[IC] I Wanna Be the Best Monster-slaying Idol in the Galaxy! (Intro Chapter)

[ElfCollaborator]

"So, you think picking on a bunch of little girls is fun, huh?"

Now this, this was what Azusa knew. How to fight. She gives their newcomer an intimidating glare, slowly strolling towards them. It was a tactic she'd learnt from the streets; never show any sign of fear, never back down, stand your ground and make them stand theirs or get scurrying.

 

She'd been in plenty of fights. She wasn't the "Angel-Faced Demon" of Sendo District for nothing; most people ran at the approach of her and those who thought they could mess with the pretty girl down at the bakery or the lounge immediately almost had their noses caved in with a punch. 

 

That said, it wasn't usually like this in street fights. Usually there weren't people in armor around, usually she wasn't saddled with a bunch of probably inexperienced girls and usually they weren't all in idol costumes. Still, Azusa figured that the basics applied; back your mates up, don't back down, don't let your guard down. But most importantly....

 

Ring 'em before they ring you.

"I'll just have to beat that screwed idea out of ya!"

Basic Attack

Edited June 7, 2017 by ElfCollaborator

[Code: PIRULUK]

Azusa attempts to strike SCORPIO, but SCORPIO deftly leaps over the attack, landing behind her.

 

Following up, Yuki and Ayaka attempt to land their own attacks, but none of them connect, with SCORPIO avoiding all their swings.

 

However, Yuri's [Heavy Sweep] manages to connect, her weapon crashing into SCORPIO's side, sending the armored lady flying and doing 226 damage!

 

Lucinda is unfortunately unable to find any of the nonexistent hidden cameras. Furthermore, her magical defences are useless as she has not accepted the existence of her combat outfit.

 

SCORPIO regains her balance and snarls, her blade-tipped ponytail flying out and striking Azusa, Lucinda and Yuki. Azusa takes 169 damage, Lucinda takes 200 damage, and Yuki takes 36 damage. Azusa, Lucinda and Yuki are poisoned for 2 turns.

 

The Blue Knight shouts at Lucinda. "Stop staring like an idiot and fight! I don't have the time to deal with this now!"

 

As she speaks, the Blue Knight raises her blade in the air, causing a bright pink light to burst from it as she uses [Healing Song III - Extend Strike]. All allies are healed for 1353 HP and gain 50 STR for three turns.

 

Azusa, Lucinda and Yuki each take 50 damage from the poison.

 

Enemy Status

[????] Scourge Knight SCORPIO: -226/????

 

Player Status

[COOL] Yuri: 410/410, +50 STR (3 turns)

[CUTE] Yuki: 360/410, Poisoned (2 turns), +50 STR (3 turns)

[COOL] Lucinda: 442/492. Poisoned (2 turns), +50 STR (3 turns)


[CUTE] Ayaka: 410/410, +50 STR (3 turns)

[SEXY] Azusa: 360/410, Poisoned (2 turns), +50 STR (3 turns)

[CUTE] Blue Knight: 820/820

[Chevaleresse]

Ayaka was frustrated, confused, and all too generally upset by today. First the terrible live, and then this woman just shows up and starts trying to kill them for no reason whatsoever, and then after Ayaka figured out how they were supposed to be defending themselves, she just dodged her attack like it was nothing? It was so mean! With a yell that sounded less fearsome and more, well, pitiful, she swung her wand wildly at the woman, sending out a wave of energy that resembled the lace that festooned her outfit, at least in passing. 

[ElfCollaborator]

"Stay STILL, you glorified cosplayer!"

Azusa roars as she twirls around, seemingly channeling a power beyond hers. The hits she'd taken hadn't fazed her one bit; rather, they just made her want to hit even harder.

 

So much the worse for them.

Slowing Twirl

[Pyon Pyon Kyuu!~]

"Wa- what are you doing sis!" She jerked back when her sister touched her, wrapping her arms around her chest protectively. If her face had gone red before, now it was several shades of deep crimson. "I know it's strange but you're different too sis! Your- " She was interrupted by the Scorpio's attack. On reaction she tried to project a wall between herself and the knife, but the knife cut through it leading it to damage Yuki anyways but at much less force. She immediately felt sick, but a thought in her head told her it was fine: that she could cure it. She raised her hands to the sky and activated her projectors. From them pink stars showered over the girls, landing on Yuki and suddenly making her feel well again. "Okay, let's give it our all!"

 

Cleansing Tone on party to cure Poison

[Twinwolf]

"S-Sorry! You didn't have those a minute ago!" Yuri says, before the assault begins. 

 

As the swords return to her on their chains, she watches the opponent's movement. Alright, she can hit this person. She was sure of it. She probably had reason to wonder "why the heck do I know how to fight", but nothing else was making sense so why should that? She saw the thing attack... "Hey!" she calls out, preparing for another attack, "What did I say about hurting Yuki!?" she says, as she charges forward, repeating her attack. 

 

Heavy Sweep, again

[DragonRage]

Lucinda is not exactly dealing with this well.  She's just been whipped in the face with a braid that somehow hurt more than anything she's ever been hit with before, everyone around her is apparently a quick change artist and a Street Fighter character, and absolutely nothing is making sense at all.  She decides her best course of action is to whimper, collapse to the floor, and play dead.

[Code: PIRULUK]

Yuki's [Cleansing Tone] causes a feeling of relief to wash over you, curing all victims from the poison status.

 

Azusa's [Slowing Twirl] seems to case some kind of spell on SCORPIO - her movements become slower and more sluggish.

 

Lucinda plays dead.

 

Ayaka's lace attack hits the slowed SCORPIO for 112 damage!

 

Yuri's [HEAVY SWEEP] strikes SCORPIO, dealing 376 damage!

 

Still groggy on her feet, SCORPIO lashes out at Lucinda, Azusa and Ayaka. She misses Ayaka and Azusa, but strikes Lucinda for 200 damage and poisons her!

 

The Blue Knight runs up to the prone Lucinda and tosses her aside.

 

"If you're not going to fight, then stay out of the way!"

 

With that, she rushes up to SCORPIO and strikes the assailant with her flamberge, dealing 431 damage!

 

SCORPIO takes a couple of steps back, clearly weakened. She lets loose a low growl as her armor flashes white.

 

The poison coursing through Lucinda's veins hurts her for 50 damage!

 

Enemy Status

 

  Hide contents

[????] Scourge Knight SCORPIO: -1145/????, Hardened Carapace (2 turns)

 

 

 

Player Status

 

  Hide contents

[COOL] Yuri: 410/410, +50 STR (2 turns)

[CUTE] Yuki: 360/410, +50 STR (2 turns)

[COOL] Lucinda: 192/492. Poisoned (2 turns), +50 STR (2 turns)

[CUTE] Ayaka: 410/410, +50 STR (2 turns)

[SEXY] Azusa: 360/410, +50 STR (2 turns)

[CUTE] Blue Knight: 820/820

 

 

Edited June 8, 2017 by Code: PIRULUK

[DragonRage]

Lucinda lays on the ground and cries quietly, clutching at her wounds.  Unlike the rock stars she idolizes, she's never actually been in any sort of fight, or even gotten an injury more severe than a pulled muscle before.

[Chevaleresse]

"H-hey, you need to actually get up and protect yourself!" Ayaka watched Lucinda get tossed about by their mysterious foe, taking a pretty bad hit. That girl in blue, she did something to heal us all, right? I got this far by doing my best to be like other idols. . . She raised her wand up, much like the Blue Knight had previously. A pink light shines from the end of her weapon - the orb changing color to match - similar to what had come from the woman's sword, albeit much weaker. 

 

[Healing Note] on Lucinda

[ElfCollaborator]

"You get her, I'll cover you both! Dammit, just when it was starting to get good!"

Azusa positions herself between their enemy and Ayaka and Lucinda, bracing herself for an attack.

Basic Defense

[Twinwolf]

Yuri doesn't slow her attack - the faster this goes down, the faster everyone's out of danger. Granted, she did notice that she seemed to be the only one doing significant damage...

 

Heavy Sweep. Again.

[Pyon Pyon Kyuu!~]

Yuki gathers her hands together preparing her weapon, and throws another healing light this time centralized on Lucinda to cure the sickness. 

 

Cleansing Tone on Lucinda

[Code: PIRULUK]

SCORPIO's Hardened Carapace heals her for 360 health!

 

Lucinda does nothing.

 

Yuki and Ayaka work together to heal Lucinda, curing her poison and healing her for 369 health!

 

Azusa braces herself for an attack

 

Yuri attempts to land a [Heavy Sweep] on SCORPIO, but her attack glances off SCORPIO's white armor, dealing a reduced 231 damage!

 

The Blue Knight swings down her blade, causing a stream of pink light to emerge from it and lash at SCORPIO, dealing a defence-ignoring 451 damage with her [Tantrum Ribbon III - Extend Pierce]!

 

SCORPIO growls and her braid lashes out at all combatants, lightly grazing them - none of them take severe damage, but all allies are poisoned! Yuri and the Blue Knight are afflicted with Deadly Poison!

 

SCORPIO's armor flashes black, just before her braid lashes out and strikes all combatants again! All allies take 300 damage, and Yuri and the Blue Knight each take 900 damage!

 

The Blue Knight's [Scandal Scapegoat] activates! She jumps in front of Yuri and takes the hit for the idol, taking a total of 1800 damage! Heavily damaged, she collapses to the ground, unable to move.

 

All Allies take 50 damage from the poison! Yuri takes an additional 100 damage from the Deadly Poison!

 

SCORPIO staggers on her feet, her body shaking - she looks like she's on her last legs

 

Enemy Status

 

  Hide contents

[????] Scourge Knight SCORPIO: -1467/????, AGI down (1 turn)

 

 

 

Player Status

 

  Hide contents

[COOL] Yuri: 260/410, Poisoned (3 turns), Deadly Poison (3 turns), +50 STR (1 turn)

[CUTE] Yuki: 10/410, Poisoned (3 turns), +50 STR (1 turn)

[COOL] Lucinda: 142/492, Poisoned (3 turns), +50 STR (1 turn)

[CUTE] Ayaka: 60/410, Poisoned (3 turns),+50 STR (1 turn)

[SEXY] Azusa: 10/410, Poisoned (3 turns), +50 STR (1 turn)

[CUTE] Blue Knight: 0/820, KOed

 

 

[DragonRage]

Lucinda attempts to crawl to safety, but fails to actually get anywhere due to a combination of poison, gaping wounds, and pain.

[ElfCollaborator]

"Oh that's IT!"

Basic Attack

[Chevaleresse]

Ayaka, seeing Lucinda do the exact opposite of what she did, the person supposedly rescuing them getting knocked out or worse, most of her allies getting stabbed, getting stabbed herself, feeling even more sick than stage fright, the awful performance, and the current mortal terror accounted for, did the only logical thing: threw her wand at the person attacking them - the thing turned into a sort of glowing ring of light as she did so - turned about, started to run away, and fell flat on her face.

 

Basic Attack

[Twinwolf]

Yuri did some quick assessments in her head. With the blue person out of the fight, the thing would effortlessly bring her down. She couldn't likely stay up with the poison for much longer. So, last 'fuck you' attack and hope that they've weakened her enough.

 

Heavy Sweep

[Pyon Pyon Kyuu!~]

Yuki breathed heavily, she could barely feel her body. She knew very well she was on her last ropes, it was do or die now. "We're not going down! I refuse to give up!" She shouted as loud as she could as she held her hands forward materializing her energy into a pink missile. With a large "Hayah!" she kicked it at the Scorpio Knight.

 

Basic Attack

[Code: PIRULUK]

Lucinda does nothing.

 

The combined attacks of the other four idols strike the weakened SCORPIO, dealing a total of 671 damage!

 

SCORPIO staggers back a couple steps, before she falls to her knees. Then she keels over and collapses. Her body evaporates into thin air, except for the knife that was entwined with her braid - it clatters to the ground, where it lays there, still. The metal with which it is made is clearly not of this world - gazing at it feels like one is gazing into the depths of space itself. The edges are blunt and can't cut through anything, but perhaps there could be some other use for it...?

 

Scourge Knight SCORPIO has been defeated!

 

 > Ominous Stinger was dropped!

 

Aside from Lucinda, all characters gain 1 stat point in a stat of their choice!

 

The Blue Knight pushes herself off the ground, but quickly collapses to one knee.

 

"Ugh."

 

She eases herself into a seating position and addresses the girls, except for Lucinda.

 

"Not bad, for your first fight. I understand that this must come as a shock. Unfortunately, this is going to happen each time you girls hold a concert."

 

She turns to Lucinda. Her helmet hides her eyes, but even so, you can tell she's glaring.

 

"As for you, if you want to survive, learn to fight. It should come naturally, if you only make the effort to try. That's just how this place is. These girls managed to hold their own, so you should be able to as well. If you don't want to die, you have 2 options. Either you fight, or you quit. But know this: now that They've found you, They'll find you again. If you choose to run, you can never again perform in public. Keep that in mind."

 

She coughs wetly, like blood was spilling through her throat - which, in all likelihood, it was. But despite that, she does not remove her helmet.

 

"I don't have much time..." She glances at her left hand, which is already starting to fade - it is plain to see that she will soon disappear. "...but if you have any questions, I'll try to answer them. Try not to ask about unnecessary things like my identity. I don't have the time for trivialities. I won't be around to help you the next time. Make your questions count."

 

((Each character will get to ask one question of the Blue Knight, which she may choose to answer or not. When everyone has either posed a question or indicated their desire to abstain, I'll progress the plot. Also, one of you can pick up the Drop, it doesn't really matter who. Of course, you can also choose to leave it behind, but hey. What kind of gamer does that? Also, w.r.t. stat ups, each of you please indicate in your post (either IC or OOC) what stat you want to improve. Lucinda didn't get any exp for this fight since she effectively didn't participate. Sorry, but fair's fair.))

[Chevaleresse]

"I still don't understand. What's going on? Why. . ." Focus, Ayaka. One question. Freak out later. "Who was that, and why did she want to kill us? I didn't think the show was THAT bad. . ." She sunk a bit into her costume at that line; she was still disappointed in herself. She hadn't been like her favorite idols at all! 

[Code: PIRULUK]

The Blue Knight turned to Ayaka.

 

"That was SCORPIO. She was a member of an organisation that I call the Scourge Knights - though they refer to themselves as the Enforcement Knighthood. Many millennia ago, they kept the balance between planes, putting down threats to stability when they appeared. They were a force for good, until their leader one day decided to break the balance herself by taking over a plane. Of course, since they were the ones keeping the balance in the first place, there was effectively nobody to stop them. So they took over plane after plane. Their leader's eventual objective is unknown to me, but they've set their sights on this plane - on your plane. On our plane, rather. This, too, was once my home, many centuries ago.

 

In any case, our plane is a bit special. Because of how idols are the glue that holds humanity together, they interact with the collective unconscious in a unique way - idols have the power to influence the fate of this plane. There are conditions. The first is an audience. The idol must have an audience, for it is the support of the audience and the staff that lends idols their unique power. The second condition is that the idol must hail from Earth - you are closest to the heart of the human collective unconsciousness, and thus your influence over it is greater than that of your peers. Unfortunately, you lot are the first interstellar idols to hail from Earth in... a long time. Whenever you perform before an audience, the human collective unconsciousness becomes vulnerable and open, due to your influence and power to bring people together. This moment of vulnerability is what the Knights target. At any other time, they are denied access to our plane, due to a precaution I took centuries ago. Its power is starting to fade, as is mine.

 

You asked why SCORPIO wanted to kill you. It's because by killing you, they can widen the gateway, allowing them to mount a full incursion into our plane. It is the essence of an idol that allows the transgression into our plane, and by killing you, they hope to steal that power and use it. No doubt, they will continue to attack you girls. You can do nothing to stop it. All you can do is prepare for it.

 

Thankfully, even though its power is fading, the precaution still holds. Though they may break through, they may only break through one at a time. And thus you will only face them one at a time. Excluding their leader, there are twelve of them, all of them extremely powerful. But if you can repulse all of them, you might be able to end this threat once and for all.

 

As for your show... it was terrible. Horrible. Easily one of the worst I've seen in my lifetime. Exactly like my first performance. I know what happened - you had no time to prepare. Have faith. I can feel the aura of true idols in you. It's hidden, raw, unrefined, but it's there. If you put in the effort, you'll definitely come to rival my name in time."

[DragonRage]

Lucinda opens her mouth, closes it as The Blue Knight starts talking, and after a few seconds produces a notebook and pencil and starts taking notes on the older woman's speech.  Once it concludes, she decides to put her two cents in.  "Wow.  Uh, I had a lot of questions, but that answers most of them.  So, I guess I'll go with this one.  How did you all suddenly change clothes?  And why?  I mean, I guess it was easy, since everyone else did, and there's probably a reason since everyone who, er, was actually useful did, but I didn't and then that scorpion lady was just hitting me over and over and holy moly that was freaking terrifying and I think I'm rambling and probably in shock so I'm just going to stop now."

[Code: PIRULUK]

The Blue Knight turns to the rambling girl.

 

"This place is a place of infinite possibilities, a realm that exists between moments in time. While in this space, your power as an idol is able to manifest new possibilities by tapping into the stream of the collective unconscious, the stream that flows within all branches of humanity across all planes. Perhaps, in some other plane, some version of you is a great warrior, fighting tooth and nail against enemies on a daily basis. Perhaps, in some other plane, there is a you who is a great sage, studying magic and its intricacies. While in this place, the power of idolhood - the power your audience gives to you - allows you to manifest these possibilities, allowing you to take on these forms. An idol's identity is largely represented by her choice of dress - that is why this power manifests through dresses as the catalyst. You might notice that some of you awakened different abilities from others. That is because your individual personalities and tendencies - reflected in your choice of dress - have caused you to resonate more powerfully with some possibilities than with others. You are, after all, just one of infinite yous.

 

The appearance each of your companions took on is a manifestation of their desired selves - Just as this armor is a manifestation of my desired self. You will find yourself unable to call upon these possibilities once you leave this space between moments, but while you remain here, you should be able to freely manifest your armor at will - it is required, if you are to tap into the power of the limitless potential that lies beyond the confines of this plane. If you do not assume the armor of your heart, then you will be unable to tap into the power of your other selves. It is as simple as that. If you simply calm down and wish for it, you will find that the armor manifests effortlessly. As does the weapon.

 

Since this space lies between moments in time, any injuries you sustain here will vanish once you leave. But be warned that should you die in this space, your existence will be erased. Your family will not remember you. Your friends will not remember you. No records of you will exist. Not in this plane, nor in any other plane. All versions of you will cease to exist. So... try not to die."

[Pyon Pyon Kyuu!~]

"We will be forgotten? That's horrible..." Yuki looked at her sister for a moment. If she died, would Yuri forget too? She shook the thought from her head and focused on the knight. "I won't ask you who you are since you told us not to ask, but I think you've given us enough hints. Even if every time we perform we will have to fight, I want to keep being an idol, I want to keep performing." She took a step forward, and clenched her hands into fists. "What can we do to get stronger? What can we do to protect our plane? What can we do to not be forgotten?"