Chevaleresse

I'm probably game, though I still have to watch Nanoha.

Seeing the others move towards the strange Pokemon that seemed to be responsible for the unnatural fires surrounding the boat, Yuuki took the opportunity to prepare for the unknown opponent. "Janah, use Swords Dance before you press forward to engage, and be on your guard." The Gallade gave his trainer a brief look - he wasn't expected to be at his finest at all times? - and then nodded before performing the ritualistic dance, raising his offensive potential even further.

Lancer Noriko headed in the direction they had came from, taking the rooftops until they were a fair distance away from the plant and then dropping to ground level, using a small bit of power to slow her fall. Any magus watching could see her deft, talented control of wind magic; it was clear she was an expert in this area. Along the way, she spoke over her shoulder to her Master while the street was empty. "By the way, refer to me as Lancer at all times. The less our enemies know about me, the better."

Everyone, post here once your masters have settled for the night, and update your positions on the map. That way we can know exactly when to move to day 2. By the way, since we don't have a set standard for these servants, I'll just say that the more powerful servants will be more well-known, there will be more literature concerning them, and their identities will be generally easier to guess. For example, Noriko's tale should be fairly widespread, and stories about the ANKL goddesses will be almost universally known to some degree. In the future, I'll probably PM servant assignments to Masters, though with Servant data in the public eye (for a few purposes) it will still be somewhat difficult to avoid metagaming.

Probably Katawa Shoujo.

Lancer The young woman nodded. "Don't worry about doing what you must to survive. Not everyone has the privilege of money or the connections to get what they need." She took the bag and moved to gather the same sorts of materials that Janus had. As she had stated already, this wasn't her area of expertise; direct combat was her strong suit. After doing so, she walked toward where they had come in. "We need to get moving, though. Wasting time helps nobody."

Seyr reacted immediately by fleeing to the side, shifting forms even as he ran. The human youth was replaced with a fully grown - if still a bit lanky - silver wyvern, who flapped his powerful wings twice before taking off fully. He almost collided with one of the buildings on his way up before starting to circle around the terrifying creature, drawing the primal lightning out from within his gut and readying it.

Siegfried Externally, the man showed no response to the sight laid before him, but his stomach was writhing. He turned to leave, which had the convenient effect of removing the corpse from his sight. "Come with me. If we're to find them, I must make more preparations." He took quick strides back out of the room and down the stairs. It would be a long walk back to his temporary home. When he arrived, he headed quickly to bed. He needed to rest and recover after today. He knew the beast wouldn't try to kill him yet - it seemed to have some shred of reason remaining in its body - but sleep was long in coming, and fitful. Lancer The girl materialized next to Janus. "I'll help carry them. That way we can ensure we have sufficient supplies." She looked around at the place. She didn't like stealing from factories and such; often it was the only jobs some of the poorer people in the city could get. However, she had sanctioned it when necessary; their cause was often more important, after all.

A rolling series of explosions sounded from a fair distance across the field as a dark shadow flew over it, sending blasts of destructive energy to the ground below. The targets exploded into bits as they were struck with pulses of draconic energy or bathed in raging flames. There were several rows of them, and each was destroyed in turn as the large Hydreigon exerted his power. After the runs, he came to a skidding halt in a sort of makeshift runway. "Whoo! Nothing like blowing things up." The exercise kept the already powerful dragon in peak physical condition, which clearly showed on his muscular frame. He walked over to a spot in the shade to rest for a moment, showing no sign of being encumbered by the thick plating on her chest.

To answer the question OOC: no, servants don't need sleep or food, but both help in accruing and maintaining mana. (Sleep doesn't help as much as changing to spirit form, though.)

Siegfried The man entered the room only to watch his target flicker out of sight. He merely shook his head in disappointment. Even if they had moved near his base, he wouldn't be able to retrieve the information by the time he returned to his network. Worse, they now knew they were being hunted, and he had gained no knowledge about the opposing Servant's capabilities. "I don't suppose you feel like sharing what happened, or explaining why you killed. . . whoever this was." He asked the almost sarcastic question with a gesture at the ruined corpse. It didn't bother him; he had seen death before and would likely cause it himself in the future. ((Once everyone returns to their home base at night, (don't worry about where you are currently), we'll try to move to day 2 and sync up times.))

Lancer "I can do that," Noriko stated simply from her spiritual form. It was difficult to read her true thoughts on Janus's actions from the message, even more so due to lacking any sort of body language to clue the magus in. She didn't have an issue with him stealing, truly, though she would have preferred a more covert approach. There was no need to put oneself or civilians at risk to ensure you had a full meal for the day, or to patch up a dusty warehouse. . . Siegfried The green lightning clearly indicated Berserker's location. He picked up his pace, entering the building without too much issue and ascending the stairs as quickly as he could manage. The smell of blood quickly reached his nostrils as he moved. His brow furrowed. That is not a good sign. Either he has killed the Master, which is regrettable but works out in the end, or some hapless innocent ran across the beast. He felt more tired than the climb should really have made him. Ashnard saps my energy with every motion. I'll have to be more careful in the future, or I'll be dead before my foe sees me. Reaching the seventh floor, he saw the trail of blood, and ran forward towards it. An eerie green glow emanated from the doorway.

Yeah, what everyone else said. Command Seals carry a LOT of mana, and are capable of some pretty stellar feats.

Siegfried The automobile screeched to a halt as the magus inside slammed on the brakes, nearly losing control of the vehicle. He stumbled out of the side of the vehicle, almost falling over as the mental assault reached him. It took a few moments of him leaning against the side of the vehicle, focusing his mind and running energy through his Magic Circuits, to regain the ability to move about. The cacophony still assaulted his senses, but Siegfried composed himself enough to function inside it. An illusionist, and a talented one. Berserker's presence seemed to be moving about with purpose, so he continued forward on foot toward him. It would be difficult to pick out any other magecraft when surrounded by this field, but the size meant that it would likely be hard for the average magus to maintain for too long, especially given a preparation that must have been hurried - unless it was set in place beforehand and only activated now. Lancer "I would join you, but I don't have a physical body to maintain. I'll follow you in spirit form." With that, her form seemed to dissolve into a bluish, glimmering dust, and then that disappeared. Her Master could still sense her presence behind him, but she was invisible to the naked eye.

Lancer The girl gestured in a generally forward direction. "Lead the way. I don't know this area, though give me a day or two and I could draw you a map. I plan on scouting out this place soon, when this place has some basic protections ready." She didn't comment on his first statement, though it resonated with her. Perhaps not as inexperienced as I believed at first. We should get along well. ((Switching to class tags personally, up to everyone else if they want to.))

Noriko Lancer shook her head. "That's not exactly my area of expertise. I'm not Caster. You're going to have to do the setup yourself, and I'll either stay with you to make sure one of the other Masters doesn't jump you, or scout if you feel confident enough in your ability to remain undetected." She eyed the man in front of her again. "I hope you're taking this seriously. This is life and death, not a friendly sparring match."

Can I ask everyone to update their character's positions as they move? I don't need precision, just a general idea of where you are. (Should probably get some sort of distance scaling on the map too. . . I'll talk to Lexi tomorrow.)

This is still alive, btw, just sort of on hiatus as we wait for Jory and Stratos to return, since both have been busy with life.

Probably one of a few tall office buildings in the commercial district, near the center.

Noriko The girl nodded once. "This place should suffice, given that we patch it up." Her entire body shined white momentarily, though it was nothing compared to the flash that accompanied her summoning. Afterward, she was firmly on the ground, with spears nowhere to be seen. Her outfit was replaced by an almost jarringly normal one consisting of a pair of slightly worn jeans and a blue tee that matched her hair, which was now cropped fairly short. She remained barefoot, however. "You're going to want to make sure this place is built solidly enough that you can set up magical fortifications without losing too much mana to the environment - as you should know. As is, this place is only good for avoiding notice, which won't last forever."

Siegfried The man sped through the streets in his stolen vehicle as fast as he was able to make it go without slamming into the rest of traffic. He could sense Ashnard's presence moving through the streets. It had slowed down - or at least, it seemed to, since he was gaining on it - which meant Berserker had either run into some sort of obstacle (unlikely) or located their targets. It was too late to cover up the damage he had caused, but at the very least he didn't seem to be on an unstoppable rampage through the city. Absolute commands. . . I wonder if it is worth using any other than the one I intend to once this is over. Whoever the Master was (unless it was some hapless mage caught up by accident,) they could likely hear him roaring down the road in the distance. Noriko "To answer your questions in order: yes, these are mine; the spears are created by my magic." She paused for a moment to have one briefly fade from existence and reappear behind her. "I am, indeed, preparing for a Holy Grail War, and my name is Noriko." She looked him up and down. "You seem competent enough, if a bit wet behind the ears." The statement might have seemed odd coming from a person who appeared to be in her late teens. "I'm going to assume you don't understand what you've gotten yourself into, Janus, so I will explain." "The Holy Grail has selected you to fight in a Grail War, evidenced by the red tattoos that have appeared somewhere on you and the fact that I am now standing here speaking with you. We will fight until all other Servants -beings such as myself- have been destroyed. The victors receive a wish from the Grail." Noriko continued into the next topic without her voice changing appreciably or even missing a beat. "Now, the first step toward winning this war is creating and securing a home base." She looked around at her surroundings, scanning for evidence of any sort of bounded field or magical safeguard.

The first thing that could be heard was the wind. It was a nearly constant, unchanging sound, and loud, as if one was in a storm. The sky was a dull gray. There might have been clouds, as there was a certain variation to it, unlike the howling gale. All that could be seen was this blank grayness, until you realized you were laying down. It feels uncomfortable to lay where you are, but at the same time something seems to sap your motivation to move. You mentally shook whatever it was off, and sat up. What lay before you was a dismal, yet oddly tranquil scene. Endless rolling dunes of a sort of black sand, almost the color of iron. The sound of it shifting over itself occasionally added variation to the wind, a faint sound almost like hissing. You sat, for a while, listening to the world, or wherever it was. Eventually, footsteps crunching over the hill sound from behind you. A man sat next to you. You thought he had dark hair and pale skin, and he was clean-shaven. He seemed. . . tired, or resigned. Defeated, maybe. His clothes seemed a bit out of place; a suit, unbuttoned to reveal a plain white undershirt, and darker than the sand; but then, nothing really seemed to belong anyway. You looked at him for a moment before turning your gaze in the direction it had been facing previously. There was nothing else to look at; the landscape was unchanged regardless of where you looked, unless it was up and down. Eventually - it was hard to tell time- he sighed. "It's come to this, hasn't it." You thought his voice was a bit deeper than average, but it suited him well. You asked him what the place was. "The end," he replied simply. He remained silent until you spoke to him again. What did that mean? The end to what? "The end. Everything. This is the last place. Nothing after this, sorry to disappoint." The last place? He didn't respond for another period of time. Sighing again, he stood up heavily and started to walk away. You felt like you were being abandoned, like he had been with you for a very long time and now he was leaving. You asked where he was going, hints of desperation starting to enter your voice. He ignored your question, but he did say one last thing over his shoulder. "Try again, one more time. You don't need me anymore. I wasn't strong enough, but you can probably do it this time." You stood up by this point, but you didn't follow. He raised one arm and almost lazily waved a farewell as he walked away. The sand was making it harder and harder to see him as the distance between you grew, but you saw him fade. The wind seemed to catch him, and his form disintegrated, blown into the same sand even as what remained of him continued that casual walk into the distance.