[IC] TTG Chapter 3: Gluttony

[Chevaleresse]

Hiroki righted herself; she'd obtained just enough breathing room to do so, not that it took all that long. This wasn't the first time an opponent had tried to set her off balance, and her mech was designed with that situation in mind. With a simple keyword spoken as she rolled forward onto her feet, the cannons flared up; the automated pattern likely wasn't striking the bits at any rate approaching useful, but Hiroki wasn't immediately concerned with them. Her targeting systems highlighted Kagari's motion, and laid out some loose projections on where she'd appear next; that information went to waste, however. She held off on her main cannon until Kagari closed, until she was too close to start putting distance between herself and the Knight, and then savagely swung her main cannon in a jet-boosted strike, aiming to knock the HUNTER clean across the icy arena if possible.

[Code: PIRULUK]

Kagari frowned. Hiroki was taking a sub-optimal course of action. This would not do. She had to use her mech's unique capabilities to win the most Favor. Simply beating down Kagari would not be as entertaining for the audience.

 

A set of wires emerged from her wrist and twined themselves around the handle of her hammer. Cannons were heavy and bulky. They were hardly suited for close-range combat. Jet-boosted or not, it was simple to see them coming. Kagari struck the cannon with the hammer, using the impact to shift her course, out of the path of the strike. She grabbed on to Hiroki's shoulder and used it as a pivot, landing on Hiroki's back. Then, hammer in hand, she began to strike away. It was not like her blows against Mommo. Each hit was methodical, measured, rhythmic. Each hit was spaced precisely 2.483 seconds apart. She attacked with a calmness and consistency that was uncharacteristic - and vaguely frightening.

[Chevaleresse]

The first strike of the hammer rattled Hiroki inside her mech and set of a few more warning lights - in a greater quantity than the frontal blow had, despite that one's greater force. There were several important connections in the region, though with any other place on the bot they had redundancies and thick plating to guard them. One hammerblow was also likely the only thing Kagari would have the chance to land before reacting to Hiroki's next move - "Activate Mantle," she spoke, her voice shaken and still a bit cracked, but starting to fill with a rising anger. Jets all around the Knight - including some that would have had to be right on Kagari's handhold - flared to life, spewing out orange-white plasma that formed an expanding shell around the mech's body. Needless to say, this was not what one would call a friendly environment for a lightly armored mech.

[Code: PIRULUK]

Finally.

 

If the current Kagari had been capable of emotion, she might have breathed a sigh of relief. As it were, she backflipped off the mech and quickly created some distance, skidding to a halt several meters away. She stowed away her hammer, and drew another weapon - a large sword, with numerous serrated teeth lining its edge. She held the weapon up in a ready stance and waited.

[Chevaleresse]

In any other situation, Hiroki would have grinned. Everything was going according to plan now; she'd disposed of countless melee builds with very nearly the exact same method she was in the midst of executing. Using it on Kagari, though. . . She was just angry and sad. Hiroki swung the main cannon up, locking onto Kagari as she discharged the shield in her direction. A rough, expanding wave of plasma flowed forward, during which the high-pitched whining of her cannons charging could be heard. As it reached Kagari's position, a dull, but loud boom sounded as Hiroki spoke the keyword to the attack: "Giga Flare!" The attack made the discharge of the shield look like a blast from a squirtgun in comparison, lancing out from every barrel on the mech save the ones pointed downward, and would prove essentially impossible to dodge by dint of sheer volume.

[Code: PIRULUK]

Kagari noted the wall of projectiles and relaxed.

 

There you go.

 

Then Kagari was herself again. She blinked furiously, shaking her head clear. She hated when that other her took over. It was always so sudden, so intrusive. Granted, that other Kagari usually did things for her benefit, but it was still annoying. She could at least ask, first. But no, that was inefficient. Kagari glanced upward.

 

...and now they had switched back just in time for her to get hit by a veritable curtain of fire. Brilliant.

 

Wow, thanks. Thanks a lot.

 

And now the diminutive girl probably thought she was a conwoman of some sort for attacking. Technically, she had run her fair share of cons, but...

 

She dropped her weapon and looked straight at Hiroki, winking and hoping she would catch the gesture. That was all she was able to do before she was struck by the wave of projectiles, feeling the impact of numerous projectiles on her exoskeleton, wincing in pain at each. The barrage carried her backward and away, sending her crashing to the floor. When the dust cleared away, the audience would see the picture of Kagari lying on the ground, unmoving and unconscious.

[Komodojoe]

Strider vs. Slumbering Giant

 

The second blast hit Strider right in the torso, making it slam into the wall again. Followed by the blasts from her hands, then the grenades. Neither the shields, nor the VI con trolling them, were giving up that easily, but that barrage definitely made a dent.

 

And on top of that, the display on Morgan's glasses lit up red, but seeing how messed up it was, she couldn't figure out what the problem was. Looks like she was gonna have to finish this, quick. And she's got just the right primer for it.

 

EAS deactivated. All stats have returned to normal.

 

With the help of it's jets, Strider got back on it's feet almost instantly... and kinda slipped forward, making her fall to one knee and punch the ground (which might've actually earned her some style points), and erected the cannon on her shoulder. We all know what happens next.

 

Signature Attack: Revenge Blast initiated.

 

The emerald blast from Strider's cannon shoots forward at the Giant, the power behind it would hit her with twice the damage that Strider got assaulted with. It should do quite a bit of damage, but exactly how much remains to be seen.

[Shamitako]

Strider defeats Slumbering Giant with Revenge Blast. Procrastination beats Lexi with time.

 

Travel Phase update: screw my overly complicated system that even I can't parse anymore, time limits seem to work on me, so let's use those. There shall be provided exactly one month from this moment for the travel phase. You may still only go to one of the three main locations, but everything else is freed up

 

~Travel Phase~

 

With the last round of battles being particularly emotional, it was no wonder how drained the competitors were as they boarded the train. There was just one tagalong god this time, or at least only one who revealed herself, that being Blink. Of note was Temperance, who--in addition to being severely burned--seemed extremely shaken, her unease spreading slightly and increasing the tension for everyone.

 

Hiroki

 

Hiroki was alone in her room while waiting for the train to leave the station and free roaming time to begin when a tiny goddess popped through the wall to greet her. "Hey, you and I have to talk." Blink said, "The Tenth God has shown herself."

 

Tai

 

Tai was also alone in his room, but his visitor did not come from his wall, she was inside his mind. "Tai?" Cardinal asked cautiously, "I... I'm sure you're super confused right now, and... I'll explain everything if you want. But I want you to know that I protected you today because I didn't- I just didn't want you to get hurt."

 

Mommo

 

Mommo was also alone in her room. She received a message from Aries as her interruption. Or to be more specific, she got a rapid burst of messages.

"Yo, saw your match today."

"Too bad you lost."

"The counter attack thing Strider does is pretty strong."

"Keep at it though, even if you don't win"

"Well... Just keep trying to win."

"We'll get to meet in person after your next match."

"I'm not sure what path this tournament will take."
"But no matter what happens, I'll keep rooting for you."

"Please remember that for me."

[Bfroger6]

Mommo

 

"Mmmm..." Mommo grumbled. Something was definitely off with her. She kept losing, even what was supposed to be an easy fight with Strider. Looking at Aries's texts only made it harder on her, as he still seemed to be supporting her.

 

"I'll try to win."

"But it's proving...difficult."

"Aries. I'm confused. Do I even...want to win?"

"I know I want to meet you in person. You can show me how that amulet works."

[Sutoratosu]

"That cheating little fuck boi..." Solomon snarled under his breath as headed for the Diviner's chamber "We had that shit in the bag asmo, and then he pulled that bullshit... stole that win right from under me." 

        Asmodeus meanwhile, remained silent. The mechanic still couldn't believe someone was that batshit crazy- to dismiss their mech in the middle of a match. Shit, if he'd shocked the bastard while he was pulling the stunt. At the time, of course, that had been a bit too fucked up, even for him to consider- for Sully actually had boundaries in the ring. Regardless how competitive he got, there was still a fine line where the ferocity stopped being about a friendly brawl, and instead changed into an all out death match. A line that for the most part, Sully had always been unwilling to cross. 

      But that was mostly because no opponent he'd fought before had been so hell bent on pulling a win out of their ass as to cheat as hard as Ball boy did. And in hindsight, he really did consider it a mistake that he hadn't acted in those brief few moments, could've easily said it was an accident, a product of the heat of battle- how the hell was he to know his opponent would be crazy enough to temporarily dismiss their only means of defense for the sake of fraudulently bettering their position? 

 

But no. He hadn't. And so now, here he was, in his feelings over something that in all honesty, he could've very easily prevented if he'd just been so willing.

 

"Try taking solace in the fact that even when we lost, we pushed them all to the brink?" Asmo finally spoke up. Sully was just about to scoff when he continued, "think about it. the girl, Strider, she literally exploded not even seconds after firing that laser- her little ability may have saved her in the end, but we did enough that she suffered critical damage as well in the process of securing that win. Then there's the fuckboi, Silent Requeim, I beleive the handle was. We both know we had him sully, once you pulled your shit together and started working with me like a team. There was no way for him to get out of it, once that happened, I knew it, you knew it, and he knew it most of all. No legitimate way at least. We pushed him so far, that he knew the only way he could possibly win at that point was to cheat; that he couldn't secure a victory on his own merits and skill alone. And so cheat was exactly what he did.

       There are two ways to look at this situation sully. Either you can fixate yourself on the negative, sulk and let it affect your performance, like you did when seeker came around asking about Tesla... or you can choose to see the silver lining here, the fact that despite how we might have lost, we pushed the opponent to the breaking point both times before we did... and if even a single thing had gone differently, it could've been a different story.

       Besides. this wasn't all for nothing. I think I know how his little ability works now... there was something... very peculiar that happened, just before Revenant took over back there. Something I did, that I know he picked up on, it's the only thing he could've. With what the girl already told you about it, it wasn't hard to peice together afterwards."

 

To accentuate the point, the AI flashed his end-of-battle report up in the mechanic's mind, letting him peruse the analytics and conclusion. Solomon dismissed the text, laughing bitterly 

 

"so it was you. You were that "Single thing" that could've gone differently..."

"You laugh as if that fact refutes my point here. It doesn't. If anything, it reinforces the argument. Had I felt nothing at all, suppressed my shock, he likely would've never had a window to use his ability after that stunt he pulled. And you and Revenant would've finished it. But as I said, Solomon. Now we know how he operates, from what Strider told us and the data we gathered first hand. I'd say the dossier is more or less complete.

     Hell, if you so desired, we could spread what we've gathered, fuck him over much harder than he did us. It'll be hard to pull the same stunts if everyone knows what to expect from him..."

 

"...."

 

"Silence? Not what I expected from this proposition."

 

"Look... Yeah, sure, we could fuck him over like that, and don't get me wrong- that Asshole is at the top of my shit list. But I'd rather get at him man to man, kick his ass outside of any mech or arena, without resorting to some pansy cloak and dagger crap like a coward. It might be the easy way Asmo, but it's the way that makes us no better than that fuck boi, in the end. I'll get him someday, with my own two hands. Might not be today. Might not be tomorrow. But eventually, his ass will be mine."

 

He tapped in the code on the transporter for the Diviner's Car, and stepped inside, vanishing moments later.

[Chevaleresse]

Hiroki nearly jumped out of her own skin at the goddess's appearance. "Blink!?" Her eyes were reddened and her cheeks were moist; she'd been thinking about what had happened in the previous match. There was that one moment, right before the blast hit; it was hard to see through the haze of plasma, but. . . She hurriedly got down off of the bed she'd been sitting on, her knees folded up to her chest. "Um, what did you um, want to talk about?"

[IntSys]

Tai

 

Tai lied on his seat limply, like a puddle of molten wax dripping from a table. Cardinal's words rang, as if dragging him back to reality.

 

I... I'm sure you're super confused right now, and... I'll explain everything if you want. But I want you to know that I protected you today because I didn't- I just didn't want you to get hurt.

 

"... Hurt? You can't possibly think that I made my way up here without getting hurt, can you?" he retorted, "I got here not because of divine protection, but because of my solid, steel-melting punches!"

He sighed, realizing that he might have been too harsh with the remarks, "what's with all the concerns anyway? Aside from the little promise we had, we're almost total strangers," he reached out for the edge of the table and supported himself as he got back up. Much to his dismay, he had been absolutely drained after lashing out against the icy rinks; it took him a good ten seconds to get up.

 

"If anything, you should be more worried about the girl. Temperance, was it? I'd take a hammer to the chest over a third-degree burn all day."

Edited June 22, 2017 by IntSys

[Shamitako]

Blink

 

"The tenth God has revealed herself." Blink reiterated, "She's been secretly backing Supernova. But she fucked her reveal time, you're his next opponent and he can't do shit to you." She paused and inhaled, what she was about to say next held a ton of weight to it. "Look, Hiroki, I need you to do something a bit crazy." She said, "I need you to try your best to kill Supernova. Push him past his limits and force the Tenth God to come to his rescue again. There's a chance we may be able to stop her right here and now if you do this."

 

Diviner

 

"..stop him!" Sully enter the car to the sound of this yell. His attention followed the sound to find the Diviner arguing with a blonde woman in a purple sun dress.
"That's not my call Mr. Davidson, you know it isn't." The purple dress woman replied, "He's already out of my hands. I told him he wasn't ready, he insisted otherwise. This may be the only way for him to learn humility."
"He's not learning anything." The Diviner insisted, "All he's doing is trying to get himself killed out of desperation."

"And what am I supposed to do about it? He won't listen to me anymore! Tobias told me about that gibberish he keeps telling everyone. I asked him to say hello, not blab about being my successor or whatever. He doesn't care. Lain was ready first, it hurt his pride and because of that he may never be ready at all."
"And if something like that is enough to drive him to this, then perhaps he would never have been ready." The diviner shook his head, "Vicky, I know you care for him. He's not going to learn anything if he's dead."
It was at this point that the two noticed their visitor's presence. "Oh, hello Mr. Ryke." The Diviner said, "What brings you here again?"

 

Cardinal

 

"That thing doesn't need any pity." Cardinal spat, all hint of shyness gone and replaced with a seething hatred, "She's barely human, let alone a proper girl. You shouldn't worry about her." Cardinal had already dealt with Temperance and knew full well what that monster was capable of doing to a person. "Your 'steel-melting punches' can't hold a candle to what she's done. There mere fact that the gods were willing to let her into this tournament shows how little they care for the competitors' well-being." Temperance had already lost, what was the point of loosing her on the competition outside some sick sense of toughening the competitors up? That soulless husk had no right whatsoever to compete in this tournament. "Take me to her, I'll show you what she really is."

 

Aries

 

"Aries. I'm confused. Do I even...want to win?"

"I know I want to meet you in person. You can show me how that amulet works."

 

Aries pondered this for a moment before smiling softly.

"What you want is to earn the right to rest, isn't it?"

"Perhaps this tournament isn't the right path to that."
"I'm certain you'll reach your goal some day."

"Even if you decide you don't want to win, I'll make sure you find your happy ending."

 

"Pervert." Aries' AI said.

"Ram, I really don't care." Aries responded, "I'm going down this road whether you're with me or not."

"You're always so impulsive." Ram said, "Fine, I'm on board. But if it doesn't work out, I get an all-access pass to 'I told you so' for a week."

"It's a deal." Aries answered, adding, "Thanks for this buddy."

"Quit being so mushy. You're making me want to puke, and I don't have the stomach for that."

 

Aries had made this choice and he knew what direction he was going. But there was still another choice to be made that weighed on his mind. He wished he could ask Mommo about it, but that was definitely out of the question. This was his choice alone. The right path was still well hidden from him. He had to choose his path soon, the Tenth God had already revealed herself, there was just no more time.

[Sutoratosu]

"...Got another tweak to make" the mechanic answered, glancing back and forth between the Diviner and the woman- he knew who she was, it was hard for a denizen of pride not to know their own ruler, and considering eveyrthing Tesla had told him about when they were young... 

 

But not even the appearance of the God of pride would shake him from why he was here. He approached the diviner, continuing, "Besides, I wanted to ask you a few things... stuff like how common it is for some fuckwit to actually be willing to dismiss his mech in the middle of a fight, and risk his god damn life just to cheat. I heard you two just now; there's only one of us here who's spouted crap about being a successor or whatever. I'm guessing that stunt Ball-boy pulled ain't anything new for him then, not surprised..."

[Chevaleresse]

Hiroki blinked a few times at the god's request. She hadn't really processed what the woman had said on arrival. Nil was involved in the tournament somehow, and was helping Supernova? A part of her started to get angry. She'd worked this hard to get here on her own merits, and then he shows up with Nil of all people cheating for him? But. . . "Kill him? But I don't want to, I mean, what if, um, Nil doesn't help?" And wouldn't that end the tournament whether it works according to plan or not? If the tournament never finishes, I'll never prove that I can beat anyone that challenges me. And if it doesn't work, what if Supernova dies? They won't let me keep fighting, will they? And I don't want to kill anyone. . . 

[Bfroger6]

Mommo

 

Mommo sighed looking at Aries's messages. What he was saying made sense. She was trying so hard to attain something so simple. But she felt more at ease in her mech than anywhere else, no matter all the drama and excitement. In a way, she was resting during this tournament. It was funny, that she had these thoughts buzz in her head. She didn't quite understand what he was trying to say with 'helping her find her happy ending'...it felt kinda off, even if it did make her feel better. She decided to ignore her doubts.

 

"Thank you"

"I'll still fight"

"Perhaps it is the best for now"

"I still hope to meet you as you say"

[Shamitako]

Blink

 

"If Nil doesn't help, I will." Blink explained. It was no surprise that Hiroki was hesitant, this was extreme. She was about to say no when her nose caught a hint of a rather distinct smell. Were she more observant blink would have noticed it sooner, but she wasn't used to noticing things and her nose wasn't exactly her most used sense. "Wait a second." she said, "Hiroki, have you been crying?"

 

Mommo

 

"Alright, good luck."

"I've got business to attend to."
"See you soon."

[Chevaleresse]

Hiroki decided that now was a good moment to visually examine her shoes. "I, um, yes." She wasn't sure why it mattered. Unless the god was just going to pick at it or something, because of course the weak little girl had something to cry about. . . She looked back up toward Blink slightly after a moment or two, watching the god's expression.

[Shamitako]

Lord

 

Victoria eyed Solomon suspiciously. She knew who he was of course. Mr. Davidson was playing dumb but she was sure he knew as well.

"No, it is not normal." Mr. Davidson said, "Adam has become increasingly irrational as of late, I'm concerned for his well-being."

"Mr. Davidson, don't." Victoria muttered.

"And why not?" the Diviner asked, "Does he not have a right to know?"

"No, he doesn't." Victoria insisted.

Victoria kept watching Solomon, perfectly aware that they were discussing him as if he wasn't there. She tossed him an icy glare to ensure he waited to speak again until she was done.

"He's probably our only shot at finding Arcturus."
"Arcturus is not part of this discussion."

"If you don't share information, you won't get any back."

Victoria sighed. Mr. Davidson was right of course, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

"Nice to meet you, Solomon." She said, "I am, as I'm sure you noticed, Lord. And after what just happened, I doubt you could forget my student Adam. To answer your question, no, he doesn't usually employ Amelia's techniques so recklessly. As of late he's become more reckless and desperate. He was expecting Ice Gryffin to take longer to inherit Gluttony and feels like he's been outdone."

She paused, heavily debating whether or not to say what she would next.

"Look, there's something important about him you should know." She said cautiously, "He's Tesla's brother."

 

Blink

 

"Oh fuck." Blink said, "I'm so sorry." She put her face in her hands. "God I'm such an insensitive fuck. Here I am asking you to do the unthinkable and you're already upset." Blink went over to Hiroki and put her hand on her shoulder, "Look, I've been cheering for you from the start. It might have started out because you were so obviously super short, what with those clunky-ass shoes you're always wearing, and I felt a sort of shorty kinship. But you're actually really fucking awesome. So straight up I'm retracting my request of attempted murder and instead asking you from the bottom of my shitty midget heart, tell me what's wrong."

[Sutoratosu]

"Hwhat?" were he'd been drinking something, anything, which at the moment, he really wished he did have a fucking drink, he would've done a spit take. Instead he just stared at the God as if he'd been told the most preposterous thing in his whole life. Which he kinda had. "This some sort of sick joke?"

 

The mechanic took a deep breath, for once trying to steady himself, gripping the bridge of his nose "Tesla. And that asshole? Siblings? Ball-boy looks absolutely nothing like my sister; as far as I can tell he ain't even the same god damn ethnicity. How the hell could they possible be related? Unless there's some hanky-panky Genetic modification shit going on..."

 

He wasn't of course, mentally denying the idea of Tesla having any family beyond the one that had adopted her as their own. Up until his father had found her, she'd been more or less a blank slate, no past she remember beyond the shit they did in those labs. No, what he was fighting against was the notion that the asswipe who'd just fucked him over not even a few hours ago, was somehow related to her in any way. He knew his sister, what little of her there was left behind ever since she left, and by the gods there was no way he'd let her memory be tainted by some blood connection to that waste of space. besides... there was the issue of timing...

 

"Besides... The dude doesn't even look old enough to drink yet, and Tesla would be somewhere in her early thirties. It ain't like they could've been separated at birth or... whatever the hell happened that landed her with those damn eggheads. So what the hell is going here? What, you somehow found her parents or something?"

[Chevaleresse]

Hiroki almost chuckled at Blink's phrasing. The mention of her shoes did kind of pinch a bit, though; it seemed that her disguise was even more transparent than she'd thought. "I, um, was thinking about, um, Kagari. HUNTER. We had a conversation, um, during the trip to Lust. She was actually really nice to me and I thought she was my friend." She looked down again. "When we had to fight, we had another conversation. . . All she was doing was getting close to me so she could, um, hit me with a surprise attack. . . I think. I don't know, though, I thought I saw something at the end. . ." 

[IntSys]

Tai

 

Cardinal's sudden change of tone was alerting to say the least. Tai was rather intrigued, though. There seemed to be much more in the girl he fought. 

 

"Sure," he stood up and stretched his arms and legs for a bit, trying to feel less like a sorry corpse. After picking up his strength again, he walked into the teleporter and paid a visit to Temperance's room.

 

With Temperance's words of anger in mind, he had more or less expected an immediate barrage of curses waiting for him.

 

[Komodojoe]

Morgan

 

Morgan couldn't keep her mind off that last match. She should feel well enough after winning, but instead she felt pretty much like crap. It could've taken more out of her than she thought, but she thinks that that wasn't the whole deal. The match itself was replaying through her head. She feels as if she just picked the Giant up to put her down again, and that alone caused her to feel some level of guilt. Morgan meant what she said right down to the last syllable. Hell, after that last barrage, she was actually expecting to lose. Instead, that Revenge Blast turned everything around and gave her the win. Something about it felt wrong to her. The girl couldn't entirely cast these thoughts away, so she decided that the best thing to do was focus on something else. In this case, her broken-ass glasses.

 

Using a normal pair of glasses (which she keeps as a spare, obviously), she spent her time up to this point working on repairing her main pair of glasses that were damaged during her match with the Slumbering Giant. Replacing the lens was easy enough. The tough part was fixing the machinery inside, mainly the display and a couple of other things so they can do their other job that's not improving the wearer's sight. Luckily, it just seems that a few things were knocked loose and weren't in dire need of repair.

 

"... And... Done!" Morgan snapped the lenses back in and put the repaired glasses back on, replacing the normal substitute until they're needed once again. She flicked on the display to make sure it worked and saw a familiar design. A blueprint, actually, and one that would probably come in handy, seeing as she probably could've used it earlier on. Oh, well. Can't fix the past even if there were a few things she wanted to change. Guess she knows where she's going next. She backed out of the conveniently-placed image... and then a couple seconds pass by before the display just turns off completely.

 

Guess they're needed once again...

 

"W-what the..." Morgan swapped the glasses out again to check what was wrong this time. She took the lenses back out and took the cover part off the sides to fully examine its contents, but she couldn't really tell if anything was broken. Kinda ironic seeing as the pair that broke was the only one that can zoom in, or really do anything that doesn't directly involve improving one's bad eyesight. Of course, she can probably figure it out with enough time, but she kinda has to talk to the diviner about the Strider mech and the blueprint...

 

It took a few seconds for her to figure out that she can kill two birds with one stone. She put the glasses back together and walked toward the teleporter. Next stop: the Diviner's place.

[Shamitako]

Tai

 

Temperance saw Tai's request to enter her room. She was still seething, somewhat literally based on her wounds, but she decided to let him in anyways. He entered the room and was immediately met with a jolt of anger as Temperance's emotions pushed their way into him, but this was suddenly cut off as the room shifted colors to the negative of itself. [Music] Temperance looked confused for a moment, but this quickly left her. In fact, all emotion seemed to leave her. Her eyes appeared dull and unfocused and her entire body seemed less energized. It was hard to tell exactly what was happening with the color shift; she almost seemed dead. "Hello Tai." She muttered. She sounded dazed, like she'd just awoken and didn't fully understand what was happening. The whole thing was extremely unnerving.

 

Blink

 

Blink considered this information, her instincts told her that HUNTER had been doing just as Hiroki said and trying to get a sneak attack in. That whatever Hiroki saw was just a desperate wish for the world to be a little less cruel. But her instincts were known to be rather cynical, she decided to wait and try to learn more before voicing that opinion. She didn't want to bring out the harsh truths until she knew what the truth was. "What happened at the end of the fight?" She asked, hoping it would clear things up.

[IntSys]

Tai

 

The sudden change in atmosphere flinched Tai for a second. "H-Hi there, Temperance," he hastily replied. "I thought that I should at least pay some respect to a thoroughly-burnt opponent."

 

He had seen burned fighters for who knows how many times, but it was certainly different this time around. They would stare at him with unspeakable anger and malice, not just greet him with a mundane tone.

 

Come to think of it, he had heard the exact same tone when he first faced her in the arena. Her tone changed completely when he got her out of the armor. It was almost as if he was fighting two different persons... personalities?

 

She probably just need a little bit of fresh air. That was the conclusion Tai made, so he stepped to Temperance's bed and showed his hand to her. "Aside from the little accident back then, it was a good game. So, how about a handshake?" he sent her the darnedest smile he could muster.