Cleveland1Khandhas

•Antioch|GM> Before we get started, Firlz, you want to give me the rundown of what you've been doing between Thursday afternoon and Saturday?
5:02 PM <•Antioch|GM> TGK's secretary responded a few hours later saying that he was busy doing cape stuff, essentially, with respect to the Blackguards.
5:04 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> At that point Khandhas probably gets to work on the various things going on with Dags, IIRC he filled you in on those plots
5:04 PM <•Antioch|GM> Righto. With the property scheme, and what have you.
5:04 PM <•Antioch|GM> Any other plots that are the main focus?
5:06 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> If he finds out about the blackguards thing, he probably at least tries to make initial contact with caitiff to see if he can get a status update or something, not entirely sure whether he's looking to help him or screw him over at that point, but wants to at least not get blindsided by lack of info? Overall likely p low key weekend for khandhas I
5:06 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> think.
5:07 PM <•Antioch|GM> Sure. Getting in touch with the Blackguards falls through. No response, becomes obvious why after the TGK, Cantus, and Artful Dodger vs. The Blackguards fight on Friday.
5:07 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> he has a lot of small balls he needs to try and juggle between the various people he's involved with. So he's mainly just trying to keep them all from smashing into the ground horribly. WIth the G/T investigation over the super pressing stuff seems to have subsided.
5:08 PM <•Antioch|GM> Yeah. You've received confirmation that G/T have cut their contract with Blackjack and ditched town to avoid the heat.
5:08 PM <•Antioch|GM> Protectorate Critical has been poking their heads in here and there.
5:09 PM <•Antioch|GM> Primus, Blackjack both picking up a few new members, with the 13th Floor / Silver Bullet bloc gaining territory and momentum
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5:10 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> overall this all actually sounds like good stuff on the macro level, since he's trying to get things stable for the eventual Takeover, if they decide to bother.
5:10 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> which means he's going to try and just see where it goes and sneak in profit where he can eventually.
5:11 PM <•Antioch|GM> So, let's say the majority of Saturday is comprised of you composing a dossier of major players in the city for your employers, particularly with respect to the recent developments with Protectorate Critical and the Blackguards.
5:12 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> That sounds entirely plausible. Someone in this setting has to have a day job :p
5:13 PM <•Antioch|GM> A lot of stuff going on in the periphery of Longinus's base that involve a lot of out-of-town Tinkers vying for something in there, but that's still something that's pretty hazy to you.
5:13 PM <•Antioch|GM> There's the Wards fundraiser on Saturday night -- anything on that front you wanted to check out / is relevant to you?
5:14 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> hmmm as a player I would like to because it sounds fun. But I can't think of any in-game reason Khandhas would be involved with it other than checking in after the fact for more info.
5:14 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> so no.
5:15 PM <•Antioch|GM> Got it.
5:15 PM <•Antioch|GM> Well, let's get crackin'
5:15 PM <•Antioch|GM> ---
5:15 PM <•Antioch|GM> ...
5:16 PM <•Antioch|GM> Richard's Saturday has been more reminiscent of his days as a private investigator than a cape. Staying in his apartment, making steady and deliberate progress towards draining his liquor cabinet dry, and filing out notes and dossiers here and there, supplemented by the broader but less detailed files that HPIA has made available to him.
5:17 PM <•Antioch|GM> It's 8:37 on the dot when his phone rings, mid-way through making a mental note to check out the aftermath of the Wards fundraiser. After all, the last one had ended rather interestingly.
5:17 PM <•Antioch|GM> It's a bit late for a phone call, but the caller's a familiar one, at least. The Good King's office. ||
5:22 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> On reflection it's hard to remember where one bout of drinks began and others ended the last few days. Somehow I actually don't really even feel that much of a buzz at the moment. If this is bad I might have to remedy that. "Khandhas speaking."||
5:22 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ((should be "Yet somehow,"))
5:23 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Hey, Khandhas. It's Blake," The Good King says. There's some measure of good cheer in his greeting, but it's clearly requires some effort on his part to make it so. It doesn't wholly disguise the exhaustion in his voice. "Sorry I haven't been able to get back to you in a while. Things have been... all over the place, really." ||
5:26 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> Hearing him even able to try warms my heart a bit. Poor guy's been through a lot since he's been here, so it's a good thing to hear he's in a good place. I decide for a polite chuckle all the same before responding.
5:27 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> everyone and their mother has been active in the last few days it seems like... I decidedly ignore the creeping thought that says 'except you, you slouch' in the back of my head.
5:29 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> "Can't disagree with you there. If I were superstitious I'd suspect 14k somehow managed to place the 'interesting times' curse on this city when they left. Just to give us one last middle finger."
5:30 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> I break off that morbid thought as soon as it leaves my lips. Maybe I've still got more of a buzz than I realized. "You think you're finally free to talk today then? I owe you an update afterall."||
5:32 PM <•Antioch|GM> "You're welcome to come over," he offers. "It's been hard enough to reach me over the past few days that I may as well take the time to talk with you in person. Besides, I've also got something in testing you might be able to make use of." ||
5:35 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> Given how the devices I got for the behemoth fight worked, I've gotta say new toys sound exactly like good news right now.
5:36 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> "You sure know how to sweet-talk a fella. You've got yourself a date. Should I bring a party favor?" it should be pretty clear given my association with HPIA that I mean booze.
5:37 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> On second thought that might have been an insensitive question. I think he mentioned a drug habit in his past. Definitely more buzzed than I thought if I couldn't even realize that before blurting it out.||
5:39 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Any gossip you have about Protectorate Critical would do," he says. "One of their number paid me a visit today. Vorpal. You know him, know of him?" ||
5:40 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Only that he's been poking around the southeast portion of town, interacting with 13th/SB, for the most part.))
5:43 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> "Not much on that front. Looks like he's making rounds to all the factions, though." based on the fact that I know we're under possible HSOV designation it's probably him trying to broker some kind of deal to keep a lid on things for a while. Not something I want to talk about over the phone, though.
5:43 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> "I can give you some speculation when I arrive, though, if that counts."||
5:45 PM <•Antioch|GM> "I'll see you when you get here, then. Just take the elevator all the way up, I'm wrapping up a few small projects." ||
5:46 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> "See you shortly."
5:47 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> after hanging up I quickly split into a full compliment of copies in order to put away all of my shit so that it's not just laying out in the open.
5:48 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> while the other four go about that the last self suits us up. We'll just pop the rest in order to not need to get dressed a second time.
5:49 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> With our paperwork put away and our costume ready the extra selves pop and return me to normal as I head for the hospital.
5:50 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> On the ride in I remember to try and check up on Kusa, I haven't heard about any rousing successes, so he's not likely totally better, but Absynthesis might have something interesting to tell me.||
5:53 PM <•Antioch|GM> Ahh, clone powers. Cleaning up a filthy apartment takes one-fifth of the time. Well, in theory. It's cramped enough that occasional bumps and jostles delay the process somewhat.
5:53 PM <•Antioch|GM> The buzz stays with, as he tidies up, taking enough time for it to diminish to something that feels more manageable for the drive across the river, into The People's territory.
5:53 PM <•Antioch|GM> Despite the late hour, there's still a respectable amount of traffic as he crosses the bridge, and driving slowly, he's able to spot Dags' bar on the riverside as he approaches the east side of Cleveland.
5:53 PM <•Antioch|GM> It's dark enough that he can't tell, and hasn't checked today, if the red-tinged lake has returned to its original hue.
5:53 PM <•Antioch|GM> When he arrives at the hospital, it's well-lit enough that he's able to see a large tag of graffiti spray-painted on the topmost floor.
5:53 PM <•Antioch|GM> "THE ARTFUL DODGER"
5:53 PM <•Antioch|GM> ||
5:54 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> I can't help but laugh at that. I can respect the kind of balls it takes to do that, and given its location it won't be easy to clean off either.
5:55 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> I get the feeling that local authorities aren't built to handle grafitti in places only parahumans and nutjobs could hope to get it.
5:56 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> I take a picture with my phone before heading in so that I'll be able to have a record of what his tag looks like for reference, just in case the cleaning staff actually gets around to it.||
5:56 PM Thaliaway → Thalia|Katie, Megafire → Megastem
5:58 PM <•Antioch|GM> It's familiar enough of a sight, having come up in his research on the Blackguards' new member, and his crashing of a Blackjack drug rave. It's still a lingering point of curiosity, why he ended up turning on his team within a handful of days of joining. It hasn't been long since he'd met Caitiff's acquaintance, and it seems his gang has been quickly
5:58 PM <•Antioch|GM> whittled down leaving him the sole member.
5:58 PM <•Antioch|GM> The hospital is quiet but not dead at this hour, and the receptionist nods in recognition, having been instructed to direct him towards the elevator. ||
6:00 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> I wave in thanks and hit the button to head on up. Definitely a curious thing. Caitiff's group seemed close knit enough that they wouldn't just let /anybody/ join them. And Caitiff himself didn't seem stupid or gullible the time I met him.
6:00 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> Chances are that Artful actually wanted to join up, and then /something/ happened. Rather than him joining for the purpose of betraying them. Which begs the real question of /what/ could have occurred to change his mind like that.
6:01 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> I didn't hear about the Blackguards stepping over any lines that were unusual for them in recent memory, and anyone who would /want/ to join them would've already known about their personalities at the start.
6:02 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> Might be worth stopping by to see if he's willing to chat. If not, nothing lost for the attempt.||
6:02 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ((not right now though, might be a detour after I'm done talking with blake))
6:04 PM <•Antioch|GM> The topmost floor of the hospital has been significantly tidied up, every workstation and distillery made more compact, sleek, more efficient-looking.
6:06 PM <•Antioch|GM> In the center of it all, Blake is dressed in a light-duty half-costume, half bodysuit and half exoskeleton, joints and braided cords of tubing visible in the absence of any armor plates, drumming his fingers on the table, apparently lost in thought.
6:06 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Say, Khandhas," he says, "what do you know about Primus?" ||
6:07 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> I buy for time with the obvious stuff while digging for the /kind/ of thing he's probably asking about in my memory.
6:08 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> "Corporate hero team, based on a pay-for-assistance model from what I can tell. Best analogy would sort of be a 'good guy' protection scheme?" I can't help but form the last part as a question while making sure I've got my thoughts in order and aren't missing anything.
6:08 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> $roll 1d6+1 know
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6:09 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((There you go. Cashy's in here now.))
6:09 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ((oh is cashy not here?))
6:09 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> $roll 1d6+1 know
6:09 PM <[ATM]> Firlz|Khandhas "know" [1] +1 = 2
6:09 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Roughly it. They're taking a lot of money from the city that would have been going to the Protectorate, as a second thing you would know.))
6:10 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> "Anything in particular about them you're curious about?"||
6:15 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Kid came to me, today. Powers. Parents want him with Primus, not the Wards."
6:15 PM <•Antioch|GM> "I'm chewing it over, trying to figure out what the best way forward is. It's something I'll have to mention to Cantus, tomorrow. I get the feeling he already knows."
6:15 PM <•Antioch|GM> He stands up, shaking his head. "Enough about that, though. Something for you to try out."
6:15 PM <•Antioch|GM> Stepping over to a tall metal device embedded into the wall, he inputs some code into the keypad, and it promptly fills an empty syringe with a pale, clear bluish-green liquid.
6:15 PM <•Antioch|GM> "For some context, it's... essentially a prototype countermeasure for dealing with Wink. A stimulant of the highest order that's intended to focus your mind and eliminate any sensation of fatigue to buy enough time to fight back. I'm interested how it reacts with your power, in specific." ||
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6:17 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> Definitely interesting. I try and think back on my interactions with him, but I actually don't think I can remember feeling the effects of his power.
6:18 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> "As a heads up, either he's been super polite all the times I met him, or my breaker state makes it not work on me. So I don't think I'll be able to comment firsthand on whether I think it'll work on him."
6:19 PM <•Antioch|GM> ...
6:19 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ((feeling the effects negatively* the positive boost was there at the behemoth fight))
6:20 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Less of a concern, on that front. I'm moreso interested to see which of the components affect your Breaker state." ||
6:23 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> Ah, that makes sense. "Well, I'm certainly game to see what happens." I roll up my sleeve to give him some bare skin to work with for injecting.
6:24 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> "Tell me when, and I'll split up."||
6:24 PM <•Antioch|GM> He ties off the offered arm with a tourniquet and injects the serum with a practiced, painless motion.
6:25 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Go ahead and do it now, I'd like to see if it kicks in even though you've transformed." ||
6:27 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> With that command I split up into our set of selves. Deciding to experiment with it a bit I try to do something similar to the trick from the PRT lobby, seeing how much I can control where exactly the clones pop into existence relative to me.||
6:27 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ((basically just trying to designate spots in the room and thinking hard on having them form there and seeing if it influences the results at all))
6:30 PM <•Antioch|GM> There's some proximity to the spots he's visualizing as he transforms, but it's not precise, and inaccurate in some cases. Within seconds, his mind feels sharper, thoughts crisper, as the injection starts to kick in. The hazy sensation of the alcohol still in his system fades quickly, and the sense of mental exhaustion accrued over a long day of drudgery
6:30 PM <•Antioch|GM> seems to go with it. ||
6:31 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ((how does it compare to what I remember of being doped with Wink's power?))
6:35 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((It's pretty similar, but doesn't compare in terms of intensity, and your clones don't feel and more agile. The mental effects are taking hold, but there's no corresponding increase in athleticism in your clones. In yourself? Perhaps, but can't tell at the moment.))
6:36 PM Druza → Druz|bed
6:37 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> "I can definitely feel the effects of what it's doing, that's for sure. Hard to describe them, sort of like a caffeine high? But way more. Definitely one heck of a pickmeup if nothing else."||
6:38 PM <•Antioch|GM> He feels more alert, attentive, able to immediately notice and react to the elevator door sliding open.
6:39 PM <•Antioch|GM> A tall lanky figure in a three-piece white suit steps out, looking in on the room, expression unobservable behind the mask. ||
6:40 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Firlz, then Cogo. I'll chime in when it's needed.))
6:40 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> We rearrange ourselves to keep some selves between us and Blake, just in case. But otherwise just have two of us turn to face the newcomer and keep an eye on them.||
6:42 PM <ColdGold|GM> ...
6:43 PM <ColdGold|GM> As Dodger steps out of the elevator he's faced with the sight of five identical men all turning to look at him at the same time.
6:43 PM <ColdGold|GM> He's appropriately freaked out, but calms when he sees The Good King there.
6:44 PM <ColdGold|GM> "Hey Blake. Hey..." He trails off, eyeing whoever they are.
6:44 PM <ColdGold|GM> He's starting to get the feeling The Good King is running some kind of shelter for confused and misled capes or something.
6:44 PM <ColdGold|GM> ||
6:44 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Hey, Dodger."
6:45 PM <•Antioch|GM> He leans in, looking closer at him. "You alright? This is Khandhas. He works with the HPIA." ||
6:45 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ...
6:48 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> Normally it'd be a fools errand to try to time things other than simultaneous between the bodies. But with the benefit of the injection we think we might be able to try desynchronizing slightly. With four of the five selves speaking we try to have them all be fractions of a second off from each other and see if we can actually make a sort of 'echo'
6:48 PM <Firlz|Khandhas>  in our speech. "It is a pleasure to meet you dodger. We are Khandhas."||
6:49 PM <ColdGold|GM> ...
6:53 PM <ColdGold|GM> He calls himself we.
6:53 PM <ColdGold|GM> Dodger narrows his eyes at him.
6:54 PM <ColdGold|GM> The introduction does jack shit at letting him know who the guy is, and he sure as fuck doesn't know what Khandas means, but he just nods and acts like he knows all about who the guys is.
6:57 PM <ColdGold|GM> "Yeah I'm all good, Blake." He looks down at himself.
6:57 PM <ColdGold|GM> "You?"
6:57 PM <ColdGold|GM> And then he turns to Mr. one Man Band.
6:57 PM <ColdGold|GM> "Nice to meet you... Khandas."
6:57 PM <ColdGold|GM> ||
6:58 PM <•Antioch|GM> ...
6:59 PM <•Antioch|GM> "I'm alright. Long day. Khandhas, this is the Artful Dodger. What happened to your suit, man?" ||
7:00 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> We designate the self closest to Artful Dodger as the one who will deal with conversing while the rest of us focus on the feeling the drug gives us so we can report.
7:00 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> That self just nods along, seeing no reason to interrupt.||
7:04 PM <ColdGold|GM> "A little of this and that." Dodger says, keeping an eye on Khandas. The guy was a little odd, especially with the whole weird echo talking thing he was doing.
7:05 PM <ColdGold|GM> "I learned to fly." He says shrugging his shoulders as if that offers some sort of explanation.
7:05 PM <ColdGold|GM> ||
7:06 PM <•Antioch|GM> Blake's eyebrows rise somewhat, apparently impressed.
7:07 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Khandhas is here to fill me in on the stuff I've missed while I've been busy, test my anti-Wink drug." ||
7:08 PM ⇐ Pink quit (Pink@net-vqhtj6.dyn.optonline.net) Ping timeout: 181 seconds
7:08 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ...
7:10 PM ⇐ Jackknife quit (uid200599@stonehaven.irccloud.com) Quit: Connection closed for inactivity
7:11 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> The self designated for talking takes this moment to chime in. "Which is pretty neat by the way. Not quite the full-body experience of the boost Wink gave before behemoth, but it's pretty close mentally in some ways."||
7:12 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Right. I'm not sure how his power affects the physicality of the constructs your Breaker state produces. Any positive effect towards your multitasking capabilities?" ||
7:13 PM Saff|GM → Saff, Faust|Marcelle → Faustus
7:13 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> "Give us a sec to test." Basically functioning as five separate individuals seemed to be the limit of what we've tried out before while in breaker, or doing multiple things with the same body.
7:13 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> If he's expecting something then maybe we can have all five selves 'multitasking' individually as well.
7:16 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> we split the selves onto multiple sets of tasks, one trying to balance on a single leg while doing math in our head, another trying to recite poetry while drawing a sketch of the room, and the like. To really up the ante we have the self near dodger pull out our phone and start typing away at it while saying to dodger himself "do us a favor and tak
7:16 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> e a swing at us. If we can dodge it while doing everything else, then the answer is probably a yes."||
7:17 PM <ColdGold|GM> ...
7:18 PM <ColdGold|GM> Dodger's not much of a scrapper, but honestly it doesn't take a whole lot of convincing for him at this point.
7:18 PM <ColdGold|GM> He shrugs, and then wheels back and swigs to cock him in the face
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7:18 PM <ColdGold|GM> ||
7:19 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> $roll 1d6+3 base ath (not sure if the meds change anything) to dodge the punch
7:19 PM <[ATM]> Firlz|Khandhas "base ath (not sure if the meds change anything) to dodge the punch" [5] +3 = 8
7:20 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> (also not sure what the "distracted" penalty is here if any)
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7:20 PM <•Antioch|GM> (Effectively a 5 rolled here, given the complexity of the multitask.)
7:20 PM <•Antioch|GM> (Attack as you please, Cogo.)
7:24 PM <ColdGold|GM> $roll 1d6-1 Brawn
7:24 PM <[ATM]> ColdGold|GM "Brawn" [4] -1 = 3
7:24 PM <•Antioch|GM> ...
7:26 PM <•Antioch|GM> Despite the Khandhas being attacked having its attention directed towards its phone, one doing jumping jacks and counting backwards from twenty and another playing patty-cake with the one doing math problems see the incoming punch from two separate angles, allowing the blow to be evaded by a sidestep.
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7:28 PM <•Antioch|GM> From Dodger's perspective, he swings and his target steps out of range without looking. ||
7:28 PM <ColdGold|GM> ...
7:28 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ...
7:28 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> (of if you wanna go first go ahead)
7:28 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Cogo shot first!))
7:29 PM <ColdGold|GM> Dodger stumbles a bit, having swung a little harder than he needed to. And gathers his bearings, embarrassedly.
7:29 PM <ColdGold|GM> He quickly backs up a few steps, and clears his throat.
7:33 PM <ColdGold|GM> "I take it that means yes?" He asks.
7:33 PM <ColdGold|GM> ||
7:33 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> Taking the moment, the four not there stop what they were otherwise doing and try to find some papers so that we can record the list of activities and how they were spread out for reference later, the self in front replies.
7:35 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> "Tentatively." Turning to Blake "We've never actually tried anything that complex before, so it might have just been possible without the drug. I'm thinking we should do a control test when it wears off to be sure." turning back to Artful Dodger "Still, thank you for helping all the same."||
7:36 PM <•Antioch|GM> Khandhas is hitting the limits of his focus. His attention falters in places, spotty as he diverts his focus to one particular clone over another, but they do their assigned tasks - albeit choppily, with some inconsistencies. It's noted as he finds some blank printer paper to jot down his observations.
7:36 PM <•Antioch|GM> ||
7:37 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ...
7:39 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> Deciding that maybe straining isn't that great an idea here, we divert two selves to more or less standing at attention so that they use less focus, allowing the other two who are jotting down the notes to be less distracted hopefully.||
7:40 PM <ColdGold|GM> ...
7:42 PM <ColdGold|GM> Dodger watches the odd scene with passing interest, and then finds himself yawning.
7:44 PM <ColdGold|GM> He's managed to avoid any questions from The Good King that would be too pressing, so nows a good time to escape and catch some Z's before tomorrow's big day.
7:44 PM <ColdGold|GM> "Well nice to meet you both." He says, as he shuffles and tries to leave.
7:44 PM <ColdGold|GM> ||
7:45 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ...
7:45 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Wits, from all parties.))
7:45 PM <ColdGold|GM> Add that he says no prob above*
7:45 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Awareness applies.))
7:45 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ((is this "khandhas 5d6 wits" or single wits?))
7:45 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6+2 TGKWits
7:45 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "TGKWits" [1] +2 = 3
7:46 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Single, but you have a flat +2 from the drug and multiple vantage points.))
7:46 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> $roll 1d6+2
7:46 PM <[ATM]> Firlz|Khandhas [5] +2 = 7
7:47 PM <ColdGold|GM> $roll 1d6 Wits
7:47 PM <[ATM]> ColdGold|GM "Wits" [5]  = 5
7:47 PM <•Antioch|GM> ...
7:47 PM <•Antioch|GM> The boredom with which Dodger regards the scene leads him to peer out the windows as he makes his way to his temporary lodgings.
7:49 PM <•Antioch|GM> He and Khandhas see the same thing, nearly freezing up before their fight-or-flight instincts kick in.
7:52 PM <•Antioch|GM> Hovering outside the window, drawing closer as a crimson spike coalesces over her hand, a female cape suspended in the air by tattered, uneven wings more than three handspans apiece, bloodstained beyond recognition and stretching the spiked arm at the window.
7:52 PM <•Antioch|GM> It punctures the glass, fragments giving way, and they have a precious sliver of time to react.
7:52 PM <•Antioch|GM> ||
7:55 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> The two selves at attention move to pull Blake down where he won't get hit and have the cloned selves between him and harm regardless. The other three attempt to get out of the way as well, the one who was previously talking to Artful shouts "DOWN!" hopefully dodger can hear him out there and gets the message. (what rolls exactly do I get here?)||
7:57 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Three athletics rolls to dive behind some meaningful cover should be fine.))
7:57 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> $roll 3d6+3! athleticses
7:57 PM <[ATM]> Firlz|Khandhas "athleticses" [3]+3 [3]+3 [1]+3 = 6, 6, 4
7:58 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> (oh should've checked if Evade applies?)
7:58 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Nah. Not dodging an attack, just getting to safety.))
7:58 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Cogo, you're up. I'll resolve both posts.))
8:00 PM <ColdGold|GM> ...
8:03 PM <ColdGold|GM> Dodger, having only precious moments to react /dodges/, forgetting about the artful part for a moment.
8:03 PM <ColdGold|GM> He throws a tube at Blake jumping into it himself to get the hell out of the way.
8:03 PM <ColdGold|GM> ||
8:04 PM <•Antioch|GM> Dodger and Khandhas work at cross-purposes, two clones tackling Blake to the ground before the tube hits him.
8:04 PM Nick → Nick|Freddy
8:04 PM <•Antioch|GM> Dodger leaps in regardless, sliding into the hallway and leaving the main laboratory room behind.
8:08 PM <•Antioch|GM> The shattering glass peppers the entire room, the spike travelling through, puncturing one of the pieces of equipment in center.
8:09 PM <•Antioch|GM> It sparks and smokes, and the spike within begins to melt back into blood. The two Khandhases body-blocking Blake fall victim to the glass they'd protected him from, while one, too far from cover, meets the same fate. ||
8:11 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> One of the two still active selves moves to try and make sure Blake is alright while the other peers over to try and get a grasp of what's going on and how we need to respond.
8:13 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> The closer one says "Down to two, will be over a minute before I can reset to full. Gonna use this self to try and help you get wherever you need to be. Point me. We can talk on the way if needed."
8:13 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> the lookout self checks over my gear to take stock of exactly what tools we have at our disposal, and also tries to guess how far away the woman is and whether we can actually hit her with anything.||
8:17 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6 TGK, ???
8:17 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "TGK, ???" [1]  = 1
8:18 PM <•Antioch|GM> "You're... you're dead," Blake mutters quietly to himself.
8:18 PM <•Antioch|GM> Touching down lightly on the shattered glass on bare feet, the bloodstained cape grins widely at him.
8:19 PM <•Antioch|GM> "And you killed me," she replies, blood leaking from her fingertips hardening into vicious, serrated claws.
8:20 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Let me repay the favor."
8:20 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ((time for the one going near TGK to react and attack?))
8:20 PM <•Antioch|GM> ||
8:21 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Yeah, ball's in your court.))
8:24 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> The self up near blake takes a page out of the Behemoth fight and rushes the woman, loosing all three canisters with knockout gas in them around her while getting ready to engage her in melee. That same self yells at Blake while charging in "Get your shit together!" he stood against fucking behemoth. This blood chick can't possibly be as much a pro
8:24 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> blem as that monster was.
8:26 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ||
8:27 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 2h6+1 AA
8:27 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "AA" (1) [5] +1 = 6
8:27 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Evade, Khandhas))
8:28 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ((is this melee or range I'm evading? whether I get the extra die depends on that))
8:28 PM <•Antioch|GM> (('tis melee.))
8:28 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> $roll 1d6+3 evade melee
8:28 PM <[ATM]> Firlz|Khandhas "evade melee" [3] +3 = 6
8:28 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> (if that's a hit, the self is gonna opt to dive)
8:29 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> (because no good reason not to)
8:29 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((I'll be sure to specify, for the future -- forgot that was a thing. And yep, go ahead and roll your dive.))
8:29 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> $roll 1d6+3 dive
8:29 PM <[ATM]> Firlz|Khandhas "dive" [5] +3 = 8
8:30 PM ↔ Stoic popped in
8:33 PM <•Antioch|GM> She swipes lazily at the three gas canisters hurled at her with one hand -- the claws leave behind a trail of wretched, distorted space, jagged tears in reality that seem nearly cancerous in appearance. One of the canisters is destroyed straightaway, while the other two are destroyed, their trajectory landing them into the distortions.
8:33 PM <•Antioch|GM> Frantically, Khandhas dives to the floor, sliding under her second swipe, flat on his stomach. Behind him, Blake staggers to his feet, making a break for one of the pieces of still-intact machinery in the lab. ||
8:37 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> The self on the floor tries to act as a distraction for Blake to buy him time, pulling his crossbow out to fire point blank at the woman. Doing something he normally wouldn't and aiming right for the woman's head while catching his bearings to make sure he can try to dodge any more attacks. (Is Artful just gone? Or in another room?). The other self
8:37 PM <Firlz|Khandhas>  stays hidden for the moment, hoping the cape doesn't notice and he'll get the chance to surprise her.||
8:38 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Another room, but he's back after I make this post.))
8:38 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Roll Aim.))
8:38 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> $roll 1d6-1 base dex aiming no spotter sadly.
8:38 PM <[ATM]> Firlz|Khandhas "base dex aiming no spotter sadly." [3] -1 = 2
8:39 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6+2
8:39 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM [6] +2 = 8
8:41 PM <•Antioch|GM> One of the wings of the cape folds over the cape, deflecting the arrow as she moves forward, sidestepping the two gashes she's created in favor of rushing head-on at Blake.
8:41 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 2h6+1
8:41 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM [1] (1) +1 = 2
8:42 PM <•Antioch|GM> Blake jumps back, picking up one of the workbenches in the room and hurling it at her. She cleaves it aside, but it delays her assault appreciably.
8:43 PM <•Antioch|GM> Dodger sprints back into the room from his wing, watching the desk rip itself in half, passing through a hole in reality that's nauseating to look at, let alone mentally process, as Blake hastily extracts two gauntlets from what seems to be a storage locker, donning his power armor piece by piece. ||
8:43 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((ColdGold first))
8:44 PM <ColdGold|GM> ...
8:45 PM <ColdGold|GM> Dodger leaps into cover but not before launching at least one of the halfs of the desk at the cape. He's not sure what's going on, but she sure doesn't seem friendly, and if Blake is grabbing his gauntlets that means it's time to act.
8:45 PM <ColdGold|GM> ||
8:46 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Acrobatics and Aim))
8:48 PM <ColdGold|GM> $roll 3h6+1 Acrobatics
8:48 PM <[ATM]> ColdGold|GM "Acrobatics" (2) [6] (1) +1 = 7
8:48 PM <ColdGold|GM> $roll 1d6-1 Aim
8:48 PM <[ATM]> ColdGold|GM "Aim" [3] -1 = 2
8:49 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6+2 AWD
8:49 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "AWD" [2] +2 = 4
8:51 PM <•Antioch|GM> Dodger makes a running sprint and dive for cover, aiming a tunnel to blast a desk chunk directly at the cape, who bats the fragment away with one bloody wing. It's... it's Lilith, right? It has to be, but she's supposed to be dead.
8:51 PM <•Antioch|GM> The Khandhas on the floor repositions, eyes on her back, crossbow in need of reloading, while the lookout hangs back near the elevator entrance, using the metal door and a reception chair as cover. ||
8:51 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Khandas))
8:53 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> Right now it seems like we need to buy some time for Blake to get himself suited up fully. Instead of reloading the self on the floor pulls a bolt out and tries to stab the woman from behind with it, aiming for the top of the spine near the neck.
8:54 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> The self in cover realizes this is the chance and readies the crossbow to fire into the bitch to either kill her or distract her enough the self actually next to her can jam the spike into her skull using the distraction and multiple sightlines to help ensure it strikes home.|| ((brawn to jam the spike dex to shoot the crossbow?))
8:55 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Dex to jam the spike. It'd be Finesse with an improvised knife, and yeah, Aim for the crossbow, with a +1 for the spatial sense.))
8:56 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> $roll 2d6 (net +0 to first since 2 dex, -1 to second unless there's a distraction bonus or something on the spike-jam)
8:56 PM <[ATM]> Firlz|Khandhas "(net +0 to first since 2 dex, -1 to second unless there's a distraction bonus or something on the spike-jam)" [6] [6]  = 12
8:58 PM <•Antioch|GM> The one behind her, taking advantage of her turned bank, slides past the spatial tears, lunging with a crossbow bolt in hand attempting to drive it into her neck --
8:58 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6+2 AWD
8:58 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "AWD" [4] +2 = 6
9:00 PM <•Antioch|GM> -- he closes the gap, the wings closing to block it too slowly, driving the improvised spike into her back. It meets more resistance than he expects, but it sticks.
9:01 PM <•Antioch|GM> The wings wrap around the melee Khandhas, crushing him. Initial resistance, then the wings crumple in on themselves as he vanishes.
9:01 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6 AE
9:01 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "AE" [6]  = 6
9:01 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((+1))\
9:03 PM <•Antioch|GM> The bolt draws a gash across her cheek as she shifts to move, unable to block with her wings. It becomes the real bolt, the one embedded in her neck vanishing as the Khandhas it originated from discorporates, and gets stuck in the wall.
9:03 PM Faustus → Feastus
9:04 PM <•Antioch|GM> From the hallway, two really muscular-looking guys lumber out, taking a position in front of Blake, offering cover as he puts his power armor together. There's not much left - what remains is a large, arm-mounted cannon that comes in three separate pieces. ||
9:04 PM <•Antioch|GM> -||
9:05 PM <•Antioch|GM> The cape's claws melt to the ground, and a sword begins coalescing from her hand. She dashes forward, ready to strike at Blake --
9:05 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 2h6+1
9:05 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM [6] (2) +1 = 7
9:05 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6 TGKD
9:05 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "TGKD" [3]  = 3
9:05 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 2d6+2 RBG
9:05 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "RBG" [3] [6] +2 = 11
9:06 PM <•Antioch|GM> One of the muscular men steps in front of the blow, not flinching as it bites through his chest, and he latches onto the cape's sword arm with all his might. ||
9:06 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((ColdGold))
9:07 PM → Divock joined (Divock@net-hiq9eb.pa.comcast.net)
9:07 PM <ColdGold|GM> ...
9:09 PM <ColdGold|GM> ...
9:09 PM <ColdGold|GM> ((Oops))
9:09 PM <ColdGold|GM> ((Nervous tick))
9:12 PM <ColdGold|GM> Dodger flinches as he watches the blade sink into the man's chest. His aim is finicky at best, and he finds himself drawn to close range. Fighting from there is more comfortable, and he has some new tricks in his toolbox.
9:13 PM <ColdGold|GM> He launches himself over the blood cape (Lilith?) aiming to catch her with a tunnel from overhead to slam her into the ground, and then he goes out the window and banks back around to catch her from behind.
9:14 PM <ColdGold|GM> ||
9:14 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((How close/reckless with the overhead blow? Finesse or Aim, depending.))
9:16 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Oh, nvm, I read the first sentence more closely. Roll Finesse for me.))
9:17 PM <ColdGold|GM> $roll 1d6+1 Finesse
9:17 PM <[ATM]> ColdGold|GM "Finesse" [5] +1 = 6
9:17 PM → Battlescar joined (Battlescar@net-5sjfp9.lb.shawcable.net)
9:17 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6+2 AWD
9:17 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "AWD" [4] +2 = 6
9:17 PM → iridium248 joined (iridium248@net-72k.a9u.116.203.IP)
9:18 PM <•Antioch|GM> She shields herself with her wings, but the sheer force of the wind directed at her forces her to her knees. As she goes down, one of the musclebound men bodyblocking for Blake (the one not impaled on the sword) brings his elbow down on her head, throwing his full weight behind it, as well as the force the wind tunnel is providing, shifting his position as
9:18 PM <•Antioch|GM> he lands to put her in a headlock.
9:19 PM <•Antioch|GM> Dodger shifts position, going for the window, preparing for an attack from behind -- ||
9:19 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Nick's go))
9:23 PM <Nick|Freddy> "Hold her down and punch her in the face!" Freddy says enthusiastically. He was worried that this cape was going to hurt someone badly, but they seem to be getting the upper hand. He almost can't believe it, but he's excited. ||
9:25 PM ⇐ pinkmobile quit (uid208117@highgate.irccloud.com) Quit: Connection closed for inactivity
9:27 PM <•Antioch|GM> The guy who has a sword tearing through his stomach makes an ineffective swing at her, and the blade of the sword ruptures, sending chunks of him flying every which way. Each individual chunk of gore seems to degrade into some small rats, which scurry away to the nearest hidey-hole.
9:27 PM <•Antioch|GM> The one holding her in a headlock tries to get a punch in the face, but between maintaining the hold and fighting against the pressure of the wind tunnel blasting directly downwards on him, he's unable to do much.
9:29 PM <•Antioch|GM> Khandhas, down to his original self, feels the effects of the serum take hold on his real body. He feels alert, more agile, but so, so vulnerable. It'll take time before his power recharges, and yet, being a bystander to all this? It feels... off. A lot of things feel off about this situation, honestly, but it may just be the adrenaline and successive few
9:29 PM <•Antioch|GM> seconds of extreme violence. ||
9:33 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> With only one body to work with I try to get a handle on the situation while pulling my crossbow out and loading it while pulling out my phone and dialing the first number I think up, which happens to be Perimeter's.
9:34 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Loading a crossbow is a two-handed task, fyi. You'll need to pick one or t'other.))
9:34 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ((ah that's unfortunate))
9:34 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ((redact))
9:36 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> I dig to see whether I have any of the tranq bolts on me to load while pulling back on the draw to cock the crossbow and prepare it for its payload. Hopefully hitting this thing with one will at least slow it down some.||
9:41 PM ⇐ JustLurking quit (uid195947@brockwell.irccloud.com) Quit: Connection closed for inactivity
9:44 PM <•Antioch|GM> Khandhas loads his crossbow, fishing out one of the hollowed, tranquilizer bolts Blake provided a while back.
9:44 PM <•Antioch|GM> As she's being pushed into the ground, the wings on the cape unfold into a chain of uneven ribbons, extending out. Some pierce the floor, others pierce the ceiling, others lash out, swiping at the machinery all around. Two find their way into the guy putting her in a headlock, puncturing through his torso and finding their way out on the other side.
9:46 PM <•Antioch|GM> "You're not her," Blake growls, voice distorted by the power armor's mask. The palm of his left gauntlet flashes a cool white as he levels it at her, while an array of machinery inject multicolored sequences of chemicals into his neck, forearms, and spinal column.
9:46 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Who are you?! Her agent, her power? What do you want here?"
9:47 PM <•Antioch|GM> "You, of course," she replies, pushing off the ground with two thin arms, using the ribbons tethering her to the room to winch herself up into position, laughing nastily as she does so.
9:49 PM <•Antioch|GM> From the other wing, a Tinker with thick-lensed glasses, lower-face mask, and a Snuggie blanket-robe draped over her shoulder sprints out, leveling a pistol that looks like it's partially housed in a satellite receiver dish at the room, sweeping it all over the place.
9:49 PM <•Antioch|GM> "WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING HERE?!" she screeches. ||
9:49 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Cogo's turn))
9:50 PM <ColdGold|GM> ...
9:52 PM <ColdGold|GM> One moment he's soaring over the blood cape's head, and then the next he's outside, overlooking the city. The sounds of battle inside the hospital are far away as he circles over it. The peacefulness of the scene is a sharp contrast to the what's going on in his head.
9:53 PM Feastus → Faustus
9:53 PM <ColdGold|GM> As he soars his heart races at a million miles an hour. Whoever this was was trying to hurt people he knew. He watches her rise into the air as he angles himself to soar back in and then flies back inside and does a tuck and roll, positioning himself feet first. He's going to fly into her from behind full speed from behind with a super powered dice kick.
9:54 PM <ColdGold|GM> Dive*
9:56 PM <ColdGold|GM> If he misses her he'll roll.
9:56 PM <ColdGold|GM> ||
9:57 PM <ColdGold|GM> . Then he flies*
9:57 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Acrobatics and Brawl, with a +2 bonus if the Acrobatics check beats a DC of 5.))
9:57 PM <ColdGold|GM> $roll 3h6+1 Pls Acrobatics
9:57 PM <[ATM]> ColdGold|GM "Pls Acrobatics" (1) [6] (6) +1 = 7
9:58 PM <ColdGold|GM> ((So an overall +2 factoring in the -1 to brawn?))
9:58 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Indeed.))
9:58 PM <ColdGold|GM> $roll 1d6+2 Attack!
9:58 PM <[ATM]> ColdGold|GM "Attack!" [3] +2 = 5
9:58 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6-1 ATE
9:58 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "ATE" [5] -1 = 4
10:00 PM <•Antioch|GM> Suspended partially in mid-air by the ribbons anchoring her into place, she's an easier target than she otherwise would be. Both legs in front of him, his momentum carries him straight into her back, heels first, and he springs off of her back (did he feel something give? he sure as hell hopes so), landing both feet and one palm on the ground. ||
10:00 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Firlz, you wanted to talk to Absynthesis? Feel free to do so now.))
10:03 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> While still winching up my crossbow "Crazy bitch flew in through the window. Lots of crazy effects, Blake thinks she's Lilith. She's 'here for Blake'" I make it clear that the quotes are around those words "If you think you can help I think we'll all appreciate it. Any other questions?"
10:04 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> please say no, even with my multitasking needing to do a conversation while watching not-lilith-because-lilith-is-dead and reloading is not the easiest set of tasks to combine.||
10:06 PM <•Antioch|GM> She hesitantly trains her gun on (not?-)Lilith. ||
10:06 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Nick))
10:07 PM <Nick|Freddy> ((What's the status of my rats, including the one I started later?))
10:08 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((You have one badly wounded Buff Rat, and one new rat that's ready to go.))
10:10 PM <Nick|Freddy> Freddy's confused about a lot of things in this situation. What's Blake talking about? What the hell is this woman's power? And who's this new Tinker that just came in?
10:10 PM <Nick|Freddy> Unfortunately, there's no time to clear any of that up. With one rat down and one well on its way, he starts growing a new one.
10:11 PM <Nick|Freddy> To the ones that are left alive, he says, "Come on! Just hold her in one place and let the others deal with her!" ||
10:12 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Deploying the new rat or no? If yes, what rat flavor?))
10:12 PM <Nick|Freddy> ((Another buff one. Don't think a sly one will be too helpful))
10:14 PM <•Antioch|GM> A second man tramples out of the hallway, lunging for maybe-Lilith as she flays the already-impaled on from the inside, driving the ribbons through his body as he struggles fruitlessly to close the gap.
10:15 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 2h6+2 RT
10:15 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "RT" [4] (3) +2 = 6
10:15 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6+2 ACA
10:15 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "ACA" [5] +2 = 7
10:16 PM <•Antioch|GM> He doesn't make it, as she detaches more ribbons from the floor and ceiling to swipe at the incoming man's legs, leaving him with a massive gash in his thighs and sliding on the floor. He picks himself up, crawling doggedly (rattedly?) towards her.
10:17 PM <•Antioch|GM> Blake fires his gauntlet at her, sweeping her with a wide, intense beam, large enough to deny any chance of dodging out of the way.
10:18 PM <•Antioch|GM> The blood freezes in place, ribbons shattering like sugar glass and collapsing to shards on the floor.
10:18 PM <•Antioch|GM> "At least making this wasn't a waste," he mutters under his breath, keeping the weapon trained on her body.
10:20 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Oh, no," she replies, blood chipping off her body in massive flakes. "It absolutely was."
10:21 PM <•Antioch|GM> The discarded splinters of frozen blood shatter further, and from them rise a shimmering, greyish metal. It clings to her body, accumulating more and more.
10:23 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((From hereon, anyone may interrupt by typing ... -- whoever does so first will have priority. If this gets excessive, I'll just say 'nah'.))
10:24 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Absynthesis," she says, turning to the lensed Tinker. "You must've heard Longinus's broadcast, or scraped it off the mind of someone who had. You wouldn't be in town for any other reason."
10:25 PM <•Antioch|GM> "So you can understand why I'm here, understand that we're after the same thing. I'm offering you an opportunity to take it," she continues, leveling one silvered palm at Blake and one at Absynthesis, "or die here with the rest." ||
10:26 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> --
10:28 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> "Absynthesis, whatever she's talking about it don't trust her for a fucking second. You've put in a lot of work to be here, we take this bitch out and get on with things. I already promised to help you, and I don't get the feeling you want her to have her way with Blake."||
10:29 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Hmm... Roll a Social roll.))
10:30 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> Roll 1d6+1 soc
10:30 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> $Roll 1d6+1 soc
10:30 PM <[ATM]> Firlz|Khandhas "soc" [2] +1 = 3
10:31 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((I'll let everyone else get a chance to react before Absynthesis responds.))
10:31 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((At this point, it's very clearly not Lilith.))
10:31 PM <ColdGold|GM> ...
10:37 PM <ColdGold|GM> He hears her say she plans to kill everyone there, and he feels his hands begin to shake.
10:38 PM <ColdGold|GM> There's a kid there, she's even chopping people apart. (And they're turning into rats?)
10:38 PM <ColdGold|GM> He's not sure what's going on, but he knows he would have been asleep if not for this bitch.
10:39 PM <ColdGold|GM> It's been way too long of a day for this bullshit.
10:40 PM <ColdGold|GM> He tucks and rolls underneath her aiming upward to slam her into the ceiling and shut her the fuck up.
10:40 PM <ColdGold|GM> ||
10:40 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Acrobatics))
10:42 PM <ColdGold|GM> $roll 3h6+1 Acrobatocs
10:42 PM <[ATM]> ColdGold|GM "Acrobatocs" (2) [4] (4) +1 = 5
10:42 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Evade. Gain an additional +1.))
10:42 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 2h6+1 ASF
10:42 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "ASF" [4] (3) +1 = 5
10:44 PM <ColdGold|GM> $roll 2h6+2 Evade!
10:44 PM <[ATM]> ColdGold|GM "Evade!" [3] (1) +2 = 5
10:44 PM <ColdGold|GM> ((Oh shit))
10:44 PM <•Antioch|GM> $moderate pierce
10:44 PM <[ATM]> [Torso] [Part] Hit Vitals: Active physical stats (Brawn, Athletics, Dex) drop by 2, Guts drops by 1.
10:48 PM <•Antioch|GM> The cape turns the hand directed towards Absynthesis at him, and a needle spikes out of the index finger. Despite his evasive maneuvers, he's navigating the debris-littered landscape, and it doesn't afford him enough mobility to get out of the way. His forward assault is stopped short as he finds himself with a metal stake in his gut, a very hot pain when it
10:48 PM <•Antioch|GM> pierced him, but very cold, now that it's stuck.
10:48 PM <•Antioch|GM> He's close enough to create a wind tunnel, but it's not the point-blank maneuver he'd had in mind -- and it may well tear the spike impaling him out, not very gently at that. ||
10:48 PM <Nick|Freddy> ...
10:48 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((One sec, Cogo's still got a decision to make))
10:48 PM <Nick|Freddy> ((ah, sorry))
10:49 PM <ColdGold|GM> ...
10:50 PM <ColdGold|GM> Dodger feels the spike impale him, and blood spurt from his mouth. He's literally pinned to the floor, and it hurts like a bitch.
10:50 PM <ColdGold|GM> He's never felt something like this in his life, not even drowning in that pool. It hurts.
10:51 PM <ColdGold|GM> He's tempted to just lie there, wait until someone saves him. But fuck it this thing is gonna come out of him one way or a fucking nother.
10:51 PM <ColdGold|GM> He screams at the bitch, and sends a tunnel at her anyway, aiming to catch her with the spike too.
10:51 PM <ColdGold|GM> ||
10:52 PM <ColdGold|GM> ((That lake*))
10:52 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((The spike's still on her finger, connecting her and you, to clarify. Sorry for that.))
10:52 PM <ColdGold|GM> ((Oh gotcha, let me redact the last post))
10:53 PM <ColdGold|GM> He screams at the bitch and sends a tunnel at her anyway. "Get the fuck... OFF ME."
10:53 PM <ColdGold|GM> ||
10:53 PM ⇐ Megastem quit (Peter@net-psjdbd.direct-adsl.nl) Connection closed
10:54 PM <•Antioch|GM> He can't miss, even in the position he's in, aiming along the spike to her hand to her arm to her body.
10:55 PM <•Antioch|GM> The sheer force of wind impacts her, flinging her back into the tangle of decimated machinery, even as it rips the spike from his abdomen, causing him to gasp at the pain of it, clutching the open wound, blood now allowed to spill freely.
10:56 PM <•Antioch|GM> He grits his teeth, vision greying.
10:56 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Guts check, DC 3))
10:56 PM <ColdGold|GM> $roll 1d6-2 Guts Lord Please If You Have Any Mercy In You...
10:56 PM <[ATM]> ColdGold|GM "Guts Lord Please If You Have Any Mercy In You..." [3] -2 = 1
10:56 PM ColdGold|GM → ColdGold|GM
10:59 PM <•Antioch|GM> Despite his monumental efforts, he slumps back, limbs going slack, hands still loosely positioned over his gaping puncture wound. It's been a long day, and he's exhausted. Should've gone to bed hours ago...
10:59 PM <•Antioch|GM> ||
10:59 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Nick's up))
11:01 PM <Nick|Freddy> Freddy's adrenaline rush that presented first as excitement is now making him tense and jittery. He can't make rats as fast as she can destroy them, and he doesn't have any rats that would be more useful in this situation that he can make quickly. He's running out of ideas, and it seems like that's what they need. If this other Tinker starts fighting on her side, the blood cape could almost definitely beat him, Blake, and the dude with a
11:01 PM <Nick|Freddy> crossbow.
11:06 PM <Nick|Freddy> He tries to think of something to say, to convince the other Tinker not to do it, but his mind isn't cooperating. There's not enough time. Freddy shouts at his minions, one rat without functioning legs and another impaled on ribbons.
11:06 PM <Nick|Freddy> "Come on, c'mon, c'mon! Even if you can hold her down for a second or two, that's all you need to do." Freddy's voice cracks on the last word. He pulls his phone from out of his pocket and throws it at the cape in frustration. ||
11:07 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((At Absynthesis, or not-Lilith?))
11:07 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Regardless, Aim will suffice.))
11:08 PM <Nick|Freddy> ((Not-Lilith))
11:08 PM <Nick|Freddy> $roll 1d6+1 Aim
11:08 PM <[ATM]> Nick|Freddy "Aim" [2] +1 = 3
11:08 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6-1 Ratty No-Legs
11:08 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "Ratty No-Legs" [1] -1 = 0
11:08 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6 Holey Rat
11:08 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "Holey Rat" [3]  = 3
11:09 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 2h6+1 AHP
11:09 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "AHP" (2) [6] +1 = 7
11:09 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6 AER
11:09 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "AER" [2]  = 2
11:09 PM <•Antioch|GM> She snaps her attention towards Freddy, picking herself up from the wreckage as he hucks the phone at her, one finger needling out to destroy the hurled phone in an instant. So much for his dad tracking his every move.
11:10 PM <•Antioch|GM> It's enough of a distraction to delay her reaction as a battered shell of a rat, disguise long since decimated, hurls himself bodily at her and just tries to hold her down for one moment longer.
11:12 PM <•Antioch|GM> Her costume explodes out, shredding the poor thing into chunks that slowly melt back into tiny rats, scampering off.
11:15 PM <•Antioch|GM> Blake dives for cover behind a mangled workbench, firing a dart at the prone-and-bleeding-out Dodger, as not-Lilith reacts to his movement, ripping his entire cover forcefully away with needle-sharp claws, each digit spearing through and wrenching it upwards.
11:15 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6 Absynthesis, ???
11:15 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "Absynthesis, ???" [4]  = 4
11:17 PM <•Antioch|GM> "F-fuck," Absynthesis whimpers, voice amplified by the speakers on her mask. "L-leave them alive. You... you only want The Good King, right?"
11:17 PM <•Antioch|GM> Her voice gets a little less shaky, but only incrementally so.
11:17 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Leave the rest alive and I'll help." ||
11:17 PM <Nick|Freddy> ...
11:18 PM ⇐ Druz|bed quit (uid209687@hathersage.irccloud.com) Quit: Connection closed for inactivity
11:20 PM <Nick|Freddy> "You can't let her kill Blake!" Freddy yells, panicking. He doesn't know anything about this situation, but he does know that Blake helped him when no one else would. He can't let that happen.
11:20 PM <Nick|Freddy> "Don't let her kill him!" he says, half to the unknown Tinker and half to his rats. ||
11:22 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ...
11:23 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> Watching carefully for where the woman's attention lies I head forward and plink off a shot with the tranq while heading over to try and get dodger out of the line of fire. Hopefully whatever blake hit him with will keep him stable if he's out of the fray. It's probably far too much to hope it'll bring him back in the fight.
11:25 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> I call out to absynthesis in the process "Look what she's already done, it's pretty clear she isn't going to just /let/ us leave even if she gets what she wants." I reach for my power the entire way knowing it's likely futile and that little time has passed since this whole thing started.|| ((dex for shooting and then brawn to try and drag/lift Cog
11:25 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> o out of there?)
11:26 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Yep. Roll 'em both.))
11:26 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> $roll 1d6-1 dex
11:26 PM <[ATM]> Firlz|Khandhas "dex" [6] -1 = 5
11:26 PM ⇐ Battlescar quit  •  soulpelt| → soulpelt|sleep
11:26 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> $roll 1d6 brawn
11:26 PM <[ATM]> Firlz|Khandhas "brawn" [4]  = 4
11:27 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> (not sure if I should also roll a soc for trying to persuade absy)
11:28 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Hm... nah, not for this one. Not super compelling, in the heat of things, especially when not-Lilith hasn't had a chance to respond.))
11:29 PM FossilSick → FossAsleep
11:29 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> ((makes sense))
11:31 PM <•Antioch|GM> Firing off his dart at the Tinker, it hits true enough as she makes no attempt to dodge, absorbed into the ever-thickening metal armor. Regardless, he's able to drag Dodger closer to the hospital entrance. There's a moment to check his condition as he's moved further away from the heat of things, and though he's leaving an awfully dangerous-looking streak of
11:31 PM <•Antioch|GM> blood, the flesh near the puncture wound is in knitting itself together, red and raw and new.
11:34 PM <•Antioch|GM> As Freddy screams, panic and desperation in his voice, another rat wrenches itself bodily out of the shadows. No ornamentation, no disguise, just rippling, feral muscle, barreling headlong towards the assailant, claws out and ready to rip and tear.
11:34 PM <•Antioch|GM> Three spikes impale him as he charges, and he continues on through, expendable and making as much use of the scant seconds he has left. Claws gouge out thick rivulets of metal, leaving grooves that slowly vanish, thinning the armor--- and then he's ripped apart, torn into two pieces.
11:35 PM <•Antioch|GM> "O-oh god," Absynthesis says, sounding for all the world like she's about to throw up. "Fuck. F-fffffucking hell."
11:35 PM <•Antioch|GM> She grips her strange pistol with two shaking hands.
11:36 PM <•Antioch|GM> "EVERYBODYEXCEPTSIGMAPLEASECOVERYOUREARS--"
11:36 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Two rolls from everyone -- Wits and Dex.))
11:36 PM <Nick|Freddy> $roll 1d6+1 Wits
11:36 PM <[ATM]> Nick|Freddy "Wits" [4] +1 = 5
11:36 PM <Nick|Freddy> $roll 1d6+1 Dex
11:36 PM <[ATM]> Nick|Freddy "Dex" [1] +1 = 2
11:36 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6+2 TGKW
11:36 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "TGKW" [3] +2 = 5
11:36 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6+1 TGKD
11:36 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "TGKD" [2] +1 = 3
11:37 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> $roll 1d6+0 (wits base not sure if TGK's stimulant does anything)
11:37 PM <[ATM]> Firlz|Khandhas "(wits base not sure if TGK's stimulant does anything)" [4] +0 = 4
11:37 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6 AW
11:37 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "AW" [4]  = 4
11:37 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6+1 AD
11:37 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "AD" [4] +1 = 5
11:37 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> $roll 1d6-1 dex
11:37 PM <[ATM]> Firlz|Khandhas "dex" [5] -1 = 4
11:41 PM <•Antioch|GM> As everyone in the room scrambles to plug their ears, Sigma -- the other Tinker, apparently -- included, Absynthesis levels her pistol at her, and the cadence of her voice shifts and changes into something grainy, recorded, male... strangely melodic, as if the voice had been layered over, and it creeps through despite fingers or palms hastily jammed over
11:41 PM <•Antioch|GM> ears.
11:41 PM <•Antioch|GM> "DON'T MOVE. DON'T BREATHE."
11:41 PM <•Antioch|GM> It's visible that the gun is channeling the sound, directing it towards Sigma in specific, but it spills over. It's shouted, and it brooks a sense of authority that can't be countermanded. There's no need to disobey, no sense in disobeying.
11:41 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Willpower checks from everyone, please.))
11:41 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 2h6+1 TGK Will
11:41 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "TGK Will" [6] (1) +1 = 7
11:41 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 1d6+1 AW
11:41 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "AW" [6] +1 = 7
11:41 PM <Nick|Freddy> $roll 1d6 Guts (Willpower)
11:41 PM <[ATM]> Nick|Freddy "Guts (Willpower)" [1]  = 1
11:42 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> $roll 1d6-1 Guts (willpower, not sure if being pepped up helps a willpower save)
11:42 PM <[ATM]> Firlz|Khandhas "Guts (willpower, not sure if being pepped up helps a willpower save)" [2] -1 = 1
11:47 PM <•Antioch|GM> Freddy and Khandhas feel their joints seize, suddenly deeply and painfully aware of the natural, subconscious rhythm of breathing, as they've been robbed of it. Both collapse to the ground, without any visible struggle.
11:47 PM <•Antioch|GM> Sigma, too, seizes up, arms twitching beneath their shifting, metallic bodysuit, screeching, "LI-IKE FFFFFFFFFFF-UCKING HELL!"
11:47 PM <•Antioch|GM> Body spasming as she jerkily, unsteadily lunges towards Absynthesis, a hand's worth of metallic claws spike out to impale her --
11:47 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 2h6+1x3
11:47 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM [5] (4) +1 = 6  ::  (1) [6] +1 = 7  ::  [6] (1) +1 = 7
11:47 PM <•Antioch|GM> $roll 3d6! AD
11:47 PM <[ATM]> Antioch|GM "AD" [2] [2] [5] = 2, 2, 5
11:49 PM <•Antioch|GM> -- all of which strike true. Eyesocket, lung, abdomen. It's possible that she dies immediately. Small mercies, compared to those on the ground, whose minds are choking them to death.
11:50 PM <•Antioch|GM> "IT'S AN-TI-THE-SIS," she screams, every pause between words an arrhythmic stutter, "BI-TCH."
11:53 PM <•Antioch|GM> Paralyzed on the floor, Khandhas is still capable of recognizing the warping, twisting tendrils of red energy that begin to suffuse the room, bleaching the entire scene in a sharp crimson glare. It's the same weapon he leveled at Behemoth, or some variant thereof.
11:54 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((OK, Willpower checks again for the two of you.))
11:54 PM <Nick|Freddy> $roll 1d6 Guts (Willpower)
11:54 PM <[ATM]> Nick|Freddy "Guts (Willpower)" [6]  = 6
11:54 PM <Firlz|Khandhas> $roll 1d6-1 willpower
11:54 PM <[ATM]> Firlz|Khandhas "willpower" [4] -1 = 3
11:57 PM ⇐ iridium248 quit  •  Thalia|Katie → Thalia

Monday, March 6th, 2017
12:00 AM <•Antioch|GM> Freddy's silent, internal scream grows to such a volume that it manifests physically, ripping out of his vocal cords like something that might render him mute or hoarse for the next two days. Every muscle screams in pain, like he's charley horsed his entire body, but as the initial scream passes, he realizes he can breathe again. Fists unclench, with cuts
12:00 AM <•Antioch|GM> from nails bleeding out of his palm.
12:00 AM <•Antioch|GM> Khandhas, meanwhile, faces the same struggle, but rather than a physical trial, he's lost within the depths of his mind, chasing down his power. Usingmypowerisn'thesameasmovingusingthepowerisn'tthesameasmoving...
12:00 AM <•Antioch|GM> He can feel himself mentally clawing towards his power, reaching out for it, willing it to manifest -- it's so close he can taste it, and yet --
12:00 AM <•Antioch|GM> What can he do, with just five more selves as useless and expendable as his original self is? ||
12:00 AM <•Antioch|GM> ((Nick, first.))
12:00 AM <•Antioch|GM> ((For the red energy weapon, I should clarify that it's being wielded by TGK. I forgot to mention him, in the heat of the moment.))
12:01 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> ((ha I didn't even notice it was missing until you mentioned it))
12:04 AM <Nick|Freddy> At this point, Freddy's just scared enough to do something really stupid. He knows that he needs to buy enough time for The Good King to fire his weapon. The other guy was on the ground, frozen. Absythesis is dead. SHe's dead. She tried to help and she's dead. The cape with the wind is unconcious. TGK is tied up with his weapon. Freddy's the only one who can act.
12:05 AM <Nick|Freddy> He'd imagined moments like this before, lots of times. Him being the hero, saving the day with his powers. That had been before he'd had any, of course, and none of the one's he'd imagined had been anything to do with summoning rats.
12:06 AM <Nick|Freddy> In those imagined scenarios, though, he had never been at real risk. He'd never needed to make a choice between risking his own life or giving up. He'd always imagined that he could save the day, but never at any cost.
12:07 AM <Nick|Freddy> Now, he couldn't do anything without the very real risk of being hurt, of dying. He doesn't have any active rats. They're on the ground, useless, or chopped up into tiny pieces. He doesn't have any weapons. He threw his phone, and he's not carrying anything else.
12:08 AM <Nick|Freddy> He needs to act if anyone's going to get out of this situation alive. He needs to do something. He's terrified of doing something.
12:10 AM <Nick|Freddy> His whole body shaking, he runs towards the bloody, winged woman. Sigma, Antithesis, whatever. He pulls off his shoe and throws it at her. He doesn't have a plan besides slowing her down the same way one of his rats might have.
12:10 AM <Nick|Freddy> Like the one that was chopped in two.
12:10 AM <Nick|Freddy> He flinches away, remembering, failing to commit to a tackle, but too far in to entirely stop his charge. ||
12:11 AM <•Antioch|GM> ((OK, Firlz, you're up. I'll resolve both posts concurrently.))
12:12 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> Something Blake shouted earlier keeps coming to the forefront of my tinker-drug focused mind. That powers are /things/ that they can be interacted with. My relationship with my power has always been strange.
12:12 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> Most of the time it was just /there/ and I could use it. Like turning on a switch.
12:13 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> I'd tried pushing it once or twice, but it never seemed to do anything.
12:14 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> I'd always been jealous of how others used their powers. They never seemed to have to fight against it sitting naked and just outright human again for seemingly endless stretches just waiting, not being able to do anything.
12:15 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> It probably really wasn't that long, in reality. But that's not how it feels.
12:15 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> Against carver every single pause was its own little eternity in hell hoping I could last long enough to keep the chase up.
12:16 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> against that acid cape it was likely my own cowardice that saved me from just getting melted to the ground in between bursts of extra selves.
12:16 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> Against behemoth it nearly didn't matter at all, burning from the inside out hoping I'd be able to use my power one more time to save myself.
12:17 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> So fucking pathetic.
12:17 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> And here I am lying on the floor, I can't even breathe, and all I can do is THINK at myself hoping something will change.
12:18 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> But I can't just let Blake get himself killed or kidnapped or whatever so fuck it, I guess I'll try anyway.
12:19 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> I notice that the kid with the minions even managed to get himself up, so clearly there is /some/ way out of this. If my power doesn't want to cooperate then I'll just have to see if I can muster up whatever it was that let a kid like that do something I can't even imagine in this situation.
12:19 AM → Lexicon joined (uid137968@highgate.irccloud.com)
12:19 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> God I'm fucking pathetic, being jealous of that kid right now. (gonna try for willpower to struggle my way up, but that's it for now)||
12:20 AM <•Antioch|GM> ((Hmm, okay, interesting. Let me post something and have you respond to it.))
12:20 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> ((gotcha))
12:29 AM <•Antioch|GM> Khandhas, lying on the ground, has his thoughts flash past miles in a minute -- less, even, it can't have been more than four, five seconds. Every single one seems like an eternity, when he's ingrained the mentality of counting down the time until his power returns to him so deeply into his psyche.
12:29 AM <•Antioch|GM> Blake's serum only worsens the sense of dilation. Thousands of thoughts run through his mind, and the overwhelming majority of his introspection seems to default to self-loathing.
12:29 AM <•Antioch|GM> You're pathetic, Richard.
12:29 AM <•Antioch|GM> You fucking coward.
12:29 AM <•Antioch|GM> Hiding behind your power, worthless without it.
12:29 AM <•Antioch|GM> And what do you use it for, when it gets down to it?
12:29 AM <•Antioch|GM> A failsafe, an escape route.
12:29 AM <•Antioch|GM> What are you running away for?
12:29 AM <•Antioch|GM> To live another day?
12:29 AM <•Antioch|GM> One hell of a life you're living, Richard.
12:29 AM <•Antioch|GM> The boys back home must be jealous.
12:29 AM <•Antioch|GM> Unable to breathe, unable to move, all he can do is think, and he's more than appropriately geared to do so at this very moment.
12:29 AM <•Antioch|GM> In what seems to be slow motion, the boy who's been commanding the minion lets loose a blood-curdling scream, forcing himself off the ground, running blindly at Sigma -- wait, no, Antithesis -- and wasn't that the name that Royal Flush had mentioned? -- still screaming at the top of his lungs, ragged pauses in between as he gasps for breath. No minions. No
12:29 AM <•Antioch|GM> powers.
12:29 AM <•Antioch|GM> Just him.
12:29 AM <•Antioch|GM> He leans over and hurls a shoe, still running, at the screeching, psychotic Tinker, a dead body still skewered on her right arm, and she turns her head jerkily to face him -- then her other arm, twisting erratically in slow motion to stop him, every artificial finger needle thin.
12:29 AM <•Antioch|GM> Useless.
12:29 AM <•Antioch|GM> ||
12:33 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> Fucking kid. What was the point of even doing it.
12:34 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> Hell of a way to go. Unable to breathe, and stuck with the scene of some kid about to get himself killed.
12:34 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> And I get to watch it for subjective forever.
12:34 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> ...
12:34 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> Forever?
12:34 AM ⇐ Nonagon quit (Nonagon@net-84u.kg5.218.47.IP) Connection closed
12:34 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> It's something, horribly stupid, almost certainly won't work.
12:35 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> I'd laugh if I weren't trapped in my own head
12:35 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> Won't work? So what. I'm already useless, if I fail then that's just normal for me. I've got the time to try at least.
12:35 AM → Nonagon joined (Nonagon@net-84u.kg5.218.47.IP)
12:36 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> I focus on the feelings from my body, the lack of air, the pain it causes everything.
12:36 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> I try for the stupidest idea I've ever come up with.
12:36 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> My multitasking stays with me, even when the clones are gone.
12:37 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> So it's here, right now, when I'm in the position to finally try something this stupid.
12:38 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> I try to focus in each individual motion my body would normally need to make, all the little things that are normally subconscious, try to actually feel for muscle groups and keep track of ALL of them. And then even with a real body I can be just another Khandhas
12:39 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> Just another puppet under my own control, like all the ones I've thrown away as a safety net.
12:39 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> I must have thousands of subjective hours of puppeting my own body to reference, so I just need to ignore the fact that I FEEL like flesh and blood, and just become another fragile puppet.
12:40 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> It might get me killed, but at this point it hardly matters.
12:40 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> I was already useless anyway.||
12:41 AM → iridium248 joined (iridium248@net-72k.a9u.116.203.IP)
12:46 AM <•Antioch|GM> Why are you trying to move?
12:46 AM <•Antioch|GM> What's the point of it all?
12:46 AM <•Antioch|GM> His thoughts echo back at him, fighting him every step of the way.
12:46 AM <•Antioch|GM> What use is a puppet without volition?
12:46 AM <•Antioch|GM> What is action worth, compared to intent?
12:46 AM <•Antioch|GM> It takes Khandhas a moment to place the pleasant, almost harmonic tenor of the voice of his internal monologue. The voice that came out of Absynthesis' gun.
12:46 AM <•Antioch|GM> Invictus.
12:46 AM <•Antioch|GM> Move or don't move, it doesn't matter in the end.
12:46 AM <•Antioch|GM> You're worth the same, either way. ||
12:47 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> You're right.
12:47 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> Of /course/ you're right.
12:47 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> But so what?
12:50 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> Blake needs me, that kid needs me. That's enough. It'll all be useless probably. But success has hardly been what's gotten me out of bed since... ever, really.
12:51 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> I didn't go into investigative work because I thought it'd make me successful. I thought I could actually help people, find the shit that makes their life terrible and maybe try and fix it.
12:51 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> So it turns out that people fuck up their own lives and no matter how hard I try it won't actually help? Fine. You're right.
12:52 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> I missed the boat on that. Thought paying the bills was enough, getting by.
12:52 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> That's all it ever was. Just getting by. Forever.
12:53 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> But I've got forever now. So getting by is meaningless. If I'm going to spend eternity here then I'm going to do it at least /trying/ to do something good. Because fuck knows I never managed it in the past..
12:53 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> But that's fine, because that was just years. I've got more than that now, I've got forever.
12:55 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> So fuck you and fuck me and fuck this whole thing because you and me? We've got forever to work this shit out. So you can start cooperating or you can shut your fucking mouth so I can concentrate and do it my damn self you got it?
12:56 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> If I'm going to be a puppet then I damn well better get to pull the strings as well.
12:57 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> If a puppet needs volition then I'll find it. If I can't, I'll spend the rest of goddamn forever in here doing it /anyway/ just to spite you.
12:58 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> I've thrown myself away uselessly thousands of times, so if this doesn't work? Just another mark on the fucking chalkboard.||
12:59 AM → Druz|bed and pinkmobile joined
1:01 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> -|| (Just had a thought)
1:02 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> I've never just been me, I've been all of the mes. And I've always been able to do what I wanted with me.
1:02 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> I ignore the me that is telling me to stop. He's right, I should. He's me, so I know this. But it doesn't matter.
1:03 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> I then move on to order the rest of me.
1:03 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> I start with the me that controls my chest. Move, you worthless sack of shit. Contract our diaphragm and stop being so goddamn worthless
1:04 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> I shout at the me that is our arm: bend at the fucking elbow we're going to turn over.
1:05 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> At the me that controls my back muslces: turn us over, now.
1:05 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> The me that is my legs: knees in and push. If we're going to get that kid out of the way we're going to need every ounce of strength we have a hope at mustering.
1:06 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> One by one I go through the individual mes that make myself up and yell at them to get to fucking work. One by one part by part. Just /knowing/ that those me's are going to fuck things up I micromanage.
1:07 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> I order the me's making up muscle groups instead of limbs. When I run out I go after the muscles themselves.
1:08 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> Eventually I think I've told myself everything that needs to be done to get this puppet up and running and get us to move that kid out of the way.
1:08 AM ColdGold|GM → ColdGold
1:09 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> Now pick yourself up and get in there you useless sack of shit!||
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Plantar interossei.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Out of the night that covers me,
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Adductor hallucis.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Black as the pit from pole to pole,
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Quadratus plantae.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> I thank whatever gods may be,
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Extensor hallucis brevis.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> For my unconquerable soul.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Fibularis longus, fibularis brevis.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> He doesn't know the individual names of every muscle needed for motion, but he knows which strings he needs to pull.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Flex, adduct.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> In his mind, he can still hear his internal monologue about the screamed commands at every muscle, every string.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> It's still Invictus's voice, but it's dry, amused, almost... encouraging.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Triceps surae.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> In the fell clutch of circumstance,
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Plantaris.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> I have not winced nor cried aloud,
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> His right knee flexes upwards, and his toes curl in, preparing to push him off the ground, as the left moves to follow.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Intercostal externa. Inhale.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Under the bludgeonings of chance,
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Diaphragm. Exhale.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> My head is bloody, but unbowed.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Latissimus dorsi. Turn the back.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Beyond this place of wrath and tears,
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Intertransversarii. Flex the trunk.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Looms but the Horror of the shade,
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Biceps branchi.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> And yet the menace of the years,
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Brachialis.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Shall find me unafraid.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Khandhas turns over, arm bending into place, elbow flexing, then extending, to push him off the ground.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> His knee bends, gets into place, pushes him into an upright position.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Flex knee, push off with toes.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Extend other knee, land on heels.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> The first step leads to a second, leads to a third and fourth, leads to ten paces, enough to close the distance to the kid, serum still coursing through his system.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> An elbow extends, palms flat. Shove him to the ground, shove him behind, run further forward.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> The spikes are there, but Sigma's reactions are slow even without the accelerated perception and focus, every motion a struggle against a compulsion she's facing the full brunt of. individual fingers twitching, every motion an erratic jerk.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Three spikes fly out. One goes wide, over his shoulder, another merely grazing his side.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> The third catches him in a lung. The mind is willing and able, but the flesh was always weak.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Both hands still free, every finger still functional.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> His other palm goes to her throat.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Flexor digitii.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> It matters not how strait the gate,
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> His fingers close around it, gripping so tightly they squeeze through the coating of liquid metal.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> How charged with punishments the scroll,
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Diaphragm. Genioglossus. Hypoglossus. Breathe. Move the tongue. Speak.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> I am the master of my fate—
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> Khandhas looks into Sigma's eyes, her Tinkertech suit awash in the intensifying glow of Blake's Tinkertech armament.
1:23 AM <•Antioch|GM> ||
1:26 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> It's the most painful thing I've ever done as I put more pressure on to straight up choke her to death. But that's fine.
1:26 AM <Firlz|Khandhas> "I am the captain of my soul."||
1:33 AM <•Antioch|GM> It comes out as a wheeze, one lung punctured, but there's enough air forced through his throat and mouth to drive the point home.
1:33 AM <•Antioch|GM> He can feel his fingers sink through liquid metal to what feels like flesh beneath, nails digging in.
1:33 AM <•Antioch|GM> She stumbles back, caught between the weight of an admittedly not-so-heavy Khandhas and a mental compulsion violently instructing her not to maintain balance, slumping onto the floor.
1:33 AM <•Antioch|GM> "Yo-you're no-body," she rasps, eyes full of fear, barely able to force the words through her mouth. "You ca-can't. You ca-can't kill m—"
1:33 AM <•Antioch|GM> Everything goes red, and it scours.
1:33 AM <•Antioch|GM> ||||