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

[Ragnarok97071]

That makes sense. in our case, an Incorruptus is a man-made weapon of war, the most powerful magitech weapon ever developed, but in order to function, they have to be bonded with someone with enough magical power to serve as their core and driving intelligence. Someone who bonds with an Incorruptus is called a Pactmaker, and once bonded, they can call their Incorruptus to them using a special magical item called an Ark that binds them together. Mine's the torc/choker around my neck.

 

Unfortunately, I've never actually been very good at using my magical power, even though I have a lot of it. some of my weapon techniques make use of it, but mostly I just use it to make myself faster, or to fuel my weapon's anti-armor systems.

Edited March 19, 2018 by Ragnarok97071

[Yours Truly]

Solomon decided to make a rather wild guess when he rather rudely pointed at her choker and said, "Well...correct me if I am wrong here, but does your current inability to speak have anything to do with the choker that is...ahem." He started to smile a little wider when he said, "Binding you together with Tyrfing? Or am I just reading too much into the symbolism and the whole concept of a pact taking something from both participants?." He then coughed a little before he said, "Also I have just realized that I have yet to actually introduce myself, the name's Solomon by the way."

[Ragnarok97071]

She nods, then clarifies on her pad.

 

It prevents me from talking. It's necessary, though I admit the reasons are a little embarrassing and I'd rather not talk about them. There isn't really a cost for the pact other than it has to be done with an innocent soul, and since it's impossible to remain completely pure, it basically has to happen at birth. Luckily this also means the resulting asset can be trained to function properly from an extremely young age, though it means there's a long period between the creation of a Pactmaker and their becoming useful.

[Yours Truly]

"So you were basically born and raised to be a mute killing machine bonded to a weapon of war," there was a slight pause as he put on the most sarcastic voice he could muster to say, "Your world sounds absolutely wonderful already." He then dropped the tone when he moved on to say, "Although I am not exactly one to judge myself..." There was a bit of an awkward silence before he suddenly tried to change the subject with, "But anyway I can give you a tour of the place, since it is presumably a good idea to know the layout of the place you will be defending."

[Ragnarok97071]

She nods, smiling, an expression disturbingly like I'm glad you understand.

 

Back to writing again, considering what she'd write rather carefully.

 

That sounds nice. Of course, if there's anything I can do or anything you'd like to know, feel free to ask.

Edited March 19, 2018 by Ragnarok97071

[Strider]

After exiting Magnum's bus, Edmond had stretched a bit, then set about transferring the swords and gear they'd picked up into a central location for the soldiers of the castle to make use of if they could. It took a little while, but not too long. He soon found himself standing around, and decided to approach the group standing near a presumably new recruit. He spoke to Lexiel and Solomon as he approached.

 

"Hello Solomon, Lexiel. Are you briefing a new recruit then?" He glanced around quickly, and then shrugged. This might be the first person who'd actually arrived alone so far. "I'm Edmond. Nice to have you on board." He smiled, and held out a hand to shake. When he'd finished introducing himself, he turned to Lexiel, and inquired, "How'd your battle go? No casualties I hope?"

[Yours Truly]

"We should probably start with the armory then, since if the last two battles were any indication, you will be spending a lot more time crafting new equipment there than getting any amount of rest pretty much anywhere else. I would actually kill a man for a mug of soykaf right now." He turned his throne around to take a better look at Edmond before he said, "Her name is Lena and due to some rather embarrassing circumstances she is unable to speak. I would tell you more but I was just about to lead her on a tour of the castle's grounds actually. For obvious reasons related to me not wanting her to get into trouble with the sort of people who would rather have their books explode in someone's face than have an unauthorized person read it outside of his little library; you know the sort." The disdain was quite palpable in his tone of voice when he leaned in closer to quietly slur out the word, "Nobles." 

 

He then turned back towards Lena before he slowly and dramatically flipped over his ring bearing hand, causing a smaller floating seat to assemble itself somewhere behind her, "Feel free to sit down, the armory is not too far from here...but it might be wise to take any opportunity for respite that comes your way before we are thrown inside of the meatgrinder again." He then raised a dictionary before he said, "I'll tell you what the word meatgrinder means on our way to the armory."

[DragonRage]

"Connection to a mech you say?  I thought I saw an extradimensional storage space attached to that enchantment.  It is elegant, but looks old.  Why I would wager it's been weeks since this thing was improved!  Weeks!  That is criminal!  And they left a side-effect like muteness in the final build?  How unprofessional," A slightly unsettling gleam has appeared in Lexiel's eyes as red, white and blue glowing runes dance before her fingertips.  Nobody else recognizes them, but it's clear they mean something to her.  "No self-respecting mage would leave such sloppy work to fester.  It is time to do SCIENCE unto this unworthy piece of spellwork!"  When she says the word 'science', red and white lightning bolts strike the ground behind her, despite there being hardly a cloud in the sky.  "My old master Pazzeri would be furious if I let you live like this.  But fear not!  By the time I'm finished it will be a masterwork worthy of the Izzet seal of quality!"  Anyone even vaguely familiar with the Izzet guild would not be reassured by that statement at all.

[Chevaleresse]

A familiar broad-brimmed black hat wandered over, accompanied by the faint smell of sulfur and the rather fetching woman beneath it. "This is the part where you start running away, just so you know," Marisa stated in the direction of the newcomer from behind Lexiel. ". . . Then again, I don't really have much room to talk about making people explode without asking first. Anyway. Still, don't play with ancient enchantments, they're prickly and easily offended for being largely inert magical constructs."

 

Meanwhile, Mitsurugi walked past, giving the newcomer a once-over before deciding that the others had this handled and heading to the keep proper and the War Room.

 

Hiroki skittered past, avoiding the stranger and heading into the Armory.

[Ragnarok97071]

Well, Lena looks rather concerned at the person she'd thought was an officer before suddenly going... a little mad. Her hands move up to her neck, wrapping around the choker, and she shakes her head, after a few seconds managing to pull them away to write out a response.

 

It's there for a reason, I promise, and unfortunately I don't have the tools necessary for extracting the components for modification in any case. I'm happy the way it is, honest. And that storage space is actually something else, I think? Then again, I never really understood how the Ark worked in any case.

 

When offered a chair by Solomon, she looks at it for a few seconds, mulling it over, before finally deciding that she'd rather walk, indicating as such.

 

And then, someone else arrived. A woman, telling her to... run? her eyes widen, expression changing to one that reads as something similar to Have I done something wrong? Do I need to defend myself?

[Hal Henderics]

Dackly and Gozer slither in, carrying a keg.  It's empty, and it seems Dackly was just using it for Aesthetic reasons.

 

"Woo! Party time!"

 

"Kicking the shit out of bad guys always puts a smile on my face."

 

"You can't kick things though Dackly."  Gozer responds.

 

Dackly puts a finger to his mouth, shushing repeatedly for an awkwardly long period of time.

 

"Don't break the masquerade, my dear Gozer."

[DragonRage]

"Statistically speaking, backing away slowly and refusing to sign any wavers of consent has a far higher chance of success- Oh.  Uh, terribly sorry about that.  The enchantments on that are just so interesting.  It's always a blast learning about new kinds of magic," Lexiel apologizes, "I may have gotten a little carried away.  After all, if I experimented on that, I couldn't have a control group.  What was I thinking?"

[Strider]

Edmond waved at Marisa as she approached, then hesitated a moment before tapping Lexiel on her shoulder, trying to interrupt what could be a little off putting mere minutes after arrival.

 

"Hey. Lexiel." Edmond spoke a little louder, hoping to attract the angel's attention better. "Calm down a little, alright? If you don't scare them off, you're more likely to get to learn about the enchantments. Anyway, you can't go asking someone to experiment on them so soon. At least ask them to dinner first." He smiled calmly, then continued. "I'm assuming your battle went well then? I doubt you'd be this chipper otherwise."

[Ragnarok97071]

Lena at this point begins to waver back and forth somewhat nervously, not used to having so many people talking to her directly like this. She supposes it makes sense, since she's very new. For now, she'd remain quiet, letting them talk among themselves, not quite wanting to butt in at this point.

[Yours Truly]

Solomon shrugged and slowly disassembled the other flying chair before he said, "You haven't done anything wrong, and you don't have to defend yourself from Lexiel unless..." he then made a show of leaned in slightly to whisper, "Unless you are secretly an arcology full of Aztechnology wageslaves, in which case you should run right now...before she drops another meteor on you." He then leaned back on his seat before he smiled at Lexiel.

[Chevaleresse]

"I'm just going to ignore that and file it away as some sort of noodle incident, alright?" Marisa shook her head at Solomon's comment, the pointed tip of her hat flopping about a bit with the motion. "Anyway. I wasn't trying to spook you, just warning you that the Izzet see safety as an obstruction to proper science. I mean, not that a girl can't appreciate a little mad science, but I like my fingers. And she means 'blast' literally." She gave Edmond a cursory wave of hello in return as she spoke. 

[Ragnarok97071]

Moving right past that whole business about wageslaves and something called Aztechnology which sounds like they'd be wonderful people if not for all the atrocities, Lena slowly begins to write in her pad again, after considering what exactly to 'say'.

 

So what's our plan?

[Yours Truly]

Solomon scratched his head a bit before he said, "I think that our plan so far has boiled down to splitting our group up into four parties, with two dedicated to defending our castle and the one we are currently standing in, and two to try and hunt down any servants we have located. It is a rather simple plan that has served us well so far...although I'm afraid that I am going to have to let Lexiel or Edmond fill in the rest of the details." 

[Ragnarok97071]

She goes quiet again, considering, then slowly shakes her head. This was... a new experience. not a lot of strategy here, but apparently they had gone through well enough, and it wasn't like she could fix that anyway. She's not a tactician, it's not her place to give orders, just follow them. though... from the sound of it there really wasn't anything of great import to go after other than what they'd been doing. No supply lines, no civilian centers that could be captured to force capitulation, no leaders that could be captured or assassinated, at least from what they said, that weren't as bad or worse than the ones they're already fighting... though perhaps attempting to draw out their reenforcements and then go after the head might be prudent, if possible.

 

How strong is the enemy? You mentioned Servants and Trespassers, right? 

[ElfCollaborator]

"Ooooh. What's this?"

Lena suddenly feels the presence of someone behind her, their eyes studying their every movement and contour of their body. If she were to look to her side, she'd see a very scantily-clad (and fairly attractive) red-headed honest-to-God fairy, her green eyes studying her closely. She rubs her chin, craning her neck to get a closer look at her, squinting and having a look at her, trying to read Lena carefully.

 

Well-built. A redhead. Short, but not too short; a bodybuilder of some kind?. Quiet, too quiet; oh, so one of those cases again. Great. Empi wasn't surprised at all. 

 

Probably from one of those medieval worlds, judging from her clothing; Empi still remembered the good old days. Intense; probably a military type, on second thought. Not the first she'd seen around here; this place was overcrowded with soldiers. Nobody knew how to have any fun around here. She didn't look like she did either. Probably thinking about supply lines or some shit. Empi wasn't interested in that; her job was relationships. Swords and axes and guns were not her forte, people were. 

 

So yet another well-built professional soldier. Probably superpowered, given the balance of probabilities.  If Empi figured right, she'd even have issues about her own self-image. 

"You new around here? You don't look like a local."

[Ragnarok97071]

Someone behind her suddenly. Snuck up on her? Not good. Could be someone dangerous. The people in front hadn't attacked or reacted, so not likely to need immediate action, but the girl still reacted, dropping her weight slightly and turning, a long-hafted axe suddenly appearing in her hands as she does so, snapping to a ready position, though she doesn't actually make any aggressive movements, more just a defensive precaution. After a few seconds, she'd take in the woman, then slowly straighten up again, the axe vanishing again before she inclines her head apologetically, likely a little regretful of how she'd reacted, though honestly she feels like she had her reasons.

 

Was she... new around here? She nods at this, shifting her weight slightly, trying to seem less threatening.

[ElfCollaborator]

Empi doesn't seem at all bothered by the axe. Well, she does; more irritated than scared, however. She smiles teasingly.

"Has anyone taught you that that's not a way to greet a lady? Don't worry about enemies here; this is safe territory. I think. I don't do 'military'.  If you're looking for our leaders, ask around for Edmond or Isobel. If you don't know who those are, look for the most competent-looking guy or the hot botanist chick with the nice honkers."

[Ragnarok97071]

Oh, she was one of those ones, was she? Lena seems a little unsettled, but not by much, just sort of surprised if anything, not even blushing a little at the ah... impracticality of Empi's outfit. Was... that how people acted around here? Well, alright.

 

She nods again.

 

How very varied and many her responses to the fairy are.

[Yours Truly]

Solomon was just about to answer Lena's question, and perhaps attempt to get either Edmond or Lexiel to answer her question when a person whose name still eludes him walked in and decided to sneak up behind a trained soldier....because that is always a good idea.

 

He waited a while for the two of them to finish talking as part of the new 'be slightly less of an outright dick to your allies' thing he had going on, before the other other other other woman decided to say something about how Lena should go and find Edmond or LOTUS or something; which caused him to point at Edmond who were noticeably standing slightly to the side with Lexiel and another person and say, "You do realize that both Edmond and Lexiel are standing right there right?."

 

He then lowered his hand and turned back towards Lena, "But anyway the enemy are pretty damn powerful if the fact that the very first servant we fought could apparently summon a nigh infinite amount of dragon's teeth soldiers to aid in her cause, and the only servant I actually fought was just some Irish who could chuck his spear at people menacingly....and casually throw grown adults at inanimate objects."

[ElfCollaborator]

So Edmond was. Empi doesn't seem bothered by that. Lexiel, however, isn't exactly who she was talking about.

 

Although Lexiel was kinda hot, she muses. Empi checks her out briefly. Slavic-looking chick, big, strong, really hot, dressed like a goth rocker with a giant robot fist (how the hell did she carry that thing around?). Hubba hubba. She'd have words with her sometime, maybe.

 

She turns back to Solomon.

"I don't know, buddy, unless I missed something, Lexiel isn't Miss Funbags. Don't see Palm Pilot the Robot Wonder around either, so she's definitely not Isobel."