Yours Truly Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 Immanuel visibly relaxed somewhat after he realized that the woman was presumably telling him the truth, "Not that much actually, all I currently know is that they were awakened, had an odd fixation with assassinating an assistant marketing director for a card game, fought primarily by summoning creatures and hurling energy at people, and also that they had no plan for getting off of the plane alive, namely because they were already dead. I am not really sure why, and while I guess I could have learned more about them if I had taken their bodies with me for an autopsy; I decided that the awakened people who came with the authorities could do a much better job of it... also I am not the kind of person to steal another man's dead body, I'm not that weird." He then leaned back on the nearby wall slightly before he let out a sigh and continued with, "You know I would ask why I have never heard of you before, but that is actually a dumb question to ask someone who was presumably planning on taking out the bank robbers from a distant rooftop." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Empiricist Posted March 28, 2018 Author Share Posted March 28, 2018 Sasha Some of the armaments you can't really make heads or tails of - part of them are reliant on enchantments that have since burned out, though judging by how the constructs fought, it's probably just related to their passive augmentation and spell bolts. But, there are a few things built into the arms you definitely can identify, with some effort of course. First up, you've got this energy compression array going all the way up the forearms, nestled beneath all the plating, this array just, gathers and shoves spirit energy forwards, nothing too special, but not poorly made by any means. This then connects to the gauntlets, which, honestly are pretty well made. They've got concussive force emitters in the palms and knuckles, some sort of spell rectifier in hands, which are probably how they created those larger beams, and that energy blade. The energy itself seems to be almost... hmm... After a bit of experimentation, trying to match it with other pieces of gear you've seen and directing a bit of energy into it using a vehicle enchantment module, you find that it's almost like some kinda hippie plant magic just, twisted and weaponized. That does fit how the exoskeletons themselves resemble hedges or ghillie suits, and it's not uncommon for various entities, people included, to use their innate abilities in weird ways rather than learning new kinds of magic. Like say, a diplomacy android using the ability to connect with others and help create agreement to connect with stained glass windows and get their physical properties to agree that they really should be good at brutal murder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zetaark Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 "Guess they made sure the armaments were decent enough. Still doesn't explain why they didn't use automatons instead of people but I guess we can figure that out later," she muses before compiling all of her notes and started to look up some Society contacts. The person she normally would go to for this is busy on another assignment, and the only other free person from her client list is...well she'd rather not get them involved with this stuff if she could help it. It's for the best really. And with those two options out, Sasha decides to look through her contacts for someone able to properly examine the more magical functions present in the exoskeleton. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Empiricist Posted March 28, 2018 Author Share Posted March 28, 2018 Sasha Well, there's Indra's master, but, honestly the guy's sketchier than the Baron, so he's probably a nope. Tony's probably an option, you think? He's usually the one making the bodies, but he's got to at least know a good cleaner or two, right? Right? An image flashes before your eyes, a raging inferno, a makeshift funeral pyre burning in the middle of the street, twisted remnants of a bike in its center. Okay, maybe not as sure a bet as you thought it'd be, but, still maybe one that will work? Flicking through your contacts, you come across a loose card from a while back, can't remember the exact circumstances but it was sometime shortly after you Awakened. It, doesn't have much written on it, just number and a name: Overseer AI, Designation "Wintermute". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chevaleresse Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 "Call me Crow, at least until we get to know each other better." She took on an expression of concerned thought as she spoke, though. "Already dead, though? That's odd, though nothing I haven't seen before. More bad news for the Card Emperors, though, which is good news for us; whoever gave them their last batch of gear must not have liked them much." The woman was silent for another second or two, gaze drifting aimlessly downward, before she glanced back up at the armored man before her. "I don't suppose you kept contact with that Tor, did you? I've got a lead on something that might be worth investigating, and I don't want to send anyone in alone if I can help it." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yours Truly Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 Immanuel shook his head before he said "I'm afraid not, I left relatively quickly after the plane landed and I saw an awakened man with an AI Uplink walk up to greet everyone else... didn't want to take the chance of him being able to identify me. Although I think have several people I can call upon for help... and if push comes to shove I can always track down Tor's office and just...try to talk to him." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chevaleresse Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 "I should be able to resolve that fairly quickly, if you can't contact him yourself. I'd prefer to get involved as indirectly as possible, but it shouldn't be too difficult to get a private phone number. Speaking of, who else was with you on that plane? The reports I've heard aren't entirely complete, and half of them are passed through the filter anyway. Much better to hear it from one that was there." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yours Truly Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 "Other than Tor, me, and some European woman I don't recognize who summoned horror movie monsters from a really big camera. There was a mechanic I brought along with me who flew us onto the plane with a supernaturally fast motorcycle that I attached rocket boosters to for obvious reasons, and space warping powers, and there was also a teenager there who tagged along with us for reasons related to her reality warping powers. And before you ask, I do have both of their numbers." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chevaleresse Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 "Good to hear you have something resembling a team already." The French woman - her accent sounded French, anyway, if rather more clipped than the typical - tried to keep the dubiousness out of her voice. Calling it a team in any sort sounded like a generous descriptor, from the way the man spoke, but she would take what she could get. Besides, they'd already demonstrated some level of competence. "Now that we've taken care of that, I need to know if you can help me with something. Investigating a Sanctuary, specifically. Seems like a Mononoke nest of some kind in there, and the Card Emperors were after something inside. I can send you more of the details later, if you're willing to look into it for me, of course." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yours Truly Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 Immanuel quickly started to think of how he would go about with convincing some people he barely knew to help him on what could in all honesty be nothing but a wild goose chase (or a well laid trap) just after Crow mentioned the Mononoke nest to him. "Well if it will hinder their ability to attempt any more suicide attacks on children's card game players then I can certainly promise that I will try to get to the root of said matter. Although of course by this point I can't really say the same about the others." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chevaleresse Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 "If all else fails, I can try to work something out. Pull some favors, I've got a couple people who'd be willing if you can't pull a group together. Would help if I had a good way to contact you, though." She produced a pen and paper from a note pocket, and quickly scrawled out a phone number on it before handing it over to Immanuel. "For when you need to contact me. Try to keep it to business, though, I'm a busy woman." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yours Truly Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Immanuel quickly put the woman's phone number inside of one of his pockets before he said, "I'll send you a message with my number on it later. But anyway do you know absolutely anything else about the Sanctuary that might help the investigation? And where was it located?." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chevaleresse Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 "I'll send you a message with the details later. It has some sort of moving fortress, otherwise it's quite mundane for a Sanctuary. Anyway, now that this is dealt with, I have other places I need to be today. Try to be quick with that message; I'm not the only one running this sort of thing in this city, and not everyone else doing so has the city's best interests in mind." And with that, she gave a short wave of farewell, and walked to the edge of the rooftop before vaulting over the side nigh-silently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yours Truly Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Immanuel idly waved goodbye at Crow before he turned around to fly himself back home, or rather; a place that is far away enough from his home for him to be able to hail a taxi back home and not draw any suspicion or clue anyone else in to where he lived. On the taxi cab back he sent a message over to Marina that simply said, "I forgot, do your powers work over text? Also meet me at the Haagen Dahz inside of the Kirishima Mall after work tomorrow, I have several things to discuss. Also if your powers do work over text I wish for the private phone numbers of Tor and whoever that other woman who summoned creatures were." He also sent a message to Sasha that said, "I have another job for you that involves the Lowest Bidders, AKA the Card Emperors, AKA the people we fought this morning. Meet me at the Haagen Dahz in Kirishima Mall tomorrow at 4 PM for further information." After a few moments had passed he sent a message to 'Crow' that said, "This is Challenger One's phone number, what do you know about the card emperors?." And finally he sent a message to his boss that simply said, "Change of plans, parents are insufficiently convinced about youth or gender. I will come back to work next week. PS: Was that actually a thing that happened?." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Empiricist Posted March 30, 2018 Author Share Posted March 30, 2018 Immanuel Quote Say no more. See you next week, hope it goes well. PS: It's a regular thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zetaark Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Sasha didn't quite remember the name Wintermute, but she considered it might be a place to start. Then again, she did want to make sure this thing didn't end up in sketchy places. She didn't want to give people a new way to dispose of unwanted individuals. Before she could make another decision on the matter however, her phone vibrated. Checking the message, she sent a reply back. "Can you at least tell me what type of job it may be? I'll probably end up showing up anyhow, but I'd like to know what I'm getting into." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yours Truly Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 After a long moment of deliberation Immanuel decided to send his a project leader another message that said, "Also hypothetically, if someone decided to hypothetically....use magical arms, armor, and other equipment using blueprints they had hypothetically created from research they had hypothetically done for the company for the past decade to fight criminals. How fired would said hypothetical someone be?. PS: Also have you watched the news yet." 4 hours ago, Zetaark said: Sasha didn't quite remember the name Wintermute, but she considered it might be a place to start. Then again, she did want to make sure this thing didn't end up in sketchy places. She didn't want to give people a new way to dispose of unwanted individuals. Before she could make another decision on the matter however, her phone vibrated. Checking the message, she sent a reply back. "Can you at least tell me what type of job it may be? I'll probably end up showing up anyhow, but I'd like to know what I'm getting into." After he waited for a reply he decided to quickly send a message to Sasha that said, "It involves a moving fortress and a whole lot of exploration." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Empiricist Posted March 30, 2018 Author Share Posted March 30, 2018 Immanuel The typing indicator goes off, but it's a few more minutes before the response pops up. Quote That was you? Well, I don't think it will be a problem with corporate, we'll need to have you sign a waiver though, assert that your actions aren't under our orders. PS: Care to talk about what you need the leave for? We have other prototypes in need of testing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yours Truly Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Immanuel did a double check when he saw the contents of his project leader's response, and he slowly started to realize that all of the weeks of planning and sneaking around the damn place to try and prevent himself from being fired by his higher-ups... might have been completely and utterly unnecessary actually. Although he wasn't really surprised about having to sign a waiver, the company does have the right to distance itself from him if he ended up.... shacking up with a bunch of Anarchocapitalists or something?. He sent another message to his project supervisor that explained, in no uncertain terms, that Quote I am not actually sure if I should discuss this in detail with you just in case this leads into a legal case that might screw me over, but it involves an unidentified sanctuary that contains a presumably hostile nest of mononoke who are in possession of at least one mobile fortress and one artifact or anomaly that is of interest to a group of awakened criminals that somehow managed to become the least threatening group of their kind that I have ever encountered. Please do note that I have never encountered one before. PS: Wasn't there a project for a durable and magic powered combined short distance heat vision and recording helmet in the works that we considered integrating into the suit until we realized that most people don't have the magical potential to use it properly?... do we still have the plans for those? And uhh... any spare parts?. PPS: What were the prototypes again? PPPS: No I did not do that to the tail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Empiricist Posted March 30, 2018 Author Share Posted March 30, 2018 Immanue Quote I'll see if I can't requisition the parts for it. For prototypes, well we're just about on of the only military teams here, so there's not going to be many relevant things here, though I do believe there are some healing potions and combat stims in need of testing if you're fine with the risks. Won't do any permanent harm, but I'm afraid I can't make too many guarantees beyond that. The regular kind we can probably supply you with as well, and I can see if any of alchemists can get you something, though as it stands, you probably won't be getting anything too spectacular. There's liability on our part as well so improvised alchemical weapons and the like are definitely off the table for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yours Truly Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Quote First of all thank you in advance for all of the help you are offering, and second of all the combat stims or healing potions have been tested and confirmed to not react violently or particularly oddly near a leyline right? And can any of the alchemists cook up something that works similarly to a flashbang grenade for me?. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Empiricist Posted March 30, 2018 Author Share Posted March 30, 2018 Immanuel Quote Probably not violently, but I can't guarantee they won't prematurely activate when exposed to larger quantities of ambient spirit energy. Flashbangs should be doable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntSys Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Marina bought a rather expensive camera along with tripods, before blasting out of the department store. She flew over Sendo City, across the suburbs, and finally reaching a lone town - Himawari Town. Sunflowers surrounded the town, making it look like an island floating amidst golden seas. Two roads reach out of the town, one going further south, and another leading back to Sendo City. Its landscape and its relatively-robust infrastructure made it one of the more desirable suburban areas around the city. Buses went in and out of the town every morning and evening. It was certainly a place that brought back memories. Marina still remembered when she said goodbye to Remi as she took flight from the hills where the local junior high school was located. Her destination today was Remi's house. She descended upon her doorsteps and knocked. The door opened slowly, and from it emerged a young girl with a black ponytail. A tad bit taller than Marina. She wore nothing but purple pajamas, truly suspicious."Hey Remi! Consider your wish fulfilled!" Marina declared. Remi, on the other hand, leaped at Marina, taking the camera with one hand and grabbing her tightly with the other, "thank you, Marina!" - complete with a kiss."C-Come on in! We'll treat you juuuust right. Lunch's on me, too!" Remi dragged Marina inside, and a butler mannequin promptly shut the door as they entered. Her parents weren't home today, likely working in Sendo City again, and that might just had been the reason why she decided to invite Marina. For the rest of the day, the rest of Remi's plans were revealed to be getting Marina to put herself in a variety of weird "disguises" that were really closer to blatant fanservice for her eyes only. She was also taking pictures with the very same camera she asked for. The excuse she went for was "you can make disguises faster than I can weave clothes!" Which was, somewhat believable. Of course, Remi did not forget to be a good host while "occupying" Marina. Her mannequins tended to the two's needs, serving them a hearty lunch. After a long day, Marina was released from Remi's clutches. She flew home in the sunset. On her way home, she checked her phone messages, finally catching her uncle's message."Oh hey, he hasn't forgotten! Perfect," she noted in delight. She then replied with "OK. You're on your own with the phone numbers, though. I don't even know where to get them! We're also way too far from each other right now. Wish upon a star, and wish for something else." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yours Truly Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Immanuel leaned back on his seat and put his phone back in his pocket as his apartment building could finally be seen in the distance after a longer than usual cab ride, and he soon arrived at the front door of his apartment after a few boring moments had passed where nothing of any real interest happened. He took his time in the shower as he thought about exactly what he was going to say to a pair of complete strangers to convince them to follow him into a Mononoke nest/what alchemical items that were technically not a kind of weapon he could try and requisition/whether or not it would be a good idea to ask if anyone in the entire company had designed some form of autoinjection system, or if he should shelve that idea in its entirety for now. He eventually settled on sending his project leader a message that said. Quote Quick question, would the flashbangs be considered a form of alchemical weaponry if they also emitted UV light? And is that actually a thing they can make?. Also I know that you said that you were pretty certain that the prototype pharmecuticals wouldn't do any permanent damage, but I have always been quite wary of combat stims in general, and I actually don't know what the prototypical ones you are offering are supposed to do. He then sent a short and simple message to Marina that said, Quote You have reality warping powers that allow you to summon wings to fly with and stars to fire at people as one of their applications; I'm not sure why you're asking me about how you're supposed to get Tor and the Eastern European's phone number. Perhaps it would be easier to wish for the identity of the eastern European woman firing movie monsters at the card emperors? Either way I'll meet you tomorrow and try again. He then went out of the shower to check the time and dress himself up once more before he went through the information he had collected on Tor to find out where he worked...and perhaps call his secretary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chevaleresse Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 13 hours ago, Cronos5010 said: "This is Challenger One's phone number, what do you know about the card emperors?." The message Immanuel received back was from a blocked number. Quote Domestic terrorist group. Call themselves a political movement, the usual deal. Not that threatening, but they can cause a lot of collateral. If you've fought them once, you've got a general idea of what they do already; most of their ranks are those so-called Card Callers, at least the ones anyone cares about. The only game they use is 6013 Star Warrior. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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