[IC] TotMV:G2: Val Habar and the Terrible Tigrex

[kj1225]

Turning around the girl would be met with a fist rapidly advancing on her face. It would seem that Andre had tracked her through the fog somehow. The glowing sword probably didn't help but there was more than likely some reason other than that he had found her so easily.

[Shamitako]

Nessie

 

Artitha was stunned by the sudden appearance of Andre's fist. she had expected him to find her before she found him, but certainly not this quickly. The burly man's fist smashed into her fragile face, instantly collapsing her nose and sending her sprawling through the sand. She managed to get her feet under herself and, using her sword as a crutch, forced herself back onto her feet. The pain caused her vision to blur in and out. She felt angry, so very angry. Her sense of rationality seemed misplaced, all that she could find was anger. Despite being disoriented and irrational, she still knew how to attack; that knowledge was a basic part of her, nothing could stop her from swinging her sword. Still seething, she raised it up and placed both hands on the hilt, pointing it forwards. She was vaguely able to comprehend that she didn't have time to attack just yet, so instead she channeled just a little more power into it. A sacred golden light wove its way up the blade, intertwining with the silver and black.

[kj1225]

Unlike the raging woman, Andre was having a great time. The fog was an interesting trick but didn't help how much her scent stood out against the desert. Andre swaggers a little as he begins to approach the girl, well aware that she seems ready to Limit Break. The thought sent a thrill through him. He had to piss her off more!

"Oh, I get it now! You didn't want to fight inside because then everyone would see you get your ass kicked. Well don't worry, I'm not going to rub it in when I win or anything, I'm a right humble guy you know."

It was all lies. But if they worked then hey, they worked. Maybe he could unleash his true form against her.

[Shamitako]

Nessie

 

Andre's taunt was muffled by a ringing in Artitha's ears. It didn't sound right. She wasn't afraid of losing. Was she? Maybe she was. She was afraid of something. Her head hurt. She wasn't thinking clearly. There was a strange salty taste tickling her mouth. The pain from her nose had dulled but it still overwhelmed her senses. Andre was blurry sometimes. He was getting closer. He was getting closer. Closer. Closer... Now. She lunged forward, thrusting her blade towards Andre's center of mass. A shockwave followed shortly behind the attack. Artitha's sheer strength would have turned a lesser blade into a mere bludgeoning weapon, but Artitha carried no lesser blade; her sword would continue to cut no matter how much power was pushed into its edge.

[kj1225]

Andre dove to the side, the sheer force of the attack sending sand flying all around the area. He takes a second to think. He reaches the most likely sound conclusion that the sword wielder wasn't having nearly as much fun with this as he was. Which was bad, no point sparring if it wasn't in good fun. That said, he was going to need more power to end this without someone getting more hurt most likely. Andre springs at Nessie, his form growing. He holds her arms down, his own growing hairier as his nails become like claws. His body hunches over her as he grows another foot in height, his muscles bulge out, and his teeth elongate into fangs. Needless to say, he's also a bit heavier now. He doesn't bother speaking just yet, waiting to see if she's still in murder mode for a little bit.

Edited April 7, 2017 by kj1225

[Chevaleresse]

Entrance Hall

 

"Well, looks like there's someone there right now; you mentioned wanting to meet people, right?" Masaru said, turning at the sound of footsteps. They weren't particularly loud, but neither was the castle - the only sounds that might've covered her approach were coming from a fair distance outside, in the marketplace of Val Habar. "Are you new here too, or do you actually know what's going on?"

[Hal Henderics]

--Entrance Hall--

 

Laver Waves excitedly to the newcomer.

 

"Howdy!"

 

--Sand Sea > Entrance Hall > ?Aurora's Location?--

 

Sliding past the two combatants, Mar sprays sand all over the Entrance hall, and starts walking around, searching for Aurora.  It struck him that Spider Webs might be more useful than chains for various purposes.

[Powder Miner]

A Different Dimension Altogether

A brown-skinned man sat inside the International Union of Heroes building, wiping at his face and curly hair with a towel another hero had generously given him to clean up the sweat with. The Flame of Maharashtra as the media called him, or Navin Gopinath Mhasalkar as he called himself, was awaiting a debriefing and reflecting upon the fight he and a couple of other Indian heroes had just had with a monster terrorizing Mumbai. The being had been a ten-foot-tall humanoid covered in insect-like carapace plates... but that sort of monster wasn't uncommon these days, so Navin didn't really think it was the appearance that matted. What mattered was that this monster had been quite the tough one, to use a bit of understatement. Navin was fairly proficient at breaking through armor, given his history with heavily armored aliens, but this thing had been tough, and it had taken Navin's strongest explosion punch and fellow hero Captain Chaudhri's nailing that same spot with a thrown car to bring it down.

 

Navin finished wiping the sweat off of his head, and placed the towel down on a nearby table, sitting a bit straighter in his chair. He supposed he was lucky that it had decided to show up in Mumbai -- showing up in his home state, in a place that was familiar territory and where he had compatriots he knew how to fight with, meant that the fight hadn't had any casualties. Navin recognized that it could have. The heroes of the world had grown pretty adept at teaming up and fighting together, but danger was always present and the International Union of Heroes had had to invest quite a bit of money into medical facilities. Navin considered himself a defender and had dealt with far, far worse conditions in the past, so such a dangerous occupation as being a superhero didn't terribly frighten the man, but he was thankful for the home field advantage nonetheless. He didn't think it would last. Navin was one of the more active heroes in the IUH, and he often found himself careening around the world in some IUH squad or another to fight whatever crisis arose, and he knew that it probably wouldn't be long before another threat drew him out of Maharashtra to yet another faraway place--

 

Castle: Entrance Hall

Quite suddenly, yet another newcomer popped into place in the entrance hall of the castle the Trespasser-fighters had commandeered as their mobile base. He was a (somewhat sweaty) brown-skinned man with medium-length, curly hair, wearing a white jumpsuit with equally white armored plates -- but with thick streaks of saffron-color making their occasional way across the outfit, as well as a fist-sized stylized purple flower printed over his right breast. Oh, and he was also in a sitting position, finding himself suddenly staggering and catching himself with a hand to the ground in order not to fall over on his rear end. Pulling himself to a proper standing position, the man looked around at the stone walls, blinked, looked at the eclectic variety of people surrounding him, blinked again, and then quietly and questioningly said something in a foreign language that wouldn't be understood unless someone in the entry hall actually happened to understand Marathi. 

 

He took a second look at the people around him, noting the variety and that they were likely not Indian, and spoke again in English, speaking in a voice with a gentle, if confused, tone and modest volume. "Ah, my apologies, I'm likely not in Maharashtra anymore... or perhaps India, for that matter. So... this is different." He gestured at the castle walls around him and the world outside the entryway. "I closed my eyes for a few moments, and suddenly I have found myself somewhere completely other than where I had been. This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened to me -- but I don't suppose any of you are in the same suddenly displaced situation? And would any of you by chance know where we are?"

[Hal Henderics]

Mar and Laver collapse into a menger sponge from trying to interact with the same person.

 

--Entrance Hall--

 

"I'm Laver, and you are here to help me help you help these guys help save a bunch of worlds from horrorterrors from beyond the pale!"

 

Laver points his hands in different directions has he gestures, quickly becoming tangled up in himself, falling to the ground in a puff of dust.

 

--?Somewhere?--

 

Mar calls out. "Aurora, I have a proposition to make!"

 

Mar has in hand a Hardrock Barrel of the Good Shit he just made, and a Blackrock Barrel, glowing ominously with unrestrained corruption.

 

[Chevaleresse]

Masaru elects to add a bit more to Laver's rushed explanation. "From what I understand, this is some sort of multi-universal monster hunting operation. Apparently they're nasty enough to destroy entire worlds if you leave them on their own. And yeah, I was in the middle of exploring a different castle when I rounded a corner and wound up in here." He hefts his titanic sword over his left shoulder, resting it there, and reaches his right hand out. "Yamaguchi Masaru is my name. Hoping to get things organized around here once whoever else is part of this operation gets back from wherever they are."

[Powder Miner]

Navin watches slightly bemused as the young boy speaks enthusiastically and gesticulates wildly; when Laver falls to the ground and sends sand everywhere, a charmed Navin allows himself a smile and extends a jumpsuited arm to offer to help him up. "Well, Laver, my name's Navin, and it's nice to meet you. Saving worlds from eldritch terrors certainly sounds within my duties as a defender, so I suppose it's a good thing that I ended up here."

 

Navin turns to Masaru as the man talks, casually noting his giant sword but evidently not finding it to be that out of the ordinary. "Ahhhh, I see. Well, it really is a good thing that I appeared here however I did, then, because I'll do my utmost to be of aid in taking these world-crossing creatures down." Once Laver gets up, Navin strides over to Masaru and shakes his hand modestly, before placing his hands together and bowing slightly. "My name is Navin Gopinath Mhasalkar, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance as well. Would I be correct in understanding, then, that the people who know exactly what's going on aren't here at the moment?"

Edited April 9, 2017 by Powder Miner

[Hal Henderics]

--Entrance Hall--

 

With a quick recovery, Laver hops back to his feet with the youthful energy expected of him.

 

"What he said...  Yeah."

Edited April 9, 2017 by Hal Henderics

[Chevaleresse]

Masaru glances questioningly - and with more than a little annoyance - at Laver. "You forget your glasses at home or something?" It doesn't last long, however, as he quickly returns his attentions to Navin. "And, yes, the, um, spider? Told me that the rest were missing. Gone on other missions, I think, so we're playing the waiting game until they've got their business sorted out. Glad to hear you're on board, though, sounds like we need as many competent fighters as we can get. I'm assuming you're competent, anyway; I can't say I've ever seen armor that looked like that before, but you've given me no reason to believe you can't fight."

[Powder Miner]

Navin looks down at his outfit and back up at Masaru. "Ah... well, where I come from there's a certain kind of... profession I guess you could say that is a mix of investigative work and combat work in regards to groups of people or individuals that go beyond the mundane in some way, such as having superpowers or genius intellect, or the like. We are called superheroes, or simply heroes. We tend to be very public figures, so we often wear these unique and easily recognizable outfits, and what I'm wearing is one example of that." Navin put his hand to his chin in contemplation. "I truly, genuinely don't mean to brag, but I do have experience with fighting -- and my particular superpower does allow me to create explosions from my fists, so I believe I could be of use in close combat."

[Hal Henderics]

--Entrance Hall--

 

"Superhero!  Superpowers! Explosive fists!"

 

"That is so cool!"

 

"Man, All I got is this dink hose, Exploding fists sounds so awesome."

 

A weird children's toy looking device appears in Laver's Hand, a Plastic Hilt with two pullies attached, wrapped around them is  tan and shredded tapestry featuring triangles and some unknown symbols, A chain is entangled with it, and it glows with yellow light.  It looks like the cross between a sword and a chainsaw, if one replaced the chain with... A non chainsaw chain, wrapped in cloth.

 

As it appears, a burst of sand, ribbons, and golden light puff from the hand holding it, like a party favor popping.

 

"Well, I guess it isn't that bad, I mean, this thing DOES let me doctor people's Heartstrings and Fight Knots, but it sure isn't Explosion Fists."

Edited April 9, 2017 by Hal Henderics

[Powder Miner]

Navin pauses and blinks when the sand, ribbons, and light pop, but does respond normally enough. "Aha, well, explosive punches aren't necessarily the most versatile power in the world. I'm not familiar with what these Heartstrings and Fight Knots are; would you mind explaining to me?"

Edited April 9, 2017 by Powder Miner

[Hal Henderics]

"Well, you know how people have emotional ties to things? And emotional ties to people? As 'The Doctor', I can see these strands, connecting everything that feels for anything."

 

He crosses his arms, bowing his head in thought.

 

"So, all those strands connect to a person's heart, tying everything together."

 

"Imagine if two people, or more, or less even, were to have complicated, tangled up feelings for something."

 

"Things like that can get complicated, after all, It's normal for people to have some of their heartstrings twisted from time to time, to get them a bit tangled, for them to be a bit messy looking."

 

"So, now imagine someone whose tangled up complicated feelings, were to be pulled taut, for that person to be pushed over the edge, and for those strands, which normally hold them to others, to suddenly be put under a lot of tension, to have their heartstrings tugged on, and hard."

 

"What happens when you yank on a tangled up string, or rope?"

Edited April 9, 2017 by Hal Henderics

[Sutoratosu]

Servant's Quarters

 

11 hours ago, Hal Henderics said:

"Aurora, I have a proposition to make!"

 

The spider's attention peaked elsewhere, as someone called her from afar. The woman on the floor had recovered rather nicely, over the course of the spider working on her- turns out all that anatomical knowledge of tearing humanoids and other creatures apart to consume them came in quite handy for repairing internal damage. Tama said nothing meanwhile, as the Spider began to move closer towards the noise. Good, he thought, perhaps if she were distracted, she'd forget about the deal and they might not have to spend the rest of the foreseeable future feeding some hybrid monster...

        She didn't get far however. Not long after the spider finished, Ghost eyes flared to life once again, alight with her disoriented gaze as she rose from the floor, and almost on instinct, focused in on the beast who had her back to her, her Voice welling up in her throat before she was even consciously aware what her body was doing...

 

Mar- Presumably somewhere in the Grand Hall near the entrance to the Servant's Quarters

All the elder orc would've heard in response to his proposal meanwhile was a sudden, violent shout in a woman's voice, and an explosion following not long after coming from the servants quarters, the detonation so loud it shook the very doors on their hinges and caused more than a few motes of dust and loose debris to fall to the ground around them. Even the very rafters themselves shook from the vibration. The area stood silent in the immediate aftermath, but the event had managed to knock one of the doors ajar, ever so slightly, and the Orc would've heard muffled conversation emanating from far down the corridor...

 

Servant's Quarters

"Stop, you fool, this is the one who just saved you!" Tama leapt over the woman and landed without a single sound of impact in between her and Aurora, eyes burning with chagrin as he tried his best to prevent the slaughter... not that he had any physical form to actually restrain either of them with though "Calm yourself, do you even remember what happened just a few moments ago, how you were on the verge of death!?"

      "Tiger LIED! Should've turned your fleshbag into a meal!" Aurora cried indignantly. Despite most of the corridor immediately surrounding her now nothing but a shredded, broken ruin of stone and wooden splinters, she seemed relatively fine as the thin veil of starlight vanished from her form. Already, what little wounds she had received from the assault were closing on their own. Regardless of how little it had done however, the way the Arachni bore her glistening fangs, her body lit with the surging glow of cosmic radiation and a spear burning with the fire of a star now in her hand, she wasn't much in the mood for talking this out... A shame too, considering only then had Ghost seemed to regain her grasp on reality.

      "I... who are you? What is this place- I remember... Oblivion, the void. I was dead, yet something pulled me out of it..."

     

The spider gave no answer, instead beginning treading forward, her pace slow, deliberate. She passed right through Tama as if he weren't there at all. The Tiger again tried to exude his Godly Pressure, but as enraged as the Arachnoid was, it did little but agitate her further. Still somewhat disoriented, Ghost backed away at the apparent threat, reaching for the instrument around her neck...

 

This was about to end in blood...

[Hal Henderics]

Mar runs towards the explosion, his Blasting Shield going off to give him a precious boost in speed.

 

As he reaches it, he infuses the shield with

 

Thaum>Oilystone>Silicon: (7, 12) This Mana type produces Silicone Oil, which is mixed with a strange overly sweet odor.

 

Firing the shield to spray a splatter of oil over the ground everywhere, the deceptively sweet scent carrying a promise of something unpleasant to the savvy among this temporary grouping.

 

The frictionless surface does not lend itself well to even multi-limbed beings holding their stances.

 

"What is going on here?"

 

"I'll have an explanation for why you did not take this outside, and I'll have no more damage to the castle from poorly utilized explosives."

 

Mar says, standing outside the slick.  His arms are crossed behind his back, improving his failing posture, it would strike the others that the Orc looks both much taller and much more intimidating when he is no longer hunched over, hiding his true height of 9 Foot 4.

 

[Sutoratosu]

Servant's Quarters

 

Aurora sensed it all happening far before ghost did, scowling as she leapt up and off the ground and skittered into the rafters above. The woman meanwhile stood little chance of keeping her bearings, as fogged as her mind still felt with the images and disordered memories that flooded, landing flat on her ass in the puddle of Oil. Tama Vajra just looked on, breathing a sigh of relief that the needless bloodbath had been apparently diverted.

 

Aurora piped up before either of them though, her position painfully obvious up in the rafters, given she was still giving off that radioactive glow... 

     "Fleshbag appeared with Tiger, Tiger said she'd give Aurora food for healing dead woman! But Tiger lied, Fleshbag gave no food when she woke up, Fleshbag tried to kill Aurora!"

     "Yes, my apologies for that..." Tama said "She's... not quite all there I suppose, after recent events... perhaps we were already a bit too late, if what she said is true and she did see the Void...that might explain why she was a bit... manically aggressive for a moment there. Souls recalled from the dead in our... homeworld, I suppose, from what the Spider told me... they can be a bit problematic when one gets called back from Oblivion and into their body...tis quite a delicate process, one that... if done improperly can have some... consequences for both the living and the resurrected...regardless" The tiger turned his attention to Mar.

     "Regardless, I suppose...an explanation is in order: This woman here, she's my partner. Not long ago we found ourselves on this... world rather than where we originally intended to escape to, and when we did, she was on the verge of death. We came here, to this keep, seeking... aid. That's when the Spider showed up, claiming she was the only healer you lot have here..."

[Hal Henderics]

"Hmm.  Make your way to the Smithy, there is a grey barrel on a shelf in there,like the one I have in my hand, drink until the pain dims.  It is a powerful brew I have made which is safe for humans such as yourselves, and contains both the power to heal and to cure."

 

"I recommend you two avoid one another until the injured has their head on straight, and their humors sufficiently apologetic."

 

"Aurora would be in an awkward position to do much more for you now, considering the practical warzone of misunderstandings wrought here."

 

Mar nods to himself softly, hunching over to his usual stature.  He uses sand mana to utterly scour the floor beneath Ghost, leaving her sitting on clean floor.

 

Done with those two, he turns to Aurora.

 

"Aurora, I would like to trade Liquor for spider's silk!

 

He yells up to her, lifting a grey and black barrel from the ground, where he had set them.

 

I Have two barrels here, one is a simple brew made of Meat and honey, made in the orcish way, and the other is a brew filled with powerful dark properties, which I brought as a curiosity, wondering if your trials would make you more resilient to it's effects than me, for the purpose of imbuing it in the silk."

 

"I will accept your decision either way."

 

 

 

[Sutoratosu]

Servant's Quarters

"I see. You've our thanks," The tiger nodded, before vanishing altogether. In his place was a simple orb of cracking storm clouds that floated over and into Ghost as she got up. Before she could do anything else, his voice already rang out in her head.

    "Come now, keep it together, just let the memories shift themselves back into place for now. If the revival hasn't turned you into a Husk or a Revenant now, then you'll be fine. Besides, you've caused enough trouble for me as it is...let's find this Smithy..."

   The woman began to walk away from the scene, towards the direction Mar had arrived in, using the wall to guide her.

******************

Aurora kept her eyes fixed on the Caller until she'd exited the area altogether. Finally though, with the murderous stranger gone, her rage seemed to soften a bit as looked at the Orc. He wasn't one who she knew particularly well, but from his scent she knew he was one of the two she'd sensed earlier. 

     "Foooood?" she asked, lowering herself on a single thread of silk till she met mar's gaze face to face. She looked at the barrel with the honeyed meat, though her gaze drifted and stayed on the other one, far more scrutinizing... "What does dark brew do? Aurora no get cursed from it, will she?"

[Hal Henderics]

"When I first drank of it, I was filled with a terrible power, but as close as I can tell, I had put so many conflicting vile things in it that the voices it brought were too busy arguing with one another to put forth anything approaching a curse."

 

"I had brewed it from some dark feathers, a mushroom monster, some shards of magic, and various other things.  It was very tasty, but the voices and fever made it only a medeocre brew, in my opinion."

 

"There is no doubting it's power though, even now, it practically glows with extremely conflicted dark energies."

[Powder Miner]

"...if you're lucky, the string will untangle. So I suppose that would make you a sort of therapist, then." Navin smiles warmly at Laver. "That's good to hear. The sort of person to help their allies with their problems is usually very much appreciated indeed."

 

The sound of an explosion, though certainly fainter than it had been for Mar, reaches Navin's ears and his expression morphs into a frown. "That... does not sound good. I'm going to go take a look, I think. You can come along, if you like, though I think I'd advise you to be careful, since I am the one wearing armor here." Navin heads off in the direction of the explosion (in other words, towards the servants' quarters), walking purposefully but not quite running.

[Hal Henderics]

Laver shakes his head sadly.

 

"No, when you tangle up a string and then pull it to it's limit, it almost invariably forms knots."

 

"If you think of a heart like a woven thing of it's strings, then a Knot is the antithesis of them, More importantly, when your heartstrings get knotted, you stop being connected to the person or thing itself, and become attached to the corrupt caricature that the Knot pretends to be."

 

"Unless a Miracle happens, there are only two results without a Heart Doctor.  Either the knot grows in scope, consuming the rest of a person's heartstrings as those feelings consume their lives, or, the most merciful and terrible option of all..."

 

He pauses.

 

"They cut ties."

 

...

 

"Does this sound familiar to you?  Someone is faced with a complicated emotion, then, they are pushed to their limits, and finally, those feelings become warped and twisted, changing them completely?"

 

"That's what a Knot is, feelings for an imagined thing that isn't anything like the thing in reality."

 

"So, like, uhh.  Oh! A good example, someone is against this bad guy, right? So he obsesses over it and justifies doing anything to take him down, until the bad guy he is fighting is just a caracature of the real person.  He becomes obsessed with fighting this big evil devil with no compassion or morals, even though the actual person is... Still a person, one with friends and family of their own.  That idea he is fighting is a Knot, and with my Heartstrung Sword, I can pluck someone's heartstrings, and untangle those knots, so that whether they are a good person or a bad one, or even if they DO hate someone or something, that their feelings are clear, and that their emotions are not incomprehensible, even to themselves."

 

"If someone has a clear heart, free of tangles and knots that can only hurt both of them, I really do think that even the worst of enemies can look at each other with respect, if nothing else, and live good lives."

 

Laver tries to explain, as he follows along.