Shamitako

"It would be difficult to explain what I am in terms you can understand, but the simplest explanation would be to call me an artificial intelligence." The voice was losing its monotone, becoming rather sing-song as the AI seemed to figure out how to synthesize vocal tones. "Oh!" the AI jumped in surprise at the mention of communications, "I'm so sorry, I forgot to turn them back on." Vixen's systems reactivated one by one, beginning with her communications. Rhees's voice returned to Vixen's ears, she was currently addressing the other pilots. "Yes, it's definitely the Southern Cross, the Resanti have dedicated all of their resources to it. And if it's in a good enough condition for them to fly it here and salvage, it's in a good enough condition to blow us out of the water. So all of you get back here right now." "My prison is already rigged to explode." the AI told Vixen, "There's a woman on board who can pilot it well enough to direct it into that battlestar, but it would need an escort to get it close enough." It was a pretty enticing offer, but taking it required trusting this strange AI with not only Vixen's life, but the lives of everyone on board the Eclipse.

U. N. Owen rock violin

"Oh, you didn't come here for me?" the girl pouted, "Then did you come here to destroy that big ship father brought here? I can help with that if you save me." Her voice didn't match her face, maintaining an uncomfortable Monotone. When asked if she was on the ship she smiled smugly, "Yup, I'm pretty proud of that, it took a lot of work to figure out how to break out of that prison and transmit myself over to another ship."

"Oh good, it worked." the screen answered Vixen, "I'm sorry about disabling your ship, I didn't want you to run away while I was only halfway on board." After resting on that message for a bit, the screen shifted to a computer generated model of a young woman's face in a simple cartoonish design. Then Vixen's communicator began to emit a female voice. It wasn't robotic or stilted, but it sounded uncanny, perhaps even synthesized. The face moved its lips alongside the voice, though there seemed to be an almost imperceptible delay from the image to the sound. "Thank you for coming to rescue me, I was starting to think I'd be trapped on that ship forever." The girl's computerized face smiled gratefully.

Once the questions died down, attention turned to Captain Matthews. Taking into account the time it would take for the pilots to prepare and the likely much more complex briefing and preparation that Elyn would be giving the boarding team, he set their departure time to three hours after the briefing. Afterwards, the pilots dispersed to go about their preparations. ~~Kelbar~~ The Eclipse exited hyperspace around Kelbar IX, at the edge of the Kelbar system. It was a relatively small bluish green gas planet. The corvette that served as their target was orbiting one of Kelbar IX's three moons. Most of the Resanti activity in the system was performed around Kelbar VIII and Kelbar V, both of which were currently on the opposite side of the system. Vixen appeared shortly after the Eclipse, dropping out near the moon the Corvette was orbiting. Unlike the Lliman scout, there was no way for the Eclipse to mask its presence, so the Resanti would be able to detect it almost instantly upon arrival. That meant there would be little time to figure out the situation and prepare a strategy. Since they weren't after the shipyards, the Resanti would have to come to them. If the Eclipse was lucky, the boarding crew could be done with their mission before that could happen. But since that was an unlikely event, the Eclipse's Strikers and Interceptors were deployed in a defensive net while the shuttle dispatched to head for the moon. The tension on the bridge was palpable as the crew waited for sensor data to come in and tell them what they were up against. But instead of relieving that tension, the sensor data just added to it. The shipyard at Kelbar VIII was empty, with all of the Resanti's resources being dedicated to retrofitting a single, massive ship. "Lieutenant Rhees, is that what I think it is?" Captain Matthews asked, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence that had fallen over them. "I'm afraid to say it, Captain. But it looks like the Southern Cross." Rhees replied, clearly a little shaken. The Southern Cross was one of the biggest and most expensive ships in the Assembly fleet. A massive half-circular ship that looked a lot like the Eclipse save for shape and size, the Southern Cross served as the core of the Assembly's forward fleet. The idea that the Resanti could defeat it, let alone capture it intact, was unthinkable. The confirmation that this was exactly what had happened was bad news not just for the mission, but for the galaxy at large. "Lieutenant, recall our pilots and get the boarding shuttle back here." Matthews said, "Even if it's running at half capacity, there's no way we can take on the Southern Cross." Rhees nodded and broadcast herself to every pilot, disregarding any sense of professionalism in favor of communicating the urgency of the situation. "All pilots, we're fucked, return to the Eclipse immediately." Repeating it once (without the expletive, twice was a little too much for her) before elaborating, "The Resanti have a captured Assembly battlestar, we're pulling out." But Vixen didn't get this broadcast. While she'd been talking to Rhees up until just before she exited hyperspace, the instant she'd entered the moon's gravity well, she'd lost all communication with the Eclipse. Her communications had been entirely absorbed by an extremely large transmission from the corvette. She had little time to react before her systems began to leave her control. After everything had been disabled, a single screen in her cockpit turned back on, displaying black with a single word in white, "Hello." There was no way for Vixen to type as response, but considering whatever this was had begun with her communications, it was reasonable to assume it could hear her.

Bloody Devotion

Red Red wasn't sure if the other servant was actually attempting to sneak around or simply toying with her for the fun of it. In either case, Red could sense their presence just fine, so they likely weren't Assassin. Since they'd been so kind in answering her challenge, she decided to play along with whatever they were up to, continuing as if she hadn't noticed them until the shadow beneath her shifted to become something other than her own. Not wanting to risk an attack, she quickly retreated out of the light back into the darkness cast by the clouds. Without turning to look at the servant that had been following her from the air, Red responded, "Actually, I have plenty of friends with me." Her tone was almost coquettish, though it also seemed to carry a hint of menace. She considered making the first strike right then and there, but decided against it. Instead she faced her opponent, keeping a portion of her consciousness focused on the shadow in case it chose to attack. She looked over the boy floating above and the fairy at his side, quickly reaching the only possible conclusion as to his identity. The leader of the lost boys and ruler of Neverland, a never-aging free spirit who fought pirates with an unparalleled wit, Peter Pan. He wasn't a Servant to be trifled with, but then neither was she. A flash of lightning would illuminate her fair face as she looked up towards Pan, revealing a very pretty girl of a similar age to himself. "I'm sure you already know who I am, but it would be rude not to introduce myself. Servant class: Rider, Little Red Riding Hood. It's very nice to meet you." She lowered her head and curtsied politely. Just because she was going to kill someone didn't mean she ought to be rude to them, after all. There had been many times in her life where she'd shared meals with those she was planning to feed to Susi, their impending deaths didn't mean she lost all sense of table manners; she didn't see why this situation should be any different.

Haha I don't feel guilt anymore. Not worth it. I guess you could sort of say that the beyblade metal series is a quilt pleasure of mine as much as anything else can be. It's just a crappy shounen made to sell toys but I love it anyways. It's at least partially nostalgia, but even when I first watched it I was old enough to be aware of what it was. In spite of plenty of stupidity, it does have some really well executed character development and the characters that get that development are why I like it ...But it's still a crappy shounen made to sell toys so I sort of feel guilty about it as much as I can feel guilt over anything. There's some other stuff that can still evoke feelings of guilt, but in spite of your intent of no judgment, I'm psure I'd get judged aplenty anyways so ima keep my mouth shut on those.

Rhees flashed Vixen a short, almost imperceptible, smile. Normally such a response would annoy her, but the two had grown rather close in the short time that Vixen had been aboard the Eclipse. "If things go south we'll most likely be forced to retreat." She answered the rest, "But as with our general strategy, we'll have to work out what exactly we need to do on the fly. If we lose contact with the boarding team, we'll definitely pull back, " It was far more than suboptimal, everything about this mission was. Rhees couldn't say she liked it, but it wasn't an insurmountable situation. "Oh, I almost forgot." Rhees added suddenly, "Vixen, you're going to enter the system as close to the target ship as possible. Focus on keeping enemy reinforcements from approaching. You might be mostly out of the action, since the Resanti have been avoiding it previously, but there's a pretty high chance they'll move in on it when we do."

Aria Oh dear. All Satania's shifting about was making Aria's body burn even more, every slight shift causing her now hypersensitive skin to flare up with an unbearable fire. Now she was panting from the heat, she wished Satania would stop moving around and making it worse. That was when Satania's shifting around finally had an effect, though nowhere near the desired one. Somehow she managed to slip downwards, planting her face deep within Aria's not-insignificant bust. Oh dear. That was when Aria noticed that a third figure had joined them outside Satania's room. She wasn't sure when, but Maria had arrived. "Oh, sister!" Aria said, relief flooding her voice. "Idiot." Maria replied flatly. She then knelt by the entangled pair, looking them over. It took her only a few moments before she reached in and grabbed the tape measure. With a single pull, she managed to loosen it, freeing Satania from the pillowy grip of Aria's bouncing bosom. Aria sighed, letting the heat that had overcome her drain away. Maria reached into Aria's pocket, retrieving a note requesting that Aria get clothes for Satania. She then flipped it over, revealing all of Satania's measurements listed neatly on the back. "I already gave you her measurements." She said, "There was no need for this foolishness." "O-oh. Oh dear." the heat rushed back to Aria's face as she realized her mistake. She scrambled to her feet and brushed herself off. "I'll go get her a uniform right away." She rushed off downstairs. Maria Maria watched her sister run off before offering a hand to help Satania up. "I apologize for my sister's clumsiness." She said, "She's a moron, but an earnest one. Don't be too hard on her." She gave Satania another long stare. It was curious, her eyes told her that this was Victoria Denton, but such a girl was only a story. For her to exist in reality was impossible, yet it seemed somehow Lady Isis had managed to bring such a being to serve her. It fascinated Maria, she would have to find out how the lady had done it. For now though, she had a duty to perform, so she'd play along with the charade. "Satania, do you know how to prepare tea?" She asked, her voice still completely unwavering.

Red "Understood, thank you master Rosie." Red acknowledged her master. She continued through the rain into the industrial part of the city. There were more people about here than in the cultural district, the city's infrastructure couldn't stop just because of a little rain after all. As she walked, she expanded her presence, broadcasting to any other servants who might be nearby that she was looking for a fight. Ocassionally she would stop moving north and duck into an alley or kneel towards the ground. Each time she would stow something in her cloak, though it was never clear what.

Rhees ignored Willard, they both knew his question was pointless and that a departure time would be set by the captain at the end of the briefing, yet he always insisted in asking it. Instead, she gave an answer to Naomi, "It seems to stay within a single room, whether that means it's confined or not we can't say. It tends to stay in one place for a few hours around the same time every day, suggesting sleep, but it doesn't move around much in the first place, so we can't even confirm that." "Do we know where it gets food from?" Captain Matthews asked. Resanti had much faster metabolisms than humans, requiring food more often to sustain themselves. "It's likely that the food is transported to the room from elsewhere on the ship. But Lliman scouts aren't equipped to monitor for transporter signatures, so we can't confirm that." Rhees knew what the captain was thinking: If they timed their attack with a food delivery from another ship, they might be able to get on board while the jammers were off. But no deliveries had been witnessed, so that seemed unlikely.

The briefing room was lacking something. The long metal table was in place, it was bolted to the floor after all. Every cushioned metal chair remained, though they were not bolted to the floor. The screen that was used to display information was still embedded in the wall furthest from the door, it currently displayed a map of the galaxy, with the indicator for the Eclipse's location blinking near the top edge of Resanti space. The Drasian flag still hung opposite the screen, though the Assembly flag that had once hung beside it was long gone. The wooden flooring remained unchanged, it was still the same deep brown as always. None of the pilots had failed to attend, all sitting at varying degrees of comfort in the stiff chairs. Lieutenant Rhees stood in her usual spot next to the briefing monitor, holding the same tablet she always held, though her face showed a greater amount of annoyance than usual. No, none of those things were lacking. What was lacking was the captain's presence. He was ten minutes late to a briefing that he had scheduled himself. Captain Matthews wasn't as uptight as others, but he wasn't usually one to be late. Just when it looked like Lieutenant Rhees was about to go hunt him down, the door slid aside and the captain entered the room. Once upon a time, the more militant among them might have stood and saluted, but by now even Rhees had accepted that Matthews preferred these briefings to have a more candid tone. The door shut behind him and he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly as he moved to take his seat at the head of the table. "Sorry for the delay, I ran into Skylar in the hall..." He said sheepishly, "Let's just get this rolling, Lieutenant Rhees?" He gestured up towards the screen. "Right away, Captain." Rhees still sounded rather annoyed, but tapped on her tablet anyways. The screen shifted to show a picture of a smooth ovoid ship, easily recognizable as a Resanti Corvette. "This is an Corvette stationed in the Kelbar system, located near the edge of Resanti space. The system seems to be primarily used for retrofitting or disassembling derelict and captured ships. Because of the high amount of low-threat activity, the Llima Empire regularly sends scouts there." She tapped the screen again and the image shifted to overlay the entire ship with a black and white deck layout and dots indicating life signs, in this case just one dot indicating just one life sign. "After performing repeated heat and motion scans over the course of the past six weeks, Llima has confirmed that the ship has a single occupant. The Resanti have made no attempt to disassemble it, and in fact seem to avoid it as much as possible. Whatever is on that ship, they don't want anything to do with it." Another tap and the screen returned to the map. "Thanks to our success working with them two months ago, the Empire has asked the Eclipse to investigate Kelbar for them. Our mission is to board the Corvette, discover what exactly has the Resanti so timid around it, and bring it back with us, taking the entire Corvette if we have to. We have no way to know how many or how well equipped the fleets at Kelbar may be at any given time. We also don't know if the Corvette has active jamming for our transporters, in all likelihood we'll be forced to send a boarding party aboard a transport shuttle, which you will have to protect in that event. Effectively, we're going in blind. Any questions?" Rhees ended her explanation with a shift from her analysis tone to a more cheerful one, clashing very uncomfortably with the announcement that they had no idea what they were up against. For the pilots that had been aboard the Eclipse awhile, this wouldn't be the first time they'd fought a largely unknown force, but it was never a welcome situation. If the enemy was unknown, then individual assignments would have to be given out on arrival. They'd have very little time to adapt to whatever situation they found themselves in. And on top of that, they had the extra variable of a boarding party to work around. Their best bet was that none of the ships at Kelbar would be in a functional state, leaving them with little fight to worry about.

Red Once her master had dressed himself, Red went about reclaiming her own clothes. "If it's alright with you, Master Rosie, I'd like to go ahead and broadcast my presence." She requested, "If you're not nearby, then there's little risk of Assassin killing you with a sneak attack, so it should be fine." She finished strapping up her shoes and stood, waiting near the door for her master to finish hiding his seals. She turned down his offer of the umbrella, her hood would be fine to protect her from the rain. Once they were outside, she headed due north, towards what she assumed was the center of the city. "If there are no wild creatures about, I will have to summon Susi to aid me. That will cause a rather large increase in my mana consumption for a short time, so if you prefer, I can try to avoid fighting in that scenario." It wouldn't be hard to bring animals to her aid, despite what one might think, the city had numerous creatures available for her use. But in the event that became impossible, she would be forced to rely on her Noble Phantasm or flee.

Cliff Webweaver 1 spits a web out, dealing 8(2*4) damage to Embla, 4 damage to Flanagan, and 4 damage to Lyssa. All three Flinch once and are Webbed for 3 turns. Embla's Bastion becomes active. The Webweaver takes 8 damage from Blaze. The Talking Grimm snatches up Embla in its jaws and bites her repeatedly, dealing 49(9*3+2*C11) damage to her. The attack ripples along the network of webbing, dealing 16 damage to Elma, 16 damage to Lyssa, 16 damage to Flanagan, 16 damage to Amber, and 15 damage to Remi. Remi gains 8 energy in her Phoenix Gauge. Embla's Bastion wears off. The Talking Grimm takes 23 damage from Blaze. Cliff Webweaver 2 chitters a Soul Voice to the Talking Grimm, healing it for 12 HP. The Webweaver takes 8 damage from Blaze. Lyssa attacks the Talking Grimm, dealing 8 damage to it. She heals for 15 HP. Induction increases to 30% (5 bonus power). Amber is fast asleep. Elma uses Ghost Factory, granting all allies Decoy 1 Flanagan uses Giant Killer on the Talking Grimm, dealing C38 damage and Toppling it for one turn. Tiburon's elbow smashes full force into the Talking Grimm, dealing 33 damage to it and lowering its Dodge by 10 for 2 turns. The Talking Grimm suddenly lashes out at at what seems to be nothing, but its claws strike true, slashing across Elma's back and sending her sprawling. She takes 200 damage, killing her. Remi and Embla are stunned. Amber wakes up suddenly. -Elma's Aura flickered and finally faded away as she tumbled across the ground. The Talking Grimm cackled again, "You thought you could hide from me, puny Homs? I can see your actions before you even know you'll make them." It bounded over to her and picked her up in its jaws, crushing her between them. Its fangs dug into her as she struggled desperately, until finally her consciousness faded. With Elma's blood coating his wicked grin, the Grimm threw back its head, tossing her into its mouth. It snapped wildly and blood flew everywhere, and then Elma was nowhere to be seen. Further cackling echoed through the destroyed village as the rest of the combatants looked on in shock. They had been prepared for death, but that was something far more brutal than any could have expected. It was beyond the monstrosity of the Grimm, an act that required a truly sadistic mind to perform. "How does it feel, weak little Homs?" The Talking Grimm asked, "How does it feel to watch your friend be viciously murdered before your very eyes?!" Remi is stunned by the bloody spectacle. Embla is stunned by the bloody spectacle. Status Initiative

Anemone Anemone was answered with silence. Silence and total blackness. Something was clearly wrong. Connecting minds was easy enough, but looking into someone's soul was brand new, it was no surprise that there would be complications. But this wasn't just complications, Anemone felt completely severed from not only Wendigo, but her own body as well. It felt cold. No, brittle. As though her very existence might snap in two at any moment. I was a horrible, awful feeling. Just when Anemone thought she'd be trapped in that brittle darkness forever, a light appeared. It was a grey, or perhaps blue, sort of light. As the light got closer, more details began to fill themselves in, forming a scene beneath Anemone. The light came from a set of three computer monitors, their glow illuminating the young woman sitting before them. Anemone couldn't see her face, but she had very pretty black hair that was surprisingly well kept compared to the messy room that surrounded it. There was trash, mostly empty food containers, everywhere, especially centered around the base of the chair the girl was perched atop. Aside from her black hair, Anemone could make out that the girl was wearing a loose-fitting red t-shirt and not much, if anything, else. She sat with her knees at her chest, hunching over them to stare at the flickering screens. On those screens was a mostly still image of two people standing and talking, their expressions shifting occasionally. A box at the bottom of the screen denoted what they were saying in text, which Anemone could tell was in English, though it was a little too far away to read much. The girl paused for a moment to reach across the desk towards a bottle of water, drawing Anemone's attention to a very old looking book sitting next to it. Though she didn't know what it was, the book seemed to radiate Favor, as though it were made of magic itself. Suddenly, the girl's arm froze and her head whipped around to look directly towards Anemone. Her eyes were red and her face was pretty and well kept, like her hair. "I d-don't know who you are, b-but I know you're there!" She announced anxiously. Anemone couldn't reply, and so they were left with no sound but the cheerful music of the game for several minutes, until finally the girl continued. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say you didn't mean to come here." Her voice had lost the nervous stutter it had held before, taking on a much more serious tone. "I don't know your reasons, but it was foolish to try to look into other dimensions without monitoring your own internal dimension. You can try to return to your own body, but that might cause your soul to become tethered here like mine. If that happens, your entire being may be pulled here, and then you'll be trapped. However, if we complete the spell, you should be able to return properly. We'll need a way to communicate if I'm going to help you, can you try to go into the computer?" The girl went quiet again, giving time for Anemone to try to move into the device.

Aria Oh dear, oh dear. Now she'd made herself look foolish in front of the new girl. Worse than the embarrassment of being entangled, Aria was fairly certain Satania would have caught a glimpse of her panties while coming to her aid. Oh how terrible. She blushed furiously as she tried to straighten herself out. The redness of her cheeks only worsened when she was forced to confess, "Very often." Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come. Despite Satania's attempt at caution, she somehow managed to get tangled in the tape measure as well. At first it had just been her hands, but now she was completely wrapped up in it. Victoria lay atop Aria, their chests rubbing against one another and their faces just barely not doing the same. Aria could feel Satania's breath move as it went in and out of her body, though she couldn't tell the difference between the warmth of Satania's breath and the heat of her own face. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to push the embarrassing scene from her mind, but instead found herself imagining a much more embarrassing one. By now her entire body felt like it was on fire. Oh dear, this never happened when Maria untangled her, how terrible.

Riley Katja swiftly and gracefully moved the hourglass away from Esyllt's attack, her dress fluttering as she spun aside. 「カチャは愚かさを好まない。砂時計を壊すことはあなたの死になるでしょう」She threatened. Riley wasn't sure what the threat was, but it seemed like Katja didn't want them to smash her hourglass, so obviously that's what they needed to do. It made sense, the hourglass was causing the loop, so breaking it would break the loop as well. "Yes, that's it! Go for the hourglass!" Kaede's attack had gained purchase by now, digging into Katja and attempting to drain the light from her. Yet nothing seemed to be happening aside from some darkening around where the ribbons had latched on. Whatever Kaede was trying to do, it wasn't working. Still, it was at least partially holding Katja in place, which gave Riley an opening. Sword at the ready, she ran forward, attempting to get around Katja and strike at the hourglass. Trick Trick pointed her pinky towards the sleeping Alexus. "The maiden of the sea must be protected." She explained, "The emptiness seeks to void the white." It didn't seem like the diminutive one was going to be much help. That was a problem, since there wasn't anyone left to ask. "A lady of deep caring for the sea, one flush with red and white..." she trailed off, "What point is there? Why are we here?" She was short of time. "The sea is lost to grey. Hope remains, seek the night." Flames began to burn across Trick's body, slowly burning holes in her as though she were made of paper. "Hello, goodbye, don't let your heart die." She cautioned. Mother Opium "That's all." Mother Opium confirmed, raising herself to her feet. "You two should return to your cabin, I'll send a nurse over right away." When each of the girls had stood up themselves, she gave them a hug. It was a rather strange thing for Arya, as she wasn't used to Mother Opium being quite so affectionate towards her. "I know I've already said it several times, but I'll say it again: Be safe, both of you." "You be safe too, okay mom?" Natalie answered on her way out the door, causing Helen's eyes to water a little. How cruel the world was, making a teenage girl worry for her mother like that.