Powder Miner

The former Imperial knights ignored the steel and scale of the opponents at their backs to continue their increasingly openly desperate assault upon the village... and as Ceridwen watched, one of the defenders of the village (just a boy) was brought to the point of barely standing upon his feet, his shoulder cleft deeply. Worse, despite how hard Ceridwen had tried, the defender she'd attempted to safe was felled outright by an axe blow, falling to the ground, presumably perished. "No! Damn it, why couldn't you just focus on-- why did you have to go after-- damn you! Damn it!" Ceridwen had failed, but she just flew at the remaining knight with a shout, interposing herself directly between him and the heavily wounded defender. "Jo-- Johanna, please aid me! I... I don't want to let another die!" C10, attack Knight 8.

Perlita reflected that if she hadn't been used to supernatural nuttiness already, she probably would have squinted at the mentions of "goddesses" being thrown out. As is she mostly just quietly listened to everything. Kind of just sticking around Gabriel (and blinking confusedly at Iowa on account of not having seen her before), Perlita eventually piped up with another question. "Okay, um, I guess I should ask if we're going to be fighting him, but what exactly is this CFW Judge? Is he just some guy with, I dunno, a sword or something?" When the heavy crate of items was set down, Perlita reached in and grabbed the Life Shard. "Since I'm usually the healer, I hope nobody minds but I'll take this..."

Navin sighed. Well, this seemed like it had the potential to go catastrophically wrong, what with being a very specific, bizarrely explained, and precarious-sounding assignment... and one heavily involved with Solomon at that, which... Navin wasn't sure exactly what that meant but it probably didn't mean anything safe, considering the man's strangeness. Still, it did sound like it need doing, so there was nothing for it, really. The superhero was just going to have to go in and deal with it, then. "Well, alright..." Stepping through the portal, Navin glanced around at the city around him -- he noted the size, and the crowdedness, and the filth, being a village boy himself, but he didn't find it as exceptional as perhaps some of the others would; Mumbai was many good things, and really was a jewel of India, but, ah, "non-crowded" and "clean" were not two of those things. "It is actually a little bit familiar for me, in a way. It reminds me of cities back home, at least the larger ones. It is less like Pachora or Jalgaon, more like Mumbai -- though, ah, maybe only that last one means anything to any of you."

Kerr moves to F11 and guarantees Fallon his kill by, uh, standing there.

Lazy-ass character creation process COMPLETE "Come, friends! Now the time is finally upon us to end the bourgeoisie-aristocratic order that the world runs upon -- we can make the people happy, and protected from exploitation like they never have been before! Um, let me find the passage in the Manifesto for this...!" Bio:

Isobel opened her mouth as Rory took the orange right out of her hand, only to shut it once Rory decided to cut it up. Well, she wasn't sure that was all that necessary, but alright. Before she could open her mouth, however, LOTUS took the opportunity to chime in. "Unless you would like to kill everybody in this room from smoke inhalation, I highly recommend you not go breaking things to start a fire in here. I wasn't aware there was a kitchen here and I suspect Isobel was not either, but go use it instead of ending everyone's lives but mine. ...and, if my scans are accurate, the android girl's as well." Speaking of said android girl, Isobel looked at 6D's awkward demeanor and then smiled and waved back at her. "Hey there. Oh, I haven't actually introduced myself! My name is Isobel Low and the AI down here is LOTUS." She then turned to Hiroki. "There are bags of corn and rice over there, and some walnuts over there, I think they would be good choices for cooking."

"Yes, that... would have been something unfortunate, that is for sure. With where we are right now, especially, I have not got the slightest clue how we would have dealt with it." Navin let out a breath. "It is a problem over with, at least, for now." Navin then turned to Bridgett, speaking politely and calmly. "Yes, a minor heal would suffice. If you would be so kind as to provide that for me, I would appreciate it."

Isobel reached into her fruit bag, her fingers clasped around something, and she pulled it out to reveal that it was an orange. "Ah, well, how does this look? I'm afraid it's not a full meal but I don't have a full meal on me, really. I suppose I could try to cook some of that rice or corn for you, but I've been kind of busy trying to get some of my healing poppies to grow..." Isobel lapsed into silence, clearly thinking, but her tablet didn't remain silent. "Isobel, keeping people alive later is more important than being nice. If either of you two can cook for yourselves you should do so, if not then I suppose Isobel can--" "I can do it if I want to, thank you very much, LOTUS. ...but, that said, it probably would be best that I continue my work. If you need to, I can make something and share it, but otherwise, well... I don't actually know where you'd get cooking equipment. Maybe the Servants' Quarters or the Ballroom? I guess you could probably also just make do with some of the powers we have around here. I can give you more fruit if you want it, though."

Isobel Low and LOTUS Isobel waves off Rory's concerns. "Ohhh, I see, that's who you are, then. And... hmm. We actually haven't spent much time in the castle compared to the worlds we've been on, so I suspect that any food farming I do would just be a supplementary thing, though perhaps I should do some. If I actually need more seeds, though, I'll be plenty able to harvest them either from the other plants in here or plants on-world. I actually only found this place today -- I'm not sure who actually made it, but it's a little bit of a godsend for me, 'cause I'm a botanist by trade and this is something I can do. And, yeah, I think the people here capable of getting food are me and whoever made this place. But you should be able to stock up next time we go somewhere." Isobel then turned to Hiroki. "Do you want something?" The tablet in Isobel's apron spoke up again. "I will note that how long we actually spend in the castle is an unknown factor; it's currently traveling between dimensions, but we aren't actually the ones controlling its path, I suspect something on behalf of the multiverse is doing so. Last time, however, it did not take long enough for survival to be a factor -- a day and a night, and then we stopped off somewhere for a little while." Perlita Diaz Perlita let out a long sigh, looking extra glum when she thought about the inability to go home, curling into herself just a little more. "Do you think we're just going to be stuck here doing this forever? I mean... I would keep doing it... because it's the right thing to do and a lot of people depend on it. And it's nice to get to stay somewhere else just for a little while, b-but... I didn't want to be gone from Roswell forever. I don't even know if we're going to see any of them again. And what about that thing at home -- the, the aliens and Shadows and all that. Will someone else take care of it? Will Malachi? I-I don't know... there's so much to worry about, both stuff at home and stuff here, a-and it's just a lot to deal with."

"Um, hmm, I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the 'Hellfire Knight'. But, uh --there's no need to bow or anything-- yeah, I think I can figure something out food-wise. I see two options for that, both of which are going to be plants. There are some plants around here like corn and rice that I didn't plant, and can't vouch for the quality of, and a few pieces of fruit that I have in my bag. There's not that much of the latter, but they should be good! I pride myself in my botanical skills, heh heh." Isobel points out the sack of rice and sack of corn in the farm area, and then pulls a beautifully red apple from a carefully padded and sectioned green bag by her hip (in contrast to the larger, brown one by her other side), spinning it around as an example.

Tromping around and asking around didn't likely do Rory a lot of good; there weren't actually many people in the castle for its size, and at least two of the people in this wing were closed in a room. However, just by walking around the very hungry faunus would eventually come across a room repurposed as a farm, dirt and various plants around it. Standing on one side of that room, Rory would see, was a human woman (curvy in figure, wearing a blue and green jumpsuit with a blue apron and mostly-green bandana over brown hair and a freckled face) currently hard at work, and standing by some nut plants. She was, presently, frowning to herself, even as she used her hatchet to grind seeds and nuts into dust, which she was placing into a ground mixture in front of her. Judging from her muttering, though, ("Ah, damn, I guess I really did get dependent on the Nanotrasen supplies...") it wasn't going too well. As absorbed in her work as she was, Isobel didn't notice that Rory had entered until a low voice coming from a tablet in her apron pocket informed her that "Isobel, to your right. New person." She, subsequently, turned and saw Rory, adjusting her bandana as she took him in before speaking. "Oh, hello there. Can I help you? ...ah, how recently did you appear? Should I explain things?"

Navin shook his head in response to Liliya. ”No, I am afraid it does not work that way. I create explosions, but the way I create them means that I am not usually taking the brunt of the blasts; I control their direction. I am not fireproof. But, no, I have potions as well, I do not think the burn is worth spending any resources on. I had been hoping that someone would be able to help without depleting anything, but if not... ah, I will be able to bear it. It could have been much worse.”

Perlita Diaz Gabriel would see Perlita with her knees brought up to her chest, and her arms loosely wrapped around her legs. She wasn’t crying or anything — but she certainly did look somewhat disconsolate, glancing down at the floor until Gabriel spoke to her, at which point she looked at him. She was silent for a few moments, before she sighed and shrugged her shoulders slowly. ”Yeah, I guess. I... ufff... Gabriel, I just, I didn’t expect this world to be like this. I mean, the others were way more familiar obviously, but they definitely weren’t as horrible as that. And I, I’m not sure if I’m, like, equipped to handle that, it was never like this back home except when I got swept up in everything at first, even if it could be hard. I mean, at least I’m not alone, that would be like ten times worse, but... you know.” She blew out a breath. ”Um. Yeah.” Isobel Low (and LOTUS) At the Shoor Farm, Isobel let out a dissatisfied “hmmmm” as she looked over her handiwork: She had spent the last couple of hours humming to herself, planting seeds, replacing dirt, watering, and generally making sure the plants were taken care of. The seeds that she were planting were those of her poppies, and since they were seeds from her plants from her world, they grew in a matter of hours, carefully engineered over the centuries. Unfortunately though, it didn’t seem that they were guaranteed for quality — the poppies she had created were small, with the parts of the flowers that held tricordrazine being rather shriveled-looking. Not privy to her thought process, LOTUS commented idly: ”You know, I don’t believe that I’ve ever seen a botanist actually work for an extended period of time like this. Usually something has gone down by the period a botanist is driven to download a pAI.” Isobel sighed. ”Well, unfortunately you’re not seeing the best I have to offer here. I think that defaulting to my usual rhythms here was a mistake — I don’t have my usual supercharged nutrients, and the potency of the plant suffered for it, since these plants are designed for quick growth with everything they need slotted in and engineered.” LOTUS made a low noise of his own. ”Are you going to be able use these for healing purposes, then?” Isobel shook her head. ”No, these aren’t going to be acceptable. One or two turned out well enough for me to slightly replenish my own stocks, but I don’t think that these will suffice for being handed out like I wanted.”

Ceridwen verbally fumbled before trailing off lamely. “...Yes, I understand, ma’a— Joha— ...oueh.”

"A-ah, I apologize, Johanna, I just-- I saw the villagers being felled and I just..." Unable to really justify herself further, Ceridwen trailed off and then put her attention back on the enemy in front of her.

Ceridwen and Yn Ddiddorol dashed at the enemy knights, Ynddi letting out his best bellowing roar and Ceridwen shouting as the two tried their utmost to draw the attention of the dragons. "YOU GET AWAY FROM THAT VILLAGE! I won't let you harm them!" Ceridwen moves to D11 and tries to distract Knight 8 with a s a d p o k e

Navin watched Cicivexa go, sighed to himself, and then scratched at the back of the head before lightly poking as best he could at his back and wincing. Then he somewhat sheepishly spoke up, turning to speak at... well, the general inhabitants of the area, really. "I... do not suppose that any of you have any healing abilities? I, well, I did intercept that fireball and it was a direct hit to the back. It is not, I think, particularly urgent, and if needed I can just bear it, but it would be rather painful and healing would be at least preferable."

Nader flexed his right arm, and noted that his shoulder was feeling up to firing the Sorraia again -- just as he had hoped and predicted, considering the HORDE OF GHOULS CURRENTLY CHARGING HIM. "DON'T GET IN FRONT OF ME," the Forenian engineer shouted, moving his right hand to grab the lever attached to the armoring on the plate around his wrist, connected by a mechanism to his machine gun's trigger, "I AM GOING TO BE PUTTING OUT A LOT OF LEAD!" And with that warning he extended his right arm in the direction of the Lost, and pulled the lever, the rapid-fire sound of bullets being loose tearing through the air as he swept his arm across the incoming wave of undead, grasping his shoulder with his other hand for a moment before bringing his right arm back up to see if he could blast incoming Lost with his shotgun. Nader fires the M3 Sorraia at 3 of the Lost Runners on his square, dealing 1d8+DEX (5)+STR (6) damage to each of them! Gut Punch is cocked. Active Cooldowns: PAW (1 turn) Akimbo (2 turns)

Gabriel would be in luck -- Perlita had initially wandered around looking for somewhere to sit down, but had found that this particular area of bedrooms in the castle didn't... actually seem to have much left, and that there were only a couple of rooms that had enough things to really be complete. Perlita wasn't willing to actually take up one of those rooms from other people, so instead she found herself in one of the empty rooms, somewhat grouchily sitting in one of the edges of the room where stone floor met wall. This wasn't exactly comfortable, but Perlita didn't really know if she had any other choices or not, so she was going to try to eke whatever relaxation she could out of isolating herself for a little while. After all, with everything from earlier having worn off, Perlita found herself pretty damn exhausted, both mentally and physically. Sure she had gone into otherworldly locales regularly back in Roswell, but they were always jaunts of just a few hours, with a bed waiting for at home, despite everything else that waited for her at home too. Being out in an unknown and scary place for days... that was something new, and very tiring. Worse, she really wasn't getting much in the way of rest either, this wasn't working. This would lead to how Gabriel could find Perlita -- the room she was in had the door open just a crack, and if Gabriel listened closely enough he could hear Perlita muttering discontentedly in Spanish.

Navin pulled his hands off of his face and began to speak, his expression becoming a bit more pensive. "Well, for now I am afraid that you are going to have to wait. The way that it seems to go is that this castle brings us to worlds that are in need in some way (and then there was this whole other incident with a diner, but I do not know what that was). We then fight said problem, which is a manifestation of the intrusion of a "Trespasser", which are the beings that are trying to devour the multiverse. At least that is how it went on the world we just left -- the Trespassers appeared to have corrupted several of the powerful beings we fought there, and once we defeated them we left. The castle takes some time to transit, and I do not actually know where it is going, so while it travels you will just have to wait and perhaps get to know some of the others in the group in a less confrontational way."

During the back and forth between Dackly and Cicivexa, Navin's hands slowly migrated in the direction of his face, the Indian superhero eventually performing the legendary double facepalm. "I... I cannot imagine that you are doing yourself many favors here, Cicivexa. I would not assume that you are stronger than everyone else if I were you, but..." Navin sighed and put a palm to his face, again. "Oh, I am not any good at this sort of thing, anyway. Just... perhaps it would be a good idea not to make enemies with the people you are going to be fighting alongside for the foreseeable future..."

Navin actually let out a little laugh -- a one not so much mirthful, not so much even mocking, more grim than anything else. "No, Cicivexa, you would probably be dead or unconscious. We have just come off of fighting an entire army bolstered with eldritch abominations and incredibly powerful magical beings, and each of the people in this room is as powerful as I am, probably more, really. The multiverse is drawing, I believe, from a wide net, and all of the worlds it draws from have strong fighters, heroes, villains, etcetera. This applies to everyone else outside of the room as well, and there are at least thirty or fourty of us in this castle, all told. As for the Twelve, or Voidsent, or Aetheryte, these are terms unfamiliar to me -- our worlds do not work the way yours do. My name is Navin Mhasalkar, and I come from a world full of nations full of superheroes and villains, trying to cooperate with each other in organizations such as the International Union of Heroes or United Nations, to deal with the sudden rise of little supervillain dictatorships, or otherworldly threats. We also deal with their own little rogues' galleries in our own regions and cities, team up and sometimes fight piece meal, a kind of patchwork mesh of costumed vigilantes and criminals. I assume that what I have described is pretty strange to you, right, and some of the terms I've used as well? This would apply to every person here as well. We're not from where you are, Cicivexa, we have been drawn together from a great deal of places otherwise in completely separate realities."

Navin slowly lowered his guard, dropping his hands and stepping back from the wizard as things seemed now to be under control, and it did not sound like there would be further violence. "There, you see? The situation does not merit violence. Now then... this is going to be something that you cannot continue doing. First of all, since none of us know a way back home, you are going to be stuck with us for some time. Ideally, you would find protecting the multiverse from the all-destroying monsters who would like to devour it a good goal and work with us, but you are likely stuck with us through no action of ours either way. Secondly, we all come from a very wide array of universes, and this means that we have a lot of different shapes and forms, and we have a lot of very different abilities as well. You simply cannot jump to violence, no matter what your world was like, because what your world was like is not necessarily going to apply here. Thankfully this was defused, but imagine if it had escalated, especially considering you were trying to fight several people. How do you imagine that would have gone?"

Navin let out a long sigh, still crouching over the wizard largely to ensure he didn't get tagged by an attack from one of the others. "I am afraid that you really do not have a full grasp of the situation, and you should not have responded to that with violence in the first place. Nonetheless, what is done is done and now I can only now hope that I can defuse the situation and inform you properly." Navin took in a hissing breath -- that fireball could certainly have been far worse, and seemed oddly weak for a wizard type, but it certainly was not fun to get jostled around by his own explosions and then to directly absorb a fireball. "Alright, our position, all of us, is such: we have been gathered from various worlds, realms, dimensions, universes. whatever term you use for these, because there is a threat far greater than any one of our individual worlds' foes. You have essentially been teleported by I believe a cosmic force in order to defeat these monstrosities and brought here... and no, we do not know a way back. But I have got some level of experience both with this whole conflict and with other dimensional traveling myself, and I know enough to know I am not being deceived. You probably have questions; please do not preface them with fireballs."

"Ah, Deadlift, there y..." Yoko trailed off as she heard several sounds, both of things above and behind and of the announcement that played from nowhere, a group of voices strangely stuttering and chopping and mixing together to form a message... asking them to cease hostilities, and to just talk, hah. "Pfah, even if I actually had a weapon to drop, I would not bother to do so. Avoiding violence, as if I am weak enough to need to push my enlightenment further back simply to appease the whims of this "computer" in charge of this place. I believe we should continue forward and fight through what we must to get to the end of this place and conquer it, do you not agree, Deadlift? Or, I suppose, Lakia, but I'm less sure of your answer, naturally." Yoko didn't start moving behind her to the sound back that way, though -- if it was going to come to her, so it would, otherwise she would prefer to press on.