[IC] TotMV:G^2: Clash of Fate: The Courtyard (Social/Prep Phase)

[DragonRage]

"We had more than two groups, and I had the most leadership experience of mine.  It made sense to take command," Lexiel explains, visibly reigning herself in, "Our battle did go exceptionally well.  A little pre-planning, some focused fire, and a well-placed shield work wonders on friendly casualty rates.  Ugh, I suppose you're right.  Best not to poke the strange magic as long as it's working correctly.  We wouldn't want to compromise an ally's abilities.  And I object to that comment, Marisa!  I do in fact take safety precautions!  I'm trying to help people, not explode them.  And speaking pragmatically, if your test subjects die a lot you stop getting volunteers."

[Strider]

"That's good to hear." Edmond smiled bemusedly at the continued reluctance to not experiment, then turned to the newcomer, who seemed to be a mute, and spoke. "Just to clarify, I'm not necessarily a leader here. That would definitely go to LOTUS. Basically, I'm simply one of those who's been leading in recent battles, along with Lexiel, LOTUS, and someone else, named Ghost? I believe." He shrugged.

 

In response to the fairy's comment, he expression shifted to slight confusion. "Thanks, I guess? Say. . . I'm sorry if this is rude, but. . . have we actually been introduced? There've been a lot of meetings and people recently, so please excuse me if I've forgotten something."

[Hal Henderics]

Fooling around by dancing on top of an empty Barrel, Dackly is distracted from her noble duty by the sound of something roaring and thrashing.

 

"*gasp* Zoot's awake!"

 

She squeals, sliterhing over to a Stone Cage that was erected in a corner of the Courtyard.

 

What appears to be a Robotic Lizard wearing a skirt thrashes around inside bonelessly.

 

It isn't easy to tell at a glance if Dackly is taunting it or coddling it, as she coos with pride at the violent monster.

 

"So much pep! I'm glad to see my little Zooty Wooty up and about!"

[ElfCollaborator]

Empi looks back over at Edmond, smiling and extending a hand, assuming a coy, flirty pose almost by instinct.

 

"So we haven't. The name's Empi Powderbelle, sweetie. I've been here since......well, that weird sword guy showed up and I got sent here while looking for some poor shopkeeper who couldn't muster the guts to confess to his super-hot childhood friend. Always my favourite kinda client. Well, aside from a smart client. Smart clients are always nice and easy to teach."

[Strider]

Edmond blinked a little, then shook the undeniably attractive woman's hand. Thinking back, he vaguely recalled passing her on the way out of the castle a little after it had been obtained. He'd been busy grabbing supplies at the time. "Edmond Cooper," he said, partly out of habit, partly for formality's sake. "Oh right, I think I saw you in passing around then, just hadn't actually spoken to you. Sorry about that."

 

"So, your everyday job is some kind of. . .matchmaker, it sounds like?" Odd, certainly for a combat mission, but with the timeframe she'd been here, there'd been more than enough battles to prove herself. So the other options were some weird powers whether related or unrelated to her job, or, he'd misinterpreted from what Empi had said. Hopefully she wouldn't take offense if he'd come to the wrong conclusion.

[Ragnarok97071]

Lena had at this point become a might distracted by the... um. Woman playing with her robot lizard. What. What is this. What is that, some kind of Gigas? It doesn't seem to be considering it's not actively attempting to murder them all. Who is that woman and why does she have a robot lizard.

 

What.

 

What is this absolute madness you have found yourself in Lena?

 

What did you do to deserve this?

[Hal Henderics]

Oh but it gets worse.

After playing with the caged abomination for a while, the Snakewoman gets a dastardly gleam in her eye, and begins bulling surrounding soldiers to grab soldiers and follow her, ranting about how she will turn the rivers red, quite literally, by transmogrifying water into crystal siege engines.

 

Slithering away with her reluctant band, she leaves a calmly resting pile of rocks and dirt shaped like a squirrel, looking exasperatedly after her.

 

"That will be interesting." Gozer says simply.

 

--

 

A while later, one by one, gleaming blue-clear balistae are wheeled in front of the castle one by one, along with a smug snake woman carrying a bowl of flowers.

[Yours Truly]

Solomon decided against repeating what Edmond had already said to Empi in a ruder tone of voice, and he instead slowly but surely started to move his throne away from the matchmaker as he noticed how crowded the area was. He then noticed Lena staring off into the distance at the honestly slightly off looking sight of Dackly and Gozer, and he moved his hand to wave it in a way that periodically blocked her view of the two of them before he said, "Just wait until you see the uhhh walking and talking metallic statue of a woman, or the sapient tablet that speaks almost exclusively in a snarky manner, or the giant and conspicuously not present dragon...."

[Ragnarok97071]

Her gaze turns to Solomon, a look of something between shock and bewilderment frozen on it. The what? About 3/4 of those words weren't words she had any context for, and what few that did didn't make any sense at all in that context. Eventually, she settles on a question to ask, picking up her pad in shaky hands and managing to write it out.

 

How can it be giant and not present at the same time?

Edited March 22, 2018 by Ragnarok97071

[Yours Truly]

Solomon smile faded slightly as before he shrugged and rather flatly said "Because he isn't here right now, obviously." He then continued to slowly back his throne away from the conversation as he said, "But anyway I think I am probably...going to head over to the armory for now as I have some rather important things to do, feel free to follow me there if you wanted to know where it is placed or something."

[Ragnarok97071]

She nods, actually following after him when he decides to head off. After all, he'd offered a tour, and... well, she didn't have anywhere better to go, and noone here probably needed her.

[ElfCollaborator]

Empi Powderbelle

"Matchmaker? Yeah, basically. I'm basically a professional Cyrano, a paid wingwoman, an assistant pick-up artist, if you will.  Don't know how I ended up in THIS mess; I didn't exactly sign up to go to war. Then again, I'd like to think I'm a little more qualified than some of the whackjobs I've seen around here. Or the poor kids who somehow ended up here, good grief. Where's Social Services when you need 'em, right?"

[Strider]

"Yeah, I don't know whether there's anyone in charge of the whole recruitment and everything, or if there's actually no real planning whatsoever. And I'm not sure which is worse." He tapped his foot in slight annoyance. Whatever was in charge of this had made certain to grab somewhat suitable leaders, yes, but in a growing group of more than forty, that wasn't very indicative of any planning, or the presence of a planner.

 

"I've never heard the word Cyrano before. . . Anyway, I'll keep that in mind. I'm guessing you can probably keep secrets. So, you might do well on diplomacy missions, info gathering, stealth without much fighting, spying. . .? God knows we need that kind of stuff." A slight shudder as he thought back to Seattle. Couldn't let that happen again, and the best way to do that would be more and more familiarity with everyone's mindsets in the groups, and hopefully some organizing of teams before missions on separate worlds. He'd need to talk to LOTUS about that; the AI would likely be better at keeping tabs on people's abilities and personalities.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Mira

 

For the most part, after the battle was finished, Mira was completely silent, not even saying a word to the people around her. Over the course of the trip though, she steadily grew back to her altered height, the dark, flowing cape on her back returning as they finally reentered the courtyard… Where she immediately split from the group, going to where it would be a bit harder to notice her (though, not if you were actually looking for her) to clean herself off of the blood from that creature.

 

Normally, blood wouldn’t be that much of a thing to worry about. She was used to it staining her armor and normally let nature to the washing for her, like rain or rivers. However, at the moment, the blood was being an annoyance, still stinging despite the battle being long done. Currently, it had seeped through the small openings of her armor, and streaked along the left side of her face, thankfully not actually getting into her eye, which is why she needed to find something to clean herself off with. There should be something around here to help her do that…

 

… Which came rather quickly, actually, in the form of an active fountain… Made out of skeletons. Weird, but Mira wasn’t really picky aside from how out in the open it was. Normally, that would’ve made Mira refuse to use it at all, since she never liked removing ANY part of her armor, especially not when people she did not know were around.

 

But, instead, she merely knelt down next to the fountain’s edge, placing a hand in the fountain and watching the blood easily wash off her armor. Then, she took her hand back out, removing both of her gauntlets and helmet and placing them next to her, carefully using the water from the fountain to get the blood off of her face. She didn’t have the time nor will to get rid of all of the blood from her armor, so this was more or less the best she was doing with it.

 

Walmond & Lambda

 

Walmond and his servant, on the other hand, stuck together, remaining near the entrance to the courtyard as Walmond inspected Lambda for damage. For the most part, Lambda wasn't too bad in terms of damage… A lot of marks on her gauntlets indicating damage, but nothing worrying. Hell, even with the arrows still sticking out of her, he wasn’t worried, especially when he could simply pull them out and use a bit of his magic to repair the damage.

 

Overall, Lambda was still 100% active and ready for combat… At this point the only thing he needed to was figure out what to do with her now that he had new information regarding souls.

… At this point he wish he had his laboratory again.
 

[DragonRage]

"If I ever meet the one in charge of recruitment for this operation I am going to punch them in the face," The Doomfist gleams ominously in the faint light as Lexiel raises it in front of her, humming with power,  "Many of us are well-qualified for these battles.  However, many of us are young, inexperienced, or civilians.  I started young too, but at least I had some idea of what I'd signed up for.  And I know too well what it's like to be black bagged in the name of the greater good.  Not that I dismiss your contributions, faerie.  You've done far better than I did in my misspent youth."

[Stalkerkain]

Magna Sigyl

 

It took Magna a while longer to return to the castle, and in quite the jubilant mood. For those who didn't linger to watch Magna after the fight with Saber, it seemed like an anomaly that Magna was skipping. She was even humming too. Well of course she would be happy, because Magna had a new toy to play with. Ever since she landed in this world and had learned of the existence of powerful enemies, she couldn't help but wonder: what if ? In all her spare time, she had been perusing Silef's library, and learning more about her world. If Magna's theories were correct, she could perhaps adapt this world's magic with her own methods to create her own summoning ritual. She had even come up with a name for her own adaptation.

 

The Compendium of Lost Souls.

 

By saving the soul data from her enemies into a grimoire, she could use it as a catalyst for a summoning ritual. Of course, there are limitations to her abilities; she couldn't quite replicate such powerful beings with full vitality, but that was in exchange for their unquestionable servitude. She just hoped that her many changes to her summoning formula wouldn't result in any undesired alterations. As soon as she found enough space in the courtyard, she materialized her scythe, and began etching a summoning circle into the ground. As soon as it was complete, she began her own variation of a summoning chant. The circle began to glow, responding to Magna's call. Before long, something began to materialize within the circle.

 

"Why, hello Saber- or should I say, Jeanne d'Arc," Magna said with a grin. Her experiment had been right on the money. "How would you like to save the Multiverse with me?"

 

"...You've got to be kidding. It's one thing after the other..." said Jeanne. Jeanne was staring daggers at Magna, and seemed ever so close to setting her aflame. "Very well. But I'd advise not showing any weakness, 'Master'."

 

"Magna Sigyl," she grinned. "Charmed."

[UrbanSamurai]

Rampart

 

Press and Lucky arrive back at the courtyard later than everyone else. An irked Lucky throws the passenger side door open, "I can't stand all this goddamn paperwork. Soldier #437 - Incinerated, Soldier #438 - Incinerated, Soldier # who-gives-a-shit. I want central to send us a pencil pusher, we're stuck here driving through backroads in this godforsaken country almost catching the goddamn plague."

 

Press sparks up and offers Lucky a light, pacifying him for a moment as he accepts this gesture of friendship. Press doesn't say anything, but he looks around the Courtyard with a keen eye and gets down to scribbling something in his notepad...

 

Magnum

 

The BOOMTOWN EXPRESS parks in the central area of the courtyard. Once everyone is out, Magnum activates the parking break. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Projeck]

Snow would step off of the bus, seemingly unfazed by what just went down. Between the fight, and the argument after, she did not falter. Nor would she ever, unless she was given the sweet release of death, but this thought was kept to her. While she did feel bad for the fallen and twisted hero, and how she came to be a foe, she had no mercy for her enemies in the field of battle or afterwards. Snow learned early that showing mercy did not always work out in her own favor. Unneeded bloodshed, especially with evil beings like the twist Jeanne, when they're given mercy.

 

She walked calmly to an area of the courtyard where she could take a seat, taking out a rag to begin wiping off and polishing her armor and weapon. Her gaze looked around to the soldiers milling about, and then to her... new compatriots. She looked to the faerie, wondering what exactly something of her nature was doing here, they tend to not be fighters, at least where Snow was from. It intrigued her, but she need not let her gaze linger too long, as she began looking to the sky in wonder of what the multiverse had in store for her next.

[Powder Miner]

LOTUS

Someone walks by Magnum's bus at a brisk pace, and there's a light clacking noise as something is deposited directly on his bus's doorstep. What exactly that object is is made clear when a voice emanates from it: "Hey. Bus man. Look down here." Yep, it's the tablet that has been bossing people around as of late, albeit without his usual carrier. "I had Isobel drop me off over here, so it would be appreciated if you would pick me up so that no one steps on me." The tablet's face display, a simply smiley face in a neutral position, twists into an ":/" expression. "I've had... an increasingly distressing problem as of late. I was not built to be isolated, I am part of a network, but current circumstances have cut me off. Hence the lack of warning -- I don't have an intense battle to distract me right now, and the lack of input I was built to have is very, very, VERY much wearing on me. I think you have the solution to this problem, and, frankly, if you do, I need you to help me.

 

I thought I detected a transmission in this area before the previous battles, but I'd dismissed it as a figment of my own desperation because it didn't make sense that any of us would transmit in a medieval place. But I detected the source again, and I've realized that it's your bus, and I've come to the conclusion that you are probably broadcasting to a different dimension, as that's a likely target where no others present themselves. I couldn't get enough information earlier, though, to figure out how you're doing it, so I need you to run a transmission so I can see it at the source. PLEASE help me."

 

LOTUS didn't like begging. He was used to being in the position of advising and sometimes in the position of effective command, he was used to having the answers, he was used to being collected and in control. But this silence, this awful unique silence, this void of input that no organic he knew of besides the thoroughly hostile xenomorphs could ever possibly understand... he couldn't take it anymore, he really couldn't, and having a respite from furiously planning and advising to keep everyone alive was actually something very unwelcome to him. He had to fix this. He had to.

 

Isobel Low

LOTUS had requested another separation in his ongoing mission to figure out the solution to his network problem. Isobel had nodded simply to this request: sometimes these days, it felt like the only things she was good for were carrying that damn tablet around and throwing flowers to people. ...well, okay, maybe that wasn't quite fair to LOTUS, but it was frustrating nonetheless. In any event, though, if what she was good for was carrying LOTUS where he wanted to go, she would at least do that, and so she did. She would probably have been stuck aimlessly wandering to find something to do, but this time around there was something else on her mind too: during that last battle, Isobel had seen what was without question the most beautiful woman she had ever seen in her entire life.

 

Her fiery eyes, the smooth cascade of the ringlets of her blue hair (a color not so exotic to Isobel as it might be to some, but still exotic enough to be intriguing), and of course, her figure, not only the obvious places, but how she was put together... oh, God. Isobel had been distracted enough by Marisa's looks during a literal battle, so she had made up her mind the moment she got back to track her down and have a conversation with her. If she was lucky enough, and Isobel certainly prayed that she was, maybe this lady would be compatible. Isobel was distinctly aware that her thought processes were kind of desperate, but Isobel really couldn't help herself right now. She was under a lot of stress and doubt, she needed some way to vent and... ah, God help her, Isobel knew it was for the largest part because this woman was really really hot. Plus, Isobel doubted she had much to lose. She'd learned long ago that if she never made any moves she'd never have any success, and that rejection wasn't a big deal.

 

Isobel had caught a glance of the beautiful witch-hatted woman here in the courtyard, so once she dropped LOTUS off on the bus, she beelined immediately for her, slowing down once she got close enough to be seen so she didn't seem too desperate if the woman caught on to what she was going for. Isobel put a finger through her own curly hair (falling past the length of her bandanna), and stood with a slightly poor posture that very subtly (best not to come on too strong) emphasized her own far-from-insignificant curves once she made it over to her. "Hey. I saw you in the battle with Lancer, but I don't remember seeing you beforehand," and boy would she remember, "so I hope you don't mind if I introduce myself. My name's Isobel Low. What's yours?"

[DragonRage]

"You contracted one of the hostile servants?  How'd you pull that off?" Lexiel asks Magna, intrigued by the spellwork presumably involved, "And she's autonomous without trying to kill you or us?  Fascinating.  Her mental state doesn't seem to be altered in any way..."

[Chevaleresse]

Marisa had idly been watching the rest of the party go about their business, content to sit back and observe for once. She had places to be, yes, but also ready excuses for lingering as long as she wanted. Plus, it wasn't as if there was someone tracking her usage of time. She heard Isobel's approach, and turned to face her before she spoke. "Name's Marisa, good to get yours." Though that LOTUS seemed to be doing the bulk of the strategic work, Isobel herself had seemed reasonably competent, despite the enemy constantly bombarding her with ice. Better than fireballs, she supposed. "You feeling alright, by the way? Things got a bit dicey back there." She made no comment on the posture, and the glances she'd noticed earlier, though she did take a moment to do her own appraisal. The apothecary didn't seem to be bad-looking, herself. 

[Stalkerkain]

"Oh, you know, magic. Sort of the thing where something works, but you've no idea why, kind of thing? And as you've said, I've contracted Jeanne," Magna said coyly. She was glad the term 'contract' was so ambiguous, as Magna's methods were more the type of 'eternal servitude' rather than mutual partnership like Lexiel and Nobunaga. "Her autonomy is simply a matter of perspective! Her contract merely ended with the enemy once we defeated her, and I simply hired her before she left! Today's enemy is tomorrow's friend, after all. As for her mental state, it was certainly altered for her time here. She's not supposed to be like this, but I quite like her in here present state."

 

"As I take it, you were able to obtain a servant of your own, yes? Oda Nobunaga..." she mused. "I'm curious; how did she manage to escape the influence of the enemy, when so many of the other Servants did not?"

[Chevaleresse]

"Wahahaha! Because you can't corrupt someone who's already the Demon King!" The only warning anyone had of the Servant's reappearance was a brief blue shimmer in the air that rapidly coalesced into the Japanese warlord. "It will take more than a little mud to get me to bend my knee to some cup. Though, truth be told, I'm not sure if it was actually my Skill. Maybe it was just a plot device!" She shrugged. "Strange to me that the saint is like that, though, aren't they supposed to be incorruptible? Especially her, she seemed like the kind of person that would try to pray for the mud after she washed it off."

[UrbanSamurai]

Magnum

Boomtown bent over and scooped LOTUS off of the access ramp connected to his door. "Do you have the Candy Crush game on here?" He asked as he curiously rotated the device. "Sounds like what you want is to connect to my bus's tranmissions so that you can get some intra-dimensional communications set up. And while I can spare a beer or even an air freshener, this isn't some Mickey Mouse request. If this goes wrong, my whole connection is at risk. Not to mention I'm already paying out the wazoo to keep it running, you can imagine the cost of something like this. So tell me computer man, what chips are you bringing you bringing to my table?"

 

Rampart

 

"Lots of broads working here 'ey Press? Young ones too, makes me feel like I'm back in the shop." He points at Marisa, with the tip of his lit cigerrate, "See that one right there? I like 'em like that, snazzy and tight, built like a brick shithouse. Not like the ones at home 'ey? God bless whoever invented Mexican women. I wonder what name a Dame like that has, probably Ethel or something. No, Lucia? Luisa. Luciana...that's more Italian actually. Did I tell you the vacation I took down in Panama? Not quite Mexico but pretty close. I met the fittest broad you could dream about, and she could drink toe to toe with any man! She drank me under the table, and once she was down there she let me chew the carpet 'ey? You getting this Press?"

[Powder Miner]

LOTUS

"I'll be the first to admit I don't have the slightest idea what Candy Crush." LOTUS let an eyebrow quirk on his little face display, but then got rid of that as he continued speaking. "I don't want a two way connection or for you to run a proxy for me or anything like that. I considered that, but not only does it not solve my problem if we in this scenario head for different worlds at some point, I think I have the capability to tinker with my quantum communicator to make the communication work... I just don't know how to do it. Essentially, all I want is to be able to read what your bus is doing when you are transmitting, so I can have a go at approximating it with my own internal systems."

 

"As for what I have to offer... well, I admit that not having any limbs makes this one a little bit tricky." LOTUS flashed his screen to an ellipsis being made and unmade a dot at a time to indicate thinking, and then put his neutral face back. "Well, my primary purpose is to provide aid in tactics, logistical support, and in strategic capacities, even for non-combat roles. If you have any use for tactics or logistics or operational advice for... whatever reason, I can provide it. I also have a medical and security scanner if you have need of either of these, and if you... have any files or something you don't have access to I can probably get you in."

 

Isobel Low

Excellent! If Isobel was not mistaken that was Marisa (cute name) looking her up and down. If she wasn't just imagining things out of hope, Isobel had just received a massive good sign. Isobel made to confirm this, then, by flicking her eyes up and down Marisa's form just slow enough to be definitely noticed hopefully without being slow enough to creep her out. Then she made to answer Marisa's question: whether or not it was genuine concern, polite questioning, or somewhere between, it deserved an answer, and Isobel certainly wasn't going to get anywhere (wherever she was trying to get) by not talking to the woman! "Ah, while they certainly did their best to slow me down, I'm honestly just so darn used to things flying around back where I come from that I made it out pretty much okay. Nothing one of my own poppies couldn't fix, you know?"

 

Then she heard Lucky commenting lewdly about Marisa and pointing his cigarette at you, and she completely failed to hide her irritation with it, sighing and rolling her eyes. This annoyed her greatly, and it did so on two levels: Fiirst of all, it was getting in the way of her flirting when she was being all subtle about it because this guy had to loudly talk with the restraint and moderateness of a brick through a window. Secondly, she really didn't appreciate it when men (or women, but that was a different subject) acted like this, crude and blunt like the woman in question was going to be swooning over them being a sexist asshole. "You know, talking like that isn't going to win you women falling over themselves for you, right?" she called out to Lucky, irate. "At least some women won't be interested in you at all, and even if they would be they won't if you're gesturing at them with your cig and commenting about them like they aren't even there."