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Entry tags:
- !event,
- !mission,
- akiha tohno,
- alphonse elric,
- alucard,
- amaterasu,
- ange ushiromiya,
- aqua,
- aranea serket,
- arisato minato,
- auron,
- barricade,
- black*star,
- clint barton,
- cloud strife,
- cybele,
- dirk strider,
- duo maxwell,
- eve,
- genesis rhapsodos,
- giroro,
- gray fullbuster,
- hanabi hyuuga,
- haruka,
- hatake kakashi,
- hyoubu kyousuke,
- hyuuga hinata,
- kanji tatsumi,
- kaworu nagisa,
- keroro,
- kurapika,
- l lawliet,
- lavi,
- lezard valeth,
- maes hughes,
- maito gai,
- mihael 'mello' keehl,
- miles edgeworth,
- ms. fortune,
- naoto shirogane,
- nate "near" river,
- qilby,
- raidou kuzunoha,
- ramza beoulve,
- rock lee,
- roy mustang,
- sakura haruno,
- sarah kerrigan,
- sephiroth,
- shibuya yuuri,
- six,
- tassadar,
- teresa,
- tifa lockhart,
- tsubaki nakatsukasa,
- uzumaki naruto,
- waka,
- winters socalo,
- yami bakura,
- yuri lowell,
- yuri petrov (lunatic),
- zeratul,
- zero
[OPEN] Mission 155
Characters: Open to those who signed up here.
Location: An unmarked cavern system outside Death City.
Rating: Various.
Time: March 18th, sunrise.
Description: Shibusen agents brave underwater caverns to take out the first of three Madness emitters.
Missiongoers pile out of the mirrors early in the morning, just as the first hints of sun start to color the walls of the sandstone canyon red and purple; it'll be the last bits of real light they'll see for at least a few hours. The atmosphere is electric -- there're quite a few new (and old) arrivals who're eager to see some action, but just as many people who're feeling rather more apprehensive… And for good reason.
The only way to their destination is blocked by a few hundred yards of sunken tunnels. Luckily they've been provided with mouthpieces, breathing apparatuses with enough oxygen to last about ten minutes: more than enough time, provided that the guests don't lose their way in the dimly-lit, twisted caverns. It's as easy as following the person in front of them, right?
Upon emerging safely from the pool onto mostly-dry land, they'll find themselves in an immense cavern, illuminated by countless, blue fungi clinging to the walls and ceiling, looking like stars dotting a night sky. Already the first signs of the way Madness has been corrupting the wildlife are evident: the mushrooms exude strange spores that make some people's head pound the same way the increasingly noticeable Madness wavelength does.
As they travel further into the watery caves and explore its many branches, they'll begin to encounter creatures twisted by Madness: moles, snakes, beetles, centipedes, all grown to monstrous proportions, some with a venomous bite that quickly turns their victim feverish and delirious. The more daring fighters can easily dispatch those and delve even deeper, and it's near the source of the Madness, in the chamber housing the emitter itself, that they'll encounter the kishin eggs.
There're dozens of them-- eyeless, white, vaguely human-shaped things, but despite their blindness they have no problem finding their quarry, fighting with claws and exuding their own Madness wavelength. If the missiongoers can stand strong against the kishin eggs and the ever-present wavelength given off by the Madness emitter, Shibusen's specialists will have enough time to shut the machine down for good.
OOC NOTES.
- The event summary post containing all relevant links is located here.
- Make your own threads, but please indicate in your subject line [CHARACTER(S) | LOCATION | OPEN/CLOSED] and, if applicable, if you need a kishin egg NPC!
- The locations are the sunken tunnels, the medics area, the cave system, and the emitter chamber, but only the medics will have their designated sub-thread.
- If you have any further questions, the mod thread on the coordination post is here!
Location: An unmarked cavern system outside Death City.
Rating: Various.
Time: March 18th, sunrise.
Description: Shibusen agents brave underwater caverns to take out the first of three Madness emitters.
Missiongoers pile out of the mirrors early in the morning, just as the first hints of sun start to color the walls of the sandstone canyon red and purple; it'll be the last bits of real light they'll see for at least a few hours. The atmosphere is electric -- there're quite a few new (and old) arrivals who're eager to see some action, but just as many people who're feeling rather more apprehensive… And for good reason.
The only way to their destination is blocked by a few hundred yards of sunken tunnels. Luckily they've been provided with mouthpieces, breathing apparatuses with enough oxygen to last about ten minutes: more than enough time, provided that the guests don't lose their way in the dimly-lit, twisted caverns. It's as easy as following the person in front of them, right?
Upon emerging safely from the pool onto mostly-dry land, they'll find themselves in an immense cavern, illuminated by countless, blue fungi clinging to the walls and ceiling, looking like stars dotting a night sky. Already the first signs of the way Madness has been corrupting the wildlife are evident: the mushrooms exude strange spores that make some people's head pound the same way the increasingly noticeable Madness wavelength does.
As they travel further into the watery caves and explore its many branches, they'll begin to encounter creatures twisted by Madness: moles, snakes, beetles, centipedes, all grown to monstrous proportions, some with a venomous bite that quickly turns their victim feverish and delirious. The more daring fighters can easily dispatch those and delve even deeper, and it's near the source of the Madness, in the chamber housing the emitter itself, that they'll encounter the kishin eggs.
There're dozens of them-- eyeless, white, vaguely human-shaped things, but despite their blindness they have no problem finding their quarry, fighting with claws and exuding their own Madness wavelength. If the missiongoers can stand strong against the kishin eggs and the ever-present wavelength given off by the Madness emitter, Shibusen's specialists will have enough time to shut the machine down for good.
OOC NOTES.
- The event summary post containing all relevant links is located here.
- Make your own threads, but please indicate in your subject line [CHARACTER(S) | LOCATION | OPEN/CLOSED] and, if applicable, if you need a kishin egg NPC!
- The locations are the sunken tunnels, the medics area, the cave system, and the emitter chamber, but only the medics will have their designated sub-thread.
- If you have any further questions, the mod thread on the coordination post is here!
no subject
The thing was flexible, he'd grant it that-- his brows raised in surprise as it contorted easily, matching his movements, and he had just enough time to prepare for its imminent attack. With a simple hand motion, Qilby brought all four of Barricade's curved talons to as much of a point as he could get it, leaving him with something almost like a spearhead. At the moment, slashing and cutting weren't options on that thick hide... But piercing might be.
The Meister stood his ground, driving the point of all four claws downward, trusting-- hoping that he was quick enough to pin it to the ground before its jaws reached his legs. He'd already lost one limb; he wasn't exactly eager to miss any more of them.
no subject
The Kishin hadn't survived this long on brute strength alone, spotting the Meister's posture for it what it was. It managed to snake its head out of the path of the attack, but the rest of it wasn't in the clear. Despite the odd detachment, Barricade still felt the warm, wet splash of blood as the attach pierced the soft skin between the shoulder and the leg. The monster let out an angry yelp, pulling back as blood gushed down its leg. It only put a few paces between them before angrily smacking its tail against the passage wall, sending chunks of fungus flying through the air.
Flicking its tongue out into the air again, it started pawing at the soft dirt with its uninjured arm, like it was getting ready for a charge. Maybe it had only been playing with its food before, but now it had puffed itself up, spikes bristling to the point it practically filled the entire passageway. Without much fanfare, it lunged for them again, mouth wide open this time.
"I hope it chokes on us," Barricade said. That'd count as a victory, right?
no subject
Qilby didn't press the attack, instead taking the time to put as much distance between them as his enemy seemed to be trying to do. There was the distinct sense that he was being sized up, and found more difficult prey than this predator had imagined he'd be. This surely wasn't all that the kishin egg had to offer, and he wasn't about to charge headlong into a fight not knowing what it was really capable of. He had a mind, and the memory of what happened when he lost it was still painfully fresh in his memory... So he was going to use it.
"Oh ye of little faith," he replied out of the corner of his mouth. But his growing confidence hit its first wall when the beast swelled up like a moth flashing its wings to scare off its attacker-- and if intimidation was its intent, it was doing a decent job at it.
No room to sidestep this one. Qilby retreated swiftly, claw held out before him defensively, trying to buy himself some time; he knew from centuries of experience that when a brute thought it had its victim on the run, it made stupid mistakes. And when it did, he'd be there to capitalise on them.
no subject
About a thousand different possibilities for how to attack the beast ran through his processor, but all of them included him fighting it by himself. He wasn't very good at this whole teamwork thing, let alone instructing someone else what to do. Trying to figure out what to tell a tiny old man what to do when a monstrous beast was coming to eat them was harder than it sounded.
"We're running out of ground here, old man," he said. The passage twisted off into a blind turn, and that usually meant more trouble was around the curve.
The Kishin barreled ahead, snapping its as its prey stayed just out of range. The smell of their souls was still a weak snack, but a snack that bit back certainly wouldn't stand. It thundered down the passage hard enough to shake dirt loose from the ceiling, spikes scraping off mushrooms and scattering phosphorescent blue all over the place. There was no such luck of it being allergic to the stuff, but it was forced to close its maw and shake its head to keep its eyes clear. That didn't slow its charge by much, but had lost some of its momentum.
no subject
Fighting at close range clearly wasn't Qilby's strongest suit; he preferred instead to keep his distance, striking through his portals from a position where his enemy wasn't likely to be able to hit him back. Wasn't much he could do about that without said portals, so he was learning, adapting as best he could. But for all the other abilities he'd lost, he certainly hadn't lost his sense of opportunism... And it was between dodges carefully keeping him just out of reach of those teeth, and Barricade's unhelpful narration, that he saw his opportunity. "--there!"
Qilby sucked in a deep breath and held it. He didn't like the way the thing was dusting the entire tunnel in those mushroom spores; who knew how toxic they were? Looked like the kishin egg needed some help closing his mouth too, and he was far too courteous to resist a chance to help out a murderous beast in need. Seizing the window of opportunity, the Meister stopped retreating and attacked, talons darting forward to try and clamp down firmly over the monster's jaws while they were shut.
no subject
There was more than enough strength in Barricade to keep the monster's mouth shut, and it clearly did not expect that. Food was supposed to run and scream, not retaliate. It stopped its charge, growling deep in its throat as the talons started to sink into the softer scales around its mouth. Now this was more like it, Barricade thought, and the switchover from doubt to more solid confidence in Qilby would give the Meister another nice boost of strength.
The Kishin jerked its head, intending to simply shake off the old man by tossing him against the wall. The combined strength of the Meister and the Weapon made its efforts nearly useless, as it could barely turn its head as Qilby held fast. It started pawing at the dirt again, its spine bunching up at those awful angles to try and force an escape.
"Crush it," Barricade hissed, his tone low and dangerous. Watching his enemies crumple was one of his favorite parts of combat, no argument there.
no subject
"As you wish," he conceded. Best not to keep the violent metal claw waiting. Expecting a lot more thrashing around from the kishin egg in a second or two, Qilby furrowed his brow, dug his heels deeper and bared his teeth in what might've been a grin. Then, he squeezed, like he was crumpling a piece of paper-- the bone and cartilage bent and creaked sickeningly beneath his Weapon's fingers, but there was yet more unexpended power in his grip.
He could just try to end it quickly, but it was far more interesting to see how much the creature's bones could take before giving in.
no subject
Under that kind of pressure, the bones didn't last long. The Kishin jerked and thrashed its body, tail slamming against one wall and then the other, trying and failing to get loose. While the rest of its body writhed, its head was immobile, held impossibly in place by the claw and the Meister wielding it. Half mad with pain, it lifted one leg to take a swipe at Qilby, and at that point the bones splintered completely.
The best response Barricade was capable of was laughing, which was even less pleasant to hear than his smile was to look at. The talons went clean through its jaw, the pulverized mess pouring out of its jaw in a flow of gums and teeth and blood. That gave it the freedom to pull back, though it squandered whatever opportunity it had by slamming its head against the cavern wall. How that was supposed to alleviate the pain, Barricade didn't know, but watched it take aim at the other wall and repeat the motion with morbid interest. Kind of reminded him of Starscream after Megatron was through with him.
no subject
His lip curled distastefully at the gore and he stepped back from the flailing beast so that it didn't get any more on his clothes than it had to, even if they were unsalvageable at this point. As long as it didn't get near his hat, he was good; he had to resist the urge to adjust it with the bloodied claws, even though it was threatening to slip off his head entirely after everything it'd been through.
"Glad you enjoyed it," he said conversationally, as if he was talking about the weather. "Not exactly the cleanest kill, I must say..."
The kishin egg wasn't dead, per se... But there was certainly no way it'd survive in this condition if left to its own devices. Qilby generally disliked violence (mostly when it was against him) and wielding such a brutal weapon was-- discomfiting, to say the least. Not to mention that a creature with a crushed skull left little for him to examine once it perished. He'd always preferred his kills cleaner than that.
"... You'll be wanting your soul, I suppose. We should finish it off." It wasn't like he needed to ask for permission to end the thing, certainly not after the enthusiasm Barricade had shown, but he was starting to think it was as much the Weapon's decision as his own. Go figure.
no subject
"It's never clean at this range," he said. He was never much for sniper rifles or anything like that anyways. All you had to do was stay clear of the enemy target until you were close enough to kill it. Easy as that. While the Meister certainly had some fight in him, it obviously wasn't Barricade's style.
By now the Kishin had stunned itself nearly senseless, swaying back and forth on its feet like it was nothing more than a blade of grass on a windy day. With one last pained whimper, it slumped to the ground, rolling to one side. It looked as if was going to try and slide away from them by pushing its front claws out, but it was so addled the coordination was all wrong.
"What are you waiting for, an invitation?" Put the damn thing out of its misery so he could eat its soul already. Watching it die was just wasting time. "You're not going to get a better shot at it than right now."
no subject
If killing this thing would put him back on the path he'd carved out for himself (and, by proxy, his people) then he'd do it. He'd kill everyone on this damned world if he had to, and even throw his so-called allies in for good measure.
So, muttering something incomprehensible under his breath, Qilby acquiesced, walking forward and rolling the fallen kishin egg onto its back with one foot. There was no risk of retaliation from the beast; it was too far gone to strike back even on reflex. With its softer neck and underbelly exposed, it had little to protect itself from a killing blow, which the Eliatrope promptly seized-- staggering Barricade's claws around its throat and squeezing quickly, easily snapping the vertebrae between his fingers.
No sense in getting even more blood all over himself. People'd ask questions.
no subject
The Kishin offered no resistance whatsoever, dying without so much as another pitiful whine. Its limbs quivered before stilling, and its entire body went limp, tongue lolling out past its shattered jaw. That was the drawback of consuming innocent souls and succumbing to Madness, he supposed. Turn into a monster, live in a cave, go crazy, get your neck snapped an old man. It kind of curbed his desire to see what would happen if he ate just one human soul.
Not long after the thing expired, the red soul appeared, waiting to be devoured. At that point Barricade transformed back to his root mode, the hydraulics in the claw hissing as they released from Qilby's hand. Why it so much easier transforming one way than the other, Barricade didn't know, but he'd be working on it. Without Qilby around to cry about it. The passageway lit up bright as day as his headlights returned, before he dimmed them and focused the beams on the kishin soul.
"That's it?" He bent over, tilting his head at the little thing that had caused so much trouble.
no subject
Then again, she didn't have to deal with a sixteen foot-tall mass of metal and claws -- he'd have the harder time of fighting his own partner for the soul, the robot's pigheadedness aside. Never mind. There'd be plenty more opportunities later on for him to get his hands on a soul to study.
"You know what they say about big things coming in small packages," he said, watching Barricade inspect the thing from a distance. There was some respect in his tone. Already the air was starting to feel clearer, and Qilby knew it wasn't just because the two of them had finally prevailed. The beast had obviously been a source of Madness -- though he could still feel the insistent presence from the emitter in the back of his skull, the Madness was nowhere near as intoxicating as it was a few moments ago while they were right next to this thing. Now he felt more in control now (both of himself and the situation) but he'd never experienced weakness quite like that before. It was infuriating, but... He couldn't say it wasn't impressive.
"Take your reward, then," he added somewhat gruffly. Before I change my mind, was the unspoken, but somewhat-implied ending of that sentence.
no subject
Pinching the tapered end of the soul delicately between two talons, he lifted it up to his face. It was Qilby's tone that made him pause again, shooting the old man a careful, suspicious look. Take your reward, he said. Was he missing something here? The Meister couldn't do anything with the soul, aside from feed it to his Weapon to make it stronger. He thought of Qilby taking samples of the fungus, of Demona's promise for the three of them to speak - and knew he was still in the dark here. However long those two had been working together, they had a more cohesive plan he wasn't privy to yet. Fine. He'd get it out of them eventually, before they tried to take advantage of him.
Instead of arguing the point, Barricade tipped back his head and opened his mouth. He dropped the soul between his jagged teeth, black tongue curling around the orb and sucking it down easily. The glass door wings over his shoulders shuddered as he swallowed, armor rippling at the bizarre sensation. Oral consumption wasn't the most efficient, and his systems couldn't track something as intangible as a soul. Even if it had been there a moment ago, it was gone now, and he hardly felt any better for it. Maybe after 98 more Kishin souls and Witches' soul, but one was apparently a drop in the ocean.
"Not very appetizing," he decided.
no subject
That was it, then. All that work and little to show for it save for, perhaps, a little smidgen of trust from the Cybertronian. Friendliness would be pushing it, and loyalty-- well, he held no loyalty to those outside of his race, and he couldn't quite fathom a reason for anyone else to be any different. Not if they were halfway intelligent beings, and from the suspicious look he got, he could tell Barricade fell squarely into that category.
After all that action, and all it'd been through, his hat was beginning to slip off his head again; he tugged at its front irritably, grimacing when his bloodied sleeve brushed against his face.
"I admit, I've never made a habit of fighting that... Up close and personal." So, what he was trying to say was that it wit went a lot better than it might've. His eyes followed Barricade's illuminating beams of light to the defeated kishin egg, trailing over its spines, its claws, its sharper bits, everything he had the pleasure of not seeing firsthand. If he hadn't kept himself so limber, things might've gone quite differently. He hoped the machine appreciated that.
no subject
He looked over at Qilby in time to see him pull at his hat, making that hilarious face. So he had no problem with death and killing, but apparently getting his hands dirty was distasteful. His comment only seemed to drive home the point, though he was thankful the Meister had gotten the job done. Well enough for them to both be alive, at least. There was a big difference between those that planned wars, Qilby, and those that fought them, which was Barricade. He didn't look forward to when the old man and Demona figured that out, if they hadn't already.
"You don't strike me as the 'close and personal' type, anyways," Barricade said, optics following Qilby's line of sight. "You want more samples, or are we good to go?"
Not that it was really practical to be carrying much from that thing's carcass, unless they wanted every carnivore in this cave following them home.
no subject
"But no-- no, thank you. I'm more interested in the flora at the moment." And then, he added a touch too pleasantly, "There'll be plenty of kishin eggs to take apart later... Perhaps more than I initially thought. And I hope they'll come to me more intact, in the future."
Brushing the dirt off his loose sleeve (and, to his annoyance, leaving more light streaks of red on it) he turned to continue down the tunnel. More kishin eggs than he thought, indeed. Once they'd overcome their hurdles, the two of them didn't put up a bad fight. But surely things were only going to get more dangerous from here on out -- how much deeper would it be safe for them to delve, exactly?
no subject
Leaving the carcass to whatever else happened down this passage, Barricade followed after the Meister. He kept his headlights pointed ahead of them, though they were dimmed slightly because of all the glowing fungus.
Barricade came very close to making a comment about buying some flowers back in the city, but let it drop instead. If they were playing nice right now, no sense wrecking it on purpose. "There ought to be plenty of them down here, once we're deeper. No promises on how intact they'll be, though."
no subject
"You'll only see them if you admit I'm not as useless as you thought I was." It wasn't nasty or vindictive, per se, but it sure was smug as hell; that was the clearest indication so far that things were slowly going back to normal.
And it wasn't as if he was going to call this all off if he couldn't get Barricade to eat his words. No, for the first time in a long, long time, he actually felt alive. There was no way he was going to turn back off this path, for whatever reason.