[IC] TotM:DC "Terraria: A fresh start"

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Azgrurk

 

... Of course, not too long after Azgrurk finally settled into the peace and quiet after the carnage, a new bit of carnage erupted from the defenses. This time, screaming from one of the humans, and without pause. He'd heard human screams before, and this was clearly telling him that whoever was screaming was in absolute pain now.

 

Which meant more fighting for him, hopefully, if it wasn't a simple wound. Those weren't much of a problem.

 

As soon as he processed said screams, Azgrurk lumbered over to the other side of the wall, where he had heard the screaming, noticing two of the humans, a small girl and suspicious man, along with a smaller, BURNING human. The sight instantly peaked his curiosity, making him jump off the wall and crash into the ground, before straightening and marching towards the commotion,

 

"OI, WHAT'Z GOIN' ON 'ERE?!" Azgrurk shouted as he approached, seemingly unfazed by the new magma woman in front of him, that was also charging the man. In his time as Warboss, he had seen weirder.

[kj1225]

Arminius for his part didn't know how to respond to the new problem. So he quickly got up and started running for the woods, just like old times.

[Chevaleresse]

"Weapon upgrades? No, I wouldn't trust anything you made to not bite me or explode in my hand. Which is exactly what I need to talk to you about. This nonsense about a law of exclusion or whatever? It's not true here, it's not true anywhere except for your world, and you had better start acting that way." He fixed Leo with a hard glare. "This isn't going to be tolerated any more. If I wasn't clear earlier, if I catch you playing around with anything this obviously dangerous again, I'm doing something about it, and you, myself." He leaned backward slightly, folding his arms. "Understand?"

[Powder Miner]

Had Arminius simply stabbed her, Satomi would not have hesitated to continue fighting with him, and in that case she quite likely would have won -- she was a good deal more fit than him, after all, and certainly better armed, and on fire as she was she had had the ability to take them both down. But he had not simply stabbed her. Instead, he had continued to do rather horrific things to her, as he had-- had-- taken something from her, and turned it into another one of his awful little minions. In that moment, Satomi had all of the energy taken right from her; mostly, it was just thanks to the shock and horror of what precisely had happened, but she felt more tired even than she should have been, and that burning rage that so often had been a part of her life wasn't there to be drawn on anymore.

 

Satomi didn't know how to handle it.

 

She really, really didn't know how to handle it. And with the state that she had already been in even before Arminius decided to aggress her...

 

She didn't handle it. Instead, Satomi simply brought her knees to her chest as Arminius was chased away, wrapped her arms around them, and trembled terribly.

 

Satomi does nothing.

[StormLord]

As Azgrurk approaches the conflict he sees a number of things, first off though is Arminius running as fast and as far as possible.

 

Con save: 10 vs 13,

 

Which as it turns out isn't actually that far.  He manages to sprint about a hundred yards before his already severe wounds get the better of him and he has to slow down before he tears something and passes out.  This does prove inconvenient though as the flaming gremlin thing blots off after him steadily gaining and restrained neither by wounds nor exhaustion.

 

Str check: 17 vs 19,

 

It leaps into the air and slams into the back of Arminius' leg with all the force of....a wet paper sack, granted a wet paper sack that was also covered in incinerating flames that give him another third degree burn.

 

The last thing Azgrurk saw was Satomi taking a position he was probably familiar with.  It wasn't something the Humies' used for fighting, rather when the fighting went bad, when they were scared, confused, and just didn't want to do this any more.

[Endlessblaze]

Leo sighs
"Ok. Lets get this out of the way. First of all, I'm not an idiot, nor am I Incompetent. I know how to deal with threats, recognize signs of danger, and am perfectly capable of producing safe, useable equipment. Second of all, your wrong, and repeating yourself won't make you any less wrong. Thirdly, Its Elemental Delineation."

"Now, We Couldddd stand around here and argue about this for a few hours, or we could try and beat the shit out of each other, or have some sort of contest. But frankly I have a million more important things to do with my time, and I'm willing to bet so do you. So lets settle this in a more reasonable fashion, I'm sure we can come to some sort of compromise that will leave us both relatively satisfied."

Snow meanwhile sighs internally. As she considered the question of weather she should call In some of the golems, or just let this play out.
She would much prefer this not turn into a fight, as, having only just sent most of the golems off, Leo would not have much in the way of backup if this turned violent.
Fuck she was going to have to drag one or both of these idiots back to the nurse wasn't she? 

Leo was already preparing for a fight just in case, running over what he knew in his head.
              I don't know the mechanism for his powers, but it's probbly internal. Considering It doesn't seem to need any special movements to activate, nor require verbal components, Its almost certainly activated and controlled 100% By Will and Mental commands. That could point to it being some sort of appendix ability. I MIGHT be able to disrupt that if I can slip some of the mana from the Ship's hull metal into his body. Disrupt the energy. Disrupt the ability.

       Tainted Alloy Ingot mana could floor him, but I would need to be careful to hold back. Dont want to repeat the goblins on a party member. As much as I would rather he go be anywhere else, I can't just blast him like that. Maybe I could use it to erect a barrier around me to prevent him from attacking?

      Trying to restrain him physically is pointless, And If I can't stop him from using his power....Ill want to already be moving by the time I start a spell. At the very least, A moving target it at least a little harder to grab and predict. Maybe a lightning bolt would work, how did that spell go again? Or maybe...

     Oh, The dense Ice from the nearby snowy region. I can use its mana to slow him down. I might even be able to slow his thoughts down. Man I wish I had tested that stuff more, would be really handy right about now.

 

[Chevaleresse]

"Wrong? No, you're a goddamn idiot, and you're going to get us all killed sooner or later because something in you is physically incapable of recognizing when you need to take a little care with a material. There is no such thing as 'elemental delineation' here, this place is NOT the same as your home, and you are GOING to take a step back, or I am going to force you to." He laughed at the bit about having other things to do, though there wasn't a lot of enjoyment in the noise. "I have all the time in the world, and I can either spend it doing things that are actually productive, or I can spend some of it to make sure nobody ever has to clean up one of your fucking messes ever again. Your repetition isn't going to make you any more right, either, and I'm not going to continue to allow you to endanger people for the sake of curiosity. Now let me ask again: do you understand me?"

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Azgrurk

 

For the most part, Azgrurk watched everything unfold with a rather impassive expression... Or at least, as impassive as an Ork could possibly do. From the small fire Humie running after the suspicious Humie, and the original small Humie curling up after the fighting was over, it was all things that he never really experienced first hand, since Humies were... Weird creatures compared to his Orks.

 

But he was a leader, and he was expected to lead the little Humies.

 

"OI, NO SLEEPIN' RIGHT NOW LITTLE HUMIE. FIGHT'Z ALREADY OVER" Azgrurk stated as he crouched down next to the little Humie in question, before roughly scooping her into his non-metal hand, “I AIN’T SURE WHAT’Z GOT INTO YA, BUT WE’VE STILL GOT WORK TO DO, ALRIGHT?” he continued, stompin’ his way over to the suspicious Humie, before using his clawed hand to pry the fire Humie off of him.

[Endlessblaze]

Leo draws snow, Icy blue energy rushing down from his body, to wrap around the blade. Moving into a somewhat relaxed, but leaning position, with her at his side. His feet spread. His hard light shield appears over his other arm, Ready to fight.
"If its a fight you want its a fight you'll get. If you really want to do this then prepare yourself, Once your ready, snow can start the countdown. Speaking of, If you intend to fight all out, Ill be calling my golems in."
 

 

Snow mutters discontentedly 
"I swear your both fucking Idiots, and I'm going to have to...uhgggg."

"Hey I tried"

"You didn't try very hard."  

Leo shrugs. 

 

Stoneheart floats next to the Leo. expressing its own trepidation.
"Concern. Both subjects have just come from a lethal stakes battle. Combat is not advised. Although treatment has been rendered neither party is at peak capacity."
"Proposal, Postpone any combat to tommrow."

"Oh save it, They are beyond help at this point."
 

[Powder Miner]

Satomi let out a quavering noise when Azgrurk suddenly moved over and picked her up. She couldn't argue with his statement that they still had work to do, because of course they did, they had to clean up after Leo's mess, she had so much powder distribution to do to get rid of that horrible Tainted place. And she was not only a samurai but a Crab, her current display was piteous and shameful and outright dishonorable. By acting the way she was, she knew she was betraying her own role as a samurai. But... but... but... Satomi slapped lightly at Azgrurk's hand, but it had no real venom behind it. Eventually, she just spoke quaveringly as Azgrurk began to carry her into the woods.

"Please don't... please-- please don't take me near him... and that thing... I don't want to see them..." she spoke quietly, shutting her eyes tightly.

[kj1225]

Getting an assist from the large green one (an orc? Pretty sure it's an orc.) Arminius is quick to try and kick the flaming Satomi off of him. If that works he'd continue to run for the woods as he could at least hide there.

[StormLord]

Satomi's words and resistance cause little pause as Azgrurk scoops her up in one hand and starts walking down the hill toward the woods.

 

As the gremlin holds tight to Arminius' leg her swiftly kicks it several times in the face until several rock crack, including the one making up its nose, and it pulls back its hands in shock.

Azgrurk follows behind and picks it up by its feet, allowing Arminius to make his getaway and slip behind treecover.

 

The monster twists and pulls and screams trying to get at Arminius until he leaves its sight.  At which point it crosses its arms and makes a pouting expression while huffing and kicking up smoke, creating a light haze around its head.  It doesn't look happy, but it isn't trying to attack or escape Azgrurk.

[Powder Miner]

Azgrurk had just picked Satomi up, hauled her over towards Arminius, and then immediately essentially trapped her in close proximity with the piece of her very soul that she had had stolen from her and turned into a separate creature by the man who turned pieces of people's souls into minions, and who had also put her through utter fiery agony with some sort of truly foul magic, forcing her to confront this no less than immediately after it had happened to her.

 

Satomi...

 

Well, Satomi gaped at it for a few moments, eyes wide, silent except for very quiet sounds as she choked up and was unable to find even an incoherent vocal response. After a few moments of this, she finally made a somewhat louder sound, a halted breath as tears formed in her eyes and began to stream down her face. The little sounds she was making got louder and fuller until they became outright sobs, the samurai twisting and turning to try to escape Azgrurk's grasp or at least look away from the thing that had been made of her, outright crying in front of him despite the shame of it. "N-no, no, no, please, I don't w-want to see it, I duh, I don't, please, please, get me away from it!" And now Satomi was outright bawling, losing control as she just tried to make the situation stop, to get out of it.

[Chevaleresse]

Should have just let him die. Ungrateful, insufferable idiot. Kusuke didn't bother with any sort of fancy countdown; as soon as Leo took up a combat stance, Kusuke was moving. He rushed straight at Leo. . . then flickered, reappearing in two places behind him and aiming to cut at his arms to handicap his offensive abilities.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Azgrurk

 

"WELL, I WASN’T TRYIN’ TO GET YA TO LOOK AT IT. THOUGH HONESTLY DIS THING ‘ERE IS RATHER WEIRD” Azgrurk replied, before planting Satomi on the ground, “IF YA WON’T TO RUN AND IGNORE IT LIKE DAT ‘UMIE YOU WERE FIGHTIN’ DID, I WON’T STOP YA. BUT I THINK IT’Z BETTAH IF YOU FACE YOUR PROBLEMZ ‘EAD ON. YOU ‘UMIES TEND TO DO DAT, FROM MY EXPERIENCE. AND IF YA THINK ABOUT IT, FACING YOUR PROBLEMZ RIGHT NOW MEANZ YOU'RE STRONGAH THEN DAT 'UMIE, SINCE HE RAN!” he added, before lifting the burning humie a bit higher, so he could look it in the eye despite holding it upside down, “NEVAH SEEN A BURNIN’ HUMIE BEFORE, HONESTLY. I SHOULD GET SOME BURNIN' ORKZ.”

[StormLord]

As Leo and Kusuke square up they feel and odd presence watching them, something to make the hairs on the back of their neck stand up.

 

Kusuke charges forward, giving no shits about whatever organized duel Leo was planning, and teleporting behind him ready to slash the backs of his arm....only to feel and very sudden and hard impact in the middle of his chest as soon as he teleports.

 

It didn't hurt much, but the shock was enough to throw him off and by the time he glanced down to see what hit him it was already too late.  A single syringe already empty of whatever mystery fluid was inside pumped directly into his bloodstream.  He watched as the world melted around him, he started to lose balance and fall backward but blacked out before he even hit the ground.

 

Leo whipped around to respond to Kusuke's teleporting attack(honestly a lot more slowly than he would've liked) only to find him already falling backwards with a syringe dart in his chest.  Before he could do anything about it though, he too felt a thud in the middle of his back and felt the effects of the tranquilizer, soon falling over on his side.

 

Some time later(minutes? hours? days?) they both awoke, Kusuke in his Tavern room and Leo on a spare bed in the cellar.  Leo would see a ladder and trap door leading up to the main room, while Kusuke obviously already knows the way down.  Should either of them choose to explore, they'd find the doors out of their rooms unlocked.

[kj1225]

Meanwhile, Arminius was continuing to run through the forest. He wasn't sure if he was still being followed, but better safe than sorry. After a few minutes of this he would stop at a clearing and start climbing up a tree. No one ever looks up after all. Once he was up and fairly sure no one was following that could hear him tend to himself, he started cutting away the burned clothes around his new wounds, as well as taking off his shirt. Each piece of cloth and clothes removed would be tied around a branch to ensure they wouldn't fall and reveal his location before finally he channeled the ice slime essence he had into his hands, rubbing the cold liquid like gel onto his wounds, hoping to take the edge off the burns.

[Endlessblaze]

Leo upon waking up, quickly recollects the events of the day, and the recent argument.
He quickly verifies snow is still there, and asks for the time.

"You haven't been out that long. Its only about lunch time right now. They split you two up after knocking you out."
"Makes sense."
 

Climbing out of bed Leo stretches  
"Tania Is upstairs waiting for the two of you to wake up. I believe she would like to have some words with you idiots."

"Wooooo more lectures." Said in the most unenthusiastic tone ever.

"Oh shut up. Its less likely to send you to the nurse. Its not like you wouldent be doing the same thing if you two weren't the one who got pissed off."

"Yeah, thats fair." 

Leo was certainly aware he had been kind of a dick, but he dident really care that much at this point.
What did kusuke know? Kusuke, Satomi. Honestly, given what little he knew of them, their behaviors made some amount of sense.

But that didn't mean those behaviors wernt fucking stupid, and that he appreciated having his intelligence insulted. Or getting things pinned on him.

Still, It was best to be reasonable about this. It was only natural to break up party members when they started fighting eachother, and try to talk to them. It was the least Leo could do to try and be a little patient, even if he would much rather get around to his investigation.

"Alright, up we go"

Leo exits the cellar 

[Chevaleresse]

Kusuke rubbed his head. Tranquilizers. . . it'd been a while. No need to panic yet. He took a moment to take stock of his surroundings; his room? Well, if he was being kidnapped, that was an odd place to put him, unless it was some sort of reconstruction to set him at ease. Kusuke swung his legs over the edge of the bed  and stopped to pat himself down. Probably not a kidnapping, then, since it seemed he still had his gear. And if it was, his enemy was confident enough in their ability to stop him, which meant they were either too incompetent to worry about or far too competent for him to have a realistic chance of escape. He shuddered at the thought; there was only one person he knew of that could realistically pose such a threat.

 

Still, standing up, he continued to ponder the situation. He was alive and unharmed, so someone must have subdued him on behalf of Leo. Was it that sniper he'd seen slinking about? That would explain the seeming appearance of the dart out of nowhere. It was probably fair, he had acted rashly. . . but Leo had to be stopped, and stopped immediately, there was no time to wait for him to take care of who-knows-what before he deigned to have time to talk about basic common sense. And given he was just as ready to fight him, even after Kusuke had saved his life, over being asked to stop for two seconds, he didn't exactly feel guilty about this.

 

Kusuke leaves the room.

[StormLord]

Leo

 

As Leo climbs the ladder and opens the hatch the smell of stale air and old wood is quickly replaced with beer and freshly cooking meat.  He looks around and finds himself behind the bar and face-to-face with the Tavernkeep who is halfway through drawing a pint of beer for the Guide. 

A moment passes and the Guide takes his beer and then gestures for Leo to come around the bar and follow him.

 

"Why don't you follow me and sit down."

 

He makes his way to a nearby empty table and sits.

 

"Tania wants to talk to you and Kusuke, try to figure out and solve whatever problem caused you two to come to blows in the middle of town."

 

 

Kusuke

 

As he steps out of the room and sharply turns the corner he almost runs head-on into the Dryad.  She looks surprised and stops him for a second to talk.

 

"Oh you're awake, I guess that means Leo is going to be waking up soon too.  One of the people in your group saw you to about to fight in the middle of town and hit you both with tranquilizers, a remarkable shot considering.  I don't know what started it, but I think it would be best if we all sat down and had a polite conversation to work out a solution.  Can you do that?"

 

[Chevaleresse]

"I tried that already. Every single time, all the bastard does is act like I'm some blithering idiot who's trying to tell him the world is flat and brush me off while saying we'll talk later. I've had it. I saved his goddamned life and that's what his gratitude consisted of." He took a deep breath. It's not like it was her fault. "That said, since I know he's not going to go prodding any obviously evil powers with a stick, I can try to talk to him."

[StormLord]

She smiled slightly at his seeming willingness to cooperate.

 

"Glad to hear you'll keep an open mind, now let's hope he does the same and this will be over quick."

 

She turned on her heel and started walking down to the main room, which now not only smelled like food but was also fairly occupied by people eating said food.  She led Kusuke over to a table where Jeff and Leo were just sitting down and sat down herself.

 

"Alright I's like you both in turn to explain to me what exactly the problem is, please try to stay objective and refrain from purposefully insulting each other.  Name calling won't get us anywhere."

 

She glanced between Leo and Kusuke waiting for one of them to start while Jeff sort of leaned back with his mug.

[Chevaleresse]

Kusuke took another deep breath. He would at least attempt to be polite for the sake of the other two here. "Alright. My problem is that Leo has been experimenting with increasingly dangerous materials and coming up with a number of cruel ways to use said materials, whether it be some kind of gear or his own magic. Myself and others in the party have asked him to stop, or at least slowed down, and his main responses to me have been informing me of something called "Elemental Delineation" that will somehow prevent any of the things he creates from spreading. To my knowledge, there is no such thing, judging by both what happened to my own world, and the tainted areas that exist in this one. He also tells me that we should talk later, but I can't in good conscience allow him to go unsupervised, because I have no idea what he is going to experiment with or what the results will be in the meantime."

[Endlessblaze]

Leo crosses his arms
"First of all, I take issue with the fact that kusuke has consistently treated me like an idiot, Despite displaying next to no understanding of what he is talking about. And his continued insistence that I'm somehow some great threat to everyone around me, and likely to accidently destroy the world, which is quite simply not possible."

"Im also going to assert, right now, that I have not been experimenting with 'Increasingly' dangerous things. The threat level presented by the things I have been working with the past week have been more or less consistent. If anything, what has increased was safety measures. I produced golems specifically to keep an eye on dangerous things and contain threats, And I moved future similar experiments outside of the village just in case, following the creation of the sword I made for Jun."

"I AM capable of recognizing and dealing with danger. Tania can attest to this, as I actualy went to her before asking if she had anything good for blocking magic flow, since I recently acquired a magic absorbing object that was behaving...."
Leo trails off for a moment.
"Interestingly….I determined it might be a threat, so I sought to limit its ability to gather power."


"I am not incompetent, and Im not that stupid. If I were, I would, in all seriousness, be dead and NOT sitting at this table having this discussion." 

Leo leans forward, resting his head in his hands, propping himself up on his arms. If he had glasses, they would have caught the light ominously.
"Now, In regards to 'Cruel' magic, I'm going to make this very clear. If someone is Actively trying to kill me or someone Im trying to protect, I do not give a shit if they get hurt. In fact, I don't always care if they die a horrible death.  Now, this does not mean Im going to go out of my way to torture someone, or that Im going to throw around unneeded suffering. But I will, without hesitation, respond in a manner I deem practical and reasonable. When the fight is over, and the issue is dealt with, then any problems caused can be dealt with. Mental therapy can help with trauma, but it can't bring back the dead."
 
"For example, that cloud I used during the siege. Probbly something I need to look into adjusting so I don't drive pepole mad from pain. Its not practical, nor needed, nor do I enjoy watching my defeated enemies be brought to the state some of those surviving goblins went into. But am I going to sit back and watch someone get hurt because I didn't want an enemy to feel pain? The answer is no."

"I also find it quite hypocritical, as I certainly dident hear anyone complain about 'Cruelty' when the others merely abandoned the surviving goblins to die on the battlefield. If I had not sent out the search party, how many of the goblins we saved would have died alone in the dirt long after the battle had passed?""
  

[StormLord]

Tania listened to Kusuke speak, then turned to listen to Leo and after the first several seconds reached up to rub one of her temples.  He certainly had his own special "flare" for "diplomacy", she even had to look over and tell Kusuke to sit down and not lunge over the table at least twice.

 

"Alright.  Leo I think everyone here agrees that a fight is a fight, and no one really cares as long as you contribute without going overboard."

 

She turned back to address Kusuke.

 

"Now I know a lot about the inner workings of this plane, but I've never heard the term 'Elemental Delineation' before.  Leo would you care to explain it in further detail?"