Strider

Edmond "Take cover! Silef, I need some form of warding on Solomon, Jade, and Navin! You three need to try to minimize incoming fire to yourselves." Edmond panted, and continued. "Hikari! I need you to get out of range of the attack with that armor, and get Sachi patched up. Wyvis! If you can, try to heal people up after the impact! This means possibly yourself, Sachi, and some of our attackers! Ritsu, take care of Silef! She's going to be taking this head on, and she needs what she can get! Magnum, I need you working double time to do what you were doing for Hikari before!" Edmond finished his brief statement, and rocketed off, hoping to get to cover where this obviously dangerous attack might be less devastating in nature. Edmond uses Basic Defense to reduce incoming damage by 50% (Actually works better than tactical retreat in this case). First strike. Current stats: (Con4,Dex2,Int16,Res10,Str5,Syn1) Has 10% dodge chance. Attacks are autohit. RES is increased by 4 against arrows and bullets. ((OOC: So uh. . . we're in a tough spot. I have stuff listed, but it might not keep everyone alive. Really depends on Gae Bolg's damage. Silef: Needs to use wall of fire on Jade, Solomon, and Navin. I'm hoping that her one move survive thing will help here. People will heal her after Cu strikes. Solomon, Jade, Navin: Use Basic defense. Solomon will survive at 1 HP if Gae Bulg does 102 damage. Jade will survive at 1 HP if Gae Bulg does 104 damage. Navin will survive at 1 HP if Gae Bulg does 112 damage. Hikari: Jump jet dodge as a free action, and heal sachi up. If you have any other cool effects of Hikari's gear or passives, now is the time to bring them up. Wyvis: Start dishing out heals, to Sachi, and our damage dealers. It seems unlikely that Wyvis will be that low from the hit, since he has high HP, is at full, and has decent RES, but you might want to heal yourself with that multiheal? Maybe? Not sure. And, uh, if Edmond survives, he'll need healing too. Anyway, don't forget to add in the extra 1d6 to heals, and the 1.5x multiplier. Wyvis will survive at 1 HP if Gae Bulg does 118 damage. Sachi: No real advice here, maybe want to reduce damage coming to just yourself this turn, so that next turn our healers can help you? It's entirely up to you. Sachi will survive at 1 HP if Gae Bulg does 92 damage. Ritsu: Heal up Sachi after Gae bulg hits her. Ritsu will survive at 1 HP if Gae Bulg does 172 damage. Magnum: Start throwing out extra turns to Hikari again. Magnum will survive at 1 HP if Gae Bulg does 68 damage. Edmond: Will survive at 1 HP if Gae Bulg does 56 damage. IMPORTANT STUFF: I THINK MOST OF US CAN SURVIVE THIS. EVEN SACHI SHOULD ONLY BE TAKING 3/4 OF A GAE BULG. IF ANYONE IS GOING DOWN, IT IS PROBABLY EDMOND, SO DON'T WORRY. Either your character will survive, or I will share your pain. REMEMBER TO PING WITH OPINIONS.

"Well, shit." It took Sense a moment to fully processed what had occured, and an instant to quell the feeling of hatred towards Charity. What she had done was understandable, but idiotic. She would save the murderer's life when he still had the power and the will to kill the victims? It showed a lack of trust in Merlin, and a naive understanding of Ansuz. But after Sense had pushed all these thoughts back, he quickly summoned the will, the energies that would let him do his job. And that, for now was to destroy any focus that Ansuz might have. Thus, he let out a barrage of emotions, one after the other: guilt, to make the boy think a moment longer; impotence, to make him doubt himself; reverence, to make him question whether Merlin deserved to die. Sense knew none of these would stop him. They were all delaying tactics, and distractions. With a practiced flick, the lanky man levitated and flung one of the sharper looking tools from the center of the room in a wide arc, so as to hit the boy in the side.

[Archer & Kevin] "Nice to meet ya, Shiori." The Servant left it at that for the moment, and entered the house closely following Kevin. He kept his eyes peeled for suspicious items or oddities, though he knew that what would be most dangerous to him would be magical in nature, and probably invisible. When he arrived, he took the liberty of sitting down heavily on a couch. There he waited for his Master and his friend to begin the discussion. [Alexander/Ciri] "Just a moment." Alexander directed his familiar to fly a little higher, to perch on the edge of a building with a few other birds. The familiar would be visible from the ship, but it would be unlikely that from that distance anyone would choose to look in that specific direction through a telescope, much less pick out which of the ten or so pigeons on that single roof was a familiar. "They seem to be moving south or southeast. Currently over the residential district. Can't quite tell if that's a puff of smoke or a cloud, but they do have cannons, and I'm guessing they can use them. If they realized where we are hidden, could they do damage to the canvas from the outside with those cannons?"

Liliya Well that could have gone better. "Can I uh, get some help here?" the woman asked as she stumbled back towards the place where the largest clump of allies was, holding a hand to th long bleeding gashes in her side. There was no doubt in her mind that if she took another hit, she'd go down. Thus Liliya reached down mentally, feeling for that intangible switch to let the future wash over her. To see where enemies would strike, to see how they would react to her actions, to see which allies might get in her way and which would heal her, all of this was apparent in an instant, and she followed the path of safety, at least until the vision ended. Liliya uses a basic attack on Officer B. If any enemies would damage her this turn, "See the Future" lets her avoid all enemy actions but takes away her other action. Perk "Overdrive" is active, raising Liliya's Init, DEX, and RES by 4 until she is raised above 15 HP. 2*DEX% chance of a crit for double damage. Liliya's current stats: Con2,Res10,Dex14,Int0,Str3,Syn6. Init is 30.

Edmond: Ritsu seemed to have shocked the monster, the one suspected to be Cu Chulainn, and Jade seemed to have wounded him. A good start, except the fact that Cu seemed to be preparing to throw his spear. A cursed spear. . . and with the time that the enemy was spending preparing, it was certain to be devastating. Otherwise, it would simply be inefficient. Meanwhile, Edmond himself was struggling from the battering that the soldiers were dishing out. As he drew back from press for a moment, he called out, hoping the others would hear him. "Watch out for the spear! Don't let him throw it! If you can't stop that, take down the Soldiers! They're more intelligent than the dragon beasts. Someone needs to keep Jade up and running." Edmond for his part, went back to the repair work he had done for Ritsu, to strengthen her once again. Edmond uses Quick Tune-up, healing Ritsu for 1d4+INT. Current stats: (Con4,Dex2,Int16,Res10,Str5,Syn1) Has 10% dodge chance. Attacks are autohit. RES is increased by 4 against arrows and bullets. ((OOC: My recommendations. Navin: Please please please Rocket Shove Cu. Hikari: Heal Jade. Silef: Use those 31 points of healing to heal Hikari. (Does Silef have to use all of them, or can she just use 28 of them?) Ritsu: Maybe inflict a bleed on Cu? Might be useful to have more status on him. Magnum: Use interception, to hopefully bounce back some of Cu's damage when he pulls his AOE next turn. Everyone else: If your init is higher than Cu's 11 slot, deal damage to the soldiers. If not, I've probably already given my move recommendations. Basically just defend AND AGAIN, PING ME WITH OPINIONS, OR ELSE.))

Sense cringed a little, as he watched this warped feminine child crying on the floor. Something had gone wrong, something in this kid's life had gone very wrong. Or a combination of things. Outside influences, his form, an inherent weakness. He had no choice in any of this. Did he choose to be born weak? Did he choose to look like a girl? Did he choose the multitude of other factors that drove him to this atrocity? No. He couldn't be blamed for any of this really, so much was probably beyond his control. But. That didn't matter. The same could be said for anyone, and being unable to control your direction in life in a world where no one could did not excuse you from justice. So, Sense sat back, waiting for the blow to be struck. He didn't turn away, but he didn't focus entirely upon this sad scene. There was one more thing still nagging at him. This all just seemed too easy. They had been able to get back to Merlin without problem, and now she had overwhelmed Ansuz without problem. And it seemed that she would be able to dispense retribution without trouble. Not enough trouble. And so, always keeping Merlin and Ansuz in his peripheral vision, where his reaction speed would be highest, he scanned the room, searching for possible traps, reinforcements, or signs of another enemy.

Shelly backed off a bit at Betani's sudden annoyance. "So more just utter contempt for her than jealousy? Anyway," and here, Shelly tried to pull things towards a slightly tamer subject, "I might have missed something before, but did you say where you're from?" It was a small, superficial attempt to change the subject a bit, so Shelly had no idea where to go with the conversation, but it seemed better than the alternative of letting things devolve into an awkward and annoyed silence. "I guess, I'm curious how you came to join the Aether Academy?"

Liliya A light hit. Nothing much. Liliya new she could take another like it, and she planned to. She had seen an opening. The third group of soldiers, in response to the rapid escalation of combat, had put up their guard. They thought they were safe. Time to disillusion them. Liliya sprang around, weaving between the more active combatants, coming up directly behind this group of important reinforcements. And she began to stab at them, poking at holes in their armor, and when she felt their collective attentions shift around towards her, she dashed off, away into the fray. Liliya uses Knife in the Back. Deals basic damage (3d6+DEX), is doubled against enemies using a defensive action, and ignores the effects of that defense. 3 turn cooldown. 2*DEX% chance of a crit for double damage. Liliya's current stats: Con2,Res6,Dex10,Int0,Str3,Syn6

Edmond: It was difficult to follow everything in the immediately pitched battle, but Edmond noted that the Officers had fired only ice spikes thus far. No lightning. Those who seemed most effective in combat were the ones being targeted most. That made sense, but it meant that some people would need healing. The final thing he was aware of was the information granted by Magnum's analysis. He wasn't sure what do do on the grand scale, not knowing if anyone present could curse Berserker. There were a few things though, that he did think necessary. "Silef! Same thing again. And, someone needs to keep Jade and Sachi healthy!" As he spoke, he launched himself over to the robot maid. "I have Ritsu." And as he began to resolder wires, patch metal plates, and the like, he gave a reminder. "And, remember, Cu is susceptible to curses, so anyone with something like this, prioritize him." Edmond uses Quick Tune-up on Ritsu to heal 1d4+INT health. Current stats: (Con4,Dex2,Int16,Res10,Str5,Syn1) Has 10% dodge chance. Attacks are autohit. RES is increased by 4 against arrows and bullets. ((OoC: My thoughts Silef should repeat what she did. This should take out the first officer, get some chip damage on Cu and the other officer. Navin might want to use flurry of explosions this turn, since his STR is boosted, and this attack will use the boost four times? Also fixed damage would let us determine the target's RES. (From Silef's thing Berserker's RES appears to be 5. So, this attack would do like 68 damage?? Pretty good Hikari is our best healer, so probably heal people Ritsu should get a "curse" down on Berserker. Edmond will be healing her, but she should probably use that temporary init change thing to do this, so that if by some rare chance, Berserker focuses both high init attacks on her, we'll at least have that curse. Magnum has a bunch of useful stuff. He can telestrate again on other enemies, since I think there isn't a cooldown? Maybe long bomb on Jade? Most of his stuff is useful, but I'm not sure what he should use this turn. EVERYONE ELSE, SURVIVE, AND DAMAGE CU AND OFFICER B (RES IS REDUCED, WOULD BE A SHAME IF IT WAS WASTED) BEASTS ARE ALSO A HOT TARGET, WHAT WITH ALL THE DAMAGE THEY PUT OUT. JUST MAKE SURE TO FOCUS. AND AGAIN PING ME WITH OPINIONS. IF YOUR CHARACTER DIES, IT WON'T BE MY FAULT.))

Sense-Those Guys "Ask her what they've found on their end? Kind of relating to Bartek's question, since they've got their own problems." He leaned against the wall, waiting for Gypsy to send out the message. He couldn't think of anything else to add really. Except maybe the obvious "what now". With only the foggy notion of the mission's objectives and the general plans, he could only hope that things were being handled. So for now, he stared absently into the wreckage through the door across the hall, trying to decide what he himself could do until they moved forward.

Liliya A deep breath. Liliya crouched down, held for a moment, and then took off. She didn't wait the moment it would take to check what the future held; a good first strike needed to happen as quickly as possible without delay. She was betting on her survival, and she knew it, but it didn't bother her. She had done it before, and she would need to do it again. She found a mage, and dashed in, trying to rush past his guard, shank him, and then get out as quickly as possible. Liliya uses her basic attack 3d6+DEX on Officer B, with 2*DEX% chance of a crit for double damage. Liliya's current stats: Con2,Res6,Dex10,Int0,Str3,Syn6

Edmond: In response to the LOTUS' transmission, Edmond calmly, and apparently silent to those around him, said, "Copy that. We've arrived at a burned village, and are engaging Berserker. Over." Throughout the journey prior to the battle, Edmond's mind had been racing as he tried to hammer out a rushed, underinformed strategy. This wasn't the type of situation he was used to. In addition to the fact that he had neve commanded, and was simply copying what he had seen from Miriam in the past, they had never been involved in an organised battle with so little prior intel. He had something worked out in his head, until they arrived, and Edmond noticed the officers. . . . They were throwing lightning earlier. Damn. "We need to take out the officers first. Hikari, you need to watch out for them!" Edmond didn't specifically say that the mages might be able to throw lightning--that would have been foolish in the extreme, to give away Hikari's weakness immediately--so he hoped that his allies would be able to understand the problem based on Hikari's previous statement of having a significant problem with lightning. "Solomon, Hikari, Wyvis, start throwing out some support, focus on Magnum, attackers, and those in most danger of going down quickly. Magnum! We need the read on Cu, can you get us that? Sachi! Keep Wyvis and Hikari safe until we can take the officers out. Everyone else, focus on the officers, or Cu." As if to exemplify, Edmond immediately jumped into action, diving parallel to the ground to take a set of shots against the Officers. Edmond uses Weld on Officer A (2d6+INT damage and adds 3d6+INT damage to the next attack against the same target. Current Stats are (Con4,Dex2,Int10,Res10,Str5,Syn1) Has 10% dodge chance. Attacks are autohit. RES is increased by 4 against arrows and bullets.) ((OOC: I'm not going to designate specific moves to everyone, as that might be rather boring. However, I do have suggestions for a few people that were somewhat explained in post: Solomon might want to boost Magnum's INT so that Magnum can telestrate Cu from the very beginning, giving us a strategy to defeat him I'd recommend Jade choose Cryo bullets, since that might be able to get Cu down to a more reasonable init later? Hikari might want to dedicate at least one of her boosts also to Magnum, just to ensure that he has a certainty of winning the INT check for telestrate And Magnum should Telestrate. "Berserker is a monstrous, spiked beast, wielding a cursed spear. Those spikes have to be magical in some way, since with him around, attacking damages the attacker. His attacks do not seem very complex, but they are fast, and he has a surplus of brute power - and isn't a raving lunatic as you'd expect. " IApparently the reflected damage isn't a thing. Which is great. So, focus on helping allies, or attacking those officers have lightning attacks (we can't really afford to let them sit around possibly killing Hikari and Wyvis), or attacking Cu Chulainn. AND, MAKE SURE TO PING ME ON DISCORD IF YOU THINK OF SOMETHING I MISSED, OR HAVE AN OPINION ON WHAT SHOULD BE DONE, OR WELL, REALLY ANYTHING.))

Edmond: At Wyvis' statement, Edmond gave a sort of confused smile. “Yes, collaboration is helpful. . .” The statement had just been so. . . optimistic and sincere, that Edmond hadn't been entirely certain how to respond. Wyvis seemed helpful, and seemed well qualified for combat, but it had just seemed odd. When Solomon approached, Edmond responded in a calm tone, “Hello, Solomon. Could you get off your throne for the briefing? It's slightly distracting.” He was planning to say something else, trying to determine a polite way to convey that it seemed rather lazy to simply hover on a throne at all times, when the cowboy got his attention. “Ah, yes. I'll be giving a briefing in just a moment, once everyone is here, and they've settled down.” A quick turn, to shake Magnum's hand, and to greet him: “Nice to have you here, Magnum. I suppose you can call me Eddy if you want? . . . You're talking about old-fashioned American Football? Actually, give me a moment. You can tell about it when we do introductions, after briefing.” Edmond glanced around, and decided that the group seemed to have arrived. A quick head count revealed nine people, including Edmond, the desired number. Once he was satisfied that everyone was present, he cleared his throat, raised his voice slightly, and begin to speak. “My name is Edmond Cooper, and I've been assigned to lead the Berserker team, to which you've been assigned. I expect some of you were present when LOTUS gave an explanation.” “However, it would be prudent to give a recap for both those who know, and those who didn't hear this, so here's a brief overview of the situation.” He was operating under the assumption that Lord Silef was aware of more than he was, and had no need of this briefing. “This war seems to have begun through fairly standard disagreements between the lords of noble houses. However, the war came to the state it is in currently through the arrival of a set of seven beings called 'Servants', created by the Holy Grail. They are quite powerful, and there are five that we likely need to defeat: Assassin, the one we met before, and as far as I know, unidentified; Lancer, a western king with a holy spear; Saber, some woman with a connection to dragons and an antipathy towards God; Berserker, tentatively identified as Cu Chulainn; and Caster, also unidentified. For now though, you simply need to know about Berserker. He is covered in spikes, apparently, and carries a cursed spear, which we must be wary of. In addition, when he is around, troops around him reflect attacks back at the attacker. This does not apply to Berserker himself though. In addition, Lord Silef will be joining us in the attack against Berserker, and there will be three other teams acting simultaneously with us, to take on Assassin, the team defending this castle, and the team defending our own castle. That, in essence, is our current tactical information. This will be added to in just a moment.” His preliminary feeling was that Magnum's bus would probably be the most practical transportation system, though it was possible that someone in the group would have a more effective method. And that will be revealed in introductions, hopefully. “For now, I'd like your names, or nicknames if you prefer, and a quick summary of your skills, and anything else which we need to be aware of. To begin with, I'm a military engineer. Those skills aren't terribly useful in this pre-industrial world though perhaps I might be able to help allies with technology. Also, this suit can fly, and this rifle is a decent long range weapon with which I have training, and it is capable of striking weak points in armor from a distance.” He then gestured for the group to give their introductions. OOC: Just assume that this is delayed until everyon on team berzerker is there.

Edmond: "I'll be sure to remember that. I try to make a point of not offending people, so it's good to know. And, don't let me hold you up. Let's talk a bit more about your home universe, and maybe some more about botany. In any case, good luck!" He smiled, and waved as they presumable left. He turned to Wyvis, trying to force himself into the attitude that he felt command warranted. "Do you know whom these descriptors might apply to? I sent Hikari off to find some more of our team, but if you could collect anyone you know, that would be helpful. Let's see. . . a cowboy, he might have a brimmed possibly leather hat, boots maybe, and a pistol--that's a small gun--probably stuck in holster on his belt; a guy with explosive fists, sorry, no more info on him; and a cat like robot, so a form of artificial humanoid with cat ears. If you could find any of them, that would be helpful." With a nod, Edmond jogged over towards the bus currently being packed up. "Magnum! That was your name, correct? You've been assigned to my team for the upcoming battles."

"Copy that. Switching to 104.5" Edmond was drifting back into the mood of disciplined military combat, and the jargon that accompanied it. Previously, the group had been so disorganized that it would have been out of place to use this proper military conduct and discipline. With a quick series of eye movements, he changed the frequency to what the AI preferred. "Testing, Testing. Do you copy?" As soon as LOTUS presumably responded, Edmond pulled off the helmet, and tucked it back under his arm. For now at least, it would be best to remain personal with those in the group, rather than the inhumanness inherent to hiding being a metal helmet. "Is there anything I should know about Silef that you noted during the meeting? I'll be asking her about her skillset, but I think it would be best to get an outside opinion, from someone who was in the meeting."

Edmond: "Lord Silef will be on this team? . . . I see." He frowned slightly, from what he had seen, Silef was a little abrasive in manner. However, she should have knowledge of the terrain, world, and had more experience with the enemies which they were setting out to fight. In response to LOTUS' confirmation that a radio link should be possible, Edmond answered, "I believe so. Give me a moment though." Edmond placed the helmet on his head, and quickly brought up the radio function. "No need for encryption, on a world like this. . . Probably won't be more than 50 miles from each other, so FM is fine. . . Let's go with 99.9 megahertz. Easy to remember, close to the center of the range. And if we lose contact due to range, switch to short wave, say 2000 kilohertz?" With a quick motion of his eyes, Edmond locked the frequency, and was about to say something, to test the radio. He stopped for a moment as he remembered something, and shut off the automatic speaker that sent his voice out of the helmet. Now, satisfied that his voice wouldn't be easily heard through the insulation, he said, "Testing, testing. LOTUS, do you read?"

Edmond: "I suppose my world would be considered more advanced, technologically, than yours. Magic is nonexistant, at least what I would consider magic. I was an engineer on a small elite squad, so my skills include repairing, analyzing, and altering some mechanical apparatuses--though a lot of the tech that I've seen is markedly different from what I'm used to--, I'm a decent marksman, and I've got this suit, which has some technical capacities of its own. Got it in the last mission through some very strange circumstances." Liliya: "Uh, alright. I'm Liliya Ivanenko. I've got a knife, and while that might seem a bit small, it's been enchanted, and I've got experience with it. More importantly though, I can, sort of, see the future? Just a few seconds, and really only based on what's around me (no telling the future a hundred miles away), but that can be useful." She shrugged. No need to overstate of understate her talents.

Shelly entered the bus, taking a seat midway between the front and the back. She was mostly listening, as most of the others seemed to be asking the questions to which she most desired answers for her. But she did have one thing to ask. "Ms. Betani, can you think of any skills that Gina might have that would make her important to the Foundation? Might be why they've kept her around."

Edmond: "Yes, we'll be meeting back here. Once you find people, if you want to delegate the task of getting more people to them, you may do so." As the girl walked away, Edmond gestured for Wyvis to follow him towards the AI. "Edmond Cooper. Nice to meet you, Wyvis. So. . . what are you good at, in particular? I know fighting, since this is an offensive team, but what are your specific skills, both in and out of battle?" Edmond continued to approach LOTUS as he said this, with the intent of asking whether they had any plan to escape the castle surrounded by an army, or if it would simply be a tedious and dangerous fight. He was however, distracted by the mention of headsets. After hearing out Wyvis' response, he posed his questions to the AI. "LOTUS, I'm not certain, due to the fact that both my suit and those headsets contain unknown and likely different tech, but it may be possible to sync the suit up to them, to remain in contact. Is the headset radio based? And, if so, do you know the frequency?" Liliya: "Huh. Nevermind then." It seemed that this commander had in fact been switched to a different team. Now she needed to find someone named Lexiel? There was nothing really in that name that gave her information to find this person. Though. . . it sounded female, and it would be one of the commanders, and not Ghost? That might be enough. Liliya made her way over to obvious angel, who had exited the briefing. She was somewhat in awe of this. . . presence, but she politely asked, "Are you Lexiel? Leading the Castle Defense team?"

[Archer & Kevin] "I see." Darien quietly popped back into existence next to his master. He had no questions really, so he occupied his time by looking around the apartment, feeling out the walls, searching for exits, and traces of magic that he could detect. He'd had enough ambushes in life to know that he always needed a way out when he arrived at a new place. [Alexander/Ciri] "Give me a moment." The man pulled himself away from his current project, and began to concentrate on something else: the small creature that he had been paying little attention to for the last few hours, distracted as he was by other events. The pigeon seemed to be perched on a wire back in the upper class district, waiting out the night. With a small mental flick, Alexander prompted the bird to take off into the sky, heading for the industrial district. And. . . wait. "Well, that's definitely a servant. I don't have th best view from here, but someone appears to have a floating pirate ship? Something like that, but they're a fair bit north of us." A little apprehensive, Alexander directed the bird into a much lower flight, hoping to keep it out of sight of the floating warship.

Edmond: Edmond had made a small incoherent noise when LOTUS unexpectedly nominated him to command a strike team. However, as soon as the briefing was complete, he nodded. For the people he knew, the assessment made sense. "On it. Sorry, Isobel, maybe we can talk more in the future." Edmond gave a quick salute, and then turned his attentions towards collecting the team. Solomon was easy enough to find. "Solomon! Over here!" When Solomon had hopefully arrived, Edmond began to brief him in turn. "I'm leading the strike team to take out Berserker, and I need you. From what I've been told, the Berserker is a humanoid monster with spikes and a cursed spear. He was tentatively identified as Cu Chulainn from Celtic mythos. As such, I want all the pertinent information you can gather from your library about him. For now, we also know that troops around him can reflect damage in his presence, so this team will be built around taking him out quickly, from a distance." Turning back to the crowd of people milling about the courtyard, Edmond sought out another of those he knew. "Hikari! Is that new?" He asked, gesturing towards the rifle she carried. "In any case, we're going after Berserker, and I need some help with getting the team together. Once everyone's here, I'll give a short briefing. In the meantime, can you go collect. . . Sachi, a cowboy--he might have a revolver, hat, maybe dusty leather clothes?--, the guy with the bus, that's Magnum, a robot that aesthetically somewhat resembles a cat, and. . . some guy who can make explosions with his fists? I don't have anything more helpful on him. . . In any case, would you try to find a few of them for me, and then enlist their help in finding the rest? Thanks a bunch." Edmond, meanwhile, awaited the actual locations of the servants that the diviners would eventually give. Liliya: "Looks like we're going to be on different teams, Samantha. See you later then!" Liliya made her way around the courtyard, searching out her commander. Ghost, right? That might be a problem, especially if this person was a real ghost, but. . . Liliya caught sight of an albino woman staring up at the wall with some type of cat person. Feeling like it would be rude to assume that this woman was the aforementioned 'Ghost', Liliya instead asked, "Are you one of the commanders? I was assigned to the group that will be remaining here."

Edmond: "Ambrosia Vulgaris? Is that some type of narcotic?"Edmond supposed it made sense, though he'd never heard of that type of problem in his world. Might be due to my general lack of knowledge about the subject though. . . "And, LOTUS, I'm sorry to here about your troubles, though, you might be more lucky than most in having that option in the first place. The problem is due to being in an entirely different universe, right? I suppose the only option might be to simply upload as much information as possible when we visit technologically endowed worlds. If you have data on your own workings, we could probably expand your memory stores too. . ." Edmond contemplated this for a moment, but there didn't seem to be any real solution at the present. So he turned back to Isobel, to continue talking on the subject which she had so much enthusiasm for. "Do you need machinery in order to perform your manipulation? What I'm asking, is whether you can perform any of what you mentioned here without massive time investment. It might be incredibly useful." Edmond nodded when Isobel mentioned her origin time. 26th century made sense, either a little advanced of his own universe's tech, or quite similar. It could even be the same, though that seemed incredibly unlikely. "And, uh, do you mind if I ask you a few other questions about your world? I take an interest in these sorts of things." Normally this would be a rhetorical question, merely a courtesy, but in light of recent events, Edmond paused to let the woman answer.

Edmond: "Oh, huh. A botanist? That's rather interesting. So do you do genetic modifications to organisms, investigate foreign plants, or something else? I'm not terribly caught up on this sort of thing myself, but I'm curious whether you do similar stuff to what most of our ship and exoplanet botanists do." In response to Dackly's statement, Edmond frowned. "I don't think it's going to work then. The camera and screen are part of the suit, and don't have a way to print. I lent a PDA to someone else. . . If I had that, it might work, but I don't. I suppose if we stuck the helmet on someone else's head? No. . ." He shook his head. "Maybe the castle has some chemicals, and we could do some primitive photography? Silver Nitrate maybe? Perhaps LOTUS has some historical knowledge on that or something? Sorry, though, I don't think the suit will work." "I understand the feeling of not really having powers, as it were. I've been in combat, certainly a great deal, but I had nothing when I arrived, except a welder. This suit came from the mission I was on before this one. It was. . . a long story. In any case, don't worry too much about not having powers or an armament. Dackly and Gozer are obviously willing to help out, and I would offer you something too, if we were back at the other castle." Edmond shrugged. "Maybe when we get back."

". . .Oh, well, if that's what happened, it's at least understandable. Though, attacking was probably not the thing to do. And Ms uh. . . do you want to be referred to as Ms Tri, or Ms Betani? Or Betani?" She was only 16, so it felt a little odd to title her "ms." Even ma'am might be better, since she was their superior, but not really older. "Anyway, what sort of things are there to do around our new place? Entertainment and that sort of thing? You probably know the best things to do, right?"

Edmond: Edmond patiently waited throughout the entirety of the brief exchange between these newly introduced persons. He was suitably impressed by the AI. It seemed rational enough for a tactical system. However, Edmond did notice that LOTUS seemed to show some signs he had noticed in other highly rational beings before, namely the inability to recognize that others would be irrational, and would continue to be so even after their irrationality had been pointed out. Edmond raised his hand when the snake woman, Dackly, mentioned a camera. "My suit can take videos and photos, if that will do." He supposed that LOTUS might have a camera built in, so there was that option too, if his wouldn't work. Turning to the woman and the tablet, Edmond held out his hand to the woman to shake. "Edmond Cooper, engineer, LibraCorps Special Operations. It's nice to meet you both, LOTUS, Isobel. Oh, I would shake your hand, if you had one." He addressed LOTUS. "I know LOTUS is a tactician, but what's your occupation, Isobel?