Powder Miner

Jack started slightly as Scarlet evidently had enough and fired off two shots, one of which was interrupted and the other of which nailed its target... evidently nonlethally. Jack guessed that she really wasn’t kidding about those stunners. If he’d been a more resigned or reasonable person, he’d have sighed, but instead he just looked at Stella, and proceeded to pull his pistol out of his holster with his other hand, the good one, while making a bloody finger-gun at Stella with the other, bleeding more on the floor in the process. ”I’m thinking I like this chick’s style better. Not gonna shootcha unless you blast her too, but if you do, well, you know.”

Nader, judging from the crossing of his arms, wasn’t terribly impressed. ”Alright, hold up. You’ve mostly got impressions to work off of here, Proditor. Even if they’re psychic impressions, you don’t seem to actually know what state they’re in there. Even if they aren’t dead, they could be extremely injured, or they could be stuck in a trap and captured if this entrance was foreseen as a potential point at which to capture travelers in a particular state of vulnerability. After all, if you’ve just fallen a long distance and are hurt or even just stunned then you’re easy prey. Especially in my armor, I don’t think that just... blindly fucking jumping blindly down there is a good idea. The details are a little unclear, since the vision was frankly pretty fucking freaky to me, but wasn’t there a doorway in another spot on that mountain? Big-ass hall behind it, and all?”

”What the fu...”” Nader spoke but trailed off as he carefully advanced towards the hole — but not the rim of it, seeing as he was rather wary of falling and fucking dying. He had been rather late to the action because he’d both been keeping up the rear and being as slow as he usually was with his hundreds of pounds of gear. He looked down at the gigantic hole, and then at Lucine — yeah... he couldn’t imagine that having a fantastic effect on a kid, but right now he had something else to deal with. Specifically, Nader stared at the hole for a few moments, and after Rachel and Arminius didn’t come back up he looked at Proditor. ”Well, fuck. Now the fuck what?”

The bolt traveled to Jack’s hand, tossing his gun away and mangling a few fingers as his arm was thumped back into the seat and the gun torn violently out of his grip. Jack didn’t seem too bothered though, as after a ”Hooh man,” he just bent down to pick his pistol up with his good hand and put it back into his holster. Then, once again upright, he turned his sunglasses-covered gaze back towards Stella and gestures at her casually with his wounded hand, tossing a few droplets of blood onto the ground with that gesture. “Y’know, if you’re trying to get respect or whatever, a gigantic hissy bitchfit isn’t really gonna do it. You should just chill out and get over yourself, honestly, this is just embarrassing even to me.”

As she walked up, Lizaveta saw Lenore get brought low by an axe blow from one of the Perusian guards. Almost snarling, the student girl flipped into the pages of her tome, approaching the knot of guards rapidly, baring her teeth. “Mink! I won’t let you get away with that, you would-be oppressor lapdogs! I’ll put you in the ground where—” Lizaveta clamped down on her speech abruptly, suddenly aware of the presence of the other group members, but she still fought to aid her comrade. E24, blast the Fighter.

”Ahahahaha, hahaha, oh MAN, Jack, you have no idea how fucking nutty those Vanu Sovereignty people are, even if the spandex is... kinda attractive. They think the dead aliens are, like, their crystal meth Jesus or something, and worship them with lasers and shit, and I’m preeeetty sure that they want to brainwash people. It’s some serious shit, I want no piece of that.” He jumped a little when the laser beam whooshed by and made a surprisingly high pitched sound for something in space, and instantly his pistol (something resembling a blue metal brick with a handle and trigger) was in his hand, leveled at Stella’s thigh, a grin on his face — but then he paused, and lowered it. ”Oh wait waaait wait wait that’s not something I should do without knowing: You’re a god, you said, right? Does that mean you’re immortal?”

”I’ve been around a while myself, but nothing close to thousands or whatever she said. I’m fifty-one, at this point.” He looked like he was significantly younger than that, in his mid-twenties, maybe around twenty-five or so. ”But basically, nah, it’s not like souls and the underworld or whatever, basically these weird alien databanks have our, like, brains and bodies saved, and then when we die, our nanites are hooked up to these alien databanks and they just build bodies back for us right on the spot.” Jack put his sunglasses back on, leaned back in his seat, and looked at the other Jack. ”Well, I fight. Big ol’ war between my faction of freedom fighters and suits and people who just like blowing shit up, the New Conglomerate, a bunch of actual jackboots for a dictatorship that can’t believe it isn’t in power, the Terran Republic, and a bunch of weird spandex-wearing alien-worshipping sex cultists. At least, I’m pretty sure they’re sex cultists. They’re the Vanu Sovereignty. We kinda just fight over the planet Auraxis twenty four seven, over a few continents. Indar is my favorite, I like these gigantic columns of tanks colliding with each other that I can lob rockets at.”

Candide couldn’t help but smile himself, just a little, when he heard the joy and relief in the Queen’s voice. It was nice to have somebody so grateful for his service — it had been a long time since he’d heard something quite like that. ...and then he heard what sounded like one of the other people there, in an impression of the butler, making fun of the man. Then lots of laughter, some of which sounded like it must have been the queen’s. “...ah.” Candide didn’t really get it, or at least what evidently made it so funny. But he didn’t want to come off as confused and lost, especially so soon, so he would have to act like he knew exactly what everybody was talking about. After a pause, he let out a simple: “...oui.” Yes, clearly this was flawless. Now he would clearly appear to be engaged and knowledgeable of the situation. ...Totally.

Jack turned his gaze towards the other Jack. "Nah, man, it's not voodoo. I know exactly what it is. It's Auraxis -- the planet I'm from. Whole thing's set up by these dead-ass alien-ass motherfuckers called the Vanu, man. Fuck if I know why, or I guess how, but, you know, that's just how it is. The aliens did what they did, so everyone who goes down to Auraxis doesn't stay dead. Nothing about voodoo curses and whatever, just respawning in at a New Conglomerate-controlled area whenever I get shot up or blown up or whatever. Maybe people do voodoo for their resurrection where you come from, though, I guess." Then he turned to Scarlet as she spoke, and after staring at her for a few moments he removed his sunglasses, revealing a pair of blue eyes that squinted at her. "So you're telling me you don't have anything like rebirthing." He squinted more at her, clearly deep in thought. "Damn, that would explain why she," he jerked a thumb at Zoe, "said she hadn't been killed but had been around for a long time. Fuck, I just thought he was lying." The blue-armored man let his sunglasses lay in his lap while he looked around at everybody in the shuttle, before his eyes (now darting with confusion) settled back onto Scarlet. "Look, I w... I don't... really understand. But... you've got to cherish it."

Probably the newest arrival among the five summoned by the Queen was a knight who looked to be in his middle-twenties. His chocolate brown hair was kept neatly back, bright white armor only occasionally marred by the scratches of battle. Two things prevented the man from visually appearing the part of the ideal knight: first, no sheathe hung off of his hip, and secondly, his eyelids were sown shut and a jagged, long scar laid across the bridge of his nose and his eyes. Deep, dark, it was a partially-faded but gnarled thing that along with the thread closing his eyelids dominated his face and quite naturally drew and kept the eye of most. This knight, Candide Durant, had come after the duel of the two wielders of the Excaliburs, come to offer his services to the queen, and now that he sat at her table, the table at which some of the most vaunted knights of all the lands had once sat... only occasional twitches of his eyebrows betrayed any nervousness. This facial expression, mostly but not wholly calm, did not change when the butler's tone changed in response to the half-dragon and the half-fae... after all, not only was he a foreigner unused to the concept of the fae, dragons, their half-human offspring, and the Cursed, he was unable to see in the first place that Mercia was a half-dragon, or Gwyn a half-fae. He simply sipped at his tea before the Queen spoke, allowing it to help him remain calm. When the queen spoke, he put down the cup, resting his hands on the table and steepling his fingers. It was difficult for him to keep his gaze at the Queen, for obvious reasons, but nonetheless his straight, unmoving posture would indicate that his attention was glued to Rosanne nonetheless. When she finally finished speaking, Candide nodded slowly, surely. There was no hesitation after this nod, no pondering consideration of this offer -- it was the best that he could have hoped for, and he had come to Tameloc with an ironclad purpose. He began to speak, a relatively thick accent marking him as being quite clearly from Arne, the kingdom across the water from Tameloc. "I owe you greatly for your consideration and trust, Your Majesty. Thank you for allowing this scarred knight to serve you -- though I may no longer be able to swing my sword, in the right circumstances my words, instead, should bite just as much or more, and through my armor I can be there to take the blows for others. Not all of my martial skill has withered away. I am willing to work my utmost, to lay down my life in service of the valor of your cause. It is why I have come."

Nader had already been in an unsettled state even before the bus had landed -- that vision had fucked him up. He didn't trust much but vision, after all, and if that were to be a regular thing then he wasn't sure how he could separate fact and fiction at all. Still, for now, in this situation, wariness was the answer either way. He clicked his Horsekiller onto one arm-rail, and his Sorraia machine gun onto the other, affixing the Gut Punch shotgun onto the machine gun's underside. "I agree, the lack of noise is pretty fucking ominous." He looked down at Lucine. "You probably should, yes, Lucine. I'm going to take the rear while that other person who's offering to scout takes point. Space alien, you should probably stay in the very middle. The rest of you should be between these various spots. This keeps the toughest of us on either end, and our especially fragile space alien friend from being shredded when whatever's coming shows up. We'll be prepared."

"Huh, no, I don't have anything making me unable to kick it, I usually die pretty normally when I get shot enough, it's not like that's a big deal or anything. But, man, if you capture someone, they're fucked for maybe forever unless they can kill themselves fast enough. God, you know, I haven't seen it happen to anyone because very few people are fucked up enough to try it, and we can usually redeploy or pop ourselves if people try, but you still hear rumors about horrible prisons deep underground or whatever." Jack paused and looked Zoe's way. "Naw, I'm not cursed. Would be kind of funny to see what happens if you tried to fix a curse, though."

Jack turned to Scarlet, paused for a moment, and spoke in the sort of tone of voice that suggested that he was raising an eyebrow at her. ”Paintballs yeah, occasionally, but that was mostly just on special events when some Nanite Systems engineers were having fun and making a bit of money. Usually it was just our normal gauss weaponry. Stunners... if you mean non-lethal stuff... man, that’s a weird thought. But... stun weapons are pretty fucked up, aren’t they?”

Though Jack had an arsenal that overall beat out Scarlet’s in size, he didn’t appear to be particularly bothered with maintaining them. ”Naw, where I come from the corporations are the best option, they’re not making you pay lip service to glory and duty or crazy cult shit, maybe to “freedom” at the most, as if any of it really matters, but they’re the least demanding. And they pay more, too, gotta love the bonus checks. Biggest thing I really gotta put up with is getting shot by my buddies more than I think the others do but, hell, really that’s part of the fun of it.”

Navin kept a fairly formal stance, standing with one palm crossed over the other at his stomach, and he nodded simply when the senator spoke about them needing transportation. "Yes. We have been told that we need to make a flight to deal with the issue in Boston, and evidently our situation right now means that doing so through normal means would be difficult, though I am afraid I am not familiar with the particular reasons that is. It should be in the interests of all involved, I trust, given what we are dealing with, and what it intends to do."

Lizaveta continued her running towards the entrance of the prison, as she heard combat begin to break out once again. She felt her body tense up as she moved, and prepared to fling herself into combat if there was any room left in it for her. This was what she had come to do. She had come to end oppression. She had come to help the vulnerable. And if those Perusian bastards got in her way, she would never slow even for an instant in throwing herself at them. They deserved every bit of her effort, every single component of magic she could possible throw at them. Lizaveta moves to D27.

Jack didn't seem overly bothered by the ship's bare, spartan state, even if he did comment a "Say what you will about the NC, they do make their vehicles nicer to be in than this. Hah, oh well, it's not like it really matters," in a jovial tone. His head turned over to Scarlet at her grousing, though his eyes themselves weren't visible behind the large sunglasses on his face. "Ah, that's just how suits work, yaknow? They can't turn it off. They're always in full corporate shill mode, I think they've kinda just done it so much that they don't actually know how to act normally, anymore. Advertise, advertise, advertise, until they can't figure out what NOT advertising is like. That's my two certs."

Upon the drunk, shirtless man in the corner introducing himself, Jack (that is, the one in the blue armor), let out a short "Ha-HA!" of laughter, and immediately strode towards the shirtless man, hand extended for a handshake. "Oh, man, that's great! Hello there, Jack, I'm also Jack, and it looks like our employer there is also Jack." Jack grinned. "We've got a full three Jacks involved here, that's fantastic. What a coincidence. Oh man, that's great. ...oh, uh, also, I guess my rank and full name is Raider Jack James, but just Jack is funnier, don't you agree, Jack? Heh heh. Oh man, funny shit."

One comment had made Jack raise an eyebrow behind his sunglasses. "Worth a hundred soldiers? Kinda doubt it. You probably have, like... what, even if you're really really good, ten KDR max. Ten KDR would still be pretty fucking good, but, you know." Jack adjusted his sunglasses in his helmet for a moment. "I guess you could ask if it's really KDR that's important, I've argued about that before but, man, fuck it, it's not like any stat really matters that much anyway. So KDR seems good enough for me. My KDR is hovering around, like... three right now."

A figure in blue and yellow, blocky metallic plates of armor, especially thick around the torso but with some plates over a pair of khaki pants, sat up. The blue helmet and large sunglasses on his head obscured most of his head, and skin wasn't really visible otherwise, but the bit of his face that could be seen showed him to be white. His mouth moved for a moment, and he sat up, shifting the array of weapons (light machine gun, pistol, rocket launcher, knife) strapped to his body, and he yawned loudly. The built man smacked his lips. "Oh man, I just slept, didn't I? Fuckin' awesome, dude, I haven't slept for like a week." He dragged himself into a standing position and stretched, yawning again, only to hear Handsome Jack's spiel. The man's head tilted as this Handsome Jack guy went on and on, and a little bit of a confused sound escaped his lips. Saving his life, from a life or death situation? Chopping him up into little pieces? "Man. This guy makes everything sound like such a big deal, huh?" The man in the blue and yellow armor let out one final yawn, a long and loud one that saw him waving his hand in front of his face. "Whew. Well, uh... I don't really give a shit about the whole secret science labs, since I don't think I'm on Auraxis and they're probably not Vanu. And I don't really have any idea where I am. Aaand I probably am already just rolling in bonus checks. Buuuut..." His hand moved to his chin, as he pondered for a moment. "His name is Jack, and my name is Jack, and that's pretty funny... so I think I might as well go along with whatever he has us here for. Not like I have anything better to do, ha-ha."

LOTUS' currently-feminine, high-pitched (but perhaps still just vaguely electronic) voice rang out one more. "My advice remains the same if you intend to make use of it! She primarily makes usage of high movement speed to augment or form essentially all of her strikes, and she is doing so in a place just full of trees. Bait her into them, or channel her between them! And you should start attacking now, you can't just keep throwing obstacles at her forever, you need to start taking her down now!" Then she ducked back down into Isobel's pocket, not particularly anticipating the painful experience of being punted by the witch again. Isobel was being kept quite busy herself -- the broomriding girl was handing out beatdowns left and right, and since she was one of the people cleaning up after them, this had her running around shoving flowers at people in a way that was, quite honestly, starting to get tiring. Still, she wanted to help, and this was some much needed help. So she wasn't about to stop. "Hikari, take this, it's going to help!" And yet another one of Isobel's poppies was sent out, this one to the girl with the wyvern-rider spear. Isobel uses Healing Poppy on poor Hikari, healing her for 4d4+INT damage! LOTUS uses Weakness Pinpoint on Marisa once again, giving attacks aimed at her 10% crit chance for another turn? Also, they put out the following conditional: Punishment Prioritization Pattern: When an enemy does 40 or more damage, this spellcard activates for three turns, targeting said enemy with Weakness Pinpoint! Active Cooldowns: Tactical Uplink (Partial) upcoming in one turn.  15% dodge chance, 20% poison damage reduction and poisoning effect durations shortened by one round.

i'll put in a quote once i actually make candide's mug lol, but here's his mechanics

With no more Perusian threats in the way, Lizaveta just walked towards the prison entrance, back straight and tome clasped to her chest. She'd free these people! H27

oh god mang are we reserving shit me too then I probably shouldnt join more games but the concept it interests me

"No, they aren't, and I've certainly... experienced those who disagreed. But when it comes down to it, whatever-the-fuck-you-are, when it's my life or yours, I'm going to prioritize mine. It's self-defense that I prioritize, of course it is. Because I haven't survived by just allowing myself to get shot." Nader fell silent, and his helmet turned up as he looked towards the roof of the bus, contemplating something. "I suppose that the same likely applies to you, random fuckin' thing. And if you wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, fighting, it would make sense, really. I wouldn't blame you. Self-defense, after all, is a value. But I'm not going to shoot you if you don't, and I will if you do. So contemplate that, I suppose. I don't really have any interest in executing you, after all. I don't know what the hell you are, and I'm not sure if I should care or not, but I know that if you come in trying to fry me or something, I'm going to splatter you. Simple as that."