[IC] TotMV:G^2: Clash of Fate: The Courtyard (Social/Prep Phase)

[ElfCollaborator]

Gabriel Kowalski

Gabriel frowns as Perlita shuts him down for the umpteenth time. He simply shrugs.

"Maaaan, Perlita, why you gotta do that? I was trying to sell you to 'em, y'know, show 'em you're as important as you are to keeping us all alive. Which you kinda are.

 

I'll be honest, she's saved my bacon more times than I can count. Turns out when you're good at making enemies die, they like making you die too. Though having a living nuke around is useful. A little."

 

Sachi Honda

Sachi continues staring at her, clearly calming down as she does. She doesn't say very much, but she's clearly in need of someone to talk to at the very least.

"That.....that would be....nice. L-lead the way."

[Strider]

Liliya:

"Healing's good, nukes are good. So long as you aren't hitting any of us." Liliya smiled. They seemed like nice people, and useful ones. "So, uhh, I know Oppenheimer, right? Scientist guy, worked on the atomic bombs 'I am become death, the destroyer of worlds', and all that. But I'm not too familiar with Joan Crawford? Mind telling me a bit about her? And don't worry about rambling. I didn't take nearly enough history classes, but I'm definitely interested in learning."

[Powder Miner]

Isobel Low

"Alright, Sachi. Here, come on, then." Keeping her hand on Sachi's shoulder, Isobel gently leads Sachi out of the Courtyard and to the indoors areas of the fort, ushering her over to the Barracks.

 

Perlita Diaz

"Becaaaaaause, I don't want to get into this weird thing where we insist we're not as useful as each other or anything, and also if you talk about how you're not useful that's not true and that bothers me too. You well know that every member of the group contributed. Aw, now I'm gonna make myself sad.

 

Ummm, I admit that I kinda had to do some research on her myself at first, but... OK, so I guess she kinda counts as, like... a cultural figure more than a historical one, but basically Joan Crawford was an actor famous in the 30s, and she was one of the really famous flappers, probably one of the couple most famous. Also, there's bunch of other honestly really sordid stuff that is kinda uncomfortable if I think about it too hard, but Iiii'm not gonna get into. Don't ask me what part of my personality she's supposed to represent, because honestly I don't really know myself, like... at all. I just know that my Persona is a part of me, it's kinda... well, I just knew when I got her."

[UrbanSamurai]

Rampart

 

"Press is too nice of a guy to speak on it, but he's seen the real-deal shitter over in the islands. If we're not going to be scared of some crazy Japs running around with samurai swords and blowing themselves up, then we sure as hell aren't going to be rattled by some voodoo spearchucker! You might call it magic, but it's nothin' more than a little game that these creeps play to try and spook ya', whether it's those strange Shinto Temples or the creoles with their black smoke and shrunken heads. Uncivilized people! If they really were capable of this mumbo jumbo God Almighty would smoke them on the spot. I've never seen one of these "magicians" do a trick when a .45 was jammed up their-"

 

Press raises his hand, "We don't intend to go rogue just because everyone does things differently here. We'll fully cooperate on behalf of our duty to our country, even if that means dying for it. So if you're means are new, we'll adapt, just as we have in the past. If we have to deal with spears and healing and whatnot, so be it. I only hope that even outside of U.S. Jurisdiction, we can keep some level of the law alive, due process and so on." He looks up at Edmond, "If they refuse to be captured then we'll have to work with that. And the N.O. stands for New Orleans, a city in Louisiana that you might have heard of."

 

Magnum

 

"I'd say that I help out here by contributing what I've learned in my years on and off the field and applying it to some frontline action. I've seen organizations and teams that could have been great theoretically, but no one offered guidance and experience, and that lead to some big collapses. Using my trusty teleprompter I can lay out a play in real time, giving complex directions to multiple people. I'm also here for what you could call morale, another underrated part of any successful team. If you think you're going to win, that's already half of the battle right there. The BOOMTOWN EXPRESS also comes in handy because, hey, it's a good bus! Everyone could use a good bus."

 

"Now we're just about to get to a part of the show that we call I Woulda' Thunk of That!  In this segment we go looking around the world for a game in progress and see what's going on, and my esteemed guest gives their opinion on what the teams should do, and whatever other insight they want to bring to the sidelines. It's a fun way to flex your strategy muscles for the folks listening at home. Sound interesting?" Magnum places a metallic flat octagonal object in the middle of the table. It projects a hologram of a planet, colorful pulsating lights occurring over it, each of these lights made up of two colors that are not mixing so much as they look like their competing, like two incompatible gases. Lexiel could see lights appearing over China, Ireland and Nevada, among other places. "Oh man, looks like we picked a good time to see some action!"

Edited October 27, 2017 by UrbanSamurai

[Sutoratosu]

With the gems finished and having grown relatively tired of the drama and nonsense going on in the area, Aurora leaves her corner and heads to the War Room.

[Strider]

Edmond:

"I've vaguely heard of New Orleans, maybe once or twice? Sorry about that, I didn't grow up on earth, so while I heard the names a bit, there wasn't a point in learning certain stuff about it. Nice to meet you though." Edmond held out the hand that was not holding LOTUS to shake.

 

Liliya:

"An actress, huh? So I'm thinking that they powers you have don't necessarily come from the person? I was thinking since it was Oppenheimer and all that yours would be some famous doctor, or nurse or something. So, uh, how do you get a persona? Is it something you're born with, or is there a ritual or something?" Perhaps she could distract them a bit. It wasn't a bad thing, but they seemed to be complimenting each other and getting annoyed by it a bit too much.

[Powder Miner]

LOTUS

The expression on LOTUS' screen turns into a little ":/" at Lucky's rant, and didn't go away with Press' explanation.

"Well... looks like I'm going to have to wait for you to experience it first-hand at this rate. More. Because you already saw Lexiel at the least. Well, I can use you anyway, I suppose. Can you tell me what the specialties of the people on your little team are? I could use some information about the new arrivals to make the process of assigning the next teams a lot better -- and considering how close things got, we need what we can get in terms of precision."

 

Perlita Diaz

"Okayyy, uh, that's kind of a long story. So, like... you're not born with them. All of the group in the world Gabriel and I came from before, you know... this whole stuff happened..." Perlita gestured around her at the fort and the others of the smaller multiversal team that she could see, with a forming frown, "...except for our leader got it because we were getting involved in some, like... it's weird, but stuff from what might be aliens, in Roswell no less, who are messing with humanity in ways that we haven't really figured out except that it's been making people more hostile and xenophobic, and-- oohhh, gosh, this is hard to explain on even the surface level. But basically they have these, like, little secret areas they make and if you have a Persona or some sort of criteria we don't know and you get caught up in it, you can enter these little places... except they're full of these murderous things called Shadows that you kinda have to have a Persona to fight. Basically, though, most of the people in the group (uh, that's not the little multiverse group we're in now, but the one from my and Gabe's world) got kinda caught up at some point, but got rescued, and when we made the leap of faith to trust the group and, uh, lock hands and everything, we got our Personas awakened."

[ElfCollaborator]

Gabriel Kowalski

Gabriel quietly chuckles as he chimes in with Perlita's explanation.

"And it's been a fun road since then, y'know? Our leader's all mysterious and that. He's a cool guy though. We hang out quite a lot, as bros, y'know? Fighting Shadows and saving peeps tends to build friendship. Though me and Perlita here knew each other waaaaay before he got around here."

[UrbanSamurai]

Rampart

 

Lucky observed the changing emoticon on LOTUS' screen with confusion. "Hey buddy, your radio is turning all sorta' wacky. You should get it checked out, it's showing all these shapes and stuff."

 

"Believe or not, we work best in a group that sticks together, where resources are doled out. That's not saying that we're chicken either, we can hold a line for ourselves. Besides the sidearms we have on us we have some state of the art gizmos too: tasers, riot gear, military grade equipment. We're prepared to take on anything from a single threat to crowd dispersal. If you can get your people to work with us, we can repay the favor." Press whips out a brass Sheriff's Star with N.O.P.D. written on its face. "We can actually transfer any extra help, whether that's intel, firepower or backup, with this right here, it's more than just a badge. It's only used for critical situations, when we need to make an Emergency Deputization of a civilian, and gives them the full authority of the force. I'd say this whole shebang qualifies as a critical situation."

 

Press shook Edmond's hand as Lucky chuckled, "Heh, not on Earth...gimmie' a break."

[Powder Miner]

LOTUS

 

"While I had more meant that I wanted brief information about the members of the group that you two arrived with, so that the other squad leaders and I know precisely how to assign you to battles, that is useful information too. Now, given the amount of time that we've spent here... I think I am going to call the other squad leaders over so that we can start parceling up the teams. If you could provide some information on what the other new arrivals can do, that would be fantastic, but otherwise I suppose that I can find a way around it.

 

Also, hmm, never did find a way to get connected to the rest of the uplink. Going to need to try a bit more after these next battles, or it might start to get bad for me."

 

LOTUS sent a radio message out to Lexiel, Ghost, and Isobel: <"If you're talking with anyone, you will need to start to wrap it up. We're going to want to begin to get our teams ready for the next round of battles -- judging by the previous scrying time, I predict that we will want to be ready soon. Isobel, you have a little longer since I don't quite need you to provide leadership here, but I will still want you to be back before we separate off into our squads, for obvious reasons.">

 

Perlita Diaz

 

"Well, then this whole thing went and separated us all... I'd be crushed if not for the fact that at least one of my friends also got brought with me... though... I guess the rest of you haven't been so lucky, sorry."

Edited November 3, 2017 by Powder Miner

[Strider]

Edmond

 

"I'm sorry about that. We are a bit crunched for time, I suppose, and I can't really work miracles. And the people who'd probably be most help are stuck in the castle. After these two, we've only got Gilgamesh, and whoever's behind all this left to worry about, right? Do you think you'll be alright with waiting until after those problems are dealt with? If not, we could always try to figure out something with the people here after next battle, though it might be more of a hack job." Edmond frowned, a little disappointed. He'd hoped they'd have had a longer break between fights, both to rest up, and to actually work on this job. A thought occurred to him though.

 

"I've got something, maybe. There was a guy who helped out a bit with Lexiel's problems in the castle before this mission. . . I think his name was Morgan, and he was capable or traveling through the void? Well, now that I think about it, Lexiel herself could probably help us a bit with trying to set up your uplink. . . Might need to scavenge for parts.  Just an idea, but if it's vital, we could probably integrate you into my power armor, to give you your own body entirely, and might be a bit easier to integrate your uplink into, since it would have more room."

Edited November 3, 2017 by Strider

[Powder Miner]

Having left the Barracks, both Navin and Isobel made their way over to the courtyard.

 

Isobel Low and LOTUS

Isobel made her way over to the area of the courtyard where the squad leaders appeared to be standing and talking, with her hands in the pockets of her green-and-blue jumpsuit. She didn't much like leaving Sachi alone to just deal with what was eating her, but to be frank Isobel knew she didn't have much of a choice -- it might be unfortunate, but they did kind of have to do something here, and even though Isobel that the role she played in it was just a peripheral one at best, she was playing a role, so she couldn't dawdle. She made her way up to the talking squad leaders. "Um... hello. LOTUS?" As LOTUS got handed off to Isobel, and as she hooked him onto her apron pocket again, he replied. "Thank you, Isobel. Well, alright, I think that we're done discussing team composition now, I'm going to announce it to the others."

 

LOTUS increased his volume, and addressed the crowd of people in the courtyard. "Alright, it's the same deal as last time. For those of you new here, that means that I'm going to announce who is on which squad, which one of us is leading each squad, and where each squad is going, having discussed it with the other squad leaders.

 

The Lancer squad will take on the Servant Lancer, who is some female version of King Arthur, with a lance that seems to be able to charge up to deal devastating blows. The team is slightly arranged around dealing with this, but I'm avoiding overspecializing this time. Lancer squad is led by me, with Isobel carrying me as is usual, and the members are... Dackly and Gozer, Samantha, Bridgett, Friedhold, Morgan, Ritsu, Hikari, and Katsuo.

 

The Saber squad will take on the Servant Saber, who is some bizarre atheist edgy version of Jeanne D'Arc, who likes fire and dragons, and the composition was made with that in mind. Edmond will lead this one, and its members will be, uh, Spicy HG, Mitsurugi, Snow, Perlita, Atton, Magnum, Gabriel, Soryn, and Magna.

 

The Siegebreaker squad will be battling the enemies outside of this fort to ensure that they can't reinforce our enemies. Overall this is a largely balanced team, with some slight preference for area-of-effect. Lexiel is leading it, and its members are Liliya, Jade, Venus, Laver, Solomon, Halley, Sachi, and Hiroki.

 

The Castle Defense squad will be defending our castle. It's largely just a balanced team. It is led by Ghost, and its members will be Aurora, Walmond and Lambda, Rampart, (sigh) Empi, Victoria, Mira, Kino and Enma, and Navin.

 

If the members of these teams aren't in the courtyard, please head to the other areas of this fort and retrieve them. Get into fighting shape and assemble in your squads, we're heading out soon."

[Ragnarok97071]

There is a newcomer.

 

Time, space, and dimension twist, a tunnel in reality cutting a path between worlds. Its cargo this day, a girl, slight of stature and crimson of hair, dressed in loose trousers and a slightly over-sized tunic, as well as a pair of heavy boots, as well as a single piece of jewelry, a silver metal choker that wraps tight around her neck and looks distinctly uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time. She hadn't been planning on falling between dimensions today, she had been shopping for food, actually, but she hadn't really been given a choice, and she was not particularly happy about it. She falls the last three feet from the newborn tunnel in reality to the ground, her breath exploding from her, and then it closes behind her, likely permanently cutting her off from her place of origin. She groans quietly, slowly pushing herself up to her knees, then her feet, looking around at the strange place she's found herself.

[Yours Truly]

As Solomon slowly floats towards the barracks on his throne of forbidden knowledge really trashy romance novels on his search for that one friend who really shouldn't be reading those kinds of books in public, he notices a woman popping into reality and falling down onto the ground for...some reason or other. After a moment's deliberation he decides to try and help her get her bearings/interrogate her for signs of being an enemy spy by slowly moving towards her and try to help her up with a hand shaped mound of books while he says, "And I am assuming that you are a new recruit or something miss?..."

[Ragnarok97071]

She'd accept the help, and... wait what was the title of that book? Lascivious... oh my. She'd certainly ended up in an... interesting place. The girl just stares at this person that had come to her upon a throne of smut with an expression that could likely be read as something like I have absolutely no idea what you're on about, what in the world is going on here. Possibly with a few expletives thrown in for good measure. She reaches up to touch the choker around her neck, seeming... nervous, confused, disoriented... Not quite afraid, but still very out of place.

[Yours Truly]

Solomon tilted his head slightly to get a better look on her face as he waited for the woman to say....absolutely anything in response, and after a few awkward moments of blank staring had passed, he finally shrugged and decided to say, "Well this is going to be weird and confusing for you, but let's just say that you have been forcibly drafted into a grand army of heroes meant to somehow save the multiverse from some eldritch extradimensional horrors, and before you ask...no one else got a say in this either." He glanced at the metal choker she was wearing before he said, "Also....it would be nice if you could say literally anything in response, as I don't know if some of the more...exotic members of the group would be able to read your expression that well."

[Ragnarok97071]

She frowns, shifting in place as she tries to absorb just what she's being told. She's been... drafted? Again? Though for a bit of a bigger operation this time... oh boy. She continues to shift in place, thinking, then reaches up to touch the necklace, her opposite hand now suddenly holding a pad of paper and a pen, which she uses to write something out, showing it to him.

 

Can't. Sorry. Long story.

[DragonRage]

A rush of air, bringing with it a hint of ozone and motor oil, accompanies the Archangel Lexiel as she descends to land in the courtyard.  Straightening a few errant feathers, she looks down at her battered coat with a sigh before pulling gently at the dark garment.  It falls apart in her hands with a rattle of leather and mail, revealing sleek, blue body-armor underneath, and a grey, fingerless gauntlet on her right hand.  The gauntlet has a symbol of a red dragon on a blue field on the back of her hand, the emblem of the Izzet.  Her shoulders bear the clenched, red-on-white fist of the Boros and the gold-and-grey circle of Overwatch, which catch the light as she balls up the remains of her coat and tucks it under one arm before striding over.  "I thought I saw someone who looked lost.  Welcome to the front lines, kid.  Whoever sent you here has a terrible sense of humor.  Going off of past examples, I'd hazard you're pretty solid in a fight, and have no idea why you're here, am I right?  I can give a briefing if you'd like to know what you've been thrown into."

[Yours Truly]

Solomon raises an eyebrow when he noticed the sudden appearance of some pen and paper in her hands just after she touched her necklace, and he moved his right hand to touch the ring on his left ring finger as she started to write. This caused a small and well worn looking novellete to materialize in his right hand just as she lifted her pad of paper up to show something to him. He then smirked slightly and flipped the book over to reveal that the cover simply displayed a man hurling a ball of lightning at an unseen threat, and the words "WIZARD?!?" displayed proudly above the man's head in red, blue, and gold lettering.

He then shrugged his shoulders and said, "But anyway are you hungry? Because we just fought a series of rather decisive battles against an invading army and I. Am. Starving."

[Ragnarok97071]

oh thank god this person is obviously an officer.

 

An incorrect thought. But a reasonable one, considering the rather... elaborate nature of the new arrival's garb. Lena looks back and forth between the pair, considering, before her hand raises, snapping a salute toward the angel before quickly writing out something on her pad.

 

Knight Lena Albright, Pactmaker to the Incorruptus Tyrfing. Your assumption is reasonably correct. A briefing would be nice. I'm not currently hungry, though thank you for the offer, sir.

[DragonRage]

Lexiel returns the salute with her gauntleted hand.  "Strike Captain Lexiel of Overwatch.  I'm one of our team's military advisors and field commanders.  It's a pleasure to have another professional working with us.  You've currently been drafted by a force that has yet to reveal its nature to us to fight beings called Trespassers.  These beings are capable of traveling between worlds, and seek to consume or destroy everything in their path.  I was skeptical of whatever gathered us' intentions at first, but I've seen the destruction the Trespassers cause first-hand.  Our foes are definitely working with them, and they must be stopped.  No worlds should share Zendikar's fate.  So we fight for our homes, and all those who cannot defeat these threats themselves.

 

"Currently, we are helping defend this fortress.  They have been invaded by foes from another world, who incarnated spirits of ancient heroes to bolster their forces before corrupting those spirits with what I strongly suspect is Trespasser sorcery to bind them to their fell cause.  We have eliminated many of these Servants, but the most powerful of them remains at large.  We're in the process of healing wounds, resting, and re-arming before we hunt him down."

[Ragnarok97071]

She nods, with an expression that reads roughly as so that's why I'm here. Once again, she adds a new line to her pad.

 

Understood. For the purposes of strategic consideration, I can give a brief explanation of my capabilities if you so desire. Regardless, this sounds like a cause worth fighting for, and you shall have my support. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them as best as i can, and will follow orders to the best of my ability.

 

Her expression, previously nervous and uncertain, had set now, a sort of dry, detached determination, though slightly... unsettling, though it's hard to pinpoint it, beyond that sense of detachment.

[Yours Truly]

As Solomon turned slightly to acknowledge Lexiel's presence, he realized that she appeared to have assembled her outfit in quite a hurry while she was inside of a pitch black room, and he made a mental note to try and convince her to go to a stylist after the remaining servants are dead/when the throne he is sitting on doesn't have the word "tentacles" written down in most of its components....or when he isn't currently leaning on a copy of the script for that weird fishman romance movie.

Either way he rather awkwardly moved his throne back to face in Lena's direction before he said, "Well for one thing I would very much like to know what magical powers your patron Tyrfing grants you, and if said patron is at all related to the magical sword that is famed in Norse mythology for always killing a man whenever it is drawn....and of course it would also be a good idea for you to tell me a little bit about your world's technology level, just in case someone has the bright idea to give you a weapon or an electronic device that does not exist in your world without telling you how to operate it."

[Ragnarok97071]

Lena seems confused.

 

Patron? Oh... Tyrfing isn't my... patron. Tyrfing is a weapon of war, an Incorruptus, which I am bonded to. Additionally, unless called upon, it does not give me any abilities beyond what I already have, and I'm not really qualified to speak on why it's named the way it is. it just is. I'm... not sure what to tell you on the other note, regarding... technology.

 

Yeah, she is definitely having kinda a hard time wrapping her head around Solomon. Hopefully that changes at some point, but... right now he was rather disorienting.

Edited March 19, 2018 by Ragnarok97071

[Yours Truly]

Solomon made a mental note about how Lena made damn sure to write down every single period and question mark when he said, "Ah, well patrons are the vaguely defined guiding spirits that appear to certain kinds of people in my world and teach them how to use their preexisting magical powers....usually after making some sort of oath or pact with them. And I just assumed that was what you meant when you said that you were a 'pactmaker to the Incorruptus Tyrfing'."