Twinwolf

"I don't know what the Wilds are, but from the sound of it... we probably shouldn't go through it if we don't have to. Puzzle, I guess..." Victoria says, examining the cube. She was never the greatest of puzzle solvers, and if the circumstances were different she may pick the wilderness, but she felt the weight in her pouch. She felt she'd best avoid combat if she could. She also just realized she'd not introduced herself to anyone, after Prei did so. "Victoria Denton." she said as a way of introduction. "Pretty much the same deal as Prei on further introductions."

Victoria had been a bit surprised when she had suddenly appeared in fire and brimstone hell, but considering what had happened only hours ago not as surprised as one might expect. She recovered quick enough, and took stock of the situation. Location: Probably not actually hell. Assistance: The team, although there seem to be tensions already. Looking at the man with the gun she was already uncomfortable - she'd met enough over-zealous bible thumpers, and he seemed the type. She hoped he wouldn't be an actual issue and just kept it to dirty looks and conspicuous gun-cocking. As for the mission itself, she figured best ask her questions now. "When you're done with that, I'm going to have to repeat the man's questions." she says. One from an Earth-like world might be able to pinpoint her accent as an urban-British type. Perhaps London. "I don't know about the others but I don't think I was briefed on what precisely we'll be doing."

Hikari - who had gone along when Lexiel asked, having just finished up the round of Keijo training - listens quietly. She doesn't have many questions that hadn't been asked, so she just listens. She'd never been to Rio, but was pretty sure her world's version wasn't quite as described. She wondered if she'd see that big statue of some religious figure. One of her friends was pretty devoutly Christian, she'd probably kill for the chance - she'd have to take a picture, after the job. Hikari. Focus. Ivory said in her mind, and she shoved the tourist-y thoughts out of her head. A question pops into her head after Sachi asks. "Speaking of that, what does she look like? It would probably be helpful to know that so we can confirm it's her. Also, maybe give us some proof to show her that we're with you guys? If we just break in and get to her cell, she has no way of knowing we aren't actually Talon agents trying to kidnap her for some reason and might not cooperate."

Ciri takes a deep breath - alright, this was going well. "Good job! Keep it up!" she calls to her companion, before advancing on the nearer monster and repeating the assault.

Overwatch goes up to 6 iirc, and has 3.

Kagari snorted. Mere children, all of them. She turned her attention to more important matters - namely, Hikari's butt. "No, no, no. Your circles are going wide. They're also too inconsistent. Here, more like this." Without warning, Kagari reached out and grabbed Hikari's butt, then guided it along the correct path of rotation. It's training, it's training, it's training... Hikari thinks as Kagari corrects her "figure-eight". Ivory is watching the training with interest, from directly behind the two. "Perhaps I can learn a proper way to follow up on such attacks, if Hikari learns this. Given your enthusiasm, I imagine she will not be the only one you attempt to teach." she says. She walks in a slow circle, inspecting the technique.

Visrii, probably remembering Hikari's extensive use of magic, finds her and Kagari in the training room. Hikari is blushing for some reason. When he asks his question, Hikari is quick to agree. "If it'll help the team, sure. Kagari, be right back!" she says to the less-mini Kagari, the one not on her head, as she goes to help. Visrii, when having her there as an aid to his attunement, finds that she has a significant amount of magical power in her. After it's done, she rushes back to the training room. "What was the thing... 'butt figure-eights?' I'll try..." she says, finding a part of the room and trying to mimic what the two Kagaris had shown her outside. She's... not great at it. But that's to be expected from someone who didn't even know Keijo was a thing until ten minutes ago, let alone has ever practiced. Helping Visrii.

Victoria wanders into the engine bay. She'd heard this castle was also a tank, but was more than a little skeptical. Who's ever heard of a castle moving at all, let alone between worlds? But then, on the other hand... who's ever heard of reality eating monstrosities, or a real life magical girl, or eldritch abomination that takes the shape of a swarm of tiny dolls with knives... God that had been a weird Witch. Victoria shuddered at the memory. Victoria was... somewhat shocked when she saw that yes, the castle had engines. It was a tank. As impressive as that was... Victoria had to wonder why somebody needed a castle sized tank. That just seemed unnecessarily opulent and a drain on resources. But then, if they had the resources to build this, Victoria guessed they had money to waste.

Hikari and the mini-Kagaris wander into the barracks. "There should be a training room or something around here... right?" Hikari says. Eventually, they find a decent-sized room, clearly intended for sparring but not bad for the pair (or trio? Do the mini-Kagaris count as a single person or two?)'s intentions.

Hikari doesn't seem to mind the mini-kagari on her head (hardly that heavy, after all) as she and the small-but-not-mini Kagari look for a room to practice in. They probably find one soon enough - it's a big castle, can't be that hard to find a decent-sized empty room.

"I just got here. I didn't here anyone call anybody Cinna, though." the young woman answers. She rubs the back of her head. "Your job?"

Victoria wanders outside the castle tank, running into Empi by accident. "...So, I take it you're just as confused about all this as I am?"

Hikari frowns. "Shouldn't we go inside first? Since we could get moving at any time."

I cannot believe I am actually considering this. But... it'll help her trust me... Hikari thinks. She takes a deep breath, and then speaks, still blushing. "I-I guess... it seems like it's good physical training anyway, which I guess I'll need more than I already did. And besides, it c-can't be that much different than practicing for a show..." She says, fidgeting a bit in place.

Kagari shook her head, dismayed. "Keijo is the greatest sport, ever! Basically, it's a bit like sumo wrestling, if sumo wrestling were a girls-only sport, took place on a ring that was suspended in the middle of the pool, and had only our butts and boobs as a point of contact. You do have sumo wrestling, right?" Sumo was such a quintessentially Japanese thing that Kagari just assumed that Hikari's world had it. After all, if it had Japanese names, it almost certainly had sumo wrestling. "Outfighter and Counter are classifications for Keijo competitors. Outfighters move quickly and rely on agility to win, like myself." To demonstrate her point, Kagari performed a rudimentary Hip Gatling on the empty air, thrusting out her butt thirty times in ten seconds. "While counters rely on turning their opponents' force against them. Counters are a pretty rare sight in the sport. You should try it out, it'll be fun!" "We have sumo wrestling, yeah... but... attacking with your butt or your boobs...?" Hikari trailed off, but her blush indicated her embarrassment at the thought. She looks quite surprised by the demonstration. "I don't know how you can do that so fast..." ----------------- Victoria wanders onto the ship... really having no idea how to process all that's going on. She sits down on a bed in the servant's quarters, eventually, just trying to figure out what she'll do.

Hikari shook her head. "Sorry. Never heard of it. What does it have to do with my... butt?" "Perhaps that is what she does to fight? She does make extensive use of her rear." Ivory supplies. ((phone post, so no colors)

"It's fine, if you're more comfortable like that." Hikari says, followed by a light blush at the compliment and butt-inspection. "T-Thank you. You look nice too... uh... Counter? Outfighter?"

Hikari frowns. "That's awful... but sounds like what humans would do, really. We don't have a nice history in terms of coexistence with other species. Or even with ourselves. I can definitely see why you're cautious." Hikari was pretty sure that slimes didn't exist in her world. No historical records at least. And she'd played RPGs, attacked the slimes like everything else, but Kagari's species seemed different. For one, sentience - the slimes in RPGs tend to not do anything but attack people, which evidently Kagari doesn't do. "I hope you can learn to... if not trust us, know that we don't really intend to kill you."

Ivory nods, and stands. "As you wish." Hikari's just looking confused at this point, and Ivory looks at her. "I'm aware that there are few monarchies remaining in your world, but it is the dominant government system in mine. Proper respect must be paid." "Um... right." Hikari says. She then turns to one of the Kagari's. "Uh... Slime Queen? Why did you think you had to hide it, Koizumi-sama?" Kagari had asked that they treat her as a peer, which to Hikari would imply -san as the proper honorific, but also to keep her dignity, implying -dono. She settled on -sama as a middle ground.

Hikari blinks. She'd been too busy trying not to panic herself to notice that the magical girl idol person had turned into a... slime? Like, in an RPG? And was right beside her. And... Queen? Suddenly Ivory... kneels? "I was not aware I was in the presence of royalty. I am sorry I did not pay proper respect." the ethereal figure says. "I-Ivory? What...?"

Hikari is still steadying herself - she internally notes she'd been right about the Knight and intends to ask why she'd hid later - as people start talking. "I mean... this is kind of what I already did, just with less singing and saving more than one world, right?" her voice has a hint of fear, but beyond that a quiet resolve. "Besides, I sort of live in the universe- er, multiverse? I'd never live with myself if I tried to back out." Ivory decides to neglect to mention that while she would have done it anyway, she is physically unable to leave Hikari and live. -------------------------------- Victoria is quiet, but is quickly taking stock of her situation. Several other warriors are present, from a variety of worlds. Likely none from a world quite like hers, although there were several that looked like bog standard humans right now. They were summoned to fight multiverse destroying abominations. She could get behind that, partly for the reason the girl with the armored ghost had said. However, there was a more personal priority to check - she reached for a bag at her side and opened it. She still had a good amount of Grief Seeds. This would last her for a while... but unless they came across another world with Witches, she'd be running on fumes before too long.

Before the tank stopped: "H-Hikari Takino." Hikari responds, bowing quickly. She didn't want to be impolite. "Nice to meet you." "Ivory." says the ethereal figure besides her. Post-stoppage: Hikari had ran out... and stops in her tracks. She saw... quite a few things in the knight. She saw herself ran through by four different spears. Chopped to bits by axes. Slashed by swords. Electrocuted by lightning, cut to ribbons by razor winds, burnt to cinder by fire. All painful and possible deaths within Idolaspheres, and ones she'd kept herself and allies from suffering. Poisoned, bleeding out. Decapitated. No... she should have prevented this... it was her job. Then just herself. Not a physical death, but a death of her soul. Standing there. With grey-tinged skin, tendrils of black where the veins would be creeping up her face, violet eyes. Laughing in an echoed voice that did not belong to her. A black aura around her. Her friends... she'd failed. They'd all failed. To stop the evil Mirages. They were all possessed and the rest of the world would be too and it was her fault and- A ghostly hand. "Hikari. Be calm." Hikari sucked in a breath and the still horrifying, but not paralyzingly so impaled knight stood. Hikari couldn't see Ivory's expression behind her mask. But the way she gripped her spear told her Ivory had seen something too. ----------------------------------------------------------------- One of the newbies (well, new to the situation, if not the sort of life being in it will lead too) had waved when the party exited the tank. Victoria had been hoping they had some answers. She'd pursued a Witch into a labyrinth, and now she was here. She'd never seen a Witch that could so accurately recreate people, so she was forced to believe it was reality. And then the knight. Decapitation was the least horrifying of her deaths. Eaten dead. Eaten alive. Stretched apart, stabbed, gutted, turned into a monster, slashed to pieces, swiss cheese with bullet-shaped holes, choked to death... intellectually she knew these mostly wouldn't work. Not while the damn hunk of rock was intact. She still couldn't seperate herself from humanity in that way. She saw the gem shattered too but it hardly effected her. She took in a breath. That was all it took - years in the Labyrinths had told her how to know what was real and what was fake, at least sometimes.

Hikari nods to the woman and the AI. "Hi... uh... nice to meet you?"

Before Kyle showed up: Hikari would have walked right into Sachi, having been looking around the castle-tank and not really paying attention, if Ivory hadn't shoved her to the side. "Ivory, why- oh, sorry for nearly bumping into you, uh..." she paused. Everyone else seemed to be using given-name first, like in Western countries. "Sachi." Ivory gives Sachi a nod. Post-Kyle: "Get your kid back...?" Hikari questioned. 'Kid with the spear' did somewhat apply to her too. "How would we do that? We're in another... dimension? World? You know what I mean."

"I didn't think something so huge could move..." Hikari mutters to herself as she wanders the halls. The others seemed to have the movement well and dealt with. "You also didn't think that there was another dimension powered by the creativity of humans, filled with beings from another world. Or that you could be magically transported to what seems to be another world." Ivory points out, the ghostly figure walking beside her. Hikari is wandering the mobile fortress of a vehicle, exploring, seeing if there are any rooms of use.