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

[Powder Miner]

Navin nodded in thanks at Magnum's response, and turned back to the sad god before him. Even Navin couldn't miss Mitsurugi's distress; she was wiping at her eyes and apologizing. Navin had met heroes who knew exactly how to soothe peoples' spirits, who could inspire hope with a wide smile or console crime victims. He knew them, but he most definitely was not one of them, and for the most part he just stood there awkwardly and opened and closed his mouth once or twice, especially after she apologized, which just made him more awkward.

 

When Mitsurugi brought up his religion, he seized on the opportunity to restart the conversation just as much as she did. "Oh, ah, yes. I am Hindu, which is the largest religion of my home country. It's... complicated, and that is not helped by all the many different sects, but what I believe in is that there is a single... a single divinity, I guess I will say, which created and is part responsible for the moral progression of my universe, but that this being is so far beyond human comprehension that it appears in the form of different gods, which have some level of difference but share the same... what's the word, spirit. I worship primarily Vishnu, who is the primary form of this Supreme Being, and is responsible for the protection of the universe, though even he has different forms.''

[Chevaleresse]

"You want to help? Unless you're a mage, not sure how you can. Focus on getting the ballistae and other weapons that are focused on killing men. The walls will stand up to plenty of punishment." The man speaking to Edmond is in armor resembling what Rand had been wearing, though with a bit less embellishment. "We only have so many men, though, and we're not getting any more any time soon," he says grimly.

 

"I see. I have never heard of any beings such as that, though there are the greater gods that supposedly begat the rest, or at least paved the way for their creation. It's possible that they could be one and the same. Have you heard of Shinto? That is the name of the faith that birthed me." At the very least, Navin was polite enough to leave her nearly breaking down publicly alone. She silently berated herself for it; it wasn't becoming behavior, especially for a goddess and especially at a time like this.

[Strider]

Edmond

"I'm not a mage." On that subject though, he really should get some more practice in with the Cantrips. It might even be worthwhile to compare how magic seemed to work here compared with Marisa's book when he went to the library later. "I think I can help however." Edmond patted the rifle slung across his back. "It probably has around twice the effective range of a longbow, unless yours are magically enhanced. I'll try to put pressure on those manning the ballistae, and opposition mages. Is there any significant danger in attacking them?" Edmond was decently well read, and while his knowledge of stories didn't really mesh with what he had seen from his group, it did make him cautious about certain things, such as defensive wards that might reflect small attacks back at the attacker, or otherwise give a mage an easy target. In addition to his question, Edmond watched intently as the mages performed their work, trying to see what methods they used to destroy the seige engines. Fire? Pure force? A single cut to one of the taught ropes?

Edited July 7, 2017 by Strider

[Powder Miner]

"I have, yes. I have fought alongside a couple of Japanese teammates who were Shinto themselves. It's interesting, though, in the universe where I come from, gods do not really show themselves directly, though we can feel their effects sometimes in items or powers that are claimed to be blessed, or in the workings of destiny. You would be living proof of your religion being different from that of my world, I would suppose, hah." Navin wasn't overly daunted by her presence as a goddess or anything; he didn't consider the divines of other worlds in the light he did religion in his world, and he had previously briefly fought alongside some sort of European pagan divine a year ago during a meeting of alternate worlds.

Edited July 6, 2017 by Powder Miner

[Chevaleresse]

"I see. Much of my world ended up that way or worse; mortals placed their faith in things other than us. . ." She cleared her throat again. "I apologize, I don't mean to leave so abruptly but there is something I must take care of." She turned about rather abruptly and started to head toward the castle, in that stiff, quick walk that one typically associated with being deeply offended by something. She tried as hard as she could to suppress the tears that began to well up in her eyes until she got into a place at least somewhat more private; to her credit she was mostly successful. Everything I see or speak of reminds me of my failure. All of the people that lost their lives because I did not act quickly enough or with enough strength. . .

[Powder Miner]

Navin watched Mitsurugi suddenly turn away with an expression of confusion; it was clear even to him that he had greatly upset or offended her, but he wasn't sure how he had done so. "...oh. Hmm..." He stood there for a moment, before putting his hand to his cheek with a small frown. "What is it that I did...?"

[DragonRage]

"Mind powers?  Uh, yeah, I do.  Professor X called me a projective and receptive empath and telepath," Samantha says, "So I can read and control people's minds and emotions... in theory.  In practice, not so much.  I only had a week of training before I ended up here, and I really don't want to mess up and, er, fry someone's brain by mistake.  But reading emotions is easy; I could do that even when my powers were way weaker than they are now.  I tried to read the thoughts of the guy Dackly captured.  I thought maybe he'd be thinking of the answers to her questions.  But it didn't work so good."

[ElfCollaborator]

Empi looks between Navin and the disappearing Mitsu as she's snapped out of her fugue. Her eyes flit between Navin and Mitsu quickly, and she knows precisely what has happened with a few seconds of thinking. She turns towards Navin, a disapproving look on her face.

"I'll be blunt. You kinda fucked up."

Edited July 7, 2017 by ElfCollaborator

[Powder Miner]

Navin turns to look at Empi, wearing something of a bemused expression... and also keeping his eyes determinedly at face level. "I... think I understand that much, but... I am not sure what I just did, miss Powderbelle. I... do not find my strong suit in social interactions, unfortunately. What made her so upset...?" His hand remains on his cheek, his expression settling back into a small, somewhat guilty frown.

[ElfCollaborator]

 

"Well, I was a little busy thinking about something back there, but I'd guess you struck a nerve real hard. What, exactly, did you tell her?"

[Powder Miner]

Navin shifts his hand, so his fingers are on his cheeks and his palm over his mouth for a moment as he thinks. "Well... we had talked at first about my duty and destiny and how my world works after I thanked her, and that lasted for a while, and then miss Saigai did seem to become a bit emotional... at that point, well... I had no idea how to respond to that. Then she seemed to recover and she asked me a question about my religion, which I answered... and that upset her more. I... do not really know what I did to make her upset."

[ElfCollaborator]

Empi frowns at that, then crosses her arms.

"Well.....I suppose you ought to know, huh? Just.....promise me you won't even hint that I told you, okay? I really don't wanna find out what being smote by a god feels like, okay? I mean, someone might be into that shit, but I'm not, yeah?"

Edited July 7, 2017 by ElfCollaborator

[Strider]

Liliya

"Professor X? That's. . . weird name." Realizing how it could be taken, Liliya quickly raised her hands in a gesture of apology. "No offense meant, sorry 'bout that." While the woman did have some knowledge of pop culture from her world, it was all quite vague. She had heard of things like Marvel, the Avengers, and vaguely the X-men, but knew almost nothing about anyone inside of them. Living on the streets in Eastern Europe tends to diminish your knowledge of certain things.

 

"Mind reading sounds pretty awesome though. And control? The lack of trining might be a bit of a problem though. Tell, how did this Dr. X train you? Maybe we can do something like that here? You said emotions were easy, so we could work on them? Consistently reading and controlling minds sounds incredibly useful."

[Powder Miner]

Navin pauses for a moment, looking at Empi with that frown. He hesitates and then speaks. "If... it is a secret that she entrusted to you, then I am not sure if you should... unless you think it is absolutely vital to her well being, I suppose." He crossed his arms nervously -- this was a train of conversation that did induce an uncomfortable little moral dilemma in him, if just indeed a minor, interpersonal one.

[ElfCollaborator]

 

"I'll be honest. She needs someone who can....well...know what she's been through and know what kinda thing that does to you. I'm only so good at that, y'know?"

[Hal Henderics]

While Dackly makes a fool of herself, Gozer is drawn to the Goddess wandering off in Tears.  He discretely follows her, but makes no effort to hide it.

 

'Curious.  I suppose I should provide a fresh face to distract from that, and promote inter-team relations.'

 

Gozer thinks to himself as he wanders in the same directions, Leaving Dackly behind to attempt Pushups to impress the Guards.  Snakes cannot do Pushups as well as people, he notes.

[DragonRage]

"Well, the professor mostly trained me because he was psychic too.  That made things a lot easier," Samantha shares, "Working with emotions is a good place to start, yeah.  I'm a bit better at it, and if I mess up really bad it won't, er, cook your brains in your head.  My big problem is that my powers got stronger recently.  Like, way stronger.  Before, I could sense one person's emotions at a time, and maybe lift a pencil if I really concentrated.  Now, I feel like even the big stuff is like trying to pick up single grains of rice with a backhoe.  So yeah, I need to practice on people.  The receptive side is easy to work on.  I just lower my shields a bit, and try to sort through what everybody around me is feeling for useful stuff.  But even if I'm pretty sure it's safe, I don't really want to mess with the emotions of people who're supposed to be on my side.  It doesn't feel right."

[Chevaleresse]

Mitsurugi, not unexpectedly, noticed the earth elemental following after her. Gozer was not the most subtle or camouflaged being, after all. After taking a moment to gather herself and dry her eyes enough to pretend that tears hadn't just been streaming down her face, she turned to face him. "Yes?" she asked, somewhat shortly and stiffly.

[Hal Henderics]

"We haven't met.  I do not know what distresses you.  I hope a fresh face with no knowledge of your problem is adequate to distract you from it."

 

He says in a bland tone.

 

"If you have a location of choice, or a duty to attend to, I lack those.  We can speak elsewhere, or not at all, at your decision."

[Chevaleresse]

The woman blinked. Whoever this being was, it was straight to the point. "I am not occupied with anything currently, no." She wiped at her eyes once more for good measure, doing her best not to sniffle. "I. . . am unsure of whether I would like to leave. I should introduce myself, though; I am Saigai Mitsurugi. You and your partner seem to be able to hold your own."

[Hal Henderics]

"I disagree.  We are skilled pretenders."

 

"I am Gozer.  I am an Earth Elemental, an Aspect of Earth."

Edited July 8, 2017 by Hal Henderics

[StormLord]

"Impressive." Friedhold said simply while glancing over to look at Lambda, "I study genetics.  Specifically genetic modification using Adam to alter the body in ways nature never intended."

Friedhold paused and bent down to talk with the young girl puling on the bottom of his coat, he mumbled something to her and waved his hand in the direction of the barracks.  She skipped off in that direction.  He then stood and turned back to Walmond  "While I'm not familiar with your other field of study, however I am familiar with medicine.  That makes my wonder, why the sudden change of field?  Was there something that caused it or simply curiosity?"  Friedhold folded his hands together and waited for a response.

[Strider]

Liliya

"So he was a Psychic too? Huh. I guess, maybe. . . we might run into someone else like that, but there's no guarantee." Liliya frowned thoughtfully, and shifted her stance slightly. "I don't know if. . . Hmm. If emotions are easy, but you can still get some practice out of them, I think I would be okay with you trying that out on me for practice? You're going to have to get used to it in time, right? Might be really useful if someone's having an emotional breakdown, or if we get a traitor or something. But, I mean, if you don't want to risk reading emotions on allies, I guess we'll just have to try to work it on enemies." She smirked. "Might be a little bland though, all you're going to get is fear and anger."

"Not frying people's brains is good! But, uh, if we were to have you try reading emotions, what's the worst that could happen?"

[GodofGamingRWBY]

It was a good thing that Friedhold waited for Walmond's response, because he actually paused for a few good seconds, originally deciding if he should part with the more private information and eventually to find the right words, "A disease known as 'Marasmus Laryngea'. A very deadly disease that rapidly reproduces outside of the human body in both water, air, and food, along with being capable of killing in mere hours, sometimes even less than one, by clogging entries and exits to the heart, lungs, and brain. However, the catch was that the disease was very weak itself, being easily found and killed by the body's defense" Walmond explained, closing his eyes as he spoke, "However, a colleague of mine managed to find some startling news that he brought to my attention. Specifically, that the disease was beginning to adapt and strengthen, getting further into the body before being terminated. Because of it's natural reproduction, and ease of getting into the body, if no one made any precautions towards a potential outbreak of this, the entire human race would be dead in less than a week" he stated, shaking his head, "That colleague died not two days afterwards, for reasons I was unable to find out. Since I was the only one who actually believed in his last living findings, officials that I spook to didn't seem to believe in what a mechanics scientist was saying, I decided to take matters into my own hands and begin developing a cure" he finished.

 

After a second, he opened his eyes with a frown, "... Due to the fact that it has taken me a year to develop that cure, it hasn't been easy."

[DragonRage]

"Reading stuff, the worst that could happen is that I try to do too much at once, get overwhelmed by all the information, and pass out.  Manipulating emotions, the worst that could happen is that it doesn't work.  Although extended use on somebody might be bad," Samantha clarifies, "It's controlling and modifying minds that gets really tricky to do without permanent damage or horrible side effects.  Although I guess it's kind of comforting that mind control isn't easy to do?  If you're really okay with being a guinea pig, I guess...  Are there any emotions you'd like me to try in particular?"