Scene #7771: The Angels of Yore

Owner	Pose
Priscilla	At the Wall of Dregs: Hiromi's trail brings Seft right to the crater in which she'd left those remains. The heap of bone ash there crackles and glows when she comes close, resonating feebly with the blazing brand in her hand, as if it longs to reach out and touch it. Planting the coiled iron into the ash causes the thoroughly spent and inert bone-stuff to almost knock her over with a rippling wave of heat and the thrashing roar of crackling flames. Though it should very much have nothing combustible left to burn, a small, eerily slow-moving fire sprouts from the meagre pile anyways, its crackling underlaid by eerie tinkling and echoes. That fire, the murky horrors won't approach at all. Her choice is very much whether to plant it on the spot, and block the cathedral, or whether to scoop up the cloak and take it all the way to the mill, which would provide a more advanced safe spot. Priscilla is briefly too focused on clearing out the horde, especially where Kaito stops to take a break. Her scythe is, as ever, a perfect weapon for cutting through whole ranks at a time, like terrible weeds, but during a short breather, she does stop to examine the way the starry ink-water soaks into the texture of its blade like sand. Cutting down one more trio of enemies, she uses a dragging draw-cut to do it, and verifies the way it 'absorbs' them the moment it makes contact. "No, I assure thee I am well enough." Priscilla replies to Gilgamesh. "At least, as well as can be. Perhaps this shouldst sayeth more of the nature of our foes. Come, let us be much further than here. If the old woman is to be believed, there art far graver perils ahead still." Eryl diverging from the main route briefly wins him some respite from the onslaught, though he'll need to find his own way back later. Unfortunately, the suits of armour here are but empty shells, filled with meager lumps of charred bone fragments and ash. One is slumped over the flagpole of a royal red banner that Eryl has no record of whatsoever, still holding it upright with all of its joints rusted in place. The 'altar' certainly looks more like a sort of coffin, up close, odd as it would be for one to exist inside a probably once-royal chamber like this at all. Laid on top of it is a thick and dusty tome, with yellowed pages edged in gold leaf. It takes him but a second to realize that it doesn't lack a title, but rather the entire book is written in braille. The particular odd treasure Hiromi had taken with her responds to her power instantaneously. The inscriptions regain a bright, aquamarine glow from within, and a long blade of glittering energy springs from the seemingly useless length of too-thin steel. Eddies of magical current swirl around her while it blazes, protective in some arcane nature.
Priscilla	Her onward charge, though, brings her to the mill itself, and Seft not far behind. On dry ground, Seft can immediately ascertain that the wind here would be simply insufficient for turning it, even were it fully straight and level, because the axle is a massive affair that seems to be connected to huge lengths of coiled chains, supporting what look like iron-shod loading lifts, fit to haul something heavy out of the ground. The interior is a maze of broken stairs, bridges that lead nowhere, and the odd very obvious pressure plate that may still be active. It seems to be sheltered and empty, though it is awash in virulent poison, mostly submerged and leaving little space to actually stand. Over the top of it, there is a high, winding, rocky ridge, exposed between two portions of chaotic ruins. Up here, Hiromi first sees that the miserable swamp continues ahead, under a huge earthen archway above, which supports the remains of an exotic, tiered pagoda, and she can see the movement of small scurrying things all around it. Dingy wooden shacks and the hollowed out husks of cottages dot the region, until the bulk of what turns out to be but one singular tree of utterly monolithic size obscures the way entirely. It seems to have, at some point in ancient history, fallen on its side, shattered in half, and its exposed insides have hollowed out, though the main trunk is still far below, and what she sees now are miles and miles of twisting roots, large enough to run across even at their narrowest tips. The whole area beyond . . . glitters, strangely though. It's hard to put a finger on it. The air sort of sparkles. Like a visualization of electric charge before a thunderstorm, maybe. That's the best natural comparison she can draw. There appear to be many shiny things in all the muck itself, half-buried or submerged, but it's difficult to tell what they are, or if they're even real. Closer, though, is another figure. One seated on a short ledge of rock, under the shadow of the arch, a good many miles from the old crone above, blocked from view by now. A human, obviously, male by the sound of his voice, less than middle-aged, muttering to himself in soft and fairly confused tones. However, he is fully concealed in about thrice the amount of solid steel armour it is practical for a human being to actually wear, to the point even his helmet looks like a heavy metal tea kettle. An even more preposterously sized slab of a shield is set near his side, and across it, something like a leaf-bladed greatsword where the hilt was simply extended into the length of a full spear. He does not, however, appear to be hostile at all.
Kaito Kumon	Kaito watches Priscilla, his attention briefly diverted from the fight to track her. There's the unspoken suggestion that he's taking notes. Afterwards, he catches up to the rest of the group - by foot, by motorcycle, or by dimension-hopping, as appropriate - and arrives at the edge of the muck. ... Why do I get this sense... like this is just a series of graveyards..." "A graveyard of kingdoms, and then a graveyard of treasures?" He goes to approach as close as he can to one, reaching out towards it to poke at it with his lance, hesitantly - as if not sure if it's real.
Kukuru	For the most part, Kukuru's settled on making sure everyone's still in good shape to keep exploring this wretched place. She drags her feet a bit as she walks along with little haste in her step, content to just blip in and out of existence through those dark clouds to close the distance between herself and someone that looks even remotely injured. It's not until she finishes all that work that she finally notices that muttering human figure under the arch. Is this the one the crone mentioned? He's certainly armored up to a ludicrous degree, but there's only one way to find out for sure. Teleporting a good couple of yards behind him, Kukuru rests her arms at her sides and her claws at the ground before inhaling slowly, then yawning loudly and a bit dramatically to make her presence known. "Oh.. Hey, another person here. He-llo there." She greets him with her usual lighthearted and easygoing tone, dragging her claws on the ground lightly as she approaches him with all the visible aggression of someone that's practically sleepwalking into their own kitchen. "Have you been here long? You must be famished..." As per her usual method of greeting strange new people, she reaches into a pocket with one of those cartoonishly oversized claws and withdraws a bottle of water along with a sandwich before offering them all to him. A hero, to be more precise, with grilled chicken and assorted vegetables with an unhealthy slathering of mixed sauces to keep it from being too dry to eat. "Here you go. How much further do you have to go?"
Hiromi	Hiromi acquires a magical blade. As she'd begun with a blade and magic, perhaps this was the predictable result, though it still surprises her. Guessing that it will be difficult to hold it by the 'glittering energy' portion, she messes with it in some arcane fashion, flourishing it by the grip before she can return it to its former size, and stow the thin, steel blade beneath one of the leather straps crossing her sides. For now, she'd rather keep the blessed brass halberd in hand, or rather, she has no easy way to stow a weapon of that size without also being inconveniently large for the environment. She does still wish to be able to walk through doors. There is a mill, but there is also a fallen tree, and above a swamp, a pagoda. Normally, that would be a place to find people, but she's so far found very few 'people' here, at all. Maybe that old woman overlooking the place would qualify, though she'd not put the question to the test. The scurrying things probably aren't, in any case, but a tiered pagoda is still a place that 'was important, once.' It's enough to cause her to pause, and give some real consideration as to which way to run. Oh, but there is a person. An armored man, possibly. Hiromi heads the direction of the tea kettle helmet, her polearm resting over her shoulders, and calls out, "You! Are you a warrior? Fighting? Treasure-hunting? Or, stalling?" She gestures up toward the pagoda. "That place. You know it? Gone more far than here?"
Yuuki Kuran	From behind Kaito, in the shadow cast by the armored knight, a short-haired Yuuki Kuran 'steps' forward, into his awareness and periphery both, from the darkness around his loudly-booted feet. "Well, she said that 'far graver perils' are ahead of us, so..." Tapping her fingertips together, Yuuki smiles cheerfully. "To a point, isn't the whole world a grave? Here, though, yes, I'd say there's quite a lot of graves..." Her red-brown eyes sweep past Kaito's shoulder (it takes a moment) towards the chaff being cleared and absorbed by Priscilla's weapon. "... And quite a bit of depth to go." Chasing off after Priscilla, her voice lingers betwee Kaito's ears. 'Don't spend all your time looking. You'll never catch greatness if all you do is look at it.' With Kukuru using Food and Care on the stranger (and Hiromi challenging him in every other language the Concorc speaks in), Yuuki finds contentment among the shimmering grounds. Reaching towards the glints in the muck she beckons some of the sparkles to hand with a gentle telekinetic yank, not wanting to get into the muck herself without a great reason.
Starbound Flotilla	Seft finds little in the way of options in the mill. Lifts? Practically everyone here can get around already! And it wouldn't even turn if it could! She really, truly needs to find a safe locale, and this, it seems, simply ain't it, chief. Maybe there's no monsters here because it's literally full of poison. She has to move on, or up, or, in general, in the direction of the progression Hiromi continues to carve out, because going anywhere solo is a death sentence in these regions. "Exhausted. We've yet to find a single area of this region that is not trying to kill us in some way." She mutters, once she finally gets there. "Hopeful. Someone else is here...? Sir knight, you look like you know this place well. Do you know any safe spots to rest in all this? My companions can't keep fighting those watery creatures forever, we need to make a camp..." That's the most essential question, and it gets out in front of things like "who are you" or "where are we after all this exploration" or "how do we stop the monsters".
Eryl Fairfax	While he might not have ever handled a book quite this old before, Eryl is an expert on the proper handling of antiques. He approaches that book of braille, and upon recognizing it as such, starts carefully leafing through it, recording each page in his implants and putting it through a translation. With any luck, it uses the same or similar systems of braille as he's used to. If not, Original Face starts trying to figure out what this new system could be. The banner he scans, but ultimately leaves alone. This is their grave too. And while he's not above securing a copy, he doesn't want to be a graverobber. The design on the banner is saved too, of course. After a quick check-in with everyone out here, he learns something interesting. A man, all the way out here, clad in armour. The tinhead the old woman mentioned? Is it him leaving the scraps of fabric to mark a path? It takes a bit of scanning to figure out where this is, based on the descriptions given. But once Eryl has it, he begins making his way towards them, intent on opening dialogue with whoever would want to be out here.
Priscilla	"Thou art not likely incorrect." Priscilla says to Kaito, and leaves it at that. Prodding the muck with his lance certainly stirs it around. It actually isn't very deep; enough to swallow someone if they fell over, but if they can keep their feet, it's just a sucking drag below the knees. It's still very poisonous, because of course it fucking is. Eryl finds that the weighty tome is still surprisingly solid despite its advanced age, likely due to its sheltered resting place and the lack of anything to eat or rot the pages, as well as the sheer amount of metal leaf in it; even the bumps of text are embossed, smoothly contrasting against the paper. It is of course written in another language, but braille as a system is fairly well-solved, and deciphering passages isn't too hard. It appears to be something halfway between a holy book a compendium of tales or poetry. A tome of epics, lengthy and verbose, written like the old testament, about ancient gods and heroes. This was likely some kind of church, after all. The curious thing is that, while it references many names and places that he knows --tales of Artorias walking the abyss, Gwyn linking the flame, and so on-- it includes unnerving alterations and references. 'Ancient' Astora. The 'First' gods. And alleged deities he's never heard of. The very last entries seem like recent additions, mentioning a 'holy queen', 'angels', and a 'winged princess', but are written as almost childish wish fulfillment; that some great heavenly rapture would come to save the believers at some dying day. And this world has certainly never been one for anything even close to messianic religion. And Yuuki wanders out into the sparkles! They glitter and dance all throughout the air, high above and far out into the distance. As she enters, they seem to crowd in around her, clustering like friendly fireflies. Soft 'god rays' shine out of the terribly grey and lifeless clouds, bathing her in warm spotlight. Her skin immediately begins to petrify, and drive jagged crystals of growing cursed hell into her flesh. Someone else would certainly be petrified in instants. Yuuki's body can probably hold it off for a good ten, maybe fifteen seconds, before needing time to recover. Distantly, everyone hears a sound from high up in the air, like the call of a songbird, uttered from a human throat, too hoarse and raw and gurgling to sound like much more than a sonorous shriek.
Priscilla	Kukuru is complimented for her sanity for the second time today. The incredibly heavily armoured figure looks up, and then says in a surprisingly chipper tone, and completely different accent: "Oh, look at you, you've got your head screwed on correct." Looking around to the gathering group, he says "Fantastic, to meet a kindred spirit on this godforsaken crag." He still seems pretty intent to keep chilling there though. "Well well, is that real food? For me? Well, it's certainly been a while hasn't it, but I'm afraid that'll do me no good. Just dust in the mouth you know. I'm surprised to see anyone still makes it like that. Keepsake of a better time, I suppose. People find comfort in all sorts of things these days. Not that I've seen anyone in quite some time! Haha." He pauses. "No, there was that other fellow. A knight, I think. Not a very big bloke, but he had sort of an . . . aura about him. Well he's long gone on ahead of me. A couple of days ago, I think. Or it might have been years. It's hard to tell in this place." Her puts his hand to his chest and laughs sheepishly when Seft asks him. "Me? A knight? No no, I'm afraid you've put too-noble intentions on me! It's as your big friend says! I'm something of a treasure hunter you could say. And if I can let you in on a secret, past that giant earthen tower, in the thick of the swamp, there's a precious treasure indeed. It's not a very nice place to visit though, I'll admit that. But that's not the sort of treasure I'm after; I don't have any use for it you see, so I left it behind. Maybe you'd rather go grab it yourself. It's as good a treasure as any." He considers the further questions. "Oh, you mean the murkmen. Right, yes, from the ah . . . the Deep Sea? No that can't be it. No seas around here, as you can right well see. The deep something or other. I can't remember. Well, if you're looking for safe haven, anywhere with a fire is good enough, though the ancient Bonfires all the way out here are all dead bones by now." He looks up at the pagoda. "Think that used to be from the far east I reckon. Probably dusty old scrolls and things about demons. Maybe gold. But that's not what I'm after either. Do as you please with it." Then "How much further? I shouldn't rightly know. Just look at this place. Cor, you can see why they call this the dreg heap at world's end, can't you? Mangled remnants from every age and every land. Probably goes on forever. It actually elnds credence to the old rumours too. That the Ringed City rests below it all . . ." "Ah, don't mind me, you needn't concern worry yourself with nonsense. I'm just enjoying talking to someone, and I'm sick of old humpty."
Kaito Kumon	Kaito gets a front row seat to Yuuki starting to crystalize. The banana lance is flipped around and held out as an assist for getting back in, if necessary. "So this would be - not a grave for treasures, but another trap?" "There has to be a way through here, though..." He stands back up straight, takes a few steps back, and considers the problem, and then glances up - looking for the source of the shrieking, lance once again at the ready.
Hiromi	<Q-Conversation> Hiromi says, "'Old scrolls.' I've little need for those, this hunt. But, I'll clear lurkers, if others wish." It's not like she's no use at all for it, but without a way to translate anything found here, Hiromi would rather leave that sort of information-hunting to others. Interesting weapons, other treasures, and opponents are her focus. But if someone else could make use of it, she'll lend martial aid to the effort. After parsing through what he'd said for a bit, Hiromi responds to the well-armored fellow, "'Stalling,' yes? You've something to find. But, you stand here. You stay. Why? Can't find it?" She can't, at the moment, see what's happening to Yuuki.
Eryl Fairfax	It takes some walking, but thanks to everyone else having cleared the way already, Eryl soon catches up with the group that is greeting the armored man. Along the way, he parses the braille tome. A lot of it he knows. Names, at least, had not been corrupted by the time of its creation. But things that come after. New gods. The appending of 'Ancient' to places he has been. An incredible amount of time must have passed. The most recent entries though... it's a curious thing. In a world of gods who can hand down their gospel directly, they become... mundane. Simple recollections of events, perhaps biased to a degree. The literature, the songs, they become nonfiction, and that gives them a certain air. But these last entries have the air of fiction. The notions of desperate, scared people wanting relief, and so invent scenarios that would grant it to them. Maybe there was a winged maiden and things spiralled from there. But looking around, it's hard to imagine any kind of salvation. Eventually he catches up, and takes a seat across from the armored man."You don't need to placate us with the promise of treasure, sir. We're not looking for a fight. This is more of a rescue mission than anything. My na,e is Eryl Fairfax, Gr-well, it doesn't matter. Yourself?"
Kukuru	Kukuru laughs lightly at the compliment as she takes a seat beside the armored figure, dispensing with any sense of proper decorum in favor of just planting her ass in the dirt next to him. "It does look pretty lonely out here, yeah. And to come all they way out here without even a snack... Ah, you can't eat, either?" She furrows her brow, peering out into nowhere in particular again as she taps a clawed digit against her chin without cutting herself in the process. "I should start preparing smoothies or something, then. They're nice and wet, and you don't even need teeth for them." She replies with a confident nod, stubbornly refusing to take 'cannot eat for lack of proper organs' for an answer. "Someone else came through, too, then... Hm. I wonder if that's the one the old lady was talking about, then." Kukuru taps her chin once more, then peers over at the treasure hunter. "Have you been staying here this whole time? That sounds... Kind of boring, doesn't it?" She probably could have put it a little more politely, but this is one of those occasions where Kukuru's mouth actually goes faster than her brain. Might as well see where that goes. "Then again, taking a break every now and then is important, especially if you've got a nice spot to relax. We can't stay too long, but... Hold onto these, then." She sets the water bottle beside the armored figure, then balances the wrapped sandwich on top of the bottle. "You might not be able to use it now, but maybe it'll be useful later. Maybe someone'll come by. Who knows?" Kukuru chuckles again, then peers upwards at the shrieking noises. Sighing lightly, she pushes herself up, then gives the armored man a gentle pat on the back. "Do you know anything about those? Like a... Um." "... Are they gonna try and kill us, too? And are they poisonous?"
Yuuki Kuran	AT THE BOTTOM OF THE INITIATIVE COUNT: Is Yuuki Kuran, who cheerfully stepped out into the godrays of brilliant, shining light, smiled up into them, raised her hand to gently touch the frictive pressure in the world, or draw it close towards her-- And then the jabbing pain of the 'glitter' grinding her exactly as she had mused. Her macabre, fluttering wonder lifting and landing on terrible happenstances and romance to the infinite. So, when she's right, it's terrible. Terrible enough that she barely manages a backstep before being caught, mired deep enough into the glitter that it would be compoundingly suicidal to leap in and rescue her. Truly, as soon as the realm went to Greco-Judeo-Christian themes of angels and columns and godrays, the most fitting thing was a petrifying death by JRPG trauma sting. The whole sad tale is averted as Second Yuuki, long of hair and pajamas, appears gracelessly at the edge of the field, grabbing the nape of First Yuuki's petrified neck and yanking her other self clear with a stone-crumbling force. It is an oddly bloodless bloody yank, with a good portion of Yuuki petrified still-in-air and coming messily apart from the unpetrified whole. Stone intermingled with bone and blood tear great chunks free, like an orange losing a third of its slices randomly. Cast back onto the clear path, First Yuuki spills onto the ground in tatters, recovering in a heap as she pants undignified. Second Yuuki begins chewing on the petrified tip of a finger annoyedly, making grumpy just-woke-up chewing noises. "What a horrible place for a curse."
Starbound Flotilla	The deep something? The Deep? The Abyss? The... Seft thinks back to Priscilla's painting, and going deep into that. The edge of an entire world, albeit painted, where something strange had collected. Is it similar? She feels like she needs to look at them side-by-side. She needs to rest and gather thoughts about that, most of all. "Contemplative. A fire..." Seft hoists the weird coil-blade over her shoulder. "Contemplative. Well, thank you for the help anyway. I doubt we can make anything like those ancient bonfires... but just enough to scrape by is enough for us." She picks up on a bit of the mood. "Hopeful. Think I've found a way for us to set up a camp, using fire." "Traditional, are we? I can hardly complain of such methods." "You find what we're looking for? At all?" "Annoyed. Could you name it? I found a path to treasure, will that be enough?" "Haaaaah! Treasure! I like the sound of that, gimmie that data!" "Floran will find a way to make camp!" "Yeah, get on the way to that shit, we'll figure it out." "Forward base is essential. Can't sustain this." "Still. Why do I feel like, if you don't try now, that chance will be gone later, or somethin' like that? Maybe it's just the feeling of finality and mortality in the air." "Grateful. Your insights are appreciated, treasure hunter! I hope you find the things you're looking for. I'll try following that advice." Seft nods gratefully, and tries to take a look at the swamp past the pagoda, looking or even scanning for a tower. Is there a good, solid spot to set up camp in the swamp? She needs to get a route through there, and charge to somewhere she can set up her own bonfire equivalent!
Priscilla	Mister metal can answers Eryl first as the new arrival, and also because he's asked the question that usually comes first. "Aha! More friends? What a fortunate day this is. Call me Lapp. I can't remember my real name, so let's just go with that. And placating? Perish the thought, friend. Though if you're not out for treasure, why exactly are you lot all the way out here?" Kukuru's excessive generosity gets a fretful moan out of him, and then he says "Ohh . . . in all honesty, there's something I should tell you. I'm . . . a hollow. Yes, I try to play it off, but I haven't a clue about my past. Who I was, or what I lived for. Not even my own blessed name. All that fits down this dusty gullet anymore is estus, and there's not a whole lot left in my flask." Priscilla, of course, reacts to it immediately. "A hollow? That is not what-- No, such is not possible regardless. There art none amongst the Undead's number remaining. The Curse was broken along with the kindling of the First Flame. Thou art sorely mistaken, poor amnesiac." Lapp laughs. "Now now no need to fuss, miss. You're clearly not human, so maybe you've forgot, but that old fire linking business, well, nobody's bothered with that in a very long time. Not much point anymore. Besides, there aren't many left who can even hold a conversation; that's why I put up with old humpty for so long now isn't it." He shakes his teakettle helmet at Hiromi. "No, no! Well, actually yes, but not for that reason. What I'm after . . . I've come here, searching --for the Purging Monument. It's said to be in the Ringed City. Where the pygmies who found the Dark Souls at the dawn of fire reside. Or so the old rumous go. Not a blessed idea if it's true but . . ." Unfolding his armoured palm, he half-heartedly shows her a sharp-cornered square stone, black and grey like the mottled coal and iron of sandsteel slag, the grim spectre of a skull somehow pressed or scorched into its face. "All I can say is, these little stones aren't doing much to help me remember anymore." "Ah well, that's the long and short of it. So if I completely forget who you are, don't be wroth with me. C'mon, what else can I say? I'm a bloody hollow for heaven's sake! But the reason I'm sitting here, well--" Then bloody chunky Yuuki salsa-in-progress flumphs back in. "That'd be why. I've been scratching my head here trying to think of a way through, but nothing doing so far. 'course, I only just got here. Maybe you'll come up with something though. If you do, wouldn't you mind leaving the back door open for your friend?" Past the swamp, Seft's scanning verifies that easily the best place to set up would be in that den of titanic stone roots, as it appears to elevate high above the sludge, and even block most of the horizon. At its foot however, she also spes other 'dry' ground. Sodden shacks, brittle shanty houses, dilapidated cottages, and thatched huts, all piled up together and nominally, perhaps, safe to use, though several appear to be overgrown. It also reveals that much of the gleaming in that swamp isn't due to the air particles, but shining and glowing things lost to time and the soupy water, many still clutched in the hands of corpses only barely buried beneath the surface. Finally, those looking to the sky have only a little searching to do to find the source of that unpleasant cry. Distantly, though it seems 'coming over' the horizon, or perhaps patrolling that tree with a view of the swamp too, something flies sedately through the air. A great, glowing figure, the shape of a humanoid with perhaps the lower half of a ragged robe or skirt, bearing huge, moth-like wings, all luminous with sparkling white aether. From this distance, one can only really tell that it appears to be bald and gaunt, and has the loose look of being shot with 'veins' beneath its shine. The air around it crackles with barely contained energy, fusing into miniature stars and splitting apart into little coronas of warm split-light colours.
Kukuru	"A hollow! That's..." Kukuru leaves her mouth hanging open as she looks from Lapp to Priscilla, clearly not sure how to react to that. "... Uh." Luckily, they both provide her with enough enough context clues that she can instead get confused by everything else that's mentioned. "That sounds pretty rough. But hey, at least you can make new memories now, with new friends that Lapp knows, even if the previous you didn't. Especially if-" Priscilla speaks of some things being impossible thanks to an important curse being broken via fire, and then Lapp responds with the same fire not happening. Noticing a possible discrepancy there, Kukuru tries not to draw Lapp's attention towards it in favor of just mentioning it to her allies instead. <Q-Conversation> Kukuru says, "But... Um. Just to make sure I'm hearing this right. Lapp said that nobody's trying to do a thing that already happened? How's that work?" <Q-Conversation> Hiromi says, "Happened long-ago." <Q-Conversation> Eryl Fairfax says, "It is discomforting to think that the solution we found was not a lasting one. For that reason, I ask that you maybe not devastate this place. You may bury an explanation of the cause." <Q-Conversation> Eryl Fairfax says, "I will isolate the source of the curse." <Q-Conversation> Kukuru says, "Thought so. Hmmn... That's kinda weird, isn't it? Yeah... I'll be careful." Once that's done, Kukuru notices chunky Yuuki and sighs before hurrying over to her. Yes, even she can run every now and then, and she gets on healing duty to help speed up the process of piecing her back together. "That looks painful... Easy, easy. Eat up if you gotta." She procures another sandwich, then balances it in her lap while holding out her arm." "Uh. So we're supposed to be heading way over... Where?" She looks out towards the glittery hell swamp, squinting briefly as she tries to catch a glimpse of any large enough surfaces that look like they might be worth teleporting to. "Into the weird tree or something, right?" Later, though, as her attention is brought towards that giant flying thing instead. She lets out a quiet 'ah' noise as it glides overhead, observing the massive creature for a while before finally turning back to Lapp. "Oh, yeah. If we find any shortcuts, we'll definitely leave them open. We'd need 'em to get back easier ourselves, anyway."
Eryl Fairfax	Yuuki's condition, and Lapp's explanation has Eryl looking towards the sparkles. Not one to tempt fate, he doesn't check to see if it affects his mechanical limbs. What he does instead however, is try and measure the curve of the area of effect. Where does it start bending away from this little safe area? <Q-Conversation> Eryl Fairfax says, "Those in the air. Can you see us? If so, can you see a glimmering, sparkling field near us?" Once he has an approximate height of the field, Original Face starts crunching some geometry calculations. Assuming the effect evenly permeates all materials, there must be a source somewhere in the middle of it all. Eryl's eyes scan the environment, hunting for any kind of structure or anything that looks out of sorts in the approximate centre. Anything that looks suspicious gets a shot from his shoulder fired through it at high speeds.
Hiromi	A moment of great danger for Lapp, in which Hiromi is considering how to help him regain his motivation, passes when she accepts his reason for having stalled, with Yuuki's still-healing entrance. "You're injured. Were shining things trapped?" They nearly always are, come to think of it. <Q-Conversation> Yuuki Kuran says, "Trapped... No, I was just right about them." <Q-Conversation> Hiromi says, "Grinding of age, weight of stone?" <Q-Conversation> Yuuki Kuran says, "The crushing weight of age, or... the curse like that. A marble light, casting a dull and crumbling sunlit ruin." <Q-Conversation> Yuuki Kuran says, "I'll be fine. I'm... not precisely weak to that kind of effect - I'll just need a moment for it to clear." "You heal well." She does. Hiromi can appreciate that level of quick bounce back from what should have been fatal trauma. "Curses. Sometimes difficult to break, or protect. Destroying the source needs finding the source." After a moment spent thinking, standing with her arms crossed, Hiromi concludes, "Easiest path, may be this: destroy the swamp." When Eryl objects and, more importantly, says he'll find the source, Hiromi leaves off that plan. While she expects she could just unbury a buried explanation, that would require sticking around to do so. Better to just leave him to it, and she'll approach from a different angle. Acquiring a good enough vantage point to see more of the swamp, Hiromi says, "Above, I see something. A spirit? A great moth." She watches it awhile, trying to spot some connection between it and the spot. Perhaps a caretaker, or even the curse's source? But no, they have different profiles. She's not close enough to smell them, but the look is too different. Returning to what Lapp had said, Hiromi turns to Priscilla, as the one possessing relevant local lore, and asks, "'Pygmies.' Do you know these? Seeking 'Dark Souls.'" As for Lapp, himself, she says, "'The back door.' Yes." So long as he's motivated to continue his journey, she has no problem with giving him a hand in that. Dealing with curses is a legitimate obstacle. "Might not be finding doors, but making. I can do this." What she means soon becomes at least half-apparent, as Hiromi dives into the ground, tearing up and shifting away earth and stone as needed, first reaching a depth well below what she'd found of the swamp's apparent depth, and then continuing a standing-Hiromi-sized path forward, toward the tree roots.
Kaito Kumon	Kaito watches the thing fly. Kamen Rider Baron is rival-coded, but even rival-coded Kamen Riders are still Kamen Riders. And to be a Kamen Rider is to be a great many things. You seek justice (however you define it). You rider kick. You have a motorcycle. You fight your dad or sometimes your friend's dad. And specifically for instances like these, you are a Fight Idiot. "I want to fight that thing," announces Kaito, pointing a finger up at it. "I'm going to find a way to fight that thing." "Also it might be the source of the shiny petrifying trap, so fighting it might open up some new pathways forward," he adds, justifying the need to fight it.
Yuuki Kuran	First Yuuki - short haired and action punky, looks up at Hiromi and Kukuru as they tend to her with their attentions -- and in Kukuru's case, her offered sandwich. She draws up, an effect like hair shifting and the wingbeat of butterflies wrapping around her in a facsimile of clothing that has the same general shape as her previous outfit. Her face, when it rises, is unmarred and fine, but there is a slightly-pink seam jagged across her face, like an unfortunate grafting of new flesh against torn old. "Ah, thank you so much, Kukuru, for worrying about me." Patting the giving claw-hands, she accepts the food and loudly consumes it while she recovers, a blushing 'ah, I'm being a burden' anxiety to her action. Second Yuuki, long haired and lightly unkempt, in long and baggy pajamas, continues to crunch her teeth loudly against retrieved parts of her, a furtive habit on full and emblematic display as she lingers within the safe zone. Unwilling to leave parts of herself spilled around, her second self has to chew on them like marble snack-sticks. "Curses are awful. The dying finality of 'I'll never forgive you'." Ker-crunch. "Thanks. I wish I was just immune to those kinds of hazards, the hapless curses of the undirected. Mm." From besides Kukuru, still 'seated' and around a sandwich, First Yuuki mumbles: "I think it's why Priscilla's world is thrilling. It's all so dangerous that even someone like me is just a daring, resilient explorer. It has a... scope to it, that's impressive."
Starbound Flotilla	"Hopeful. I don't plan on closing any doors behind us. If we find a way through, you're welcome to take it." Seft whispers, softly, in a positive way. "Kind. I'm sure you'd do the same, Lapp. I don't really know how you can be what you are, while we know what we know about the outside -- inside? -- the world we came from. But, still, I hope things go well for you, and you find what you're looking for." She focuses on her superior. "Urgent. Director! I'm not really sure how to stop what was happening to you... as far as I can tell, the field is caused by something lost in the swamp, something dropped in there. I'm detecting hand-shaped bone structures around them, even... dozens or hundreds of artifacts. Maybe I could construct a bridge over it?" She looks up to that thing coming over the horizon, whispering, "Worried. Or would that offend the one arriving now... I can't say for sure. Bzzt." She shakes her head. "Focused. Keep your eyes on that thing. Maybe I can find us a way through the swamp..." She scans for lighter zones, for heights she could build bridging at, for any kind of option to create a viable path of passage to those safer areas that doesn't dive the adventurer in question straight into crystal hell. She's gotta find a way through, especially if that floating thing might be hostile... they need to be able to get away from engaging the murkmen and the floating creature at the same time, if that comes to it!
Priscilla	Kukuru's kindness is replied to with what she should feel is a smile, and a "Thanks sweeting." from Lapp that does very much sounds genuine. He is less 'familiar' with Hiromi and Seft, because the former is big and swole and the latter he seems to think is a knight, but he thanks them as well all the same. When Hiromi asks Priscilla, she considers her words carefully, though it is more an act of consulting what little knowledge she has very meticulously, in case of errors or lapses. "They art entities unrecorded in all of Lordran's history. Mentioned only in the ciphered texts we didst gather in so many journeys before. Hidden from memory. All that we art to know thusfar is that they art perhaps some sort of . . . ancient precursor, to man. Strange beings that no longer exist in this world, from which humanity is descended in some fashion, and by which humanity was cursed." She hovers around Yuuki while the vampire is busy gobbling up all her own blood again. "In this one instance, I wouldst not complain if it were far easier." she says, distantly. After all, this time, for Priscilla, the destination, far more than the journey, weighs on her mind. Eryl calculate the field to be 'yes' high. They'd need to fly very, very far up, to maybe get over it. It also appears to roughly hug the contours of the swamp itself, spilling over a little bit into the nooks of smaller roots and the surrounding buildings, but otherwise respecting geography rather than geometry. Nothing special appears to be in its center, though gaining a higher vantage allows both him and Hiromi to see that the deeper swamp is even worse than imagined, populated by those giant, headless and disembowelled, 'corrupted' humanoids, roaming aimlessly back and forth. However, he is eventually able to spot, at another high vantage that oversees the entire swamp from the other side, atop a cluster of wedged-together cabins and cottages and mostly enclosed in giant roots, a hideous sort of fleshy growth, fused to the wood, hunched and unwholesomely glistening. Somehow, it has some relevance. According to Seft's scans, a great cluster of dense metallic objects near the center must be what Lapp is referencing, and thus there is actually probably treasure, but it has no bearing on the curse part. From the height of the arch, she could bridge over to the tree and cabins, avoiding the swamp altogether, though there's nothing to do about the glitter it seems. Taking a shot from that same distance is actually kind of difficult. Computer assisted aim takes most of the load off, but the fact is that even Eryl's miniature coilguns loses a lot of energy over that range. It seems not enough to take down 'a Lordran non-trash mook'. Where it strikes, his visual sensors confirm the hit-ping after detecting blood, and then the fleshy blob . . . unfurls. He sees wet flies-wings. This coincides with a vastly more aggrieved screech from the angel, which identifies him immediately, and swivels on the group. There is a very pretty, shimmery-glittering sound from on high, and the popping embers of heated iridescence around it intensify into bursting stars of warm white light. Which become lasers. Fast, tracking, curvy-homing laser beams. Magical ones, that pierce right through the solid rock. Unreasonably high damage blasting rays of disintegrating proportions, white hot and causing weighty stagger. One of them is like being doubled over from behind by an anti-materiel rifle. Except it fires five, ten, twenty, fifty of the things, and just keeps going and going and going. A rainfal of lasers. A non-stop automatic barrage. It's like being oppressed by several attack helicopters, or bieng pushed up into the corner and locked into an infinite. It sucks beyond all belief, and only stops when line of sight is broken. Hiromi, underground, is safe from those. However, not long after she begins digging, the curse-sparkles begin clipping through the ceiling, rapidly filling up her cozy dark tunnel with ominous godrays.
Eryl Fairfax	The range is very much a problem. Eryl has to aim high and spin up his shot enough to cut down on the variance as much as possible to make sure it doesn't clip anything along the way. And despite it all, the impact isn't enough. Even here in the far, crumbling future, things from this world just take too many hits to bring down. But, it just means he has to line up anot- The shriek from above snaps him from his calculations. Looking up at the angelic figure, Original face calculates distance and firing solutions. If this is the guardian from the lump of flesh below, then... no, it reacted instantly. Some kind of symbiotic relationship. The fly-like wings that emerged, and the look of this thing... is that it's nest? It's cocoon? It's amazing what you can consider as glimmering lights emerge from a thing incensed with you before coalescing into a staccato of lasers, forcing Eryl to leap from his perch and break into a run. The beams drum into his footprints as he presents as low a profile as possible. One beam slams into his side, sending him tumbling behind a pile of rubble from which he can take cover. "If it's the source of that, then..." An idea has formed. There's no way he's getting another shot with the angel upon him. So now he must deal with it indirectly. Rolling up his pant leg, he extracts one of his grenades from their chamber and tosses it a couple of times to feel the heft. "I've moved from there to here, putting me in this position, the lump was that far down... okay." The grenades react to orders from Eryl's implants. He primes this one and tosses it back, over his shoulder and over the rubble. With the kind of precision one would expect from a machine, it falls and tumbles, bouncing off the obstacles Eryl had seen, the falling solution crunched by Original Face. All so it may land at the feet of the fly-like structure before detonating violently.
Kukuru	As much as Kukuru would like to stay and keep engaging Lapp in that pleasant enough conversation, there's work to be done! And angels to fight, it seems, as homing lasers start raining down from above. She actually manages to evade one by twisting sideways and walking past it, and then the rest of the barrage strikes her in several places at once. She lets out a hoarse choking noise as she staggers back, quickly realizing that trying to just withstand the shots isn't a good idea. Luckily, Kukuru has an ace up her sleeves when it comes to infinites: Off-screen teleports. She all but launches herself from the ground to the air above the angel with one of her patented teleports! Seeing Eryl taking his shots, she opts to aid the grandmaster with the power of brute force, throwing herself on the angel from the other side with another teleport-drop followed by slamming her claws into it from each side not unlike a bear trap. It's only when she sees those grenades coming that she finally flings herself backwards, not with a teleport, but just sort of falling backwards and kicking off the angel/ground/whatever's at her feet shortly before the explosives are ready to go off.
Hiromi	The appearance of sparkles in Hiromi's tunnel is all the more easily noticed for it having been pitch darkness, the moment before. She whiffs a quick strike of her closed fist through them, and pulls back with the definite feeling that something dangerous is attempting to grow through her. Neither miasmatic poison nor crystalline transformation are among Hiromi's vulnerabilities, being directly opposed by the force of spirit that maintains her form, but she won't allow it more time to work through her resistance than at all necessary. The second strike isn't at the offending sparkles and their ominous rays, but at the roof above her, at once destroying her solidly crafted tunnel ceiling and all the space of earth and swamp above it, transformed into an explosion of earth, stone, water, and all that was buried within the above. The angle was poor, striking from below, with her tunnel only that deep. One could hardly call the result a chasm. A section of trench, at most, into which murky waters might slowly pour, draining into her tunnel, with the ground that had been there soon to be evenly distributed to the surrounding area. There's a treasure, somewhere, but Hiromi hasn't seen any sign of it, nor does she immediately recall the old lady mentioning it, so it isn't on her mind. She emerges at high speed, leaping into the air, then coming down again, not too far ahead of where she'd exited, with a twist at the last moment. The quick uncoiling into a two-legged drop kick snaps the air like thunder. Her impact drives through the water, and the mud below it, forcing open a path by parting the land to either side, her shockwave carrying all along with it. Except, maybe, for curse-sparkles. If they're unaffected by stone walls, she can't count on them being affected by transonic winds. Opening herself up to the air also opens her to the angel, but she doesn't immediately react to it, being focused on her terrain transformation.
Starbound Flotilla	What can Seft do here? She brings up her heavy tower shield and takes cover from the barrage, blasted endlessly on an increasingly dented shield, while the shock of sweeping lasers rocks through her body. She can't move! "Pained. AUGH! The curse is being emitted, but it's by that thing, not those treasures..." A longer, more intense thought. "Stressed. I can't... there's not any way to disrupt crystaline formations consistently with basic psi-elements, and I don't have the time to..." "BzzzzzzZZZZT! Frustrated. Fine! We'll stand and fight, and hope there's no fallout from the corpse!" But what can she do? She can't move, her main ranged attacks need throwing distance, and approaching for melee is a spectacularly bad idea. She's almost entirely denied options here, unless she waits for the rest of the gang to catch up. Maybe not entirely though. The "god rays" necessary for the curse! It's photoreactive, or-- "Realizing. Some type of holy influence?!" She swivels her scanner and tries to peek her eyes over her shield. "Realizing. Those miniature stars and fusing coronas, it's using magic that depends on sunlight..." The others are focused. The Hollow, one hopes, has something else on their mind. Seft tries to leap out from behind the shield and focus everything she has into... a grand magical staff! A rush of fireballs, trying to burn the remains of the robe, to melt and distort every piece of religious symbolism that she can see on its body. The people of Lordran use these sorts of things to improve their casting of miracles, those magics most related to the sun, right? Maybe she can damage its ability to strike that way... even if it means, however briefly, indulging the magic. Even if it means having to stand with all her tremendous endurance, and suffer the brutally disintegrating blows of those lasers, screaming as she does.
Yuuki Kuran	The grim business returning all of herself to herself takes an annoying amount of time simply becasue of the 'ask' of the task: Physically, eating the whole of it. There would be ways to go about it that would be faster, but none that occurred to her. A conversationally paced activity, as she sits and listens. Priscilla had been a figure of deliberance and consistency, of directed motions and steps-in-order since the pair had met, so the words draw a special gravitas from Yuuki, the Second of which crosses her arms tight and considering and nods. "Well. If you told me where you wanted to go, Priscilla, I can take you there. And so can so many of our Partners. That's why we made the Concord, Priscilla." First Yuuki munches and nods, hmm-hmm-ing firmly. She doesn't need to make talking noises, because she has a whole extra Yuuki for talking while she eats her cursed depression marble to recover her soulmass the hard way. MEANWHILE: Eryl Fairfax, not a member of the Concord, and actually Grandmaster of the Paladins, spots the pulsing corruption with his powerful puzzle solving abilities and shoots it. Yuuki carries on. "So, if this is the time to spend, perhaps it is all-right--" A screeching in the distance. Glimmering lights. Eryl prepares a fastball special. "-- to just... skip to the end? I think it is. If you lay enough groundwork, often enough, it might feel like you're skipping steps because you al-" Twinkle twinkle goes the light, and Second Yuuki's wide eyes grow wider for just a brief second, disappearing in a snap of butterflies as First Yuuki gets cracked by a searing beam of light that then explodes. Then another one sends a tumbling shape popped up into the air, and another, and another, from every direction, an infinite looping seeking homing shot combo that continues and continues, juggling First Yuuki like a particularly adept anime fighting game. It is bad enough for First Yuuki that Second Yuuki, reappearing next to Eryl in his cover, wears a look of extreme distress on her face, a perpetual wince. "Now, Grandmaster-- you seem to have found the best cover once again, so if you'd just-" He doesn't have to do anything. Second Yuuki pops her head up from over the lip, and snaps open Artemis from a baton to staff with an electric crackle. Taking aim, she pops up, takes a hopping step forward and railgun hurls her magic death baton like a giant pushpin to flying 'angel' currently showing her when Mahvel is.
Priscilla	Hiromi exploding out of the ground does, indeed, put her in the crosshairs. Several more glittering, fusing, radiating, popping stars form around the luminous flying menace, and begin minigun-ing tracking lasers into her non-stop. She is, at least, the best suited to dealing with them, in terms of simply being able to survive them and then break line of sight again, but it is a genuinely miserable experience even then, worse than being surrounded by an entire mob of slashing and biting monsters and standing still. The trench is very effective for the fact that the mucky water is viscous on its lower layers and not very deep above the lethally sticky sinkhole mud. Draining the nearby portions, hemmed in by spits of dry ash, leaves ample sticky ground to run across. Kukuru is begging to take A Lot of damage by leaping right at the creature like that. Getting up close, she can finally see how hideous it really is. Though from a distance it blazes with holy fulgor and radiates a warm rainbow of colours, at point blank, she can only see its withered and veined, golden flesh, its eyeless and toothless gape-hole screaming face, its clothing matted and tattered and seemingly fused partly into its emaciated chest, as well as an unidentifiable talisman and rope sash. Her claws slam into it from both sides, and the ephemeral, corrupted butterfly-like thing feels like a solid steel wall, and its insides are only unbleeding petrified wood, sporting a needlessly ungodly massive HP bar as well. Her reward for staying there and mangling it as much as she can is a sound like a bell and a flywheel at the same time, with gathering motes of light, and being blasted at point blank with omnidirectional curse godrays and shockwave force. Artemis smashes into the 'angelic being' straight through its wounded chest and bursts out the other side. With a horrific shriek, the creature reels back, head lolling, light fading, and disintegrates into glitter, fading from existence before it hits the ground. Two things happen. The horrid, pulsaing bug thing that Eryl had spotted welded to the tree roots, reels almost simulatenously, then straightes up to reveal a bald head and emaciated human arms jutting from its disgustingly bloated fly-like abdoment, and claps its gnarled hands together in what looks like head-bowed prayer. After only seconds of relief, a giant ray of light splits the leaden clouds and bathes the swamp in glorious radiance, and another angel materializes out of the aether. Because fuck this entire area to death. This does, however, give Seft a solid window to summon her staff and begin firing. Her guess actually appears to be perfect; rather than hitting an exotically awful monster, what she is seeing is 'a Miracle' manifest, both incredibly powerful and utterly perverse. The beams halve in volume and thickness and it writhes like a witch on the pyre. Eryl's grenade flies high and fast, and a few lancing beams fire at it to shoot it down, but its lessened accuracy and firepower --and the fact that the beams don't seem to curve and track inanimate objects-- fails it. The grenade clatters on the plane of stone-wood, and detonates at the monster's wet and glistening insectoid base, blowing it into steaming chunks. The 'angel' disappears with it in mere moments.
Priscilla	The sounds of battle have attracted the swamp's 'locals' now, unimpeded by the toxic hellwater now that it's been drained by Hiromi. The especially swift and-or teleporty amongst the party can outrun them, being a mixture of the gigantic, root-burst and darkness-drowned knights, straggler 'murkmen', and what look like horrid little grey-skinned stoop-backed goblins with ragged sacks tied over their heads and rusty farming tools in hands, dumped here like corpses of field slaves that got back up again. The rest may not want to deal with the sheer number of them and the deadly mix of swarming speedy chaff, teleporting grapplers and kamikazes, and beefy high-damage combo walls. Priscilla, who has wisely chosen to not deal with the magical realm of another fucking poison level, has become invisible to avoid being shot to death and done aforementioned teleporting to the other side, evidenced by the fact that another horrid bug-man screech erupts from deeper into the gnarled maze of titanic roots and decayed shanty shacks, the group having Discovered The Gimmick and allowing themselves to not deal with another-- scratch that, another two up ahead. And within that unfathomably enormous root-hollow created by the toppling of a veritable world-tree, one jagged piece juts beyond the cliff and over a dizzy abyss, the air so thin that the ground is still visible as a painterly grey smear countless miles below. It appears to be the upper surface of a hollow trunk, as 'a lethal fall's distance' beneath the splinter is a 'floor' that protrudes slightly further. Somehow, despite making no sense, a bonfire (extinguished) has been erected inside it, in the sheltered rear, as if recently constructed. At the very edge, royal blue cloth tied raggedly around a protruding splinter, and unmistakable white soapstone text, You won't die, overlooking a stupendous fall over . . . yes, if one squints desperately, they can see a pinprick of darkness on the dreamy, endless plain of ash below. A hole?
Kukuru	Kukuru stares at that creature for a bit too long, countless thoughts running through her mind all at once: how such a creature could exist with such a face missing so many vital parts like eyes and teeth, what kind of horrid magics could turn a person into something like that, what such a thing eats or does to even have that kind of bulk, and so on and so forth. Sadly, thinking isn't a free action for her, so she kicks off a bit too late to actually escape getting blasted right back into the ground, landing in a heap several seconds later and looking like she might as well be dead. For a moment there, she probably is. She gets better, though, as her body stitches itself back together, putting bones and flesh back where it should be instead of not where it should be, although all the holes and burnt marks on her clothing from those radiant godrays are still evident while she's tele-hopping along to keep up with the rest of the group. "That was... Ow. Let's just keep moving, huh?" She suggests while forcing an upbeat tone in her voice, trying not to let the physical pain come through in her voice too much. Anyone in the group that might be falling behind will get caught up with the front of the group easily enough, at least, as she just starts grabbing people and teleporting them ahead to keep ahead of the swarm of swamp assholes. Upon coming across the toppled tree, Kukuru adjusts her glasses to get a better look at the extinguished bonfire before realizing that she's only holding up one half of the frame with the other half smashed during her previous landing. She sighs, then chucks the remaining half away before squatting to read that white soapstone's message. "That's nice. See, someone out there believes in us~" Kukuru sounds genuinely pleased about that as she gets back up, then peers into the abyss again. With her SPECIAL EYES, she actually sees that hole of darkness, and she looks back towards her companions. "I'll go first. If I don't come back... Um. Don't jump in." And then she jumps for that bit of darkness. She's really hoping it doesn't kill her, but if it doesn't? She'll teleport right back up to announce "it's fine!" and offer to teleport anyone down that doesn't want to trust that they won't break their legs trying to jump down there. And if it does kill her, she'll be down there for a while longer. Probably until everyone else finds a way down, or she just recovers.
Hiromi	Though only visible for a short period, and moving throughout that, in her efforts to clear a way through the swamp, the tracking (not very) angelic beams still find Hiromi in large numbers. Struck rapidly while in the air, and away from the ground she could use to break its sight lines, it's the unstoppable weight and momentum behind her attack that gives her the superarmor to avoid joining Yuuki (#1) in the air. Lethal, magical light rays leave ugly wounds, before she stomps an earthen wall into existence, and the angel is subsequently destroyed. Other things come after them, while Hiromi chooses to walk the path she's made at a casual pace. She'll keep that up so long as she isn't the last one behind, as her compromise between the need to keep going forward and her interest in hunting everything here. Priscilla is already ahead, but that leaves Seft, any of the other captains who've been keeping up, Eryl, Kukuru, Yuuki and Yuuki, and... is that everyone? Close enough. This is not to say she'll fight with any sense of proper fairness. The earth tosses murkmen into the air or swallows them below at the direction of Hiromi's footsteps. Farming tools simply break against her body, and their wielders become thrown projectiles. The headless ones are given one chance to slam their blades into her before she grabs, pulls, lifts, spins and tosses in what's nearly a single motion, either depriving them of their weapons or tossing them far out into the swamp, entirely heedless of their size, to stand up and try charging her again. Blood flows from strikes, the worst hits to the bone, but her flesh knits itself back together, muscles stretching to rejoin and flex only a breath later, even before skin hids it away. In the likely event that everyone else is hurrying, Hiromi won't get to spend that long having her fun before taking a running leap out of range of the mob, and won't have to encourage anyone else to keep moving. Kukuru's better suited for enforcing that pace, anyway. On finding that there is 'a place to jump' that is, in some way, a marked path, Hiromi takes a few extra moments smelling the soapstone. Who was here? What feelings were left on their breath and sweat? Was it long ago? Accepting what is, at worst, the challenge of either a trap or a test, Hiromi simply follows Kukuru down, without even waiting for her to return. She has ways of negating fall damage.
Eryl Fairfax	Eryl is joined in his cover by both Yuuki's, one ducking her head behind cover with him, the other leaping up to return fire on the angel. "Ah, I don't think that will be too-" The winged being falls, and another descends from on high to continue the offensive. "Effective. We must cut it at the source. Three..." The distant thunk of the grenade bouncing off an exposed root. "Two..." The clatter of ancient stones crumbling under the light touch of its impact. "One..." The splash of the grenade landing in the soaked ground beneath the maggot-like thing. "There." The explosion tears it apart, and the angel dissolves to nothing. "There. We must keep an eye out for such things in future." The roar and sloshing footsteps of the marsh's inhabitants causes him to turn his head. "But, for now, let us push forward. If you see any more of those sparkles, let me know. I'll be able to triangulate their position. Do the two of you need assistance?" he asks the Yuukis. If they accept, each gets scooped into a fireman's carry as Eryl gives chase to the shrieks of more of those maggots as Priscilla forges a path ahead. A bonfire, and a long, long drop. But again, that scrap of blue cloth. And the extinguished firepit bears signs of being recently made. "Who exactly is this pathfinder? And who is their trail for? Us?" That notion opens a pit in Eryl's stomach. Who would know they were coming here? But, their routes had proven safe and effective before, so Eryl performs the proper leap for a HALO jump as he descends into the hollow tree trunk.
Starbound Flotilla	Seft's scan worked out, and here it is, a place to make camp. Albeit, they have to fight their way there. By now, the rest of the Flotilla captains have caught up, and getting through the muckmen should be an easier time with so many guns and blades to work with. Biteblade, for once, can't partake of the flesh. It tastes bad! Also: Poison everywhere. Everyone's exhausted, in pain, stressed out, once they finally reach the tree. They stumble in and almost immediately are pitching up a small outpost around the bonfire. Seft observes Kukuru's demonstration... "Admiring. You're braver than I am, taking another drop like that. Um... we need to take some time to rest, though. Maybe resupply, if we can get a teleporter running... We need to make repairs and re-arm, not just heal. Can you help us with the healing part?" The Flotilla would rather make this a bit of a lower-stress rush. If Hiromi and Eryl still want to jump, that's up to them, but everyone's invited to take a short rest at the campsite. "Informing. I've been scanning as we go, this is one of the few good spots to rest, maybe still for a while..." "Some of us got mortal knees here! I've jumped more today than my whole damn life! C'mon, gimmie a break!" "It is wise for us to recuperate our morale as well." "Floran isss hungry! Poisssonmeat people bad! C'mon!" "Can we stop a bit? There was a lot of treasure back in that swamp." "Need to resupply at minimum. Scout if you want."
Yuuki Kuran	Second Yuuki feels a ferocious joy as she sends Artemis clear through the terrible angel of infinite airjuggling, pumping her fist. First Yuuki tumbles down out of the air, lands smoking and coughing in the crater, and loudly 'oofs'. Eryl explains that it is not solution, and both First and Second Yuuki look in horror - with Second most of the way through transferring her coat to First as replacement garment - as another giant angel appears to resume blasting the area. It does not live long. With an expression beyond thankful into 'yes, God, I know you are good for I see you in these blessings and angels you send unto me in my time of need' and both sets of extra-expressive XL Shojo eyes joining thankfully clasped hands, Yuukis Kurans First and Second say, in unison: "Yes. Please help me." Fireman carried in an undignified way and yet, blessedly serene in the grasp of deeply capable GrandMANster just handling all the hard spatial thinking and perfect timing max range running plasma grenade sticks and railgun shots while doing perfect platforming at speedrunner pace. First Yuuki, stacked atop Second on the single-shoulder fireman carry, pipes up with light commentary. "You know, I never really appreciated how many swamps there are in Priscilla's world. It's like mine and blasted, wintery arid lands and sparse forests. But after all this time, you've mastered them, and that's incredible. I've just mastered making a fool of myself and being ashamed less about it. So, I suppose we've both grown, Eryl..." They arrive at the 'camp' with the helpful note. Both Yuukis shimmy off as the group slows down to inspect the area, with Second lingering at the edge, facing towards the bonfire. "... Oh, I didn't finish my sentence. You've always been the more graceful one --" She smiles over her shoulder. Eryl is already halfway down in freefall in HALO jump. She smiles fondly, and bites her bottom lip. First Yuuki, returning while still tugging herself into a t-shirt, looks around. "I'd love to take a break. If you think there's loot, go back and clear it out because we're neeeeeeeeeeeeever coming back that way." She declares, rubbing the inactive bonfire with her foot to Turn It On.
Priscilla	Even just making a low through Hiromi's strength trench is a huge improvement to quality of life, and also lifespan, than trying to leg the rest of the distance in one burst while under fire, and still an streemely valuable 'road strip' free of sucking, drowning mud and poison even after. Actually hanging behind to fight everything coming after is a bit of a deathwish, which means somewhat par for the course for Hiromi. Enough that Priscilla returns in moments, mainly to hold her back against the 'murkmen', claiming that it is "Best not to learn where one goes whence they art dragged into their own shadow.", considering it a matter outside of the bigness of stats and expertise of dodging, blocking, and stunlocking. Her best answer to the very good questions at the other side is a concerned stare and "The one same as before, doubtless. Which wouldst mean that they didst arriveth this way under their own power, by some deeply uncommon means." At popular request, she lights the bonfire, and grabs Kukuru by the shoulder to bid her 'hold the heck on for a second' so people can rest and bask in its refreshing warmth. "Even if we art to assumeth that the Bonfires didst end up here by the same means as all the detritus of the ages around them, this one here is too fortuitous for mine liking. Or at least, mine trust. It is as if it were . . . left here for us. Or at least, left here for the one who didst go ahead of us." A sincere "Mine thanks." to Yuuki and Eryl as they join, seemingly for the vital service of overcoming The Gimmick and illuminating the way forward. The lack of humid scents upon the cloth, dry and smelling vaguely of dust and incense, is a strange enough marker for Hiromi's investigation. It's similar to the man who called himself 'Hollow' back there, but without so strong an undertone of the creeping presence of death. However, it seems that its placement is not fresh, but also not nearly so long a time ago. The group has progressed far faster than the wandering one leaving nebulous signs for them. And it seems unmistakable that the signs would be 'for them' by now. Not with any kind of prescience that indicates they would know when they'd come, just 'the only place where anyone would start', and 'one day in the future'. Considering the way that this place appears to act like time's crumple zones, it's a bit hard to comprehend beyond that. Yuuki comments on swamps. Priscilla grimaces a teeny tiny bit. "It is quite plausible enough, that the above shouldst be something familiar; one that already was, trickled into this place with all the rest. It is nothing, all said, if not a 'Heap of Dregs'." A pause. "In a way, it is good. As the 'mineself' of many years ago . . . Yes, there wouldst simply be no means by which that which held her back and frightened her, wouldst do so for the 'mineself' of today." The sheer scale of distance involved in that drop makes it simply impossible to tell what lies at the bottom. It is a jump of blind faith, and 'not redirecting oneself too much in freefall'. However, the correct intuition is indeed that it'd be impossibly difficult to go anywhere else from this awkward looming view over the edge of the world. "I believeth if he wished to deceiveth us, it wouldst hath been far easier to do so numerous times before." Priscilla concludes. "Whatever challenge lies ahead such that he wouldst returneth to assert so here, or foresaw gravely, it is best that we arrived with full strength and certainty."