Chevaleresse

"Would it be possible for us to stop assaulting one another for a bit? I mean, I'm sure I could spin it into a good story, but maybe don't give me material to write a tragedy with." E14 and dance Shin after he moves

I will probably make a dude for this eventually, assuming inspiration hits

Brigitte let out a decidedly non-angelic-sounding expletive and raised her sword as if to strike - but paused briefly with it over her head. A burst of flame flew forth from around her, outlining her as if she were in direct sunlight for a moment, and just as quickly as it appeared, gathered itself about her sword. Her other hand came up to the weapon, and then she slammed it downwards towards the arm, the steel arcing toward the limb wreathed in holy flame.

Nemesis frowned beneath their mask. Tohl Ashman. Well, if he was here, and hostile, then he would die like the rest. Nemesis snapped off another trio of shots, already in motion and ducking behind a wall. As soon as the third bullet left the barrel, they were reloading the weapon with mechanical precision - only to return it to its holster. Nemesis took the opportunity to get something with a bit more power ready; the bolt action rifle went from a back sling to their hands as the torrent of machine gun fire sounded from just down the hall. The cramped halls of a train weren't the greatest place for the weapon, but it was also the best way to remove someone sturdy from combat, and it might even penetrate the walls of the train if his luck held out.

BGM Marisa fires off another set of danmaku, They swirl outwards, seemingly starting to miss the party. . . but then they spiral back in, colliding with everyone in the group in a brilliant and deadly light show! Isobel weaves around one of the bursts, but can't quite shake the other as it strikes for [6] damage. Empi takes it like she takes many other things, suffering 12 damage in the process. Masako also can't quite navigate the starfield of magic, taking another [12] damage. Rory takes both hits as well, but unlike the others, Hikari's defensive enchantment allows him to ignore it entirely (though the starstuff still seems to cling.) Lambda isn't able to block for Walmond, and thus she takes [13] damage worth of stars colliding. Lambda herself hits two on her way over, taking [13] damage despite her defensive procedures. Ritsu intercepts the shots meant for Hikari once more, shrugging them off as well as the ones meant for her. Isobel quickly mashes a healing poppy into the now-apparently-human Lambda's face, healing her for [18] HP. LOTUS, meanwhile, does her best to communicate Marisa's weaknesses to the team. Empi teaches Lambda a bit about how to flirt, with the former android seemingly giving her a curious glance before going back to her focus. Both of them gain 19% damage reduction. Rory finally manages to close and . . . whiff entirely, Marisa laughing as she loops around her. Marisa sends out another burst of danmaku! The halo of light around her grows ever more intense . . . but the zone of darkness right atop her seemed to do the same, her form barely visible save for her ominously glowing eyes and the outline of the strange artifact she held. Isobel takes another [6] damage, Empi takes [5], and Rory once more shrugs the hit off. The rest of the danmaku seems to fly off, missing those not moving as quickly. Masako watches how Marisa dodges Rory carefully, then strikes with her own calculateed burst of danmaku, dealing [21] damage. Hikari casts another enchantment, this one binding itself to Ritsu's weaponry. Walmond lets yet another pulse of healing out onto the battlefield as a counter to the sinister influence of Marisa's own magic, allowing herself, Lambda, Empi, Rory, and Masako to recover [16] HP. Yet another wave of stars appears on the edges of the clearing and spins inward, entrapping and striking the party with stellar sorcery. Isobel and Walmond take [6] damage, while Masako manages to evade it. Ritsu takes the hit meant for Hikari once more, and Rory essentially ignores it entirely. Lambda take [3] damage, and Empi takes [5]. Ritsu reconfigures her shields and extends them to ward Empi and Isobel from hostile magic. Initiative Status

D4 and hunt for shinies

Scarlet shrugged and slid the folder into her bag. The research here was probably worth something, and better it be her that got ahold of it than the pirate or the "goddess." It seemed the group had moved in behind her, after all. "So you also voluntarily worked without any leisure time? Hell of a job," she commented dryly, starting to move forward before pausing for a moment. "Hey, kid. Akihiro? Those papers have anything to do with the ones in here?" She gestured to her bag as she spoke. It was part curiosity, part a test; if he did what he said he could do, he could read them right there.

Spook wandered into the room, rather glad he hadn't moved in before the music number ended. "Are you sure that's actually a zombie? Usually they're not the type to pat themselves like they lost their wallet."

Lucine was starting to look uncomfortable again. All this talk of monsters and humans was reminding her once more of where she stood. Not a monster, not a human, but something else. She'd almost asked Nader about it earlier, but now seemed to be a bad time, and she didn't want to do so with this many people around. "Maybe we should just keep going," she commented quietly.

"Oh god. . ." Kusuke groaned as he sat up, ". . . what the fuck?" His bleariness and disorientation turned into a flash of horror, and he stood up quickly before realizing that he was still in the same day. That was good, at least. He didn't seem to be missing anything more out of his head, either, but something was definitely very wrong here. "Ugh. . ." He turned to the two men, who had evidently not thought it was strange for him to have been sleeping back there to hours. "I don't suppose either of you have seen a greasy-looking man with green hair in a suit, or a guy in an opera mask, have you?"

Well, that was unexpected. She might have stirred that pot a bit more, but this wasn't the situation for it. She lifted her hand from where it'd darted to her belt; Justine was really missing her sword right now. This wouldn't have been the first time she'd gotten into a duel over a woman's honor. Were they honestly taking this guy with them? Talent at slinging spells be damned, if that much of a quip was enough to rile him that badly, he wasn't someone she wanted to work with. The dancer, once the startled expression wore off, simply shook her head and continued to move with the rest of the group.

Justine squinted at Crimson for a moment. "You remind me of someone. . . Did I kiss the girl you were dancing with at a ball once?" E18 Dance Baldur

"Well, that was annoying," Spook commented as he left the closet, and turned to see. . . whatever it was that was going on in the other room. From the shouting, it sounded as if they'd found another zombie (which fortunately didn't seem to be of the particularly quick or durable variety so far) and Poncio was. . . doing . . . something. Had the man ever actually held a sword before? They weren't exactly Spook's weapon of choice, but she at least knew that you probably didn't post like that. "Actors. Pf." Head into the other room.

Lucine glanced up at Nader with a quizzical look on their face. "But that doesn't make sense. Wouldn't they be trying to lure us into a false sense of security or something?" She started to move forward while making sure she remained near Nader. "Or, what if it's not a trap? Maybe they're worried about people seeing all that stuff and getting the wrong idea." She sounded hopeful as she spoke. As much as she enjoyed messing about with devices like the one in her hand, the prospect of actually using them on anything smart enough to set up a holographic display was less appealing, for a number of reasons.

Alwine swung her hatchet in broad arcs and tossed one at an enemy mage as their magic washed over her, grinning like a maniac the entire time. "Is that the best you can do? Bring it on! I LIVE for this!" She shouted another wordless battlecry as one enemy soldier leapt backward out of the way of her attack, then hurled the weapon into a mage that dared to throw a fireball in her direction. She simply took the opportunity to pull her warhammer from her belt. She aimed a mighty overhand blow at one of her rival, lesser knights. HAMMER DOWN Knight A (and also Guard whoever ends up adjacent to me)

Kusuke nodded. "I've been thinking of that." The prospect made him slightly anxious; if something was interfering with his drive, the wrong move could potentially tear chunks out of his soul. He wasn't sure if the thought of that was worse than the one that followed: the only one who might be able to patch such a rent would be Arminius. His musings were briefly interrupted by one of the men erupting in laughter. The vigilante hadn't been paying that much attention, but he was fairly certain that whatever had been said wasn't that funny. Listening to the two men talk seemed to be an exercise in frustration, too; it seemed their entire purpose in life was simply waiting for this Godot, with doing anything else (including reacting to his arrival) being incomprehensible. Great, MORE lunatics. "Here, stand back for a moment." He moved away from Satomi slightly, then proceeded to attempt to do two things with his power. The first was simply slipping three feet to the left through space; after that, he'd try to jump two seconds backward.

Storm Sign the Red and Green Imps for 1d4+14+16 damage.

"But you were still here." She sat on the throne for a couple additional moments, wiggling about and trying to find a comfortable position. The girl sneezed at the dust this kicked up, and after her failure to locate a good spot to sit (and the throne's novelty fairly quickly fading) she slid forward off of it. "If I was the princess, I would have a comfier throne," she declared to nobody in particular before glancing back toward Nader. Lucine patted the dust off of her clothes as she spoke. "Besides, I didn't see any traps, and I can see magic." Still, she moved closer to the armored man, once again taking up a spot behind him. "So where are we going now?" Her demeanor became much as it had been previously, as the distraction faded from her mind and she remembered why they were here. "We still have to find that kid."

I8, hatchet soldier, canto to H5

Lucine wasn't sure what she'd expected to happen when she revealed the throne. She puffed out her cheeks and blew at the dust on the thing, then when that didn't make a sufficient dent, used the cloth that had been covering it to wipe at the seat. After a brief hesitation that ended in a mental shrug, she climbed up and sat on the thing. If nothing else, she could pretend to be Queen of the Underworld - or whatever this was. Queen Under the Mountain? No, that was . . . dwarves, right? It didn't matter, she was still Queen.

Gwyn took flight on Gaheris, the scintillating green wyvern striking an unusual profile against the morning skies. The creature sported streamlined purple markings along its body not dissimilar to the ones his rider possessed, and they almost seemed to make his scales ripple as translucent wings carried him skyward. "Watch out, bad guys! I'm the strongest around, so you'd better start running away!" Gaheris, playing along for once, let loose a startlingly loud bellow. Simultaneously with this, Gwyn hurled a hatchet towards one of the enemy soldiers; the man flinched at the noise, and then nearly toppled over as the axe slammed into him while he was distracted. "Take that, evildoer!" Gwyn laughed as Gaheris pulled into the air, wings almost invisible against the sky.

"Well, that has to be the first good sign this week," Scarlet grumbled to herself. Nobody else seemed to have actually made their way forward yet, and she wasn't sure if that made her more or less comfortable. At least Stella was volunteering to be mutant chow first. The mercenary kept her weapon ready as she entered the room, methodically checking every hiding place that she could think of for unwelcome guests and/or objects to relieve her stress on. The books probably weren't of much interest, but the box might have valuables in it, and the folder might contain useful information. Scarlet (after poking about below the desk on the off chance there was something to bite her under it) pocketed the note, then flipped through the papers in the folder, skimming them for objects of interest.

Hiroki simply nodded and held her arms out toward Edmond, equally awkwardly grabbing ahold of him to make it easier for her to be moved. She did her best to avoid picturing how ridiculous and embarrassing this was in her head, simultaneously glad to have the group to work with (as she hadn't been keen on jumping the gap herself) and wishing it was only her and someone like Blink here instead.

Spook attempts to brain the zombie for real this time, using his [Enhanced Physique].

Hiroki was feeling out of the loop. A lot of names were being thrown around that she didn't recognize - and there were more powerful people scattered around the plane than she'd previously imagined. The gods were starting to make this sound like a lost cause, and she wasn't sure whether to agree with them or not. They could probably win a protracted fight given sheer force of numbers (even if Aries - No, Cardinal - was pulling new allies out of the woodwork,) but that also sounded like it would give the opposing side more time to do whatever it was they were planning. "Who are, um, Artemis and the Councilor?" Artemis was apparently somewhat like Watcher, at least in regard to not interacting with the gods too much. "Is, um, the Councilor the one who. . . um, the reason I'm here?" She frowned for a moment. If he was, wouldn't that mean he couldn't participate in the battle? Since he would be the ruler of Envy, unless that didn't make him count as a god. "And, um. . . If he took over, um, Envy, how can he fight in the duels?"