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Owner	Pose
Priscilla	Camping out the night ends up being mostly uneventful. As uneventful as it can be with Gilgamesh making it a five star party anyways. Guy will need to get out some First Prototype Detox Pills after how slammed the driver gets. Or, someone else will have to drive. A night of comfy socialization that will no doubt be revealed later in an OVA to cash in after the main series has finished wraps up without the great big sentry gun going off even once (or maybe it did but everyone was being too loud to notice). Nothing had been shy about trying to eat people before, but closer to the jungle's edge, it feels like the things in the trees aren't quite willing to leave, and the things on the grasslands know better than to get too close. The APC slash ATV slash ATC had been a boon to getting over the wide and rocky landscape before, but now it's mostly demonstrating why it's waterproof, why it theoretically floats, and why it's built like a battering ram, as even the spaces that look like they are routinely cut and burned to allow basically anyone through are partially overgrown. A lot of the ride turns out to be an exercise in 'which trees are small enough to just run over without getting stuck', and 'which piles of weird alien brush and vines aren't the kind that's growing on top of a deep pool of water'. Like an actual jungle, it is also very loud. The frequent buzzing sounds can easily be attributed to anything with insect-like wings (albeit some of it with the pitch of a helicopter) and past a point, rustling is rustling and splashing is splashing, but the sheer variety of chitters, shrieks, whoops, howls, hisses, and weird semi-songlike calls is overwhelming when it's impossible to really compare it to much of anything. The ecologist in the front tries to make it a game of getting people to guess what Earth animal the most recent sound is closest to. The answer is usually complete nonsense. Along the way, there are frequent signs of people trying to mark a trail, with sturdy pylons, lights to travel (inadvisably) by night, heat sensors, phone booth-style radio stations, wire fences around bridges over sudden drops, and other such sundries. Almost all of them are some degree of choked up in coiling vines and creepers using the fractionally brighter sunlight over the narrow clear paths to gain an advantage, some under several layers as newer plants choke out the old ones, or secrete some kind of acid to melt the old ones, or stab the other ones full of- the plants are awful too. Anything and everything looks like something that if you stepped on it, it'd snap shut and eat you, or open a flap to a drop chute filled with digestive juices, or rope you and drag you up into the trees, or spit poison darts or something. The ecologist assures you that 'most' of it isn't. It's still decently comfortable in the cabin, despite the frequent thumps of 'this planet is brand new, we can completely disrespect nature for a long time before it matters' driving. It's dark as hell outside throughout the morning, and marginally less so during the midday, so the flood lights (and lamps on the side of the vehicle) are convenient for being able to sightsee, and also probably keep a great many things away, given the blink-and-you'll-miss-it motions that keep happening at the edge of the lights. There is the occasional thump or scrape or scrabble on the top, audible through the ceiling, but nothing decides to hitch a ride for long -possibly only after it figures it can't get inside and eat people.
Priscilla	It's actually sort of not as exciting. Mostly just kinda humid and ominous if someone pops up topside. Walking off the path would probably be real bad, but lack of epic Jurassic Park vistas makes it sort of difficult to pick out any fauna behind the walls of spongy trunks, scaled growths, translucent pods beating like hearts, and stacks breathing spores into the air. "So." starts the driver, like a really bored and awkward trucker, audibly drumming his fingers on the wheel. "What brought you folks out here anyway?" Oh god it's small talk.
Gilgamesh	Where the King goes, the party comes with. The tent, the hot springs, the buffet, the alcohol - all of it is lavish, beyond the best that money can buy, magical food and drink and luxury that surpasses even the finest available to the most decadent royalty. Men have gone their whole lives dreaming of the kind of meat and cheese and wine available in this spread, and it's entirely likely that the nameless attendants will go the rest of their lives remembering this feast only in their dreams. And then, the next day, it's all cleaned up. There's no sign that the feast, the hot spring, the tent, the music, was ever there. It's just gone. Like waking from a dream. The King does not provide hangover cures. The King does not experience hangovers, and thus, is of the firm opinion that humans should learn to suffer the pain of overindulgence or else become strong enough that it merely becomes indulgence. Gilgamesh therefore is relaxed in the APC as it drives, once again on his marvelous pillow, once again sipping his luxurious drink. This appears to be his way of dealing with the ecologist's attempt to figure out what everything sounds like, or at least drown out the sound of the APC. He does not appear to need to drown out the sounds of thumps and scrapes, quite probably because he is waiting to see what might happen to entertain him. Small talk is not it. The look on the King's face at being spoken to by someone who is neither worth his time nor his interest is the most remarkably cold thing imaginable. It might even eclipse Priscilla's very literal aura of ice in its sheer frigidity.
Haguro	Although it would have taken some pushing to get Haguro to relax, relax she eventually does! As to how much she can put down once those inhibitions are down... That'll have to wait for cutscene nobody's ever going to do. Needless to say, though, she's a little woozy herself when she awakens, but at least she's not nearly as bad off as the driver. Whether she'd have been allowed drink anything openly is another story. At least she's got enough enough sense to bring it up, and she's also had the sense beaten into her to not mess around with machieguns again. No, Haguro would very much prefer NOT getting impaled and nearly dragged away by local megafauna again, and she's more than content not to poke her head out of the APC right away. Instead... Small talk. Someone's got to humor the poor guy. "A change of pace. Seeing the same people every day doesn't teach me a lot, and it's not often that I get to relax and try new things like this." A brief pause as she deliberately avoids looking towards certain people. "With... Different people, even. It's a good chance to understand other perspectives so I can improve myself." A beat. "... And I wanted to see the stranger animals."
Stella	Stella is not fun to party with. That is to say, she doesn't party. Doesn't feast, or drink. And when everyone is sleeping, she's just standing guard on the largest stone she can find, or failing that, made herself a nice little platform out of crystal. The closest thing to being social she might have initiated is asking Gilgamesh what the crystal spider eats, and asking if she can feed it. And then hanging out with it, however much would be allowed by the King. "Knights often pursue monsters to slay them. It is a matter of acquiring combat experence and fulfilling some manner of quest. I do not have a quest, but there is no reason to pass an opportunity to do battle." Was that really it? There was something else, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
Sarracenia	Sarracenia of course enjoyed the lavish accomidations during the night, and while she doesn't usually drink much she still took part and ended up somewhat inebriated before the night was over. This led to her being much more flirty than usual toward Gil. Now, in the morning after, she is slightly hung over and completely embarrassed. The princess has been unusually quiet since camp was packed up, and is just sitting in one of the harness chairs inside the vehicle. Watching out the window, she is starting to marvel at the overgrowth. "...this is rather similar to my own home. Even our wildlife is quite vicious, though perhaps not as much as this place." she says quietly to no one in particular, then blinks and looks over as the driver asks about them. "Well, I came along purely for the adventure. It can get quite boring sitting in a castle all day with no one trying to kidnap you or attack your kingdom." She looks to Haguro after that. "Did you enjoy the missile launcher? I know it might have been hard to tell while being chewwed on, but..."
Maricel Thorne	Overnight, Maricel disassembles the Gorezilla and largely remands it to whatever stockpile of viable pluripotent flesh she keeps. The rare parts of it that were too cellularly damaged to effectively recycle, she slices off and cooks over a campfire like hot dogs on a stick. The odds that anyone else will want to try those over Gilgamesh's lavish offerings is virtually nil; they taste a bit like pork chops still wrapped in plastic and styrofoam from the supermarket. Maricel drinks enough magnificent wine to kill a horse, doesn't sleep the entire night, and just keeps taking the dead specimens apart and putting them back together like a bored kid playing with Legos. A couple of times she doesn't put them back the way they 'ought' to go, with bits and pieces being mismatched and rearranged to better suit her genius artistic vision, but by the time the sun rises over the trees all of the cadavers are back the way they ought to be. Fortunately for the nameless NPCs and any overindulged Elites, Dr. Thorne is a more merciful provider than Gil. She hands out glowing green finger-sized syringes with 'HANGOVER CURE' scribbled in Sharpie to anybody who looks like they could use them. They work precisely and instantly as advertised, even if they do briefly cause one's veins to pulse green around the injection site. When the driver asks his questions, Mari's sitting in a cozy little alcove in the back, covertly rearranging her ribcage with the same brazen stealth as a snotty kid picking their nose. Being addressed- or the APC hitting a bump- startles her enough that she drops an entire bloodless, shiny rib on the ground, hastily scoops it up under her labcoat, and shoves it right back in. "Oh, you know," she says as breezily as if nothing had happened, "Science."
Priscilla	The driver absolutely refuses to take anything that's glowing green. The ecologist decides it's too important not to miss any weird critters, so he goes gimme the good shit and jams that needle right in his bodyparts. After a while of hassling the driver that it's completely fine (and then also going 'look there!' and sticking him with the reflexes of a veterinarian) the issue sorts itself. "Science! Science is a good reason!" he replies to Maricel, thankful to have something sensible to grip onto, but the driver in the seat next to him seems kind of put off by the rest. "You came out here for . . . combat training? And socializing? And . . . adventure? I guess it's probably just inevitable that a posting like that would only attract weirdos. Charge you ten grand a head to go get dragged off into some trees and digested." he mumbles, then goes abruptly silent when he sees Gilgamesh's expression in the rear view mirr- well it's a cabin camera. "Well, judging by their medical compliance before, I assume most of them have been stabbed or bitten a large number of times before." the ecologist concludes, not checking it. Or maybe he did, and he assumes that the last time something shrieked like a banshee, and he told everyone the correct guess was 'rainfrog', someone would be put off by how dumb his game is. After toppling several more trees that didn't have the girth or the requisite hippie following to avoid their fate, and splashing through a ravine so thick with muddy water that one can't see out the windows even when something large bumps on them, the vehicle comes to a stop (but doesn't open any doors or ramps) at the sight of a 'roadside' space wherein a rest stop, still full of fuel cans, food crates, and mini storm shelters, has been borderline consumed by vines. A pair of powerloader-style mechs are sat dormant on charging pads. A third lies in the center in several pieces, amidst some other destroyed machinery. "You don't uh . . . you're not planning on getting out, right?" the driver prompts, ever hopeful. "We can just call it in once we get there. We've got enough fuel to make it the rest of the way. Long as we cut a couple of corners. It'll be fine."
Gilgamesh	Gil's attentions are firmly on Priscilla, and, surprisingly, Maricel - largely because she's gone from "disinteresting" to "fascinating." If there's one thing he didn't really have in his day, it's psychotic doctors. He had mad wizards, sure, but that's not quite the same thing. The bones actually draw his gaze, and, with a hint of curiosity absent any revulsion, says, "What do you intend to do with that?" The crystal spider is sleeping on Stella's head in the APC as it jostles. It has made itself very comfortable. The driver asks if they're getting out. "I think so. This vehicle is stuffy and unpleasant despite the pleasant company." He clearly does not mean the driver or the ecologist as pleasant company. The King stands up and goes to exit the vehicle, because what does he have to be afraid of? He's got on a whole robe. He's more dressed than he usually is hunting, he'll be fine.
Haguro	In the past, Haguro would be asking questions about Maricel's offer. Excessive questions. Possibly even REASONABLE QUESTIONS. Right now, though, between being a little hungover and havingt he ill-advised notion that she needs to challenge herself, she takes the GREEN MYSTERY SYRINGE and jams it right in! She does tear up a bit, of course, because needles are awful. One quick injection later, and she hands the used tool back to Maricel. "Th.. Thank you, miss. I'm surprised you could have something so... Normal." She chuckles awkwardly, trying to strike up some small talk with the doctor before nodding at Sarracenia. "It was! I might have to look into adding something like that to my own turrets if the.. Erm. Technology is there for it." Her turrets turn up and down for emphasis. "It might be tricky, but... I'll figure something out. It was certainly interesting considering the circumstances. And at least we won't have to deal with-" Haguro looks from the driver to Gilgamesh as the latter gets out of the vehicle. "I was hoping not t-" She starts, then stops when the mechs come into view. Coughing into her hand lightly, Haguro stands up, then heads for the exit herself. "Not to sit around and not earn my keep, anyway." Sure. That's what she was going to say. Anyway. Haguro makes a beeline for one of those mechs, checking if she can actually climb into the thing and power it on with the power of PUSHING BUTTONS and PULLING LEVERS.
Maricel Thorne	"Juuust rebalancing my torso," Maricel replies with a winning smile as she clicks the spare rib into place, yanks the sutures tight, and jabs herself in the side with a blue-purple concoction. The cultural connotations of Gilgamesh's symbols of extravagance seem partially lost on her, but she seems to appreciate anyone with a Nonstandard Aesthetic. "It didn't quiiite feel aligned right. You know, if you haven't got your health, you haven't got anything." Rather than stand and walk out of the APC like a normal human(oid) being, Maricel sprouts four python-sized tendrils from the staticky rift that materializes on her upper back. They slither on the floor or walk on bony tips or wrap around handholds to carry her along, giving her main body the impression of serpentine levitation but for their erratic scrabbling. It's like an octopus taught a spider how to walk. Outside, she is utterly oblivious to the Big Mugging Energy that the overgrown area is giving off, and starts shoving fuel cans into her spatial rift hammerspace with one tendril while the other three suspend her a few feet off the ground. Nothing bad can possibly come of putting volatile Explosive Barrels right next to her spine, surely.
Sarracenia	Sarracenia takes the glowing green vial, but seems hesitant to use it. Freaky mad science doesn't really mix with proud, snobby princess. "Erm...thank you." she says to Maricel, then pauses. "I do not suppose you have an oral version? I..am usually rather particular about what I put into my body." she says after a moment. "And before you say anything, Gilgamesh's drink is of the highest possible quality!" She kind of freezes in that as Maricel drops /one of her ribs/! The princess really does look pale now, and just returns to looking out the window. When asked if they are going to get out, Sarracenia starts with, "I don't think-" and then Gilgamesh says he is going and she perks up a bit. "...that I will be staying inside, either. A hunting expedition is quite plain if one does not leave the transport." After yesterday she has switch to wearing her battle dress. It is somewhat more durable and actually designed to be damaged and repaired. "What happened to that machine?" she asks the driver before exiting the vehicle. Much like Haguro she climbs into one of the mechs. They aren't her specialty, but who doesn't like giant robots?
Stella	It's good that Stella isn't susceptible to gore the same way people are. None of that stuff is 'inside her' so she's not creeped out by seeing it outside. Sometimes being a rock person is inconvenient, but not today. "I agree, this will be unproductive if we stay inside." She sets the spider down, to avoid being rude to it. It can sleep inside while they hunt, if it wants. She even produces a roughly dog-bed shaped chunk of crystal for it. Of course, once she leaves, she... doesn't do a whole lot, because machinery is entirely beyond her. She can tell it's broken, at least. What great eyes. ... but out of curiosity, she still reaches out with her senses. As long as the ground is earthly, she might be able to tell if anything else is nearby, and whether it's moving or not.
Priscilla	There are, thankfully, no severed human body parts waiting to fall on anyone after stepping out into the spooky jungle. The driver sighs, lowers the ramp, then closes it back up so fast after people exit that it's almost kind of rude, though he doesn't then proceed to floor it back out of there. It definitely looks as if the place were smashed and ransacked in the way of a large angry animal, rather than someone looking to steal something, but there aren't even footprints to suggest that someone was here and got chased away. Haguro climbs up into one of the dormant power loaders, and finds that the buttons and levers are actually pretty simple. After some fiddling, the idle machine switches on floodlights, rises to its big stompy feet with a loud, mechanical whirring sound, and then unfolds great big arms from a rack of four, two currently still in storage, comprised of a lifting claw, a giant buzzsaw, a flamethrower, and a cannon. There are fuzzy dice dangling from the mirror. The other one is identical except it has a little hula dancer on the dashboard insteadof dice. The fuel doesn't look to be gasoline at least; it's some form of enriched fluid hydrogen something something it'll still blow up. Stella checking the ground finds that there's barely a square inch in the brush where something isn't moving, constituting thousands of small bugs, slick and slithering things, scrambling or lurking creatures on odd numbers of legs, and things stuck low to trunks waiting for the other stuff to walk by. The big thumpy seismic activity comes from much deeper in, where she can sense manufactured metal being dragged along with it, like a jaguar hauling a corpse up into a tree, except probably a piece of equipment. There's also some sort of cave or another, and many deep holes in that direction as well. There is no clear path in that direction whatsoever -just gouges in the ground where something was hauled, and some scrapes on the scaley surfaces of trees so tightly packed that their branches have meshed together into arterial webs (they may in fact be a mat of the same organism). This is probably why the loaders have so many things that hate nature welded to their arms. "There art no dead." Priscilla concludes, stepping out of the cabin and looking grateful to stretch her legs. She doesn't even check around. "I wouldst knoweth. If thou art so curious, or grateful for the distraction, let us enjoy another memory forged from the journey." It seems she at least kinda took a few flares, and lobs one into the brush expectantly. A section of ground hauls itself up and then lumbers off, plants swaying on its back. A thousand shiny things with a lot of legs, each the size of a soda can, scuttle off in every other direction.
Stella	Stella spends some time silently getting a feel for the surrounding land, and then announces her findings after others are done playing with the machines. She eventually adds: "This way." Priscilla's flare causing all those bugs to scatter makes her stop for a few seconds, though - they're kind of pretty, she feels, though she doesn't much care for the big lumbering... thing that was clearly acting as their home. Then she starts walking again, headed in the direction she felt the metal moving from. If there's a cave entrance on the way, she'll direct the party to it - if there isn't, she'll cause crystals to form and shoot out of the ground, to create a nice and convenient access tunnel into the depths below. It's nothing fancy, but it works.
Gilgamesh	Gilgamesh inspects the area in the way he inspects most things - with a cursory glance before he gets bored of it. Oh no, a campsite full of wreckage! What a... .... Priscilla announces that nobody's dead, and Stella announces that there are caves, and there's drag marks, and so, well, the King starts walking along behind Stella, close to Priscilla. "I imagine anything that was alive was likely dragged off with the heavy object. Probably to be preserved and consumed later."
Haguro	There's probably something poignant that could be said about a ship in the shape of a girl piloting a stompy fight mech, but... Screw it. Haguro's not in the right mind for poignant anything. All she knows right now is that she's feeling MIGHTY STRONG right now, inspecting the stompmachine's weapons and getting more terrible ideas for the future. Also, she starts following everyone else in their quest to find THE DRAGGER. "Why not? We're already here, and it'd be a waste not to see what else is out here. Plus.. Um." Haguro lets off a brief burst of flame in the air, hitching her breath for a moment at just how bright it is up close. Just because it's not aimed at her doesn't mean it doesn't make her anxious. "... I-it should be fun."
Maricel Thorne	Rather than deign to touch the ground, Maricel moves alongside and above the party by swinging from branches with her tendrils, embedding their bony tips in the bark, and zipping between trunks in a way that keeps her remarkably stable; her main body just dangles below the shoulders except when she has some use for her limbs, her toes typically pointing down. It's a little bit disorienting to watch, especially since she's restraining herself to walking pace even though her tentacles move with whickering speed. "I've never seen an ecosystem quite like this," she says in a slightly hushed tone. One more critical of Mortasheen City might say she's never seen an ecosystem period. "It's terribly uncultivated, despite the potential. So much fallow ground!"
Sarracenia	A big destruction machine?! Sarracenia's eyes are practically sparkling, and when Haguro gets her machine up and running she does the same. "I'll lead the way!" she exclaims, and starts using the machine's various tools to carve a path as best she can. "We could really use something like this to keep the paths in the Sundew Kingdom clear~"
Priscilla	"Possible." Priscilla says, after a moment of thinking on Gilgamesh's conclusion, though she doesn't seem terribly concerned. She takes a look at Maricel brachiating off, and opines an earlier topic with "I am fairly certain any attempt to attack lad- Doctor Thorne wouldst result in her simply enjoying the exercise of putting herself back together. They sayeth something about pigs and mud in a similar paradigm." She apparently concludes it's probably fine. Going the way of Stella's directions, proximity sensors bleep a few times as people leave the general encampment, finding that it actually continues for quite a few meters into the brush (and obnoxiously covered metal boxes) before it reaches the terminal radius of what used to be a clearing. A fence of wire is broken, still electrically sparking from whatever voltage was meant to ward off wandering monsters. The big ditch in the ground from the mobile chunk of it mostly just reveals bleached and compacted soil, from something very heavy sitting on it and absorbing its organic material. There are tons of tiny little holes in it. Sarracenia starts doing with the loader exactly what it was fitted for. Huge gouts of flame blast through columns of brush, not even starting fires (it's all very wet vegetation) so much as just turning it to ash. The huge circular saw whines viciously and cuts through clusters of purple vines that twitch and recoil when cut, and dense, old trees that gush spores when sawed through. Huge stompy industrial mecha feet splinter everything underfoot, squash the small beasts and large insects not moving fast enough, and the whole thing just generally acts extremely imperialistic overall. Following behind it isn't hard. Two of them would let someone drive a truck through. The flamethrower especially gets enough snarling and shrieking further in to surmise that it's actually driving off critters adapted for the dark and cold humidity. Sometimes there are charred bones. Stella starts finding the holes in the way of stone tunnels bored down, just big enough to squeeze into were someone absolutely mad. They appear to have been created naturally, as extremely salty and acidic water boils out from them every so often, and then, rarely, erupts as a geyser. The acerbic stuff has withered away all the ground around them, making natural clearings around large clusters, where sunlight actually reaches the ground, and hardier, salt-immune mats of vines and moss have grown over instead. It's still sort of shitty going. Several times, some botanical bear trap goes off and . . . well they're rather fruitless trying to bite Stella's ankles, and Haguro and Sarracenia are in the mechs. Something large and coated in fur-like spines and with a lot of claws and gnarled beak luges out of Gilgamesh from the brush, and then a second time, something with a gliding mantle of skin launches off a tree and silently parasails on him from behind, with huge dagger-like wrists and a tree-boring face. Literally strangling vines make moves on Maricel a couple of times, though perhaps more suited to break someone's neck like a noose in reverse. Something with crushing jaws like a bobbit worm snaps horizontally out of a hollow at 50 feet in the air to try and crunch her torso and drag her into its enclosed space. Another monster much like a giant centipede, covered in barbed exoskeleton, rips up a mat of earth and tries to pull Haguro's loader under it. A swarm of fluttering, membranous, ray-like flying things land on Sarracenia's when she disturbs a particular tree, and furiously work spear-tipped stinger tails into the cabin like pissed off wasps stabbing a lumbering bear in a frenzy, though they cling to the frame on hooked claws and are each as big as a living room carpet.
Priscilla	The geysers occasionally disgorge dead sea life, probably sucked into an underground tunnel and killed with the concentration of chemicals and lack of oxygen, and undergrowth predators quickly drag the squishy corpses away. Something with tentacles that is still partially alive attempts to snatch and paralyze Gil on the way past. A lizard thing with two snake-like necks, disguised as green branches, attempts to bite and poison Stella, and mostly just breaks its teeth for the effort. A bison-sized spider-like monster instead drops a good several storeys in one go, slams a net filled with stinging nematocysts on her (again kinda useless) and reels itself back up to haul her away. What looked like a patch of gleaming black grass instead fires itself as hundreds of toxic darts at Maricel passing over- fuck this place. Honestly fuck it. The cave itself is eventually reached in another salt-blasted clearing, though the vents themselves have been deliberately plugged up with large rocks, and now apparently pieces of metal, such that they only burble and spew corrosive water low to the ground, in controlled quantities. The ripped up pieces of mech are currently hung from trees like panther kill scraps. The fuel cell itself is lying before the cave mouth, overheated for some reason and issuing steam. Fuel cans are lying scattered around it. The flamethrower tank has been torn open savagely and left to drain into a hole, as well as the ammunition belt from a loader cannon, thoroughly ripped up. There are thankfully still no dead people. There's just a lot of big, big shadows prowling the branches thick enough to support them. Glinting eyes. Flickering tongues. Slowly waving tendrils. Moving with the gripping gait of chameleons, but fast and smooth and actually useful. They hiss and shriek to each other like a pack of territorial apes in communications, but have more of a six-legged cat bodyplan. They seem to be encircling the group, preparing to strike, but not actually cave dwellers. Stella can feel something very large stirring under the ground at the noise.
Gilgamesh	Gilgamesh says nothing about the assumption that he'd leave nothing behind, instead settling for some uncharacteristic small talk with Priscilla. He is extremely bad at small talk. It is hilariously awkward to hear him try. It really lends credence to his statement that he isn't really a human being, because nobody who wasn't made could be quite as bad as he is at making small talk. The monsters that try and attack him almost make purchase. The thing with the spines manages to get one of those spines into his flesh; Gilgamesh tears the spine out with one hand and drives it through the thing's skull hard enough to pin it to the ground as thanks. He follows up by smashing its skull in with his foot before he resumes walking. The skin-glider actually gets close enough to touch him before the Gate of Babylon opens directly in its face and just disgorges a golden blade past Gilgamesh's ear. He does not bother to help anyone else, because of course he doesn't. The territorial creatures receive one of Gilgamesh's finest qualities - his intimidating charisma. They act like pack animals, so Gilgamesh sneers and opens the Gate wide, spreading golden ripples throughout the air. The magical blades hang there not to be launched (though of course he could launch them at any moment) but to make him as massive and menacing as possible, as though he had spread two vast wings to cast a shadow upon the beasts and drive them back.
Haguro	That tension between Maricel and Gilgamesh has Haguro on edge, but there's slso a bit of relief for the Cruiser. After all, the latter's ire being directed towards the former means that she's not in the crosshairs! Good thing, too, since using the mech is taking a fair amount of concentration for someone that's never driven one of these things before. Or anything before, really. Hopefully, nobody notices. She's certainly not tearing a path through the brush as Sarracenia is, instead trying to get the hang of moving and sawing/burning things at the same time instead of stopping to do one or the other. She's forced to learn quickly, too, when that giant centipede bursts out and is met with both buzzsaw and flamethrower to its face and many, many legs. Also, lots of panicked yelping. Being out here really isn't doing Haguro's nerves any favors. Once the immediate threats are cleared, Haguro is considerably faster on the move in her dinged-up loader. "It's quite.. Er. Morbid-looking in here, isn't it?" She gestures at the hanging mech-parts above, keeping her machine's buzzsaws primed just in case whatever did that to those past machines returns to try the same thing on hers. The noisy creatures circling the group get a few gouts of flame blasted overhead as a warning. Should they not heed the warning, Haguro will resort to letting loose with the flamethrower directly at them and even unloading that cannon! She's been here long enough. Screw nature. SHOOT FIRST.
Maricel Thorne	Maricel is apparently of the "anything you can do I can do better" school of animal control. When the strangler vines come for her, her tendrils grapple with them and tear them apart. When the gnashing bobbit-worm comes for her guts, the red neoplasm intercepts its jaws, grows chitinous spikes and ripping teeth of its own, and tears the creature apart. The black spiky toxic darts embed in her formless crimson pseudolimbs, which promptly sprout hollow envenomed spikes of their own and launch them towards anything that looks remotely like it's considering fucking with her again. All the while, her human limbs are practicing "self-care", digging out inconvenient bits of organic shrapnel, jabbing herself in every available artery with colorful syringes until her blood runs rainbow colors with immiscible superscience drugs, and sewing up whatever lacerations don't immediately regenerate on their own. If she still feels pain through that miracle concoction, it's not evident in her sunny expression. Before engaging with the pack of animals, she 'lands' back on the ground with her pluripotent neoplasm still bubbling and boiling with inchoate adaptations, fishes a spring-loaded syringe revolver out of her spatial rift, and spins the chamber with a satisfying whirr. "Whoooo wants some doctoring!" Anybody who takes her up on the offer will- depending on their luck of the draw- get some regeneration-juice, enough stimulants to make the world slow down, or bioelectric eye-lasers.
Sarracenia	Sarracenia is certainly feeling better after getting to stomp and cut and burn her way through the jungle! She winces a bit when some scorched creature comes into view, but other than that she seems to be having fun. That is until those flying stingrays attack! "What the-?!" she exclaims, and has to hunker down to fend off their blows as best she can. She yelps as a few strike their mark before she can aim the flamethrower close enough to try and burn the rays off the mech. Whether that works or not, she keeps heading into the cave after the others. "A little help here?!" she exclaims (over the loudspeaker if it has one).
Stella	Stella collects bear traps, going so far as to intentionally route herself to trigger them, sensing the metal long before she can see it. It's a matter of protecting the party, really, since she knows she can take it. By the time anything happens, her legs are just covered in bear traps, crystal shifting them up to make room for the next constantly. It'd be too long to take them off one by one as they walk, so... At least she has the common sense not to route herself into AWFUL ACID PITS AND GEYSERS. That'd be bad, given the way even the ground is eaten up. It might be able to harm her, and she'd rather not test how she handles acid. The mundane hazards stop being mundane when a lizard tries to chew her up, and then she gets netted and dragged away by something else entirely. AND she's covered in poison! She might not be biological, but it's a foreign substance nonetheless. Her body will try fighting it off if it gets in and has any kind of potency to it, so she'll still feel it. Rather than deal with that, Stella just erupts into a mess of crystal blades, to cut the net and the predator together, and land back down with the party. "I do not know about morbid," she answers Haguro, "But it is certainly hostile." She lifts a leg up, revealing the half a dozen bear traps that barely managed to dig into her crystal skin. "These are annoying." And just as they're surrounded... something is moving underneath? "Watch your feet. The predator is underneath us. The ones in the trees may be distractions. Or competition."
Nie Li	And just where was Nie Li in all of this? Well. He's not been as talkative during the trip through the DEADLY FOREST because he's taking samples of anything and everything - very, very carefully. He came prepared, it seems, with dozens of little sealable glass vials and similar tools stored in his Interspatial Ring to gather saps, venoms, spores, herbs... really he's just grabbing anything and everything and sticking it in his sample collection. Presumably this will be used for some Alchemy later, if he hits on anything useful. It's dangerous going, though. At every step of the way, the forest is trying to kill and eat him. Weirdly enough, though, he's taking that more or less in stride. It seems that no creature here can get the drop on him... only the carnivorous plants confuse his strange instinct for detecting danger, resulting in more than a fair few mad scrambles to chop vines using his Shadow Devil sickles, or ducking away into Void Form to mask his presence. When he finally does emerge from this task at the mouth of the cave... it's by leaping from the trees and landing to perch atop the shredded chunks of mecha. He is wisely avoiding the ground and open pathways. By the time the group sees him, though, there's no sign of all the work he just did, as the evidence is all tucked away into his Interspatial Ring, and he's unmerged from the Shadow Devil. So it looks like he's just perching there, resting an elbow over his knee and gazing down on the others. "There's no end to the trouble this place holds for anything that breathes. How does anything live long enough to reproduce in this hellish ecology?" No time to really dwell on that question though. He detects the growing danger around them quickly enough... and holds out a hand. A wide-bladed straight sword forged of some strange aquamarine metal appears in his hand, congealing out of glowing smoke streaming from his ring. The moment he grips it... The blade sizzles and crackles with random arcs of lightning. It gives off an unearthly aura, one that slowly builds threateningly. The smell of ozone drifts from the boy's weapon as a warning. "This world's just too dangerous to take any chances. If something emerges, I'm going all out from the start."
Priscilla	Let it not be said that Priscilla is particularly all that much better at small talk. When she doesn't feel like talking about anything important, she just kinda disappears, nowhere to be found. Or just affects a wall of glacial disinterest. Or is at a meeting somewhere. It mostly comes down to latching onto the topics of why Gilgamesh decided to keep a crystal spider, if he has plans for hunting the giant high altitude death manta thing later, what jungles were like back in the day, and suchlike. She isn't inept to bring up weather because weather being a thing is a tiny minority of her life. Most of it was "cold" and the rest was "sunny". Compared to everyone else, she is distinctly under-menaced. There are a few times where it seems like some opportunistic beast of grey gets close, and then spooks and slinks off again, following some instinct or another. Where she passes through patches of swarming bugs, irritably waving them off with her hands, the insects start dropping out of the air in number behind her. Where she steps one one of the snap plants, it twitches about half closed, spasms, and then slumps back, rotting into the soil. Each time she gets taken by surprise by some loud noise or sudden motion targeting someone else, a bit of the brush curls black at the tips and dies off around her. The huge, no doubt carnivorous shapes in the trees do seem to slow their circular crawl and pause at Gilgamesh brandishing a massive screen of glowing blades, staring him down in that sort of way a cobra does at something with giant eyespots, leaning this way and that, not entirely sure what to make of it. Apparently feeling particularly fine under a ceiling of Gilgablades, Priscilla keeps walking up to the power cell, crouching by it (not low enough to dip her skirt into the briney goo) and looking all over for some kind of off switch, before just hitting it hard, both causing it to stop rumbling and gushing steam, and also causing her to flinch back and suck on her finger for having burned it. "It wouldst seemeth rather excessive for these beasts to tear such apart simply for stoppers." she says, looking at the geyser field. "Perhaps they devour the material, after the waters hath eaten away at it." Sure would be nice if they had an ecologist to answer that question, but then he might be dead if he went this way.
Priscilla	The state of affairs continues until Sarracenia starts trudging towards the cave, at which point it seems the huge shadows in the trees can't abide the stalemate anymore. One of them tenses and then lunges at blinding speed out of the streets, slamming the loader in the side with easily enough force to topple it, given it has the mass of an elephant. It has a strange, long, six-legged, mammalian sort of body, with hard skin patterned in green and black stripes, trailing waving tendrils out from the edges of big armoured plates. Its head is little more than a gigantic set of crushing jaws with fangs fused into the solid bone, and a mill of grinding teeth inside. It starts tearing apart Sarracenia's mech with its four front sets of massive claws, biting into the frame and twisting away pieces of metal with plaintive screeches. Another one tackles on from there, and then a third, making for a dogpiling pin to viciously tear the intruder apart as much as possible. Two more try the same for Haguro, but one is hit face first with a handful of autocannon rounds which smacks it down out of the air, and bathed in blue-hot flames that send it thrashing and howling back into the brush. The other tackles her from behind, and tries tearing the fuel and ammo feeds with its teeth. One runs down the trunk of a massive tree in spiral fashion, surging up from the brush and leaping on Maricel from behind. A different one fans out its array of tendrils over its back, and spits a barrage of glow-tipped metallic quills at her. Two more do the same to Gil, more leery of approaching, until one pounces to try and tackle him to the ground and bite his head off. One more drops straight out of the canopy, what must be 100 meters directly above, to pulverize Ni Lie directly beneath, slightly bigger than the others with notable shell marks in its exoskeleton, apparently learned that humans seldom look directly up. All the commotion causes the underground to stir too. Stella can feel a multitude of smaller shapes (goat sized) heading further down and past her, and a really big one moving towards the cave entrance, clambering out of the hole. Its progress unsettles several of the stones and wrecks, and causes the acidic salt geysers to bubble and erupt and douse the clearing.
Gilgamesh	There is, as Priscilla goes up to the power cell, a blanket on the ground. It just sort of appeared there amidst all the golden shine of the Gate of Babylon. It might even go unnoticed by most people, save that it is a rug probably worth more than a small country, and might even be able to fly. Once Priscilla is off it, it vanishes, presumably to be cleaned. It is one of those little moments of genuine thoughtfulness that the King just doesn't show other people. This small thoughtfulness and the general good mood it puts him in evaporates the instant the wretched beasts try and attack him. The Gate of Babylon is not for show. The Gate of Babylon is not the eyes upon a butterfly's back. When the beast comes at him, trying to pounce him dead-on, the sound is like a thunderclap as a hundred different artifacts hit the ground at once to skewer the creature. It isn't merely pinned like a butterfly - it's obliterated, torn to pieces so tiny even Maricel probably couldn't put them back together. Certainly not after bits of it freeze, burst into flame, and crackle with electricity. The spines that did manage to get into his flesh while he was busy venting his displeasure are metal. This is actually interesting enough to him that, rather than just crush one of the beasts into the ground, he snaps his fingers, and the Gate of Babylon's yawning chasm opens up underneath it. As he starts picking the spines out of his body, the thing suddenly is flung directly into the ground in front of him by a javelin, pinned like a butterfly. He examines the quills with a thoughtful air. Then, he systematically starts tearing the quills out of the creature that produced them. He wants to see if it spawns more quills. Because if it does, he might just use them to write things in for the novelty of it. And if not, it's probably going to die an unfortunately horrid death when that javelin discharges. The blood running down his body has the unnatural look of perfection that accompanies him everywhere, that uncanny "even-when-damaged-he-is-still-perfect" valley, an unsettling machine-crafted perfection that only really bleeds through in times like this. He's already starting to heal, though, the wounds slowly covering themselves up. Even if it's poisonous, it's a poison he trusts himself to be able to push through. The geysers start bubbling. Acid salt starts raining down. Gilgamesh produces a large golden umbrella for himself and Priscilla. It is magical as hell. It is not for anyone else. Get your own Noble Phantasm Umbrellas.
Maricel Thorne	Before the creatures are upon her, Maricel closes one eye, sticks out the tip of her tongue, aiiims with exaggerated care and zero trigger discipline, and squeezes off a couple of mystery syringe-rounds at Haguro: superspeed stimulants and electrifying eye-beam paramutagens! It's a little bit disturbing that the syringes are apparently capable of penetrating the mech's armor, but they've bled enough of their momentum to not sting by the point that they strike Haguro's body. And then she's being pounced upon. Between her feral opponents and her high-speed tendrils, the fight condenses into a cartoony rolling furball of low-impact high-speed violence. Her neoplasm plays interference and defense while her surgical knives serve for offense- somehow, impossibly, she's able to simultaneously mend her own wounds and carve up her enemies while twisting and evading and being swatted about. Her glowing pearlescent blood stains her labcoat and their jaws before long, but there's plenty more where that came from, and the longer it goes on the more she's learning about their physiology. That's not just desirable in an academic sense, but in a practical one: she's less of a knife-fighter and more of a dissectionist, slicing her two opponents apart into sanitized parcels of flesh and bone with her characteristic implausible precision. If she gets her way, you could sell them in a supermarket at the end of this.
Stella	Stella seems to have the luxury of not being aggressed by the odd, six-legged creatures. And given their zeal to dismember people, it really does seem to be a luxury very specifically. The acid is bubbling, a lot of smaller creatures are moving - and something largel is lumbering towards the cave entrance. Stella extends herself into the ground, spreading crystals about. Platforms and slides of prismatic crystal grow into being suddenly and loudly, trying to form a complex network of hollow tubing that eventually aims to seal up the erupting geysers before the lot of the party gets doused in not-so-delicious acid. And then, redirect all that high-pressure, corrosive liquid straight towards the cave entrance, like she's just created a crystal aqueduc. Hopefully, whatever's about to come out isn't especially resistant to the acid, but then again, if it flows in the caves to begin with...
Haguro	Haguro knew it'd be a matter of time until those creatures charged forward, and she's feeling much more justified than before at taking the first shots to catch that first attacker on her side off guard. It's the second one that's going to be trouble, though, since the loader doesn't control quite as well as she'd like. Was it really this sluggish before? She's tugging and pulling at the levers, but it's just moving in slow motion! Rather, everything is. It takes a while for Haguro to even notice at something's gotten stabbed into her, but she soon looks over to see the culprit: More syringes! Although there's still a lump in her throat about just getting shot like that, the effects certainly aren't anything to sneeze at. The Cruiser pulls herself up and out of the machine in one smooth motion while even managing to snatch those fuzzy dice off the front. Turning to the creature going for the ammo and fuel lines, Haguro just stares at it for what feels like a minute in her stimulant-boosted mind. Once she's satisfied with watching it, she flings herself at the creature while her turrets swap to anti-air shells, then starts punching the crap out of it while unloading blasts of metal shrapnel right into its face. Thanks to those stimulants, her timing is impeccable, and she even manages to punctuate the last few punches with blasts of eye lightning that... Wait. Where the hell did the eye lightning come from?! She'll have to ask later, but at least seeing everything in slow motion makes it much easier to look excessively calm and almost professional about how smoothly Haguro's suddenly started moving. When the acid geyser rain starts to fall, she doesn't even miss a beat as she slides herself right back into that mech, pushing levers again to make it hunch forward and provide a convenient (if temporary) umbrella for anyone that might need it!
Nie Li	"Hrmph. No fear of the unknown... no fear of fire, no fear of LIGHTNING... fine." Nie Li, thankfully, is not most people. He doesn't even need to LOOK UP to know that the thing is pounccing down upon him. Sure, l ooking up to see WHAT IT IS would probably help... but he doesn't bother. Instead, he simply sharpens his focus and kicks off the ground backwards. In the very same instant his body develops a glowing shimmer that instantly expands to four times his natural girth and solidifies into... what the hell? Where Nie Li had been, there's now a brown-furred... panda-person wearing his (upsized somehow) clothes? Yeah, it's big. Yeah it looks fat and goofy. With a confident laugh, Nie Li raises his empty paw skyward... and curls its claws inward. There's no flash or showy effects to mark the occasion, but GRAVITY CHANGES. The tumbling beast must now deal with twenty times normal gravity crushing down on it, pulling it to the ground with terrifically increased speed - and, thus, pure force. And if it somehow survives that impact, NIe Li will simply point the Thunder God's Meteorite Sword at the creature and fry it with a sustained onslaught of thick lightning bolts.
Sarracenia	Usually Sarracenia would be trying to compete with Priscilla for Gilgamesh's attention, but she has had other fun things to do! And right now she is getting mobbed by mobs! Big ones and small ones! Her machine falls over and she yelps as she lands against the canopy. The metal seems to her like it is disintegrating around her thanks to all the claws and teeth, and she is pretty much trapped! So...she pulls out several bob-ombs, leaves them in the cabin, and uses her hammer to smash her way through as far away from the creatures as she can get. A few moments later, those bob-ombs go off like a few barrels of TNT, hopefully talking some of those creatures out! And then Sarracenia yelps as acidic water starts to eat away at her. She doesn't really have anywhere to go or anything to do about it, and a pouting whine flows into a frustrated high pitched growl. "Who's bright idea was it to come in here?!" she exclaims, only to fall over again as the ground shakes from whatever is moving underground...and soaks her in more of that acidic salt water. "Okay, that driver was officially right! I should not have come out here!!" she exclaims, her carefully cared for skin and hair looking pretty bad off right now. She even spares a glare for Gilgamesh and Priscilla, though especially Gilgamesh. She doesn't say anything outloud, but the expression is clearly saying 'Hello! There are -two- beautiful women here!'. With no other way to deal with acid rain, she pulls out a leaf and powers up with raccoon ears and a tail before flying her way up to where the creatures lept down from. Hopefully that will put her out of range of acid for a few moments!
Priscilla	Despite being obnoxiously sturdy and apparently cannonproof, the evolutionary need for which is uncertain, the predators pouncing directly into the field of glowier, more gold quills, are knocked straight out of the air with a cacophony of thunderous cracks and wet crunches as blades punch through their armour and thrust deep into their insides. Each is smacked each with a broadside of a dozen golden weapons, cold stopping their attack jumps and instead sending them crashing to the ground and rolling ragdoll over it, leaving pink smears in the water behind them, shells falling to pieces on impact, arms and legs coming loose and their tattered innards trailing out behind that. Gilgamesh's suspicions are essentially confirmed when he rips the quills out of the pinned, snapping, thrashing sample, snapping off at some fragile base deep inside a series of powerful muscular valves. Yoinking one out has it almost fly straight into his face from his fingers, as compressed gas bursts from a hollowed back. Stella can tell that the ones fired all around are largely quartz, iron, and calcium, but the ones Gil is pulling out contain a bunch of steel and titanium. Speaking of which, Stella is a rock. Rocks moving is weird, but there are plenty of awful flesh and blood humans and big stompy mechs in the area so moving rocks can wait until later. Crystal roots spread through the earth and quickly seal and redirect the floes, bubbling up through tunnels where seawater mixes with some pyroclastic nonsense at a surprisingly shallow level. The initial spray is kind of shit and awful. It's not 'xenomorph acid blood' bad, but it causes exposed skin to quickly start peeling off, red and oozing and painful. It eats away at Stella's body is a more longform sense, stripping material more slowly, but losing its potency much less quickly. It's not really a problem for a Noble Phantasm umbrella, of all things. Priscilla stands up under it slowly, looks to Gilgamesh, then glances away a little awkwardly, momentarily taken out of the bloody fight happening, and spaghettimumbles some kind of thank you. Maricel is in for a sustained flurry of tentacles and claws and spines either way. Where nature documentaries show dueling tigers backing off after every few swats and slashes, or where kangaroos and komodo dragons fall down and square off again after each crash, these things just keep going and going, having no real sense of danger, either given that their humanoid prey here is so small (and usually weak), or possibly that infectious wounds and parasites aren't much of a thing here and predators just aren't afraid of getting fucked up and healing it off later. They're predators with very minimal grasp of their own mortality. Scalpels also don't actually hurt much. The one Haguro first blasted understood 'being on fire', certainly, but it seems like Maricel's foes are oblivious to her knifework until their plates start separating and leaving chunks of pulsing organs dropped on the ground, still connected to their bellies for moments, muscles unraveling and bones coming apart at the joints like anatomy diagrams. Even with jaws plastered in her blood, or perhaps because of it, they seem more confused than scared.
Priscilla	Though, the one Haguro is currently tackling understands a point blank brawl with something that hits really hard and sprays pointy metal into it (go figure). It tumbles and wrestles with her for a full minute, trying to break her spine between its jaws on the back of her neck, and shred up her arms under its claws to disable them, throwing up walls of spikes close up, but consistently putting AA shells into it at close range, over and over again, throws it off bleeding from its softer underside all over, and blasts of OPTICAL LIGHTNING send it reeling back and stumble-crashing back through the brush with a carbonized face and probably terminal internal damage. Sarracenia wriggling free of her own loader actually goes unnoticed in the frenzy for a little while. The beasts keep tearing into it, looking to completely savage the intruding enemy beyond recognition, for quite a while, pelting her with bits of metal and setting off several small ammo explosions without a care. It's only the big explosion, cooking off the fuel, the flamethrower resevoir, and the remaining shells, that hurls them free and sends them smashing through the trees, with obviously broken or dislocated limbs, dragging bloody smears with them as they try to stand back up and limp off. One seems to have just had part of its skull plating put through its brains and flops over dead on the spot. Nie Li backflips out of the way of the veteran member, which basically splats where he jacks up gravity exactly how that kind of thing works with respect to square cube law. The elephant vs the mouse dropped out of the window. Its legs break loudly and grotesquely where it lands, shattering some of its ribs on the rock, instantly crippled in a single motion with the tactical equivalent of a devastating judo chop. As it turns to fire at him to drive him away, it's repeatedly shot with lightning bolts until it stops moving. Nie Li has to hit it several times. The first few times it looks like it's dead, it twitches again and fires quills, so by the time he's done, it smells like ozone and barbeque, thoroughly and mercilessly torched.
Priscilla	The question about the bigger one underground is answered in short order when the cave mouth rumbles, and a hulking shape barely scrapes its way out. Twice the size of the others, and with the edges of its interlocking, primordial fish-type head plates bristling with some sort of coloured crest, it's probably a pack alpha, or alpha mate, in some fashion. Entirely confident in its gargantuan size, it opens its jaws, revealing the forest of bone spikes inside, bellows a challenge, and charges directly through the clearing, dead center, trampling over the power supply. Apparently not intending to stand around for an extra sixty seconds, Priscilla steps out from under the umbrella (with the geysers now blocked), extends a hand, and touches it to the oncoming creature's armoured snout, with the same gut feeling of humming charge and sudden snap as she and it were closing an electrical circuit. Instead of a shower of sparks and a gunshot electrical crack though, there's a purely imagined sound, more like the sharpest of knives rasping instantly through a steel cord, and a moment of heart-seizing existential vertigo, before bursting blossoms of gory crimson violently explode in every direction, erupting from every gap in the creature's scales and plates and drenching the surrounding area in a thundering, crashing waterfall of red --one that simply stops in an instant, because it uses up all the blood the creature had in its body all at once. It slides a little ways under its own momentum, pooled blood sloshing from its jaws, and then collapses sideways, its body splaying to expose thousands of small, completely impossible and mutually exclusive wounds, already turning ink black and dissolving at the edges, making echoing drips like rainwater in a deep, deep well. Stella can feel the rest of the movement underground continue. The giant presence feels like it had been two slightly less giant ones now, without half of it. By all probability, it's likely the alpha female leading away some baby horrors to a deeper part of a burrow, after Sarracenia stomping the mech in had triggered the rest of the pack to defend it. In all likelihood they're fleeing the influx of acid Stella is pouring down the mouth of the cave, as the geyser pressure continues to exert itself.
Gilgamesh	Sarra's look is not met with a sassy, smarmy hunter's look from Gilgamesh. It's perhaps the first time she's ever seen his face so...neutral. Not smirking. Not smiling. Not sneering. Not salacious. Just...neutral. Like what he's doing is something more than just chasing a beautiful woman for his own pleasure. And, well... ...it is. At Priscilla's mumbled thanks he scratches his cheek and nods. He's not very good at being thanked, either. Not sincerely. People sing his praises, but very rarely does someone he consider an equal thank him. He manages something quiet about not wanting her to damage her lovely dress as the acid falls around them. It would be a quiet, touching moment were he not covered in blood - some his own, some the beast's. His robe is soaked through entirely, and his hair is slick with gore. That impossible perfection looks even more out-of-place now, further adding to what he told Maricel earlier - that he stands apart from others. It is perhaps even a little repulsive. It is certainly more than a little lonely. And yet under the umbrella, surrounded by acid rain, there is a quiet, satisfied smile. It is the same smile he gives when he watches Enkidu do something funny. It is the rarest thing in the world, and he cherishes it as he cherishes nothing else in all existence. The chaos around him basically vanishes into that quiet little moment under the shining, magical umbrella until after the Alpha is cut to ribbons. Strangely enough, he doesn't look all that upset about not getting to stab it.
Haguro	Haguro may be sturdy, but she's still feeling a fair bit banged up already even with Maricel's SCIENCE sharpening her reflexes far beyond the norm to balance out the sheer power of the fauna. That minute feels like an eternity to the Cruiser, but she's finally given a moment of respite when it falls back. She doesn't give chase, of course, instead content to just hide in the loader for a while longer. Also, another eternity to see what's going on around her in slow motion. It's quite the mess that the group is in, but it doesn't look like anybody's dead! That's a plus. There's a quaint little moment over there, there's a potential genocide over there, there's an action movie over there... "Miss Maricel?" Haguro calls out, sounding concerned while her words come out in half the time they should take a normal person to speak. "How long does this... Erm. Doctoring usually last?" She keeps her eyes focused on a distant wall, those electrobeams still bursting out every now and then while Haguro tries to will it to stop. It's a work in progress.
Maricel Thorne	Standing in total contrast to Gilgamesh's impossible perfection, Maricel looks like she's been run through a washing machine full of blood, dirt, and crayons. When her two adversaries are mechanically separated flesh-from-bone and organs-from-flesh, she throws back her head and laughs. She says the sort of things that overcaffeinated teenagers say when they win at e-sports. The words 'get dunked on' are probably in there somewhere. Then she kicks the flensed skull of one of the beasts like a soccer ball and waves at Gil to make sure he sees her. What a little gremlin. It's remarkable how she manages to compose herself and regain the approximate veneer of being a Real Medical Professional after a display like that. She walks over to Haguro, holding a black syringe in a reverse grip, and tries to jab the shipgirl with it in the upper arm. "It lasts abouuuut... this long. Aha." Her thumb depresses the plunger, and the 'doctoring' immediately disappears with a final crackle of eyelectricity. "Hope you enjoyed the experience nonetheless."
Sarracenia	The expression from Gilgamesh says it all, and Sarracenia's anger pretty much just turns to a slightly sad sort of acceptance. She did define things herself, after all. And between her own admiration of Priscilla and Priscilla's display of skill and power...she can't really blame him for his preference even if she would never say so. Once things down on the ground are calm again, Sarracenia hops down from the rafters and floats down with steady wagging of her raccoon tail. She lands carefully atop Haguro's mech to avoid landing in acid. Maricel's antics make her smile just a bit despite how unnerving they are. It's really the enthusiasm and child-like enjoyment that does it. "Well...that was certainly exciting. And...messy." Sarra looks herself over, then whines. Muddy, bloody, hair ruined, dress ruined...why did she come here again?
Stella	Awful acid corrodes Stella's outer layer. There's nothing to show underneath it except more shiny crystal, though with her whole outer layer corroded away, she's lost any and all coloring, and now wholly appears like the crystal golem she is, multicolored and crystaline in the vague shape of a girl. Even as the crystal starts growing again to purge the acid and replace the layer, she makes the resolution not to take another bath in that acid if she can help it. Luckily, the vents are sealed, and the monsters are dead. So she probably won't need to. She makes her way back to the party, still totally lacking color and definition. She muses matters of heroes and humanity, but ultimately stays silent. She's a bit bummed out the big one got ultraslaughtered, but practice is practice, and redirecting acid flows is something new to file. "The remaining creatures are fleeing." She vaguely gestures in the direction of the underground tunnels being employed. "There is another large one and a pack of smaller ones. I do not sense a path that would allow them to ambush us here." Then her glare wanders to the dead creatures with metallic spines, and she can't help herself but to start listing the various materials that compose the quills.
Nie Li	This would be so much better an outcome for Nie Li if he could draw out more than just 2 percent of the Thunder God Meteorite Sword's output. Unfortunately, at his current level of ability, 2 percent is already pushing it. ... On the good side, though, it was more than adequate for FRYING the beast that dared to challenge him. The panda-warrior relents, allowing the short-range gravity field to dissipate before anyone he deems friend is caught in it, and... seeing that things are calming down some, he launches down to the ground and manages a landing near Sarracenia. Right at the last moment his girthy form shrinks back down to the thirteen-year old he truly is... and he holds out an offering of clean cloths for Sarracenia to use for the worst of her troubles. "For you! ... do you need a change of clothes? I might have something appropriate on me." He's honestly quite surprised to see anyone managing to fight and survive wearing THAT in -this- kind of situation.
Sarracenia	Sarracenia blinks in obvious surprise as Nie Li actually offers her a change of clothes. She smiles a genuine smile for once, and even though she doesn't actually need someone else's generosity thanks to a near endless supply of clothing in her bag, she accepts anyway. It's nice to be pampered by a hero! And Nie Li has been pretty impressive! "Ah...thank you, Nie Li. If you do have something appropriate, I would be gratified to have it." she replies to him. And while she waits for the clothing he might offer, she pulls out a green mushroom as big as her head and gives it a squeeze. It explodes in magical sparkles and her surface wounds close up quite a bit. "Would anyone else like one?" she asks the group.
Nie Li	"I'm not entirely sure what your tastes are, but..." Nie Li blinks once. Twists his lips about in thought. Then... a new ring similar to the one he's wearing appears from a stream of wispy smoke-like energy. A batch of even MORE of said smoky-energy flows from his ring into the new one, which he presents to Sarracenia atop the pile of cloth! "It's an Interspatial Ring. You just need to hold onto it and focus on it to see what's in it. It responds to your intent." Still, the boy's smiling, apparently happy to be of some help. Should Sarracenia take the ring and focus on it, visions of a dozen different styles of what are essentially qipaos designed for combat fill her mind. They're more than meets the eye, though - they're made of special materials, one and all, and will not easily stain, snag, or tear on anything. They're not terribly protective - but the ring also contains some light chain vests - made of something that glimmers like soft pearl instead of metal - and similar meant to be worn under most clothing. It's odd stuff, but clearly of top quality.
Priscilla	Priscilla, of course, gets splattered in some degree of the monster's blood, though most of it ejects in every direct away from where she'd touched it. She takes a moment to wipe some away from her face with the back of her thumb, and the rest begins to freeze, turning glassy and white, then blue, and then flakes away. Indeed her outdoorsy dress goes un-ruined by acid-salt water, as does her skin. She turns to Gilgamesh, examining the places where spine wounds haven't fully healed yet, and then wordlessly gets out a white cloth and wipes his own blood off him as well, as if quietly fussing with someone's tie, so that he looks presentable in the sense of not having that eerie bloodied perfection coming on so strong (even while frozen gore flakes away and falls off the bridge of her nose). A minute lader, the brush crunches and cracks, and the APC rolls up, grinding to a halt with the squeak of axles and the hiss of water bubbling up around its corrosion resistant tires. The two men disembark from the ramp, wearing masks, and using the flamethrowers from the motorbike bay, to clear out the last bit of the path. The driver waves down the group, then manages to whistle through an air filter. "Damn. You kids were busy. How much you think corporate's gonna pay for this?" he asks aloud. The rest of the ride is comparatively chilled out. The ecologist haggles some stuff off Maricel to put in the freezer. Sarracenia gets to use little little shower cabinet. Nie Li gets to take his time with the study catalogue the guy filled out so far. Haguro gets orange juice and cookies. There's a part where the hovercraft in the back finally gets some use across a stretch of mangrove swamp-esque terrain to locate a shortcut and recoup lost time. There's a stop for lunch. A stop for viewing a rather spectacular part of the jungle in which proper flowering plants have grown all over a shipwreck in myriad crystal hues. There's a point at which a gigantic tree that has fallen in the way and opened up a riverbed has to be cleared and a bridge put up. Eventually, the data, samples, and remains of the broken loader, are delivered to the science base on the other end of the trip, sat atop a high rise with the jungle cut back for a mile around it. The two employees give their report, negotiate a little, and the total trip bonus comes back at ten times what was sunk into it. Everyone is thanked for their time here at New Brisbane on planet AUS-T-L14 and wished a good day.
Sarracenia	Sarracenia blinks at the options that run through her mind when she focuses on the ring and her eyes sparkle a little. Even though these dresses are far from the style she usually wears, the are quite similar in overall design to her battle dress. She finally settles on a bright red qipao that nearly reaches the ground and has golden embroidry of small flowering vines. She twirls for Nie Li once she has showered and changed and is once again presentable. "What do you think?" The ride back is pleasant enough after they are back inside the armored transport, though Sarra takes out some of her residual frustration on the vegitation and wildlife in the form of bob-ombs tossed through the port holes every now and then.