Scene #8566: The Titanomachia's Wake

Owner	Pose
Petra Soroka	The Titanomachia is not hard to find. Each of its dozen legs are the size of skyscrapers, jointed at the knee to heave the city-sized mechanical behemoth across the landscape. Not only does its wake of ruined earth and ash trail across worlds without any effort to cover it up, but the machine itself is visible-- and audible-- for miles around, each thundering step sending vibrations through the air like an explosive, intense enough to draw out the taste of blood. The Titanomachia is hard to approach. When Touta tries, earlier, the ambient swarm of flying and terrestrial mechs clustered around the walking city zeroed in on his position with uncanny coordination. Between the hail of small arms fire, explosives, plasma beams, and sheer mechanical weight bearing down on him, it's only due to his near-limitless ability to survive that Touta is able get away, much less towards it. It's far easier to backtrack along its path and find the most recent site of civilization that it crossed. The tech in this world seems to largely revolve around large-scale detailed bioengineering, replacing concrete and steel with fibrous plant material, a fact evident to Touta-- and Hibiki, when he invites her-- well before they actually make it to the city. Towering trees are erratically spaced throughout the bio-metropolis, radiating out into circular city "blocks", irregular in the way that pre-industrial urban growth always ends up being when cities modernize. Skyscrapers in their own right, with windows and other trappings visible in the bark, the neighborhood trees also seem to form roads with their roots, growing along slightly elevated and improbably angled paths between living wood buildings and lined with swaying streetlights. It would be beautiful-- and is, after the initial shock-- if not for the reason why the pair is here in the first place. Deep troughs are scarred into the earth by the Titanomachia's legs, bare dirt gouged out of the otherwise verdant landscape. Its feet must drag when it walks, since even between the deep imprints where each step apparently landed, flora is torn out of the ground and scraped empty and raw. But the real damage, of course, is to the city itself. Half of the enormous trees are corpses of their former selves, splintered and charred by overwhelming firepower. One seems to have simply been crushed under the Titanomachia's massive foot, broken like a twig. Buildings collapse to reveal the fibrous skeletons of floors and walls, rubble chokes the streets, smoke coils out of recent debris and the continual, post-attack collapse of infrastructure. The side of the city that Hibiki and Touta approach from is one of those ruined neighborhoods. It's hard to tell from here if there's any movement still in the city, biological or otherwise.
Touta Konoe	It's rare, but not completely unheard of for information to reach the hands of someone that isn't already in one of the three factions. Each one has their own network of accumulated resources, and a unique way to gather information. Each one covering bases that one of the other factions have missed. It's not impossible to get ahead of the curve, but ultimately requires...Legwork. Up to this point, Touta assumed that such legwork would have been more heavily focused on trying to /find/ Titanomachia. The realization that it's less finding but rather approaching it was when he realized just how guarded this base on legs was. An immediate assault unleashed on his location once he had forced himself to try and work through the miles it takes from making the Titanomachia a landmark into a proper mountain of a creation. "Ugh...I think the drones ended up getting back more of my blood than I did...Seriously, are they greeting just Elites with that response, or just anyone unlucky enough to get too close..." A question he finds himself muttering under his breath as he finally breaks far enough away to be considered 'non-hostile'. It does raise the question how Petra was able to drag something out of this place...? He imagines that if he wanted to press further in, it was something that could be done. Again, not an easy task...But not impossible. What's more, it may be possible for him to survive but for the person he had in mind to attend with him...He can't imagine Hibiki was in a position to be that durable even with her grit. So the decision was made that a change in plans was necessary. Reaching for his radio he calls out, <"Yeah, Hibiki, we're changing plans. I'll send updated coordinates so meet me there instead...Whatever you do, don't get even too many miles out from this thing..."> Following the events of the prior night, Touta had already given Hibiki a few things. The logs that had been provided to him, and those that he had made himself pertaining to the Illuminati situation back in her homeworld, along with the coordinates for where Titanomachia was likely to be spotted, and a specific set of rules for her arrival. One specifically being, no informing anyone of where she was going...No Watch, no friends, no one. Given her situation, he'd imagine that was doable enough however. Backtracking along the path is something that wasn't hard to do at least. The path of destruction was all too vivid, that it could have been considered an art form in the way it had been crafted. Though even now, he's trying to document what he sees. Pictures taken of the world itself and its bioengineering marvels, of the pits of earth that are ripped up simply from each step Titanomachia takes, and ultimately...What's left of a beautiful city. Each photo is still difficult to take simply from the constant shaking that persists even as it leaves its wake of destruction behind with each step. It's only as he makes his way into these neighborhoods does he find himself with Hibiki, and immediately finds himself warning her. "If you see anyone around shout...Otherwise, maybe we try to find any government buildings...Any spots that look specifically ravaged or targeted... And see what information was being passed around. There's no way they didn't see this thing coming a few miles down the way..." Up to this point, he's well aware that Hibiki's the kind of person to run not walk when there's devastation like this. It's because of this that he finds himself taking on his older form. An attempt to try and act as some level of authority, as some level of experience so that she doesn't jump the gun, on the mission he's put out for them. A mission, he's still not fully explained the end goal of...
Hibiki Tachibana	Touta has, at least, been able to get in touch with Hibiki for this. He's...well, despite many other opinions on him, she can only see him as too well-meaning to not take him at face value. It's only the public bands and certain individuals she's been avoiding any contact with, for numerous reasons. Most of them through the filter of her own emotions. That's almost definitely why when he asked Shinji Ogawa if there were any messages to pass on, there was one. That if he saw her anywhere, to please ask her to come home, for her sake as well - and, somewhat predictably, she had no response to that when passed on. But as much as she's set on making sure the Kana ends up as scrap regardless of anyone or anything else, taking a moment to think about it would make it hard to deny that investigating the Titanomachia itself couldn't hurt. She was never particularly interested in it before - which might be another failing of hers to do enough. But now that the situation with the Kana is at the forefront of everything... She /is/ here. Walking towards the the destroyed, scraped-out section of what would have at one point been a pristine, alien-to-her sprawl of bioengineered nature and urban cityscaping. Even from a distance--no, especially from a distance, it's difficult to take in anything but the sheer scale of the destruction that dragged itself, weighty step by step, through here. The massive gashes uncaringly shorn through the earth. Treelife, blackened and ruined to the point it had to be intent. The very framework of the city, falling apart and brought to waste--and it's not an abandoned, razed place left behind in the wake of a terrible disaster. There's still floods of smoke, still structures crumbling away, and still... "...It just passed through here...and left everything messed up...why--" There are a lot of things going through her mind, taking in the whole sight of it, with a slack jaw and trembling fingers. But Touta is right about one thing - she's inclined to run, not walk. Touta's attempt at reigning in her impulses with a little more authority only meets debatable success, as she's hurriedly moving ahead on the rubble-strewn street to cup hands to her mouth at the half-trashed buildings. "Hey! HEY--! Is anyone--is anyone still alive here!? Are you okay!? If you are, say something! Anything!" He wasn't /not/ heard, though. Trying to find anyone is her first priority. In the back of her mind, at least, she'll keep the mention of trying to find anywhere that looked especially important there.
Petra Soroka	Once the pair is inside the city limits, it's evident that this isn't a recent attack-- not within a day, at least. The Titanomachia is many miles away, far past the horizon, and the city doesn't seem to be immediately post-attack so much as it is stunned and silenced in the aftermath of one. Neither of them have any way of assessing the damage further than that, though-- they're both fight idiots, not disaster response personnel. Picking their way through rubble, the destruction almost seems incidental, at this ground-level of observation. Residential houses are ruined as much as parks and offices are, as if they were indiscriminately bombed by planes or artillery, even though Touta has firsthand knowledge that probably wasn't the case. The first government building they come across, a circuit court grown from arching trunks draped in regal gold leaves burnt black, doesn't seem to have been targeted more than anything else would. Its roof is caved in, but there's no evidence that this was some kind of war effort to forcefully overcome the government of the city. What is notable is when Hibiki's frantic running takes her into the commercial district. The first response she hears to her shouting isn't a voice calling out for help-- it's the creak-snap of wood under incredible strain, followed by a metallic thud and scrape. The second, moments later, is a cry out from the same building, sounding hoarse and desperate. When Hibiki inevitably charges in, she realizes that she's entered... a furniture store. The store itself is damaged by the fighting, of course, but it's not turned to charcoal like many other places have been, and, most immediately, it's occupied. Pinned beneath a collapsed section of the wall is a woman wide-eyed with fear, her face coated with clumps of dark dried blood and ash. Beneath the grime, she looks ragged and pale, like she's been trapped here for some time. Opposite her, and the subject of her attention, is a gorilla-like mech, made of hard boxy angles and inhuman machinery, tottering on overlong arms and hunched legs. Before Hibiki and Touta come in, it's reaching towards-- of all things-- a luxurious-looking couch, but when they make their presence known, it turns to them, bowing its back to point the enormous machine-gun turret on its back towards them.
Touta Konoe	Despite the unfortunate truth that Touta is a battle idiot, it's not something he holds much personal esteem for. In fact, doing such efforts like this. It is an effort in some small way to become more than that. He's known so many people both Elites and otherwise that have made more of themselves than just a battle idiot, that in kind he's wanted to do more. If anything, one of the reasons he had returned to the Multiverse was in hopes of becoming more than that. To learn as much as he can, to better himself through as many avenues as possible. So to him, Hibiki's thoughts on not checking Titanomachia wouldn't be considered a failing in his eyes. If anything, even for Touta, he considers it just an avenue that he's able to take with the little info and resources he has with a bit more experience he's trying to garner. What's more, while Hibiki's focus is certainly justified in making sure that all her resources go into finding a way to destroy the Kana, this route of investigation was one he hoped could open other opportunities for her as well. "Oi, Hibiki...I've been meaning to..." Before he can even get out the words he watches her go. He watches her with such drive that it brings him to ask the question under his breath. "Oi, Lilian...Is this really the same person you hate so much...?" Continuing along the path, the damage does seem familiar to what the drones might have caused. "The drones reach out so far, you'd probably need a specialist to figure out if they had them act as vanguards first before Titanomachia made its way through..." It's an insane notion, but not completely out of reach from his mind given the experience he had himself. At least one thing seems confirmed when traversing through to the court area. Not any sort of regime change or war effort. Though truthfully he can't say how valuable a courthouse is as a war asset to destroy. So it's not a possibility he completely throws out. "It'll be hard to cover ground like this with just two of us." An unfortunate truth that must be told when working as an unaffiliate, or just without the aid of your faction, of friends...As she starts running out, Touta finds himself slowly scanning. At this point telling her to calm down is something he can't find the heart to do. So if she's going to be doing her best to comb through the streets as quickly as she can, Touta will make sure at the very least that she didn't miss anything in doing so. It's the way he can try to watch her back. As he starts catching up, he speaks up to her question from before. "That's part of the reason we're here. Was it just unlucky to be on the path this thing was going...Or did it have a reason to be here? /That/ is what we need to find out. Was this place trampled for resources? Enemies...? Or just caught in the middle of something else? Even if it's just finding a lead on something that was against it, we might learn something that no one else has gone about finding...But first...We need a wider search area. /Hibiki/...I'm trusting you not to say anything on this..." He doesn't elaborate on what he means, instead, Touta simply bites into thumb till he draws blood. As the little drop falls to the floor, the red of it forms into a thick black...It slowly starts turning from a simple red liquid to a black miasma as it forms larger and larger. A pool of it appears before their feet before it slowly starts to rise up from the ground defying gravity until...
Touta Konoe	"We can reconfirm the coordinates for the exact city this is supposed to be later. But for now--" "We'll look for landmarks and get an idea of where we are in the city to better search." "Humu, if we do that, probably can try to fill in for any areas that Titanomachia hit. What might be more important than finding something, is what we don't find." "I'll work my way through a few of the other buildings and see what's going on as well." In but a moment, one Touta had turned into at least four. Each one not even attempting to elaborate before they start separating from Hibiki and the first(?). It seemed they intended to scan out the rest of the city before the two continued on their own way. Though just as quickly as the Toutas part, there's the sound of that cry and with it, even he doesn't need to follow Hibiki. He's running as well... The site before them is definitely not something one would expect in the ruins of a city. At least not his first one. They find their first survivor and with it...A first threat. "Hibiki, the woman!" As soon as he says that, he doesn't alter the path from the line of fire of those turrets. He wants Hibiki to be able to rescue that woman, and if both of them split off there's the chance it might still prioritize Hibiki as the threat. So he's hoping that a full-on assault in its line of fire will keep it from attempting to change its target. Though he's not intending to become swiss cheese that easily, with his blade he's confident enough to be able to handle a spray of bullets that might come and if it's more than that well...If anyone needs to take a risk here, it'd be best if it's him. Cause if this thing's not able to kill him, at the very least he intends to cleave those turrets from the gorilla-like mech.
Hibiki Tachibana	If anything, /incidental/ destruction only makes it worse. It leads towards the implication that there was no real reason for this. No intent behind the attack. No purpose to it, such as resources or some kind of longstanding grudge or something similar. With the ruin equally spread out, with the gouges of the Titanomachia's gigantic legs physically passing through the confines of the city left in the earth, the first thing she can't help but imagine is... ...they were just in the way. And she really and truly hopes that wasn't the case. "That's what I want to find out, too! And I'm sure as hell not going to say anything to pretty much an--" Her surprise at one Touta becoming four is drowned out by the even greater shock of the sound of an actual voice cutting through, and exactly as expected, her feet are moving before her mind comes close to catching up. There's a moment, after breaking through whatever remains of the entrance, where she's staring down the lumbering mech. There are thoughts on what it's doing, if it's some Titanomachia leftover, if it's some kind of thief looting the place now that there's no order keeping the city together--and then the turret is leveled, she processes the haggard appearance of the trapped woman who looks far too weak to have ever called for help, and she's turning on her heels and moving. "Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron!" Touta will manage that. In a flash of golden light as she sprints full speed across the space of the ruined store, Hibiki's Symphogear takes the place of her regular clothing, and she's digging her hands down into the collapsed wall hard enough that fingers dig into the material it's made of. She has to strain, just a little bit, to heft it upwards with the intention of throwing it off to the side to free the woman beneath. "Hold on--I'm not going to let anything happen to you...!" And indeed, she's already positioned herself between where she's stuck and the mech to be a human shield if need be.
Petra Soroka	In an instant, the mech opens fire, filling the interior of the store with the deafening roar of six hundred rounds per minute. The air is clogged with the cloying stench of gunpowder, a scent that's lingered in pockets around the city, along with the arsenal of other methods the Titanomachia can bring to bear on its enemies. Bullets tear through Touta, capable of punching out columns of flesh, but it is, in the end, a single mech. It has one weapon, capable of pointing in one direction, without any agility or technique to back up its firepower. It's a gun on legs, not meant for human expression through combat, and between the two Elites, it's torn apart in moments, though not before a hundred spent cartridges clatter to the ground to justify the spike of adrenaline. The woman on the ground collapses into a coughing fit when the wall is lifted off of her, possibly from the gunfire smoke, possibly from something else. Her throat sounds dry and painful, scratching with smoke inhalation, and when she looks up at Hibiki and opens her mouth to say something, words don't come out, just a hoarse rasp. She's heavily dehydrated, almost definitely, but not dead from it, which at least gives a range of time since the Titanomachia passed through here.
Touta Konoe	Touta finds himself taking a considerable amount of lead. Though perhaps that was simply the better choice than opting to try as hard as possible to deflect every bullet recklessly. In a matter of moments the mech does find itself quickly disassembled by Touta's blade and with it, a small sigh of relief. Though, it's only for a brief moment. His eyes scan the room as he looks for any other machines lingering nearby, and he listens closely for the possibility of drones or other noises that might fill the air. After a few moments of checking their surroundings he'd look back to Hibiki and the frail woman. It's clear she's been through a mess of it... "Hibiki, you got any of your rations on you?" Given the fact she's been on the run, he'd hope that she'd have something on hand. After all, even if Touta did have a bottle of water at this point, it'd definitely been filled with holes. If there was no such luck he imagines he could make the call out to one of his blood clones, but it was clear this woman needed immediate aid. Touta won't be the one to immediately come over just yet. He takes a moment to start looking over the remains of the gorilla-like mech. "What the hell kind of joke are you supposed to be...?" As if it were an actual animal, he begins dissecting the machine piece by piece. He's no mechanic, but at the very least he wants to see if there's any sort of markings, labels, anything that gives a sign on what the hell the damn thing was, or what had built it.
Hibiki Tachibana	It's probably a good thing that Hibiki's focus wasn't on Touta getting riddled with bullets--but the sound of screeching metal that heralds the mech hitting the ground is a relief, although one that doesn't really hit for several seconds after. Not until the last cartridges have finished clattering to the floor, and not before she's gotten the rubble cleared and out of the way. After a few heavy breaths, and dropping to a knee next to the woman, she takes careful hold of her shoulders and slowly, gently moves to place her on her back as comfortably as she can, and use one arm as a support to lift her head slightly. As quickly as her Symphogear appeared on her, it scatters away into golden particles as her usual clothes take their place again. "Y-Yeah, I should have something..." Touta is right; she keeps a pack just for convenience when it comes to all this moving around on her own, and a still-full bottle of water is taken out with a tense grip. "...This couldn't have been that long ago...a day...two, three...?" She murmurs to herself while opening it, although there's not much point questioning that. If she looks to have any amount of strength necessary to take the bottle with Hibiki's help, she'll do that--otherwise, she'll just have to bring small sips up to her mouth, with some concern that she might just choke further if she's not careful. Or spill a little, if she doesn't keep her own small amount of shaking in check. "Here. Take it easy--you're gonna be okay now. Don't rush trying to talk or anything..."
Petra Soroka	It turns out there was a hollow space inside of the mech, though it's nothing like a cockpit. There's no instruments, controls, or even seating inside, just a cavity of space, with a collection of... seemingly random items. Curtains, gracelessly crammed in, along with a full dining set. It gives off the impression that it's pillaging, somehow. Maybe banks were especially targeted? There's absolutely no markings, symbols of ownership or ranking, and the best inscriptions Touta can find are letters and numbers cut into metal, inscrutable except to the engineers who made it. Maybe someone smarter on the subject could glean something from them, but not Touta. It is glaringly strange that there's no national crest or anything, though. Any warring country would need some way to discern their machines at a glance, and in any normal matter of nationalism, the war mechs would be a source of pride. At the very least, it'd let their enemies know who is fighting them. This mech has none of that, no identification or tie back to its source at all. Whether that's for secrecy or some other reason-- it's hard to imagine secrecy being a priority for that thing-- Touta doesn't know. The woman isn't quite able to take the take the water from Hibiki on her own, but readily sips from the bottle when it's presented. After a bit, and more coughing fits, she manages to weakly speak, her voice raspy. "I... thank you, I.... Who are you? Rescuers? Do you know--" She cuts off, coughing yet again, grasping at the water a little more strongly now. "Do you know what happened? What all of this-- this was?" The dusty and torn remnants of the woman's outfit seems to have been an employee's uniform, just days ago. Looking around more slowly at the interior of the store, she certainly wasn't the only one here when the Titanomachia arrived. She is, however, the only one moving.
Touta Konoe	As he rummaged through the machine's interior he was expecting more machinations, more...Internals. The fact that's not the case as he starts reaching in to pull out the set of items is... "I...Really hope this isn't what I'm thinking this is supposed to be." Maybe he simply had an overactive imagination, but the thought of what this foraging bot implied made him feel...A bit ill. Which for an immortal who supposedly wasn't able to get sick, was an impressive feat. Touta began to reach for his radio, calling over the channels. "Oi, someone start checking more of the commercial districts for daily necessities, and any other common appliances. If you spot robots, careful when breaking them down. Might have foraged items and more inside..." He quickly puts it away just as quickly as he pulled it out to signal the others. The examination of the machine doesn't really turn up much, in regards to who or what made it. There's definitely some sort of numbering system going on. It's something he ends up taking another picture of as he starts detailing the rest of the parts. He'll probably end up trying to collect them later, for now though. He wants them as they were. "Hibiki, did you ever get a chance to look around the Kana even a bit?" If he can get some idea of it, he'd like to know now. Otherwise, their options for comparison are going to be...Problematic. Though it's a thought that needs to come later as he finally steps away from the machine so as to meet up with Hibiki and the woman. He imagines Hibiki handles the questions first, but as he comes in he'll try to add in a touch. An attempt at a reassuring smile. "We saw what happened from out of the city and came in. Take your time and get your strength back, okay?" He's not going to try and force questions out immediately. Waiting to see how much strength she gets back before speaking up again. "If you can...Do you remember what day this happened? Do you remember anything...?" This might be a bit harder for him to ask. Even maybe traumatic...But someone has to ask.
Hibiki Tachibana	It's an uneasy comfort when the woman is able to get her voice back, and the bit of strength she has in holding tight onto the water is also a good sign that she'll be fine...one can hope. It's not like either of them are medical professionals, and Touta had wanted to ensure nobody knew either of them were here--something she's now suddenly much more curious about. How much are the two of them going to be able to do on their own here? But first things first. Short of one of Touta's clones finding a larger gathering of survivors to bring her to, they're just going to have to take it slow and let her get some stamina back. "I--...we're here to help as best we can, yeah. Don't worry." 'Rescuers' draws a frown out of her. Has this just totally flown under the Multiversal radar...? If it has, how many more times has... A brief glance down a splintered, thrashed aisle lets her see... ...she can't help but flash back to the sight beneath Aegis Astray, and she promptly averts her eyes again and swallows dryly. "I've been inside of it...at least once," she replies to Touta to keep her mind moving. Maybe she should have been inside of it during that eight hour trip to Space Station Silicon Valley, after all. "And when I was, I was more worried about all the mess Petra had in there than anything like markings or details. But--...you're asking if that thing is from the same place as the Kana." One look at it, and the look that comes to her face is plenty enough for Hibiki's initial thoughts on that to be obvious. She takes a deep breath, and for the moment, also focuses back on the woman. She gives it a second after Touta's questions so she doesn't get overwhelmed, thinking on...the last thing she had said. "...Did you not know what all of this was about? There was no warning...?"
Petra Soroka	"What day...?" The woman's eyes cloud up in indistinct memory, and she shudders. "Days. I don't-- I don't know. It was Saturday. I had to work on a Saturday. I don't know if being home would-- oh, God. Home." Based on the wave of fear that washes across her face, this woman likely has no idea of the extent of the damage outside. She feebly shakes her head. "Warning? I don't know. It was just... I mean, the-- there was the noise, before-- before all of this, the thudding. If there was some kind of-- some-- an announcement, then I sure didn't get it. The police were mobilizing but..." She coughs, trying to lighten her tone a little, "Still gotta go to work, y'know?" Her attempt at levity immediately dies off in the next moment. "Oh, god. I almost died." Touta's clones find other mechs roaming around the district, spread thin. None of them put up too much of a challenge on their own, they're all meant to overwhelm in numbers, or to effortlessly mow down noncombatants. Many of them follow a similar design structure to the gorilla mech in the store with Hibiki and the main Touta, complete with the empty storage area inside. Touta knows, from his brief foray into the Titanomachia's radius, that this only accounts for a small percentage of the types of mechs at its disposal. The mechs are, his clones find, mostly carrying luxury goods. Maybe half of them have nothing at all. Rather than necessities and daily use items, they lean more towards works of art, fine fabrics, woodcrafting. Not a single one has money of any kind. Soon enough, though, something strange happens, as his clones gradually spiral in to converge on the same area, without consciously recognizing why.
Touta Konoe	There's a clicking of teeth as he sees the look on Hibiki's face. It was all he needed to see to realize what the situation was. "So, this is how the impenetrable Titanomachia resupplies?" From the items that have been taken so far it feels more like blatant thievery than resupply. Though he imagines the same process being used otherwise isn't too far off the track. "For once...I think I'm actually okay Petra ended up stealing from someone." He looks back at the woman in question. Even if her condition was the minimum, there was no guarantee that other survivors were in a similar situation. The first thought that probably comes to mind is that one of the factions might have to come into play here... If we do that Hibiki won't have... His thoughts are cut off for a few reasons. The first is the realization that this happened. "Saturday? How has no one shown up? Forget calling Elites, there have to at least be other cities, something that would have caught wind of this. What is--" It's his words that are cut off next. His head peering in a direction that makes it clear it's not in the view of the building that he's focused on. He pulls out the radio again, checking it a few times to at least make sure it's working...Had it been jamming? <"Hey, You guys didn't fan out that much, what's the deal? Spot something?"> <"More like a gut feeling, I'm just going a bit more East."> <"Mhm! I'm heading a bit more southwest of where I was."> <"I think I found something on my path, I was still heading North! Let us know if you guys find something"> He puts the radio away, a look of that is a mix of confused and annoyed on his face. "They're all heading towards the same spot...At least the radio's working but then, seriously what the hell's going on?" It happens slowly. His face goes from confused...To a more neutral look as he keeps to the distance, and finally...There's a certain unease that starts to show. More than before. "If that's...Hibiki, mark somewhere nearby with the pen I gave you. I'm going find a roof with a view!" Before she can ask what he's thinking, Touta's not just running, he's using flash steps. Literally traversing the building in a blur as he's going up flights of stairs if they're not in shambles, running up walls, anything he can do inorder to provide himself a vantage view of the location the others are converging on. Even if that means going from the roof of the building they're on currently to another one. At the same time though, he's making sure that he's not bringing himself any closer to the other Touta's. He's not trying to converge on their location. Simply watch from a distance. Hopefully it's still close enough to see what's going on, but far enough...
Hibiki Tachibana	There was the noise, before-- before all of this, the thudding. If there was some kind of-- some-- an announcement, then I sure didn't get it. The police were mobilizing but... There's another rough swallow, at the expression that comes to the woman's face at the sudden awareness. Reassuring her that she's sure 'home' and anyone there is still safe would be irresponsible. A platitude not even worth saying out loud. If it was Hibiki, in this position, coming to that realization... She forces her arms to remain still and steady, as much as they try to fight that urge. "...There wasn't any heads-up, then. They were just...coming. And now these machines are just combing through..." It's impossible to keep the shakiness out of her voice however, the look in her eye somewhere far off from this store before she comes back to herself. There's a strong pull in her chest to go and ensure every last mech in this city is left as a crumpled heap, but that's both immediately unreasonable, and the urge is kept in check by Touta's confusion over something, which naturally leads to her own. "Huh--? Touta? What are you talk--hey, what's going on!? Wait! I still need to ask--" Untransformed as she is right now, there's no hope of her catching up on the spot, and she stifles a complaint under her breath before glancing back down to the woman. Her face scrunches up. "...Here. Take it easy for just a minute, okay? Drink as much as you need." Tensely, Hibiki sets her down against some rubble for support and leaves the water bottle with her, freeing her up to push back to a stand and step away towards a still-standing shelf. One thing Touta had given her before was...a pen. She's still not entirely sure how it works, even with the instructions he gave, but nevertheless, she withdraws it from her bag and draws a simple 'X' on the side of the furniture piece. After doing so, she hurries towards the front door--not leaving (yet), but watching Touta presumably move off towards a better vantage point with a grimace on her face.
Petra Soroka	Climbing up onto the roof of the highest building nearby, Touta's scan over the city immediately reveals what the Toutas were being drawn to. Like a chain of bubbles drawn across the neighborhood, three-dimensional spheres transposed onto the ground where perfectly even blast radii impacted, a streak of glittering, reflective pearl is painted on buildings and streets. It draws an approximate, though incomplete, barrier between the still-standing districts of the city, and the parts that are blown into ruins, as if a series of bombs were dropped to seal it off. Light reflects off of the iridescent sheen, making it hard for Touta to see any details about it from this distance, but he can tell that nothing inside the radius is damaged. If these were bombs, then they left the environment untouched other than the coating of glittering shine, and there's no clear justification to how this could even be the remnant of a weapon meant to kill people. What he can tell, with his senses, is that there's no magic involved at all. Looking at it, he can feel an abstract discomfort, wordless and shapeless, like his throat is itchy and no amount of swallowing fixes it, and he's distractingly aware of every time he blinks and breathes.
Touta Konoe	"Bubbles?" It's the best comparison he can give to the spherical objects as they began to coat the town in that pearl color. It does take a moment but there is the realization that there's clearly a distinction of targets between properly standing buildings, and those that have gone to ruins. He doesn't know what the hell's going on at the ground level between the other three Touta, his mind still trying to figure out what sort of weapon if it even is one is supposed to be. Though as he keeps thinking there is that feeling of scratchiness...That blinking of his eyes, and the forced breathing. It's not necessarily things that he needs to be bothered with since he doesn't even need air. Though, the fact something is messing with his stasis is already making him uncomfortable...Again he reaches for the radio only this time contacting Hibiki, "Hibiki...First, we need to get this woman out of here. I got a bad feeling. Keep something to filter both of your breathing just to be safe. Glasses or goggles, wrappings...Anything." He's only a battle idiot. So he doesn't know the right course of action, but he knows that if there's a chance this could impact those two, it's even more dangerous. At this point, the three Touta to the blast zone finally meet up. Each one looking at the other questioning what the hell the best course of action is. From their position they probably have a better idea of what this pearl marking looks close up, and how it might be affecting the surroundings. That said... One of them immediately nudges the other closer to the border. "One of us should go on that side, while the other gets ready to 'eject' him..." As if like clockwork the third Touta already starts looking for really sharp rubble. Something that he's just casually tossing into the air once he finds it. Like he's about to skip a stone. Except it'll be aiming for someone's head... "You do remember just cause we can die, doesn't mean it's fun, right?" "Look, we already told Hibiki to mark something, so it should it should be fine, and if not...Ejection..." There's a lamenting resignation, before the 'volunteered' Touta begins examining the pearl markings more in depth, at first simply attempting to touch at the perimeter of them, and from there...Step within that perimeter as he'd attempt to explore the area if possible.
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki, still leaning out the doorway with a frown on her face as she gets Touta's comment over the radio, takes this explanation without the frown on her face leaving. "What? Did they use some /other/ kind of weapon? ...It's already been a few days, and you think whatever it is it's even more dangerous than these death machines running around?" Was that not bad enough already? How much further could they go than doing all of this-- She takes in the warning, then turns to walk back into the furniture store. Her jacket is slid off of her shoulders and offered down to the woman. "...Something might be in the air, so use this to cover up your mouth if anything at all feels off. We're going to get you out of here soon." 'Soon' being the operative word. Hibiki pulls up her radio. "Touta. That pen's ink is for you to get back here, right? So you can show back up if there's any trouble in an instant." With that apparently as justification, she unclips the radio and also sets that down, speaking to the other girl. "And if anything at all happens, just call over this. I'll be right back, promise." And she's sprinting out the door again, an echoing chant and a flash of light bringing her Symphogear back into existence around her - the invisible ablative barrier around her body plus the overwhelmingly large scarf should be plenty enough protection the way Touta had described things. Although even if not... She'll be damned if she's going to let him take all the risk, or try to get anyone out of here without understanding exactly what they're dealing with. How far the Titanomachia will really go with this. So she takes one massive leap to reach rooftop level herself followed by several smaller hops afterwards, closing in on where those zones of glittering substance lie.
Petra Soroka	Something in the air? The woman isn't in any state, emotional or physical, to question her rescuers, but if there's something in the air, she's probably been breathing it in for days. She numbly nods at Hibiki, taking the jacket and wrapping it around herself like a blanket, sleeve over her mouth. One of the Toutas and Hibiki move towards the shimmering remnants of whatever that new weapon did, and as soon as they crystallize the intent to move towards, a subconscious sense of deep-rooted discomfort snaps into focus in your mind, hazily beneath the surface this entire time. Nothing around you looks like it changes, but you start to feel acutely aware of the way your tongue rests in your mouth and crawls down your throat. Each step closer feels more desynced from your mental command, one foot moving later than you envision it to, and the next already on the ground by the time you mentally catch up. The creeping sense of discordant self-awareness still feels sourceless, and ignorable, though it grows the further you move forwards. Despite the building discomfort, clearly radiating out from the pearlescent blast zones, it feels wrong to stop-- no, it feels wrong to go forwards, but guiltily, obsessively wrong, like you're relapsing into an addiction, drawn into a toxic gravity well. Your eyes are drawn towards it, rolling wet in their sockets, your feet take steps to climb over a mound of rubble, neural impulses to command them tingling down your body in tangible, real time. The city is silent, like standing in the middle of an empty highway at midnight, and the clattering of wood debris is distant in your ears. Cresting over the top, you see the unbroken ruins clearly. Spread out in a perfect disc across the ground, separate from the war-torn violence of the rest of the city, is a radius of civilization that's entirely untouched, or touched in such a deep and violatory way that eyes can't see it. The buildings are whole. The road is smooth. Each and every blade of grass is preserved. Every inch of surface glitters iridescent, sharp in the sunlight, layered with a thin sheen of alien pearl. Stepping in-- because you have to, you want to, even though it's wrong; you want it because it's wrong, wanting itself is wrong, but at least feeling wrong is feeling fucking something-- the grass is unyieldingly sharp, cutting razor traces through boots at the briefest touch. The air prickles against your skin like fiberglass, a trillion tiny particles leaving a trillion tiny scars. Body bleeds into environment, environment bleeds into body, existence demands homeostasis and being so fucking hollow means that the 'self' dilutes like a drop in the ocean. Light gleams off the atom-thin laminate coating of crystal, and it's all you see. Light gleams off the atom-thin laminate coating of skin, and it's all anyone sees. Your organs are layers of tissue coated in slime, suspended in gel. They pulse and throb and pump without your will to guide them. The mind doesn't act on the body. A billion steps of chemical and biological translation cobble together to form a parody of selfhood, and in the disc of painted glass, you're aware of all of them, the movements of your body-- the movements of a body, a ballistic doll with your face-- viewed as if in third person. Isn't it beautiful that something as real as a mind is tied to something as fake as a body? Blink, and they can both disappear.
Petra Soroka	Touta and Hibiki haven't moved any further in to the epicenter of the blast. Once inside, it feels clear that there's no intent, no conscious mind, behind the magnetism. The effect simply is, as a feeling imprinted on the world strongly enough to leave residue. Looking around, there's not a single sign of life within the radius. Nothing's been disturbed, at least not by a point-blank explosion, but every house is motionless and vacant, as if the people inside were erased from existence. When they try to talk, their voices sound hollow and distant. Words wither away into meaninglessness when scrutinized, because is this really the kind of thing you can talk authoritatively about?
Touta Konoe	"Hey, hey guys! Oi!" One of the Touta at the sight call out to those that breached into that pearl zone. Clicking his teeth he turns to the one holding the rubble. "Something's wrong. Eject him--" "Forget us for second, grab Hibiki!" "If we grab her we might stop like them...I got an idea..." It's difficult to say if his gamble would succeed, though it seemed that it at least had taken time before the two had just halted into the distance within the pearl zone. The free Touta takes the rubble that the other was holding and cuts into his palm. Blood stains it as he proceeds to juggle it in his hand a few times for good measure before ultimately lobbing the stone beside Hibiki. "Check her out then, then eject." A nod follows, realizing what's about to happen. The one that throws to stone returns a nod in kind before slowly he turns to dust in the wind. His idea was simple...Rather than step in as a fully cognitive body, he'd form up from blood within it and knock Hibiki out before whatever effects take hold. It's an idea that seemed reasonable on paper. No immediate mind, no immediate mind to become frothy. And for an instant there's a brief flash of Touta reappearing as he just lobs Hibiki the distance towards the Touta on the other distance. It's the only thing on his mind at that moment. And well...He's likely to succeed. It's just...The moment afterwards, he can't seem to think of rebalancing himself after his throw. Because, there's something else on his mind...Or lack of it. It really was beautiful. Life, I mean. Think about it, Touta had just formed a full body out of blood. An accumulation of cells slowly building into a whole entity. Though here in this Pearl world, he couldn't help but slowly find himself feeling as if the opposite was happening. There's always the sensation of knowing. How his heart always kept rhythm, but at the same time...Just how interesting he didn't need it to. The automatic habit of breathing...There's a feeling of just so much more intimate control of it. He could stop it at any time he wanted to. Though, what was really magical... Touta could form himself back from the tiniest cell...But... Now, it felt like he could go in reverse. Rather than build a form, it wasn't incredible that he could break himself down. He could feel as the dead cells of skin slowly eroded away, each one as if it was just a tiny part of himself that he was relieving. Making himself whole. Making himself...Singular. Erosion of the organs and muscles following. It was almost soothing to feel his brain feel like it was assembling. Worries about being a tourist? A parasite? It all was as if it was being shed in excess. Continuing on and on. Nerves, tissues, bones. All until it was just him...Touta...Touta the single-cell. The building block of life. It only made sense that this...This is what it meant to be real. To be free of distractions. To be truly by yourself. It was perfect "Hibiki...Hibiki?! Wake up!" Meanwhile, the last Touta there can be seen gently nudging the Symphogear user. Trying to break her from her stupor. All the while as he looks back into the Pearl World, is two Toutas. One simply standing on his feet...The other having simply fallen to the floor face first after his act. Still, he can't focus on that now. He can only focus on her.
Touta Konoe	"Hibiki, please! You gotta wake up! Can you hear me?! You have to get up! Please! /Please/! You gotta make things right? You said so, remember?! Come on! Damn it! Listen to me! Shinji said it best! You gotta make it back home! You got a job to do! You got school! You can't just zone out on all that! What about SONG? What about everyone who's waiting for you back home?! What about Miku?! She's waiting for you, yeah?! She's waiting so all of us can go to the Tower together, remember?! Hibiki...Please...Please say something!!!" There's a genuine look of fear and panic on Touta's face. He's died hundreds of times but this...This is what scares him. So much so that the one upon the rooftop leaves the perch to go towards the danger. The two called out her name in a discourse. This is what pains him when all is proved incapable. Their mind flashes images of /her/. That person as she left. How in her final moments in a selfish manner, she ended up leaving without taking those left behind would feel. "HIBIKIIIIIIIII!!!!" "HIBIKIIIIIIIII!!!! Get up!" "You gotta get up!" "GET UP GET UP GET UP!" "Snap out of it!"
Hibiki Tachibana	Discomfort. The kind of discomfort that's been roiling inside of her to varying degrees all this time...? ...No, it's different from that, taking a step forward when first laying sight on that sheening, unnaturally reflective material. It's much more immediately visceral, the combination of body lagging behind mind stacked next to dawning hyperawareness within. One boot moves in front of the other, as they always do, but it doesn't feel real. Or maybe it feels too real. There's no way of properly processing the sensation in a way that words or even thought could adequately describe. Not in the middle of this duality of feeling, experiencing, understanding these countless and endless tiny interactions and reactions even while this haze blends everything together. This is the way it is, in detail that would be sickening if the stomach dropping because of it wasn't something felt as if it were impossibly far away. A pressure from all imaginable angles that dulls the ability to tie mind to body. Even the heart once embedded with shrapnel is simultaneously distant and alien, even when she's so acutely aware of every single beat echoing out and reverberating. What are the emotions racing through it right now...? That's where they all come from, don't they? Not the soul, not the mind, her 'heart'. So why is it so hard to grasp onto? Does she have to? Is that conglomerate mass that operates on its own what she is, or is it the 'her' regarding all of this in a fugue? It's not beautiful at all. And I'm not going to blink. I can't I can't cantcantwontwillnotimnot going to get lost in this ocean when I still-- ... All at once, Hibiki's eyes jolt open, and she scrambles from her side and onto her hands and knees with wide eyes and breath coming a little too fast to be healthy. "I-I hear you, I hear you already! You're seriously way too loud, you know that!? I feel like my eardrums are gonna shatter! Gimme a break!" A storm of rough-sounding complaints come out almost automatically, but there's not actually any bite behind them, and the look on her face doesn't match either. Her focus is still on the ground the whole time, fingers scrunching in to collect rough rubble between them as she turns her head back up to scan over the immediate radius. There's nothing but silence. "No one in there...would still be..." Hibiki trails off, voice sinking down low. "How could they use something like..." A few breaths pass. "...W-We need to...to save anyone else...who still can be. And...Touta...tell me, why the hell am I /not/ saying a word about this...?"