Powder Miner

"Maybe they're taunting us. Maybe they're attempting to tell us these things so that they can justify doing this to their people, or to us in some twisted way. Maybe it is some sort of distraction to prevent us approaching their city if they failed to station people in the Judgement Hall. Maybe if it's an explanation it is to lull us into a false sense of security. I couldn't tell you, I can't read minds, but what I can tell you is that I saw a sign for a room of human graves. That's pretty Allah-damned telling." Ignia's remarks only got a look from Nader, one that appeared dispassionate simply because his face was invisible behind the slightly angled mask on his head. "What, do you think that nobody who kills anybody can have any nice or normal things like food stands? I can tell you for a fact that that isn't true."

(Belated) Background Track: As Law sat atop his Quizzical Emanation Device, pondering, Ena's perfectly logical and reasonable questions brought the two men sitting on the rocks to a standstill for a few moments -- they both looked at each other for a silent couple of seconds, both of their brows simultaneously furrowed, and they both began to speak. “Uhhhhh, he looks like, kind of like, somewhat like--” “He has a white beard, I'm mostly sure he has a white beard." “Does-- does he? He has a white beard? Okay, what Didi said, then, er... whatever your name is, ma'am. Godot? Is your name Godot? I don't think you have a white beard. I don't think she has a white beard, Didi.” “I could be wrong, you never know. Maybe it's a she-- no, I think it's a he. With a white beard." “Are you actually a he, ma'am? Are you... hiding a white beard anywhere? Er, how do you know about the white beard, Didi?” “The Boy. He always comes with the messages from Godot, Gogo." “I don't remember... oh... maybe I DO remember you telling me about those.” Kusuke's usage of his powers was... well, it hadn't stopped working, but the results were bizarre. His jaunt three feet to the left popped him directly in front of Satomi, drawing a surprised squeak and a reflexive step back from the girl, as he was sent left of both of his own feet and one of Satomi's. "W-wha-- Kusuke-sa--" His jump intended to move him two seconds into the past then proceeded to disappear him from the group's view, causing the samurai girl's voice to falter as she watched him then disappear. Well, that was at least normal, right? But he didn't appear back for a while. "Kusuke-san...?" Kusuke woke up behind one of the rocks the men were sitting on -- neither seemed to notice him at all. Actually, it was strange -- aside from the fact that he was profoundly disoriented, because his sense of time was completely garbled while he'd traveled, he had the distinct feeling that he'd been asleep behind that rock for hours, despite the fact that he was confident he had willed his drive to move back exactly two seconds in time. But he at least knew that he hadn't moved beyond the day they were currently in, that much was solid.

Stretch initially reached his hand out as well, a disturbingly fluid moment (as in, his joints only seemed like half of the movement) that presented to Harry a six-fingered hand, with an eager smile on his face. "Hey man," he said, "my name is Stretch Armstrong!" Stretch's enthusiasm faltered as Harry and Lucian spoke, and his smile died a little as he pulled his hand back a little (although that one was because a bunch of people were offering their hands too). What these two were saying made him nervous. Harry was talking about being careful and asking people before doing things, and Stretch mostly didn't have a problem with that, at least what he understood. After all, he had been very careful to listen to Tobacco when he was in her village, and this was probably the same thing, right? But healing... Stretch's facial expression deepened into a frown. "Hey, uh, if somebody is hurt and needs my help, I'm, uh, I'm not gonna just leave them injured, man." As for Lucian, talking about being from a big and rich corporation didn't exactly put Stretch at ease, either, and his frown twisted to be more nervous. His experience with corporations was with Hawtorn and Nutrivatco and... they were going to wipe out a lot of really nice people who didn't deserve it. He hoped this "KugeSchmiede" was different, but it was still a little scary.

Nader pondered but for a short moment before he replied to Lucine with a sigh. "Forwards, I suppose. We don't really have much of an option, especially since I suspect the others will be advancing and fanning out without us, so we'll just have to try to keep you safe through that Judgement Hall. Keep your eyes open, okay?" And so the two of them had caught up with most of the other group, to Nader's surprise finding no imminent enemy ambush in the Judgement Hall -- just in time to catch the creation of a hologram which transmitted them a message. Nader nearly had a heart attack at the sight, the armored man letting out an "Ohshitwhatthefuck," and leveling a gun at the hologram before finally catching on that it was fake but also something the others seemed to respond to. His posture relaxed --slightly-- and he lapsed into silence for a moment, before speaking in a grim tone. "Guess I was right, but not about when the ambush would happen. Looks like they want to explain why to us, for whatever reason. To taunt us? To justify to themselves? But if they talk about a human falling down injured and crying for help, and then there's a room of human graves, graves plural, I trust you all can make the connection to what happened next. I've said this already, but keep on your toes. They'll probably wait until they're done talking to attack us, but it might be a distraction too so letting your guard down would be a bad idea. Better we move forward than sit around, though."

"Um, we... haven't been told much about them. All I really knew I guess was that Judge was big, angry, and liked smashing things... er, all of which were in fact true." Perlita kind of shrugged helplessly -- now that she thought about it, there really wasn't much that she could tell the newcomer at all about what was going on here. "Oh! I can't really say for sure, but it looked like he was, uh, possessed by a Trespasser, which we've seen happen before, since there was this dark energy thing he was talking to that consumed him when he dies. It probably sounds ridiculous I guess, but I think maybe it gives him new things he can do? That's how it was with the people we saw before... but I guess I don't really have anything to compare it to so... maybe that doesn't actually say all that much." Aaand back to shrugging helplessly. "Oh, my name is Perlita Martinez Diaz though. This guy," she pointed now at one of the other teenagers, "is Gabriel Kowalski. Uh, we both can summon these things called Personas, which are like these weird manifestations which give us magical abilities whenever we summon them. Please don't be startled because I'm gonna do it:" Perlita moves her arm up in the air and grasped something invisible to all but her and Gabriel, and it abruptly caused... well, an eight foot woman to appear behind her, or at least what looked like one, with a glitzy cape, short dress, and eerie blank appearance, before it promptly disappeared. "Mine mostly lets me heal, so if you have any injuries, just talk to me."

Navin's mouth quirked into a small frown at the senator's words -- he was trying to make the package appear non-suspicious, but to be rank the way he was doing so was in about the most suspicious way possible. It really looked like the sort of way that those occasional squads of superheroes funded by a corporate mogul or government official tended to act. Oh, we're harmless and just fighting for the safety and justice of the populace, they'd say, we're just superheroes like the rest of you, they'd say, and then they would brutally destroy a city square halfway by accident or do some sort of shady covert assassination operation, or something. The memories made Navin close his eyes and rub his temples lightly, for a moment. Those had always been... pains. This reminded Navin of that sort of thing, and he hoped that he was not getting involved in something secretly morally grey and destructive, but of course, he almost certainly was, that was how exchanging covert operations with powerful and mysterious government agents tended to work. Navin sighed. He supposed that the best they could do was to mitigate that factor to the best extent. "...right. Well, I suppose that we are ready."

"Ow! I'm really getting sick of that!" Isobel's reaction to getting struck by the stars was one of frustration: they weren't really doing much to significantly hurt her, and she'd certainly had injuries a lot worse even on the Exodus (which seemed like forever ago), but that didn't make it any less annoying to be getting pelted by attacks from this awful witch-hat lady. Or, maybe she was corrupted by something like those Servants had been? Isobel wasn't sure, but either way, she was getting hit and most definitely not in the way she-- anyway, it was annoying but really she couldn't do much about it, so all she could do was keep trying to help. Right now, this consisted of shoving a flower into, uh, a robot? Wait, if LOTUS was a fairy did that mean that Lambd-- oh, she kept getting distracted. "Here, take this!" LOTUS let out a sigh and then finally shouted out the advice of "HIT HER!" In LOTUS' normal form, this would mean an electronic sigh and a dry masculine voice, but in the case of fary form LOTUS, it was a frustrated and somewhat high-pitched feminine yell, which voice-cracked in the middle of it, causing the fairy to blush and hide further into Isobel's pocket. "A-ah, um, that was... anyway, we're not doing much damage to her and we don't need THIS much defense! Start beating her up more! If she's coming for you, take the opportunity to get her as follows:" Isobel uses Healing Poppy on Lambda, healing her for 4d4+INT damage! LOTUS uses Weakness Pinpoint on Marisa once again, giving attacks aimed at her a 10% crit chance for two turns thanks to Tactical Uplink: Partial! Active Cooldowns: Tactical Uplink (Partial) upcoming in three turns.  15% dodge chance, 20% poison damage reduction and poisoning effect durations shortened by one round.

Nader sighed upon watching everybody go off their own separate ways -- he had expected this was going to happen at some point, but ideally it would have not been immediately upon coming across the Judgement Hall and Human Graves. His lips curled into a snarl under his mask, one that could be quietly heard by those near him. It left him with no doubt at all as to what was going on. They were attracting (somehow) and killing humans -- with the hole on that end, and on this end with this "Judgement Hall". Sickening. Well, they sure as fuck weren't going to get him -- the moment they sprung their little trap, whoever "they" were, they were going to get fucking shot. "Try not to go too far into the "Judgement Hall" - it is almost certainly where they prepare the traps to kill humans." He checked, for the third time, that his guns were ready to let loose, and then he noticed that one person --specifically, the child in the group-- hadn't left the throne room. He watched Lucine play around with the throne and then sit on it, then he approached her. "Lucine, you shouldn't be alone in this place. It's already bad enough that we're split up in here, but when they trigger their trap, it's better that at least you're by somebody tough like me, instead of on your own."

Candide strode forward, and he didn't draw a weapon or blast with magic -- he had neither sword nor tome, after all. Instead he approached Mercia, from the right, and began to sing. He was not singing in the language of Tameloc, so it was quite likely that she could not understand what he was actually saying, but his voice was rich and deep. His baritone tone likely reached the ears of many, but the confident tones of his words were meant primarily for the half-dragon girl. Even if he could not likely be understood, there was a spirit behind his singing, fortitude and vigor and the enthusiasm of a fresh start conveyed through clear tones that slid smoothly between words, the nature of the man's native language allowing for his deep voice to keep its tones with only brief, metered interruptions, syllables sliding together into the careful structure of not a song, but a poem. "Là, les hommes silencieux | qui serais conquérants; ici, les defendeurs arrivent | voici les combattants. Mais les envahisseurs | vont perdent à la couronne; nous avons le fort sang | d'une jeune demi-dragonne! La charme n'a pas tué | mais tu n'est pas fini; les mots et ta magie | font combat reussie!" I10, dance Mercia.

Well, Jack considered as he extremely casually hurtled through open space surrounded by a very small little pressure field towards a dangerous asteroid complex, he could either go with the mercenary chick or the psycho wanna-be-Papa-Vanu bitch, and while it wouldn't really be a big deal if he got nailed in the back of the head by a space laser or whatever, he figured it would probably be a better time to follow Scarlet. (That is, he considered the choice of who to follow, not his situation; he didn't really care about that.) He casually entered the living quarters, unslinging his big hefty "light" machine gun from his back and keeping it in a relaxed pose, evidently not seeming to care about barrel sweeping people with it, though he was at least generally facing the doors. "Anything interesting in here?"

Lizaveta practically threw herself at the enemy dark mage, unnecessarily so given that she was wielding magic; she got right up close to him with a shout of "Alright, you son of a bitch!" and then she flung deadly magic at him. F21, attack Shaman B.

Stretch looked to Bianca, his neck actually maybe twisting a bit as he did, it was hard to tell, and he began to explain... though how informative it actually was was certainly debatable. "Uh, well, back home there are these, uhhh, places with people in them, like there's the village called Chantenay, and it's of rabbit people. They like to make a lot of grass things, but they were fighting the village of snake people, which includes my friend Rope who didn't get brought along. Uh, so, I stretched my neck until I accidentally became chief of the snake village, and I started making them a firepit so they could cook their food and not have to fight the rabbit people, and it was looking like things were going to be nice. But then this guy with a donkey hoof showed up who said he was from a group called NutriVat Something Something Something, and that he was going to try to get the Sacred Oil that the rabbit people used, and I fought him but he escaped and was going to bring help. Uh, so I got warning I was gonna get picked up and helped them prepare, but... I'm still worried."

Among the evident guests of the room was a very strange figure indeed; a man in an eclectic collection of clothing; brown shoes, brown shorts, a bright cyan plastic-like tube top with a hole in the chest which showed off a strange brass sphere, even brighter cyan tubes leading from it back into the tube top and up to his arms and head. That head appeared to be almost entirely bald, with what looked for all the world like a blue pot perched upon his head. The strangeness of the figure didn't stop there, though. He had six fingers on each hand, and each and every one of his movements seemed to vaguely wobble him -- visible at the moment because of the fact that he was walking over to a chair, sitting down in it and seeming to mold to the chair as much as the chair molded to him. Lightly kicking his legs, the man frowned. "Um... I know I got a couple days and all to help the snakes and rabbits defend against those mean, fuckin', uh, what was it, NutriVat guys, but, uh... are they gonna be okay? I mean, I was told that... everyone would be hurt if these "Trespassers" came and everyone wasn't helped so I'm totally staying and stuff, but, man... I'm worried about them." There was a pause as the man considered something. "Oh... yeah... also, uh, who is everyone here? My name is Stretch Armstrong!"

"Right, well, I expected that much. We have unique tools at our disposal to deal with that, at least, like the bus. I'm more concerned with staying alive in here than I am about getting out, so try not to split up, people." Nader looked around. "There's noone here right now, but that doesn't mean there won't be soon or later on. Keep on your toes. Could be that they're preparing in a further room that's less wide open in case they've got things that work better in the enclosed spaces." Nader checked each of his weapons an additional time, for good measure. "So that means that we should be keeping together."

Ceridwen winced a little as the extremely young mage hit the ground, but she was satisfied that at least she had been as gentle as she possibly could be when, you know, trying to subdue somebody with a lance. That was in sharp contrast to Argos, who, well... he would get to see Ceridwen staring at him jaw agape for a moment, before she turned back to the fight at hand -- she was well enough trained to not get too distracted in combat. Instead she ran (reflecting that all this armor was much easier when atop Ynddi) once again into the fray. "Okay. Okay...!" Ceridwen moves to Z22

Perlita, once again, nearly jumped out of her skin when something else came falling out of the sky -- this time, another person, with some sort of pouch-ridden gear and a frankly somewhat intimidating skull helmet. "AH!" Perlita put a hand to her chest for a moment, taking a breath to un-startle herself. Man oh man was she getting tired of things suddenly falling from the sky without any warning. This was, like, the third time it had happened when she'd been in the group, and she hadn't been in the larger group for very long at all. Eventually, she let that breath out, long and quiet, and looked at Lyra. "Uh... we're, like, a group of people who fight these other-dimensional creatures which are trying to eat the entire multiverse... which probably sounds insane, but... I guess just stick with us and it'll make sense. We can answer further questions about that, probably. Uh... right now we're here to help this world with some people with these people who are criminals and trying to mess it up. Like, uh, the giant guy with the big hammer we just beat." Perlita reflected that her rambling probably sounded random and dumb, but... whatever.

“What we've done... ahaha--" “I'm really not sure what we--” “Ahaha, ahahaha, ahahahahahaha!" The thinner man slapped a hand to his forehead as he begin to laugh uproariously, gales of chest-rocking laughter that lasted so long and was so loud that he began to tremble, gasping in and sucking in breath as his companion began to look at him with an expression of concern. Sharp bursts of amusement left his mouth in a cascade of laughter that seemed to be without end, lasting for several seconds and ending up with the gaunt man wiping a tear from his eye, his laughter finally trailing off into little bursts of giggles that came at irregular intervals between his words. “Ahaha, aha, ha. Ah. What a question. Ha. We waited for Godot." The portlier of the two men looked at his companion for a few seconds before he turned uncertainly at Ena. “Um... does that give you any ideas, then? We would really like some. As I'm sure you can see, we've had trouble thinking of them.” Satomi frowned, her hands still on Kusuke's shoulders to stabilize him in case he ended up needing it. "Your drive... that would be the power that has been allowing you to jump around in time, yes? I don't think I could tell you whether or not it is your drive that's making you feel that way, but I suppose it would make sense, considering that I don't feel that way and I don't think he--" The jerk of her thumb at Leo and her barely restrained tone made it clear who she was talking about, "is very dizzy either, by the looks of it. Maybe you could try... a minor usage of your power? Just, very minor, in case whatever this is turns out to be harmful."

Candide listened as the others introduced themselves, and his eyebrows raised at Mercia's proclamation of being a half-dragon: that, too, was something totally new to Candide. It was a strange party indeed that the Queen seemed to have gathered; half-fae, half-dragon, and a blind man. Fascinating. Once the others had introduced themselves, Candide did as well. ""My name is Candide Durant, former Poet-Knight of the Duchy of Lorne in the Kingdom of Arne. I am afraid that the cavalry charges of my knightdom have been put to an end, but I am nonetheless still skilled with my armor, and skilled with my words -- I may only hope that these skills will prove of value to you all, inspiring or protecting in a very direct sense."

Neeeeeew teeeeeeeert

Nader sighed, looking at the gigantic doorway, and he checked each and every one of his six guns to ensure that they were all loaded. "If whatever is causing the psionics to not return caused Rachel to be unable to come back as well despite her flying backpack, sending a scout in on their own doesn't seem like a fantastic idea to me. We won't want to send anyone in to get stranded on their own if something grabs them and prevents them from coming back, and though I realize I've already split us to some extent, what we do have here should probably be presented all at once so if anything DOES try to get us we can fight it off. Still, some caution is merited crossing this thing, so I'm going to try first. Follow me." Nader crossed through into the mountain's second entrance, but he did so in a manner that was naturally extremely careful. First, he pulled off his PAW and slowly stuck it through the barrier, making sure that the gun wasn't completely dissolved or something. Then, he stuck his finger's tip into the barrier, and if nothing horrific happened he would turn to the others, nod, state "Come on. We have to present a strong front," and walked through.

As the other mercenary began taking shots at the egotistical "goddess", Jack muttered, "Well shit, if we're gonna be having a fight I wanna fuckin' win it," to himself, and slapped at something on his suit, causing a blue shield to flare up briefly before said shield faded into invisibility. Thankfully, the other mercenary's blasts did a number on the wannabe Vanu-like cult-worship-recipient, and that made Jack's job a lot easier. He got up out of his seat, his pistol still trained on Stella, and he crouched down over her, one foot on her stomach, pistol pointed at her forehead while he slowly withdrew his knife from the other hand and held it, lightly enough not to draw any blood, to Stella's throat -- though the blood from his own wound made a small puddle by her neck. "Now then. You won't find this very easy to just blast away. I'm gonna say it again; you gonna cut this shit out? You're pretty much fucked if you don't, at this point. Overshield." The voice command caused another shield to pop up over him, one that stayed visible, glowing brightly in the confines of the ship, one that Stella could feel pressing lightly against her -- a much more solid nanite mesh.

Satomi moved to catch Kusuke -- though the physical contact made her somewhat nervous, she found, since Kusuke had done her the favor earlier of... well, helping her get through... Satomi decided to cut off that train of thought, and to instead peer up concernedly at the time-traveling boy. "Kusuke-san? Are... you alright?" At his question, she frowned and thought for a moment -- it felt... unnatural here. Unnerving, actually, seeing as the unnatural feeling of that place with the marionettes had frankly shaken her quite badly too. But... not dizzying, no. "No, um, it just... feels strange. I don't think it's making me stumble around." “Uh...” The two men looked briefly stunned at all, before they got to replying. “Godot... Godot... uh, I think he's a person? I guess you could eat him but you probably shouldn't?” “I think I've been told... he has a white beard?" “Wait, what? When did you find that out? That's not fair!” “Gogo, it... I can't explain it. But... yes, we are definitely waiting for Godot! For quite some time..." The thinner man frowned and lapsed into thought, but then Ena spoke and both men seemed to perk up. “If you're Godot...!" “If you're Godot...!” Several seconds of silence followed as they both, now, lapsed into thought. “If you're Godot I think we were maybe hoping for you to tell us what we'd do?”

Finally, after traveling through multiple dimensional locales, the bus and the Weatherlight stop in another location, the slight jolt of landing announcing to the passengers of the latter that the ship had touched on solid ground. Those waiting for the vehicles to continue would find that even after several moments, they stayed firmly planted where they were. End of the line, then, at least for now. Leaving the ships, those of the party still remaining would find themselves immediately struck by two things. The first was that wherever they had ended up was an awfully barren place. In three directions, there was nothing but dirt, light brown, dry, and dusty, stretching as far as the eye could see — no matter how good said eye was. There were occasional patches of green grass, but even those faded away with distance, growing sparser and sparser before the horizon became absolutely nothing, stretching far away. The second striking thing was that the place felt strange. Even those without any magical senses whatsoever could feel something unsettling about the place — something they wouldn’t be able to put their finger on, but which did not feel natural. For two people, these feelings were significantly more acute, and likely quite concerning. Ena’s internal sensors were practically blaring to her that everything was fucked, ever, but other sensors to the outside, such as sight and hearing, were completely unable to verify this reading — she could not detect anything specific. As for Kusuke, he was getting a very distinct feeling of dizziness, one that was likely extremely alarming but which he could at least evidently banish with effort... though the unnerving effect of it likely remained. Though three directions of the area from the ships had nothing, it seemed that one actually contained a few things. Several yards away from the ship was a road, a narrow little one which stretched into the horizon, and a few yards off of that was a pair of rocks, around four feet high, and a tree — a bizarrely deciduous looking one, for such a dry place. On top of each of these rocks was a man. They both looked like older fellows, in their fifties most likely, and both had brown hair with grey streaks, old suits, and bowler hats. One of the men was somewhat rounder, and fairly short, though not fat, clean-shaven — and his suit looked absolutely beaten up, the man missing one shoe (which on closer inspection appeared to have been flung several feet away). He was sleeping. One of these men was thinner, gaunter, taller and looked more pristine, with a thin beard and mustache. He... well, he was freaking out. “Buh— whuh— huh— G— Gogo! Gogo! Estragon!” He grabbed the bowler hat off of his head and tossed it like a frisbee at the other man, the hat bouncing lightly off of his head. The other man sleepily blinked and stirred, then his eyes shit open as he beheld the party and also started freaking out. “Vladimir; what did you wake me up fooooOOOOR?! Are— are they Godot??” “Good question... I really have no idea!” He faced the party: ”Hey! Is one of you Godot?!” The more beaten-up-looking man spoke again, causing Vladimir to turn his head. “Wait, wait, wait, Didi, Didi, what if they’re all Godot?” This got a pensive pause from the thinner man, before he boded and looked back to the party. ”Hey! Are all of you Godot?!”

Candide’s brow furrowed in confusion now — they were getting further into this, it looked, and he still didn’t quite understand what was going on. One of them was one of those “half-fae”? He had been read of them before, but they had always just seemed like something strange and mythical to him, and his brief time in Tameloc still had him adjusting to basically grasping the context. And there was shapeshifting, of some sort? Hmm... he probably could not quite get away with pretending to know what was going on here, could he? He still didn’t want to come off as lost and baffled to the Queen, though, so he quietly leaned towards one of the people not presently speaking — Mercia, and spoke quietly. “Mes— er, my apologies, but... could you perhaps discreetly provide me with some context, here? I have a perhaps fairly obvious problem with observing what is going on.”