Group 4 Session 65

<uSeaGM> **Group 4 Session 65**
<uSeaGM> Everypony/zebra/catbird is up on the bridge. Genie has apologised for her outburst a few hours ago and Milia had an important talk with her new tag-along spirit. Meanwhile, Whisper and Jack also broached the subject of hanky-panky with the diminutive living ember.
<uSeaGM> Unfortunately, not everything goes quite so well...
<uSeaGM> Genie trots over to a console and freezes. “The sonar is off! When? How? Ahh! Contacts below the water, we're going to plow right through a swarm of them!”
<uSeaGM> Genie dashes back to the helm and turns hard to starboard, but it is too late. There are dozens of small thuds against the hull and Genie winces at each one of them. “Damn it, we're slowing down. Some of the squid have managed to latch on.” There is a much louder sound and the boat stops dead in the water like it had run aground. The sudden loss of momentum is enough to knock several ponies off their hooves.
<Whisper> "There's no chance that was a good thing, is there?"
* Jack_Sh draws his cutlass and heads outside. "Y'arr Everypony mare the bridge!"
<uSeaGM> “Oh pony feathers, we've been caught!” Genie reaches for the intercom switch and her voice is transmitted around the ship. “All hooves to battle stations. I repeat: all hooves to battle stations. Prepare to repel boarders and stay clear of the side rails!”
<Milia> 
ACTION lurches forward, nearly faceplanting as the ship gradually slows to a halt, but manages to perform a rather deft feat of grace at the last moment. The zebra falls forward onto her two front hooves, catching herself in a weird horse version of a handstand. She just sorta...stays like that for a few moments. "Why would the sonar be off?! Isn't that like...the ship's eyes?!" she rather frantically rambles, still perched in her hoof-st
<Milia> ((she rather frantically rambles, still perched in her hoof-stand. if that cut off))
* Whisper whimpers and readies his rifle.
* Prism clumsily faceplants.   He was pretty caught off-guard by the lurching.
* Whisper offers a hoof to help Prism up.
* Prism thanks Whisper, and gets to his hooves.
<uSeaGM> Blackbeard draws his cutlass. “Avast ye swabs! Ye'all heard the captain. Jack, you and your new friends keep the front deck around the bridge clear. Me self and the crew will handle the others.” He heads off, already bellowing orders.
* Notify: mimezinga is online (irc.canternet.org).
* ChanServ gives channel operator status to mimezinga
* Jasmine takes to the air, hovering a couple inches off the ground, right before the boat lurched. "Ooh! Are we under attack? We must be under attack!" Jasmine quickly makes her way outside, looking around for the source of the disturbance. "COME ON OUT YOU SCURVY SEADOGS! FACE THE JUSTICE YOUVE BROUGHT UPON YOURSEEEEELVES!"
* mimezinga is now known as BerryBeard
* Notify: mimezinga is offline (irc.canternet.org).
* Whisper slinks outside, looking for a place to hide on deck.
<uSeaGM> Before you can say 'at least it's not raining,' it starts to rain. The front deck is slick but manageable, with a metal railing all around the edge to stop ponies falling off. At the centre, just below the bridge, is the triple-barrelled magic cannon that's been little more than decoration for two hundred years. Slightly forward, one on each side, are a pair of (recently tested) Goalkeeper defence guns.
* Milia mutters a curse to her breath, falling back down to all fours and charging toward the exit. She halts for a few moments before exiting, however...as a knot had formed in her stomach. "H-hey...Mercy...one last question?" she quietly murmurs through grinding teeth.
<uSeaGM> "What is it?"
<Milia> "...what happens if I die again?"
<uSeaGM> "Well... the pact is all used up now so there won't anything to stop those death spirits from eating your soul. Or whatever it is they do with them."
<uSeaGM> Mercy goes silent for a bit, then adds "Actually they might catch me too. So, err... don't die, okay?"
* Milia 's expression turns to one of horrified acknowledgement, her ears pinning to the sides of her head.
<Milia> "I'll...try not to."
* Milia glances back to her bound spirit. "...and you'll help me with that, right?"
<uSeaGM> Strange Mercy nods. "I'll stand by your side."
<uSeaGM> But there are fishy intruders already up to no good! Several Squidlets have climbed up the hull onto the deck and there are even more on the way! They look a little larger than the small variety you fought before (but still no where near the cart-sized monster that nearly ate Milia).
* Whisper screeches to a halt and takes a few steps back. "Uh, guys...I think we're in trouble."
<Milia> A small, nervous smile crosses the zebra's lips upon hearing her answer.  "...thanks."  she murmurs, before taking the plunge and finally heading out onto the deck to join the fight.
<Jack_Sh> "You say Trouble I say we're in deep sh-" Jack grins
* Jasmine points towards the squidlets "YOOOUUUU!" She shouts, before turning back towards the group "ITS THE EVIL SQUID THINGIES BACK TO TERRORIZE US AGAIN!"
<uSeaGM> The Squidlets have bulbous bodies, curved beaks, and a mass of writhing barbed tentacles. They noodle towards you.
<Jasmine> "My first Archnemesis... nemesees... nemacises....." She fumbles her words, before shaking her head forcefully "MY FIRST BAD GUYS!" She didnt seem to understand the concept that they werent the same squids from before.
* Jack_Sh fumbles about and pulls one of his black powder bombs. "Get your own nemesis! This one took my pegleg!"
<Jack_Sh> "well...these as a species."
* Whisper looks at Jack_Sh perplexedly. "But...you aren't missing a leg..."
<Jack_Sh> "Y'arr but it's the principal of the thing."
* Prism heads out onto the deck, and nervously casts Toughen Hide on both Jasmine and Milia.
* Milia grits her teeth, feeling the cold droplets splash down on her. She had a feeling this shower wasn't going to be nearly as fun as her last one.
<Milia> "Guess they have a taste for fake legs too..." she mumbles as Prism's spell takes hold.
<Jack_Sh> "Yeah and parrots."
* Jack_Sh lights up two of black powder bombs and chucks them at the squid.
<Jack_Sh> "Genie is gonna kill me fer dis"
* Jack_Sh charges in after ward with remaining 45 ap and probably gets a melee strike unless they are too far for 25ap to cover
* Jasmine lands next to Milia and wraps an arm around her. "Dontcha worry Milly! I got your back this time! I can be your sidekick! I wont let any of those squiddies catch you off guard this time!" She says excitedly with a grin. "Of course, I probably dont need to tell you not to worry! Its just a formality."
* Milia makes a squeaky-toy noise as their resident ball of crazy reassures her. The zebra lets out a nervous chuckle in response. "Ahaha...hah...who's worried? Not me, no...uh...no ma'am."
<uSeaGM> Mercy sizzles gently in the rain.
* Milia cranes her neck to the side, eyeing the fiery sprite curiously. "...that doesn't hurt, does it?"
* Whisper hangs back next to Prism. "I'm behind you all the way guys," he says with a weak smile.
<uSeaGM> "No... but it kinda tickles."
* Jack_Sh sprints up to cover the distance and slashes at closer squid
<Prism> "I-I'm glad."  He nods, still wary of fighting the squid.
<Jack_Sh> "You think you're ready for me?" Jack bellows out as he catches it's retailitory sting
<uSeaGM> Jack_Sh strikes the squid but is hit himself in return. However, his ghoulish toughness is enough to ward off it's posion.
* Milia turns her attention to the squid on the opposite end of the boat. "Here goes nothin'..." she mutters nervously. The first few steps are cautious, as she approaches the lone monster, but a quick - fairly harsh - mental self-scolding causes the zebra to break into a full gallop. Chest heaving, her jaw clenches tight as she closes the gap and begins her assault.
* Milia calls out her spirit's name as she rears up to deliver the first blow. "STRANGE MERCY!"
<uSeaGM> Strange Mercy stands tall beside Milia, striking a blazing series of blows that echo those of the zebra.
<uSeaGM> The beast swipes at Milia when she closes but it misses completely.
* Milia lets out a series of fiery punches, finding herself genuinely grinning as she notices her spirit attack in sync with her. Falling into familiar movements with practiced ease, she even manages to duck one of the slithery appendages that had savaged her just yesterday. That definitely could have gone worse!
* Whisper takes aim at the exposed squid still on deck. His aim is good, and both are soon sporting some new holes.
* Prism gets out his assault carbine, and takes aim at the second squid that Whisper targeted, and fires a pair of bursts at both of them, keeping a close eye on how the others were doing.  There would not be a repeat of last battle.
* Jasmine takes to the air, rushing towards the squid that was flanked by Jack and Milia. As she lands the squid quickly lashes out at her, snagging her leg. She screeches out, countering with two quick slashes, the last one slicing three cuts clean through its head and dropping it to the ground, like giant cuts of sushi
* Jasmine roars triumphantly, raising Milias hoof with her claw like she was announcing her as the winner of a wrestling match
<uSeaGM> Mercy burns a little brighter. "Hey, this is fun. Do you do it often?"
<uSeaGM> The two remaining squids split up. One heads towards Whisper and Prism, the other to Jack, Milia, and Jasmine.
<Jasmine> "YEEEEESSS! ITS WHAT HEROES DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she replies to Mercy, fighting her sluggishness from the poison with forcing adrenalin into her system by shouting loudly and forcefully
<Jack_Sh> "Tempted to go with you if y'all find you have a penchant for huntin squid."
* Milia squints as she's coated with fresh squid blood, taking just the tiniest bit of glee in seeing one of the abominations fall dead. She looks over to Mercy as Jasmine grabs her hoof and starts screaming. "...What she said."
<uSeaGM> A squid squirms up to Prism and tries to slash him.
* Prism quickly dodges it.
<uSeaGM> The other reaches the distant trio and stabs at Jasmine and Jack_Sh.
<Jasmine> NOT ME
<Jasmine> ((er))
<Jasmine> ((wrong chat))
* Jack_Sh is distracted from his celebration by a squid attempting to impale him. "YOU'VE JUST VOLUNTEERED TO BE NEXT!"
<Prism> "Something big is coming!"
<Prism> "Goddess damn it, not another one..."
* Milia hears it too. "Shit, that sounds bad...it's right below us!"
<Prism> "Milia, Jasmine, be careful!"
<Jack_Sh> "Y'arr this time if things get Dicey. Let me be the one it eats."
<Whisper> "Come on! We deserve a break by this point!"
* Jasmine was too busy yelling at the second squid to notice anything "HEEEEY! YOU'RE GONNA END UP LIKE YOUR FRIEND RIGHT HERE!
* Milia nods to Prism. "As careful as we can be!" She shoots a stern look to Jack. "I'd rather NONE of us get eaten, dammit!"
<Jasmine> ((I didnt mean to press enter))
* Jasmine then points towards the sliced and diced squid at her feet. "YOU HEAR ME! THATS GONNA BE YOUUUUUUUUUUU!"
* Jasmine continues to shout through the poison
<uSeaGM> But coming into view, rising above the railing, isn't just giant squid... It's a giant tentacle, the barbed end of which is easily the size of the creature that chomped on Milia before.
* Jack_Sh 's eyes narrow as he catches sight of that giant squid. "YOOOU!"
* Milia has started grinding her teeth again, her blood running cold. All the confidence she had forced upon herself was beginning to fade away, giving way to quiet, internalized panic. Her posture slumps as the gargantuan appendage bursts from the water.
* Whisper simply stares slack-jawed. "We're doomed." he says quietly.
* Milia screams out over the rain, hoping her voice would carry to the bridge. "GENIE! WE NEED THOSE DAMN GUNS ONLINE NOW!"
<uSeaGM> Genie yells back, her eyes wide as saucers. "They shoot at missiles, not squid! They're not programmed to, it's automatic!"
<Jack_Sh> "Y'arr I'm gonna send you bak the water hells ye came from."
<uSeaGM> The limb stops at an impressive height above the ship, then starts to swing down with the inevitability of a glacier.
* Milia simply stares up at the limb as it comes down. "THAT! BLOWS!" is all she can get out in response, before the tentacle inflicts itself upon the ship's deck.
<uSeaGM> Everyone manages to get out of the way as it slams onto the deck, denting the armoured hull with the impact.
<Jack_Sh> "And Now you Break Genie's ship!?" Jack Snarls
* Jasmine was too busy having a shouting match to move out of the way. Luckily it only just slammed down slightly to the left of her, causing her to turn around and spot the giant tentacle.
<Jasmine> "...Woah"
<uSeaGM> Whisper actually bucks off of the nearest squid in his bid to escape, leaving the creature right in the path of crushing doom... *Splat!*
* Milia leaps out of the way, her hooves managing to maintain their purchase on the slick, metallic floor. Jack's comment causes her to groan in frustration. "And we JUST fixed it!"
<Jasmine> "QUICK!" She turns towards Milia and Strange Mercy "USE YOUR SUPER HERO POWERS TO SUMMON A MECH FOR US TO PILOT!"
* Whisper looks at Prism frantically. "You helped Genie fix the big gun right!? Tell her to shoot it with that!"
<Prism> "Hmm...that gives me an idea."
* Milia levels an incredulous look toward Jasmine. "...a what?"
* Whisper looks at the giant tentacle before looking back at Prism, confused. "Wait, really? What do we do?"
<Jasmine> "You know! You hold your hoof in the air and shout its name and it appears and we all jump in it and THATS how we do giant combat!"
<Prism> "I can make the gun come to life."
* Jack_Sh is growling at the giant tentacle. "I'm going to MURDER that thing...You handle the little one."
<uSeaGM> Mercy nods. "This hoof of mine is burning red!"
* Whisper stares at Prism, now rather impressed. "Oh. Yeah, that works."
<uSeaGM> "Its loud roar tells me to grasp victory!"
<uSeaGM> Mercy leaps toward the giant tentacle... but gets too far from Milia and becomes tiny again before she hits it. "Aww..."
* Milia lets out a frustrated, borderline angry growl. Her nerves were completely shot and behavior she could usually deal with was in danger of causing her to flip out entirely. "Fuck's sake...for the last time...I am NOT! A! SUPERHERO!" she shrieks, accidentally lighting her hoof on fire with the outburst.
* Milia 's eyes glimmer as well with an internal fire, though whether it's anger or just a byproduct of the whole flame dealy is still up in the air.
* Jasmine shrinks back at Milias sudden outburst, finally stunned into silence. She uncomfortably shifts as she looks at her burning hoof. Without a word, she points at it and looks at Milia.
* Milia follows Jasmine's talon and stares down at her leg. "Dammit!..." she whimpers pathetically. "Can we just deal with these ass-wagon squids, please?!"
* Jack_Sh imitates a Cuisinart and becomings a whirling cyclone of blade.
* Whisper slides his new sidearm from its holster and fires as fast as he can into the massive tentacle. Blood and viscera erupt from several particularly nasty wounds, some of it spraying Whisper due to the range.
<uSeaGM> Jack_Sh cuts deeply into the fleshy appendage and Whisper blasts chunks of it away with point blank pistol fire. It writhes at the damage, hurt despite it's size.
* Milia was on a rollercoaster of emotions...first she was scared, then she was actually kinda calm, then she was terrified again, THEN she was angry, and now? Well...she was still angry, but there was also some guilt swimming around in there. She decides to take out her emotions the old fashioned way: by absolutely brutalizing the nearest enemy to her.
* Milia unleashes a barrage of furious, fiery punches upon the poor squidlet, leaving it a charred, pulverized mess. The final punch, however...Milia's right hoof smashes straight through the thing's mouth...and gets caught there. This, unfortunately, makes her even madder.
* Milia lets out a furious scream as she tears the burnt squid corpse off her leg, then turning to face the tentacle and firing off one last, (literally) explosive punch in sync with her spirit, sending chunks of bloodied gore flying in heaps. Seeing as Mercy theoretically thrived on anger, she probably appreciated this at least a little.
* Whisper looks at the tentacle, then to Prism. "Prism, I think we need more gun! Do a thing! The thing you talked about!"
* Prism casts his spell nervously.  He never attempted to do something like this before.   He casts Come to Life on the ship gun, asking the gun politely to please fire upon the giant tentacle/squid thing.
<uSeaGM> The beastly tentacle definitely felt Milia's erupting hoof. It squirms, obviously injured.
<uSeaGM> The multibarreled defence gun listens to Prism's request and turns on the giant tentacle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtmCIJFwkh0
<uSeaGM> What happens next is not a pretty sight and the limb (or what's left of it) slithers away as quickly as it can.
<Prism> "Thank you."  He tells the turret.   That was rather polite of him.
<uSeaGM> The turret does a little bow.
* Jack_Sh worries about seeing a gun bow
<uSeaGM> The ship lurches slightly, then suddenly starts to move, quickly gaining speed under it's own power.
* Whisper pulls Prism into a hug.
* Jack_Sh shakes his hoof at the beast as they pull away before begrudingly going to thank Prism.
* Prism is hugged, mid-heading over to Jasmine to check on her leg.
* Milia is now thoroughly filthy and covered in squid gore, but she had at least gotten a great deal of her pent up anger out of her system. She falls to her haunches, panting, and raises a hoof to Mercy for a bump.
<uSeaGM> "You did it, you did it!" cheers Genie, although it's hard to hear her from inside the bridge. You can see her jumping for joy though.
* Milia raises her head to look at Prism as he approaches. "...that was...awesome..."
* Whisper quickly releases Prism. "Sorry," he says, "but, uh, thanks."
<Jack_Sh> "You did pretty good."
<uSeaGM> Mercy answers the hoofbump, then poofs into miniature again.
* Jasmine raises her arm into the air, balling a talon into a fist and jumps up while she fistpumps. "AWWWWW YEAAAAAH! WE'RE INVINCIBLE! WE'RE UNSTOPPABLE! AND WE WONT STOP UNTIL ALL THE EVIL IN THE WASTELAND IS WIPED OUT!" She takes Prism into a hug and spins around as he approaches her. "THAT WAS GREAT! YOU WERE GREAT!" she yells, before getting dizzy from all the spinning and the poison and falling
<Jasmine> down, dropping Prism with her
* Prism tries to drown out the congratulations, and especially ignores Jack.   Besides, he was more focused on Jasmine.   He checks on her leg, and focuses a healing spell into it.   The poison would run its course eventually, so he didn't need to purge this stuff.
* Jack_Sh shrugs as he is ignored. He didn't expect anything, but he tried to be the bigger pony and move past things.
* Jack_Sh goes to start cleaning up the deck.
* Whisper wanders off to the side and quietly begins reloading his weapons.
* Jack_Sh makes a note to build a few more of his powder bombs.
* Prism then notices that Jasmine got hit in the forward-left leg, and repeats the spell on that limb.
* Milia will wipe the muck off of her as best she can, which isn't very. Not very best at all.
* Jack_Sh heads to catch a shower after finishing cleaning the deck.
<Prism> "That should make it better, Jasmine.   Milia, are you hurt?"
* Milia beams a wide grin to Prism. "Didn't get touched. For once."
<Prism> "I need a nap."
* Whisper sits with his back to the wall, facing the sea. He pulls his helmet down low and sits still, slightly shaking.
* Jasmine chuckles a bit as her wounds get mended. She takes a couple deep breaths as she wore herself out with that little spinning spectacle. "Ha ha... thanks a lot Prism."
<uSeaGM> The deck has been left in quite a mess, but between Jack_Sh and others getting the bodies overboard and the cleansing power of rain, the worst of it is soon gone.
* Jack_Sh thanks his fellows and then heads to apologize to Genie for letting the squid wreck up the ship
* Milia cautiously approaches Jasmine after Prism finishes his treatment. "Jas...hey, uh...sorry I snapped at you."
* Whisper finally stands up and heads back towards the group. He stops a bit away from Milia since she's occupied. In the mean time he waves to Mercy and forces a smile.
* Jasmine turns towards Milia as she approaches, sitting up and giving her a forced smile. "O-oh! It was nothing! Its fine! Im fine, see!" She shifted slightly awkwardly, and let out a bit of a chuckle. "It was in the heat of the moment!"
<uSeaGM> Meanwhile, Strange Mercy goes to bother Whisper. "Hey, wasn't that awesome! Do you always get to do fun stuff like that?"
* Whisper 's face falls. "Uh, well, I've only hung around these guys for, like, a day and it's happened twice. So, yeah, seems to be a thing," he says glumly.
* Prism heads back to the bunks with a sigh.   If it still smelled disgusting, there was going to be a quick return trip.
<uSeaGM> Mercy grins and rubs her hooves together. "Sweeeet. This spirit's days of running and hiding are over!"
* Whisper looks up at Mercy slowly. "Running and hiding," he says softly, "what do you mean by that?"
* Jack_Sh goes to shower I guess now since there is no need of him
<uSeaGM> She glances around. "If the bigger spirits catch you they eat you. Or worse!" She thinks for a moment. "But sometimes they just ignore you. You never can tell with big spirits."
* Whisper looks at Mercy, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. "I'm sorry," he rasps.
* Milia smiles sadly at Jasmine. "Yeah, heat of the moment..." she mumbles, glancing off to the side. Milia remains silent for a few awkward moments, mulling her thoughts over, before speaking up again. There was...a LOT she wanted to say right now. "I was scared, you know. Really, really scared. I guess I...freaked out a bit."
<uSeaGM> Mercy tilts her head. "You're making rain too? You don't have to be sorry about that, it just tickles!"
<Whisper> "No, I mean...I'm sorry about having to live like that. I've been...I /am/ there."
* Jasmine paused for a second. She opened her beak, but nothing came out, and she closed it. It took her a couple seconds, but she finally said "You.... scared?" She seemed to be in deep contemplation. Apparently her idea of Milia was this fearless bastion of justice.
<uSeaGM> She looks alarmed. "Big ponies eat small ponies?!"
* Whisper gives a small laugh. "No, not literally." He becomes more serious. "Well, some raiders might...but, I mean the running and hiding. That."
* Brooks is now known as Godna
* Milia lets out a nervous chuckle. "Jas, I'm scared all the fuckin' time. I just...I dunno...I guess I show it in weird ways...and a lot of the time that way is 'angrily raging' on something. Or yelling at them, or snapping at them, or pushing them away...ah..." the zebra rubs the back of her mane awkwardly. "...this got kinda weird and complicated, sorry."
<uSeaGM> "Oh, that." She shrugs. "That's just how the spirit world is but... I'm glad I got out. I like this place better."
* Whisper smiles, even while tears trickle down his face. "That's...that's good. I hope I can get out too. In a way, I guess."
* Prism takes a nap.   He's been pushing his magic, and needs all the rest he can get.
<Jasmine> "Okay..." Jasmine said, still trying to parse the idea that Milia wasnt as fearless as she thought. She turned to look at Milia. "Um... about the whole... superhero thing..." She begins, but she pauses, staring at Milia, as if waiting to see if she had anything to chime in with
* Milia wants to see where Jasmine is going with this. "...Yes, about that..." she oh-so-eloquently echoes.
<uSeaGM> Mercy frowns. "Well I don't think you want to go to my world. Too many Old Ones and non-euclidean geometry. And did I mention the death spirits? They are super creepy. I actually had to shove my way through a group to get here."
<Whisper> "Oh, n-no. That's not what I meant. I just...I hope I can stop running and hiding some day, too."
* Jasmine felt a little nervous now, not able to read her vague response "....Well... you ARE a hero... at least.. you're my hero." She rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. Closing her eyes, she shook her head to herself, and took a deep breath, before turning back towards Milia and giving her a smile. "The fact is, without you, or the others, I would have been.... dead probably. That makes you
<Jasmine> a hero in my book!"
<uSeaGM> She nods and then smiles at Whisper. "Oh, okay. Well, I hope so too!"
* Whisper smiles again. "Thanks. Um, I'd hug you but you're small now and with the fire and burning...yeah. Maybe no hugs right now."
<uSeaGM> Mercy grins. It was time to use that new skill. "Mouth hug!" she cheers, then hugs him in the face.
* Whisper starts as Mercy latches onto his face. After not getting painfully burned, he relaxes and tries mumbling something around Mercy, though it comes out unintelligible.
* Milia blinks a few times, somewhat taken aback. "Ahh...geez...that's..." she begins, not quite sure how to take such an overt statement like that. The zebra was having a hard time accepting it, honestly...but this seemed different from the previous hero worship. This was genuine. Sincere. Not some blind worship used to stave off past horrors from terrorizing thoughts.
* Milia relaxes, the awkward tension draining from her body. She pats Jasmine on the back, gently. "Maybe some day I'll tell you why it's such a touchy subject for me, Jas...but for now, you know what...that's just fine. I'm happy you're still with us." she says with a smile.
* Jasmine jumps up and gives Milia a giant back crushing hug. "Im happy to be here!" She shouts, with a look of utter glee on her face. "Thanks for keeping me around!" she says with a chuckle
<uSeaGM> **End of Session for Group 4**