Powder Miner

"If you try to "not let you get away with what you were going to do" with some sort of violence," Nader chimes in from the front of the bus, without even looking at the Imp, "I'll look over there and just fucking shoot you. With my shotgun."

Nader stood for a moments, silent with thought, looking over the handset in one hand as he actually continued to aim his shotgun at the imp with his other. "...persons of interest and items of interest do sound like they'd be quite useful. But Visions of Other Worlds leaves less opportunity for being brief, and brief things are bad when you're trying to extract information from someone that is trying to deceive you. You don't seem to object much to taking that option, so... let's hope that this proves useful." Nader once again commits to choosing an option, hitting the [3] for Visions of Other Worlds.

Rolling his eyes behind his mask, Nader paused his finger before pressing the button, did his best to ignore the barb and respond to the rest: "You're thinking of five, which is the representative option, unless you really do mean the prophecy option, in which case I'm going to have to start calling you Witch Doctor Spaceman. ...choosing more options is a good choice though, actually. I'm choosing the option I'm choosing because it lends itself best to investigation and confirmation; prophecies are just begging for vague meaningless bullshit, visions of the future can't be fully investigated until that point, visions of the past may possibly be past being investigable, but Visions of Other Worlds quite possibly can be investigated now." Nader then spoke "More Options" into the headset.

Nader actually jumped upon the flower's suddenly speaking, resulting in a noisy touching-back with the ground, but he at least didn't shoot either the Digimon or the flower, given that his fingers had been on the trigger guards rather than the trigger. He vaguely shook his gun at the flower after his surprise, but seemed to visibly deflate a bit as no direct answer was forthcoming. Well, this wasn't going to be very easy then. But at least he had five options to consider for potential information gain. He had no idea who the hell Doctor Melina Ebon was, and he didn't trust whoever this person apparently was. For all he knew, and Nader found this to be almost a certain option, it was a hostile group attempting to demoralize or misdirect them. Still, making a play like this was a potentially valuable source of information for him as well -- but he had to figure out how to discern the unintentional truth from the lie. Representative? Potentially useful, for sure, but he did not feel like revealing anything more of himself to this Doctor Ebon by accident, so he was not going to take that risk. Prophecy? Oh, absolutely not, that one was a golden opportunity for something completely vague and false to be made up -- less details, less slip-ups. Visions of the Future? It sounded more detailed, but still had very ample possibility for deception, and despite the VERY tempting possibility for foreknowledge of interdimensional assassination attempts, if he were deceived and didn't know the context he wouldn't even know when to investigate. Visions of the Past? With a concrete truth in place, it's much easier to lie to a stupid or naive person, but harder to lie to someone who knows what they're talking about. Unfortunately, despite the fact that he knew he was properly wary, he realized that he had no guarantee that he would know anything about what this Doctor Ebon would say. And it would possibly be too late to investigate. Visions of Other Worlds... obviously the potential for deception was there, but Nader's own espionage operations had always worked best in the context of present action -- intercepting and uncovering rival operations at the present stage. He would have the best potential of concretely investigating whatever potential leads he picked out of this. "...no. The best option seems to me to be Visions of Other Worlds, and I'm going to pick it." He responded to Leo, his voice slow with the guarded contemplation he was doing of the situation, but tinged with finality nonetheless. Nader slowly put the gun pointed at the flower away (but kept it unstrapped for easy access) and dialed [3] on the handset with one armored finger.

Nader had been sitting on the bus for some time now; he'd been on it a while thanks to delaying Doctor Spaceman's checkup with his insistence on his paranoia, and he'd spent the minutes since just occasionally half-heartedly pointing a gun at the strange-ass cleaning robot, or sliding fabric up into his helmet to block his ears in response to the sound of a gun INFINITELY FUCKING FIRING. Staying on this fucking thing had been a mistake, Nader realized, and he had been about to start getting up to go back onto the Weatherlight when all of a sudden he looked and Alan and Leo faced off against something suddenly popping angrily into existence in front of him, dropkicking Leo, and pulling a gun off of the floor before firing it. Nader swore loudly and pulled his shotgun off of his machine gun. He hoisted it -- he'd sat around for some of the insanity that had evidently been going on here even before he'd walked on, but he wasn't going to just let some asshole shoot at the others and potentially at him. He planted his feet on the floor and stood up, his heavily armored, six-foot form looming as he cocked his shotgun and then was unceremoniously thrown bodily into the back of the seat in front of him, ragdolling briefly and INCREDIBLY noisy as a loud series of metallic clangs heralded his thumping into the seat and plopping onto the ground. "FUCK!" Standing back up, Nader lumbered out from between the seats and near to the door, leveling his shotgun firmly at the unconscious thing. "If that fuckin' thing picks up another gun I'm ventilating it, do you understand?" His head turned to look at the strange void outside the bus, and the flower outside it. He stared at it for a few moments and then pulled his Osprey, his designated marksman rifle, off of his back, and pointed it at the flower. After a few moments of that, he used the barrel of his gun to pick up the phone and wedge the receiver between his head and his shoulder, before once again pointing his gun at the flower, both hands pointing guns at things as he kept the phone secured with his head. "Finally making your presence known, huh, interdimensional assassins?"

Isobel found herself gasping for breath, one gloved hand going to her midsection to hold a new bruise, the other almost casually sticking into the air to catch a certain screaming foot-tall fairy who had been hurtling through the air at high speed. Isobel managed to get that breath, a loud gasp as she filled her lungs, and then some of the air came out in irritated quipping. "Yes, I definitely like my girl with witch clothes much, much more." She then found a magnifying glass shoved into her hands, but as she moved to figure out how the hell to do what Masako wanted her to do with it, Empi came flying in to take care of the seal anyway, leading Isobel to shrug and hand the magnifying glass off to Empi. Instead, the girl in the labcoat over there wasn't looking too good, so Isobel produced a flower from her apron. "Here! Eat this!" LOTUS meanwhile took a few moments to get back into things after that initial pass -- being sent flipping through the air was a new and most CERTAINLY unwelcome experience, one that meant that LOTUS stammered when she began to speak, only gaining solidity once more partway through. "S-she-- augh-- excuse me. I think it should be plenty clear that she needs to be taken down, but judging by the way she's moving in bursts like she is, I suggest aiming to try and knock her into a tree. It wouldn't be easy, but I imagine that she wouldn't particularly appreciate the experience." Isobel uses Healing Poppy on Walmond, healing him for 4d4+INT (12) damage! LOTUS uses Weakness Pinpoint on Marisa, giving all attacks aimed at Marisa 10% crit chance for a turn! Active Cooldowns: Tactical Uplink (Partial) upcoming in two turns.  15% dodge chance, 20% poison damage reduction and poisoning effect durations shortened by one round.

As they entered the extremely large gun, Navin heard the sounds of music of a genre he recognized as country, and smelled barbecuing meat (including beef, drawing a brief wince from the white-jumpsuited hero). "This," he muttered, "is the most American place that I have ever been in my life." He then elected to chime into the conversation that the others were having, responding directly to Heidrun. "I believe that we will be fine, yes. If I am not mistaken, there are only two or three of us here that were present for the evidently chaotic previous mission here, anyhow. If I may make a suggestion, it would be to worry less. If conflict does break out despite our best efforts, then it breaks out, and there was nothing we could do about it. But what we can do is avoid it by, yes, acting reasonably. And if there is a fight, well, fights lead to conversation most of the time anyhow. We should try to avoid it, because it would probably cause problems with the police, but if we did get into a fight with this senator we could probably end up talking him down." That was just how fights based on misunderstandings went, really, except for in the worst of circumstances. A few powers slung, and then understanding.

Perlita exhaled -- she knew that if she didn't have her Persona boosting her stamina, she would be quite exhausted by now... and she was probably going to be fairly tired after this anyhow. She had been slinging high-powered healing magic left and right without pause, after all, and that took a lot of energy. Still, it wasn't like she could stop -- there were people fighting alongside her (and protecting her) who needed her help, so she was going to give it until the fight ended or she outright dropped unconscious. She... hoped the latter wouldn't happen, and at least the giant hammer-wielding guy hadn't swung at her yet. "Ah, Miss... Iowa, hold on for a moment and I'll help you!" Perlita uses Diarama on Iowa, healing her for 6d4+SYN (12)+SYN (12) health!

Nader:

Satomi nodded quietly when Kusuke asked if she remembered who Tania was -- Tania had been who Satomi got the Purification Powder from, after all. The samurai then remained quiet as Kusuke spoke to reassure her, and when he finished speaking for a moment, she responded with a shaky nod and a quiet "O-okay." From the weakness of her tone, though, it wasn't terribly clear if she in fact believed what he was saying, but she at the least didn't have the energy or desire to argue it. It would be nice if that were the case, after all. She didn't want Arminius to have taken a piece of her forever... Satomi had just begun to look down, once again despondent (though at least not, when Kusuke hugged her again. She nestled into his arms, closing her eyes. He could just hear a murmured "Thank you, Kusuke."

Nader:

As surprisingly comforting as the orange-haired engineer had found the long hug, it couldn't last forever. And eventually Satomi indeed withdrew from holding Kusuke, going back into a simple sitting position on her knees. She looked down at her legs, a combination of embarrassment, shame, and hesitation making her take a few moments before she actually responded to the person she had just basically draped herself over. Eventually, however, she did manage something. "I... yes, I suppose I can." She let out a long breath -- the panic and urgency that had welled up within her without an outlet, leaving her overwhelmed and feeling blind, had drained out when she'd bawled into Kusuke. But she still wasn't going to enjoy talking about this. "I suppose that you're going to want to know exactly what happened, right?" She tapped her fingers together, looking away. "It... was after the siege. I was very, very angry. The strange third Taint was still there --and oh, no, I didn't even return to it, it's still there--" Satomi forced herself to stop talking and took a couple of deep breaths to avoid panicking again. "I had been attacking one of the larger ogre-like creatures, and it had been fighting while Arminius had been talking to it, but he was angry that I hadn't stopped killing the oni destroying our things so he could talk to it. So he threatened me. So I... I told him it was an empty threat unless he backed it up, and that I was not afraid of him. I expected him to try to stab me or something, and I could out-duel him. But..." Satomi choked up for a couple of seconds, having to take another breath before she could carry on. "Instead he leapt at me with a piece of his soul magic. I managed to slash him with my sword, but... he hit me with it, and... and my world became fire. I was just burning, and burning, and burning, my skin was fire, I was fire. It was agonizing... I managed to scar him, but -- but it didn't stop him. After he did that to me, he then... augh... he..." Satomi cleared her throat. "He-- he took a piece from me. Like he did with all of those others... I think he stole a piece of my soul, and-- it-- it-- it looked kind of like me, but it was on fire. It at least hated him. I don't know what I would do if it had been fawning over him, like..." Satomi shuddered and made a disgusted noise. "Azgrurk killed it, in the end. But... I think... I think it really was a piece of my soul. My revenge, it hasn't-- it hasn't been there in the same way, since. I'm not sure if it's gone forever. I-I..." Satomi trailed off.

Lizaveta let out a breath as the fighting out here concluded. She wasn't sure if what she felt right now was relief or not; the guards out here were done with, but she found herself much less afraid than she had been during that battle with those merchants. She'd make those Perusian oppressors pay -- no, she was making them pay, seeing as they were already doing damage to the prison. Well, we are making them pay, she mentally corrected herself. She was but a part of Virtuous, after all, it was hardly as if she was fighting the oppressors alone, or as if she could. With Virtuous, she was just presently blasting them, but that was good enough for her. She'd have to catch up to continue it, though! K27

Finally, Satomi fell totally silent, the samurai-ko's crying seeming to have subsided totally, but... she didn't let go anyhow. She just sat there with her arms wrapped around Kusuke, her head buried in his chest, her torso pressing against his stomach and legs. It was probably all kinds of improper, Satomi knew -- and even with her intellect she found herself unable to calculate just how dishonorable this all would have been were she home. Breaking down into tears after facing a threat, resorting to embracing someone who, similar to Rokugani as they may be, was not from the Emerald Empire... this all simply didn't happen. She would never live it down probably. But she didn't care, really. It was nice, it was really nice, it was really really nice. Was this how the peasants got to live, just freely crying to each other and holding each other? Satomi found herself, for a moment, slightly jealous of the heimin. Maybe her parents had been like this, alone, when her mother was still alive. But normally... samurai didn't get to lose face, they didn't get to show their true emotions. They didn't get to do anything but remain stoic pictures of honor. But she was still holding on to Kusuke as if for dear life anyhow. ...maybe she didn't have to care, for now. So she just kept holding on to him, with no sign of stopping.

Perlita’s good mood rather evaporated when their large opponent raised his hammer and proceeded to with one mighty swing crunch it brutally into three of her companions, dealing each of them a mighty blow. One of those three people that Judge had harmed was Perlita’s friend, and he in particular was in nasty condition. ”Gabriel!” The shriek came reflexively, and Perlita started in his direction. ”Crawford!” With that particularly urgent call of her friend’s name, Perlita summoned her Persona and sent one of the healing waves she’d been tossing around in his direction. She’d make sure he would be okay, she knew she could...! Perlita uses Diarama on Gabriel, healing 6d4+SYN (19)+SYN (19) health!

Navin passed his fingers through his hair for a few moments as he considered his next question, but eventually he nodded. ”Okay, one last question before we go... in my personal experience, I have found that there are three kinds of supervillains, and murderous artificial intelligences have been no exception so far for me. These three kinds are: supervillains that are not very clever at all, and who are usually fairly predictable because they do the same things most other supervillains do, supervillains that think they are very clever but are in fact only a little bit more clever and can usually still be predicted with a little experience, and then there are the supervillains who are in fact very much smart and cannot be predicted much at all. In your estimation, which of these would you say that Deus is?”

Kaiu Satomi Satomi’s sobs delayed for a moment as Kusuke wrapped her into a tight hug, aside from the hiccups that still rocked her frame. This was simply from sheer, stunned surprise: Satomi hadn’t been... held like this in years and years. It had been a very long time since she had had much physical contact at all, really. Her friends, well, contact between friends was rare in Rokugan, as it wasn’t proper even for the Crab Clan. Her father she didn’t see much, now that she was at the Wall, and even then she was older than she once was. So when Kusuke outright wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her, for a long moment she couldn’t process it. Then she leaned into him, wrapping her arms around him, and she bawled into his chest for several minutes, crying and crying and crying as she fully took the locks off of the emotional responses she’d kept so repressed — her response to the fall of her wall, to the fear of the incident with the glass creature and the marionettes, and the response of course to the sheer horror and violation of what Arminius had done to her. Hell, she probably cried out more than that. Eventually her sobs slowed, and just became the occasional sound and shudder from a mostly silent girl, who was clinging tightly onto Kusuke. She didn’t soften her grasp or move one bit. Right now, impropriety and strength were concerns far behind simple comfort. Nader Jabal Elsewhere on the Weatherlight, another one of the party’s engineers — this one even more armored and paranoid — looked at a certain door on the Weatherlight, a marker taken from the world of the resistance against the space alien colonialists in his hands. Behind the door laid the space he had claimed as both his personal quarters and his workshop aboard the ship. ”Alright, just how do I write this...” Flourishing the marker, Nader wrote TRESPASS AT OWN PERIL on the door, set up a shotgun behind it aimed at chest height, and then just entered the room, sat down, and waited. ”<I’ll be fucking shocked if nobody takes this as an invitation,>’’ he muttered to himself in his strange variety of Arabic.

”<Makes sense. Unfortunately, that’s just how things go, yeah? You get a period of nothing and then everything happens at once. That’s been true in my experience, certainly — either I wasn’t seeing any operations, or I was seeing lots of them. Only one real stretch of combat before this whole Trespasser thing, though. I’m a weapon design engineer back home, so the real conbat I’d seen had been in my country’s capital at the end of the first war I’ve been in. That was... rough. Mostly covert shit otherwise, I guess.>” He fell silent, getting back to his work — and at one point grabbed a full-head helmet from the wall, pulling it off and replacing it. A flash of olive skin and black hair was visible before the other helmet covered it back up, and Nader started working on his own helmet. ”<You know, I chose you for this because of a certain attitude you have that noone besides maybe the Commander that I’ve seen on this whole fuckin’ multiworld journey so far has. You’ve clearly seen some shit, you know not to fuck around needlessly and get into danger, and you don’t insist on prying into other people’s business. I’ve only seen two out of three of these traits im the others, but you seem like a kindred soul, in that respect. It’s an attitude I wish more people had.>”

Satomi —no form, for now— Nader

Seeing Ferdiad once more taking blows from several enemies, Lizaveta decided to support his bravery by stepping up and attacking! N28, attack Fencer B!

The orange-haired samurai, having been more or less ushered through the ship and into a room, took in a long breath as Kusuke talked to her — a wet-sounding breath as tears gathered in her eyes once again. ”N- nn- no, it’s not the same! I’m, I’m not supposed to be, be like this! It only doesn’t matter if, if I’m not falling apart on the f-field of battle, if I am doing my Duty, but... my wall fell, and in front of that thing, I, I... I was terrified. Shaking, and... you weren’t, like I was. The place my Courage mattered most, and...” Satomi seemed to be having trouble putting anything coherent together to say, and her eyes were getting wetter and wetter. ”And... and... Arminius...” Satomi’s chest rose and fell as she choked out a breath that turned into a sob, finally beginning to cry outright, desperately trying to wipe away her tears. ”I don’t want, I don’t want to be like this, but I can’t sto-o-op!” Her last word broken up by heaving sobs, Satomi dissolved into wordlessness, just crying her eyes out.

YOU CAN’T HIDE THE TRUTH

LOTUS squinted at the newcomer, who most certainly didn’t appear to be a fairy. There was something strange here, what with the echo in her voice, and the shadow effect around her voice, but having no point of reference LOTUS couldn’t actually draw any sort of solid conclusions. That was something that LOTUS did not like one bit — she liked to be able to form conclusions and she liked to have a lot of info. Masako was likely the best source of that information for now, and as Masako evaded LOTUS asked: ”Masako, do you care to enlighten me on what precisely is going on here? I am metaphorically flying blind here.” Isobel watched Masako talk to the woman, listened to the humming noise, and watched as Masako spoke, then faltered, and then flipped the fuck out. She looked once more at the woman whose garb actually reminded her a surprising amount of Marisa’s, huh, and then at the trees off to the distance. ”Ahaha, well, don’t mind if I just—“ Quick as a flash, Isobel extended an arm to the side... and then realized she’d left the golden wrist chainshot thing in her satchel. ”Oh shiiiit!” Isobel then elected to dive and roll. Isobel (and thus LOTUS since this is a defensive action) spends her action on evading! Active Cooldowns: Efficiency Analysis (0 turns) Tactical Uplink (Partial) being missed right now argrlfrgl  15% dodge chance, 20% poison damage reduction and poisoning effect durations shortened by one round.

The roar sounded out through the space Satomi and the others were in, and despite herself she shrieked in fear. Then, of course, the hanging thing of glass was promptly utterly demolished by everyone else in the team, but nonetheless Satomi looked down and saw her hands trembling severely. But it wasn’t just her hands, she discovered - her entire body was shaking like a leaf, Satomi stuck in a position looking down and being what would be still if she weren’t visibly shaking so hard. And that’s what Kusuke saw the samurai girl like: unharmed, but beyond shaken into shaking. And he heard her speak quietly, almost but not quite too quietly to hear: “Pathetic.” Satomi’s shoulders shook a little more and her eyes grew misty, the girl clearly fighting to suppress a sob, “I... I’m terrified. I’m... a coward. What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with me?” Her hands went, trembling as they moved, to tug on her own hair. ”Why am I such a miserable failure of a samurai?!”