((@King Normal talismans can't be changed into Outburst bombs, as they're intrinsically different things. Apologies, it was probably a poor idea on my part to make Tooru's Outburst create bombs that are so similar to her basic totem. Like a lot of ambiguous and irrelevant details, she can specify to create Outburst bombs which look like other things without increasing their cost, though they have to be rigid and at least a little hefty. A large phone bomb is possible, a marble or noodle bomb isn't.))"I'm sorry I'm so rough, Asha. I know I'm not in good shape, though, we should try to finish this up quickly and properly."
"But do let me go first. If something jumps out at us, I'll knock its block off." With that, Alida holds up her bat. and hits the chandelier, trying to knock off a small metal bit to hold in the other hand. (No CC, please.) Before picking it up, though, she looks at the bit of cake in her left hand.
"You know, I think this is probably safe after both you and Mina looked at it. I'm going to take a bite, and then the rest of you can eat the rest."
Bite the cake. Proceed into the hidden room, if Mina doesn't detect a trap in it, picking up the metal bit after giving the bit of cake around. Take the lead position, unless someone else specifically volunteers.
[Bravery]
Confident that the chandelier isn't dangerous, you pick out a piece that looks like it would make for an effective shiv, and which is already half-broken from the chandelier's fall. It's somewhat awkward to reach with your bat, especially without risking cutting yourself on any of the other rusty edges, but after a minute of careful maneuvering, you find a good position to whack at it from. You only have to hit it firmly three times before the metal comes loose, and then you pull it from the tangle of metal limbs with the tip of your bat. You're just about to pick it up when you remember that you're still carrying around a piece of cake in your other hand. You stare at the piece of pastry for a couple seconds, before shrugging and announcing that it's probably safe to eat.
[Purity]
The moment the cake hits your tongue, your eyes go wide. It tastes like marshmallow with a undertone of chocolate, and just a hint of banana. But it's more than that--delicious, far moreso than anything you've ever tasted before, far more delicious than anything has any
right to be. You're filled with regret the moment you swallow the piece of cake, its flavor fading fast, and you can't resist taking another bite immediately, only to foolishly forget to savor it, as well. In seconds, you've eaten all of it, and start licking the last bits of marshmallow off of your hand. Soon, all that is gone, too, and you mournfully stare at your spotless fingers, holding them out in front of you.
You flex your fingers, a smile coming unbidden to your face as you watch your skin distort with the motion. Behind them, the wall and door, filled with previously meaningless color, starts to shift, the streaks and shades swimming around each other, chaotic but purposeful, like a shoal of rainbow fish struggling and dancing together, some swimming between your outstretched fingers, hiding from the predators above and around, their scales sparkling in the light like disco balls as they flee the doors and retreat to the shouting waterfalls. You blink, and stare at the massive door, now so obvious as so many tiny fish struggle through the seams; She's on the other side, waiting for you to come and kill Her. Your smile turns predatory, and you walk forward, pulling the door open and readying your club.
It's a new environment outside, open and wide, a dark sky full of warm diamond suns smiling down on you, you and the butlers of this world, both of them watching you with the eyes in their ties as their writhing flesh laughs in mockery at the empty plastic smiling faces behind them disappear into their winged golden chariot, the doors wide and inviting as the butlers wave you in to invite you to Her home in the sky where She sings down to you, Her soundless voice mellifluous and mournful, calling you to Her with a song that reverberates through your soul and causes teardrops to fall and pockmark the earth, tiny craters that shout like drums as they're created to emphasize Her cries before the sad water flows into a whirlpool of tears.
You step forward, confidently, watching the faces crawl from the water and pile into the chariot, porcelain angels waltzing everywhere around as beautiful shining fairies flutter and laugh and sing through the air and distract the large winged people which stream and flutter in the wind that's battering your shoulders and sending your hair wrapping around your face, scratching like tiny biting snakes growing from your brain and pulling you back.
Why... why would you go back? She's close, the golden chariot will take you to Her, then you can beat Her! She's so close!"Oh, I guess we're not using my idea." Tooru deflated slightly at that, but cheered right up as she followed the rest of the group. As she walked, she considered what had happened in the last few fights she'd been in. She'd definitely had more impact when she threw talismans instead of just shooting magic from her hands, as cool as that was. Tooru took on a comical expression of intense focus for a moment, and formed three more talismans out of magic in her hand.
[Creativity]You hop over the balcony's railing with Mina, landing near Alida, who's inspecting the broken chandelier. You leave her to that, and look around at the rest of the room while you wait for Aleksandra and Asha to come down. There isn't much to see, no furniture, and no more doors... though, when you turn to watch Asha making her way down the stairs, you notice something out of the ordinary. To the right, under the stairs and behind the wide waterfall, there's a section of the wall that's been ripped away from the stone behind it. You walk closer, and realize that it's another door, but it's been broken in half, the top half having fallen to the ground, and revealing bare stone. Why would there be a door which opened into a stone wall...? Are there others?
You search for more doors, scanning the wall under the balcony while walking just outside the waterfall, and you eventually spot another door, this one intact, and nearly impossible to see through the distortion of the waterfall. Soon you see a second one, and you're about to announce your findings when you hear Alida announce that she's going to eat the cake she's been carrying around, and then share what remains. You turn to look, and watch as she devours all the cake ravenously, before spacing out and staring at her hand, as if she doesn't understand where her food went. Then she clumsily ambles over to the large door, pulls it open, and steps through without another word. That... was uncharacteristic of her, even if Alida
is kind've a bitch. The others rush after her immediately, and you follow while
summoning a handful of paper talismans into your hands.
((Thanks for the turn by the way, keep up the good work!))
This echo of a reminiscence was sweet, with a tinge of a something she didn't want to dwell upon. It would only spoil her mood, Asha knew it. With her mood lifted up a bit, Asha descended the stairs to get to Alida's position.
<Follow me Aleksandra!>
She enjoyed the happy thought for the short duration of the descent, after which she buried it and returned to her usual gloomy behavior. She stopped a few steps behind Alida who stood before the chandelier.
"Did you find anything?"
Regardless of the answer, Asha's mind wandered toward the tall door. Her intuition was telling her that opening this door would get them closer to the Witch. And then finally she could prove her worth, yes. Calm down, let's not be reckless. she thought to herself. She voiced her thoughts, hardly able to keep her eagerness to face the Witch in check.
"I think we should follow the clayman past these doors, the Witch must be close."
Suggest going past the doors once everyone is ready.
You take the long way down to the bottom floor, walking down the stairs with Aleksandra while the others just leap over the railing, like Alida did. The detour isn't a problem, though; Alida's still fiddling with the chandelier by the time you get down, Tooru's off looking at the long waterfall flowing down from the balcony, and Mina's just spacing out again, emptily staring into space as if she's not even present. You chat with Aleksandra while you wait for the others to finish with their various... uh,
tasks, until Alida announces that she's going to try her cake, and then... eats all of it herself. You're immediately worried about her, and ask her why she did that, only for you to be ignored as your friend just stands there and stares at her hand. She starts walking away without answering, and you start to follow, before noticing that she didn't pick up the bit of metal that she'd been working on freeing from the chandelier. You hurriedly pick it up before rushing after her, catching up just after she steps through the big door.
Everyone leaves the room shortly after Alida, but they all stop immediately after leaving the threshold--
the music returns instantly, now deafeningly loud, sounding like it's coming from just above. Everyone save for Alida--who seems utterly unaffected--claps their hands over their ears, and Aleksandra even falls to her knees grimacing. Once they can concentrate enough to look around, they see that Alida is slowly walking towards an elongated yellow taxi, which appears to be crafted from paper-mache of all things, and with six massive white wings furled on top of the roof. A pair of clay people, one male and the other female, are standing on the other side of the vehicle staring over it at the girls, while a third, his left sleeve ripped off, and his left arm thin and emaciated, holds open a door, smoke wafting out of the open door. Alida is walking uncertain and slow, but she's clearly heading for the door.
On the other side, a train of normal people are walking towards the taxi, some of them already climbing in. Behind them there's a wooden pier which stretches out over a lake, another boat like the one the girls followed into the labyrinth, apparently having just finished disgorging its loads of passengers. A fourth clay person, another woman, is pushing the boat away from the pier. The lake is in the center of a massive circular ash plain, enclosed by many flowers of assorted colors. Everywhere the girls look, there's ruined buildings, all smaller than the mansion behind them, and most in far worse shape. Few have so much as
portions of all four walls still standing, and most don't even have two. All around the ruins, more skeletal winged unicorn familiars slowly sway to the music. There's too many to count; tens, at least, perhaps more than a hundred, they're
everywhere. Specks of glowing light drift through the air too, filling the air, drifting around on nonexistent winds that nobody can see or feel.
Looking up, the front wall of the mansion is mostly intact, reaching as far as halfway up the second story. The music is clearly coming from just on the other side. Above, the sky has virtually no clouds left; it's just a wide orange field of too-large, alien stars. It looks brighter than it did before, as if the sun is even closer to rising, though it can't be seen yet.
((Next update on Thursday the 15th. For real this time. Current labyrinth track is The Beatles - A Day in the Life (Instrumental).))Soul Gem: shiny!
Form and location: shapy and pinned...?
Age: enough
Hair Color: baby blondie
Health: reaaallyy awesooommmeee
Inventory: a stik and some AWESOME ASS SHOES
Totem: clubbing club for clubbing fishies
Stats:
Bravery: wow~
Joy: yeah!
Innocence: kay...
Purity: kay...
Mercy: yeah!
Creativity: awww ;-;
Love: awww ;-;
Abilities:
hopping Lvl2
hitting Lvl3+1
clubbing Lvl2
AHAHAHAHAHA! Lvl3 ON; OW! (easy now)
(❂‿❂) Lvl2
memememe Lvl1
Soul Gem: Glowing with a Vibrant light.
Form and location: Ring, worn on her left ring finger.
Age: 13
Hair color: Ashen
Health: Fine, if very wet! And covered in asha!
Inventory: One ribbon. And a long rusty metal shiv, salvaged from a broken chandelier.
Totem: A Ribbon. The one her late sister wore.
Stats:
Bravery: Skilled!
Joy: Cursed ;-;
Innocence: Cursed ;-;
Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Talented~
Creativity: Amateur...
Love: Skilled!
Abilities:
Mobility: Level 3
Close Combat: Level 2
Totem Manipulation: Level 1 (+1)
Heal and Steel: Level 2 (Active: Next attack rolls on Mercy)
Soothe: Level 3
Flagellation: Level 3
Memento: Level 1 (Given to Aleksandra)
Soul Gem: Glowing with a warm light.
Form and location: Ring, worn on her right index finger.
Age: 14.
Hair Color: Bright green.
Health: Dazed, a bit bruised from her fall, and covered in ash.
Inventory: A halberd! Which I can't stop visualizing as a Black Knight Glaive!
Totem: A halberd.
Stats:
Bravery: Amateur...
Joy: Skilled!
Innocence: Amateur...
Purity: Skilled!
Mercy: Cursed ;-;
Creativity: Talented~
Love: Cursed ;-;
Abilities:
Mobility: Level 2
Close-Combat: Level 2 (+1)
Regeneration: Level 2
Sixth Sense: Level 3
Semblance: Level 2
Projection: Level 2
Soul Gem: Glowing with a shadowed light.
Form and location: Necklace, worn around her... neck...
Age: 13
Hair Color: Bright scarlet.
Health: Fine! Somehow dry aside from her feet, but very ashy.
Inventory: Seven paper talismans
Totem: Ofuda talismans, primarily thrown as manabolts.
Stats:
Bravery: Cursed ;-;
Joy: Talented~
Innocence: Skilled!
Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Cursed ;-;
Creativity: Amateur...
Love: Skilled!
Abilities:
Mobility II
Mana Bolt III (+I)
Regeneration I
Totem Manipulation II
Invigorating Passion I
Outburst II
Duet with Reality II
Ward: Glowing with a foolish light!
Age: 12
Hair Color: Black.
Health: Fine, though her ears still hurt. Also, she's drenched.
Inventory: A cute blue ribbon tied into her hair, and an ancient partially-loaded AK-47 held in her hands. She's wearing Alida's coat, it's a bit big and baggy for her, not to mention somewhat ratty... but it's surprisingly comfortable.
Stats:
Bravery: Skilled!
Joy: Skilled!
Innocence: Talented~
Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Cursed ;-;
Creativity: Cursed ;-;
Love: Amateur...