estoria | « 004 ⇢ INTERLUDE004.EXE »

Entry tags:

!event,
!interlude

« 004 ⇢ INTERLUDE004.EXE »

Who: These suckers and E R R O R
When: OOC: 5/29, IC: 7/15
Where: CERES Research Tower and Beyond
What: It seems an old friend has decided the situation is progressing too slowly.
Rating/Warning: PG-13: Violence, injuries and inevitable deaths.

▶ ACTION.EXE | IC: 7/15

For those unlucky saps who disappear today, ranging from early in the morning towards the middle of the afternoon, well...they can't be reached by CereVice.

Any attempt to do so will bounce back the message User Currently Occupied.

It's an odd message, and one that's never been used by the CereVice. How strange. It's probably nothing though, right? No contact can be established between groups or from groups to outside people in Cerealia, whether by technology or magic. You're cut off from everyone but those in your groups, now.

Otherwise, all abilities will remain intact.

As for the people who do disappear, well... things get a little hairy really quickly.

▶ RUN.EXE | MOD NOTES

This is the event log for these sign-ups! Your groups have been sorted below; here are a few handy links for you:

Group 01 | OOC plotting
Group 02 | OOC plotting
Group 03 | OOC plotting
Group 04 | OOC plotting
Group 05 | OOC plotting
Group 06 | OOC plotting
Group 07 | OOC plotting
Group 08 | OOC plotting
Group 09 | OOC plotting
Group 10 | OOC plotting
Group 11 | OOC plotting
Group 12 | OOC plotting
Group 13 | OOC plotting
Group 14 | OOC plotting
There is no tagging order, so feel free to tag in whatever way works best for you as a group.

The characters should not ICly be gone longer than 5 hours -- if they survive, of course. There will be mod involvement in each of the threads.

If there are any questions, feel free to ask them here. Please try to avoid asking hypothetical questions (such as "What will happen if my character does [action]?") as that's part of the fun and risk of the interlude! You are welcome to plot with your groupmates in this post. Thank you!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ They are definitely alarmingly intelligent creatures. The chips in their brains are at a higher level than you'd expect from dinosaurs; they're sophisticated AIs, and they quickly and relentlessly focus on the greatest of the threats.

Which is hard since everyone sans Leon is pretty badass, but still.

Ultimately, they settle on Nero, and with metallic, dinosaurian roars, they charge her with shocking speed. Still, she'll have the time to get at least two or three of them with her sword. The problem is the fourth, which will latch its teeth into her upper arm and shoulder.

Thankfully that's all of them occupied, though, since the fifth one just got tackled by Ryuuga. It hits the ground, and his sword hits the dinosaur and unfortunately skids right off of the metal plating with a screeching noise. The dinosaur immediately snaps out at Ryuuga in return, and it will get either his sword in its teeth (which it has the jaw strength to snap in half) or his arm (which...well, see above note about jaw strength). ]

[ Lord this all went to hell pretty quickly but Shigeru is on standby as he activates his powers again. He'll draw out his shield this time too before he focuses his attention on the dinosaur latched to Ryuuga's arm. No time to heal that right now, but he does kick off the ground and slam into the dinosaur's side with his shield.

Fun enough that whatever touches the surface of his shield will start to disintegrate, and the longer its in contact with his shield the faster the disintegration spreads. So the dinosaur will have a nice gaping hole spreading through out its upper thigh. ]

( there's a flinch at the bite in her arm and it is evident of blood that comes from the wound, an annoyed look crosses her features and she retorts back by swiping her blade up in an attempt to cut off the mouth that has fangs dug into her shoulder. if she's not successful considering these intelligent ass ais, she'll act risky and use all of her strength to pull her shoulder away from the beast, probably tearing her flesh open in the process. however, she'll use one of her healing abilities so that her skin connects back together as if damage had never been done. )

A foolish attempt! ( with a deep breath and closing her eyes, she focuses on using another ability. a buff towards her attack power and defense, she points her sword at the mouthless beast. she should kill it off but an idea comes to her mind, if she could probably tame it like one of her own. it'll be a risky move but perhaps maybe she can make it call off the others. keeping her eyes on the beast, she begins to speak. )

Riding a beast like you is nothing different from wrestling and riding the lion back home! With that, I know I am able to ride you! Thanks to my Imperial Privilege, it is what I have decided! ( an ability given to saber, it allows her to possess unique skills of whatever she wishes; though it can only be used for a short periods of time until she falls into a migraine and forgets it all together. this ability is also good in imitating the class of rider and with that at hand, perhaps she could try and tame the beast so that she could ride it? well, she'll find that out if it's willing to stop attacking and play at her terms. )

Heel beast! Allow me to ride you or call off your vermin!

[OKAY THAT WAS A BAD IDEA AND WE HAVE REGRETS-

Though a little late for that now - he's shifting to make sure the jaws clamp down on his arm instead of his sword - he can get healed later, but if the Garoken gets damaged, he's not even sure if anyone would be able to reforge it. There were few people who would be able to repair Soul Metal in the first place back home.

Normally, the enchanted metal would be burning the flesh off of whatever touched it, but considering that the dinosaur in question was mechanical and not organic, well... not so much. He's swinging down with his free arm to slam on top of its head while it's occupied with his arm and Shigeru's attack, though - hoping that it loosens its grip before his arm is broken in the process.]

[ It's a really good try, and if these were real dinos, it probably would've worked. Unfortunately, they're entirely technological; there's nothing remotely biological about them, and so they seem to be magic proof. Nothing she does or says seems to influence it, as cool as it would be to ride a velociraptor.

Instead, the dinosaur rears back to avoid her attempts at cutting its mouth, though that does allow her to free her shoulder and heal it.

But her attempts to tame the dinosaurs cost her precious time, and that's when the second dino that was after her barrels straight into her, knocking her to the ground. She'll have the time to take it out, perhaps, but then the other is jumping on her, and she'll get a face full of dinosaur teeth.

Poor Nero will wake up 3 IC days later in Cerealia proper, in one of the casinos fittingly themed "Dinoland". She won't have any negative side effects, however!

And her valiant sacrifice and/or valiant existence as the distraction for the dinobots means that Shigeru's attack is going to be able to disintegrate the legs off of one of those, knocking it to the ground where it's practically useless, and Ryuuga's strike successfully loosens the jaw of the dino enough to free his arm.

There are only two of the things left in any sort of fighting shape, but... on the other hand, they are two metal velociraptors. ]

Ryuuga-san! Saber!

[Oh hell. This is. Not going well at all. Usagi decides to refrain from attempting to use her tiara again, merely forcing herself to try to physically slam into the robot attempting to go after Ryuuga and his arm, managing to do so only seconds after he frees himself.

She doesn't have the time to be distraught over the loss of Saber. Not here. Not yet. She tries to tell herself, to will herself to hold back the tears, to focus on keeping the others alive where possible. She turns, trying to check that Leon is still safe at least in all of this, even as she attempts to back up Shigeru and Ryuuga.]

How's your arm? Are you okay? [She asks as she tries to access the situation. Two more left. They're outnumbered now, even with Leon staying back and keeping safe. So she's a little more confident, even if they're one down from when they started. As she tries not to let the guilt eat away at her just yet.]

[Leon's still on his hands and knees curled up under the desk, his CereVice hovering off to the side to record—he's not paying much attention to it anymore. From this level, he gets a real good look at those jaws closing on Saber's face, and presses his own face to the floor hard enough to hurt. Just for a moment. Unbelievably, he's not entirely sure she's dead. He saw what happened, kind of, but there's so much blood it's hard to make out any gory details, and she's got powers, right, she'd survived whatever'd happened up there that he hadn't quite caught—

But she doesn't get up.

It's not the time, though. Sometimes you just don't have time to think about what's just happened. He still has the sawed-off length of cage bar clenched in his hand under the desk with him, and impulsively, if any of those robots are going to run past the desk on that side trying to make a move for someone else, he's going to swipe out hard with it and try to trip it up.

Otherwise, he can't do much but huddle here and breathe.]

Edited 2016-06-04 02:09 (UTC)

[ There's no time to mourn Nero and her death, and that's the only thing that makes Shigeru pause as he finishes off that one dinosaur with his sword. The scene left before them is enough to make him pale. All that blood on the floor and dripping from the jaws of this...thing. They were all supposed to make it out alive, so why did it come to this?!

He'll slice the dinosaur's head clean off once Ryuuga's arm is freed from that particular one. He'll turn to the other two still functioning robots, his eyes narrowing in anger and consternation. This wasn't supposed to happen, they knew the risks and they knew that they shouldn't have pressed it. They were all at fault for Nero's death and once this was all over, if they managed to survive it, he would have to apologize profusely to her. There's that familiar sensation of guilt clenching around his throat as he tries to swallow back the anger he feels. But for now he was going to make it his mission to help get everyone out of here safely. He'll start by activating his powers on the two remaining robots that took Nero's life. He'll focus his powers on their legs again before he even gets near it as he lifts up his hand and stretches it out towards the two robots. They'll start to disintegrate before he even rushes towards it. They won't be able to escape either, not when he's like this. He's killed monsters and beasts ten times worse than this, so he will do the same here. He'll dash forward then sword at his side and shield at the ready. He'll try to go for a clean cut to slice one of their heads off in one fell swing. ]

[Usagi doesn't have a traditional weapon as such, which she right now wishes she had Venus's sword, but she has to make do. The only thing aside from the brooch and Crystal themselves that she has is the Moon Stick. And she isn't entirely sure if that would really work, since these are mechanical and different from what she has previously faced from the Dark Kingdom back home. There isn't really anything to try 'heal'. Not unless she were that determined to try help Saber.

But that doesn't stop her attempting to help, attempting to assist Shigeru as best she can with trying to somewhat restrain the other remaining robot, attempting to hold it down by the legs. Hopefully it won't try bite at her before Shigeru manages to strike at this one.]

Now! This one!

[ The defeated dinosaurs hit the floor in a crumpled heap, the combined efforts of Ryuuga, Usagi, Leon and Shigeru. With the dinosaurs dead, everything is abruptly very, very quiet.

And there's a beep, and then: ]

Battle detected. Alert sent.

[ That seems ominous. ]

[It's all over before Ryuuga can blink. The raptor that nearly snapped his arm in half was knocked down and taken out once his arm was free, and he's shaking his sword arm. It's then that Nero was pounced on. His eyes widen behind his helmet-]

Saber!

[But before he can lunge to assist, she's down and-]

No...

[Ryuuga looks back as Usagi asks how he was, giving a slight nod, forcing himself to take a deep breath, swallowing hard. His gaze flickers to his off-hand as Zaruba finally makes himself known, the skull ring on his left middle finger still visible and now talking even as the armor is donned:]

Ryuuga, you've got thirty seconds!

[He curses under his breath, but before he can make another move, the last of the raptors is down and what he assumes is the security system is being painted as a result of their fight.

There's a growl forming at the back of his throat. He can't afford to stay in the armor much longer, and dismisses it, though he looks furious. He's never taken people dying in front of him well, even after all this time seeing more than his fair share of it thanks to his job as a Makai Knight. After all, he was supposed to stop that sort of thing in the first place.]

We need to go!

[Leon's already scrambling out from under the desk the second the beeping begins, keeping his grip tight on the metal bar. It might be handy later, but he's barely even thinking about the fact that it's in his hand. Truth be told, it's getting harder and harder to think about this situation at all. He's starting to feel, in a way that's becoming uncomfortably familiar, as if he's not actually here—or maybe he's extra here, like, two of him are here, the one doing everything and the one watching it happen and thinking about it. Like he's trapped in some weird ViViD level where the character he's controlling is himself, but . . . from outside, not inside.]

Y, yeah. Yeah, let's move! Let's get outta here!

[He even feels like he needs to raise his voice to hear himself, as if he's speaking the words into an old-school staticy telephone before they come out of his mouth "for real."

Thirty seconds? Why thirty seconds? How does this guy's jewelry know how much time they have to get out of here?

Does it matter right now?

He gets his footing and heads for the doors, not able to run yet after being crouched on the floor, but moving as fast as he can while his legs loosen up.

Two doors on the far wall and a door to the left, and then the elevator, which he's going to avoid. He heads for the door on the left. Why? Because it's by itself, and he's not feeling up to making arbitrary decisions between two doors right next to each other right now.

He's not going through yet or anything, though, and he's not going to argue if someone else has a preference for a different one.]

[ Shigeru nods silently as he deactivates his own powers once the dinosaurs are down and out for the count. But his sword is at least still in his hand. He'll take his cerevice out and type something quickly up on it. ]

I'm sorry Ryuuga. I cna heal you once we get out of here, so please just hold on a bit longer!

[ He gives the other a worried glance regardless. This is a dangerous place to lose blood in and he doesn't want the other to pass out either. He'll turn to Ryuuga and Usagi then, pointing towards where Leon is going. They're gonna stick together through all of this so to the left it is. He'll heal up Ryuuga's arm once they're not running for their lives?!

There's no time to debate on which way to choose between so he's fine with going to the left. He hates to have to leave Nero here however. ]

I'll be fine for now!

[He could deal with this. He had been blinded before, this was nothing. He could push through the pain.

(Except it was two different things altogether, but whatever.)

He could push through this. He doesn't evencare what direction they were going in, but he knew that he wasn't leaving anyone behind. He refused to.]

Let's just keep going. See what's up ahead and then we can take a bit of a break to check?

[To check each other's injuries. That they are still together, besides Saber. Because Usagi - Sailor Moon, has no intention of leaving any of them behind either. Which is why she is turning to ensure the others are all but right behind her before noting the door and reaching to open it. To check if it is unlocked and will open. If it does open when she tries it, she'll peek inside before pausing to glance back to Saber.]

Should we....? Should we bring her with us? I wouldn't want to just leave her here.....

. . . NEW FILE CREATED . . . CHECKPOINT #002.SAV . . .
. . . CONTINUING ESCAPE.EXE. . .

[The door to the left opens, without a single protest; but in their rush, well...they'll probably go right in without realizing that there's no actual floor there.

And then they'll all four of them fall.

...But they don't die. Instead, they land on what appears to be a mattress; they probably have some bruises from falling on top of each other, but they're not dead.

And there's a familiar face watching them.

It smiles. ]

Hi. You've done really well but I think it's time to go?

I don't want you to go without anything. Ask me one question, each of you. I'll give you one answer.

Thanks for helping.

Ow, shit . . .

[Nnnngh. He pulls himself up into sitting on the mattress, running a hand through his hair and scowling up at the—ah, it's this guy—]

What the hell d'you—

[Wait! No! Stop! What if that counts as his question?! That'd be such a waste! He shuts himself up by biting down on his lip hard enough to hurt, which serves the dual purpose of bringing him back into his own body a little, too.

A little. He needs some time.

It's really hard to think right now about strategy when it comes to asking only one question. Is this guy trustworthy? He can't ask that, that's another waste—he'll just say yes even if it's not! This is like that crap with the dude who always lies and the dude who always tells the truth! He never did figure that riddle out!

But he doesn't have forever to just sit here, either. And one of the foremost questions in his mind would at least be useful information to have, if he can get it:]

—Why'd Mosley even shove us down here in the first place?

[The landing's a lot softer than he was expecting, not that he could complain. Or would, considering his current state of mind. Ryuuga pulls himself up, ignoring the pain shooting through his sword arm.

It takes him a moment to even realize who - or what - is speaking to them. When he does, though, his eyes narrow, gaze surprisingly penetrating. Answers sound great right about now.]

What exactly are we "helping" with?

[There is a rather undignified and ladylike squeal as they fall. Though luckily the landing is not nearly so bad as she was expecting, a much softer and more comfortable surface at the bottom than she had anticipated. But that still doesn't mean much. They are still trapped, and now unable to get back up, as far as she can tell. Usagi sits up a little more, looking around and trying to ensure the others are alright when that voice speaks.]

Go? Back to Cerealia? That's what we've been trying to do all along since we were pushed down here! But what about Saber.....? All of us -- even her, we're getting back.

[ Ugh this is just...not their day, wth. Shigure lands on the mattress with a soft huff as he scrambles to his feet in somewhat of a dazed shock. It's only when he notices the creepy robot. His expression is guarded even before it claims they can ask a question. He's not really sure what he wants to ask though... ]

Why was the room we just came from in the sewers?

[ It's one of the biggest mysteries he could think of to ask about. ]

[ The robot looks thoughtful for a moment, as if trying to think of how to answer those questions -- because now everyone has asked them. (Sorry Usagi.) ]

Okay.

To help me.

You're helping me learn as much as I can so I can get my people back and help you go home.

She's dead. She'll come back.

Because you're underground. CERES hides things underground far outside of Cerealia's borders. I don't have access to all of it, neither does Mosley. This is the best we can do.

[ After that, it shakes his head. No more questions. That's it. One question each. So instead, it snaps its fingers -- and everyone's code glitches out.

They'll all glitch right back into their own rooms, as if they had never left, aside from all of the additional trauma now. Congrats! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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▶ CHECKPOINT TWO.SAV

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