Powder Miner

Yoko was flung high into the air, very nearly heavily impacting the ceiling, and then as the arc reached its maximum height she accelerated downwards and landed across the room into one of the piles of strange boxes scattered about. She laid there for just a moment to catch her breath, knocked out of her by the impact, and then laughed loudly and uproariously. ”Ahaha, ahaha, ahahaha! Oh, you are fantastic, Deadlift, you really are.” She stood up and brushed pieces of box off of her. ”Alright then, where do we start with our actual exploration of this place, you think?”

The spar led to somewhat bemusing results — it became clear that this Deadlift fellow had never trained in a proper dojo, because though she wasn’t precisely holding back, she wasn’t fighting at anywhere near her utmost either. He should by all means have been able to dodge some of those, and that punch was incredibly slow as well. But still...! That raw strength of his was something to be marveled at. No Crab could even match it, for all the tales, she was sure, and those tailwinds that came with the punch actually pushed her backwards and forced her to disengage. Her grin came back quickly though. ”Well! We probably don’t have time for a much fuller spar, given the task at hand. But this has been most educational~” Her voice was a singsong tone of satisfaction. ”You are quite strong, and that is of course an understatement. How about one more pass? Hyah!” And Yoko rushed in once more, aiming to grab his arm if he punched and use it to propel herself towards him and deal him a punch to the gut.

Yoko's flying kick was met by a headbutt, the momentum of Yoko's strength and movement meeting the muscle-driven motion of Deadlift's head-butt. At the same time as she dealt a solid kick right to his skull, the strength behind his headbutt actually reversed her motion and sent her sailing backwards a few feet through the air. Yoko landed on her feet, backpedaled a few steps rapidly, and then grinned even wider. "OhoHO, you really are strong, aren't you? I like you!" Then Yoko once again approached Deadlift, this time using putting her agility to use to try and weave and dodge, occasionally sending a strike at one of his sides but mostly wanting to see what he would bring to the table offensively.

Yoko blinked as she was hurtled into the void... but then found it an exceptionally profound experience. Was this the Void — the everything and nothing? Was this the thing to which human souls had so profound a connection? Or was it merely a void — simply a lack of things — a darkness? Yoko supposed she couldn’t know, or rather that she didn’t know. Perhaps she would later, when she had furthered her path down enlightenment. But for now she would— —land, in a strange metallic place, upon some empty metallic containers. That had not been comfortable (and whatever these were, they were impressively tough), but comfort was not precisely Yoko’s goal in life, and after but a moment she slid herself down the pile and came to a stop. Then she looked around, saw the debris, saw the slumped over man... and saw that the cloaked shugenja was no longer present. ”FINALLY! I can act without worrying abiut her interference.” She looked at the man with the ability to grow muscles, and grinned at him, an expression that was a curious mixture of genuine good will and bloodthirst. ”Now I can make what I think is the most proper introduction I can. I am Hitomi Yoko, monk of the Hitomi Kikage Zumi Tattooed Order, of the Dragon Clan but not bound by them,” Yoko slipped out of her sandals, ”bearer of Blaze and Full Moon tattoos, and pursuer of enlightenment through violence. And I,” Yoko began to move in Deadlift’s direction swiftly, ”would like to see what you have got!” It was at that point that Yoko launched herself in a flying kick at Deadlift’s head.

Yoko saw Deadlift practically inflate with musculature, and though she was taken aback for a moment, she ended up grinning widely. ”Ohohohoho...” She couldn’t resist, when they were no longer in the presence of the cloaked shugenja who could foul her up, Yoko would HAVE to properly introduce herself with some violence. She couldn’t help herself, really; the temptation and opportunity to see what this man was capable of, to see what a fight he could give if she decided to commit to one in full...it was very, very great. But then a bizarrely pointy-eared woman said something that caught Yoko’s attention. ”The human soul is indeed filled with chaos and violence, but this is no bad thing. To suggest the need for ruling and order and obligations to be placed down upon it is to suggest clinging to structures that distract one from the reality of themselves and the Void — to distract themselves from greater understanding. It is my chaos, my violence that I hone, that I channel, that I devote myself to, so that I might more truly connect myself with nothing and everything. Order and rule are feeble distractions put up to try and hide from this connection, because of an inability to stand hardship. Instead, we ought to embrace our violence, for the sake of better comprehending the full breadth of the soul.”

Yoko's expression in response was... actually a grin, but a grin that seemed less genuine and more mocking. "I am capable of acquiring food on my own. I do not use equipment -- only this clothing on my back, for I rely upon my martial arts and my own physical strength. I do not need a large enough shelter to be worked on by other people. I am not spoiled as you seem to be; I do not see the need for the material possessions that you appear to depend upon, for these exact reasons. They are distractions from enlightenment, and they are ultimately dependencies. Civilizations exist because people need them to exist, and because most people are simply unable to see past their dependencies and obligations. But I have no need for this -- I am a monk, a Dragon monk, as often as I butt heads with my clan, and we are the best around at living without luxuries, and living for our own pursuits of enlightenment. We do not all function with the weaknesses you do."

The look Yoko gave Vratislav in response to this was... dripping with disdain, actually. "You don't look especially capable of relying upon yourself in a fight to me, which would explain your saying that. One does not reach enlightenment by using others as a crutch -- one reaches enlightenment through their own efforts, and their own relation to the world... their own soul. Relying on others to take care of your soul and mind for you is simply leaving them alone, and relying on others to do things physically for you is simply closing yourself off from the ability to use your inner chaos... or, I suppose, to use much of yourself at all."

Yoko considered Hirata's words for a moment. "Hmm. I see. I must say, though I understand that machines may be useful, it seems foolish to me to be dependent upon them. If one can't do something oneself, and has to rely on something else to do it for them, then there will always be something which will take account of this, and they will be forced to pay for it at some point." Yoko stared at Hirata, then, and raised an eyebrow. "I don't know what a robot is either, but perhaps if you do not want to worry about being slaughtered, then you should learn to fight instead of... instead of bringing a pillow apparently. Me? O-ho-ho, I very much intend to fight. An army, hmm? That sounds like it would be fun. We tattooed monks have been known to fight off armies on our own."

Yoko considered the cloaked woman's words, nodding slowly to herself (she didn't fully understand but she expected to be sent to kill things) before she spoke: "Okay, horrors from... other realms, I assume? That seems the likeliest explanation to me. But what is a computer? And are there things for me to hit? If I'm expected to be going somewhere, I had better be given sufficient chances to pursue enlightenment. Which, because I am a kikage zumi, would mean that I expect sufficient chance to be beating things to death."

A muscular, five-foot-tall, Asian-looking woman with wavy, neck-length black hair, green eyes, clad in only a pair of baggy green pants, sandals and a shortened sarashi, with an intricate tattoo of fire on her stomach and one of the full moon over her heart, opened her eyes. She groaned, for a moment — she felt like she did when she’d taken one too many punches, a far more familiar situation to her than being hungover, seeing as she really didn’t like to drink. Soon enough, though, it was gone, and the woman (Hitomi Yoko, kikage zumi tattooed monk of the Dragon Clan of the Emerald Empire) sprang to her feet, leaping up in a smooth motion from where she’d been lying down, and observed her surroundings. She was in somewhere utterly alien, a hall built with strange architecture, with an utterly beautiful but foreign night sky outside, and surrounded by all kinds of gaijin and strange beings. Of course, that was no reason to panic — the unfamiliar was just another kind of hardship, and being somewhere surrounded with things she would never find in Rokugan was arguably just a profound opportunity for more fights! So she began to look around the room, sizing up its inhabitants, trying to see which ones would be good fights. Their host, a mysterious figure in a cloak and with horns — judging by... her? casual levitation of the chairs, and her equally casual weakening of one of the others present, some sort of truly strangely garbed shugenja. If she had brought them here, Yoko was forced to reluctantly assume that she would likely not be able to take her in a fight. Yet. Some shaggy, haggard-looking gaijin in a fancy coat — even excepting his garb, upon looking him over Yoko decided by his posture and movement that he appeared to be nothing special at all. She could probably knock him over right now, if she wanted, she concluded. How disappointing. A literal orb of vapor, which she doubted she would be able to fight at all, even more disappointing. A Rokugani-looking woman with some truly strange items... but who appeared to have absolutely nothing in the way of musculature, or fitness, and who was currently... squealing, snuggling into a pillow, and trying to go to sleep? What. That was profoundly unimpressive. A crowned individual with a white, flowered tunic and a set of armor made of bone and scale — another shugenja type, or some strange gaijin magic? Interesting. He looked like he could be... an okay fight. An eight foot tall and four-armed creature with some manner of bizarre weaponry Yoko couldn’t make heads or tails of; despite how the horned shugenja made quick work of it, Yoko smiled at it — it looked like it would make for a fascinating and unknown fight, she figured. Another armored figure, this one lithe and slim, but by Yoko’s estimate looking extremely acrobatic. It didn’t seem to Yoko that this figure was in fact a weakling, but these were simply preliminary judgements anyhow. There was also another figure, some sort of magician, but Yoko couldn’t make heads or tails of the odd things. All in all, a mixed and eclectic bag of people and other beings surrounded Yoko; and though some made her more optimistic for a good fight than others, but none of them truly blew her away. ...except, of course, for the mostly metaphorical elephant in the room. One of the figures in the room appeared truly MASSIVE, well over eight feet but apparently human, despite his being feet taller than any man Yoko had ever seen. She could see that he bristled with lithe muscle, too — he looked strong, and if there was one person in the room Yoko would pin as being a good fighter, it was him. She didn’t just smile at him — she openly grinned. She would definitely have to rush him as soon as she could to see how he reacted. Of course, now the figure was talking, and making an offer to go on some grand realm conquering journey; Yoko wasn’t overly impressed with the whole concept of it, going around with obligations to some other empire, and trying to create them for others, but she could probably shake out of it if she truly wanted, and she realized that it made for an excellent opportunity to take her pursuit of enlightenment to entirely new levels. ”I assume you plan to have us go around and be your elite warriors, yes? If you plan to just send us out like this and have us fight on other worlds, we-ee-ell... count me in!” Largely ignoring the other fuss, she grinned.

Yoko Hitomi (western name order here, eastern in the sheet), VIOLENCE MONK of the Dragon Clan, from Legend of the Five Rings much like Satomi.

Perlita smiled when the blast of light she unleashed appeared to solidly nail the flying beast she'd targeted; being the main healer for her party back home, Perlita had not tended to often use Hama, and when she did it wasn't that often that it had that much effect. This has held true for her time outside of her dimension, and she found herself pleased to get to actually blast something well like that, especially since the thing didn't seem to be in a fantastic shape afterwards. Her eyebrows shot up her forehead when Gabriel and the girl in the mech proceeded to obliterate every single one of the smaller beasts. "Oh, w-wow--" It was then that Perlita noticed the condition of the... uh, immodestly dressed woman, and the smile dropped off of her face -- she had had a number done on her by no less than four of the beasts, and was looking more than a little bit wounded. After an uneasy glance in the direction of the transforming monsters (she didn't like the idea of these things wildly and unpredictably gaining new things to mess them up with), Perlita raised her hands in the air, tugged once again at invisible strings, and with a shout of "Crawford, Diarama!" her glitzy Persona appeared into the air and blanketed the fairy with powerful pink soothing magic. Perlita uses Diarama on Empi, healing her for 6d4+SYN (12) health from the move, an additional SYN (12) health from Altruism, and if she's hurt before making the move she heals SYN (12) health herself. Perlita has a 40% sleep ailment resist chance and 20% darkness damage resist.

Satomi nodded resolutely at Kusuke’s last concerns. ”That’s why I want you out there to be a lookout while I deal with the Agony. If you see the siege’s outriders about to bear down on my position, then we can slip back into the village and be prepared when they arrive. Now, I’m going to go create that gear so that place doesn’t cut me up anymore, I’ll report back to you once I’ve finished and we could set out.” Satomi walked back up to Kusuke... well, from his perspective, only a few minutes later, because she had been using time provided by him to go about her task. It had been a couple of hours for Satomi, though, and busy ones — she was running around the village, gathering materials and putting together a specialty outfit. In the end, what she’d created was a sleek piece of work; fabric, wire, and purification powder placed together in an outfit that fit under her kimono and that, she predicted, would do its job well and stay quite secure on her. Of course, it wasn’t PERFECT — in retrospect, the belts and straps probably weren’t needed to keep it tight and well-fitting, because the thing was honestly a bit too tight as is, but it was fine work indeed for someone who wasn’t normally a tailor, she thought. Satomi showed up in front of Kusuke looking quite different — her arms and hands were covered, as were her lower legs, and she had a hood poking out above her kimono. Kusuke could see the outline of three... interestingly placed belts under the kimono, and... well, it wouldn’t be entirely clear to Kusuke, but it looked a lot like her figure was more emphasized by her clothing than usual. Satomi rubbed her eyes and then began speaking. ”It’s strange having fabric on my legs like this, but I’ve created what I think is a very much functinal outfit for dealing with the third Taint. I’ve meshed wire and purification powder between two layers of fabric, so the stinging effects of that place should be blocked! It covers essentially my entire body, too, beyond what Rokugani clothing normally does.” Satomi proved her point by carefully sweeping aside her kimono and the inner robe of the outfit (her normal one was now waiting in the Inn) to show Kusuke what she had created for her legs. She was keeping him from seeing her inner robe much, and her legs were abnormally covered, so the somewhat sleep-deprived girl didn’t think it particularly indecent. As for what it actually looked like, the leg-guards were relatively thick overall, and they did have a strap up the side and the outline of the wire mesh vaguely visible through the fabric, but... well, they were quite tight on her legs, and Kusuke got a brief flash of a fabric pattern on the top of one that altogether meant that these looked an awful lot like thigh-high stockings. ”So, are you prepared to make a jaunt out with me?”

"I have already entertained the possibility of hunting down and destroying everything Tainted he's created -- more drastic measures than that may be considered afterwards, if I go down that path. However, we don't have time to do so right now, even with your help: this third biome is very difficult to destroy, and though I have in fact made some progress, I very much doubt I will get to anything else today, especially if the goblin forces reach our walls in this time. The plan I intend to undertake in order to deal with as much of this third Taint type as I can is that I will, with some of your gifted time, create a wire-meshed series of cloth guards to prevent the nicks and stings that that place abounds in from deterring me further. Then I will make another try at erasing it from existence with my own time. Then you could serve as a lookout to tell me if the siege is arriving as I work." upon further inspection, Kusuke could see that in addition to looking sleep-deprived, Satomi had small nicks and scrapes dotting her -- nothing truly damaging, but uncomfortable-looking. "As for energy, well, us Crab are used to spending long hours up on the Wall, vigilant against the eternal threat of the Shadowlands. I shall be fine." To tell the truth, Satomi really was feeling her sleeplessness set in a bit, especially with how exhausting and frustrating her jaunt into the corruption just now had been, but she was not lying that the Crab had to be prepared to push through that, and that she had experience with the Wall. It had carried her through the previous day even, and with not only a siege to combat but a Taint to destroy, Satomi could scarcely afford to slow down at all.

Ceridwen nodded at Futch's words, but her expression didn't clearly indicate if she'd taken it to heart or not. She smiled gratefully when Futch gave her the ring, though. "Oh! Thank you! Hmm, I've never had a lot of opportunity to face mages... but you did warn me about them. I'll ask around the rest of the Allied Guard, though, to see who needs it the most. Um, unless you have something else to tell me, I think I might go talk to one of our mages or Johanna about it. And thank you again!"

Satomi shook her head emphatically, a strange look glimmering in of her eyes of fury, determination, and fear. “I have to stop this. I have to stop this. I know you have experience with these things too, but I...” Satomi exhaled heavily. “It is the duty for which I exist. The ravages of the Taint, and those things like it, are surely the greatest threat to the realms other than their current marauders. I HAVE to stop this. I’m sorry, I can’t talk about it much longer, I have to go to continue dealing with this!” She made to leave, but then turned back for a moment. ”If you spot them beginning the siege before I have returned, tell the group to tell Tattletale to station herself at the cluster-bolt trebuchet, and station the loading golems, if Leo made them between toying with Tainted evil things damn it— gah, to station them around the weapons!” Satomi then grabbed four of the bags and moved onto her next task. Huffing with the resurgence of her fury with Leo and the intensity with which she was pursuing her task, Satomi immediately hunted down Kusuke. Finding him walking in the town, the visibly nicked-up samurai immediately energtically beseeched him. ”Kusuke-san! I have need of your time! I was out dealing with that damned Taint, but it seems to be made in a way that makes it difficult to tackle. I intend to create something for myself to make this less of a problem, but I don’t have the time to do so and also tackle the new Taint itself! Please, I need to be able to tackle this lest something worse happen with it!”

Ceridwen's eyes got just a little bit watery when Futch pulled out the scale necklace - it would appear that he was making quite an impression on the newbie Dragon Knight, and she was moved heavily. "Oh, I couldn't even begin to imagine what it must have been like...! That's so sad... You can believe I'd protect Ynddi with my life!" She paused. "My teammates, too, I'll be there to take the hits for them, it's what I'm there for, but I'll never forget to do it for Ynddi!" "...growr? Kkhfff. Growr." This time Yn Ddiddorol added some incredulous noises to his skeptical look, and pulled his head out of Ceridwen's arms only to deposit it on top of her head. As far as he was concerned, it would be him that would be protecting his rider.

Satomi made it to town, her focus not terribly disrupted by the incident with the deer, and immediately sought out the Dryad, the myriad small nicks and scrapes on her telling the story of her difficult with what she had been doing. "I've been dealing with that damned Taint that Leo created, but I've run out of purification powder. I intend to better garb myself so that that infuriating place doesn't slow me down with its cuts and stings, and I already have made some progress, but I can't progress more until I have powder -- and preferably as much as you can give me. Every minute that Taint exists on this world is an affront to it, but that siege is coming soon. With Kusuke's aid I believe I can take it on but I do need the materials to do so."

Ceridwen nodded eagerly at Futch's advice to keep her dragon safe, gestured Ynddi over, and promptly hugged the dragon's head -- while Ynddi himself gave Futch a look that suggested he thought he was humoring his rider. "Ynddi is my partner, and I'd never let him take a hit that could take him out! I'll protect him myself, you can count on that, it's one reason I have all this armor!" "It's something that D- dd, uh, Gareth always impressed upon me, that I have to always have his safety in mind!"

Satomi grinned as Azgrurk caught one of the bird-things out of the air and crushed it into a paste with his hand. "Ohoho, I think I can most definitely leave the crushing to you. Let's deal with this damned Taint, then!" And so Satomi advanced into the Agony, backed up with a very large, very strong Ork more than capable of slaughtering the blighted, infuriating things trying to break Satomi's skull -- though she had a helmet and would have been mostly fine, he would keep the things from distracting her and from dicing her up. Between the two of them, Satomi figured that they would be able to make some serious progress. Several minutes later, Satomi stormed out of the Agony, her face a rictus of rage and irritation. Despite her best efforts, she'd expended all of her purification powder and not managed more than a couple hundred yards of purification of this damned place -- everything was out to trip her up, sting her, distract her, irritate her, and-- "URGH! This isn't enough, damn it all! Azgrurk, I'm going to head back, I can't make headway with this place taking every opportunity to jab and frustrate me -- I'm going to go get more purification powder and make something for myself to make this place more bearable. If you'd like to continue smashing things, though, well, I don't think this place will be running out any time soon. Damned Taint."

Ceridwen nodded eagerly at Futch's advice -- the fact the red-headed Dragon Knight was so enthusiastically looking up to him would probably exacerbate the strangeness he felt. "Oh, I see! Haha, I think I can do that -- I'm not really under the illusion that I know a whole lot about much of anything here!" "As for my teammates... yeah, I think I can rely on them!" "Well, I admit there are a couple of them I'm worried about..." "But still! And I guess that if I do need something a bit more familiar, there is another Dragon Knight in the unit."

The red-headed yet green Dragon Knight smiled warmly at Futch's comments about her mentor. "Yeah, Gareth is pretty wonderful, isn't he?" Ceridwen was very much fond of Gareth -- not a surprise that she would be, considering how much he had been there for her, but she felt like he was even more important to her than most mentors were to their mentees. She remembered, too, a time when she was really little and some people didn't have such nice opinions of him. When they'd whisper things or would suggest that bad things were likely to happen to her, when she was right in earshot too. That hadn't been too nice... and it made Ceridwen very happy to know he was respected now. Ceridwen noticed that her expression had slowly become just a tad melancholy, so she searched for a topic to change to... she almost wanted to ask Futch more about what seeing the world had been like... but, well, she didn't want to stab into the old wounds that the circumstances behind it had left. So instead... "Um... if it's not too much, do you have any advice for someone new to the rest of the world...? It really is all a lot to take in..."

Ceridwen gave Sharon a very much bemused smile. "Eheh, well, it was a mock battle, Sharon, and you are an apprentice... and more importantly you are you so I figured something was probably up, so..." Ceridwen trailed off and shrugged, but turned to reply to Futch then. "Honestly, it was really enjoyable! I've always loved mock battles since Gareth would put so many of them on for his Wing, and the rest of the Guard is actually really capable, so it was super impressive! It's actually a little daunting, heh heh... um, though maybe it helps that a lot of the Allied Guard is, honestly, really weird so they're less intimidating. Caliss is a strange place!"

Ceridwen popped a strawberry into her mouth as she walked over following Futch's nod, putting the top onto her plate as she approached the Mid-Wing Commander and his apprentice. "Hello Futch, uhhhh, sir, this was so much easier when the superior officer I was talking to was my mentor, I just figured I should come down and check on Sharon myself, even if I guess she looked pretty much fine earlier. I, heh, I feel a little bad because I was trying to get her one on one so nothing excessive would happen, but then our light mage, well... yeahhh..."

The red-headed Dragon Knight looked less bulky now than she had during the battle, seeing as the shields of her armor were currently stored within Ynddi's saddlebag, but unlike her commanding officer that isn't to say she looked much smaller; Ceridwen was, after all, an exceptionally tall woman, standing at five foot ten. She immediately went for some of the particularly sweet fruits on the cart and plopped a few of them onto a plate, only grabbing a couple of pieces of meat as an afterthought, remembering the many times her mentor had gently chided her for paying more attention to her sweet tooth than to her nutrition. She grabbed a second plate, then, and piled this one high with meat -- this plate wasn't for her, see. She held one plate in each hand, and considered where to go from there. "Hmmmm... why don't I go check on Sharon? Well, I guess she looked fine, but... ehhh..." So she walked in the direction of Futch and his apprentice, holding the plate of meat out slightly... where Ynddi happily trotted out and began to scarf up the meat off of the plate even as they walked. She saw that Futch was giving Sharon a chewing out that was no doubt deserved, and she faltered for a moment. Ceridwen didn't want to interrupt something like that unless welcomed over, so she wasn't going to call out, but she couldn't exactly give much of a nonverbal indication of her approach with two plates in her hands. And then Ynddi promptly grabbed the meat plate, which he had already emptied, grabbed the plate in his jaws, and casually took it from Ceridwen, trotting over to return it near the cart. "Oh. Yeah, that'd do it!" With that obstacle out of the way, she gave Futch a hesitant wave to see if he signalled it being okay for her to come over or not.