Scene #7179: Seeker of Karma

Owner	Pose
Haseo	The second Job Extend quest. It's finally time. The event takes place in the Theta Server this time rather than the more known Delta Server. The scenery is different too, rather than a cobblestone city, it's more of a reclaimed ruin, complete with foliage and cobbled together stands to sell stuff. Though this is only the hub area, they're not going to be sticking here for long once Haseo stars forming a party. The game can only support a party of three players. Which for an MMO that worked on modern logic, would make big group runs for content like this impossible. Luckily, quests aren't really instanced in most cases in The World R:2, so Haseo only needs to invite two people and let the rest come in by telling them the keywords. Those who aren't invited properly don't get to see it, but Zero and Yuuki on the other hand are subjected to a rather cliche dialogue from a small old man about how power doesn't do anyone any favors and does more bad than good. But given this is the Concord, it's doubtful anyone puts much stock in what the NPC has to say. Especially Haseo. The quest area, to nobody's surprise, is a dungeon. A cave-like system with a narrow hall and only an exit and a blue, spherical gate to return back. But nobody is planning on heading back straight away more than likely, so further on they go. The next room is bigger, open area with another exit further down, with the only thing of note other than that being a singular yellow treasure chest. It's apparent that whoever designed this area really wants you to open it, given that the moment everyone walks through, both exits are sealed by mechanical gates.
Majima Goro	"Aiyah." There's a loud, audible crick as Majima Goro barges in on this three-man content, lagging behind the party. A wooden bat is slung over his shoulder, and he swaggers along with that obnoxious confidence he is proud to project at all times. He has, apparently, missed some dialogue of import, but that's hardly any important matter. Then, of course, there is a cave with thin walls. The bat's /utter nemesis/. With a monocular eye roll, the bat is put away. "..Eh? Ya tellin' me your game's top o' the line crazy fantasy world, and they STILL got ya runnin' round dark caves? We had better shit in the eighties!" He puts a gloved hand to his chin, stroking the lower part of his goatee. "Shit, I'm startin' ta sound like an old man, here.."
Staren	Staren's expression is a bit more morose than usual behind the visor. He nods to the others after stepping out of the teleporter, but doesn't speak first. And the first room is... a treasure chest? Majima speaks up, and Staren turns to him. "It's a cave, but look at the graphics! It really feels like you're there." He raps a gauntleted hand on the wall. "Well, we ARE here, but you know what I mean." He turns back to the chest. "I guess we have to open it." He waits a few seconds to see if anyone else does, but if they don't, he'll step up. This is a game dungeon, after all. It's designed to be completed, not to kill all who enter.
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki has joined the party! Yuuki will now die* for you! (* Some terms and conditions apply.) Having never been part of a JRPG party, Yuuki has found a wonderful experience in windowshopping for JRPG equipment and cosmetics. She's tied a black bow-ribbon into her bangs, which has game data! Cash shop whales have nothing on her. Being subjected to a cliche 'power isn't everything' montage, however, gets her to react in the same way as Majima does to walls in a lovingly procedurally generated world on the Playstation 2 (TM) Video Game Console. Rolling her large red-brow eyes. "Majima, for a quest about attaining new power, this sure isn't being about how cool and good attaining new power in a video game. Normally, when you ascend a unit in a game, they get shinier, and more stars, and better clothes." "Haseo, are you ascending to a bad class?"
Staren	"Do you mean bad like Blackguard or bad like Bard?" Staren asks at Yuuki's words.
Seifer Almasy	Seifer Almasy totally puts stock in what the random old man has to say. In fact Seifer is actually pretty into this. He's traded out his normal outfit for a more R2-Appropriate one - a short white coat with a red cross on the back, a black bodysuit that covers his chest and disappears into his baggy blue pants, a pair of big black boots, and a pair of Very Anime Double Triangle Shades that are almost certainly one of those obnoxiously .001% drop accessories you might maybe get if you spent a lot of time grinding a specific area. "What, do you not run around dark caves?" Seifer taps Hyperion on his shoulder as he hurries to catch up to Majima. "Time-honored, man. Pretty sure I've run 'em before. Pretty sure most people have. It's like, a rite of passage, or an exam, or somethin'." When Staren goes up to open it, Seifer visibly flips a coin and mutters 'tails.' He snatches it out of the air with Hyperion and glances at it, then rolls his eyes. "Hey," he tells Staren, "That's probably trapped. It's real out in the open an' on a real high floor. Probably for depletin' resources." "But, y'know, go ahead an' open it, just get ready to dodge or block whatever comes out," he adds, "Lettin' you know, not tellin' you not to. Gotta get on with it, right?"
Zero Kiryu	Zero Kiryu trails at Yuuki's side, his hands folded behind his back. Periodically a sliver of vines will trail away from his leg, vanishing into some corner or another 'behind' him. He's started making a habit of this. The simple fact is, it's just safer to have a get-out-of-jail free card. "Cost effectiveness is a concern, even when you have a large budget. Sometimes you need stock resources. Something like this plays to that." He asides to Majima, shrugging. "Also... when you have /more/ to work with, you don't do more with less, usually." He picks lightly at the ACCESSORY Yuuki has acquired, but doesn't mess with it enough to dislodge it. It's just his way of commenting without really saying anything.
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki smiles at Staren. "Which is worse? The game's sassing him about it." Yuuki points at the NPC as her hair ACCESSORY is picked at. "Yeah!" She continues, as Zero brings up economy issues. "Don't ascend to a bad class, Haseo. I won't party with you if your class sucks after this!" She jokes, laughing at her own little joke. She's never partied with him before. She heard something inane like this in the hub city and thought it was hilarious then. It's still hilarious, now, clearly.
Staren	Staren hesitates for a few seconds at Seifer's words. Then he sighs and opens the chest anyway. They do need to progress, after all.
Majima Goro	"I ain't ever run a fuckin' cave as part of an exam, Seifer," He says. "...heh. Now, an office buildin' full o' goons, smashin doors open with their dumbass faces? Yeah. That's an exam." He's absolutely down to let Staren open the obviously trapped treasure chest. If Staren dies horribly, they can /fix/ that. It's fine. He's basically the perfect person to have do obviously suicidal things. At least, the boring suicidal things. Majima wants the interesting ones.
Seifer Almasy	"Oh, sorry," Seifer says to Majima, "I guess instead of exploring a featureless and confusing cave full of samey rooms and dead-eyed monsters you explored a featureless and confusing office full of samey rooms and dead-eyed employees. I definitely see the difference."
Yuuki Kuran	"It'll be a fun adventure! Maybe there'll be boxes of cave nails!" Yuuki encourages the monocular man. "Wait... Wait, no, that's just rocks. Well, nevermind. You can hit people with rocks then."
Haseo	"Geeze. I've talked about my class so many times it's kinda getting annoying. But yeah, I picked the bad' class." He's talked about it before. How his class is competitively, not very good. How, despite having the most skills of any one class, they are gimped in stats. But he's over that, if Yuuki wants that she can go to the new official forums for that. He's pretty sure the nerds are still penciling out damage calcs. "There's other dungeon types, this one is the most common though." Haseo shrugs at Majima, honestly, he never really cared for the dungeon aesthetics. That's more Gaspard and Silabus' thing. Staren, meanwhile, opens the chest. There's no guns or explosions that come out of it though. Rather, scrolls. A lot of scrolls. 99x of six different elements. There's a (Temporary) appended to their name unlike the usual though. So it's clearly an event item of some kind. Probably a fail safe, for something. The chest also doesn't disappear, rather it just closes up to be opened again. The doors that had previously been sealed off also reopen, because the game can't tell if everyone has opened the chest but assumes they did. Seeing that the chest isn't trapped because of Staren, Haseo takes the chance to open it himself, before ultimately scoffing and heading on ahead of the group to the next room.
Seifer Almasy	Seifer looks in the chest, takes the scrolls into his inventory, and follows Haseo. "Why did you roll that class, anyway?"
Staren	No trap, no guns. Staren collects the scrolls, then after he sees the others also collect the chest, he tries to collect it again just to see what happens, before following Haseo out of the room to see what's next.
Zero Kiryu	"Isn't that obvious?" Zero wonders in response to Seifer's question. Helpfully, he refrains from actually explaining himself. He takes a moment to collect items from the chest -- once everyone else who is incliend to do so has -- appearing to tuck the items away in his inside jacket pocket. There is absolutely not that much room in there, but it's so innocuous among this group that it's probably not worth considering deeply. He heads towards the newly-opened doors, examining /one/ of the scroll stacks as he does so.
Majima Goro	"...What's all this shit?" The chest wasn't even trapped. Ah, well. Once it's his turn, he steps forward and opens the box. ... This is a lot of crap to carry. "Am..I gonna need all this?" He asks, before sighing. "..Who'm I kidding, eh? Neheheh! Of course I do. It ain't gonna be that easy." The first thing he tosses aside is a long wooden plank. He sneers, a little. "...Eh, 'course. Alright." He tosses aside what looks to be a modern-style taser. Then a shotgun, made out of gold(?). Then what looks like a portable stove. There's a moment of deliberation. He sighs. The next thing to drop is a very, very sturdy looking iron pole, and finally, a meat cleaver. "There. Six of these. I'm sacrificin' for your ass, Haseo, don't forget that."
Seifer Almasy	Seifer looks at the portable stove. He looks at the gold shotgun. He looks at the taser. He looks at the iron pole. He looks at the meat cleaver. He looks at the wooden plank. Surreptitiously, Seifer picks all of these up. They disappear into his inventory. Seifer does not have limited inventory space. "So what do you even do with the shotgun? Hit 'em with the blunt end?"
Majima Goro	"Eh? Nah, it's a gun. Ain't worth shit against anything you'd actually worry 'bout, and the ammo costs way more than it's worth." He shakes his head. "Seriously. Ya'd have better luck punchin' me in the face than shootin' me with that shit," He says.
Seifer Almasy	"You got any idea how useless I am with a gun? I'd be better off tryin' t' beat you with a Struggle Bat than punch you," Seifer says.
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki is faced with a CHEST of SCROLLS! She is possessed of an impressive - nay, distressing! - amount of skills, but a JRPG inventory is not one of them: She is forced to stuff enormous wads of scrolls - dozens of them! - into her coat pockets, because skirts do not have pockets. "Oh no, Majima, you shouldn't have to..." Seifer intercepts her attempts at being a two-fisted murderhobo with pockets bulging with magic scrolls. This is his shame. He will never be a (Temporary) Scrollceress's Knight. He will only be the mysterious hero xXxHyperionGunbladexXx. "Zero has a pretty good gun... Actually, no, he ate it. I think it was magic."
Haseo	Fire Storm (Temporary): Range (small): Fireballs fall from the sky Is what Zero gets when looking at the scroll. All the other scrolls have similar, brief descriptions. They're all damage dealing scrolls. Seifer might realize though that the Light and Dark scrolls have no reason to have (Temporary) attached to them, given that as far as he's aware, nothing else drops these. The next room is another large open area, with another treasure chest. Behind the chest is a vaguely dragon looking statue holding onto a massive, translucent gem. It's reminiscent of the Beast Statues at the end of almost every dungeon and field map. It's no surprise that Haseo thinks it's the end because of this, letting out a nasty laugh as he goes to open the chest. "Didn't think you paid them off that much. Well, that was easy, time to just-" Haseo bends over to open the chest, a surprised look on his face when the chest, unlike the last one, just vanishes. The doors once again lock themselves, as a cage-like barrier wraps around the entire perimeter. The statue that was merely just decoration before seems to be the obstacle blocking the groups way, an HP bar appearing above its head. It doesn't attack, rather it just sits there. Like a proper statue. Clear Condition(s): 1. Defeat The Effigy of Sin
Majima Goro	Majima has an extended argument with Seifer about whether or not a box of nails is a lethal weapon. It buys plenty of time to follow along and let Haseo open the second chest, which IS apparently trapped. The grin on his face widens, and he starts to lean back a bit. "Neheh! Yes! Yes! I knew this shit had ta get interesting!" There is a long pause. Things did not get interesting. Now, there is a statue, and it has an HP bar. His expression falls. "...Eh? Hey. Haseo. I think ya statue guardian thing is broken, it ain't doin' anything." He walks over to give it a friendly, jovial 1-HP style punch, just in case it's glitched or something.
Haseo	There's a very bold 0 that appears above the statue's head, before it retaliates at Majima. The crystal the statue is holding glows a dark purple, as a pillar of flesh and sharp spikes appear beneath Majima's feet to attack them.
Zero Kiryu	Zero regards the puzzle room distantly. He rifles around in the scroll stacks until he locates both the Light and Dark Stacks. He seems on the edge of using the Light scroll when Majima attacks it-- and once that resolves, he hesitates. Would it expect to be attacked with its opposite, or by matching the color? There's an easy way to find out. He winds up using the Light scroll anyway. "Ah... well, I /did/ eat Bloody Rose. Firearms aren't very useful for somebody like me, but in my previous state something to abridge a proportionate lack of physique was necessary. In its most basic state, it was a gun. 1911, chambered in 45 ACP." He replies to Yuuki, off-handedly.
Majima Goro	Majima was not, by any means, expecting a pillar of flesh and sharp spikes beneath him, as a result of his action. To be fair, that's never at any time his expected result. The good news is, he isn't skewered. He's got the reflexes to avoid that. The bad news is, it absolutely knocks him up into the air, and he's cut up and flung to the side of the room in the process, where he lands on his back. "...Video games are bullshit. Fuck was that all about?"
Seifer Almasy	"It's probably got a gimmick," Seifer says, crouching down to poke Majima slightly. "These things're more like weird minigames than fights, a lotta the time. You gotta figure out the gimmick."
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki points at the statue. "Oh, this is a puzzle!" She exclaims, as Majima hits it. Of all the things for her to decide upon suddenly, that one's... Still pretty tautologically free. It's a puzzle! Clearly, the solution is... "Well, if strength isn't the answer, strategy must be! What's the opposite of purple..." Zero already has out a Light scroll! "A-aww, you're just skipping to the answer!" He wasn't. "And Haseo, it's nonsense they haven't updated a weak class. That's not fair! You're very dedicated, and you should get commensurate rewards."
Staren	It's Haseo's turn to open the not-a-trap chest! Except that instead of items, it gets a boss fight. A boss fight that just sits there. Until Majima smacks it. Staren jumps back, taking an evasive stance, but his thoughts go in the same direction as Zero's and Yuuki's, so he watches to see how that goes.
Majima Goro	Majima slowly gets up, cracking his neck. He steps over to the far wall, leaning on it as he takes out a cigarette. The cigarette is lit, and he eyes the statue. "Eh. Sounds like bullshit, but sure. Some weird-ass gimmick. What, ya gotta use these scrolls in the 'right order' or some shit?" He looks through his pile of scrolls. On the one hand, he absolutely wants to see how this works, but on the other hand, he can't exactly snap a statue's neck. So for now, he'll let someone else take a few licks while he observes the situation.
Seifer Almasy	Seifer continues squatting as Zero uses a Light Scroll. "Maybe? Could be that, could be a lotta things. I think he's onto the right track but it might not be an order thing. Might be random, might shift whenever it gets hit, might have multiple phases...I dunno." He looks over at Yuuki. "It might actually be real complex, boss-lady, considerin' how they're apparently just makin' fun of him for choosin' the worst class or whatever." "It might sequenced." "Or rhythmic."
Haseo	The Light Scroll hits, and there's a large 382 above the statue's head. There's a shutter from the statue as it begins to crack and the HP on the bar drops down a decent bit, before the statue responds again. The gem goes green, and probably to be expected, it uses a wind spell. It seems that answering 'correctly' causes it to be a bit more aggressive, however, given that the spell seems to be an AoE variant, a mass of mini tornados flooding the field. "I don't really care about class balance, not like I plan on sticking with the game on- Tch!" The Adept Rogue is cut short as he has to actually pay attention now. A massive, two handed sword is drawn from seemingly nowhere to help 'block' the tornado. Block in the sense that it dampens the impact, though he's still sent flying back into the arena cage. "Crap! The last wasn't this annoying, who the hell designed this one?"
Majima Goro	Majima watches the tornados spinning everywhere. There's something inspiring about it, but he's got to tuck that away for later. For now, he starts to dance. No, really. He's waving his arms back and forth a bit, kicking his legs out to some unheard beat. "Alright. So, real talk here--the fuck is the opposite of wind? Earth's the obvious tick, but do they really think so fuckin' little of people like Haseo that it's that basic?" He asks. He's having a whale of a time dodging around the tornados, it seems. He just keeps dancing through them, as if he's trying to play around and be the wind.
Seifer Almasy	Ah, AOEs. Didn't see that coming. Seifer, unfortunately, pays for it. He gets hit right in the face with the tornados; he can block a lot of things, and he can cheat physics in a lot of ways, but he can't actually block a blast of wind from functioinally sitting down without some serious bullshit that he can't pull off caught totally unawares. The sudden aggression spike is actually kind of wild, but it's really not the first thing on his mind as he goes sliding back and hits up against the wall. He adjusts his Cool-Ass Shades. "OK," he says, "So much for lookin' cool in here, huh?" Seifer does not whip out an Earth Scoll. Instead, he whips out a Fire Scroll. He glances at Zero, Yuuki, and Majima. "We should set up a chain so we can blast it rapidly in order," he says, "Let him," he means Haseo, "Tank it for us while the rest of us ready our scrolls for the first cycle." "'cause I think it's gonna get real angry real fast."
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki doesn't understand the order. Perhaps Seifer does, but this is a quest... For three people. And there's definitely more than three people of tornadoes, the wind gusting and blasting into Yuuki as she stands her ground against one of the AOEs in a flare of bracingly ineffable 'damage points' applied and then disappearing off of her. "Dark and Light are opposites. Water and fire, Wind and Earth! Okay. Majima, Seifer, can you use the scrolls to negate the counter-attacks! Staren and Zero can alternate using their scrolls on the boss!" Yuuki retreats to the back wall to pick up Haseo. "Come on, Terror of Death. It's a statue puzzle. I'm useless at these, but there's no challenge that's insurmountable when you bring friends, right?" She offers her hand to pick up the prone Haseo. "If they're going to give you the solution, take it. And if they won't power up your class, we can fix this too. But don't forget: Ascending higher takes more effort than the last rung, right?"
Staren	Tornado! Staren's also flung into a wall. "Rrgh." It's suggested that he help Haseo tank. "That's not really-- ah, I guess I could, if you think we can get through this fast enough. Where's Haseo's summon, though?" He stands up and moves to stand between Haseo and the statue and turns his forcefield on. Then it's suggested they attack normally, and use the elemental changes strategically. Staren thinks through that. Can the statue TAKE normal damage? Well, easy enough to find out! Staren raises an arm, then drops the forcefield and blasts the statue with his beam cannons to see if it takes damage or not!
Majima Goro	Personally, Majima isn't much of a 'wizard' guy. Still, sometimes that's what the situation. Well, the downside is, Staren just went and shot a perfectly ordinary beam at the statue, having learned literally nothing from when Majima punched it. He'll go with it. Well, even /if/ Staren's gone and changed the weakness, all he has to do is try to only use the rocks /on the tornados/. He can do that, right? That's how video games work. He just targets something besides the boss.
Zero Kiryu	Zero regards the great mess of tornadoes dully. Vines twine their way down his legs and anchor themselves in the ground beneath him, securing himself in place-- though allowing the damage to strike him all the same. He's tough, though. A few numbers pass overhead now and again -- 22 -- 58 -- 37 -- as he rifles around through the scrolls. This time two are produced -- one Earth, another Wind in case it switches elements along an obvious polar axis -- before the Earth Rune is employed. "I don't think the change is that predictable," he replies, "but we'll see. If it flips along a polar axis before moving to the next set we should see Wind next. After that there's no telling if it'll be Water or Fire, so prepare a scroll corresponding to each. It might not be /that/ predictable, either, though. We'll see."
Seifer Almasy	Yuuki gives a battle plan. Like a good knight, Seifer gets ready to counterattack on her orders. He's not gonna counter the tornados - Majima's already on that - but he's readying himself to counter one of two elements. Either it'll flip to Dark because Staren reset it, or it'll flip to...Seifer's guessing fire, so he readies the water scroll.
Haseo	Haseo takes the hand of Yuuki after what would be considered an eternity on the battlefield due to being a hesitating grumpy teenager. Luckily, the statue is kind enough to wait. Especially since Staren attacks it with a laser beam. The laser beam, having no real definable elemental type, is treated as a standard attack. There's another 0 damage indicator above its head before it counters with a ball of fire, the crystal changing to a reddish hue as it does so. "Alright. Well, here goes nothing I guess. Man, gonna give whoever designed this a piece of my damn mind when this is through, Job Extend quests are always some obscure bullshit."
Seifer Almasy	Seifer gets a sense of smug satisfaction as he casts the water scroll immediately upon seeing it change to fire and shoot the fireball at Staren. It's like he used to run interference for somebody. And never had garbage AI that spent all its MP spamming lightning instead of USING FUCKING CURE.
Staren	0. Well, that answers that. Staren reflexively starts to dodge as the fireball comes out (wasn't he supposed to be tanking, whoops) but then aborts as Seifer counters with the water, and he watches that orb to see what it changes to next and try to follow up with a weakness hit from the appropriate scroll!
Yuuki Kuran	With Zero prepared and timing things, Seifer covering Staren, and Staren... Well, it's fine. It's all fine. Still, the whole situation is a bit off, isn't it? "Majima, do you feel anything off? Not just about this fight, but this event." "Haseo, does your class use magic? Why's this the puzzle for you advancing? Or is it the same for everyone? Is this a special puzzle just for you? The game was making fun of your class - why's it this puzzle? There's got to be something wrong here, somethig..." Yuuki moves around the portcullis gate, prepared by the party's strategy and heaves up on the gate to see if it was interactive or simply rendered terrain.
Majima Goro	Majima Goro, who is not one of those people with psychic powers, or really, any understanding of video games since Hang-On was a thing, taps his head a moment. ... "...If I were the GM? It ain't about him. This entire thing is about forcin' Haseo to depend on other people for help, cause he can't possibly do this shit alone."
Yuuki Kuran	"Oh!" Yuuki considers this, pausing her heaving at the barred way forward to nod along in consideration. "That makes sense. The GMs know Haseo from before the Concord, so they don't know all of his new friends! Well, I hope they're watching then!"
Seifer Almasy	"If you say 'we're not friends,'" Seifer warns Haseo, "I'm gonna walk over there an' stab you myself."
Haseo	The fireball doesn't seem to have any inherent tracking, so it just sort of whiffs as Staren dodges it. The Concord will never know how lethal a fireball to the face is at this rate. 376 The HP bar on The Effigy Sin goes down further as it cracks up even more, and it responds by letting out a massive burst of light? , the gem now turning to white. How the hell is Haseo suppose to tank AoEs again? It kind of just does whatever, and he doesn't remember. At the very least, he's prepared to counter some of it. Rather than a scroll, it seems Haseo casted an actual spell. "Ani Zot!" A pillar dark appears a couple feet of head of Haseo, and while it isn't targeting anything specifically, it seems to do enough of a job of not letting the light spell through to let someone hide behind it. It also answers Yuuki's question, but Zero and them can see that one spell like that is enough to chunk a good amount of his SP. A spellcaster he isn't. Haseo, in the mean time, just kind of continues to face tank the spell, using his stupidly large sword as an impromptu shield once more to deal as best he can. Which is better than you'd think, but man is he clearly not meant for the tank role despite having chosen heavy armor. The exit for Yuuki is within reach, unfortunately there is a big dumb barrier in her way that tells her she can't leave. Well, sorta. It's clear if she runs into it enough she can flee the battle if she wanted, but unfortunately that's the extent of it. The game designers were pretty lame in that regard.
Zero Kiryu	"This is solvable by an individual. It simply requires not approaching it too quickly or without examining the tools that the quest offers." Zero says, looking a little annoyed. He observes Haseo's SP bar decline as he casts his /own/ counter-acting spell. He's not coordinated enough to swap to a Dark scroll and follow up simultaneous, though he suspects the coordination to do so would make this battle go a /lot/ faster. After a moment's more thought, he gestures into the surroundings and alters them further. Obstacles made of condensed vine begin to grow from his body, snapping off after a short while and then forming into static fixtures of the field. In a typical boss arena in an MMO, they're the sort of thing you would get behind to avoid the instant death mechanic. "Even for what is intended to be a team puzzle," he adds, "this seems a little obnoxious. Haseo, you didn't do something to offend these people, did you?"
Majima Goro	There's a problem here. Haseo can 'tank' this thing, whatever the fuck that means, but not for very long. Also, this weird puzzle bullshit isn't exactly his bag anyway. "Heh. Alright, Haseo, I can take some of the hits from ya, why not. Get that, uh, mojo back, or whatever the fuck." There is a distinct advantage, after all, to the fact Majima can do very little hitting here. He's /much/ more capable of focusing on defense, and so he looks at the orb, and...he's just going to piss it off. The dark spell happens. Sure, there was a discussion about 'counter-attacking' or some bullshit, but he doesn't -get- it. So he just.. ...Never mind. No, he doesn't have the heat built up to do anything cool with the scroll of darkness. He's just going to hit the orb again.
Staren	Start to dodge, hesitate, undodge as the water fails to stop the fireball leaves Staren hitting the deck unglamorously as the fireball shoots over him. Haseo then demonstrates that countering IS possible, though. As he stands up, Staren suggests, "What if, after negating its attack, we ALL cast the weakness on it at the same time? If the hits all count, we'll kill it a lot faster."
Yuuki Kuran	"I should talk to the Gamemasters about the... Architecture." Yuuki grumbles, absolutely in the tone of 'I'm going to have to break them of this foolishness', and returns to the task at hand. This is... extended. "This isn't a fight, and it's not really a puzzle either. It's busywork." Yuuki walks up to the damage-spamming pillar, two fistfuls of Light scrolls in her hands. "Everyone just pick an element and blast away. We're done here, this is boring." Yuuki looks up at the cieling. "Stop wasting my time, please! Thank you!" Haseo caused this. Friendship will overcome.
Zero Kiryu	"Yuuki's right." Zero says, simply. He glances towards her, projecting some thoughts in her direction. It's clumsy in comparison to her own mental abilities, but it's enough to get the message across: Distribute scrolls to a cluster of butterflies and have all of them use the scrolls simultaneously on the next elemental rotation. You have the coordination and speed required to accomplish this multiple times on the same tick without deviance between instances.
Haseo	There's a deep voice, it doesn't seem to be coming from anywhere specifically, but it's chuckling. The kind of chuckle you'd get from someone who kind of thinks he's the smartest one around while actually having the smarts to back it up. "Apologies, Director. The event was put together on a short notice after all." That's probably like 90% of the truth, but the other 5% he's leaving out is probably spite. The other 5% of that is who knows. Regardless, everyone chooses to just spam spells and completely bypass the waiting nature of this event. There's a flood of multi-element bullshit that just gets thrown out, before it ultimately has no more HP left to continue existing and just sort of crumbles apart and dissipates on the ground. There's a victory jingle, and a menu pops up for everyone. Rewards: 0 EXP Nothing. Zilch. It gives nobody anything as a last bit of spite, but at the very least, the treasure chest is back once the arena that enclosed them goes down. What's next? Do they all have to hold hands and open it together? Do they turn around, realizing that the mark that they were after was inside them all along? No. Screw that. Haseo kicks the chest open. There's a notification on his end that he has the Mark. That's it.
Yuuki Kuran	The moment comes. Zero gives Yuuki a Meaningful Mind-look. Majima gets ready to leap into danger for her, and there's a considerance of the mad monocular man for the thing he claimed to be ready for. Her expression is confused, the great idea of Zero getting a 'yeah yeah, hold on' mental dial-tone equivalant as she just sort of... Stares at Majima Goro. He'd jump in front... of this? For her? <<<Tac-Concord> 3 Majima Goro says, "...heh. ....so...'sides the fact that I'm takin' anyone legal ta drink back with me to the bar after this shit, what does that thing even do?">> The blasting happens. Damage happens to, probably. The puzzle is secondary, falls away. Match the element for a spiteful puzzle put together for Haseo's sole benefit. Anticlimactically funny, if you really get into it. "I'm sorry. I was just blowing off some steam. Thank you for your consideration." Haseo has time to get the chest. "Majima, let's go drinking! That sounds fun. Haseo can catch up after he's done classing up, or whatever he needs to do. Zero, do you want to drink? Staren? Seifer?"
Staren	Staren thought he had a better idea, but he's not going to naysay the Director, not for this. He blasts away with elemental scrolls, and then it's over. "...I don't drink. I guess I could be designated driver, but think carefully: Will having me around asking 'So what's so great about drinking in bars anyway?' only be a buzzkill?"
Zero Kiryu	"The purpose of social drinking is to relax the people drinking so that they are able to better enjoy themselves, particularly if they're not inclined towards a social environment to begin with." Zero explains, as he takes up his usual flanking position to Yuuki's side, "If you've ever had a conversation while extremely tired, and found yourself more willing to share or express yourself honestly, then you should get the general idea." "Then again..." "Your filters are so bad I doubt the concept applies to you, Staren." He concludes, dully.
Yuuki Kuran	Staren raises an enterprising query. "Wait, you don't drink at all? Is it... a robot thing?" Yuuki's expression falls. "That's terrible. I think I'd go crazy if I couldn't drink anything at all..." A meaningful moment passes. "It'd be totally maddening! Proper hydration." She finishes. "Well, I won't need any help. I'm a terribly powerful leader of the greatest multiversal group!" Majima is going to drink her under a table. "If his filters are bad, he should probably try cleaning them. Wait, you mean..." Yuuki gains a soured look. "Well, I want to drink with Majima."
Haseo	"I'm underage, so..." Haseo's dusting himself off at this point while trying not to be visibly angry and failing. Of course it'd have to be Yata. Oh well, he's got the thing he was after, that's what's really important. Not cheap lessons about friendship or whatever. "Anyway, I owe someone a favor by turning this thing in as quickly as possible." It's the kind of thing a person would say as an easy copout, but coming from Haseo, it's most likely legit. Given if he really didn't want to go, he'd just say it straight out. He's already making his way to the exit gate, placing a hand on it before saying the absolutely most obvious thing. "Oh right, if you wanna leave, just use this." And then he's gone.
Staren	Staren listens to the others. He shakes his head to Zero. "Pretty much any time something like that happens it goes extremely badly for me. Sounds like all the more reason not to drink alchohol..." He turns to Yuuki. "Which is what I meant, by the way. I'm not in a robot body at the moment." He quirks an eyebrow at Haseo saying he promised someone he'd get his class-up as soon as possible. Why would he even need to promise that, wouldn't he want it ASAP anyway? "It may not be for me, but have fun with your drinks, you guys." He waves and follows Haseo to the gate.
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki smiles brightly at Staren, before grabbing Majima by the hand and using Haseo's exit portal. They go drinking!!! Kuran Yuuki takes hits like a secret boss, but shots like a 17-year old Asian girl. She is saved only by the fact that she has strong, Nordic blood in her to counteract the low tolerance of the vaguely Asian features. "We can drink, and then punch some people, and then drink some more!"