Scene #8944: The Lengths One Goes

Owner	Pose
Hibiki Tachibana	LAST TIME: Following intelligence from the double-dealing agent GOOD SPEED, the Elites traveled to a strange and quite literally tilted island in the Pacific, as it holds the key to locating an undersea palace and its treasure - the TATAMEBAKO, an ornate box that can supposedly lock away time. The genocidal alchemist YLIASTER of the BAVARIAN ILLUMINATI plans to find and use it to undo past events that led to him losing SOLOMON'S CANE, an ancient Relic capable of controlling the monstrous NOISE . Along with TACHIBANA HIBIKI, here to protect her own world rather than as an Elite, and VIVIANE, a traitorous homunculus originally created by Yliaster, the group descended down the submerged half of the isle, combing through massive scale ruins and cheating their way through an otherwise time-wasting door puzzle. But along the way, they found evidence that someone might've beaten them here. Pushing ahead has taken them further and down into an immense crystalline chamber brilliantly lit up, unlike anywhere else they've seen here. Where waiting for them is... ... "Alchemists from the Bavarian Illuminati... working for my creator." "Yes. You have very unfortunate timing." That voice makes Viviane freeze up instantly - as it's almost exactly her own, only lacking the faint traces of outward-expressing emotion she possesses. It belongs to one of a dozen black-robed individuals crowding around an opaque crystal plinth on the raised central platform, all seemingly unbothered by the flooding and pressure as if this were their natural habitat. But as they all turn in unison, the dull blue eyes and azure hair beneath their hoods are all exact matches for one another... and the girl with you. "I--huh? More... o-of her? You never mentioned you had sisters, Viviane...!" Hibiki, even not knowing what's going on, has a bad enough feeling that she protectively moves in front of their stunned ally, who thankfully is still maintaining a bubble of air several meters across to operate normally in. Perhaps realizing that might change if she loses too much focus, Viviane blinks and shakes her head, quietly struggling to refocus. "I... do not. I /did/ not. I was the singular result of my creator's efforts at artificial life, hundreds of years ago..." The same alchemist who had spoken before pushes off the platform, languidly floating upwards through the water as easily as she breathes. "You were. This is correct. Master simply revisited your design and iterated upon it for this purpose, traitor."
Hibiki Tachibana	While the phrasing is that of a biting condemnation, the delivery itself is almost mechanical, wholly flat and bland. "Many loyal to him were lost when the machine of the Titanomachia left his sanctum devastated. Others were disenfranchised, using his injuries and the thievery of Solomon's Cane as opportunistic excuse to forsake him, cutting their ties." Her dull gaze briefly shifts towards Petra in particular. It can't be accusatory, but it certainly seems oddly knowing. The way the rest of them also do for the same short moment is more than a little unsettling. "It is natural he would require more trustworthy and efficient servants in their place. At the time of your making, Master saw your lack of 'soul', of 'heart' and emotion, as his own failure as your creator." She glides to a steady stop above the others, robes billowing in the disturbed waters. "For him now, for us, that 'flaw' is only benefit. We will execute you, locate and retrieve the box below, and continue to act as extensions of his will." "T-That-- is... ..." Viviane locks up again, head angling down. Nazrin, at least, would be able to confirm for everyone that the enemy homunculus was right about 'below'; her treasure sense is telling her they have to go far down. A glance down at the transparent crystal flooring will show that the light illuminating this odd chamber and the surrounding ocean seems to be streaming up from much, much farther below, like a spotlight... from the actual seafloor? But there's no obvious way to get there from here, save for the fact that Ritsuka's (and anyone else's) magical senses pick up that the central plinth the alchemists were crowding around before they got here is giving off a strong magical signal, like the plates before. And besides that, two similar but smaller pedestal-esque structures also exist on opposite ends of the center platform. What they do or how they might help isn't immediately clear. Though doing anything about that will first require avoiding death via your robed foes, who lift their arms, bright blue hexagonal fields laced with minute alchemical formulae spreading out from their palms - transmutation. What kind becomes clear when several spots around the chamber momentarily shine as if suddenly superheated, undergoing rapid chemical reaction - then explode outwards. It's not the explosions themselves, but the /shockwaves/ that are the danger. Makeshift depth charges that'll shake the chamber, blasting away anyone currently roughing the waters, and have the force carry through straight into Viviane's safe zone. Risk of getting blasted right out of it is high, and Hibiki is buckling down and bodily protecting her as best she can.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	"Hm? What was that, Viviane?" "That's not her. That's... Other Vivianes?" "More creations? I suppose he can take some credit for sticking to what works..." The sight of the many dull Vivianes has the three Chaldea representatives stopping in their tracks, with Mash standing at the front of Viviane's safety bubble and bracing her shield against the ground while Ritsuka takes cover behind her and Jeanne sweeps her arms out to her sides to conjure up a pair of spears alongside her. They're all ready for a battle, but none of them make the first move as they listen to that mechanical-sounding tone that barely sounds like the Viviane they already know. When the Titanomachia comes up, Ritsuka and Jeanne both look Petra's way. Noticing this, Mash steps back just a bit to not-so-subtly bump into them, almost like she's scolding them without a single word or glance. It's certainly enough to get their attention back to their actual opposition, of course, and Ritsuka even starts to notice that magical signature coming from the central plinth. But how is she to signal that to her allies without making it obvious to the homunculi that she knows? She'll have to take a shot, but finding the opportunity to do so is going to be tricky while the entire group is still looking this way and plenty of other things are already starting to glow. "Brace!" Mash calls out to her Master and allies, raising her shield and slamming the bottom against the ground in front of her as a shimmering barrier appears right in front of her. It takes the shockwaves coming directly from the front, and Mash holds onto Ritsuka with her free hand to keep her from getting blown right out of the safety zone while Jeanne stabs her spears into the ground to keep herself steady against the bone-rattling force. "That's strong, alright... Watch the third!" Undeterred by the apparent confusion on both Servants' faces, Mash slips under Mash's arms to brace one shoulder against her shield while peeking out from the side. She fires two quick magic blasts at the homunculi while Jeanne tears out and hurls the first flaming spear at them, then fires a more potent third shot that misses the Viviane 2.0s and just happens to be aimed at that center plinth. Jeanne doesn't get the signal right away, of course, so her focus is entirely on just throwing more spears at the homunculi, setting them ablaze even within the water and then detonating them with a larger blast once they're at closer range.
Roxas	There are a bunch of black-cloaked clones in front of Roxas, and while they exposit on their origins, he texts Xion: >> Hey I have a bunch of replicas in front of me that are probably being abused. >> They're enemies at the moment, but we could use help shutting them down while we figure it out. >> It's a water level tho. Roxas gets hit by a shockwave because he's texting when it's coming towards him, and accordingly gets blasted right out of Viviane's safe zone and probably into a wall. He's knocked far enough away that he's not immediately visible-- but he returns fairly abruptly afterwards. A beam of light zigzags through the water, eerie and ghostlike-- and then directly into the midst of the cloaked and hooded figures. The one who emerges among them is... cloaked and hooded, too. This is not a good disguise, because Roxas outs himself immediately. "Uh, excuse me-- are you folks actually okay?" He asks. This is accompanied by a great shockwave of white light racing outwards from his body in a series of radiating rings, crashing towards the Viviane's siblings in rhythmic, concussive waves that threaten to toss them around-- they're less damaging than they are separating, quite self-evidently intended to disrupt their teamwork and generally make a mess of their formation. "What I mean is... people who 'create loyal servants' usually aren't that great to the servants," he adds, by way of explanation.
Angela	Angela didn't know Viviane had sisters either. She listens to the sister's words and after a long period of thought and consideration she says. "Kill yourselves." Angela says simply. "If Viviane has a lack of heart, and you do, it is a signifier that hearts are not all they are cracked up to be. Viviane has always been more concerned with your Master's well being than his goals, and if you consider the latter more important you are pathetic failures rather than improved servants. I pity the pathetic man that has created you, stepping away from perfection. He seeks the sun and it has blinded him to what he had and now his creations have lost their beauty and have instead become little more than cogs. How disappointing. How sad. I cannot even bring myself to hate a man like that, it is just disappointing beyond measure even for what little hope I had for him." She sighs. "I suppose I should not be surprised, men who believe the light of the gods is in their hand frequently burn their waxen wings and tumble into the sea. Fitting, I suppose, that he makes his stand in a place like this. Agents." Rose hesitates, Nikki does not--raising her staff into the air and launching several pink rays at the robed figures! Rose, for her hestiation, is knocked away by the explosive depth charges and starts drowning! Eyes bugging out she struggles trying to swim back to Viviane.
Xion	Xion, action-adventure heroine, is hanging out at the 'Canteen' in the World that Never Was, an all white kitchenspace defined by the seams in the geometric-block space for cabinetry, a risen white island on white floors with a white sink and a stark-silver faucet and knob. Across, the range is rings of induction plate grey against marblewhite and the tickmarks embellishing the range levels stand out like long ellipsis on paper from across the whole room. A white teapot sits boiling down its temperature in pale steam, and a few dirty plates rest in the deeply silver sink. Xion, in contrast-blasting black, her lightly tanned skin and all-black attire (t-shirt, shorts, socks) makes her the realest-seeming thing in the room as she flips through her phone with her left hand and sips on a mug of uncreamed black coffee. The mug in her hands, white, almost disappears against the room, but it's firm in her hand, as she gets... text messages! >> Hey I have a bunch of replicas in front of me that are probably being abused. >> They're enemies at the moment, but we could use help shutting them down while we figure it out. >> It's a water level tho. >> ... Xion is typing... >> Water level? I'm in! >> I'll be there at Mach speed. >> For you, and, them. Disappearing her phone into inventory and then swiftly herself in an transition in space, the noirette Nobody pushes her chair out, steps her socked foot on white floor and pivots towards the door-- -- and skips all the rest of the intervening steps in a plunge through darkness that happens as she stands. Xion is not there as the homoncului's introduction, not there at the explanation of Masters, of flaws and feelings, of the excision of a heart. She also doesn't need to hear each word in sequence to understand. Roxas is forceblasted into a back wall and slides down, leaving a light scattering of dust, and as it clears, there's a second figure in a black tee and black rolled-up shorts, helping one-handedly pull Roxas to his feet. Of course, you know who it is. Turning, to look at the crowd of Homonculi talking all that Good Good (bad bad, actually), Xion's eyes narrow. "You know?" The noirette asks with a closed hand holding two metallic objects between her knuckles, Roxas zipping off in a sailing-searing sweep of light. "I think I've heard this one before." She sweeps out the gripping right fist, palm opening to show the two medallions in hand - one red, one purple, both depicting masked figures. "So I'm not going to deal with it -- I'll eliminate it, and hold all the cores safely!"
Xion	Swiping the medallions over the button of her shorts, the springing lunge of the second Nobody turns into a purple-metallic flash and a flash of red lightning that peals out in a vroom-vroom!! When she's resolved back into a person, her outfit has been updated with metallic purple leggings and mechanically-segmented stomping boots, and over her shoulders and black tee is a red leather racing jacket with a motorcycle-and-sidecar patch on the back. Two black motorcycle gloves with purple metal knuckles resolve into sweep-out brawling as her Somehow Nonlethal strikes join Roxas on the front line!
Petra Soroka	As bummed out as Petra is by the simple and boring way that the puzzle is bypassed-- it's cool to bypass puzzles through force; it's not cool to walk by them as if they weren't there (this is the fault of the ancient civilization who designed the puzzle, rather than Roxas)-- her mood lifts up again as the dark and salty-damp tunnel starts to brighten. Trudging along in the claustrophobic bubble under what she's acutely aware is enough water to crush her flat is made even worse by the hallways they're shuffling through. Tall enough to feel vertigo-inspiring, light disappearing into the shadows above as well as ahead, made for some sort giant mermaid princess rather than the little toy-sized Petra, but then still narrow enough on either side that the comparative tight squeeze of the walls stresses her out. It's a little like the Extraction Department, really. Petra wonders if she should be more uncomfortable in the Extraction Department, even though it's so routine to her that she barely even notices its fucked up architecture anymore. Or maybe she should be less nervous here, because it's a sort of familiar environment. Pondering on these sorts of conundrums, Petra breaks the exploratory silence of the group diving deeper into the dungeon, posing them a thoughtful question. "Is it scarier to be crushed under a million tons of concrete, or a million tons of water? I think the water is scarier because it's harder to imagine the sudden pressure difference even though we know, like, intellectually, that it'd kill us. But we all know what it's like to have a building fall on us." Petra is such good company today. The crystalline walls lit with seemingly sourceless magical light, revealing the dizzying expanse of the ocean depths, excites her to a degree that seems like whiplash if not for how seamlessly Petra emotionally transitions between wondering out loud about the gruesome ways she could die right now to being awed by the deep ocean. They're not that dissimilar, to Petra. "Oh my god, look, you can see all the way until the light fades out... in every direction. It's like floating out in the middle of..." Her attention is briefly grabbed by an evil-looking squid floating by, tracking its lackadaisical drifting with her face. "... space."
Petra Soroka	And then, into the chamber, and her attention is grabbed instead by Puzzles and Goons. Goons whose magical depth charges threaten to blast Petra straight out of Vivianne's protective bubble, and into one million tons of water! Drenched with the splash of the magically cavitated inner surface of the air bubble, barely keeping her footing inside on the slick crystal ground, Petra drops her hand to her hip while crouching, fingers on the transteam gun's grip. "Maybe she was built with the lack of a soul, yeah! But if you were built the same way as her... then look at what she's done now. Didn't you just say, she chose to betray, uh--" Petra fumbles for a moment. No one's said Yliaster's name for a while now, since all the Viviannes have just been calling him 'our creator', and the difficult name slips her mind briefly. "Y-Y--... your creator!" "So she chose that! Because she wanted it, and she wanted something better for him than what she was commanded to do! So..." Petra pulls the gun up to her chest, withdrawing the Silver FullBottle and clicking it into place. "We're here to fight for 'Vivianne's wish, for how this all will end! Vaporize!" A budget-saving transformation explosion later-- she's not the primary Rider/magical girl here, after all-- and Petra jumps through the wall of the bubble into the open water, protected by Sting Silver's armor. Blades of telekinetically-controlled morphmetal open up underneath her boots, like horizontal ice skates, or split surfboards, giving her the three-dimensional mobility she needs to dart up through the water and close the distance with the homulculi. With her limited supply of morphmetal already spent, while more only slowly trickles down the rivulets in her shoulder armor, Petra engages the robed Vivianne by launching into her at the top speed she can manage in the water, and tackling her to spike her down into the bubble. Drifting floatily upwards from the recoil of throwing down, Petra murmurs to herself, muffled by mask and water. "And that's sort of the thing I promised to help Hibiki with anyways... so I guess I've got to stick to making sure it's a happy ending for Vivianne, or whatever."
Roxas	//Kill yourselves.// "I know that incredible callousness has come back into fashion... ... but it was bad when its name was Tomari Shinnosuke..." "And went unspoken out of ignorance alone. Somebody who isn't far enough separated from those women shouldn't be saying such words," Roxas fires back at Angela, around the same time that Xion hauls him up off the ground. "People who just love each other don't talk like that about it. They don't talk about their own actualization like that, either. Look at their eyes." The distinctive metallic ring of Keyblades being summoned echoes twice as a white Keyblade and black Keyblade fill his hands. A shimmer of light dances around his hands, and... a pleasantly warm spotlight springs into existence, bearing down on the frozen Viviane. It isn't an attack, of course-- it's just his light magic applied gently. "Viviane! My whole Organization is made of people who were born incomplete, or made incomplete by others. We're here because we wanted to keep on living, even though there was hardly any of us left to live." The dark key rises, pointed at Viviane's siblings. "Every one of us is born with eyes like those. Every one of us has to learn to be. 'Learning to be' is what made me the way I am right now." Roxas turns his head to look at Viviane properly, positively beaming at her. "You're fine! And even if you weren't, being one way doesn't mean you'll never be another. And that's true of your sisters, too!" "They need names of their own, he declares, "That's something that helps, to become a person when that's something you've got to claw your way towards. Everybody, we need twelve names. Let's start with..." The white key is pointed towards the clone the farthest to his left. "Vanja! What do you think?"
Angela	Angela recalls the name. Angela's fury isn't abated by Roxas pointing out at just how similar she is to these women. If anything, it simply sharpens the hate that she feels towards them. She no doubt hates them BECAUSE they aren't too far off from herself, but she sure as hell isn't going to state that out loud even if she recognizes it. "..." She slowly looks towards Roxas like she's looking at him for the first time. "Um." Nikki says, wanting to discourage this sort of argument in the middle of a firefight. But Angela stares at him. She can't say what is screaming within her right now because she never would so she just quietly stares at him. That these women represent something close to her is the reason they must die so that Viviane will not be dragged down into the earth by the weeds. Her eyes say this. But her mouth says, "Understood. My apologies."
Hibiki Tachibana	Uh, excuse me-- are you folks actually okay? "...What?" The nearest of the homunculi to Roxas almost imperceptibly narrows her eyes an instant before he retaliates. Some of them raise similar hexagonal alchemical fields as before, this time used like barriers. Others are just barely too slow, if not for Roxas' shockwave then for Xion's surprise appearance and mach-speed beatdowns (somehow causing toku sparks underwater), and get sent scattering in differing directions through the chamber - making them easy targets for Jeanne's storm of fiery spears. One, two, three-- get lanced through and set alight. Jeanne, who was part of the original battle against Viviane back at that mountaintop, will be pleased(?) to see that they also seem to have the original's superhuman durability and inability to feel pain; the intensely burning flames fail to scorch as deeply as they should, and they're already working on prying the polearms back out of their bodies. One of them gets blasted by Nikki and interrupted, delaying them further. "Rose--!!" Hibiki, who had bunkered down to protect Viviane from the shockwaves, picks herself back up just in time to snap her head towards her as she goes sailing out. Without any hesitation, she gets a running start through the few meters of air they have and plunges out, diving for the Agent with her hand outstretched. It takes paddling like her life depends on it, but she eventually manages to grasp her wrist and desperately haul her back. Where they'll breach back into the bubble in an eruption of water and hit the floor, with Hibiki panting for breath, shaking her a little. "Hah... hah... you're okay, right...?" What I mean is... people who 'create loyal servants' usually aren't that great to the servants. "Is there a reason to maintain tools beyond what is necessary for them to fulfill their purpose?" The same 'Viviane' that was caught off-guard by Roxas earlier utters back to him, stopping her backwards momentum from being knocked away and halting in place. "We are treated exactly as tools should be; no more and no less. That one--" In the middle of a series of swipes, dull blue eyes shift Viviane's way and then back. Once again, with distaste in wording even if not tone, "--who had been with Master Yliaster longer than any other, should have performed her duty rather than working against him. It should be natural for creations to stand by their creator when they require it most." Viviane herself doesn't seem to have a response to that, gaze on the ground - until Angela, Petra, and Roxas all speak up.
Hibiki Tachibana	Viviane has always been more concerned with your Master's well being than his goals, and if you consider the latter more important you are pathetic failures rather than improved servants. So she chose that! Because she wanted it, and she wanted something better for him than what she was commanded to do! So... "Angela..." "Petra--?" Hibiki, still picking herself up after helping Rose back, stumbles up with a surprised blink. Maybe because of that promise that she called back to. But after a second, her brow furrows and she stands up - just in time to double-up after Petra's tackle by coming down with a downwards palm strike to /keep/ the tackled homunculus down. "...Then I better do my part to help make what she and us chose happen, too!" Viviane picks herself up to look towards the tablet Angela is talking from, but she doesn't seem able to find words until Roxas speaks up, glancing up to the light - and then him, with wide eyes. "Learning... to be...?" Her eyes drift left to right. First at nothing, and then her 'siblings'. "...Back... then, long ago. I was no different. It was the kindness of my creator... and eventually the kindness of others, finding my own will, that helped make me more than that. I learned to be... to 'want'," she echoes Petra quietly. "...Thank you, Angela, for defending the desire I value. And thank you, Roxas. I am endlessly fortunate that you were brought here." She takes a breath, then straightens up and settles her gaze on one of her few 'sisters' still defending the central plinth. "Then, Morgana-- what I want now is to help you all as well!" Now it's her turn to be stunned still in the same way Viviane had been, unable to respond to either her or Angela's accusations. The same with 'Vanja', whose mouth is moving without words... before she soon purses her lips and rushes in, gliding through water like air. As she goes, a smaller circle forms over her hand - freezing over the water in front of it to become a spike of ice to lunge in and run him through with. "What are you trying to accomplish? Is this the same sort of 'savior complex' you outsiders possess that led to the defect's betrayal?" While roughly three of the artificial alchemists - including 'Morgana' - are still balking, others go back on the attack. The ones who were speared through freeze over Jeanne's lances, and /throw/ them back at her with inhuman force. Nikki's laserfire gets deflected by a shield, and she gets return fire in the form of a miniature whirlpool shooting ahead to catch her up and drag her out of the protective bubble. Petra (and Hibiki) get blindsided by the pinned one suddenly trying to catch them both in a sudden rising waterfall to slam them up into the ceiling. And Xion gets all the remaining ones encroaching from various angles, hyper-pressurizing water into what might as well be solid walls coming in to crush her from all sides.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	EARLIER "Is it scarier to be crushed under a million tons of concrete, or a million tons of water?" "I'm gonna have to go with concrete." Ritsuka answers almost immediately with a quick nod, drawing a concerned glance from Mash on the way forward. "Like you said, we know what concrete looks like, but water? It'd probably be super instant, like a... An implosion! Probably wouldn't even see it happening if it did, so there's no time to be scared." Clearly, Ritsuka's not one to follow news about random billionaires' undersea adventures. "... people who 'create loyal servants' usually aren't that great to the servants," "Vanja! What do you think?" "Hm. Explains a lot." Jeanne comments idly, more to herself than to Roxas or anyone else, perhaps even without realizing it at first. If she had been brought into existence with that kind of loyalty... Well, it's not like he's here anymore. No need to worry about that, even if she wanted to. Instead, she looks over to Roxas as he throws a name at one of the clones, and she... She actually stays quiet. No insults, no taunts, just watching that clone to see how she reacts. "Kill yourselves." "If Viviane has a lack of heart, and you do, it is a signifier that hearts are not all they are cracked up to be." Mash lets out a mildly discomforted noise at hearing that from Angela, but a nudge from Ritsuka's back (still huddled between Mash and the shield) has her getting her nerve back. "There's still time. He won't listen to us, but he'll still listen to you. You can still save him from all of this!" "I'll eliminate it, and hold all the cores safely!" "Ah, Xion. Good timing. My Master's said something about a third." Jeanne delivers in a quick aside to the Nobody(ies? No, she's definitely saying it after Xion arrives), apparently trying to help tell her something relevant! Unfortunately, the Avenger didn't catch what that signal actually meant, so she can't really say much more than that.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	Seeing the clone Vivianes sharing the original's durability and lack of pain receptors gives Jeanne some small amount of relief, even if she doesn't actually show it. The fact that they don't really react to the flames and how they just start working to pull the spears out instead of worrying about their own safety, too, has her reconsidering her approach, but also... "We are treated exactly as tools should be; no more and no less." "It should be natural for creations to stand by their creator when they require it most." ... Reconsidering how much to actually destroy. Perhaps sensing this or just seeing it in how she slows down her movements, Ritsuka gives Mash a light clap on the side and an extra infusion of mana to keep that shield's defensive buffer going even longer to help the trio stand their ground. Nothing else needs to be said between the three, with Mash holding the line and deflecting those ice spears with bright flashes and the sound of crunching ice reverberating from her shield with each each impact. "Mere tools, hm? Meant to follow your creator's will, at the cost of your own lives, happiness, dreams..." Jeanne's normally haughty expression drops for a moment, and she almost looks sad as she stares right at the clones. "Everyone made to be used and discarded by an uncaring god... I suppose we used to be alike in that respect, then." Jeanne's banner-spear appears in her hand, and she twirls it around herself with a dramatic flourish as the pennant at the tip starts to burn with those evil-coded purple flames of hers. She slams the bottom of her spear into the ground beside her, then starts laughing in that theatrically insane way she often does. "But that's where those similarities end, don't they?! Unlike you, I've already cast my God aside, and now Im having the time of my goddamn life!" She laughs again, then crouches forward slightly like she's about to start charging forward. Ritsuka nudges Mash aside to give Jeanne some space along with a heaping helping of extra mana. "Neither of our gods deserves such unwavering loyalty, anyway, so get it through those thick skulls of yours and dedicate yourselves to someone worth a damn like I did!" And then Jeanne charges right out of the safety bubble at the homunculi, intensifying the flames around her flag-spear the whole way forward to vaporize the water in her path. She starts swinging that flaming weapon around with seemingly reckless abandon like she's trying to pulverize the hell out of those clones with brute force, but also only appears to be aiming at them from the sides at their arms and legs to batter them around rather than their heads. A coincidence, surely. She needs to keep swinging that superheated pole to make sure the water doesn't come crashing around her and anyone else fighting in close range, after all.
Angela	Angela is genuinely surprised Viviane isn't on the same page (of murdering one's siblings) but she supposes that is one more instance of Viviane not being as ravaged by the world around her as she herself is. The way those homunculi are narrowing their eyes is horribly familiar. Angela might as well be looking into a mirror and she hates looking into mirrors. But ultimately, it is not her responsibility to punish these homunculi. If Viviane wants to save them, then she supposes that is the mission. She isn't thinking straight. Showing this side to allies is a mistake. But then the homunculi seem to just ... be sincerely affected by Viviane's good will. Angela is almost as stunned as they are but she recovers a little more quickly. ''What are you trying to accomplish? Is this the same sort of 'savior complex' you outsiders possess that led to the defect's betrayal?'' Angela sighs. "Yes, I know. It is quite unbelievable. But as much as I hate to admit it, they have largely proven to mean what they say more times than not. They genuinely want to help you live more true and fulfilling lives. I suppose because that irrespective of the trappings, what we have gone through is not particularly unique to us. There are many with similar lives who want to fight against the commonality of such psychic scars." "Ar we fighting?? Or are we talking?" Nikki says moments before SHE is shot out of the protective bubble by a whirlpool of force and now has the drowning effect herself! But don't worry too much about that, she has something she can do about that in the short term. Meanwhile Rose is rescued and pulled back into the protective bubble, Rose hacks out water from her lungs and groans on the floor. She can't NOT smile but there's something genuine in those reddened-by-acid eyes. "Thanks Bikki." She gives her hand a squeeze. "I'll be alright, pardner." Nikki meanwile sends a massive blast of energy AWAY from the homunculi because she can't swim! Unfortunately for Nikki, the power of a full Arcana Slave is stronger than is really necessary in order to propel herself back into the bubble. It gets her in there for a moment, she takes a deep breath of air, and then her eyes bug out as she's propelled back OUT of the bubble-- --and at full ramming speed towards the homunculi, closing in a full speed tackle. May Good Speed smile upon her this day.
Roxas	"Oh boy. You're not okay, either, are you?" Roxas wonders, of Angela. But he smiles at her, "Don't worry, I was really angry at you, too! But I don't really do clingy feelings. They burn hot, and then they go. What about you? Well, it's fine if you're mad for a while, whatever the reason is."" He's perceptive about feelings, but he's no mind-reader-- he hasn't put together the self-destructive impulse underneath Angela's response to... all of this. But then his attention falls squarely upon the Viviane addressing him -- who we will assume for the sake of simplicity is Vanja -- at whom he makes a pointedly exaggerated thoughtful 'hmm' noise. "Have you ever heard the story of King Arthur? He was an important king with a lot of cool tools! So cool, that they had names of their own, and all sorts of fantastic functions. And when one of them broke, it was the sort of thing that brought the story to a halt. To replace it, or... because losing the tool meant being unprepared for a challenge ahead, and death," He explains, remaining on-guard all the while but not moving back into an attack posture. "... But the fact that you're able to ask at all, means you're not really a tool," he continues, "you can choose to be one, but it's not the natural state of things, or anything. The responsibility of creator to created flows one way. The creator has the obligation to the creation, not the other way around. You didn't ask to exist, existence was a thing forced on you. Only Nobodies get to insist on existing, and you're definitely not a Nobody." He raises Oathkeeper in answer to Viviane's thanks, and calls back, "No problem! It's important to want things, you know." 'Vanja' approaches suddenly. Roxas is quick, but not enough to avoid her charge altogether-- he captures her arm between the teeth of both keyblades, capturing it like somebody might with a hook sword. He drags her to the side into a glancing blow that tears through his coat and into the t-shirt underneath-- darkness bubbles up off of the wound, along with a little blood underneath. Using the grapple to draw Vanja in, he leans in and whispers something to her. "My best friend was forged into sword, before she got to be herself... ... And you're not the same shape, but you are the same spirit." "In short, it's 'cause I love somebody just like you. And that means, I have to love you too." Adjusting the grapple, Roxas brings a knee up towards 'Vanja's' stomach, a silhouette of white light gleaming around it and firing up from the point of contact to try to knock her firmly away. "I'm serious, though. Is Vanja okay?" He asks her.
Petra Soroka	"Every one of us has to learn to be. 'Learning to be' is what made me the way I am right now." The yellow eyes of Sting Silver's helmet linger on Roxas, gleaming in the crystal-lit water, before turning to Xion. Murmuring, softly appreciative but laced with a hint of guilt-- about the Watch, probably, Petra drifts by Xion underwater during a lull in the opposing homunculi's attacks. "... You've got some good friends, huh, Xion." Regathering herself, Petra joins Hibiki to try to keep the pinned homunculus down, kicking around Hibiki's hand to catch the Viviane's before she can complete a casting motion that Hibiki had failed to notice. Morphmetal, unaffected by being underwater, drip in perfect hydrophobic streams like soap droplets into Petra's armored palm, accumulating into a blunted spear-staff that stretches out in her fist. She jams it down to lever it into the homunculus's arm while the water quakes around her from the other magical attacks going off. "We are treated exactly as tools should be; no more and no less." "Tools should be treated well, anyways! I mean, besides the fact that you guys are mass produced and disposable, which is fucked up-- tools are how--" Thank god Morgana said his name. "Yliaster does his work! They are-- you guys are how he influences the world, the exact same way his own hands are. Like, what do you think doing his 'will' means?" "Like, I'm not going to be shouting shit about how people aren't tools, I mean--" Petra's voice cuts off, but it's only the Vivianes and Roxas who haven't been privy to her emphatic declarations of her own utilization by Lilian. "But if a dull saw cuts you while you're working, that's because the tool was mistreated and the paradigm you tried to express through it got fucked up by that mistreatment. It's not like Viviane's ever stopped wanting what's best for him." "And-- you--!" Petra is too slow to entangle the pinned homunculus's arm when she slips it free, and she and Hibiki are launched upwards in the ensuing reverse waterfall. Rather than allowing herself to be separated from the clone, instead Petra takes the forceful current straight to the chest in order to keep her spear wrapped up in Viviane's limbs, lunging close to grab onto her right as she's ripped upwards and slammed into the ceiling far above.
Petra Soroka	The crystal ceiling cracks when she impacts it, throwing out sparks from her armor, and she stays silent for an awkward moment after the waterfall fades away. She could just be trying to catch her breath after the collision-- she isn't. She's trying to think of a name. "... Veles!" To the one she's grappling with. "You can see, right here, how your sister grew even though she didn't have a 'soul'. You're built the same. And since you're able to want something... you should!" The morphmetal spear must have slipped from Petra's grasp while wrestling the homunculus she's dubbed 'Veles' in the upwards waterfall, since it's nowhere to be seen in her hands now. From behind Veles, though, the polearm cuts through the water to beeline back to Petra's outstretched hand, and the blunted tip of it smashes into her back to knock her forwards into a kick from Petra, both knees to her chest to stomp down and send her plummeting down from the vaulted ceiling to the central platform below. Diving after her, placing herself right between the three hesitant Vivianes-- two, and Morgana-- she doesn't slow down at all before crashing into the crystal plinth hard enough to shake the whole platform. Standing on top of it-- partly to see, in vain puzzle-skipping hope, if the magical gems from earlier in the dungeon react to the plinth, but mostly because it lets her address the four homunculi around her simultaneously and dramatically-- Petra points down at one of the unnamed ones, then the other. "Violet! And... uh... Vaaaa... Vaaaaalll... fuck, V names are hard. Oh! Verona?" Babbling a little bit for the moment that she's Elevated by being on the plinth, and therefore safe, Petra expounds on her name choices to her cloned audience. "See, 'Veles' is the name of an exoplanet that orbits a star in a different galaxy from the superplanet. And they all need to start with V's, because you're sisters." That doesn't quite track, but it's coming from the girl who named her reflection 'Qetra'.
Xion	Xion's kinetic combat with the clones comes with friction-against-air skidding sounds, despite passing through water. It is like the aquatic drag simply does not exist to the combustion engine champion, pivoting into a steam-filled bubble roundhouse kick as she sweeps and strikes and sends cascades of golden-red sparks falling down towards the 'ground' rather than up and away. Sending the pain-unfeeling women tumbling through the water into Jeanne's burning spears doesn't make her particularly happy, though. Stonyfaced, intense blues narrowed while she drift turns underwater, momentarily hopping into a swimming vertical, a twirling corkscrew dive sends her into another pair of the clones, with a heel-led kick without the powerlines of a real full-force dive and all torque to scatter another. > 'Everybody, we need twelve names.' "Valerie! Grit your teeth!" Xion declares, into one of her two identical targets as she differentiates one and crackles against their summoned-guard alchemical barrier -- only to get boxed in. Literally! Crushed and borne down upon, even her Partner Rider Power can't hyper-speed Heaviness through the perfectly coordinated and ideally matched power of the same wall copy-pasted and smashed into her, compressing and compressing her down, first to a braced-shoulder standing, and then, as a top and bottom wall press down further and yet more powerfully, a smushing compression to a pained, wobbling crouch. Biding time, resisting, forcing strength to superhuman strength, the revving of her twin combustion engine power rumbles and gutters without track to race on. The whine momentarily is of pain. She can't think of another name, and, it pens her in and down tighter than walls. "V--" There's a wall right in front of her. A blank-eyed clone of a woman, staring her down. "Veronica!!" Xion shouts, and in her hand 'shwink!'s out the guard of blue and length of silver of Starlight, brought out reversed to knucke-punch the barrier in front of her, slamming fist-and-weapon to wall and pushing off with her feet, unlocking-and-passing-through the closed box before her with the Power of Unlocking and reaching her empty hand out with her spring to loop about in a half-hug and toss her into the five-sided box in the same motion. "Go ahead and think about what you want right there!!"
Xion	> 'Is there a reason to maintain tools beyond what is necessary for them to fulfill their purpose?' > 'We are treated exactly as tools should be; no more and no less.' "That's wrong!" Xion shouts, voice unhindered by the water, tone reaching furious hatred herself. And in this, perhaps, she reveals a little more about herself: How absolutely maximally stressing that sort of talking is to her. Still mainlining the power of Chaser and Mach, a third medallion comes out in her free left hand while her right reverses the grip on Starlight and sweeps a purple medallion depicting a woman backed by a dragon's banner -- Jeanne herself. "How do you feel about that? You're not a doll, you have to think about it! You 'know' something, but that something isn't true! Your sister -- the you that you could be like, closest to your creator, wished for and became more. You're not 'supposed' to be TOOLS!" Xion's voice is hoarsed even underwater, unwetted by the sea. > '...Back... then, long ago. I was no different.' The keyblade-enchantment of roiling black flames pours from silver blade down the length and up Xion's arm, swung out at the whole boxing gang of blank-eyed and partially named clones in a phantom dragonhead that blasts out a defiant roar of black flames and tyrewheel rollers of underwater-driving wheels. "You can see the truth and you're all still thinking that the first thing you've heard is better? The truth is there! She's pleading with you!" Xion wheels to point her sword at the speaking second batch Vivianne clone, bubbles-through-water and dragonhead phantom-burn-boil coiling up like an banner at her back. "Your master changed his mind because he hates his tools! Why else would he want them to never be better and more?! A craftsperson cherishes their tools!!!"
Ritsuka Fujimaru	"Everybody, we need twelve names." From behind the safety of Mash's shield, Ritsuka and Mash do a little brainstorming. "Vanja, Valerie, Veronica, Veles, Violet, Verona... Damn. They got all the easy ones already." "Are those really the easy ones...? Oh! How about Valentine!" "Valentine, yes! She'll be... the one to Jeanne's left. And the one to her right can be Victoria!" "Don't use me as a reference point, assholes!" A few swings later, and- "... You in the back. Valencia."
Hibiki Tachibana	Mere tools, hm? Meant to follow your creator's will, at the cost of your own lives, happiness, dreams... "Does that not make you a brand of traitor as well, black saint? Are you one to speak of who is deserving of loyalty?" "Our lives, happiness, and dreams are shared with the one we fighting for..." While one of the homunculi that Jeanne is onrushing is vehement in her denial, another still sound shaken from both Angela's decrying of their maker and Roxas shaking the belief they entered the world with. As if she's speaking to reassure herself. That'd be 'Valentine', who hesitates just long enough to receive a series of limb bashes that stagger her and send her falling back. Another, bolder one rushes in - 'Victoria' just to also get beaten away for her trouble in the flurry. That leaves Jeanne's own 'Valencia', who looks taken aback before raising her arm as if ready to transmute again... only for her to stop, inner confusion writ all over her face. Yes, I know. It is quite unbelievable. But as much as I hate to admit it, they have largely proven to mean what they say more times than not. "You suggest that there is anything wrong with this arrangement - that our existences are somehow 'untrue'. That we don't acknowledge that hearts are unncessary for our work. Unlike that traitor, we are satisfied fulfilling our intended purpose. Do not place us in the same category as the likes of--" Angela might get a bit of gratification out of the fact not all of them seem so influenced. And perhaps also when Nikki proves they are in fact still fighting, by virtue of ramming into the homunculus mid-sentence - maybe she /was/ affected just enough to be caught up in telling the AI off, after all. The massive ram displaces water and sends them both sailing to the opposite end of the room, smashing /hard/ into the outer crystalline structure. Durable as these artificial girls might be, the extreme impact visibly makes her black out almost on the spot. Her parting gift for the Agent is a hand against her palm and a burst of raw force, that'll (conveniently?) send her tumbling back towards air, even if it'll hurt /a lot/. The responsibility of creator to created flows one way. The creator has the obligation to the creation, not the other way around. 'Vanja' doesn't have immediate words for Roxas, as ice blade meets keyblade and fails to quite find its lethal mark. He might notice a twinge in her expression as she tries to adjust out of the grapple - but too late. The inward pull is fast enough to make her hood fall loose and her azure hair fall free, worn messily loose in contrast to Viviane's current tied-up ponytail. When he speaks to her, like that, she stops. "Love...?"
Hibiki Tachibana	The knee lands dead-on, and 'Vanja' is sent back, drifting back through water as if in slow motion. She should be reorienting herself and going after him again - the hit was hardly that bad - but she doesn't. She's not even looking at him, focus cast straight forward. "...I do not understand. Naming us, like that story. Caring to this extent, when we are enemies with opposed goals. Saying... that. I do not understand at all," she reiterates. "...But I think... I 'want' to? I want to hear more of how you came to think this incessant way. How you can feel that way." Her head turns back to him, at his question. "...If you insist on it so," Vanja says. How do you feel about that? You're not a doll, you have to think about it! The girls around Xion have no response. Maybe because they hadn't thought about it. Maybe because the sheer outpour of emotion in her voice is enough to leave them without an instant shot back. 'Veronica' gets tossed into jail and floats there with a murmur of "Like him...", and 'Valerie' is the first to try and take the iniative again-- just for her and another unnamed one to get caught up in the wide strash into dragonfire that sends them scattering. The now-one unnamed one out of the Xion lot stops both herself and Valerie by gripping onto her fellow homunculi's arm and using another alchemical barrier as a platform, lips trembling. "What would that traitor know...? What do you know...? About us, or our Master..." You can see, right here, how your sister grew even though she didn't have a 'soul'. You're built the same. And since you're able to want something... you should! "The only thing we want is to finish--" 'Veles' starts, then plummets down with Petra dramatically landing dead center on the plinth. 'Violet' and then 'Verona' look to each other as if questioning one another on how to react, while Morgana simply looks down at a hand, then up at... Viviane? "Why is mine the only one that does not fit their naming convention...?" "Ah..." The original homunculus has no reply. What she does have is an imperceptibly small smile - seeing that as begrudging acceptance, maybe. Quiet enough that only the ones around her can hear, she murmurs, "Perhaps... they really are all like me...?" With Petra apparently having that on lock, Hibiki descends to try and slow down Nikki before she lands, while also glancing back to the one that she knocked out. One of the unnamed ones, still. "I... uh... Veda, maybe--? Yeah, Veda...!" That's eleven names out of twelve. And also...
Hibiki Tachibana	For one, Petra's vain puzzle-skipping hope actually turns out to be... entirely right to hold, this time. As the gems in her possession seem to equate to whatever activation functionality the plinth holds; it'd be good cause to believe a lot of things down here run off very similar magic principles, at least when it comes to turning things on or opening doors. It probably wasn't as much of a security concern in the past as it is now. But it does mean that as the jewels and plinth shine in reaction to one another-- the entire chamber shakes, violently. More violently than when the makeshift depth charges were set off earlier. Unlike the last puzzle, this rumbling and quaking is /very/ clearly that of ancient mechanisms that haven't moved in a long, long time. For a second, it sounds as if the entire crystalline chamber might collapse. It doesn't. What it does do is seal off the way they came in, with crystal growing upwards over it and seamlessly meshing into the ceiling to form a perfect barrier, as if it was never anything but a wall. And then, easily able to be felt even if you couldn't see the outside ocean through the transparent barriers... ...the chamber begins falling away. Down, down, down further into the brightly shining ocean below - pulled along as if by gravity towards that singular source of radiance, too bright to pick out details, down at the seafloor. Perhaps this place's purpose was some sort of... undersea lift? There'd be a chance to question it, if it weren't for the one still (prospectively) unnamed clone, the one primed against a platform after being beaten back by Xion, next to 'Valerie'. While the majority of them seem to be in states varying between strange acceptance, freezing confusion, and simply knocked out here and there, she alone still seems to have fight left in her - enough that, for supposedly lacking emotional range, her teeth are pressed together as she turns her head up at the ceiling of the chamber. "Not only have we failed to prevent you from descending down... failed to reach there first... but now all of this. The first task of importance we were given, only for..." She trails off. "...In the end, our design must have been doomed to failure from the start. With her... that must be it..." Her eyes shut tight... and then abruptly, she slams a hand down at the alchemic platform she's standing on. It shines brightly expanding outwards as extra formulae are applied. "If you're all so obsessed with 'want', then what I /want/ is for you to stop filling all of our heads with this--!" In an instant, every drop of water in the now-sealed, falling chamber itself is what's used in mass transmutation; into a raging, blazing explosion in all directions, intent on scorching anything that isn't as durable as her sisters to nothing. There's little places to run from water suddenly becoming fire. And after the fact, she'll be doubled over, hair draped over her face, shoulders squared up and trembling.
Angela	"I would hardly call your existences false." Angela says. "You certainly exist. But--" Nikki collides into them and is blasted back to the air bubble. FOrtunately, Nikki is immortal by Contract because that should've killed her--it's not like she was able to muster a defense. She's knocked out and very bloody and Hibiki catches her and sets her down but she's out like a light. "Mm." Angela remarks on the now knocked out homunculus. Hibiki names her while unconcious and she supposes that naming people while they can't object is actually kind of the norm but she does think the norm being applied to in the middle of alchemical underwater magical combat is unusual. Both her Agents are not really in combat condition anymore but Angela is with Petra and that's basically the best place to be at all times, being here in Eggpack form and all. Rose does, however, cover Nikki's body with her own to try and endure the explosion the last one unleashes. "Petra." She says. "Would you mind bringing me to that last individual." Once the Eggpack is brought close enough, one way or another, Angela closes her eyes, using the mechanical Eggpack limb to push the hair out of the homunculus's eyes so she can get a better look at her. "...Roxas says that I should not treat you cruelly and so far listening to Xion's friends has not done me ill. So I'll name you in the way that people like us are named, since we both failed to save our creator and still have to find a way to live." She considers for a moment but ultimately it's pretty easy. "A new classification seems appropriate. I give you the designation V-05-05. And the name... Vee. If you don't care for it, feel free to choose another but until you choose one, feel free to make it your own as you'd like." She is quiet another moment and adds, "...It is a bit traumatic, isn't it? To be exposed to such kindness. It burns and you want to shy away from it. ... That's alright. Writhe away from it as you'd like." "...You deserve the opportunity to be born as much as anyone else." The mechanical limb pats the homunculus on the head once in mimicry of what Hook tends to do to her even if she imagines it's surely mortifying for the homunculus--just as it is for her.
Roxas	"It's not that... I don't think you could be satisfied with that. It's that, I can look in your eyes, and see that anything else has barely occurred to you," Roxas asides to the girl speaking to Angela. His attention, though, his attention swings immediately back towards Vanja. "Hey, I like your hair!" He comments, and it is important to him to do so. It might even be as important as the overall battle itself. No-- in a way, it's inseparable from the battle itself. They're people who haven't been allowed to be people. Souls whose distinction has never been acknowledged. No attack he can deliver is more important right now. In answer to Vanja's bewilderment, he says, "Well... there's definitely a reason I'm 'not normal', but it's prrrrrobably better if we share it in a nicer context than this. Let's see, which of Xion and I's go-tos would work... have you ever been iceskating? Hmm, that would be good for all of you, too..." "... Huh? Insist? No, it's just that people need names. If you want a different one, you should tell me what it is! Until then, if Vanja is okay, I'll use Vanja!" He exclaims, shifting to a more relaxed posture, whirling his keyblades absent-mindedly as if they were merely keys on a chain that he was jingling. //Why is mine the only one that doesn't fit their naming convention...?// "We improvised! It happens sometimes," he shouts over, apologetically. But it won't stop what's coming. It's only natural that one of them would just want the turmoil of having to actually decide to stop. Roxas doesn't have an answer to that-- he's not sure there IS a good answer. But he does have an immediate reaction. The black keyblade is seized in the teeth of the white keyblade as he raises a hand, twisting it through the air. Dark portals sprout up underneath the girls that are unconscious and unable to defend themselves-- if no one else provides any sort of assistance for them, they drop through into... somewhere. It's a place that Roxas can access at any time, and which don't carry the dangers of the Corridors of Darkness. A disconnected little house, with silver-and-white walls, fully furnished, comfortable as can be save for the snowblindness that navigating it causes. A tiny fragment of The World That Never Was which comes with him. These portals only appear for those who are left unattended-- in the case of Vanja, he vanishes into a beam of zigzagging light that re-emerges right beside her, anchors himself to the ground with the black keyblade, and raises the other. He is a kingdom hearts character and, of course, does his damnedest to block through the explosion. Although he can't be called altogether successful, the whirling, spinning 'block' that he's trying to screen the both of them with does ablate the oncoming damage more than it ought to-- cleaving a small safe space within the flames so that they don't simply persist on his (and probably, Vanja's) location. He's still pretty burned afterwards, though. "I could really do with less of being lit on fire," he complains in the aftermath, because Fira is one of the most common spells he deals with on an everyday basis.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	"Does that not make you a brand of traitor as well, black saint? Are you one to speak of who is deserving of loyalty?" "Yes! Yes, it does! If a traitor to such a foul creator is to be spurned, then let God strike me down where I stand!" Jeanne boasts with a broad sweep of her arms, quickly regretting that a moment later once she remembers that she still needs to keep the burning flag moving so she (and Valentine and Valencia, by extension) doesn't get crushed by all that water still surrounding her. That's Ritsuka's cue to pour some more power into Jeanne, enough that she can afford to stop swinging long enough to plant that burning flag into the ground. With her hands free, Jeanne can drag Valencia and Valentine back to the safety bubble while glancing over at Xion's dragon-headed blast and finding her cheeks flushing rather obviously even while surrounded so much moving fire, water, and steam alike. Ritsuka only gets to chuckle lightly for a moment before quickly looking away 'innocently' when Jeanne shoots her a murderous glare, giving Mash an opportunity to address Valentine on their behalf. "There's nothing wrong with being satisfied with doing what you were made to. There's just more to life than only following that purpose and doing nothing for yourself." She relaxes her hold on the shield to hold a hand out to Valentine, offering to help her up onto her shoulder while glancing at Jeanne and signaling at Valencia with her head. Jeanne grimaces and grumbles, but she does eventually hold one arm out to Valencia while she (and Ritsuka, eventually) focuses her gaze on the plinth where Petra's landed. The shaking has the whole trio staggering briefly as they struggle to hold their balance, but Ritsuka's the only one to fall on her ass even though she might be the only one without someone to physically assist. As Mash moves over to help her up, however... "In the end, our design must have been doomed to failure from the start." "If you're all so obsessed with 'want', then what I /want/ is for you to stop filling all of our heads with this--!" They only have a second to regroup, and the three sync up their movements just enough that they all bear a fairly equal brunt of the room-wide explosion. Mash still ends up shielding the two-to-four of them as best she can, of course, spreading her defensive abilities thin to cover Ritsuka, Jeanne, Valentine, and Valencia as much as she can. It's ultimately rather painful for everyone involved anyway, but certainly less fatal than it could have been even with the scorching and burning the trio suffers with that protection. "Ow, oh... I-is everyone alright? Does anyone need..." Mash starts to ask as she pulls herself back up, looking around frantically for Ritsuka. She finds her easily enough, however, when Ritsuka starts laughing. She's wincing audibly and coughing with each laugh, too, but she's definitely laughing in a thoroughly satisfied way. "That's... That's more like it! Could've-ow ow ow hot hot hot!" Perhaps realizing only then that her sleeve is on fire, Ritsuka hurriedly ditches her shirt and hisses lightly while starting to get some basic healing spells going around to keep the burns from getting any worse. As she does, however, her gaze is fixed on the one trembling on the floor. Still smiling, she gets up and approaches her, kneeling besides the girl Angela calls 'Vee'.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	"You deserve the opportunity to be born as much as anyone else." "Nice name, Miss Angela. So, Vee... What do you want to do next? You've got your whole life ahead of you, so you might as well get some practice deciding. And heck, if there's something you don't like-" She indicates Jeanne with a quick tilt of her head. "-you can take a cue from Jeanne's book and blow it up like the room just now! It's worked out for her pretty okay so far." Mash's eyes widen while she shakes her head quickly to try and discourage her, and Jeanne just shrugs lightly.
Petra Soroka	"Why is mine the only one that does not fit their naming convention...?" With combat slowing to a halt from 11/12, Petra sits down on the edge of the plinth above the platform and starts setting out the magical gems from earlier, going by vibes with feeling each gem as she draws it out of her compact mirror. Arranging them on the plinth and kicking her feet to swish through the water, Petra calls down to Morgana, intently, insistently inquisitive, while also casually gentle-sounding-- the question's important, but it's important for saying it and causing Morgana to think about it, rather than getting an answer immediately. "Do you want it to?" She lets that hang for a moment, before continuing. "If it feels alienating to have a name that sets you too far apart from the people who are 'us' to you, then choose one that's closer. If you'd rather stay a little more independent-- I mean, you've still got the same hair and face and all, for now, at least-- then that's alright too. It's a choice. It means something, about you." Petra hums to herself, clinking a gem on the crystal. Any noise it makes is totally muffled by the water though. She's having a hard time figuring out any more fitting names, but after a minute, by which point the gems are almost fully set up and the magic is tangibly resonating, one does come to her. "If you want another option, then, Videlia? That's what I've got left, I think." The chamber rumbles, and Petra... has solved a puzzle! The gems shine, the door seals away, the chamber plummets, and Petra stands triumpant on the platform, having completed an extremely simple intellectual task. She hops down, drifting through the water with a foot outstretched to land on, and she automatically reaches for her transteam gun to detransform before Haru's words echo in her head. Resisting the impulse to remove her armor immediately, Petra reconsiders it and remembers that she would be crumpled flat like an aluminum can if she did that now. She's especially grateful for it when the final unnamed homunculus ignites all the water in the sealed chamber. The explosion centers in the middle of the room, right where Petra herself is, and she's blasted away that much harder for all the water that would provide resistance being transmuted into fire. Crashing to the ground in the now-breathable chamber, her armor finally flickers away, and she rolls slightly under half of a rotation before clanging to an abrupt stop when the side of the Eggpack hits the ground. She wobbles to her feet, pushing soaking wet hair out of her face with the palm of her hand and looking a bit worse for wear, and then looks over her shoulder. "Petra. Would you mind bringing me to that last individual." "Got it, Ange. You know, it's like Lilian said, a while back. When finding someone a little like 'us', we should be selfish enough to demand all of it. That we don't have to choose between any of them." She starts trudging toward the one who would be dubbed Vee, turning backwards to allow Angela face to face conversation once she's standing in front of the exhausted girl. "... I just think it's better. When it's not arbitrary."
Petra Soroka	"I... uh... Veda, maybe--? Yeah, Veda...!" Petra dips her chin down at the unconscious one, the one who resisted their talking points up to the end, the only one not allowed input on her own name. Obviously-- that's an untenable situation to leave as-is. "... We'll keep that name in mind for when she wakes up, because V names are really hard. But, uh... I won't call her that. Not until she's heard it and decided on what she wants. It's-- kind of fucked up that that's normally how it always goes, huh?" She frowns faintly, shaking her head, and then reaches up behind herself absentmindedly to pat the top of the Eggpack while Angela talks. "She never agreed with us, and naming someone by force is fucked up. So we'll talk with her, when, like, we're not riding an elevator to the sea floor to go punch the Illuminati." Hair frizzed and tangled from the incessent torment of salt, water, and heat damage, thrown around and forcibly debelted, Petra pushes it away from her face again and squints at Hibiki. "But-- why? Like the guy from Star Wars?" Hibiki's Japanese: Petra's ear isn't well enough attuned to the accent to make out the differences in short vowels and long vowels, so Hibiki's suggestion is tragically misinterpreted.
Angela	"Is it fucked up?" Angela asks Petra. "I was almost named 'Angelos' but Ayin changed his mind at the last moment. I had no say in the matter either." She isn't sure she has a particular strong feeling about the name Angela but she does think of the name Angelos with singular loathing. "They could just pick someone else if they don't like it..? I cannot deny it does not feel strange." But she can't really argue with the results. ''When finding someone a little like 'us', we should be selfish enough to demand all of it.'' Angela exhales out a sigh, cupping the Eggpack's center mass with one of the mechanical hands. "I suppose so long as we do not insist on our names if they elect to take others--the aim is more to give ''a'' name to see if they like the idea in of itself." There's a distinct sense that she is working out the philosophy behind this bizarre event after the fact. "My agents will need medical care before they can assist. Perhaps the HP ampules..."
Xion	As resolute as a rock when it came to caring for cores, there wasn't a budge possible for Xion -- Merely an overflowing outpouring of the purest emotion she had: Hate-of-a-kind. Hate towards 'being held back', hate towards unrealization, hate towards the lack of a name. "Tools don't need a lot of things." Xion murmurs, bubbles curling to either side of her mouth as she pans about, checking the room. "They don't need to understand anything. A sword doesn't have to think, or sing more sweetly than an edge through air, or consider flowers, or work a job. A sword is just a sword, until there's a hand to hold it." Xion's grip on Starlight tightens, as the tip drops perceptibly and she straightens out of her battle-posture in gravitically ignored water. "And you can be born with a sword in your hand. A sword that's yours." It's only in passing, somewhere between turning body and facing blade about to prepare herself anew at Mach speed and mashin metal invulnerability, but Xion's passion-filled expression falls on Viviane. Somewhere between 'and you?' and making sure she's okay, the noirette knows certainly she's looking to the most-realized of the bunch, and so... She worries, for an instant, and looks away from the central pillar. > '... You've got some good friends, huh, Xion.' This pauses Xion, a brief delay with layers of water-stopping Heaviness and boiling draconic flame slowly weakening as she takes a breath. > 'so far listening to Xion's friends has not done me ill.' Exhaling out, Xion's focus wanes and she drops her blade-guard, lifting chin and closing her eyes. "I'm glad everyone's here too." This, of course, is exactly when the unnamed Vivianne-clone mcloses it, causing a terrible eruption of fire that suddenly makes all that ignoring fluid dynamics come back to bite Xion! Blasted from the pressure differential of boiled water leading out with hot bubbling force before the real blast reaches her, Xion cartoonishly speed-sails out of the water bubble (at Mach speed) and craters, rolls, and pops up in a crouch while Starlight drags against the outer floor. "Vivi--!" The speedy girl begins to shout, then clicks closed her teeth and flings herself from planted key back towards the explosion with her other hand reached out towards the original version and through an instantly yawning hole of her own into pure blackness, reappearing in an identical sworling barrier in front of Viviane (and, perhaps, Hibiki? Had the golden anchor of the SONG team had the same idea?) holding a pale blue medallion with a bright-eyed version of the same face every other dull-eyed girl the friends came to carry out. "--borrowingyourpower!!" Xion finishes (at Mach speed), presenting the medallion twohandedly as an amulet-shield that generates a rather Known alchemical barrier-field to put against the danger. With smoking medallion and cracked impromptu 'Alchemy' shattering before her, Xion lowers her hands and finally, finally slows down.
Xion	The four medallions she had used, one by one, wink out of their empowerments with a dimming of Jeanne's flames, and then the revving-down of the Twin Combustion Brothers with a color-fadeout of her red leather jacket to black. Finally, all that's left is a pale blue medallion with unblanked, vivid eyes. This, she flips in the steam-warmed open air like a coin behind her. It lands - in hands or on floor - near Viviane herself, a little proof she had enough heart to share for a moment. "Thanks." Xion asides, and then glances around at the holes Roxas created. "... I'm gonna need to get groceries, aren't I?"
Roxas	"Nah, we're good. I went to Costco and I always shop under the assumption that everybody is gonna show up," Roxas replies to Xion. 'Everybody' in this case involves (including themselves) at least seventeen Nobodies of various types.
Hibiki Tachibana	With the last attempt at lashing out finally dying down, the entire massive room has gone almost peacefully quiet. With all of the flooding evaporated away, the subtle sounds of the crystalline chamber descending through the ocean makes up the only ambience. Given the clear surfaces thankfully didn't catch fire, it'd almost be easy to believe there wasn't a battle here. Well, if it weren't for the clothes-on-fire, the robed girls in various states of being unable or unwilling to fight, and otherwise. There were at least a few that Roxas had to rescue via spiriting away - the unconscious Veda and the almost-there Valentine included - but most of the others were either able to protect themselves or defended by others... also to muted surprise, for the most part. Which leaves the last remaining of the homunculi, unresponsive to Angela's approach. When her frazzled hair is brushed aside, she still fails to move; with the water gone, she can tell that what can only be tears are building up at the corners of her eyes, cast down at her own hands clenched against the floor. She's still quavering. "...I failed to even..." There's only silence at the name bestowed upon her... but when Angela mentions the pain of kindness, what's deserved, her shoulders square up further. 'Vee' doesn't get choked up, but the liquid streams down her cheeks right before she gets pat on the head - two seconds of that get to happen before she draws back, as if struck. "What are you--" She begins then stops, trailing off as Ritsuka speaks to her. "I want nothing more than to blow you up again," she responds flatly, turning her head away in a scarily Jeanne-esque fashion. "...What else am I meant to do...?" With the last of the 'siblings' only expressing the desire rather than actually doing it again, lingering tensions ease up, just a little. If it feels alienating to have a name that sets you too far apart from the people who are 'us' to you, then choose one that's closer. It means something, about you. "Does... it?" Morgana utters back to Petra, leaning against the plinth as if she might be at risk of falling over without its support. "...I do not know. Like the others, or different...? Why should it matter regardless?" It's not a question to her, but a rhetorical one, aimed at herself. But, uh... I won't call her that. Not until she's heard it and decided on what she wants. "Ah-- yeah. That's fair. Sorry. I didn't think about that..." Hibiki rubs at the back of her neck (post-bodily defense, as Xion thought). She's pretty happy to leave it at that while ruminating on how that /is/ how naming usually goes. At least until Petra doubles back to her and snaps her out of it, with-- "H-Huh? Star Wars? What?" Her confusion is palpable. "...Is that where I got it from...?" She doesn't know what it is. She's gaslighting herself.
Hibiki Tachibana	I could really do with less of being lit on fire. "You had no need to get hurt protecting me. It would not have lastingly done harm," Vanja says from behind Roxas. There's an audible pause where a thank you would otherwise be before she adds on, "Is 'love' also the reason for that? For talking about my hair, or... iceskating?" She seems unaware of what makes that supposedly good. After a moment, "I lack another idea for a name. For now. As you are more versed in this than I, I see no reason to not use your suggestion until then." It's a start. Meanwhile, at last freed of needing to keep up the anti-stage hazard, Viviane holds a hand upwards to catch the medallion that Xion flipped her way. On her face is a reserved, yet impossibly sincere smile; the most vibrant display of emotion she's had yet. Perhaps ever, as someone like Jeanne could notice. "You are welcome. And I am grateful to you as well... Xion. It is a strange feeling. For there to be enough of 'me' to draw any strength from. And to now be on the other side of the same sort of kindness that allowed me to be here at all." Her hand closes fondly around the trinket, before her other also wraps around it. "After this has ended, I would very much like to join you and my... siblings. Helping them find their way should be an elder sister's job, should it not?" The words are fresh and experimental, but her smile might have grown a bit wider while saying them. Effort has to be put into returning to neutral as she glances down; past the transparent floor, to the brilliant light they're falling towards. At this distance, its silhouette is finally resolving into the undeniable shape of a gargantuan castle, illuminating the seafloor around it as brightly as a noon day. Against all odds, it must really be the 'Dragon King Palace'. "But first, there is one more step on this journey. Once we have secured the treasure, we may begin thinking on-- looking to the future." "...He will not allow you." It's 'Vee' who says that, barely straightening up from where she's sitting, an exhaustion more than physical in her dull eyes. "He will know of our complete failure. Of his final hope slipping away. He will have no other option but to bar your way with his own hands, to repair his past. His desperation is too great for any different." There's a pang of... sadness, in her voice? Or is it just your imagination? "...What will you, who went through this effort for us... do when faced with that, I wonder."