Empiricist

Izumi Kurosawa; Outside The Psychedelic Pirate Kurosawa swayed forwards to the bouncer with ever-so-inebriated giggles and the kind of coquettish smile that made her want to shoot herself for even considering it, let alone actually carrying it out. Really, between the choice of this, and helping shoot up those officers, she'd almost pick the latter. Almost. But what did she know? They could have a reason for attacking the guy, brutal as it may be, and besides, what would she do? Gun them down right then and there? Don't be ridiculous. And so here she was now, just had to blurt out the lines and hope they buy it. At least, she thinks that's what she's hoping for. If it doesn't work, well, at least she'll have reason to not even bother next time. "Hiyee~!" She started the conversation playing with her hair, trying to resist the urge to just tear it out instead. "Did you guys let in a Quinn and a Harley in there? I was meant to meet up with them here but, Davidson er, delayed" A bout of giggling and self-loathing ensues. "-me~ So I think they might have gone in without me."

Exile - Team Mega Star Cannon - Cage of Fire Hoppinh back on her feet, Exile continues prancing forwards, the screaming behind her doing little to dampen the spring in her step, though it at the very least convinces her to dismiss sign above her. Slowing to a stop as she reaches the corner, she leans forwards, ever so slightly with her hands back behind her back, examining the ceiling, floor and walls with a wide a smile and seemingly child-like curiosity. Before her, appears a blade of light. It does not crackle, it does not crystallize, it simply appears, fully manifests within the span of a single instant, and as it appears, it is already in motion, hurtling down the hallway in deathly silence. Moments later, Exile hops out behind it. "Hello~!" Exile waves, and the blade vanishes. Taking a few steps forwards she again finds herself examining something, something far more interesting this time~ Fedora was standing on a red thingy out from which lines traced to sable inscriptions and the bars of fire that seemed to emerge from them, blocking not only the walls but the ceiling as well. Of course, she soon tired of them and went to stare at everything other than them, even further down the hallway, past Fedora. Especially that actually. Finally, she traces her stare around the black symbols, seeing if there were any lines coming out of them. If there aren't, then after a few seconds of thought (complete with loading icon of course), she conjures a blade of light, its tip mere inches away from one of the lines tracing to the lowermost bar on her side of the cage. She drives it inwards, the illusion becoming real as she does so.

Exile - Team Mega Star Cannon - Hallway "On it!" Another illusion took form above Exile, larger than the ones before and slightly self-luminous, though still bearing the simple, stylized form of those which had proceeded it. It was a neon sign with an arrow pointing down upon her and text reading "Not Merlin". She begins frolicking down the hallway, forcefield up. Amelia it seems, was after Merlin. So so long as she herself didn't pose any kind of threat, she'd be ignored. And if illusions were ineffective, then broadcasting her status as an illusionist could help, as long she didn't use her Spark of course, wouldn't want her to think she was more of a threat, now would she? It was unlikely for the hallway to have any traps, Fedora moved down them just fine, so unless him triggering them primed the others... Nope! Still unlikely! Otherwise intruders could sacrifice themselves to catch Amelia with it. In other words, the fun only starts when she turns the corner~

Exile - Team Mega Star Cannon - Tree Room "He's a hostage, it's bait and we're all fucked~!" She pauses for a moment, arms behind her back, head tilted to the the side and a loading icon above her head. "Yup! Definitely fucked!" Springing back into posture, she alters the icon into a cartoonish lightbulb, one that vanishes in short order. Fedora shouldn't be stuck, not unless he climbed a tree. Or licked an iced-over pole. If they wanted to kill intruders he'd be running, tumbling, or downed. If they didn't, then an alarm or shock would do the trick. Something you can't just teleport or blast out of, which just so happen to be two things mechs and mages are usually really good at. Far worse would soon come~

Exile - Team Mega Star Cannon - Tree Room "Stuck?" A question mark pops into the air above Exile's head. "Can you see what he's stuck on?"

Exile - Team Mega Star Cannon - Tree Room Wandering behind Ice, her smile vacant, her path erratic, Exile scans her gaze across ceiling, and then the floor, eyes drifting to and from just about everything other than at the trees themselves, paying particular attention to anything lying along the edges of the room. "Hehe~ trees~" she spoke in her usual sing-song manner, sweet and clear, though more quietly than usual, the concept of stealth not entirely lost on her it seemed. There were soooooo many trees! It was like a forest here! What could they have been working on here? Something amazing she bet! Amazing enough for this big facility, and, she could only presume, more than enough manpower to protect it. How exciting~ She wondered how they'd do it. Couldn't be too restrictive - they probably have to move stuff, and it would suck for someone on their first day on the job to take the wrong turn and get crushed by a gravity anomaly or something. Passive surveillance maybe? Ooh! Maybe something that can identify their own people? There could be tags on the staff, or traps that guard could activate. That could be interesting. She wondered how expensive all this stuff was, how easily it were replaced, how willing they were to destroy their own property just to defend the facility. Probably a negotiable amount. Kick up too much of a fuss, and everything's on the table. As long as the data survives right? Melee weapons and the like could serve well inside these labs, especially for ambushes, but with hallways so long, outside of them, ranged units would work really well. Well enough to put a beam straight through her pretty little head, if it would even leave that intact of course. How exciting~

Izumi Kurosawa; Alleyway A dove lands on the Kurosawa's shoulder flying in from seemingly nowhere and whispering into her ear before vanishing once more. "It's in the bag. Wouldn't recommend you mess with it right now - the cops, if they really are that, seem to know where it was. They're at the dumpster now, haven't moved much from it. May wanna stash this bag away as well, it's got the wire and my gun, not things to be caught carrying."

Izumi Kurosawa; Fire Escape Sif watches the officers for a moment, trying to discern where they start searching, then, he vanishes, dematerializing. Kurosawa on the other hand, detaches her plating, probably not too good for her modesty, but she'll live. Better use mistaken for some kind of entertainer or someone with questionable fashion if not life choices than a someone with less than legal dealings. She stashes the armor, the rope, and her Procyon into the black bag and enters the fire escape.

Okay, thanks! I'll probably just wait to see other sheets and their stat distributions to make sure my distribution isn't bad or anything before locking it in.

Tentative sheet edited in. I presume stabbing people with a mundane knife and the like won't be particularly effective? Oh and I might shift the numbers around depending on what Murdoc and Hukuna yell at me to do.

Izumi Kurosawa; Rooftops, Northbound As a pale dove fades in upon her arm, Izumi speaks quietly "Sif, hide and watch, when they get here, tell me." "Understood." Sif examines where the pigeons are perched and sits in a similar position, as far out of sight as possible. When anything approaches or the police arrive to investigate, he will note them and dissipate.

Izumi Kurosawa, Rooftops Holding the wire by the sheath, Izumi lets out a sigh, rising a foot off the ground as she does so. Glancing around, she floats up to the roof run along behind Halley, best not to draw too much attention up here, not any more than the damn uniform would already. As she does so, she scans the skies and her surroundings, looking, not just for any witnesses and cameras, but also for birds, where there any birds in the skies here?

Dimitri Kuznetsov, Voting for Puzzle Dimitri nods at the remarks, if not even the natives dare brave the wilds, then who was he to say they should? The radiation in particular sounded quite worrying to say the least, though if there's enough time to stumble through the wilds between them, the gaps ought to be fairly long. Long enough for these invaders to move from shelter to shelter? Or are they in such numbers that even after these "firestorms" decimate them, enough remain to pose a nuisance? "It goes without saying the puzzle is the best option. Cronos, you've been keeping in check, correct? Do you have any more combat data you can provide us with? Capabilities, armaments, tactics? Do we know how they're advancing? Just braving the wilds?"

Dimitri Kuznetsov Hell. It looked like Hell. Close the enough to it at any rate. He couldn't hear the screams of the damned, so there was that. It's not much, but at least it makes for easier conversation. Producing a handkerchief from his pockets, one that he and he alone knew he did lacked, he wipes his brow. Still in business it seems. Excellent. He turns to the client, Cronos and smiles, nodding at his explanation. "Cronos was it? Time permitting, you'd best run over the briefing again. Where we are, what this 'Access Dispel' is, and all the other details of this operation was not delivered to all of us." He nods again, this time to the girl, his smile as unfaltering and fakely genuine as always. "And you, must be Hiroki then. I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting you, my name is Dimitri Kuznetsov, marksmen, amongst other things." That was true, and not much else. His name was indeed Dimitri Kuznetsov. Good luck finding it on any documents. Good luck finding it on anything. Anything at all. That was the truth, and what good was it?

So here lies the engine, the heart of the beast. The beast needs to go on a diet. Too much cholesterol. Too much rust. Repairs will be necessary, later, not now. Not while it's running. Well, at least not regular repairs. Magic, he could see that, and there an awful lot of magic here, question simply was, was any of it the right kind? He inspects the exterior, and only the exterior, gaze tracing along each piece, looking for bolts, for mechanisms, for signs that they may be removed. Then he gazes into what lay within, looking for something strange, something out of place, not just blackboxes in general, but rather blackboxes without a discernible purpose. For here, three possibilities occurred to him: The first was that such a machine is from a world that cares little for the fine details, where machines run like miracles caring not for maintenance nor reason. Which would mean, this damage is likely abnormal, caused by something more than just simple disrepair, something like magic. If such were the case, there should be blackboxes, and many of them. There should be arbitrary parts, parts that seem functional, but which serve no purpose. Faults in the illusion, loose threads in the construction. Find them, unravel them, and that, should be proof enough. The second was that the world, while it plays fast and loose with the rules, lacks a specific little convenience. The convenience that does away with the need for maintenance. Then, barring some sheer technical incompetence, one unbefitting of a castle, a seat of power, and therefore unlikely, there should be access to the internals. There should be ways to dismantle it, to replace the parts, to remove the the exterior even. And were the machine not corroded to hell, they should be obvious. The third was that the machine comes from a world of magic, where rust and wear and all the oh so troublesome little problems can be washed away with the right use of the arcane. It may have been kept running by some kind of engineer-mage, with repair spells and the like, or it could have been enchanted, bewitched. The former, is a "none of the above" for there would be little to show for its existence, little that he could determine himself at least. But if it were the latter, than there could very well be components that betray it. Parts that seem, unusual, inefficient to an engineer of the mundane, but a bed of potential for an artificer. For enchantments often have their own laws to follow, and those laws influence the design. And those aspects most strongly influenced, should be missing, or broken. Else it would not be in such a state. As he paces around the engine's perimeter, to each of his newfound comrades, the ones who are not unfazed by that cacophony at least, he drops a pair of ear plugs.

"Yes, I can channel more than one though it's not entirely legal-" "It is completely illegal in virtually all cases." "-but this is one of those cases, and well, what are they gonna do? Prosecute me for something that happened another world?"

Izumi Kurosawa; Prior to Sealing Izumi nods "If you've any power to spare, I could use it. I'm down to just curses now." * * * Izumi follows Mitsurugi into the suits, kamidana under one arm, shotgun in the other. She raises an eyebrow at the sound of the screams, ready for whatever was about to- Oh. Kyle.

Izumi Kurosawa; Barracks Mitsurugi, that's her name. Civilization's own little nightmare. And here I am, staring her right in the eyes. Didn't think I'd be the one feeling less shitty, didn't think I'd be close enough to see it either, but that's besides the point. She's starving, running on fumes, in other words, she's hard to read. I've seen people in her position, and I've seen what can happen when they're back on their feet. Cynical I know; doesn't have to end that way, I know. But hey, you can't fault a girl for worrying. Heh, Sif says I ought to do that more. I take out another ofuda, nothing on it, and hold it up. "Sif, reallocate the resources from that box to her." Dames, they're more trouble than they're worth. And this one's worth an awful lot. "Acknowledged." That's it? No telling me it's against protocols, no saying I shouldn't do this? Nothing? I'm almost worried. Almost. I hand her her the paper. "Faith from my world; carte blanche - do as you wish." Should be enough to bring her back on her feet, and if that's a problem, we can always throw her back off it. Cut her off. Still nothing. I push my luck a bit. "And, if do you feel better, would you mind lending me your strength? My weapon's not working out too well." Okay, I gotta ask now. "Not going to say anything?" "Under the threat of complete annihilation, everything is on the table. And Izumi, this is not our world, the rules need not apply." "So does that mean you'll be taking that stick out of your-" "My personality is non-negotiable." Damn. It was worth a shot.

Izumi Kurosawa; Barracks "Another new recruit then. You're safe now, close enough to it, you're in another world now. The world's ending, but you already know that. All of them, every last one. Getting eaten. And we're the people left to clean up the mess and stop them. Our contact didn't say much though, just that we all need to seek power and run clean-up on a few worlds first. Not a very talkative guy, so if you've got any information, that will help this little war effort of ours. Sif, run a scan on her, see what's wrong." "Acknowledged." "I'm Izumi, that's Alexandria, he's Kyle, and that's Dimitri. Don't know those people back there. There're others, just not in this room." "Scan complete. The subject appears to be an anomalous core-avatar hybrid. The scabbard unit functions as a secondary energy supply. No primary energy supply detected. Signs of impurity-based operation. The subject is very likely running out of power." "So, how can we fix you?"

Izumi Kurosawa; Barracks She pauses for a moment, as if surprised or having actually translate what she had just heard "Christ, the fuck happened to you?" She helps the strange goddess back up before releasing her. Something was wrong with her. No shit. The question is what, and she didn't know. Hell Sif didn't know - he'd be speaking up if he did, can't blame him. Avatars shouldn't be able to be damaged. Disrupted maybe. Destroyed as well. But not damaged, not wounded, not so damn tired. They weren't meant to be human either, but that? She could chalk up to multiversal fuckery. Dimitri Kuznetsov; Barracks "I see! Something that requires more cooling for far more storage? And a 'blue box' it is called? Then may I ask, does FTL exist? And if so, what have we missed? Because that, our world still lacks. And so far as we can tell, given causality, relativity, and the superluminal, we can only have two, and our choices, have been made for us. Made before our time, by the flames of genesis, or I suppose, the hand of God. "

Izumi Kurosawa; Barracks "Unregistered god you have entered a restricted area. Identif-" "Shit!" Kurosawa swipes the gun away and rushes to catch the new arrival. "Hey! Can you hear me?" "Izumi, the unidentifi-" "-might be a threat. If she is, I'll handle it." She checks the goddess' puls - damn it, do gods even have a pulse? Fuck, how does this even work? She's not a technician for crying out loud!

Izumi Kurosawa; Barracks A curt nod, and with that, she returns to her work. * * * "Okay, let's see if this works..." The ofuda was a simple piece of paper, inscribed, thanks to Dimitri, in permanent marker. The symbols upon it are angular, written with seemingly inhuman precision, each filling a perfectly square area, they are comprised not just of simple strokes but also dots and filled-in areas, drawn far faster than what ought to be possible. It was Divine Script, a text with roots tracing all the way back to kanji, though now, of those present, only Izumi could understand. "Protection." She places it inside the kamidana and closes the doors. A gentle breeze sweeps through the room, bringing with it the faint smell of rain. Upon the monolith's surface, moisture accumulates, droplets forming and merging until the entirety of its structure was veiled in water. The doors seal. The eye blinks. Once, just once, as if to confirm everything was in order. And then, came his voice. "Warning. Unidentified presence detected. Inbound." "Commencing scan... Scan complete. Entity verified as an unregistered god." "Arriving at current position in 3... 2... 1..." Kurosawa steps back, her weapon already in her hands.

Izumi Kurosawa; Barracks "I've no partner, unless you can count the chief himself, and he's about as fun as bag of bricks. And no, not that many jobs need an arrest, Civil and Private Security are different things. Civil expects body bags, Private, that depends on your district's provider." Dimitri Kuznetsov; Barracks "Quantum processor." He nods a few times "Used for computing, can be implanted, it's in fashion nowadays, and I can see why, with the right software and a technician you can trust... it can be awfully useful. Mine does ballistic calcs mostly, helps me aim. Uses weyl semimetal to that it's better protected from interference, works at room temperature and above, but too much heat still causes problems. Mine? That's what I have for a brain, but that's a long story, not sure if I can say it even. My drones use them as well, helps them aim and process what they see."

Izumi Kurosawa; Barracks "Shotgun; semiautomatic. Not doing me much good here, so until Sif here can arrange for some ofuda, I'm down to just curses." She neglects to mention just how they are powered, wasn't too sure herself right now. This world, it definitely had impurity, the monster was proof of that, but it was, different somehow. Inert. Weaker. Hell, Sif said he could even remove it here. A silver bullet, and no reason to use it. Great. Dimitri Kutznetsov; Barracks "A catalyst you say? A metamaterial of some kind? Or is it more, exotic? As you can well tell, we do not have such luxuries. A magazine for us must accommodate both the bullet and the propellant, be it explosive or electrical. It is, why my rifle is still akin to those of old. Save for of course, a q-procc to aim it." He had timed his words with his work such that he had a hand free while he said what he had said, with it, he taps the side of his head.