying eyes of the GM.     Staren's able to make only a few bodies - resources are SPARSE here! - but they go to battle and function as good enough substitute attention-grabbers for anyone who wants to focus on something else besides fights, such as those with Fiora. Both PSYBER and STAREN are boosted by Psalm's orders, granted buffs alongside Psyber's normal HUGE offensive capacity that tears through the bugmen viciously.     Additionally, Staren gets Rotated. He'll be Rotating into a troll. Still looking very Staren-like, though. Cat-ear horns, he works.
Vruasa Telash	"This is a clusterfuck," Vruasa complains, gesturing vaguely in the direction through the trees he's taking, "head in this direction and stop harvesting the nodes. I don't want to have to deal with these chucklefuck NPCs while we're still looking for shit. We can have a dedicated day for harvesting shitty abstract resources. Everybody who's not already engaged, use that stealth bonus that Fii just distributed to head on through."     "Fii, good job. Keep doing what you do best. As for the whole 'exploiting gameplay mecahnics' rag, I think there's a catch to it." He puts away his weapon, crossing his arms and gazing up into the sky. "Traditionally FLARPs are orchestrated by multiple Clouders -- that's GMs -- with each of them commanding a team. In theory, fishtits up there is commanding a team consisting of the enemies here. Last time I was able to fuck with her it was after withdrawing from direct activity and supporting the group as a Clouder."     "We can probably still do something like that, but I'm not sure it's worth it right now." Seems like he's not entirely sure, but doesn't actually want to do a lot of testing. They've been faffing around for a while now.
Staren	Staren troll telekinetically recalls his unused golem stones while his constructs fight and he gathers resources... but then Vruasa says it's time to go. He hurries over to his constructs and 'harvests' them, at least he hopes it works that way, and grabbing the stones. Then he flies after Vruasa. Yeah, ICly he's supposed to be listening to Fii, but... the actual mission /does/ take priority, you know? Up to Fiiora to improvise deciding that was her idea all along or somesuch.
Abstractum.Net	Unfortunately, it looks like the Empress' rules-breaking is only done proactively; no houserules have come around declaring clowns to be invincible badasses! Truly disappointing. This is profoundly stupoid and unfair in a way. But if they follow Vruasa's orders, they should find a subsiding of the group's harassment; the bugmen are growing less anxious with less mining going on.     Guided by Vruasa and Psalm, Psyber manages to finish off the last of the offensive rush and Staren leads the strays away with disposable golems. Thankfully, this means they're not training lots of monsters when they near slam facefirst into a stout little wood structure, about the size of a small house but with tremendously economized space. Or it would, if it weren't for a gaping hole on this side of it, through which monsters have presumably breached. Apparently, it's time to crash someone else's scene! And presumably meet them shortly after.
Vruasa Telash	> GAME OF DEATH 2: Resume.     When last we left off, the PARTY had been informed that the group as a whole has no real say over the rules of local reality. There are certainly rules, but they can't make "Gamemaster" decisions... at least not, as far as Vruasa believes, without one of their players acting as a dedicated Clouder. The group has successfully hacked its way through quite a few enemies, and discovered that enemies tend to play less attention to people who aren't actively attempting to harvest resources from the environment.     They have come to a SMALL HOUSE.     VRUASA comes to an abrupt halt, holding an arm out to indicate to the others that they should SLOW DOWN AND STOP, so as not to SLAM FACE FIRST into the thing. Which he almost did, for that matter. It'd be unfortunate if somebody just slammed right into his back and they all ended up in a pile against this half-ruined cabin.     "Who the fuck would live out here?" He demands, as he skirts the edge of the building and peers into the damaged hole. For the moment, Vruasa doesn't enter. Better to let everyone get a grasp on the situation before he goes poking around in unknown buildings. Maybe somebody else will do it ahead of him, though. DL: hey do you live out here DL: you don't seem like the small shitty cabin type to me
Guest Psyber	Pyrbes Legnas, the incredibly racist blackface troll, is trailing along after the group. Fighting off those hordes of bugmen has tired him out slightly, so he's catching his breath and letting others take point for the moment.     "People who live in houses in the woods: People that don't want to be found, people that give quests, old and powerful douchebags, dangerous monsters that eat children, crazy mountain hobo survivalists." He lists off a few answers to Vruasa's question.
Homura Akemi	"Presumably someone who doesn't care about the wildlife and might need close access to those resource nodes. Or a hermit. Other players?" Homura offers, before giving a shrug. She knows very little about these sorts of games-- tabletop or otherwise-- so this is actually a bit of a hole in her knowledge. She knows the basics, who doesn't, but none of her friends are really into that stuff enough it would stick.     She does not, incidently, bump into Vruasa.     But if someone bumps into her it could all domino to hell anyway.     "We could knock and ask."
Psalm	Maggie has found herself a bottle of water and is cooling off her aching throat from singing for what feels like a really long time in gutteral dwarven dialects that also feature a lot of consonants. It's a lot of work.     She also looking interestedly into the windows of the cabin, trying to case the joint for anything to walk off with. If there's no one home, it's theirs, right?
Abstractum.Net	)(IC: what like out in the woods )(IC: fuck no that shits for dudes looking to get keeled )(IC: not gonna sit my ass out in some dumb fintasy woodland shellhole )(IC: got myself a palace )(IC: what the fuck else am i gonna live in am i right
Abstractum.Net	Adjudicator is the one who speaks up alongside Psyber, with a dry tone. "They may be other people like us. Dealing with the game, I mean." It seems to be slowly recovering as well, its fires growing slightly brighter by the moment.
Abstractum.Net	Psalm finds something unusual. There is definitely someone home. The place is furnished in a spartan way, with copious amounts of supplies in tightly packed storage units. Many of them are spilled open, because of the someone who is home, in this case. Something in a room bordering the one she looks into slams into a wall so hard a stack of crates topples. There's a lot of loud grunts of pain and aggressive animal noises.
Psalm	Maggie's water bottle peels from her lips and she growls out in a tone that's deeper than her usual contralto. "Dammit, there's someone in there wrecking the place. Maybe we can stop it and get some freaking answers or loot or something." Stupid dwarven singing, who's dumb idea was that anyways?
Vruasa Telash	DL: ye@h i get you DL: s@y h@ve you ever just DL: h@d w@y too m@ny rooms DL: like you've just got this entire wing of your bitchin' c@stle DL: @nd fuckin' nothing to do with h@lf of it     While he casually chats with the enemy, Vruasa floats around the cabin to the breach in the wall. He shrugs and points towards it, "Check it out. Don't assume whoever is in there is hostile until it turns out they are. Then, I guess, kill them and take their stuff if you really want to." Evidently he's going to -try- to be a leader today. A little bit.     To Homura and Psyber he continues the list, "Criminals, dwarves, creepy women who make candy houses..."     Really, there are tons of people who might live in the woods. Most of them are likely to be awful in some significant way.
Guest Psyber	"Serial killers that work one friday a year, old sages that never answer questions, guys that possess a magical sword with a terrible curse who retired from that life long ago..." Psyber continues after Homura and Vruasa, rubbing his chin, "Crazy scientists with unethical experiments. Really, it could be any terrible thing."     He follows after Vruasa and nods his head, "You got it, I won't kill it until it tries to kill me. I'll follow your lead on this one."
Psalm	Maggie huffs at the orders but doesn't disagree. No need to kill anyone they don't need to. Not here. She plants the Gleamsong over her shoulder, looks to the others, and smiles.     And then, turns the door knob. A smile at Psyber and Homura and Fi. "Age before beauty~"
Homura Akemi	So in short, it can be anyone.     Oh well. When are things ever certain around here?     "This is your Node, so I defer to your judgment on how to handle situations to start with. Just don't ask me to let myself get killed, I don't have your or Fiora's luck with shaking that off."     The magical girl heads over to the front door with Psalm, currently unarmed, having shoved the pickaxe from earlier back into her hammerspace. Might as well just go in upfront, but admittedly if it had been her she would have knocked first.
Fiora O'Brien	Fiiora seems to have fucked off for a few moments, before returning with a bag of DORITOS(TM) COOL RANCH chips, munching happily on them while licking her fingers. Looking around, and taking a good long look at the Sketch-Ass-House she shrugs.     "Hey, is the huge biitch asking for spot checks, search checks, or telling us to check balance or will saves or any sort of random-ass bullshit?" She wonders, crunch-crunch-crunching on CHIPS.     "Because otherwise, let's kick the door down, loot the place like Vikings, and interact with anything shiny. I'm sure whoever's inside won't mind." She notes, striding forward like she owns the place. She does, however, offer chips too people.     DORITOS(TM) are a gaming food. They aren't Salsa Verde, though, the Best Flavor.
Abstractum.Net	)(IC: put monsters in it )(IC: normally i dont tell a shrimp im gonna krill about my house but )(IC: yeah p much just monsters )(IC: and that went from hostile to weird casual at full sail     The breach is still there! Easy to maneuver through once someone decides to do so. Lotta clanging and banging still coming out of it.
Vruasa Telash	DL: meh DL: who the hell do you think you're t@lking to DL: ch@ting with enemies is e@sy DL: @lso DL: needling you got boring DL: bec@use you just stopped t@lking DL: @nd focused on murdering some other douche     Normally this would be extremely useful information to file away, but Vruasa half-suspects he'll just forget it by the time it's necessary to remember it. Since everybody else is taking the more CONVENTIONAL route inside, he approaches the gap in the house and draws his spear out of his sylladex. Not a really powerful one. Just a wooden handcrafted spear. It'll do for knocking somebody silly without fatally injuring them, if he has to. Anyway, it's better to approach this two-pronged regardless of what they're actually facing up against.     "When the hell have I asked you to die for shit I'm doing?" He asks Homura, without regard for the fact that they're approaching from different directions now. This place is small, there's no chance they haven't been heard, and 'over there' is still conversation distance. So fuck it, he's going to keep having a conversation.     He takes a dorito with his free hand and eats it, cementing the urgency and seriousness of their situation with COOL RANCH.
Psalm	Aaaaannnnnnd then Psalm and Homura head on into the house, I suppose! The Bard is ready with a song or sword if she totally needs it though! Perception checks and initiatives READY!
Guest Psyber	Psyber is not doing a whole lot. Mostly following along at the back of the group and checking stuff on his cell phone. He looks up, "Yeah, you know, I agree with Fiiora. Smashy smashy, looty looty."
Homura Akemi	"Fortunately never, so it's a moot concern. To be honest, you are probably the most careful immortal I know. Most immortals try to use their immortality to their advantage, I don't think I've seen you do that yet. Or Fiora. Arthur, on the other hand, seems a bit more inclined to take risks, but wasn't he like that before becoming a god to start with?" Homura answers Vruasa, because talking is a free action which stacks pretty well with watching a door open.
Abstractum.Net	"She seems not to be. Consider, for a moment, what it truly means to have a 'Clouder's' attention on you. After all, events are often said to have occurred far from their attention, remember?" Hecate is saying, smugly, to Fiora. Meanwhile, Homura's ring begins burning with a soft red fire, reluctantly but immediately establishing combat readiness because of its urgent focus on protecting its owner. Clef is connecting to it, in a quickly-established tandem, focused on examining the environment.     Within, the pair find the storage room tossed around, crates smashed and scattered, previously closely packed. This was a very practical room. But there's nothing here but copious amounts of in-game resources harvested from the nearby area. Beyond the door here is something perhaps more immediately relevant. A small sleeping space, where a massive, extremely strong, bulky, many-horned humanoid bug-creature, not unlike the Imperial Drones of Alternia, has a gray-colored(?) carapacian here, pinned by the neck against a wall. The carapacian is dressed in the battle-damaged rags of practical clothes, and has a hand-crafted shotgun, which he alternates between unloading into the drone's elbow joint and reloading it. It is loud, and apparently very intensely resisted.     The Drone is notable for having a single eye, rather than the two that are traditional for drones. Its single eye is a rounded black gem on the front of its face. While it tanks the shotgun blasts, it repeatedly punches the gray Carapacian square on the face or in the gut. Neither of the two seem to be deterred by the attacks of the other.
Fiora O'Brien	Fiiora grins. "See? Everyone wins. But mostly me." She notes, as people seem to go along with her plan. This is generally accomplished by telling people to do the plainly obvious thing that everyone was going to do anyway. Leadership 101.     The idea of the Clouder, as it is posited to Fiiora, seems to catch her attention, even as they come across two wildly different dudes punching the shit out of each other. Smugbroom does have a point. "So basically, because I'm here, we don't have a clouder, and the GM doesn't really pay attention to us or do anything?" She asks. "Welp, score one for me I guess. I guess I could try the whole Clouder thing, if you think it would help. D'ya think I could cram my massive ego into a floating, unobserved presence and dictate things to poeple? Oh wait! I already do that!" She laughs at her own joke. Then she snaps at Psalm and Vruasa.     "Okay, so, Diplomacy checks. I sure as fuck ain't taking point here. I may /offend/ someone." She notes.     So she tells the Bard (a classic 'Face') and the Captain of a huge ship's crew (Dude probably has some Cha score).
Vruasa Telash	"Operating under the assumption that we can still be killed is easiest, because the penalty for dying is significantly more harsh than it is for mortals. Arthur in the meantime is Arthur, so he's never going to fucking die. Unless he tries to, I guess." Vruasa doesn't explain the situation that might prompt Arthur to go down a self-destructive path. It's really not a pretty thing to think about, and hardly necessary to dwell upon in light-hearted ti-- ho shit, that's an imperial drone. Why the hell did she get to bring those fucking things along? What a load of bullshit.     "Forget what I just said, kill that thing and get that other guy safely out of its grip." He orders, weaponswapping to the SCARLET RIBBISPEAR. A bladed tip flashes out towards the arm the drone is using to hold the carapacian down. Truthfully, Vruasa had enough of these things back on Alternia, and he kind of relishes the opportunity to take one apart.     Unfortunately, this attack happens before Fiiora has attempted to get them to make diplomacy checks against the thing. He doesn't stop short, but doesn't follow up with another attack like he normally might. Instead he asides, "That thing is like a big ant. I don't think it can comprehend diplomacy."
Guest Psyber	Psyber looks up and puts his phone away. He then adjusts his grip on Adjudicator and when Vruasa goes in for some work on the arm, Psyber swings an fairly straightforward chop towards the neck of the drone. He's careful not to damage that pretty black gem it has for an eye, though.     "Cool, killing that thing works for me," He says to Vruasa as he swings it, "Maybe I can trade that guy a better shotgun for info after we get him all squared away and safe."
Psalm	"DIPLOMACY!" Maggie smiles happily, and takes both the comments under advisement as she leaps up into the room, and makes a LOT OF NOISE AND ATTENTION DRAWING MOTIONS.     "Hello bug thing! We are here to murder you and or talk to you, but from what it sounds mostly just murder you! Let's parley!"     And by parley she mean 'sing at Homura to give HER a boost to attack.' "GET HIM, HOMUMU!"
Homura Akemi	She'd tell Vruasa that makes sense but DRONE.     This is her first time seeing one. She has no idea what that is, but the fact it's punching a carapacian repeatedly is a cue enough, and Vruasa's words just confirm it. Hang on, though, a grey carapacian? Aren't they black or white only? Then again, Node, and all. Vruasa did more or less unify the two people. And there was that planet where Spades Slick was Mayor. That was a thing too.     There is a glare as Psalm calls her Homumu, but the Puella has better things to do, like producing a Regisword and diving into melee with Psyber. The black blade is brought down upon one of its arms for a vertical cut along the shoulder, using the attack boost to the fullest, and hopefully a Tandem bonus from Vruasa too.     "Claire, scan that black gem on its face!"
Abstractum.Net	)(IC: still working on it mostly )(IC: oh shell you're bustin in on that guy )(IC: UGH )(IC: wheres my dam guides aboat mixed combat UUUUGH     She goes quiet for a bit, disconnecting from the conversation, presumably to deal with finding a book.
Abstractum.Net	"Oh, I'm sure you could. Whether or not it could help depends on how much you feel like getting into an argument with an egotist about completely arbitrary made-up rules, as opposed to violently beating a bug-man into retreat. I say with confidence, the world is your oyster, and you can select which parts of the awful buffet to feast on." Hecate says, its smug tones refusing to leave, though its words are a little more clear this time.
Abstractum.Net	"Kill that thing" is a set of orders, technically, so VRUASA and PSALM successfully manage to buff attacks against that target, though Psalm moreso than Homura. For what good it does, anyway; the spear impales through the Drone's arm, carapace collapsing under the tip, but the drone seems somehow to not be faltering in any capacity with the motionless grip, and barely shudders as the spear pierces its armor.     Meanwhile, Psyber swings a blade in, and the many Strike Drivers that Adjudicator has flare to life, slamming into the creature's neck and provoking a small gush of shattered bug-like solid organic material in chunks and chips. A heavy, powerful impact! And yet, the thing's sheer overwhelming endurance seems to leave it still functional, despite massive, gaping neck wounds.     Homura's ring saturates the regisword in witch runes, and it pierces deep, but that's not the important part. The important part is the "scan"! It's a red-type, not a blue, so scans are less powerful, but they do work! The ring flashes red and looks into its target, trying to determine something...     "A-aahhhh! Miss Akemi! I think... It's a Pure USer somehow, or, it's something like one! And... And it's in Shift! H-high shift, I can't tell how high it's supposed to be, but...!"     Despite the wounds on both arms and its neck, the creature immediately jerks its head around, robotically assessing the situation for a precise fraction of a second, before it judges the tactical situation untenable. And then, suddenly, there's that communication again, accessible to all participants even without their communications devices. )(IC: bluh i was supposed to roll inititive )(IC: whatev imma make this work anyway )(IC: drones are mad superstrong cause its realistic )(IC: thats how porting stuff works in flarp )(IC: wait what fuck whys it retreating     Definitely doesn't look like it's retreating. Ignoring the gaping wound Vruasa left in its arm, it grabs the Carapacian by the neck, tries to swing him around and smash him against Homura, then with a surprisingly quick and deftly human motion try to kick Psyber's knee on the side hard enough to break it viciously before barreling towards Psalm and Fiiora, figuring they're acting as "support", and shoulder-check one or both into the opposite wall as it tries to crash its way OUT Kool-Aid Man style, presumably the same way it entered.     The gray carapacian is discarded. Despite massive, almost overwhelming bruising to the face and torso, he continues to fire his homemade shotgun into the back of the drone's Drone's torso, wordlessly, with a very determined sort of look on his face.
Psalm	Shiiiit shit shit shit shit shit. A pure user! Here! Maggie's eyes go wide as she's suddenly being charged by the KOOL AID BUG! A howl of something between terror and delight though as she plucks up the Gleamsong, lets out a keening, happy battlehardened cry of fury and terror, and swings for the fences as the Bugman charges. No finesse, no forethought, just sheer reaction!
Guest Psyber	There's the immensely loud CRACK of a kneecap shattering as Psyber's knee is stiff-kicked by the drone. The half-angel emits a cry of pain, because no matter how much of a regenerator you are, that shit is still excruciating. He shuffle-shambles back a couple steps after his attack and the creature's counterattack, "Son of a bitch this thing is durable."     He then limp-steps in again towards it, trying to impale it on Adjudicator.
Homura Akemi	"In Shift? And it's not even obvious?" She heard Pures can Shift a bit back, on the main band for the Homeworld, but details weren't provided for how it LOOKS. Apparently, it looks like nothing?     "Tch. Psyber!"     Homura slots her COMBO FRAME in, but gets pummeled by the grey carapaclub, and slams into a bunch of resource crates pretty painfully. That was probably a bone that cracked, or the wood. Pretty painful either way.     The Regisword is replaced by a 9mm pistol, the Romanov's End, and she empties the clip into the back of the retreating Drone, probably to minimal effect at best. She'll need a moment to get up, so the main chase will be in someone else's hands for now.
Vruasa Telash	DL: did you re@lly w@ste @ fucking pure on @ godd@mned drone DL: wh@ is wrong with you DL: @nd why does it look like th@     This is utterly baffling to VRUASA, who hadn't expected such an inconsequential being to be a formidable threat. He draws back his spear, revving up for the follow-up strike that he'd intended to make before Fiiora declared an attempt at DIPLOMACY... but he doesn't get the opportunity to even try it. Motherfucker is swinging carapacians around like fucking clubs. Actually, come to think of it, carapacians would make pretty good clubs if you just had a soli-- now's not the time to think of what to do with carapacian corpses. Better stop and prevent this carapacian from becoming a corpse instead.     Oh, this motherfucker did NOT just try to smash Fiiora and Psalm. Well, really, he's more mad about one of those than the other. But he's still pretty goddamned mad. Time to bring out a big gun and see if he can crack this asshole of a drone before he gets away. Probably not, it would be narratively anti-climactic to off this guy so trivially, but...     He's pretty sure it won't hurt to try.     Out comes a crystalline spear, its surface riddled with glowing fissures and seething with magnificent flame. Tiny flows of lava crisscross its surface, like the plains of hell in miniature. Vruasa draws back the spear and takes aim, carefully calculating where he needs to throw and when in order to get a half-decent hit in without catching Psyber or anybody else in the collateral.     UP the spear goes, in a great arc, and then DOWN it crashes, angling ahead of the drone before striking the ground and exploding spectacularly. The Hades Fire Iron is serious business.
Fiora O'Brien	Fiiora rolls up the top of the DORITOS(TM) COOL RANCH bag, before having it disappear in a puff of nothingness and dusting off her hands. The Smugbroom helpfully provides the answer fairly clearly that she was looking for, which was 'Sure, go wild, do that thing you've already tried, but, you know, it may not pan out, fu fu fu I'm the riddlebroom.'     Fiiora is okay with that. Fiiora is NOT okay with the Drone-Pure barreling right into her as she interrogates her abstractum and barely pays attention to her surroundings (Underlings are there to do that for her, duh!), seeing her get cracked across the torso and sent flying into the building's inner wall, cracking her head, tumbling down, and generally getting fucked up. Thankfully, she hasn't gotten TOTALLY insta-wrecked, but she's down for the count.     Thankfully, that's what mental connections to chatservers are for!
Abstractum.Net	)(IC: hahahahaha )(IC: bluetext you better clam up quick )(IC: water you still a kid )(IC: still on alternia when it blew up )(IC: oh this is gonna be extra sweet to sea your face when you figure it out )(IC: if you live that long     The bugman is swung at by Psalm, hardened carapace cracking and crunching but never really being sliced through or otherwise cut cleanly. Psyber impales it, and damages it, or maybe makes things worse. Possibly both; the brilliant red fire gushing through its body is probably massively damaging, but has given it that "turns red" effect that's awful for so many bosses...     Homura slots her COMBO FRAME, and they install; Psyber's fire flares up BRILLIANTLY AND RAPIDLY, the flickering lights accelerating in their effect while Homura no longer has to worry about the friendly fire, Claire-enhanced explosive rounds slamming heavily into the creature's back.     Vruasa causes a huge blast next to it, damaging half of its face for the most part and causing injuries all down its body after it attempts to dodge a bit to one side, but despite tanking the explosion head-on, it seems completely undeterred.     It's barreling off into the forest now. Could be pursued - or Psyber could keep trying to ride it via his impaled sword - but that may get impractical, especially in one-on-one combat. Meanwhile, Fiiora, as the one person mostly left behind and injured, gets the carapacian standing up. He stands over, and, with one hand, offers to help her up. With the other, he cautiously, uncertainly keeps his shotgun trained on her. Possibly sort of paranoid. Potentially nice, though?
Psalm	Annnnd Maggie's arms go rigid as that swing spangs into, dents but does not break the armor of the Drone, the JOLT of pain from the sudden locking of her elbows jamming her self beckwards until she manages to roll out of it, finding herself on her ass by the hole the KoolBug Man just made in the damn wall.     And the redhead just sits there, looking at the escaping Berzerk Status Miniboss with Psyber riding on the back of the damn thing. A look at the others and then over at Vru and Fi and Psalm's eyes look a little downtrodden. "I think we just bit off more than we can chew."
Guest Psyber	Normally, Psyber would be all down to ride off into the sunset on the back of this bad mama-jamma, fully content to kill it. But with a busted knee and an asshole manipulating reality, the half-angel doesn't want to take too terribly many risks at the moment.     So with a yank and a half-hop, he jumps off its back, landing on his bum leg with a yelp of pain and then rolling into a standing position as he limps back to the group.
Abstractum.Net	Clef, the tiara on Psalm's head, makes a dazed noise. "Good assessment." It says, in its usual stern, sarge-archetype way. "Enemy like that, best thing you can do is recon and figure out how to hunt it on your own terms with an advantage. It retreated, so we could have taken it. But I'd rather it be our strategy than our allies that doesn't survive contact with the enemy."
Vruasa Telash	DL: no DL: not @ kid. probably older th@n you by now DL: w@sn't on @lterni@ when it blew up DL: you w@nn@ try to psych me out with nonsense DL: i c@n pl@y @ th@ game DL: i know who blew @lterni@ up DL: @lso DL: yes DL: it w@s @ who not @ wh@ DL: seey@ fishl@dy     Vruasa Telash issues an exasperated puff of air, applying a rewind effect to the physical structure of the exploded spear so that it returns to him intact. He didn't undo the actual action of throwing and causing an explosion -- merely the destroyed state of the spear in the aftermath. There's no cause for some sort of fucked up paradox here, in short. He regards the drone with a thoughtful expression, returning the spear to his sylladex. Going to need a plan to deal with this shit, but it's gonna have to go down later.     "No," He says to Psalm, "but I'm going to have to be more careful with this stupid bitch, because she's not actually a stupid bitch. Fucking drones. Should've just made my node with a copy of the Sburb install disc, then I'd basically just be getting the same shit I've already experienced."     Entertainingly, that's exactly what he's getting right now.     Vruasa looks around, assessing the situation. Psyber has a bum knee, Fiora got cracked across the wall, Psalm isn't in much better shape than Fiora, and Homura... well, Homura's fine. That's still most of them pretty decently injured. In the meantime there's this gray asshole with his shotgun, who is somewhere between threatening and helpful.     Vruasa points at him.     "You. Come with us and you can set up camp in a more secure area. We're not going to be here most of the time so we don't give a shit if you occupy our territory. Who are you? And quit pointing that thing around, if we were going to kill you we could have already." Through inaction mostly, but the point still stands. Looks like Vruasa is pretty anxious to retreat and think things through, which is unusual with him.
Homura Akemi	"I agree with the tiara, an advantage never hurts," Homura says, rising slowly and stuffing the pistol away. She moves one arm uncomfortably, trying to snap the shoulder back into place, although she's pretty clumsy. Looks like more pain than just waiting it out for someone who knows what he's doing to handle it.     "More importantly, why did it retreat? It seemed to surprise her as well, and it could have caused more damage before leaving." Talking distracts her from her shoulder. Oh, right, the carapacian. Well, Vruasa has that handled, so better not to pile in.
Fiora O'Brien	Fiora takes a moment to recover, thankful for her almost RPG-levels of 'what doesn't kill her merely inconveniences her greatly'. Something something gel viscosity something something STRIFE.     She reaches up to take the Carapacian's hand, smiling besides herself. "Hey. You're a little half and half, aren't you? Or maybe something entirely different. Where I'm from, there's only white and black guys. You're gray. What gives?" She wonders, and while her words aren't entirely THE MOST PLEASANT FEATHER CUSHION of verban things, she does drop the purpleblooded act for now, and speaks with a sort of frank, honest curiousity.     She manages to peel herself off the wall with GRAY's help, before glancing to Vurasa. She doesn't press on his urgency, though.     "You wanna know the best part about the whole clouder thing? Motherfuckers don't paste you into a wall."
Abstractum.Net	Adjudicator makes an agreeable noise as Psyber heads back. "Good choice. I'd rather handle that with backup." It says, plainly. "Not that I'm not confident you could kill it, but I'd rather we not take more punishment than we need to." From the look of it, there's a hairline series of cracks over the width of Adjudicator's blade.
Psalm	Maggie shuffles over towards Homura and sighs. "Look at you. Bother. Hold on and stiff upper lip, we'll catch him next time, just like you said and we'll get it handled. You did good."     She also smiles over at Psyber and cheers for him too. "A good job, mister man! Though you look like crap! Come on over, I've got some potions!"     Hey. Hey that actually feels better. A neat trick from the bard!
Vruasa Telash	"Yeah," Vruasa agrees with Fiora, "we'll get you into that role next time. No sense letting the enemy have the only omniscient observer bitch." Calling her a bitch seems to be done entirely in humor. There is certainly no bite in those words, at least.
Guest Psyber	While he is grateful for the cheering morale boost, he shakes his head to Psalm, "Save the potions. It'll regen up overnight while I'm asleep, don't worry." He says, giving her a thumbs up in response to her cheering.     To Adjudicator, he simply nods, "Yeah. Don't wanna damage either of us."
Abstractum.Net	)(IC: oh heres the part where you try to mindgames the lady who invented mindgames for an entire fukken civ )(IC: hey smallson i dont care about who blew it up long as they dont blow up my new interdimensional game stuff and i dont care about age or whatever )(IC: whatver )(IC: later bluetext     The carapacian is mostly still cautiously pointing the gun at Fiora when it comes around to Vruasa instead. "Whole game wants to kill us." He says, in straightforward, directl, almost emotionless tones. "Better to be ready than comfortable. I'll follow, but it's not permanent, and I'm keeping my gun and my stuff." He stumbles a bit, looking around warily at the group assembling. "You all helped out, so you've earned gratitude. Information I can help with. Anything else as long as it doesn't involve trusting you more than you've earned it so far." His tone and posture seems... Calm and rational. He seems like someone who's thought things through a lot, but is paranoid by conditioning.
Abstractum.Net	Clairvoyant Rush can medically scan its User, and has been doing so; this awkward bit of bone trouble gets pained winces and distressed noises from the ring. "M-maybe... Maybe that's not the goal? Not... Focusing on hurting us, I mean? I mean... It was s-sorta robotic, right, Miss Akemi? So, there was some directive there... What would be more important than dealing with survivors, though?"
Abstractum.Net	"I don't know what you're talking about." The carapacian says to Fiiora, with a tone that hints at someone who really doesn't particularly find the matter accessible so just isn't really thinking about it. "But I'm aware it looks a little strange to treat strangers with respect but still keep a gun on them. Fact is, that's just the best way of surviving out here. Avoid taking it personally offensively or personally kindly. What I'm doing, I do so that there's the minimum chance one of you will murder me and steal everything I own."
Vruasa Telash	DL: don't give yourself too much credit DL: but yeah you're right DL: you're probably better at mindgames than i am DL: probably DL: but DL: you really don't care? DL: don't care who wrecked all your stuff DL: don't care who ruined your old games DL: even if i think you're better at mind games than i am DL: i don't believe THAT DL: not for a second DL: all the trolls in the universe DL: all the slave races DL: it doesn't surprise me that you wouldn't care about those things DL: but your belongings? your pets? YOUR slaves? DL: that shit was yours DL: if that doesn't make you angry as hell DL: well DL: honestly you're pretty dead inside even for a seadweller as old as you are DL: and that's probably the saddest thing i've ever read DL: talk to you later for real this time     VRUASA TELASH glances towards the Carapacian. He produces a set of COMPUTER SHADES. It's set up with a different assortment of software than is usual -- a batch he reserves specifically for his own carapacian agents. He passes it off to the carapacian, "Here, talk to those guys if you need proof of my trustworthiness. You'll see what I mean. My handle is deusexLongcoat. Further talking in person is going to have to wait. We're not from this reality, and we've got too many people who are injured."     "When I say you can man our stuff while we're not here," He explains, gesturing for the others to follow, "I mean that we're not going to be in this universe at all." Vruasa takes a moment to produce a ROCKET SPEAR, tossing it towards PSYBER. It's probably easier to ride the thing on the way back than it is to actually hobble back the way he is. Sure, he can probably fly on his own, but this is more fun.     "Also, she and I literally own planets. We couldn't need everything you own less than we do now." Vruasa adds.
Homura Akemi	"Yeah, yeah," Homura answers Psalm, still fidgeting with her shoulder.     The Grey Carapacian (capitalized because that's a thing right now) gets a look from the magical girl. She considers offering him a real shotgun, but if he ends up joining the crew it's not like he'll be wanting for equipment. Instead she just looks at her ring and shrugs.     "Wouldn't know. Vruasa might, he seems familiar with those things. What could be more important than finishing a job that your... empress? Is she an empress? Told you to do? For that matter, what was that thing?"
Psalm	Maggie smiles back at Psyber as she sits down and starts rubbing at her own arms, watching the goings on with the rest. She's still a Newbie Abstactum Partner for all this and is trying to keep up.     She does perk at Quest Rewards though and smiles over at GC since apparently that's who he is now. "Have you got any local armor or stuff? I feel a little silly wearing my stuff from back home and anything I can do to blend in would be nice!"
Abstractum.Net	The survivor takes the computer shades with his free hand, giving a grateful little nod even while he refuses to lower the shotgun. "Thanks for being understanding." He says, simply. Respectful! Despite the paranoia. "I know you probably don't want any of my stuff, if you can do the sorts of things I saw, but I might as well be ready. You come from other worlds? Alright. The other survivors are tricky, though, so I'm gonna be careful anyway. It's nothing personal. We only met just now, though. You go first. I'll follow, after I move my caches and pack."
Fiora O'Brien	"You know what? I actually feel where you're coming from. But I'd like to point something out: There's careful, and there's being offensive while saying 'don't be offended'. You're careful. Don't trust us. Keep the gun handy, even. But don't point it at people. Keep your stuff close. Yeah?" She offers, before smiling (wincing) and nodding.     "Don't worry about it. Take the advice or leave it. Up to you, big guy!" She offers, rubbing her side. "Damn, I really hope that's not 'goon' here, or I don't envy you fucks."     She salutes the Gray Suspicionman. "Later, Gray!"
Guest Psyber	Psyber catches the spear from Vruasa and uses it as a crutch while his sword is across his back. Hobbling over to the survivor, Psyber tches, "Dude, homemade shotgun? Hold on. Let me get you off the Poverty Bus of Blunder." Blunderbus, get it? Haha.     Crutching the spear, Psyber reaches for a pad of paper and tears off a sheet, which becomes a shiny, new, black pump-action shotgun. He then holds this out, "Here. Trade in your ghetto cannon for the Cadillac of Shotguns."
Vruasa Telash	"Based on this encounter just now, you're going to get fucked if we leave you completely alone. Here, take this." Vruasa ejects a SET OF ARMOR from his deck. It's some pretty fancy powered armor, with rocket thrusters and everything. He stopped having to use it a long time ago, but it's still pretty powerful armor for a guy like this. It might not win him a fight against a Pure, but it'll make sure he can get the fuck away without dying too terribly quickly. Or at least, so the knight supposes. Some of the drones could fly, but he's not certain they can fly THAT fast. So it'd just be a matter of...     God damnit, he can't be worrying about carapacian rednecks on top of everything else.     He looks over towards Fiora in reaction to her complaint, but says nothing. It's better not to talk about it where the Empress might be able to overhear and... well. It's best to wait until there are no potential eavesdroppers around.     At any rate, Vruasa doesn't seem to object to letting GC catch up with them with all of the extra equipment that's been provided. He gave contact methods, he gave equipment, /Psyber/ gave equipment. Should be a-okay, and if not he can get in touch with them through pesterchum.     In summary, Vruasa is pretty much done here barring overt problems arising on exit. He's passed out some equipment to their new "friend", they've met some asshole drone that can power itself up enough to be a threat, and all-around it just seems like a good time to withdraw for the night, as he talked about earlier.
Homura Akemi	Homura has nothing else to add of value to the scene specifically! She could toss in an ammo box if Grey wants one. But that's about it here!
Abstractum.Net	Psalm gets a quick look, but then, "Your group has earned a bit of help from me, if that's how you'd like it." He says. "But there's not much worth to blending in. Everyone around here, even the other survivors, are all trying to kill each other. I'll get something for you to wear the next time you come, if you want."     He gratefully takes the new shotgun dropping his old one like the worthless artifact it is. He holds it back in the same position, saying, "Thank you." And then he looks at Fiora a bit. Sheepishly, and reluctantly, he tones his paranoid a few notches down, from "aiming at everyone" to "gun at the ready". "Right." There's also a look at the armor. The survivor can't really think of how to react to that. There's a lot of staring at least. "Thank you, I think." He says, with a particularly bewildered sort of look.