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| Owner | Pose |
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| Madeleine Cadrasteia | EARLIER, NEVADA, UNITED STATES The Loneliest Road wasn't lying with the name. There is little to see of human life here; were it not for the dusty road, you'd at times be blameless to imagine a world empty save for the van and its passengers. Madeleine puts on her darksynth playlist and zones out for the duration, making little conversation. You're making good time, so she insists on pressing on for an extra hour and change past Eureka to stop overnight in Ely, population 3,924. After a modest complimentary breakfast at the Hotel Nevada & Gambling Hall, and perhaps a spin or three at the slot machines if you're feeling lucky (which Madeleine never is), the gang sets out heading north on US Route 93. Traffic and sights along the road only pick up when 93 approaches the Utah state border in West Wendover. "Not to be confused with Wendover proper, just across the line," Madeleine explains. "There's no gambling or cannabis to be had in Utah, and not much booze, so folks come here to cross into Nevada and have their fill." Wendover is also near the edge of the Bonneville Salt Flats, the endpoint of the elites' journey (or midpoint, counting the round-trip). |
| Madeleine Cadrasteia | NOW, UTAH, UNITED STATES Exiting from the highway, it's a relatively short drive to the flats themselves, a vast expanse of fine salt crystals stretching for miles. "It's public land," Maddie says as the tires crunch over the salt, "so we can kind of drive wherever we want. Thing is, so can other folks. Not everyone here's gonna be a poacher, so don't be too aggressive with the locals until we figure out what they're here for. The GPS says the nightcrawlers are this-a-way... Hey, uh, gang, that's not supposed to be here?" She points ahead, to a dark speck hanging low in the sky. Shortly that speck grows as the van approaches, to a sleek oblong shape, perhaps some kind of hovering aircraft. You're not yet close enough to make out what exactly it is when you hear the crack-crack of repeated rifle fire. "Shit!" Madeleine guns the accelerator, pushing the old van to its limits. "I don't know if that was at us or what, but there's no cover out here," she hurriedly explains, "so I'm just gonna take the van closer before we hop out." Taking the van closer is shortly impeded by coming upon the Fresno nightcrawlers themselves, thousands of them swarming about the earth, performing strange dances with one another, digging in the salt with their feet... they really do look kinda like sweatpants with eyes. Madeleine stops the van. "We'll have to leg it from here." She hops out of the van, remembers to grab the keys, and waits for everyone else to pile out before locking the doors. Whatever's in the air is apparently some kind of genuine UFO, a thick disc ringed with lights, a glowing circle on its underside. From this circle projects a beam of light which is, indeed, pulling nightcrawlers up into the air. "Oh God damn it!" Madeleine shouts over the continued sporadic gunfire. "Can someone get us up there?" As she speaks a bolt of energy springs from one of the lights on the edge of the craft. It zips not at the van or the elites, but at some unknown third party amidst or on the other side of the thousands-strong crowd of nightcrawlers - perhaps a response to the gunshots? "Oh my god they're shooting at someone! We need to get over there and get folks to safety!" |
| Ozhira | For most of the trip since the ichthyosaur fossil, the Beast has been pretty tame. Only asking a quick question here or there, largely absorbing the passing scenery and conversations that pop up around them. They even made a solid attempt at eating like a human being during breakfast, only resorting to Funny Slime Antics to literally clean their plate by running their hand over it. But the Nightcrawlers Come and this is something that Ozhira has been fascinated with ever since they heard of the creatures. From their seat in the back, even with a window of their own, Ozhira is unable to really get a good look at what the van approaches. It isn't until the vehicle stops and they disembark that the scene can really settle in: It's a UFO. > "Can someone get us up there?" Ozhira pauses, glancing from one side to the other. Hiromi is not here, so the thing they did last time to get on board a UFO won't work here. Instead, they step forward quickly past the group's edge, "We will go." The Creature disappears amidst the swarming Nightcrawlers. Before long, it's impossible to tell where they've gone at all. There is, instead, simply One More Fresno Nightcrawler tottering its way towards the beam of light emitting from the flying saucer's underside. |
| Ivy Carrow | "As boring as this seems," Ivy says, propping her cheek on her hand, staring out the window, half-convincing herself. "It's not so bad. You'd be surprised." "Imagine, for a second...A world stitched together with Warpgates all over, and everyone, they do the sensible thing." Her free hand drums softly on her thigh. "They set up at the gates. Trade, trade becomes the way things are done." "But, it's rough, catering to the whole multiverse. You pave over forests, just to make room for more warehouses. Big office buildings, five stories tall, just to moniter inventory and track sales." "Mom and pop stores, closed down. Cute little neighborhoods, shoved aside for more pavement and freight. Can you imagine it? A whole world, that only exists so other universes have somewhere to move and store their shit." "Are you sure?" Ivy asks, when they see the UFO floating in the world. "In some worlds, there's all sorts of strange things in the sky--" Gunshots interrupt her. "--But that sounds like trouble either way." She leaps from her seat, in such a rush she barely bothers to stretch. (Oh that'lls strain) "Ozhira's got the ship, I'll open a portal to the others." A pause. A red tear in the world opened up. "The first ones through she probably have some way of dealing with bullets, in case they're not friendly either..." |
| White | White spends the group's night at the hotel a little oddly. She doesn't ever seem to sleep, but at the same time she could be sleeping at almost any moment with how she always has her eyes closed... But more notably, she isn't actually *present* for the entire night. She intermittently teleports away for ten, fifteen minutes at a time throughout the night, only to return again in near-silence. When she's around, she seems to be either keeping watch or sightseeing from the windows more than anything, and if someone ends up awake late at night they might end up having an unexpectedly spooky encounter with a pair of glowing eyes drifting in the darkness of the hotel's hallway, finding her on the way back from having snuck out to try the slots a couple of times as a novelty. She is at least merciful enough to cut such a startling encounter short rather than deliberately mess with anyone, and her eyes are closed again in any resulting interactions. She really only seems to want to have them open when nobody is paying attention... But hey, at least there's nothing to worry about as far as intruders go! As if there ever would have been otherwise. Once folks are back on the road again, White wonders to herself if any poachers would be so one-note as to have a Title identifying them. It seems worth checking people with the Evil Eye along the way, now and then, but if she's being told not to worry about it too intensely... Well, she was barely worried in the first place really. Of course, that's when she starts to hear gunfire, and jolts upright enough that with her heel on the edge of the long seat in the back of the van she almost looks like she's stopped just short of jumping straight into- or through- the roof. She doesn't need to lean out the window to zoom her view in and Analyze the UFO, snapping her eyes open and focusing on it regardless of obstructions. While she contemplates whether shooting it down is a good idea at all, Madeleine asks for a more measured request, and White softly "Mm."'s a confirmation. She's really not that nervous about small-arms gunfire on her own behalf, but of course that's just rude of her given everyone else is still quite alive and mortal as far as she knows, for the most part. And now that they're seeing the UFO shooting down at someone other than them, White mildly frowns... It's going to be a bad look if she tries to just ignore that, isn't it? Ozhira *probably* can take out one measly UFO, even if White might like to pop it like a balloon for sentimental reasons, and now people are being prompted about being able to deal with bullets... It's not very ladylike to volunteer to risk being shot, but alas. White summons her scythe in-hand and holds it with the blade sideways in front of her face, and steps forward in wordless volunteer. At least if she isn't shot in the face, maybe she'll just look cool somehow? |
| Shinmyoumaru Sukuna | Unlike Madeleine, Shinmyoumaru is exactly the sort of monster to be lucky on games of chance rather than skill. Unfortunately for her, she also looks like a young teen and thus was shooed away from the slots before she ever got a chance; while Shinmyoumaru is very good at *objecting* to being called anything but an adult, she does not actually carry identification and can't prove it. She spent the next part of the trip sulking and privately resolving to get a driver's license or something that the Americans will accept as legitimate. Only having her attention drawn to... "It's a flying plate," Shinmyoumaru decides, having not seen a UFO of that shape before. And since she herself tends to fly in a rice bowl, perhaps she has an affinity for aerial tableware. She's interested enough in it that she barely remembers to look at the Fresno nightcrawlers for a few moments. They really do look like pants. "I can!" Shinmyoumaru says, pulling her fancy little rice bowl - black, lacquered, with a gold pattern on the side that includes leaves and clouds - out of her sleeve and immediately letting it return to being a significantly less little rice bowl. She climbs into it, thinks about it for a few moments, and then bonks the inside of it with a painted wooden mallet she had up her other sleeve. A rather significant wooden mallet... "Be big, o bowl!" The bowl expands from a comfortable ride for Shinmyoumaru to several times that size. It's not quite the length of the car, but it's wider. "Hop in!" Shinmyoumaru says, having to stand and stretch a little to see over the high rim now. She gives people exactly ten seconds to climb in while she retrieves her needle and uses the mallet on *that* too to make it much longer - a spear rather than a sword. Because as soon as that's done, she clambers to the front of the bowl and starts poling. The bowl moves a lot more sluggishly than she's used to, but it begins to ascend like it was gliding through a river, if the river was at an angle up. She's heading toward the UFO, since there's a portal over towards where it's shooting and she doesn't need to go there. Great, now there are *two* UFOs in the air. Traditional Japanese rice bowls are pretty unidentified around here. |
| Angela | THIS DEFINITELY HAPPENED BEFORE CODA. Otherwise Solace wouldn't be here... Ceri gambled a little, Solace gambled once and upon not getting money, looked like she was about to whallop the slot machine with an axe. Ceri talked her down and pulled her away. The rest of the drive is peaceful enough at least from these two. Solace is out of snacks to feed White. Their reaction to the gunfire is to tense up. Ceri draws her rapier and Solace crouches her head down silently--only to peek it back up upon seeing the strange pants-like entities before them. She's naturally a bit uneasy, since she actually fights monsters for a living, but she knows that's why they aren't here today so she holds off. ...And there is an actual flying saucer beaming up the pants? Does Mars need pants(people)?? Solace and Ceri, once the van is stopped, takes different routes. Solace is approaching where she hears the gunfire coming from and Ceri tries to ... just kind of ... start pulling the Nightcrawlers back down with her hands? |
| Calvin Nash | Managing your camaraderie with your demons is an important part of being a Demon Marshal. Calvin has no interest in gambling with any real kind of stakes; a card game with friends is one thing, but losing an appreciable value of money because you thought you might get more based on something completely out of your control is something he's not interested in at all, charitably. Uncharitably, it's 'for dipshits and lazy-asses.' Chernobog, however, is very much interested in the idea--not for himself, but for the enjoyment of watching someone teeter on the edge of ruin. Calvin does not feel lucky. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Calvin: 3 spins. no more no less Chernobog: Splendid. At your leisure, Calvin. Calvin loses twice and wins once. The spectacle of it--flashing lights, merry alarms, clinking of coins into the tray--is lost neither on Calvin nor Chernobog. "That's damn despicable," he says to himself, as the loose bills disintegrate into fading green binary, stored away in his COMP. A message from Chernobog is heralded with a bzzt-bzzt. Chernobog: Whatever do you mean? You won. Calvin scoffs and tap-taps a reply as he strides out into the parking lot. Rather than his casual wear, he's in uniform--the beige button-up, the brown slacks and matching tie, the inverted pentacle badge, the utility pouches at the waist, and of course the patch emblem of the Southeast Assembly on the short sleeves, a sapling sprouting from ashes in the morning light. Calvin: yeah did i ever. Calvin: all that hootin n hollerin for a few dam dollars. Calvin: shit on that. Chernobog: It's delightful, isn't it? Calvin: evil more like Calvin: you aint careful, that sumbitch cleans you out easy Calvin: you gonna spend 20. come out with 15. feel like you beat the system. and be back in here next payday. Chernobog: Very humorous indeed. Thank you for indulging me. "They can keep the gambling," Calvin announces, getting back into his seat with a sour expression. He removes his hat and sets it crown-down in his lap, fastening his seatbelt. "Them Mormons gotta be right about somethin', I guess. Broken clocks and all that." He just assumes Utah in this world is as full of Mormons as in his. From there, it's mostly quiet--he amuses himself with a paperback that isn't very good (if his frequent confused expressions and screwed-up brow are any indication) but which he can't seem to put down for how much worse it might get. The quiet is abruptly broken by the oblong shape hovering overhead and the apparent rifle shots. "Holy shit," he huffs. "Alright, anyone gets hit you *say so.* You'll know it." |
| Calvin Nash | Calvin is out of the van before it's fully stopped, already tapping commands into the COMP as the dust clears. I'll open a portal to the others. "Got it." Ozhira's going to infiltrate. The disguise will probably hold. "Anybody that expects to get hit, hold your horses just a second." Calvin taps Enter three times. Ceri does not hold her horses, which causes Calvin to hiss 'sssshit' and hurry his pace. Into his waiting hand, two shotgun cartridges emerge, followed by an old but skillfully maintained breech-loading shotgun. One, two, rack the pump. Calvin races to the other side of the van, so that everyone (including Ceri) is in his field of view, shoulders the gun and... aims it at the van? Before anyone can stop him, he pulls the trigger, racks the pump and fires again. Two thunderous cracks--but the van is fine. The first shot conjures a brilliant purple tortoise, which retreats into its shell and slides through the air, gently passing through anyone who indicates they expect to be hit (and Ceri), bolstering their bodies against mundane physical damage. The next conjures a sky-blue owl, hooting and spreading its majestic wings to fly in the same pattern, bolstering defenses against more exotic forms of damage like what the UFO will likely use. "Chernobog. Up and at 'em, partner," he says, thumbing the brim of his hat with one hand as he levels the COMP at the UFO. "Cover me while I get us somethin' to work with." .load analyze Analyze v. 2.3.2 developed by Trina McElwain Loading... |
| Madeleine Cadrasteia | ABOVE Ozhira steps into the beam of light, and Ceri slips into it when the UFO shifts position slightly, and the duo immediately find themselves lifted skyward at the pace of a leisurely stroll. The other nightcrawlers in the beam twist and turn, contorting themselves in the air like cats in zero-gravity. As they pass into the ship they feel a brief sort of pressure, like breaking the surface tension of something viscous, and then the two land unceremoniously amidst a heap of confused nightcrawlers. There must be some kind of one-way forcefield that lets things in but not out on the underside of the ship, because this heap appears to be lying on thin air. Above, surrounding the opening on the craft, there is a railing beyond which stand a number of... some might call them 'gleeps'. An assortment of variously pale green and grey hairless humanoids with enormous compound eyes and gangly limbs. Thankfully The Understanding seems to hold true here, as they issue commands and report information to one another: "Main shield integrity at ninety-four percent!" "Taser array eighty-percent charged!" "Exotic energy signatures detected at ground level. Will continue monitoring." "Divert auxiliary power to taser ring! Return fire on my command!" And then-- "Captain! Life scanner detects several non-target species in the holding pen." An imperious voice from somewhere out of view responds, "Get down there and find them! We can't have another scandal like the last time we took a local humanoid with us." It seems the ship's crew are aware of their trespassers, but perhaps haven't seen them just yet... BETWEEN Madeleine hops into Shinmyoumaru's rice bowl and hunkers down below the rim. "So what's the plan? Do you think we should try to communicate?" Isn't 'the plan' *her* job? As the bowl ascends toward the UFO, the craft appears to notice their presence and fires a warning shot of crackling energy that nearly singes the bowl "I don't think we'll get any closer without opening a channel. Hell, I'm never good at starting conversations..." BELOW White turns her eyes skyward, and Calvin his COMP; together, they examine the UFO. Apparently its name is the "Science Vessel MCIV Emperor's Paw" (who knew they had Roman numerals in space?), and it is equipped with a taser-bolt array, energy shield, sublight space drive, tractor beam, and neutron torpedoes, along with too many other subordinate or insignificant technological systems to count. In particular, Calvin's COMP (which does not get the name of the craft, unlike White's supernatural vision) recognizes the neutron torpedoes as extremely dangerous, on the scale of weapons from the war his world faced so many years ago. Hopefully they're a weapon of last resort... Then Solace and White are stepping through Ivy's portal, toward the sound of gunfire. They emerge from the swirling red rift to a rifle pointed at their faces, but nobody fires yet. Instead, someone shouts "Stop right there, aliens! Your disguises won't work on us!" The moustached, baseball-capped man holding the rifle level at the elites seems to think they've come from above to finish the job... A heavier-set man with a red plaid shirt and cowboy hat is kneeling, shaking with panic, over a third, younger fellow, who appears to be badly hurt from the 'taser bolt' the UFO unleashed in this direction not a minute before. "C'mon, Jerry, stay with me here..." "Elroy... it hurts bad..." |
| White | White spares Calvin a glance as he confidently prepares his magic shells; she's seen the effect of one of them before, albeit a different type, and her read of him still holds as too honest of a guy to have a psychotic lapse this abruptly. So, she's pretty calm about being shot at with that in mind, and gives him a small nod as she steps past for the portal, muttering "Science Vessel..?" under her breath. It's not an explanation in full, but it might be something the others can make inferences from once she's away and talking to People With Guns. Once she's there, she has a hard time making up her mind between leaning around her scytheblade to try and show her face (to prove she's human! Kind of! Sort of technically maybe!), or ducking back behind it again like the only part of her that she's worried about getting new holes in is her pretty face. Because it is, of course. As far as she's concerned, there's not many things less pretty than a smashed up face, and regenerating afterward probably won't change the impression either. She *tries* to say something back, but keeps being drowned out by the strangers' shouting because of her soft voice and her inability to talk over them. She starts to frown again as she finds herself unable to deal with this problem, and starts looking to anyone else following her through the portal for help while slowly shuffling closer. She can't heal people, and trying to stitch someone up with her thread on the spot sounds like a great way to terrify them, so the best thing she can think to do as a peace gesture... Is conjure one of her recent hobby-project teddy bears. It's as white as she is, and it looks quite squishy and round. And no matter how loud they talk, the teddy bear speaks for itself! ... Maybe. |
| Ivy Carrow | "Thankya Marshall," Ivy gave Calvin a winning smile as he spun his magic. "It's always awkward when I have to hang back, instead of going in there." She followed the others through the gate... ...And recived a facefull of rifle. "Oh, wow." She said, as if she hadn't posited this exact thing happening. "Listen." She said, holding her hands up in the air, giving her best disarming smile. "I have a medical pack with me right here I can use to stabilize your friend." Luz liked to insist on it, and it wasn't the first time it'd come in handy. With White doing her best to occupy the angry man with a gun, Ivy raised her voice slightly, talking to the terrified man watching his friend slip away from him. "You know, I really want to help! But I don't want to get shot either. If we were with them, would we have really come down here where your guns could reach us?" She turned her eyes to the UFO. "It seems to me they can do whatever they like while still floating up there.." |
| Ozhira | > ". . . several non-target species in the holding pen . . ." > ". . . Find them! We can't have another scandal . . ." Amidst the bipedal cryptids, one of them lurches to its feet and swivels at the 'hips', evaluating the interior of the hold. The forcefield-floor is of immediate concern; a trump card the poachers could use to eject the beast along with their cargo, and so the creature is forced to drop its disguise in the most horrifying way imaginable. The Nightcrawler's gormless, almost-friendly shape quivers in place, lurching once to the left. The pristine white exterior splits like an old sack, spilling crimson-tinted gore which immediately launches a spike-tipped tentacle into the ceiling. The right leg steps forward, tearing open-- a second tentacle shooting out and anchoring. The entire form tears apart and turns inside-out as the mass continues to anchor itself to ceiling and walls and expand into no less than five differently shaped maws filled with mismatched teeth. The rumble the Devourer lets out vibrates through the entire ship; echolocation. Followed shortly by each mouth opening at slightly different times to join in a chorus of roars. > "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Listen here . . ." > "--Talk?" The throbbing mass of ravneous red flesh ceases its expansion and its advance, only quivering in place, numerous tendrils flailing for purchase. After approximately the length of a single heartbeat, the Devourer's horrific form reduces in size and complexity. The shift is so sudden that Ozhira's human-like disguise is left in midair, dropping to the forcefield-floor, teetering on one foot, then catching their balance. Tucking one hand behind their back, the creature lifts the other to wiggle their fingers sheepishly at the aliens on the upper catwalks that they had, seconds ago, been threat-displaying. "Hello. We are Ozhira. Why are you-- taking them?" |
| Shinmyoumaru Sukuna | Shinmyoumaru lets the bowl shrink a little since she only has one passenger. It's bigger than it used to be, but smaller than the car, and critically it means she has less trouble reaching outside of it to actually pole with her needle. She has a knack for controlling it like a small round boat, and she gets into a rhythm once it's back down. When the bolt comes, she's ready for it, jabbing the needle at a spot of air and causing a sparkling wake as the airborne 'boat' shifts to the side. It's a close call, but the bowl remains un-destroyed. 'Do you think we should try to communicate?' 'One of y'all that's up there needs to talk to 'em and make 'em understand what's goin' on.' Shinmyoumaru draws herself up to her full height. "I'll talk to them!" she says, with all the confidence of youth. Unfortunately she doesn't exactly have the right kind of radio to start hailing them that way, so Shinmyoumaru ducks down for a moment, letting the bowl coast. The inside, as Madeleine has found out, has ... stuff in it; lengths of cloth which she seems to use as a seat, both sewing and fishing gear in their own containers, and an assortment of stuff that would gravitate to her pockets if she had pockets. Shinmyoumaru comes up with a length of white cloth, which she hooks to a fishing pole and then starts waving over her head energetically, like a banner, while letting the bowl coast toward the UFO. "Wave this," she says to Madeleine, offering her the makeshift banner before cupping both hands around her mouth. "HELLO! My name is Shinmyoumaru Sukuna! I want to talk!" A beat as she remembers the magic words for aliens: "I come... in peace! Take me to your leader!!" Nobody should have let her watch that awful alien movie on one of the other road trips instead of going to bed early. |
| Angela | Ceri didn't hold her horses! She was just moving a little too to catch it in time. But she is startled by the turtle that passes through her and she takes a moment to take in a DEEP BREATH and let it out. This is normal. This is normal Elite shit. She flashes a thumbsup back to Calvin and keeps moving. Solace arrives to a gun in her face. She glances to White. She ALSO is someone with a soft (and hoarse!) voice so she's not going to be much help in the communication department. White offers a peace sign and a teddy bear of appeasement! Solace waits a moment to see if this is distracting before attempting to clobber the guy threatening her with a rifle in the head with the butt of her axe. "Not alien. You poachers?" MEANWHILE Ceri's gotten kidnapped!!! Ceri pushes herself up out of the various nightcrawlers surrounding her and says, "Woah woah woah, I don't know what's going on here, but you're misunderstanding the situation a bit!" She feels around for a forcefield or a path out from their containment. "Why are you kidnapping our nightcrawlers?" She asks, not even thinking about trying to be sneaky about it. But well, there's an Ozhira around here so maybe they can handle sneakiness. |
| Calvin Nash | Analyze v. 2.3.2 developed by Trina McElwain 'UFO' Affinity: Electric/Almighty Threat:Extreme Notable Techniques: Taser, Tractor Beam, Neutron Torpedo Observations: Armed with weapons of mass destruction. Engage with extreme caution. "Fuck." "What an interesting development. Shall I engage?" "No you 'shall' not," Calvin says, looking up from the COMP screen to bar Chernobog with the barrel of the shotgun laid perpendicular across the tall, slender demon's chest. This seems to amuse Chernobog, drawing a laugh that sounds like the snapping of a rotten branch in the dead of winter, and setting a spasm of amusement through the upper half of his towering form. "As you wish." Calvin lowers the shotgun. "What we'll do is, you go and take Ms. Ivy's portal, and you help her and Ms. White keep them people from shooting." "Very well." Chernobog glides unnaturally across the ground at frightening speed, his shouldered greatsword a paltry concession to the idea of nonviolence from something that looks and moves like he does, a robed, towering emissary of decay with a permanent, skeletal rictus grin. Kicking up a trail of dust as he goes, he gently flows through the portal. It's about this time that Calvin realizes that he has better picks for calming people down than Chernobog, and shortly after that realization, he files it away in the burgeoning and overstressed folder titled 'it'll be aight.' "Be not afraid," intones Chernobog on the way through. It is impossible to miss or deny that he enjoyed saying it. To his credit, he doesn't react *adversely* if he's shot. "I am an emissary of Paladins Chevalier Calvin Nash. He and others present are attempting negotiation with the beings aboard that ship, for the safety of both yourselves and the Nightcrawlers. I will protect you as I am able. However..." His upper body quakes like a reed in the wind; this is his expression of silent amusement. "The 'aliens,' as they have been described, have not used their full might against you. I would advise against further provocation, as humorous as it might be to see the consequences." Back at the van, Calvin taps furiously at his COMP. What were those weapons? Right, that's what they were called. SitRep v. 0.2.1 developed by Jamie Molina Message Subject: alien Message Body: hey its chevalier nash. we got us a situation here. aliens come up and sucked up some nightcrawlers out here in utah. ships called science vessel emperor's paw. aliens are gray and green fellas with big eyes. skinny. i need to know what life's like in their neck of the woods so we can get along good and they keep them neutron tortillas inside that ship of theirs. Calvin mashes the Enter key with his pinky. Include Location Data? Y/N Y_ Ticket Submitted Successfully Please Wait . . . Analyst Tasked to Ticket |
| Madeleine Cadrasteia | ABOVE Ozhira bursts into a growing mass of tendrils and teeth. Immediately cries go up in the ship- "Hostile lifeform onboard! Security to the bridge!" "Damn it, what is that!?" "We're gonna die...!" Then they contract into their human disguise, and the alarm turns to alarmed confusion. "Wh-what's going on?" "Where did it go... who is that person?" Ozhira: "Hello. We are Ozhira. Why are you-- taking them?" Ceri: "Why are you kidnapping our nightcrawlers?" "*Your* nightcrawlers?" says the captain, still out of view. Hobnailed boots click-clack across the tiled floor of the bridge. A green alien in a brilliant prismatically-reflective robe steps into view, arms folded behind their back. "I think you'll find that they're *my* nightcrawlers," they say, "seeing as they - and *you* - are on my ship. And you are threatening my crew. But why are you stowing away? Tired of your pitiful earthling lives? Desperate to see the stars? Even the fools trying to shoot at us have more common sense than you, it seems." "Sir! We're receiving a communication vector!" "Put me on the holo-projector." The captain doesn't even change facing as a green light washes over them from above, some kind of scanner or camera. BETWEEN Madeleine waves the white flag, and Shinmyoumaru shouts her intent and demand. Shortly thereafter a green humanoid, large compound eyes, shimmering robe etc appears *standing in the bowl* in front of Shinmyoumaru. The only clue that they may not be physically present is the way their foot is halfway clipping into the floor. "A child? Demanding to see me? Pfah." A glance to Madeleine. "You are her guardian? Why do you allow someone so young to pilot your craft?" "No, I'm-" "That's even less responsible! You have allowed a child to *kidnap* you? Is this some kind of sick human joyride?" BELOW White holds out a teddy bear, which confuses the moustached man enough that he dips his rifle briefly. "Bear?" Solace whacks him with the flat of her axe in his moment of distraction, sending him sprawling, scrabbling for the rifle that lands a few feet away. Then Ivy offers her medical assistance, and Elroy hurriedly waves her over. "What're ya waiting for! He's in bad shape over here!" Ivy: "If we were with them, would we have really come down here where your guns could reach us?" "She's right," Jerry groans. "Nate, c'mon..." The man in the hat - who must be Nate - lowers his gun again. "Alright. But they're gonna shoot us again if we can't drive 'em off quick... any ideas?" Then Chernobog arrives. Big skull man? Now THAT's an alien. Nate raises the gun and fires halfway through "Be not afraid", visibly terrified. "Shit, they're comin' through your portal!" As he reloads, the unfazed demon states his intention and advice. "Y-you're not from the UFO? I'll be damned... how've you got portals then? That's alien stuff." THE VAN Calvin's priority sitrep gets a quick reply. "'Emperor's Paw' is a spaceship registered with the Martian-Venusian Compact from the same solar system you arrived at. If they took a space vessel to their system's Earth instead of using warpgates they're probably there without local permission. The Compact is an independent nation, not Commonwealth, so data is limited, but it's some kind of bureaucratic oligarchy." |
| White | White's read of the situation spends a few moments rapidly ping-ponging such that her posture keeps changing to start reacting to the new circumstances. Solace bonking one of the riflemen during a moment of distraction has her starting to spin thread from her hand, preparing to tie the other guy up. Then, before she quite does so, the others successfully get an agreement to allow treatment of the injured man, and White starts to lower her hand again. THEN Chernobog comes through and gets shot, and White slumps a little to one side in pure exasperation. The best explanation she can produce is "We're... Magic. Not aliens.". She's finally too fed up of engaging with the gunpoint farce to bother respecting personal space anymore (at least once she sees Chernobog non-react to being shot), and is all too happy to let him take over being threatened instead of her. His face won't get uglier if it's shot, at least! She flips her scythe around backward over her shoulder in an implicitly less-readied position, and checks her phone to review what Calvin said while she sits on her heels near the injured man and Ivy. She sets the little stuffed silk bear down beside him, as if giving him something to squeeze will make his injury less painful. Man... Not having healing magic is really inconvenient at times like this. Instead, she has to slowly muster her soft voice now that the shouting and gunshots have died down somewhat. "We could... Take you away from here. Or..." She blinks, remembering something. "Terrain Spear." She tilts her scythe forward and reaches it out to the side, tapping the ground a couple of times; each tap begets a brief magic glyph, and each glyph draws and compresses the earth upward into rigid stone pillars, aligning them as a large wall to take shelter behind and binding them with her webs for extra stability. It's wide enough to fit the van behind, so there's enough room for everybody. "Good?" |
| Ivy Carrow | "Y-you're not from the UFO? I'll be damned... how've you got portals then? That's alien stuff." "Only sometimes!" Ivy said, brightly, not bothering to deny it--after all, many aliens really did. "I am Ivy Carrow, of the Warprunners, multiverse traveler extraordinars! I picked this trick up along the way~ We're here to assist the MCRD to make sure that the nightcrawlers make their migration safely." She made a bet, that they cared about their friend getting care more than poaching...If poaching was what they were here to do. "Wanting to catch a glimpse of the elusive nightcrawlers," she asked, stepping by the injured man's side and pulling out a pack from her side. Kneeling down, Ivy thought of Luz--even so far away, she'd still made a blood pact with Ivy. What was hers was Ivy's and what was Ivy's was hers. The memory of blood hummed inside her, her brows knitting together, drawing bandages. "We've got people checking out the UFO right now," she said, as she knelt down. "If they're taking the nightcrawlers, they're a problem." "If you want to help, tell us what happened. What you know about them..." She gave White a grateful salute for producing cover. "Owe you one!" |
| Ozhira | > "*Your* nightcrawlers? I think you'll find that they're *my* nightcrawlers." "Your Nightcrawlers," Ozhira parrots back at the ornately dressed captain. They don't seem to react much to the other crew-beings freaking out about the monster suddenly disappearing, "Your ship." Their footing shifts as the creature glances back and around towards the various cryptids milling about on the forcefield-floor, then to the other Earthling, Ceri. They lift an arm and straighten their fingers; tendons visibly form under the 'skin' and tighten impossibly, then snap. The fingers-- by now, keratinized into arrows-- are fired one at a time, each time with an adjustment of aim, each one replenished right away. Like this, Ozhira forms a generous staircase Ceri (and any enterprising Fresno Nightcrawler) can use to ascend to the command deck. Ribbons of red shoot out of Ozhira's body, then, sticking to the wall closest to them and hauling their body up. By the time they've reached the main level, the tendrils have morphed into twenty-jointed exoskeletal legs all emerging from the humanoid's back and sides. At catwalk-level, their 'body' dangles limply upside-down while the numerous legs cling to the surfaces all around them. Their front half rotates one way, the back half the other way, as they right themself. Due to this; Ozhira twists their body in half in a splatter of crimson sludge. The top half, already manifesting new legs while absorbing the insectile limbs, says "You did not, answer our question." The bottom half, in the middle of reforming a new upper torso, has a voice that is considerably more-- goopy; "weeEE SEE YOuuu." The sticky background of the voice fades as the new head forms. Already, the second Ozhira is straightening a black tie, contrasting the original's red, "You are, the leader? Who leads, if you are gone?" ""Are you poachers?"" the twin instances of the Devourer ask in perfect stereo. |
| Angela | Ceri isn't so sure about this. She isn't so sure about this at all! Are the aliens the poachers?? Are they the origins of the nightcrawlers, leaving them on Earth and then picking them up later? Ceri runs her hand down her face. She can already feel choice paralysis setting in. Wings, the multiverse is weird. Ceri finds Ozhira to be incredibly gross!!! But Ozhira is creating a path for her to get out. Ceri doesn't have superjump abilities, especially not without any EGO Gear. So she just sort of clambers up the bizarre ass staircase and makes her way up to the command deck. "I mean I wasn't threatening anyone yet but my understanding is this is their natural habitat and you're talking shit." She dashes forward, suddenly, aiming to slice across the arm of the nearest green alien because she doesn't give a fuck and she's not finding much reason to have one. MEANWHILE Solace isn't inclined to let the moustached man get the gun, she sticks out her axe to trip up his legs and then picks up the rifle herself. She is from a world that knows what rifles are at least. "We." Solace says. "Are nmot your enemy but don't aim a weapon at someone you don't intend to kill." She looks towards White and adds, apologetically, "Sorry." |
| Calvin Nash | Y-you're not from the UFO? I'll be damned... how've you got portals then? That's alien stuff. "A conveyance afforded by Captain Carrow," says the demon, gesturing with a hand occluded in the inky darkness of his robe towards Ivy. "The particulars don't interest me overmuch, but the convenience can't be understated." "I am called Chernobog," he says with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Captain Carrow and Solace may be more alike you in flesh, but I am of Earth as surely as you are." The oozing midnight blue mycelium that Chernobog bleeds from the gunshot doesn't seem to bother him any more than being shot in the first place. "The aliens will not be 'driven off.' Not by force, in any case. But... that doesn't mean they are destined to succeed. If they wanted to, they could destroy you and shatter my body as well--so one does wonder why they haven't." Meanwhile, Calvin speedreads his COMP and pushes out a sigh. "Well." He backs out of the sitrep program and stores the shotgun in the COMP's data banks with a few more rapid keystrokes and an authoritative enter-press. <J-IC-Scene> Calvin Nash says, "The good news is they didn't come here from the ass end of nowhere. They know what goes on 'round here so they ain't gonna be totally in the dark. Bad news is they know the ain't s'posed to be here, and they ain't Commonwealth so there ain't nothing I can pull officially to get 'em to get the hell on." <J-IC-Scene> Calvin Nash says, "Unofficially, I done 'bout all I can do on the ground, so I'm comin' up there." <J-IC-Scene> White's TTS voice responds in less goofy fashion than before, "Do you need a shortcut? I will be free shortly." <J-IC-Scene> Calvin Nash says, "Yes ma'am I do. Thank you." <J-IC-Scene> White says, "Understood. Gather your things quickly." Calvin steps out into the open, where he presumes White can see him, and waits in his usual authoritative pose, legs apart, thumbs through beltloops, determined frown. All of this is to put forth the idea that he knows exactly how she'll get him there, which is a lie. |
| Shinmyoumaru Sukuna | Shinmyoumaru has never gotten to make first contact before. Her limited experience with aliens (almost entirely with movies) has made her excited to do it. So when one actually appears in front of her, she's all smiles, even if they clearly are using an illusion to do it. That part doesn't bother her; if it gets you to where you want to talk, where's the problem? It's only when it starts insulting her that her smile fades. Shinmyoumaru moves to draw her needle-sword, realizes it's currently extremely long so she can use it to pole the boat and thus is too big to use like a rapier *and* that she'd be menacing an illusion anyway, and so just points one finger at the suddenly-appearing alien. "My name is Shinmyoumaru Sukuna," she says, "and I'm *not* a child. Or a human. I'm an inchling - the princess of Shining Needle Castle, member of the Concord. I'm from as far away from here as you are! Maybe further, because Gensokyo isn't even in this dimension," she adds, a little thoughtfully, but then she focuses back and her expression shifts back to a scowl that doesn't entirely suit her round face. "So don't call me that. And it's not a kidnapping either, I'm giving her a *ride* in my *legendary bowl*. It's generosity on my part!" She looks down slightly, as if indicating how the alien clips a foot through said bowl. "ANYWAY," she attempts to get herself back on track, "I'm here to watch the nightcrawlers too. And keep them away from poachers to make sure they get to where they're going, which is not in your ship! It's..." Shinmyoumaru pauses because she realizes that she never asked exactly where they're going. "...their migration. What do you want them for anyway?" she asks, more curious. "You can't wear them as pants. You're not the right size even if they *were* pants, which they're not." "Maybe we can figure something out that doesn't get more people shot. I don't mind doing danmaku," Shinmyoumaru says, lacing her fingers together and stretching them. "But you shot someone else who can't fight back." |
| White | White nods at her phone, and seems slightly rejuvenated to have an excuse to leave the hiding-place behind her wall. Is this how it feels to use work as an excuse to avoid talking to your neighbors? White might have to try that sometime. All she spares time for is a small wave of her hand to Solace, a soft 'don't worry about it' gesture before... *Blip*, a little flicker of pale violet light whisks her away. She doesn't have to pan her head around to see Calvin either, so she basically pops in out of nowhere beside him. She spares a moment for what feels like a polite and proper (but shallow) bow, then lays a hand on his protruding elbow and teleports the both of them into the UFO together. Right beside Ozhira and Ceri, in fact, since they seem to be talking to some straaaange critters... And by talking, she of course means menacing. Calvin can fix that. For sure. She didn't say a word through the whole process, and she likes it that way. |
| Madeleine Cadrasteia | BETWEEN The alien captain looks bored by Shinmyoumaru's grand introduction. When she gets around to asking why they want the nightcrawlers, boredom turns to indignation. "It should not matter to you what we want with them, only that we *do* want them. And we have every right under Martian-Venusian law to take them, as well. This is an important mission and we cannot permit you to interfere any more than we can allow those earthlings to. Earthlings who, by the way, fired on us first. We are not the aggressors here." Says the one in a position of obvious, overwhelming superiority. Madeleine growls in frustration. "Rat bastard... what's a 'danmaku'? Do you think it could help us?" ABOVE The captain is distracted as Ozhira goes full nightmare mode. They step back, out of the beam of light and away from the devourer, and the holo-projection in Shinmyoumaru's bowl flickers out. This is around when a team of red-robed gleeps burst into the bridge, carrying metal batons. "Security? Subdue this *intruder*," orders the captain, ignoring Ozhira's questions, and the new arrivals charge into battle. Their batons telescope into eight-to-ten-foot rods tipped with powerful electrical emitters that arc from one to the next - not only will contact be painful or even paralyzing, getting surrounded would let them send electric arcs through the devourer's body. Thankfully Ceri is also there, hustling up the makeshift stairs (and tentatively followed by a few frightened-curious nightcrawlers). She cuts down the nearest, unarmed alien and finds herself back to back with Ozhira as the taser-lance-armed guards press in, half of them circling around the perimeter of the holding pen to outflank... BELOW White: "We're... Magic. Not aliens." "Golly..." whispers Jerry. His wounded-hazy surprise persists as White raises a protective wall from the ground while Ivy tends his burns. And just in time, too - the UFO emits another taser bolt, but it washes against the salt barrier to minimal effect. It must be tuned to damage electronics and organic life, not destroy mineral fortifications. There might be some wear and tear on the wall from heat over time, but that would take a good few bolts to deal with. And for now, the UFO is hovering in place over the nightcrawlers. Ivy: "If you want to help, tell us what happened. What you know about them..." "Th-they just showed up!" Elroy chimes in. "We were down here to uh... yeah, just to see the critters, and this big flyin' thing comes down from the sky an' starts scoopin' em up. So's we figure, let's get our guns from the truck and fight back! Defend earth and its creatures, all that sort of thing!" That pause spoke volumes. There's clearly something he isn't telling you... but you also don't see any dead nightcrawlers around so if they *were* here to poach, they may not have had a chance to yet. Solace can easily disarm Nate, who has no apparent combat training beyond playground tussles and maybe a barfight or two. "Woah, what's the big idea!? Aren't you gonna help us get rid of those aliens?" ABOVE, AGAIN White warps aboard the UFO with Calvin in tow. A cry goes up: "More of them!" "Is that five now?" "Code red! All available hands to the bridge!" |
| White | White had somewhat been expecting to arrive in the middle of a dramatic diplomatic stalemate, upon which the earnest and salt-of-the-earth Calvin would be leveraged to solve the dispute with good old fashioned common sense and decorum. What she actually teleports them into is... Well, not all *that* surprising, on reflection. It's likely that nobody can hear her faint sigh over the clamor of the altercation, and hearing the alarm raised and more forces called to the fight leaves White with a very simple next step. It'd be maybe a little sketchy to use decay-attribute spells from inside of a vehicle loaded with explosive weapons, so instead she recycles the same spell from before. Terrain Spear can manipulate metal too, albeit more clumsily and slowly than soil or stone, so she applies it to the most obvious doorways that might allow the rest of the crew into the room with them, twisting the metal of the frame into jagged sheared-metal cones to try and jam the doors. At the same time, she lets loose a handful of her little spy-ders from a spatial portal in her sleeve and warps them into the adjacent hallways with instructions to start searching the ship for signs of the munitions banks. She's been in a position like this before, and she'd quite like to at least know where to go in the event that yet another UFO-mounted superweapon is about to be used. She's *not* planning on putting this one in her mouth, though. |
| Ozhira | > "Security? Subdue this *intruder*." ""We understand,"" the twin Ozhiras state in an even tone. Evidently they choose to interpret the act of calling armed soldiers in as an answer to their question. The threat of arcing electricity is obvious enough that the beast doesn't feel a need to test it first. The one on the left (with the red necktie) suddenly loses cohesion, splattering to the floor like a burst water balloon. When Ceri charges in, it is only the black-tie Ozhira that is there to meet her. Ozhira doesn't glance back to verify it's Ceri; they already know. They only speak up briefly, "Stay behind us." and that might be taken as an insult. That is not the intent and swiftly becomes clear that the beast's intention isn't to protect Ceri but to keep her out of the line of fire. What the black-tie Ozhira does is sprout a series of spines down the center of their torso. Leaning back, the spines grow more defined-- into teeth. Their chest rips open into a vortex of crimson gore and visible ribs and a broad cone of bright green, sizzling acid at basically that entire half of the circle gathering around the pair. It's acidic enough to be an immediate concern, but just slow enough to doff armor and drop weapons covered in it. Meanwhile . . . The red sludge where the red-tie Ozhira had been standing starts moving. With everyone focused on the spectacle of the acid spray and Ceri's swordsmanship and all the shouting, thin lines of crimson slip through cracks and creases in the metal flooring directly after the retreating alien Captain. When it reaches him; it doesn't attack him or even restrain him. It just-- slops onto his boots, then starts crawling up the exterior searching for bare flesh. |
| Calvin Nash | Calvin also doesn't say a word. He wasn't expecting a blink like that, and arrives while still stanced up. He leverages his surprise into going on the offensive before his stony frown can show any cracks. "Commonwealth Paladins, Chevalier Calvin Nash. You folks are in a lot of trouble." He pats the pocket of his slacks without unhooking his thumb from its beltloop. "Now, which--" Subdue this *intruder*. "Wrong answer." Calvin's hands come up in a defensive boxer's stance just in time for him to lean backwards and roll his upper body away from one of the prods. As he shifts from right to left, his left hand juts outwards in a straight jab, while glimmering starbursts pop into the air along the jab. There's no way the jab is going to connect with someone on the high ground, especially not with a ten foot prod between them. "Dormina!" Little explosions of powdery blue energy travel up towards the closest security detail member. Upon contact, a magical sleeping spell is applied--and Calvin is throwing a lot of them, one for every jab, spacing them out across the room. "Come on, boy," he says generally to the (plural) aliens (who have not overtly identified themselves as male or even gendered). "Come on." Little controlled exhales escape him with each jab and weave. "Beat your little asses like you stole somethin'." They factually did, but he's really just casting sleep spells on them. |
| Shinmyoumaru Sukuna | Shinmyoumaru has never had to deal with someone so unwilling to listen to her ever since her last argument with Seija! "You're not on Mars OR Venus!" Shinmyoumaru huffs. "Anyway how important can your mission be? They're just ... cryptid youkai things. I don't even LIKE youkai but you're making it - " The holo-projection vanishes. Shinmyoumaru plants herself back at the 'front' of the bowl (it's round, but she considers it the front). "I'm going to kick his butt," she declares to Madeleine, before brightening up. "Danmaku is a way of fighting. It has to be beautiful *and* dangerous! It's not real danmaku if it's safe and it's not real danmaku if there's no art to it! I'll show you!" Shinmyoumaru shrinks the bowl down a little bit, again. There's still room for Madeleine but it's a bit of a tighter fit; Shinmyoumaru needs it as small as she can get it. And then, with a surge as Shinmyoumaru pushes it, the bowl launches itself toward the UFO... but not in a straight line. The bowl (and its passengers) takes an arcing path, almost swirling as it sweeps back and forth. Shinmyoumaru stands at the front of it, beaming as it accelerates - she gets to show off for Madeleine. "This is a spellcard! It's the mastery of a danmaku art! It's a puzzle and art and violence all at once!" With a sweep of her arm, Shinmyoumaru releases a wave of blue energy bullets, dense enough that a person might fit between them but the UFO won't. Then another, and another, making a series of walls, the waves coming faster and faster. "This one's called the Inchling's Thorny Path - I came up with it myself!" But each of the walls has a spot in it that is filled by greenish ball of energy... and if the ship gets close to it, dodging into the danger zone instead of away from it, the discoloured sphere slows down as if repelled, letting the ship back off and then sneak through the gap if it's fast. It's still a very tight fit. But they'd better figure out the trick quick! Shinmyoumaru doesn't expect the UFO to crash from this. But it keeps them busy while the others do what they're doing. Plus, and more importantly, it makes her feel a whole lot better. |
| Angela | ''Aren't you gonna help us get rid of those aliens?'' "They will."Solace says, keeping hold of the gun and examining it thoughtfully. She's not entirely obliviouus to how firearms work but she's just really not accustomed to them being so prevalent. "Bullets are expensive." She chides. She seme content to watch over these dudes rather than get up in alien business. Maybe she's learned to not go into strange beams of light. Ceri just doesn't trust these guys but she wasn't going for a kill shot, she was aiming to slice his arm to convince the alien to not threaten them--which for all she knows, they can! There's all sorts of weird buttons up here!! She wonders if she can be as gentle with the security personell, striking to disarm rather than slay, but she remembers a conversation from earlier about how LEGALITY is relevant when it comes to whether or not something is being poached or not. "This isn't Venusian or Martian territory, This place is Earth and has its own stupid government probably. How 'bout YOU stand down before it gets ugly." She glances to Ozhira, then back to the aliens. "Uglier." She doesn't seem inclined to use Ozhira as a shield out of, well, pride mostly. |
| Ivy Carrow | "Well, I can promise we'll make sure the nightcrawlers are safe and keep you out of the line of fire." In that order. They could take the olive branch, and decide they had just been sightseers, not out to trouble anyone, and leave the nightcrawlers be... ...Or they could prove themselves poachers, with all the problems that came with it. "We'll be keeping a real close eye on you tonight, and make sure you don't get into trouble." Ivy winked as she finished bandaging up the burns, half-reassurance, half threat, before crawling her way around White's fortification, peering around toward the UFO. "I Isn't that right, Chernobog...?" They're still pulling up more of them... Ivy frowned. She'd no doubt the others would be able to handle this well enough, but what could she do from here? Oh, I know... She grinned, long and sly, and held up both hands, fingers bared like claws. She ripped through the air, and met resistance...Small red lines following behind in the air, like furrows in space. And then, there was another tearing, this time immediately underneath the UFO. A red rift opened up below, attempting to interupt the path of its tractor beam. "Oh no you don't~" She sing-songed to herself. |
| Madeleine Cadrasteia | ABOVE White twists the doors shut, just moments before reinforcements arrive. With the opening mechanisms rendered useless, the most they can do is batter against the doors or use ray-guns in hopes of (slowly, eventually) cutting through. Her spy-ders, teleported behind the guards (nothing personnel), skitter away into the bowels of the craft. It's not a very large ship aside from the huge open bridge/cargo bay, and one does locate what are *probably* the neutron torpedoes. Or torpedo, singular. One appears to have been wired into the ship itself as a self-destruct, the other however sits in its own little bay, a single LED blinking idly. Ozhira's acid spray forces many of the guards back, several of those in front burned or forced to drop their weapons. With a thin slurry of the stuff eating into the floor, it may be a minute before the elites can be fully encircled. The second Ozhira-form slithers after the captain, and would push them into a corner if there were any in the large circular room. As it is they're leading Ozhira on a not-so-merry chase around the perimeter of the bridge, which will eventually lead them both into the Elites again. The captain must be hoping for the fight to have turned around by then. Calvin's sleep spells are at least decently effective. None of the aliens drop to the floor, but the group he's fighting are now sluggish in their movements, clumsy. Perhaps they're like dolphins, where when they sleep it's with half of their brain at a time, but it's still enough to inhibit their coordination and reflexes significantly. This makes dodging between their electric prods easier and easier as more of them are afflicted with the spell. Shinmyoumaru's hail of magical bullets pelt against the UFO's energy shield, dissipating shortly before making contact with the ship itself. They must not have invented bullet hell on Mars because the pilot is hardly even trying to maneuver. Over time, the field begins to wear, and sporadic bolts do get through to scorch the hull. It won't take the ship down quickly, but internally the effects are certainly felt. "Captain! Shields down to thirty percent!" a crewmate shouts as the ship trembles slightly. "Thirty- how!? This isn't supposed to happen!" Ceri is able to defeat or disarm the aliens without killing them; the one who fell down was mostly surprised by the sudden blow. Ceri: "This isn't Venusian or Martian territory, This place is Earth and has its own stupid government probably." "But we're not ON Earth! We haven't set down even once on this mission!" Are they really claiming 'I'm not touching you' with interplanetary law? The Compact must have a monopoly on local space judges to make so bold a claim. BELOW Solace: "They will." "Gee, I uh, I guess so..." Nate says, staring skyward at the hail of danmaku bullets and the shuddering UFO. "Reckon that thing's gonna crash? That could be bad..." One nightcrawler pops into and out of Ivy's new portals, then another, and another... all safely deposited back on the ground, a steady stream of the creatures hurrying back to rejoin their cohorts. Eventually they might get pulled back up into the beam, but hopefully the fight will be over by then. |
| Madeleine Cadrasteia | ABOVE "WAIT!" shouts the captain, as Ozhira pushes them ever closer to the acid pool. "Enough! This isn't worth the lives of my crew! We'll give you your damnable creatures back and leave! Is that good enough?" |
| Calvin Nash | Isn't that right, Chernobog...? "Indeed. After all, I was tasked with seeing to your safety." "I imagine the parley inside their craft will be resolved shortly," he says with businesslike disinterest, shifting the greatsword on his shoulders as if adjusting a cradled child. "In the meantime, perhaps I could entertain with some trivia," he intones. "Did you know that, on average, each year, more humans die in road traffic crashes than on the open water and in aircraft combined? I find that to be interesting." |
| Angela | Ceri's mouth hangs open for a moment at the logic of--well--the metatext said it! Ceri clamps her mouth back shut and frowns severely, biting at her lip gently as she tries to parse this. It is the sort of logic she never expected to see but she ... She hasn't ever been to outerspace, The City doesn't tend to engage with The Stars in that kind of way. ''We'll give you your damnable creatures back and leave! Is that good enough?'' Ceri suspects that if Lilian were here she'd make some kind of extra demand here just to put that little bit of extra pressure on, but she honestly wouldn't know what to demand here. She glances to White, oblivious to Chernabogposting below, and says, "..Sure? I'm mostly here to help the Partner." A pause. "Wait what is Solace up to?" ''Did you know that, on average, each year, more humans die in road traffic crashes than on the open water and in aircraft combined? I find that to be interesting.'' Solace says, "Most death is just from old people falling over and accidental poisoning. Though in The City, the most common form of death is Sweepers." |
| White | White was rather enjoying leaving the immediate threat to the others while she handles more indirect problems. When she actually *does* find a torpedo wired for self-destruct, about half of her fractal minds experience the same flashback at once. For once her frown is severe enough that one could even call it a grimace, expressing never before seen levels of disdain-by-association at... Some random spot on the wall. She's almost even mad about it! Why does this always happen with UFOs? Why do they always have to be rigged to explode? Is this why nobody finds proof of them on the news? Is this some kind of conspiracy to upset her specifically?! ... Okay. She's calm again. Cool and collected, in control. Perfectly level-headed, enough to begin raising her scythe and conjuring violet glyphs, preparing to help end the fight with *no bias at all in mind*. Maybe if she keeps insisting she's not irritated it'll even be true eventually! But, as if timed just to make her look silly, as she's readying her offensive arsenal she hears the panicked declaration of surrender and somehow manages to stumble even though she had both feet planted until then. A couple of her glyphs crackle as she's mentally thrown off, and she lets the agitated excitement drain out of her posture and lowers her arms until she's holding her scythe like a mop. She almost seems sulky for a few seconds as she walks over to Calvin's side, and mumbles next to his ear. "... They have a self-destruct. Should I... Send the torpedos somewhere..?" Is this what retirement is like? There's never anything okay for her to blow up once she's in the mood, anymore... |
| White | White belatedly notices Ceri had been speaking to her, to some extent, and slowly manages to respond. "... Being persuasive." Well, it's true. Bonking people and taking their guns until they listen is pretty persuasive. |
| Shinmyoumaru Sukuna | "They're not very good at danmaku on Mars," is Shinmyoumaru's verdict. You can trust her on this topic. She has very strong feelings about danmaku. "Isn't Mars supposed to be made of war? Even the rabbits on the moon are better. A lot better. Or so I'm told! I never fought one." Shinmyoumaru lets the spellcard come to an end naturally - it does have a duration, she either can't or just doesn't keep it up forever - and dusts her hands off. Sometimes it's good to be as evasive as she is with her bowl, even if she is a little hampered by having to cart around a big human (not that Madeleine is all that big, granted). "Hmm..." Shinmyoumaru taps her finger against her cheek in a way she's seen people do when they want to look wise and thoughtful. She eventually decides, "I graciously accept your surrender!" even though it wasn't even being asked of her. And then, to Madeleine, and anyone else who will listen, "And *that's* what danmaku is for. In Gensokyo, a lot of the time, we use danmaku duels to settle things. It's a whole martial art! It lets everyone show how big their soul is!" She thumps her chest for emphasis. She could go on like this for a while. And might, except she thinks to ask, "Are you okay, by the way?" She means everyone, not just Madeleine, and even asks on her radio to make double-sure. |
| Calvin Nash | Enough! This isn't worth the lives of my crew! We'll give you your damnable creatures back and leave! Is that good enough? Calvin lowers his fists and drops his boxer's stance. "Captain," he says, now insufferably businesslike as a highway patrolman conducting a traffic stop, "First of all, lemme say as the ranking Paladin here, the MCRD don't answer to the Commonwealth, much as I might like it to." The stance is out in full effect. "But I do know when the fists start flyin' it's stressful anyway. So I'm sorry 'bout that even if I can't really make none of these folks use the kid gloves with you. For my part, them security fellas I knocked out, they'll be up in a few hours." "Now," he says, removing a hand from his waist to hold out an open palm, the classic gesture of 'but that's not all.' "We know the Martian-Venusian Compact likes to do things by the book. Well, so does the Commonwealth. You wanna avoid this happening--" ... They have a self-destruct. Should I... Send the torpedos somewhere..? Calvin's mental crash to desktop is visible in the abrupt stop. "No," he whispers back. "No, uh-uh. Hell no." He clears his throat and pretends like White hadn't just caused a fatal brain exception, picking up where he left off. "--you wanna avoid this kinda shitstorm in the future, you go through the *proper channels.* Hell, you might be surprised what you can do if you ask permission instead of forgiveness." "Anyway." The word is spritzed into the air like an air freshener. "That's all I got for you. Go ahead and drop them critters back where you found 'em and I'll get outta your hair." |
| Ozhira | > "WAIT! Enough!" Black-tie Ozhira, their torso still a gaping maw slavering with acidic green slime, pauses. Performatively, they glance over their shoulder towards the captain. Behind the captain, the red puddle pursuing him also slides to a stop, roiling angrily. > "This isn't worth the lives of my crew! We'll give you your damnable creatures back and leave! Is that good enough?" The mass of crimson sludge rises up and resolves itself into a great maw of jagged teeth. When these open, a *second* maw of teeth opens in the perpendicular direction. Performatively, the two pairs of teeth smash together in sprays of saliva, completely desynchronized from their words. "yooUU WIll lEAVe anD NEver RETurn." A disjointed mass of voices, all enraged, all shouting in unison, "OUR choRUS accEPTs no OTHer tERM." Gnashing teeth again, tendrils clinging to the ship's inner surfaces, the malevolent crimson biomass leans perilously close to the captain's bug-eyed face, "we aRE Always WatcHINg. viOLAte oUR Term AND we sHALl joIN You tO OUr sonG." Calvin makes his terms more clear (and more fair) and the Devourer finally leans back. Wobbling, it steadily resolves back into a more human-like shape, "We hunt, too. But. With permission." Meanwhile, the black-tie Ozhira has slinked back into the pit of Nightcrawlers and is once again indistinguishable from them. Just another set of white sweatpants with eyes milling about the cargo bay. |
| Madeleine Cadrasteia | BELOW "Did you know that, on average, each year, more humans die in road traffic crashes than on the open water and in aircraft combined? I find that to be interesting." "I-I drive safe, now," Elroy retorts. "I haven't been drinkin'." Meanwhile, Ivy finishes dressing Jerry's burns so they at least don't get worse. "Thank you, ma'am," he offers weakly. Elroy and Nate enlist Chernobog (or at least Ivy) to help haul Jerry onto the backseat of their truck so they can get him to a doctor, and drive off posthaste. But not before Elroy turns around and says, "Tell your friends up there thanks for the light-show. Awful pretty, whatever that was." They had a perfect view of the danmaku! BETWEEN "In Gensokyo, a lot of the time, we use danmaku duels to settle things. It's a whole martial art! It lets everyone show how big their soul is!" Madeleine makes a thoughtful expression. "I wonder if I could learn, what my soul's danmaku might look like..." ABOVE, BETWEEN, AND BELOW AGAIN The alien captain's surrender is accepted, with varying degrees of civility (looking at you, Ozhira). Nightcrawlers are beamed back to the ground, along with any Elites who need the lift. Shinmyoumaru lands her bowl to regroup with the others, and congratulations in order. "Thanks," Maddie says with a relieved sigh. "I don't think I can take on a whole UFO by myself. Damn things can go fast." As if of cue, the craft above engages its sublight space drive and zips up into the atmosphere. "I've got some measurements and samples to take from the critters; take some time to relax in the van, I guess." She tosses the keys to Calvin. "You know how to turn on the A/C, right?" |