Powder Miner

Pinecone's overly serious demeanor often had a goofily oblivious element to it. Right now, however, the traces of humor around the hulking bee had disappeared entirely. Right now, there was Pinecone, there were the bugs he was protecting, and then there were the obstacles to that protection. And, well... one of those obstacles was about to have another projectile coming his way. Pinecone attacks Black Ant Halberdier B! Luckily for the Halberdier, the javelin didn't actually hurt that much - making contact with the rock the ant was hiding behind and skimming across, it essentially only hit hard enough to do two things - A: be loud against the wooden helmet, and B: worsen the forming headache the ant was experiencing. Said ant responded by extending a middle finger in Pinecone's direction, a hand on his head. "Damn! Cut that shit out!" And it wasn't the only projectile sent the way of the incoming ant squad, as one ant wielding an axe had an arrow fly directly at him courtesy of a certain pink-haired mantis. Lotus attacks Black Ant Axe Recruit B! To the credit of the axebug, though, even though he took a much more severe set of injuries than what his compatriot had suffered thus far, he took it with much more poise, merely grunting loudly as the pair of arrow struck deep into him (and one shattered), before turning to the ant with the halberd. "Now, in fairness, Trunk, we are presently trying to kill them. I don't know that it would make sense for them to cut it out." "Fuck me, obviously I know that, I'm just mad, Cool - why aren't you?" Meanwhile, closer to the backlines, Bend huffed and puffed a little as he jogged up to Diligence (he was, after all, wearing more armor than anyone else, given that his was about the only set with full coverage and helmet). "Whew, sorry to shove you back into combat, but we kinda can't have everyone falling behind." Bend refreshes Faithful Diligence! Still, despite the injuries that she had earlier suffered at the hands of the archers, Diligence moved upwards and launched an assault of her own at the heavily injured axe-ant, a bolt of fire flying from her hand straight at the beefy black ant. Faithful Diligence attacks Black Ant Axe Recruit A! The bolt impacted with a fwoosh right against the chest of Diligence's enemy, spreading in a burst before it dissipated with him rather severely burnt - Diligence was a powerful mage by the standards of this group, that much was undeniable. Just barely brought over the precipice of what he could take, the black ant sunk to the ground slowly, and put down his axe. Eventually, much like the lead sniper, he seemed to accept the severity of his wounds and laid down, talking. "Because, Sticks. I'm following Indefatigable... but that doesn't mean I'm like him. I'm not all... mindless anger. Even if I lose..." The downed sniper elected to finish the sentence. "...it's all part of the risks you took, I bet? Damn, dude. Wish I'd talked with you more beforehand," Black Ant Axe Recruit B is defeated! TURN 5 ~ ENEMY PHASE "FINALLY! Made it over. Alright, well, let's get this going, shall we? Ah man, finally." With that, Gloom raise a tablet in one hand and raised a finger in the other - with a distinct panache to her movements, she swirled that finger in the air before she changed her gesture to that of an open palm, gathering a storm of dark motes which coalesced until it was a thick blob of dark magic - which she thrust at Life-Recorder, flinging that magic at her, a grin now spreading across the otherwise gloomy mage's face. Adept Gloom attacks Life-Recorder! Despite the flashiness of the attack, however, it missed entirely - Life-Recorder, who had sped right up to her current position, was more than nimble enough to leave the attack as nothing more than a ton of small holes slowly eating a crater into the sidewalk - and her thrown disk, on the other hand, bounced right off of Gloom's cheek. "Ow, wow, that one is fast! Guess it'll come down to going after the others, huh?" "Scyuuuuuse me, Gloom, hon, let me just slip right on past you and take a crack at her myself." A black ant in fairly light clothing (that is, as in light and loose, rather than revealing) zipped right on around Gloom, tossing a dart up in her hand - and then being very careful despite her showmanship to catch it by the shaft. "If anyone is gonna hit, it'll be me." Specialist A attacks Life-Recorder! This ended up being a much for fair exchange - Life-Recorder couldn't quite dodge the heavy dart that the ant threw, and it slammed home into her arm - a surprisingly hefty wound for a dart, but nothing that was going to be stopping the spider, at least not yet. On the other hand, the next chakram that went flying skated across the upper arm of the dart-wielding ant, who clenched her teeth at that. "Well, didn't get out unscathed but I daaaaresay that went better." And suddenly, Life-Recorder really wasn't feeling well... Life-Recorder is Poisoned! Meanwhile, the halberdier was... more than a little pissed. "What the hell is wrong with you two? I dunno about you, but I'm not about to just stop fighting! C'mon, buddy, let's go, clash of giants, huh?!" With those words the halberdier moved out from behind the pebble he'd been using for cover, and tried to take a strike right at Pinecone. Black Ant Halberdier B attacks Pinecone! The fight that ensued between the two armored bugs was a slow and heavy one. Though it was by no means guaranteed given Pinecone's current vigilance, the halberdier managed to bring his heavy wooden weapon down on the bee's head, opening a slash across Pinecone's scalp that barely seemed to slow him down - and a precise javelin strike in retaliation rapped loudly off of the shoulder of the halberdier, barely slowing him down in turn. "Shame I don't get a go on someone one on one, I'd win with you, buddy." A fire mage then came up to the pebble his more physical compatriot had been hiding behind, with a grimace. "I'm afraid that I can't say I strongly appreciate being put into this position... but I suppose I'll do what I can." Raising his tablet, it wasn't long before a bolt of fire went flying at Soggyshanks. Black Ant Fire Initiate B attacks Soggyshanks! The fire caught Soggyshanks directly, creating some superficial charring on his wooden armor and a small ember staying lit on the corner of a shoulderplate for just a few moments - but his retaliation for the gout of flame didn't quite work out, as the mage ducked behind the pebble with a yelp in time for Soggyshanks' thrown axe to bounce against the rock and then harmlessly away. Finally, the two snipers each took a different target. One of the two lined up behind the mage and took a shot at Soggyshanks - actually, it was the same one as before, who looked decidedly nervous about the decision he'd made. Black Ant Sniper B attacks Soggyshanks! ...and his arrow didn't hurt Soggy. In fact, it didn't even made contact like last time, nor did it even come close - the arrow sailed well over the entire group and into the dirt not that far from Flies Freely. "Well, that ain't reassuring." As for the other sniper, he picked a target no less elusive, as it was his only option where the remarkably buff bee wouldn't interfere - Life-Recorder. Black Ant Sniper C attacks Life-Recorder. This sniper had much more luck than his counterpart - while Life-Recorder was still an extremely swift and nimble target, there's only so many incoming projectiles one can dodge in a couple of minutes... and this fast-moving arrow, it seemed, wasn't one of them, slamming into the poisoned girl and nearly lifting her off her feet. TURN 6 ~ PLAYER PHASE Poison! Map Notes Status EXP: 88/100

At first wordless, Lizaveta stopped by Shin for a moment - not turning her back to Death, as that would be stupid, but crouching over Shin as Death fought with Justine. She put a hand on his shoulder for a moment. "Hold on for a moment. It will be okay. We're going to deal with him." Then she stood up and moved towards Death. "You won't get away with that this time. Maybe you'll get lucky and find a way out - but, mm... even if we don't kill you... maybe we can still make it hurt, huh? Put enough wounds in you that you'll be remembering us wherever you go." K3, Worm Death

Perlita let out a looooooooooooooong sigh, and then a "Uuugggghhh..." as she puts her hands to her face and rubbed some of the setting exhaustion out of her eyes for a moment. Of course, things couldn't just be done when they were done. But it wasn't just the arrival of this Trespasser-harvesting(?) weirdo that frustrated Perlita. No, what really got at her more than anything else was that Perlita absolutely could not believe that she was about to side with Mira here. "I... oh, boy, I think Mira is actually right. There's no way she isn't being mysterious on purpose about this... I mean, saying "they" don't worship the Trespassers leaves the door open for a lot, and I'm sure she chose her words carefully." Perlita brought a palm to her face again. This wasn't getting any odder the more she spoke, and she found that typical apprehensive tightening of her chest as she was about to launch herself into another vicious life-or-death combat. But... well... "We... can't really let people take advantage of all the death and destruction these things bring for their own profit, which I guess is really what this sounds like to me. 'specially because I guess that sort of thing also just... like... um... it strikes me as really risking the Trespassers in question being active again. But it's also... it's also just wrong to turn this into some sort of opportunity! Unless she has some sort of good explanation, but I think she's holding out on us because she doesn't really have that sort of thing."

Isobel winced at the sounds of crashing upstairs, and mentally prepared herself to make a dive (or... something like a dive but less... dive-y) to catch something should it inevitably be knocked down in here - she really couldn't stand to see art be potentially damaged by some little incident of clumsiness. "Should we go up there, maybe? Or are we just waiting for your friend to come on down?"

"Frankly speaking, it's more of a matter of someone clearly wanting me to do something," Satomi mentioned in an almost offhanded matter to the shopkeeper. "...still, I am more than a little bit curious, so I'll admit that I'm looking forward to seeing what it is I've been provided with here." It didn't take very long for Satomi to have her attention rather thoroughly stolen by the engineering book - in what may have seemed like an instant, she had her notebook out with pen (pilfered from Earth Bet all that time ago) in hand, scribbling down notes. "Oh, but this is a interesting opportunity, right here... it had not occurred to me to try to check the engineering insights of this world. That, I suppose, was a grave misstep. How could I be so consumed with something to do and not even think to indulge my curiosities? Hmmm..."

As Life-Recorder made her proclamation towards the enemy squad, a voice piped up - surprisingly close to her. It was the lead sniper, who was in fact not dead and seemed pretty content to lay there bleeding. "'Fraid you're missing the point, lady. We're all here in the first place because we wouldn't stand down. We aren't like those southern traitors from your parts around here, or at least we shouldn't be." "Well, fuck you too. Dickhead." Along with the talking came some healing, as Life-Recorder medicated her new wound, and as Brilliant Deduction lightly bonked Soggyshanks right on top of the head with her staff. "Onwards, Soggy!" Life-Recorder uses a vulnerary on herself! Brilliant Deduction heals Soggyshanks! Finally, after the healing and self-help, Soggyshanks continued to take things in an offensive direction, striding up in the direction of one of the black ant halberdiers and hucking an axe at him - causing the halberdier immediately to try to duck behind the pebble in front of him. Soggyshanks attacks Halberdier B! ...of course, hiding behind a pebble doesn't do a whole lot for a bug when that bug is tall, in heavy armor and struggling to crouch, and also has a big-ass halberd on his back giving away exactly where behind that pillar he is. Soggyshanks' hatchet sailed right over the rock, then there was a loud clattering noise, and a "FUCK!" as it slammed against and bounced off of the Halberdier's helmet with quite a bit of force. Map Notes Status EXP: 69/100

TURN 4 ~ ENEMY PHASE "Alright, bro, time to move, time to move, time to move, before we go the same way!" The snipers moved away from the party -the quieter one hauling ass whereas the louder one actually slowed down after a little bit- as the other squad of ants came up, the snipers managed to get behind some closer-range bugs, which drew a sigh of relief from the both of them. Soon enough, though, both archers did realize that they weren't out of things yet. "Just wait a minute for 'em to come over and we'll get 'em..." Meanwhile, at least one member of the incoming squad was still very very much not happy about it, grumbling at a slightly increased volume. "Stupid asshole... gotta walk all the way over there... walk around the whole region too... tired of all the stupid walking... fuck 'em..." TURN 5 ~ PLAYER PHASE Map Notes Status

"Oh, of course, just 80 years or so of concentrated work, nothing much really." Isobel couldn't help but laugh warmly enough that it surprised her - even despite all the bird had made her want to tear her hair out in this world sometimes, it was bizarrely a little charming to see her just be... well, Isobel supposed that the phrasing that came to mind was "casually immortal". That said, she couldn't help but quirk her eyebrow a little at some of Masako's other words. "I don't suppose this kind of "get along" is long-term, the "after wacky and almost-violent misunderstandings" kind, is it? I get the feeling that that sort of thing happens a lot in Gensokyo." Still, Isobel did stop complaining long enough to follow Masako through her house. Although Isobel approved of the decor of Masako's house on the whole (she was always a sucker for these kinds of cozy atmospheres), her jaw dropped briefly at the sea of artifacts and art and literature Masako had at her disposal. Yukari, being able to casually pluck things out of dimensions, seemed to Isobel to have a pretty simple means of gathering her collection, but Masako's... well, even with being very old, it spoke to her of a very storied like. Still, she picked her jaw up off the ground and chose somewhere to try and sit that wouldn't be too disruptive - Isobel really did not want to be responsible for destroying an ancient relic - especially, since, er, well, she was maybe not quite the lightest person for her height. At least all that bullet-and-laser-and-explosion-honed grace of hers could be used to very carefully choose where to place her feet, and her rear. "I admit that that sounds very nice, Masako. I haven't had something good to drink in forever... maybe I should see if I can source some wine grapes sometime and start growing in the castle, ha ha."

Starting off the movement of the party of travelling bugs round the bend towards their foes was the march of the bumblebees - if "march" means one running around screaming while the other one plods determinedly towards his foes with stabbing on the mind. While the one that was screaming didn't seem like a threat to the lead sniper... well, he had a sinking feeling about the big one. Pinecone attacks Sniper A! Sure enough, Pinecone's javelin promptly stabbed through the fabric armor of the archer - but the archer found that he did in fact very much survive the ordeal, at least for now. He grinned up at Pinecone - bleeding some, but evidently pleased he wasn't out of it quite yet. "Guess I'm just going to have to hold you lot off for Gloom personally then, huh?" But of course Pinecone was only one of the people barreling in towards the poor ant - and chief among the ones following up was a certain sea-spider who it's just maybe possible wasn't too happy about getting shot, armor or no. With a shouted taunt, Soggyshanks hurtled at the sniper, causing him to flinch back a bit. Soggyshanks attacks Sniper A! The archer was moved back even more as the axe slammed into him, causing him to take a step backwards and cough. This had been a solid hit, much more solid than the one that Pinecone had dealt out, and the black ant could only smile weakly up at Soggyshanks after receiving it. "Well, buddy, if I'm going to be realistic about it, it probably is about all I've got, yeah. You two - keep going! Keep alive and get behind Gloom's troops!" It wasn't long after that before an arrow came flying out from behind the rest of the Redoubt bugs towards him. Lotus attacks Sniper A! And before he could get another sentence out, the arrow buried itself into the sniper, deep into his stomach. He collapsed to his knees, looked up... and shrugged. "Always was comin'. But I did stand my ground." He extended, entirely casually, a middle finger into the air where Flies Freely was in the distance, and then half fell and half laid down onto his back, looking almost as if he was relaxing on the ground. Sniper A is defeated! "B-boss!" The shooting and likely coming death of his kind-of-superior was met with a cry of dismay from one of the other snipers, whereas the other just seemed to sigh and slump a little. "Don't worry, we'll follow your last orders to the end oh no-" Life-Recorder attacks Sniper B! As the sniper was making a declaration, a wooden disc flew out and bounced across his head, knocking it back a little and opening a gash - but aside from the moment of initial panic, the ant actually looked fine. Still, that moment of initial panic turned into a moment of crambling, continued panic, where the sniper fumbled his bow a little, hurriedly scrabbled for an arrow, got one, and wildly... actually... hit? "Holy shit..." To the ant's own amazement, his terrified shot had hit solidly, slamming into the spider-girl and bloodying her. Meanwhile, as the combat continued, there was a flurry of healing. Harefoot was quick to deal with the injured ant of the party's own, shaking off his own sadness at the carnage to prevent Diligence from becoming a needless victim of it. Mercy Harefoot heals Faithful Diligence! Sighing to himself a little, Bend walked over and helped Diligence up - something with which it is possibly that Harefoot helped. With the poor redheaded ant back on her feet nearly as quickly as she'd been brought off of them, Bend gave her a light pat on the shoulder before orienting her the way she was supposed to be going and playing a three-note ditty with one hand. "Might as well get going - I don't know if you've ever experienced that kind of wound before, but at this point you'll just want to keep on moving and make sure you're with everyone else." Faithful Diligence is refreshed! Maybe... just... freshed in this instance... As for Brilliant Deduction, well, there was a twirl from her staff that was actually meant to make contact with Pinecone. "I really appreciate your dedication to our safety, but do spare some thought for your own! You are a part of this party as well, you know! Surely you can't protect the whole party if you can't protect yourself!" Brilliant Deduction heals Pinecone! (And finally, even as she drifted into a land deep in her imagination, Sting did find the presence of mind to patch herself up after sustaining some wounds earlier.) Sting uses a vulnerary! Map Notes Status EXP: 65/100

Perlita winced and grit her teeth as the wave of heat washed over her - it wasn't her weakness, but Perlita had never really liked being attacked by fire. It wasn't the burns, since her Persona typically protected her from the worst of that, but rather how oppressive the heat always felt. Still, after it passed, Perlita just shrugged and set her shoulders. "That wasn't quite bad enough to worry about. But... Crawford!" She (a little theatrically) tugged on a set of strings invisible to everyone but her and Gabriel, one of which connected her to him while the others extended off into infinity - and yet again, her Persona sprung into existence. "Let's see if I can't get everyone topped off - Lyra, please do try to be careful for a moment!" Right now, despite the chaotic nature of the fight, things seemed okay, on balance. Perlita of course couldn't be sure that that would last (and if experience told her anything, it was that it probably wouldn't) but for now? For now, she didn't need to panic. She could be assertive, even. "And... for the record, lady? It doesn't matter how ultimate these things are or aren't! That just isn't the point. It's about right or wrong." Perlita uses Media on herself, Gabriel, Lyra, and Bridgett, healing 3d4+SYN (14) HP for each! Then, she uses Diarama on Lyra, healing her for an additional 7d4+SYN (14) HP!

Despite the less than stellar conditions some of the travelling party were in, Brilliant Deduction's reticence seems to have turned into exuberance with the effective demolishment of the first group of ants assaulting her and her little retinue - she practically skips over to Mercy Harefoot, who has been lying there for what feels like an eternity. "Come now, Harefoot! We can't just have you lying there, can we? A little bit of magic from yours truly, and my lovely assistant, will get you moving again!" Brilliant Deduction heals Mercy Harefoot! She pointed her staff towards his half-conscious body, and proceeded to jab him with it, before whirling back. "Bend, get me moving!" "Mmmmmyeah sure." Recruit Bend refreshes Brilliant Deduction! To a somewhat unenthusiastic tweet of a flute, Brilliant skipped off towards Soggyshanks. "Soggyshanks, my reliable friend! Let us keep making sure that you don't falter in this fight, yes?" She twirled her staff again, a wide swooping circle that nearly hit Pinecone in the side of the head, and poked him with it. Brilliant Deduction heals Soggyshanks! TURN 3 ~ ENEMY PHASE While Flies Freely caaaaasually swooped off, the apparent leader of the snipers let out a sigh. "Right, well, I'm not that shameless. Hold them off for a bit, hit the people who are likely to be able to reach us. Hitting and running isn't going to be viable with that damn bird, so let's just wait til Gloom comes up to reinforce us. You lot take care of the mage down there, I'll see what I can do about the armored spider!" "Uhhhhh, you got it, boss!" The evidently-subordinate sniper stepped forwards a bit, raised his bow, pulled the string back, and sent an arrow arcing lightly over the jagged hill created by the crack in the sidewalk - and when it came down, it came down at one of the team's red ants. Sniper B attacks Faithful Diligence! It's a somewhat close call for a moment, as the projectile falls short of her face and torso, but unfortunately the ant girl, despite her speed, is somewhat unlucky here - having her leg extended to step forwards, the arrow proceeds to bury itself in her thigh, something she is evidently not terribly well-defended against as the attack meets nearly no resistance. Meanwhile, without speaking any more (deeming it not necessary and distracting from the task at hand), the informal leader of the sniper trio looses an arrow straight at Soggy as he begins to turn around the crack in the sidewalk. Sniper A attacks Soggyshanks! ...and that arrow proceeded to bounce harmlessly off of Soggyshanks' shoulderplate - Soggyshanks could feel the impact against his shoulder-plate, and it scratched the wood a bit, but that was about all that the lead sniper could claim he'd done. "Well, damn." "See? All you have to do is go with me and you're fine!" Finally, the last of the three snipers moved towards the giant crack and aimed upwards at the same spot as his fellow subordinate, juuust barely able to see poor Diligence's antenna peeking up over it. And so she got a second arrow coming her way. Sniper C attacks Faithful Diligence! Depending on how melodramatic Diligence was feeling, perhaps she could have termed this a trial of the gods - without any way of knowing that she was mostly targeted for being the only bug these two archers could reach with the ability to fire over the crack, it would have seemed to her like two arrows came out of nowhere. The second of these was aimed a bit more on-target than the first, hitting the poor ant in the ribs and sending her toppling over. Faithful Diligence is downed! Meanwhile, watching this battle begin to play out, a dark-haired ant with circles under her eyes began to mutter under her breath. "I don't know what that stupid mercenary is doing... ruining everything... all were supposed to come down here... now I have to climb... this stupid human thing... ugh... everyone, get moving!" TURN 4 ~ PLAYER PHASE Map Notes Status: EXP: 50/100

"There is that self-importance I was talking about. Killing is not a sport. It is killing. It is nothing more and nothing less. Maybe the killing I do here today will lead someone to try to kill me later - I do not care. It is what it is. I have already long ago made the decision that I am willing to kill to do what I need to do. You are in the way of that. No matter your public image, or your reputation, that means that I will fight you to the end - yours." "And I am but one. I have my revenge. Arthur has his revenge. Knight has his revenge. Phoenix has his cause. They all have their causes - even Orchid. There is no use pretending this is something fancy and artistic, or some sort of matter of establishing a legacy. We are all here what we are here to do. I am sure you are here for your own vile reasons. So stop pretending that words of intimidation matter - we are all far too committed now to avoid blood. So let us shut up and spill it." I5, Wind Fighter A

Finally, finally... Lizaveta spoke up. Even despite her... ... ...encounter with Ferdiad a while ago, the words of that arrogant fop up there were infuriating, for Lizaveta's own reason. "It's funny, though, isn't it? You talk about being killers... we are, at this point, killers. You must recognize that to be the objective truth. Every one of us who came to this place, no doubt, has killed somebody at some point in our battles. Knight here is far from an exception. We are, in all fact, killing many of the men working under you. I'm left with one conclusion - you believe that you represent some sort of exception, that he will bow out when faced with somebody like you, or one of his other foes, when he has not done so with these mundane soldiers. Do you truly believe that - that it takes more to will to kill somebody like you? That you are in some way other than rank above your own men? The arrogance is breathtaking. We're not going to stop mowing our way through the poor bastards here who happen to be fighting us, and we are most certainly not going to stop and be taken aback when we get to you. You're going to die, you arrogant bastard. You're just like the Perusians you're fighting - but considering you handed off your own prince to them, maybe that's no surprise." As if to illustrate her point, Lizaveta waltzed up and slung a deadly blast of magic at one of the wounded knights - one of the few people left alive from the army that had been garrisoning this place. Lizaveta moves to H9 and blasts Knight A.

"Ahaaaaaaa, not quite to be conscripted. I mean, uh, y'know, I'm not going to be willing to just plain-out start stabbing people I was just working with, you know! But, uh, you know, to stand aside." In the distance: "Sonuvabitch. He's completely shameless." Ebon, however, had already elected to continue his assault on the attacking ant forces, aiming specifically at the rather unfortunate mage who was now the last remaining of her squad (well, probably, judging by the delayed reaction of the other mage). "C'MOOOON SHITBIRDDDD-" Ebon Knight attacks Black Ant Fire Initiate A! As it so often is, being attacked by Ebon is somewhat like being hit with a brick wall moving at high speed. Ebon swooped down, slammed into the rather batshit-mage, and for a moment it looked like she had simply disappeared altogether, before a second look put her a couple of inches away from her previous position. Fire Initiate A is down! Map Notes Status EXP: 39/100

Nader had already begun to pour himself a glass from the entire bottle of vodka that he'd just been handed (ah... just like home! Truly representative of the unified spirit of his country's two peoples) when he spotted out of the corner of his eye somebody approaching him. "Really, you've seen stranger? To be honest, maybe it's a little self-important, but I'd think a large heavily armored tiger-man-person with six guns hanging off of his armor would be really up near the top of the list." This, of course, was basically the first direct interaction between monsters (kind of) and humans in this world, and if he didn't feel so bizarrely elated right now, he'd probably have approached it with more gravitas. But, hell, with her approach, this was totally fine. "You see a lot of people that look like us, then? Or do you just mean people who are stranger in a figurative sense? As far as I understand, the monsters around here have been locked away under that mountain for basically forever. Frankly, I'm a bit surprised by the nonchalance, though given the circumstances I'm not going to complain. A karaoke bar is a damn weird place for a first contact, but," He knocked back a shot of vodka. "Really, like I said, I'm not going to whine too much about it."

Sitting at a stool at the karaoke bar, after taking a moment to verify that the weight of all his gear wasn't going to cause it to turn into a pile of splinters, Nader leaned an arm on the table and couldn't help but feel relaxed. Actually, now that he thought about it, he reflected that he should probably be feeling way more of a sense of urgency than he was. After all, this moment was a big deal - the second time in this world since that far-off war where humans and monsters met, and maybe the first one big enough to really make waves, if he had to guess. But, well... after everything that had gone on, down there in the underground, after all that it had meant for him, all he had gone through, the way he was now changed... ...well, it was hard to feel anything but laid-back, something the sound of carefree childish singing wasn't really helping. He swivelled a now-tiger-y head to look around the bar, and... "Y'know what? After all of this, I could really use a drink." He considered for a moment. No chance they had arak, nobody outside of Forenia seemed to know what the hell that he even was, but vodka? Yeah, that wasn't a half bad bet. He patted for where his wallet was under his armor, preparing to unhook a plate and awkwardly shimmy a hand between his armor backing and his pants, but then... "Aw, fuck. Do, uh... do any of you have any American money? At least I assume we're in the states. I kind of, uh... only have Forenian money on me."

Agile though she was, Isobel's build betrayed the fact that she really was not much of an endurance person, focused mostly on bursts of agility than she was doing things like walking long distances. After all, on a compact space station where she mostly just stood around and carefully tended plants except for during occasional bursts of hellish violence, one of those things was much more valuable than the other! Still, eventually, she made it up to Masako's house, dutifully ignoring all the strange looks and their potential consequences, though she was huffing and puffing juuuust a little by the time she finally made it over. She was able to speak fine after a gulp of air, though. "Well, this is certainly an interesting place you've got here." She didn't mean it sarcastically - the eclectic fusion gave it a quirky air of fusion between the mechanical and the natural/traditional, something she often experienced whenever she had a coworker botanist who was committed to decoration with wood and grass in the middle of a space station, which did sometimes happen. "Iiiii don't suppose you feel like mentioning who it is you're expecting?"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute... are those Nazis???" Despite all the craziness that this insane multiversal journey brought with it, this managed to still raise Perlita's eyebrows - she had to resist the urge to throw her shoulders into a disbelieving shrug. But... well, she really didn't have the time to spare just standing around shrugging! Or, well, actually, she kind of did. Despite how these fights were usually madhouses (and, well, of course this one still was), there was actually still a bit of a lull in the need for healing. After the awakening of the very ominous deity-ish thing, she wasn't sure that she really wanted to grind more coins - so going on the attack, she flung a pair of light spells at Magic, orbs of bright light that spun and coalesced in on themselves until they imploded! For her first action, Perlita uses Hama on Magic, dealing 1d4+SYN (14) damage with a 30% chance to deal twice that! For her second action, Perlita. . . does it again!

Flies Freely laughed a bit. "Geez, dude, I'm not gonna fleece you, the shinies are just a means to an end and I only really need as much as I have to use to keep getting bye. Hey, I'm gonna be honest with you, I was ready to hand over a sum of it myself to get out of here if it was what it took, I'm really not actually looking to guy for these die-- er, uh, die for these guys, you know? Feel bad for ditching some of them, since a couple of the archers are actually pretty cool, but I think we all knew this moment was coming sooner or later, haha."

Nader took in a deep breath, looked out, and sighed. "To tell you the truth... well, while the technical explanation is nice to have, because it helps me clear the vestiges of that... fucked-up set of delusions I'd been operating on... well, it's your explanation of your logic that gets me, in a different way. It... hits home, I guess. See, I'm not actually a pacifist person - not at all, really. My whole people isn't pacifist. I come from a country called Forenia, which time and time again has managed to secure its freedom only through bloody fighting, and which has people trying to conquer it... well, right now. And we've been forced into pragmatic decisions. We've had to ally with monsters --er, uh, the metaphorical kind, sorry-- in order to fight off this invasion from foes nearly as awful, and though I've been acting to fix some of the wrongs involved there... even my own work has been at times purely pragmatic. And they're not the exact same situation, but... well, I have been faced with the choice before of staying trapped or fighting my way out, and I chose fighting." Nader adjusted his sleeves in a short bit of fidgeting, not having expected to open up on this much to so many people so soon... but the change in his circumstances made it a hell of a lot easier, that was for sure. "So, no, I don't really find that I blame you for your logic. And I think that's maybe something that's common to people, human or monster. In the end, most of us just find that fighting it out is the purest way to struggle for our freedom. Sure, you've got the occasional person who is deeply peaceful in their heart... Asgore is that way, despite the whole soul scheme. But I'm not. And I don't think you have to be either. So maybe my second read of things was off a bit... I don't condemn you for it." He cleared his throat. "...and there I go off rambling myself. But... yes, I think I'm alright with your explanation. Which leads me to my second order of business: there's another fight coming, and it's almost certainly not going to be one you guys are going to be able to avoid. I don't mean with the humans aboveground, you can probably figure something out there, politics is a pliable thing. But we're not the only things going between worlds - there are things called Trespassers which have the express intent of eating worlds. I'm not sure that the monsters around here benefit from being told this in general... with how much hope and despair seem to matter, I don't know that I'd weigh this on most of them. But I think you've probably got the most important set of talents to help prepare. A fight is coming to this world... and you will need to be prepared for attackers when they come."

"Aw naw naw naw man, it's not about their cause. I don't really care about that all that much - I'm just here 'cause they've got the money and they're kinda far out from the Domains." "You see... I just wanted out, it was awful back there in the Domains. Everything was so damned rigid, so locked in officers and hierarchies and all that... wasn't room to breathe! I wasn't really sure what to do, but then you left and became a mercenary, and I realized... well, hey, maybe I can manage that too! And, so, eheh, well, here we are."

Without warning, there was the whistle of an arrow slicing through the air - thankfully for the vulnerable bird-riding mercenary, it wasn't aimed at him, but rather at a certain redheaded ant. Lotus attacks Corporal Dart! That whistling sound was followed by the thk of the arrow finding flesh, causing Corporal Dart to cry out and clutch at her arm. She looked around frantically, failing at first to realize who struck her, until her eyes finally landed on the stealthily still mantis, holding her bow, eyes locked on Dart, at which point her lips curled into a snarl. "Oh, you bitch! I'm gonna come for you as soon as I-" Unfortunately for Corporal Dart, Lotus was not the only bug that she had to contend with - Sting came hurtling in at her, and Dart barely managed to react in time to deal with the assault, body twitching to face Sting with a single frantic motion, as Dart raised her knives. Sting attacks Corporal Dart! Yet, somehow, despite the precarious position that she found herself, Corporal Dart proved what gave her name and probably her rank, that frantic motion being interrupted by a second one almost in the opposite direction - but instead of being twisted up on her feet and falling to the ground, Dart ended up inside Sting's guard, dodging the thrust of her rapier and managing a solid blow with one knife, before she flowed back out of immediate strike range from Sting. "Now, how do you like that?" Brilliant, meanwhile, loped on over around poor Secludie to crouch down and heal the big lug of bee that seemed to have, for now, met his match in the squad of enemies they'd defeated. "Well, admittedly I'd kinda been hoping this all wouldn't happen... but, uh, don't worry, I'll make you great as grass!" And she booped him a little with her staff - truthfully speaking, not something necessary, but certainly theatric. (Curiosity, from her shoulder, waved a much much tinier staff at him, complete with a single magic sparkle to add to Brilliant's staff's!) Recruit Bend looked at Corporal Dart with a look that could best be characterized as a mixture of disgust and fear. "Awwwww man, these people really are fucking nuts. Scuse me Stardust, scuse me Pinecone-- gonna just--" tooooot "Lotus PLEASE take care of her!" Lotus attacks Corporal Dart! Lotus very well obliged. Dart may have been able to dodge Sting's somewhat clumsy strike, but dodging another nearly silent arrow from a p-particularly still archer with a longbow was another thing entirely. Dart suddenly found herself on her back on the ground, looked towards her legs to see another arrow jutting out of her thigh, and then sighed. "Dammit." Corporal Dart is dead! TURN 2 ~ ENEMY PHASE The lone surviving ant of her squad (probably), the initiate fire mage looked around at the situation for a moment - that had been fast. But... "Well, guess what, buddy, she's not the ONLY one of us who's 'fucking nuts'--" "Why are you proud of that??" "--so you better watch out, 'cuz I'm coming for YOU!" Fire Initiate A attacks Recruit Bend! A bolt of fire flew past Bend's head, preempted by him flinching violently out of the way and covering his face, and followed by him slowly uncovering it, peeking out, noticing he hadn't been hit, and then extending a middle finger at his assailant. "MISSED! Ha-ha!" Meanwhile, Flies Freely leaned in towards one of the snipers he was working with. "Hey, I'm gonna be talking with those guys, so I can't be carrying you right now. You lot should probably get moving." There was a groan in response. "Really? You've got to be kidding... ugh. Well, figures. I guess you'll probably end up scooting soon, the way this is going, even if we're getting our licks in. C'mon, folks, let's get moving." He then drove his pigeon to the very top of the edge in the sidewalk he was standing over. "Hey, hey, hey, Ebon, so here's the deal! Doubt you remember me much, but, uh, if you do, it'll be as Calmness Under Fire. I was one of the mantis who was around you briefly - I saw you leave for the whole mercenary thing, and I just have to say, totally inspirational. Made me realize I ought to pick up and run life another way myself." The snipers, meanwhile, scooted away. TURN 3 ~ PLAYER PHASE Map Notes Status EXP: 34/100

Satomi put her hands on her hips, staring just a bit frustratedly at the vague darkness where her erstwhile conversational partner had one been. "Well, that was quite the mix of cryptic and straightforward, wasn't it? Still, on the whole, I suppose that that was helpful." She started almost imperceptibly at the sound of Kusuke's voice, and then turned to him. "Ah! Kusuke-san. I admit that I had temporarily become lost myself - it's quite the maze of a city, to be sure. Still, my quest to find something useful has turned out to be a success indeed. I met an individual who, though perhaps somewhat suspicious, claims to be from another organization that is also a foe of the Trespassers, or at least has some manner of interest in the strengthening of worlds against them. I cannot know their ultimate goals, and he was very clearly intentionally vague, but it is useful to know that the force we belong to is not the only one that is acting in defense of the multiverse." She nodded and crossed her arms, giving Kusuke a very much triumphant look. "And, it should be noted, by the by, my attempts to find a worthwhile activity to pursue ultimately met with success! I was given this package," here she waved it with a little self-satisfied flourish, "and told that if I deliver it to the accessory shop, I will be given a task that is more productive than what we have had offered to us here. We will... simply have to make our way back to the entrance, a point from which I have been given directions." She realized that that was still perhaps somewhat daunting, but not enough not to press onwards! "Would you care to join me, Kusuke-san?"

Nader laughed a little at the good doctor's (well, frankly speaking, at least a bit better of a doctor than Alphys, if Asgore's memories and actions were any indication) admission that he had no idea who Nader was. Well... there was one avenue of closure out the window, right there, Nader supposed. But that wasn't all that he could talk to Gaster about, by any means. It was a bit funny, at least, that the same phrases he'd seen in the lab entries did pop up in the man's speech. It was just the way he spoke, apparently. "Well, hah, I suppose I've just got to accept that. Hmm... well, if there's one thing you could do for me in terms of closure... could you help confirm for me the truth, at least to the best degree that you can? I think I was able to see your lab entries and the traces of your existence thanks to the fact that... well, there's no way to dance around it, there was something very wrong in my head for a very long time, and I was somehow hallucinating something that didn't actually exist anymore. At the time, I had been ranting and raving about... ah, damn, this is embarrassing to admit now, but about how you were trying to become a god and a mistake in the process of ascension fractured you across time, and that you set up all of those hallucinations to get me to accidentally cause you to regain your form. When ASGORE held my soul and my brain wasn't part of the equation, I thought about it more rationally. This was the set of conclusions I came to: You... though frankly understandably no great fan of humans, didn't like Asgore's plan to just wait for them to fall down, and then take their souls at the came. Maybe you did or did not think it was cruel -you certainly didn't seem to want to request a large number of souls for experimentation, instead working with what you had- but it was certainly something that would have taken too long. You hoped to extract energy using human SOULS in a way that didn't destroy them, letting you use just the couple of SOULS you had access to to create a much much larger amount of energy than you should have had access to. You extracted energies called KARMA and DETERMINATION, the former of which apparently intrinsically damages human souls, and attempted to use them for the purpose of creating energy, but couldn't contain or use these in any practical way on their own. But you discovered parallel timelines and methods of partial time travel, able to send KARMA through time. You still couldn't quite use that on its own, because KARMA on its own decays, and those experiments themselves... didn't go very well, er, to put it lightly. But with that figured out, you attempted to bridge this knowledge to travel time, and then that experiment led to... well... you being scattered throughout time. I may just be in my own little pocket of our pocket of the multiverse, but even then I've been through a lot, so if you could tell me how close I am to the truth... it would be appreciated. I'd like to put my own set of pieces back together, so to speak." He paused, and then: "Oh, and I do actually have something important and material to tell you about, but that can wait just a bit."

Lizaveta maintained a tight grip on the tome in her hands and stayed back just a bit for this round of combat. Her knuckles were white as she clutched her tome; the conflicting things that she was feeling her still causing a swirling storm of uncertainty to roil in her gut. Still... she supposed that she didn't really want her distress to be immediately obvious, so she spoke. "It... looks like we've got everything under control for now, but I'll step in if either side starts getting overwhelmed."