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Lighteria
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Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Lighteria » Sat Apr 26, 2008 3:32 pm

There's certain advantages and disadvantages to floating around as an amorphous swarm of tiny flickering elemental lights.

The obvious advantage of this is immunity to the horribly annoying heat of the zone. The next advantage is being incredibly hard to damage in this form. The army of fire elementals, having spent most of today's combat playing fun rounds of Get Your Face Smashed In, thier SP remains at a blessedly low level, I.E. zip. Without any sort of spells in their arsenal, the elementals are forced to resort to little more than waving their fists around in a vaguely threatening manner and occasionally smacking around a random powerful player until their head caves in. Despite the amusing nature of this back and forth death blowing, the oppressive field type combined with the lack of any semblance of patience or collectiveness of the freedom fighters pretty much ensures that having a cute, drawn put battle that last a while isn't going to happen. So with all the mercy of a five year old holding a magnifying glass near an ant, the team wails on the small army of fire elementals until there's literally only ash remaining.

With the bastard resurrection orbs down for the count and all the elementals taking a nice, pleasant trip to deletionville, the fighting is essentially over. Luckily, instead of floating around cluelessly, Lighteria is able to grasp the essentials of what's happening on the field by sense alone. After all, it's not like Lighteria passes out while he's in aura form, he retains complete consciousness. The only stipulation of that though is that his consciousness is split into several dozen separate peices. To say this makes it hard to figure out what's going on is a bit like saying that the ocean is mildly damp, luckily Lighteria has been splitting for a good while now and splitting up like this isn't quite the confusing jumble as it once was. Though it's much easier to let the natural will of the element guide his actions. the twin blade is still in control of his actions while floating around. It's this reason that, instead of floating around and making life miserable for anything that's particularly fire-oriented, approximately a dozen orbs start floating slowly towards Sheena's ghostly form, most likely guided by the same part of Lighteria that brought him into this field. Though it takes a good fifteen seconds of seemingly random and uncomfortably close contact with the orbs, the tiny, blue sparkles of light enter Sheena’s lifeless body. Unfortunately for her, this also means that some of his broken thoughts enter her head as well.

…Don’t want to be here… …It’s hot as hell… …I’m truly scared… …Can we really do anything to save him-?... …she didn’t notice…

Annoying as it sounds to be subjected to those thoughts, it fortunately doesn’t last very long. Somewhere inside her prone body the orbs begin to crackle with energy. Seemingly taking turns, each blue orb inside her sparks and infuses her prone form with the small portion of life energy they carry. After every last orb inside her sparks their last, a sudden beam of light shoots from her back in a frenzied exhumation of the orbs. The lifeless black dots float just above her back as her form is restored with a semi-healthy dose of about 30 HP, not a lot, but enough to get her up from the dead and not instantaneously die from the heat again.

With that done though, Lighteria sets about on the semi-arduous task of reforming himself back to a person again. The orbs take their sweet time closing in from wherever they were randomly floating about, but a good minute is all it takes for the orbs to reach a single point and flash a bright blue, leaving Lighteria standing there, slightly dazed and glowing a dull gray throughout a few parts of his body from the orb death. He blinks, looks up, fixes his hair and proceeds to throw up his hand in the air dispassionately. “La Repth” he says quietly, healing up whoever happens to be in close range.
Lv. 37 Twin Blade (180 SP)
Weapon: Rashou (Thunder Coil- 30, Suvi Lei- 20, Mumyn Lei- 30) (Life Drain)
Armor: Holy Tree Mail (Juk Kruz- 20) - Scarab Earring (La Repth- 20, Rip Maen- 40) - Time Sandals (Ap Do- 15) - Forest Gloves (Juk Kruz- 20)
GP: 14384

Wish list (In order of priority): Angel halo accessory, chibi angel wings, Bone Armor, Professional

Lighteria: "Obsessively updating my profile since Fri Oct 01, 2004 7:10 pm"

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Nighthand
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Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Nighthand » Sun Apr 27, 2008 7:51 am

Nighthand was barely dead for more than a few moments before a res was dropped on him, the black-flamed twin blade delivering it with a quip. It turned out, though, that his power was no longer needed. As the elementals were raised, they were just as quickly put down, almost the entire party focusing their attacks to keep them dead before they could do more damage. Dien took out the last of the orbs, and the resurrections stopped; and that was that.

”Thanks.” Nighthand said to the twin blade that had raised him. Nothing more seemed necessary to him, and his thoughts were troubled. This was the gate guard, the door keep… what awaited them inside? A veritable army could be just behind that door, and they would have to power through that as well. Did they even have the strength to work their way to the bottom, let alone to escape?

Those aren’t the kind of thoughts to be having. You’re going to, and that’s that. That’s true… but it’s still a valid worry, something to prepare for. You were never one to prepare much, why are you changing? Isn’t that my job, anyways? Yeah, but… I don’t know. Introspective lately.

In any case, Nighthand, now healed and with a now-clear field before him, set about the task of reviving and healing everyone. After that melee, they needed it.

0---------------------------------------------0


Dead? I don’t have time to be dead! I need to get in there NOW, fuck all of these weakling monsters! Why didn’t that door open? I knew I should have just hacked my way in, forget being noticed! I can handle them all!

Sheena was raging even as a ghost. Her rage was, however, severely less effective without the ability to physically attack anything, door or otherwise. She could only watch helplessly as she was left, disregarded, in the middle of the battle while the party handled it around her. It gave her time to calm down, to handle her emotions and get them under control once more. She wasn’t exactly back to her chipper self, but she was sober.

Somehow, the party would find that more disquieting than either her anger or her happiness.

Only once the battle was over was she finally brought back to the realm of the physical, though the method was somewhat sparser than a resurrect would have been. A side effect of Lighteria’s hack, it seemed. She briefly had the urge to talk to him, to study his Twilight ability to learn just that much more about how the virus worked. The urge passed, though, and she found herself left watching the newly-reformed twin blade, the lingering echo of his thoughts in her mind. …Don’t want to be here… shouldn’t have to be here …It’s hot as hell… heat hurts more than the body …I’m truly scared… if I’m not afraid I must not understand …Can we really do anything to save him-?... icannotletthemhavehimineedtosavehim …she didn’t notice……what? Her gaze, which was just breaking away from Lights to turn to the door, snapped back to him. She didn’t notice… all of them were here for her, to help her rescue Nall. This one… he cared more about her than about Nall, but why? Was he just trying to save her? Was he trying to catch her eye? She had no interest in love, within the game, and resolved to tell him off if she needed to. She couldn’t afford for him to pursue her and be distracted.

Catching sight of her looking at him, Lighteria jumped, unaccustomed to the attention. He fidgeted, wringing his hands, his mouth struggling to form words, which eventually emerged as a question. “ah-uh, you ok?”

She nodded, unusually silent, and turned away. Calm now, heedless of the heat in her stoicism, she approached the door. The pattern of gemstones was dull, finally, but there still appeared to be no way inside. She reached out and gave the massive stone slab an experimental shove, but it didn’t move. So, she looked beyond it, at the code… or rather, at the virus. Raine was the one that dealt with the code, after all; her purview was the virus. So, she had long ago given herself an extra sense, a sort of ebb and flow of the code, ruling out what was known game code and leaving it aside. The code eliminated was sadly limited, but it still gave her a more accurate feel of the virus than she would have had otherwise. That, combined with her long experience in dealing with the virus both directly and indirectly, gave her a sort of intuition about it.

While it wouldn’t directly help in this case, it gave her a feel of how the door was infected, and thus how it existed. It was sort of like a wireframe vision would be for a graphic designer; she could see a jumbled mess and sort of tell what it was supposed to be, once textures and such were applied. It revealed hidden aspects of the world around her. In this case, it revealed how the door operated. Which turned out to be exceedingly simple, if impossible for most normal players to be able to operate. She found it fairly likely that the King Elemental had been stationed there as more than a guard; it would also open the door for the hackers to enter and exit.

She reached down, to the ground that burned with excessive heat, and dug her fingers into the stone. The door was solid, but the ground under it was soft, for specifically this reason. She hooked her fingers under the rough stone edge of the door and heaved, all the force in her body cracking the seal on the door. With a heavy grinding noise, the door rose. At shoulder height, she shifted her grip abruptly, and shoved the door up as high as she could push it.

”Everyone inside, quickly!” She had no idea if the hackers could tell whether or not anyone was opening the door, but she knew if she kept it open too long someone would come by. Even so, she didn’t have to ask twice; the party was half inside before she even spoke.

Once everyone was inside, she dove forward, the several-foot-thick stone slab slamming into the ground with all the force of a mountain crashing down which, in effect, it was.

0---------------------------------------------0


It was pitch black inside, but the heat was sealed outside. A lot of it, anyways; it was still as hot as a dry desert afternoon, but the heat was no longer damagingly hot. After a few moments, as their eyes adjusted to the darkness, it proved that the inside wasn’t completely dark after all. The floor, the walls, even the ceiling were embedded with tiny crystals that shone with a clear, pristine, but very, very dim light. It seemed stronger in one direction than in any other, so Sheena and Nighthand had the same idea at the same time; follow.

The pair set off, and the rest of the party followed, and slowly the areas grew brighter until there was an ambient, shadowless lighting that coated their path. Large patches of darkness developed, though, and a quick inspection showed the reason why. In random places, the floor simply wasn’t there. A chill draft wafted up from the holes, but a kicked or dropped stone would never sound. They were pits, and for all intents and purposes, bottomless.

Soon the pits began to define the rooms almost as much as the walls did. Each room was surrounded by the holes, narrow at first, widening as they progressed until there was less room to walk than there was to fall. The rooms were still rooms, just like any other dungeon, however; four walls, a ceiling, a floor, mostly. No portals appeared, no monsters appeared; so far, nothing. At one point they crossed over a narrow bridge, a room little more than a walkway in the center of a pit. The next room widened, blissfully, and the room afterwards was whole.

The room after that was, apparently, their next challenge. An archway, brighter than the rest, stood at the end of the room, with a sealed door; the first they had seen. It was obviously linked, to Sheena’s coded view anyways, to the rest of the room in ways she could barely comprehend.

The rest of the room was more ornate than any they had passed through thus far, but it was still crude. Several pillars around the edges of the room were carved in vague likenesses of faces, various grimaces and angry expressions staring at them. Along the left wall was a line of statues half the height of a man, carved of various colored stones, slightly glowing. The colors were mentally tallied by the group, associated as they would; purple and red, yellow and white, a light and a dark blue, a green and a brown. Each of them was carved in an odd shape; clearly meant to be human-like, but with eight arms radiating out in equal directions, horizontally; left, right, front, back, and each half-between direction. Each ‘arm’ had a hand pointing palm-out, fingers-up, glowing slightly brighter.

The central portion of the room was dominated by a floor fixture different from any they had seen before. A series of squares lined the floor, roughly four feet to a side, with a stone rod in the center. There were eight squares in a row, and eight rows of squares, leading to a grid of alternating-colored squares. Closer inspection showed that half of the squares, grittily white, were covered in a layer of salt crystals, while the other half, black and dusty, were covered in soot.

Which left only one question… what to do now?

-------------------------ooc:

First off thanks to most of you for being patient with me in my harried and busy couple of weeks, and thanks to most of you for posting. Again, since I couldn’t post in the once-weekly schedule, I’m not counting it against those of you who didn’t post much more than normal.

The story is basically it was finals, plus moving, plus moving friends, plus moving MORE friends, and generally just a very busy and very hectic week in which posting was, really, lower on the list than it could have been. But, that’s pretty much over with now. I’ll still be helping to move a few people, but work is over for the summer, as are most classes. I’m still taking summer classes, but they won’t be as hectic as my other classes were. So… back to once-a-week posting for me. This being technically Sunday, I’ll shoot for posting next Sunday, probably in the evening that night.

By the way, Zhao and Raven. You two working together is good, very good. Teamwork is what I want as much as possible. On the other hand, posting basically the same post from two points of view is… redundant. What I suggest (and this goes for anyone scripting with anyone else) is to split the post in the middle, and one post half, while the other posts the other. Length suffers, but the quality and teamwork tends to make up for it. Tossing in some pre- or post- scripting actions solo can further expand it, and make for reasonably good posting.

…that said, it’s almost 4 a.m., so I’m going to stop rambling ooc-now. Poke at the puzzle and see what things do.

Phoenix512
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Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Phoenix512 » Thu May 01, 2008 2:02 am

In that moment, the battle was over. The others did their job and managed to take out the resurrecting gems. Phoenix did his best to deal with the King with minimum resources as he did not want to kill the King until the gems were dealt with. But once the gems were gone, his legs once again gave out and forced him to fall to the ground. Luckily for him, the King could not get revenge on him as Senna and Hacorie managed to deal enough damage to kill the King once and for all.

Phoenix cast La Repth on himself to regain the strength to get up and walk again. He sees Sheena brought back to the living once again. The blademaster thought it was a good thing that Sheena was unable to fight during the previous battle since her rage needed to cool down quite a bit. He notices the odd situation between Lighteria and Sheena. Poor Lighteria, I don’t think anything will deter Sheena’s loyalty to Nall.

Then Phoenix began to observe Sheena as she began to work on the door. He thought Sheena was just Raine and would open the door by some manipulation of code but the way Sheena just lifted the door open was too much for the blademaster. He was just shocked by that method that it took a couple of seconds before heading towards the open doorway.

Note to self: Don’t piss off Sheena in the future.

It was still hot inside of the volcanic fortress but it was a bit more manageable and less damaging. Phoenix was glad that they did not need to keep up the constant healing, using SP regeneration items, and Ap Vakzs. The inside of the fortress was filled with bottomless pits that appears to be use as a crude air conditioning system but it was more like a ceiling fan on high in a small apartment. It helped but at the same time, you were still hot. So far the Freedom Fighters have not encountered any monsters or Elite lackeys but that it did not mean they were going to get to Nall easily.

The Freedom Fighters’ next challenge was bypassing a sealed door. The room containing the door had seven pillars with various faces that various emotions being expressed around the edges of the room. Along the left side of the room, there were eight humanoid statues that each had eight arms pointing in each direction of the ordinate compass. There was a stone rod in the center of the room. A bit after that, there was a chess board like arrangement of salt and soot covered squares.

The blademaster examined the stone rod in the room and saw it was stuck into the floor. It was like a peg standing up. It could not be moved at all. Phoenix began to examine the salt and soot covered squares. He thought to himself that there was no way that this distribution was natural. It was too weird. Then he decided to try to move one of the statues to one of the salt-covered squares.

Phoenix decided to try moving the purple statue but then he noticed something else about the statue. There was a peg-shaped hole at the bottom of the statue. He realized that the hole is the same shape as the rod in the center of the room. The blademaster began to move the statue which took some effort since it was heavy. Once he got it close to the stone rod, he managed to lift the purple statue into the stone rod which once again took some effort to move it. Once the statue was placed into the rod, it slides down to the middle of the tile and nothing else happens. Okay, what’s the deal? Moving a heavy statue like this into a rod and nothing happens. I would expect something to happen. Maybe something happened to the salt tiles.

Phoenix places his foot onto one of the salt-covered squares but only his foot has some salt on it. He tried to move one of the arms on the statue but he found that he cannot move them. Then he tried multiple ways to place the statue into the rod but the result was the same. The arms are pointed along the lines and diagonals of the square layout. Then he had another idea.

The blademaster removed the purple statue from the rod and kept it nearby. Then he moved the red statue into the rod and once again, nothing happens. So he decided to remove the red statue and try the white statue into the rod. The same result has occurred and this made Phoenix frustrated. In a last ditch effort, he pushed the purple statue onto one of the salt-covered squares and nothing happen. Now he was tired from pushing and lifting statues back and forth. The blademaster need to rest a bit before putting his input back into the puzzle once more. Let’s see if the others could do better than I can.
Phoenix
Level 48 Blademaster
Equipped Skills: Vak Revolver, Gan Revolver, Dek Vorv, La Repth, Juk Kruz, Rue Kruz, BiVak Rom, GiGan Zot
Other Skills: Rue Kruz, Rip Synk, Rip Saem, Crack Beat, Rue Slash, Ani Slash, Gan Crack, Gan Revolver

Wish List: Phoenix's Fire, Gold Necklace
EX-Spheres: LV 3 - Overdrive, LV 3 - Curative, LV 3 - Elemental Breath

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Nighthand
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Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Nighthand » Thu May 01, 2008 3:25 am

(OOC: I see I need to clarify a few things since everyone has been asking the same questions.

There's not just one stone rod in the center of the room, there's one in the center of each tile. It's small and, once the holes in the bottoms of the statues are revealed, it's pretty obvious that the statues fit over the pegs in the center of each tile. I.e. they have places to sit in the center of the tiles so they won't move, tip, or whatnot.

Also, I was going to wait until the next stage of the puzzle was discovered to do this but I might as well now; keep track of what squares you're putting statues on. Use this:

Image

Where across the top it's numbered 1-8 and down the side it's lettered A-H. Figure the black squares are the soot ones and the white squares are the salt ones.

The squares themselves are the 4' by 4' objects, making the whole a 31' x 32' field. Also, though it's relatively unimportant, there are seven of the pillars.)

Phoenix512
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Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Phoenix512 » Tue May 06, 2008 4:15 am

As Phoenix was resting his energy, his eyes were slowly closing. Then he suddenly heard a loud voice. “Kazuma, WAKE UP!”

Suzaku, is that you?

Phoenix did not see Suzaku or the puzzle room at all. He looked around and found himself in an empty classroom. Well for the most part, there was a beautiful girl in a high school uniform. It was Yui but Phoenix himself did not know that. He could not place the girl as she was a part of the memories that were sealed long ago. He could not figure out why he was able to see this memory now.

Yui slammed her fists on Kazuma’s desk which force the boy to fully paid attention to her. “Finally about goddamn time, Kazuma. Seriously, I was about to hit you if you weren’t about to wake up. What’s the point of studying here if you are going to sleep all the time?”

“Sorry. So what you were about to teach me, oh great Sensei?”

Yui give him a sigh before pulling out a book and placing it on Kazuma’s desk. The book opened up to a page show a diagram. It was three circles interlocking with one another. The top circle was red, the left circle was green, and the right circle was blue.

“Kazuma, the three primary colors are red, green, and blue. When red and green mixed, yellow is formed. Green and blue formed cyan. While red and blue create purple. When all three of them mixed together, you get white.”

“I get it now. Thanks…”

Before Kazuma could say the girl’s name, the classroom faded away and the puzzle room returns to Phoenix’s field of vision. What was that? A memory from my past. That girl seems to know me so well but at the same time, so scary. The lesson of the colors look like it could help out with the current situation.

Phoenix noticed that there were eight statues with seven of the colors mention in the memory. Only brown was the only color that was not in the memory. Since there were seven pillars, maybe it was a clue to use to just use only seven of the statues. Now the next part was going to be tough, where to place the statues? The blademaster walked around the huge empty chess board of salt and soot and determine where he should place the statues.

Since no one else has tried anything else with the statues, Phoenix began to move the statues on his own accord. He moved the statues to the following positions: Red – F5, Yellow – G4, White – G5, Purple – G6, Green – H3, Light Blue – H5, and Blue – H7. Once he placed the final statue, nothing happened once again. The blademaster began to think that maybe all eight statues are required to make something happened. So he decided on to move the brown statue to A1 so it would not hit the other seven statues. Once the eighth and final statue was in placed, something major happened.

Each of the eight statues began to emit lasers shine from each hand which radiate out in the directions the arms pointed towards. All of the statues except the brown one explode with the power of a non-elemental level 2 rom spell which was wide enough to cover the entire room. The power of the spell was focused at the center of the statues which for Phoenix was extremely unlucky for him. The blademaster ended up taking most of the damage and barely survive the triggered effect. After the spells of death died down, all eight of the statues are returned to the side of the room.

Phoenix began to cast La Repth enough times to heal him along with everyone else since they were caught in the spell area as well. Before anyone could snap at him, he struck first.

“Don’t say it. At least I’m trying to solve it. There isn’t anything that would give us a clue to solve it. So trial and error is the only thing we have at this point. At least we know not place all statues on the board until we have a good idea on what the solution is.”

The blademaster was still feeling the pain from the trap but at least, he was doing something. He played the role of the front line attacker so well right now. So what now? Maybe that girl can help me again… Or on second thought, I don’t want to die.

Image
Phoenix
Level 48 Blademaster
Equipped Skills: Vak Revolver, Gan Revolver, Dek Vorv, La Repth, Juk Kruz, Rue Kruz, BiVak Rom, GiGan Zot
Other Skills: Rue Kruz, Rip Synk, Rip Saem, Crack Beat, Rue Slash, Ani Slash, Gan Crack, Gan Revolver

Wish List: Phoenix's Fire, Gold Necklace
EX-Spheres: LV 3 - Overdrive, LV 3 - Curative, LV 3 - Elemental Breath

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Lighteria
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Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Lighteria » Wed May 07, 2008 3:11 pm

It's the little things that can really make a difference. You can be on the same, miserable field and feel ten times better when there's not a veil of horrible, blistering heat. Despite having to essentially duck under a mountain and fight an army to get in here, the struggle on the outside of the gate was well worth it to get a moment's respite from the temperature. Of course, that doesn't exactly erase the fact that the twin blade hideously embarrassed himself not a few moments ago. Sheena may only have given him a long, awkward glance and a nod but if it had been any colder Lighteria would need to step outside to warm up. Though he could hardly fault her for that. He had acted like a reckless idiot and on top of that he's pretty sure Sheena may have heard a random thought or two while he'd been reviving her. Though Lighteria really can't control what thoughts go through, it doesn't make it any less embarrassing when they do.

So you know what? No. The little things don't mean crap when something that BIG is bringing you down. Lighteria hasn't had near enough experience with possessing an actual person with his orbs to know what the heck thoughts are being transferred and Sheena's face wasn't exactly telling apart from 'not pleased'. Which is just perfect really, it's definitely good for the twin blade's rapidly dwindling self confidence to think he's embarrassed himself. Add that to the depression he was feeling before he even came into the field and you have a player that really doesn't feel like admiring the scenery right now... as pretty and somewhat scary as it is.

The oddly-lit hallways pass by in a haze for the player. It's only when they reach the strange archway and.... game... board? That Lighteria starts taking notice of the scenery. Statues, pegs and what looks like a checkerboard. It's odd, for sure, but screw figuring out how to get through the puzzle. It's high time to mope around. The twin blade sighs and sits next to the archway in a slump, head down and chest deflated.

Why do I never listen to my better instincts lately? It's not like I do any good round here. The group was able to handle things without me before, I don't see why they're dragging me along with them now either.
I can't even... ...I can't even save ...
...Do I even deserve to get out of this game? I've actually helped kill someone. What the hell good am I if I can't stop a real person from getting ki-


*BANG* The room is rocked by explosions from the chess pieces. Apparently Phoenix took an initiative in solving the puzzle. Something the twin blade could hardly fault him for... until the explosion smacked his face into the archway.

"Holy s^#@ that hurt!" Lighteria states, rubbing the back of his head and getting up from his slouch. He immediately blushes from having cursed aloud of course and covers his mouth, making a face as though he'd just uttered the Nine Incantations of You Doomed Us All. It's a laughable reaction considering how tame the language actually is, but it's bad enough for Lighteria to turn as red as a beet. The moment does present an opportunity to really give the room the look around while everyone is healed up by an apologetic Phoenix, the twin blade scanning for looks of disgust from his language.

Eh? The statues are back on the wall? That was freaky. I thought I saw their hands glowing for a second. ...
...8 hands... wait a sec. Maybe this isn't checkers.


"Um... just a warning. I'm gonna try something too." The twin blade announces with an almost heartbreaking amount of meekness.

Ok, 8 hands. And there's 8 directions you can move on a checker board like this from any one square. That's kind of like a king or a queen in a chess game. ...From the look of what happened it looks like the hands want to avoid the other pieces. That's... rather hard to do but I'm pretty sure it's possible.

The twin blade spends a good while figuring out where exactly to place things, drawing a small replica of the board in the soot with his blade to keep track of his thoughts.

...Ok, I think I've got it. All that's left is to pick up the statues and move them into right place. Easy as pi- OMGTHAT'SHEAVY.

Lighteria's face turns an amusing shade of bright red as he lifts the statue. His small stature and relatively low strength makes the movement a real chore. Of course, the twin blade would rather chew rocks with soot sauce then ask for people's help. How embarrassing would THAT be? ...Probably not as embarrassing as the spectacle of him moving them by himself, but Lighteria's logic is clear in this point. Communication is far more embarrassing than making a fool of yourself.

How it eventually ends up:
Image

Nighthand edit: This is the correct solution, a post will be coming later tonight.
Lv. 37 Twin Blade (180 SP)
Weapon: Rashou (Thunder Coil- 30, Suvi Lei- 20, Mumyn Lei- 30) (Life Drain)
Armor: Holy Tree Mail (Juk Kruz- 20) - Scarab Earring (La Repth- 20, Rip Maen- 40) - Time Sandals (Ap Do- 15) - Forest Gloves (Juk Kruz- 20)
GP: 14384

Wish list (In order of priority): Angel halo accessory, chibi angel wings, Bone Armor, Professional

Lighteria: "Obsessively updating my profile since Fri Oct 01, 2004 7:10 pm"

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Senna
Awakened Player
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Joined: Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:28 pm

Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Senna » Thu May 08, 2008 3:01 pm

The darkness within the building was vault-like, but not complete. Even if it were, it wouldn’t have been too terrible – it was a fear faced down, that. The others were here. If there was blame from them, she trusted them to say so.

As it was, they followed the slightest of differences in illumination toward what future, they could only guess. They could see one another though, see the path, see large spots of darkness like liquid shadows on the ground.

It was in passing too near to one of these latter that she felt the wafting breath of a cold draft on her arm, causing her to shiver – and not from cold. They weren’t shadows, they were pits, holes in the ground which constantly exhaled as though the earth itself were letting out a giant, silent moan. She hurried her steps a little, steering herself away from the hole, then paused. She could feel the pulse of her heartbeat through her whole body, hammering away as though it wished to burst right out of her, or burst within her.

One fear overcome and another to be faced, it seemed. But this beast, no matter how many times it reared its head, continued to hold sway over her. Tightening her hands around her spear, she began to walk slowly forward, following the group.

Before long, her progress had slowed to a near-literal crawl – at least it seemed so in her mind. In truth it seemed she was keeping up with the group, though situated near the back. In her head though, she had her eyes tightly focused on each step, on the solid ground, until the rest of the room with its pits and voids faded into the stars at the edge of her vision. Every movement seemed to take frightfully long. Head down, she just kept plugging away. Don’t look, don’t look, just don’t look…

But it kept getting worse, as though the progression of rooms were plucked out of her nightmares. There was more void and less floor until at last, they came to the pinnacle, the height of this monstrous balancing game

This time she could not avoid seeing the pit. Briefly she thought it was all there was, and that her fellow Freedom Fighters were walking on nothingness, a path which could certainly not hold her up as well. But then the closest of them started across and she could see the narrow ledge they had been given to cross on.

She balked momentarily at the edge. This… she couldn’t. This was worse than Dun Loireag, worse than the plane, worse than being caught up in the tree, worse than the pit at the first hub. There was no choice and there was nowhere to look that she did not see that endless dark yawning at her.

Shaking her head, she forced the first step. The second. Her vision was a series of lines – black at the outside and the strip of walkway in the center. Every step wobbled it out of focus briefly. She had her spear held at an angle so it wouldn’t be too obvious she was using it as a balance and hoped Dien, who was behind her, wouldn’t get TOO annoyed at the pace.

It might have been okay – slow, but okay. She was partway across, her mind repeating over and over the words Left foot, left foot, left foot, good. Good. Good. Good. Right foot, right foot, right foot, right foot, good. Good. Good. Left foot…

And so it was going when someone up ahead scuffed a rock off the side of the walkway, or perhaps knocked a bit of it loose by their passing. The stone pinged off the side of the walkway and went dropping out into space.

She couldn’t help it. At the sound, she stopped moving and her eyes went to where she’d heard it last, then out into the blackness, listening, straining to hear something. But there was nothing, second after second after second. The rock just fell and fell and fell, like the quarter in the House of Leaves that went through the earth and more. She couldn’t stop watching the way the pit’s blackness layered upon itself over and over, hiding the stone, swallowing it, obliterating it. It was Rilke, the long dark of the endless fall, everything and nothing. Her thoughts couldn’t stop spinning, bits of poems, songs, voices, brought up in trance behind eyes held captive and drawn closer by that nothing.

Closer.

((OOC: So, yeah, this is why Senna’s not in the room and complaining about stuff like usual. A lead-in to some already complete scripting. Never thought I’d get this much mileage out of one character point.))
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Dien
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Part 4

Post by Dien » Sat May 10, 2008 4:02 am

What was that?

Really, this was not the main question on his mind, but definitely the loudest at the moment. Something had happened to him during the fight. He’d suddenly gained a pride, fury, and arrogance that he’d never had before: something had caused him to become indignant of the crystal’s rejection of his concept of reality, almost. It scared him. Was this what it meant to be an Emissary of Vulcan?

What do you wish to know?” He could feel the twinge in his stomach: the man’s voice had been thoroughly unexpected. Sitting here as a ghost with his back against the wall next to the door, his mind was still numb from the encounter with Marionette’s perspective, the sudden appearance of someone new had been the farthest thing from his mind. He uttered a sigh out of simple exhaustion and frustration before speaking.

“For one,” he began, turning to the figure who had formed next to him, but slightly surprised by what he saw. The man existed as nothing more than a lit haze that very barely resembled a human in its shape. Yet somehow eyes and a mouth were clearly distinguishable from the rest, giving his head a very clear face. After the surprise cleared, he continued, “what exactly happened to me?”

It is understandable that you are unaware of what transpired to save your life,” he said, his ‘lips’ unmoving, “after all, when the deity intervened, you were on the brink of death. That girl Cait argued and pleaded with the deity with such a passion that it swayed him to motion. Taking the last scraps of your data, he raised you from the ashes in Flame. In that furnace, your power was deemed too great for any one Emissary to hold, as it could one day rival that of Vulcan himself, and so from you were born five incarnations. We-

“I’m sorry,” Dien cut him off, “but I was talking about back there. The rock—I exploded against it.” The incarnation’s head turned slightly, still not looking directly at Dien or at the King as his power was finally put to rest. It seemed to take a moment for him to connect with exactly what the blademaster was talking about, almost as though it knew all too intimately how this power worked, but couldn’t figure out what he was talking about.

Do you speak of the Ignition?

“Say I was,” he responded, “what is that?”

The Ignition is Steed’s territory,” the apparition replied, turning its head back to the girl who now searched the field, “it is the power granted by the deity to dispense his wrath against those who would oppose him.” He paused, watching as Nighthand began to dispense healing and revival where it was needed. “I haven’t much time,” he said, “it is clear that you still have much to learn. When the task at hand has been completed, I will lead you to where you can be adequately taught.” All at once, the blademaster’s body (and, it seemed, the stifling heat) was returned to him, and the incarnation was gone. Rising slowly to his feet as Sheena lifted the door, he let his stride lengthen so the rest of the crowd could get in front of him and quickly inside.
__________

It was dark. Despite the ambient light around them that poured in through tiny beads in the material that made up the caverns, the lighting was still dim. Almost like the star room, Dien thought as the door finally shut and his eyes adjusted to the lack of light. Still, the group had a general forward-moving trend, and so without lingering in the entryway at all, they had already started moving forward. In echoes, the footsteps and comments of the rest of the crowd came back to him, and he followed suit.

After two or three rooms, someone shouted something ahead which he couldn’t quite make out. Shrugging it off as he’d likely figure it out for himself, he continued on, his shadow following behind the others that glided forward. But one of the shadows had stopped, standing still and beginning to lean over—shit. He didn’t know what to make of it, but the fact that there was a lack of glowy stone stood no chance of being good, and it was very likely that one of his party-mates was suffering acrophobia or vertigo. Hell, he thought, stepping quickly to whoever it was and attempting to grab their arm.

But arms weren’t that sof- oh hell. In an instant his hand recoiled, ashamedly pulling away from the object it had just found and returning to his side. He was almost positive that the heat that poured out his cheeks was visible in the low light of the caves. Seriously, of all the people on the field who it could’ve been, why was the one person who was deathly afraid of heights also the only girl?! A quiet swear was uttered, before he spoke up.

“Shit,” he said, “sorry, ‘bout that. Wasn’t trying to…you know…”

He’d heard a gasp from the shadowy form in front of him, and after a second, her voice said softly, “Oh. Thanks. I’m the one who’s-”

There was a shuffling sound as she turned, then a louder scuff as one foot hit the edge and slipped off. A faint sound, like the swallowed start of a scream accompanied it as the form pitched forward again, more swiftly this time.

Senna, he thought as she responded, trying to avoid looking up at her, but then the sound graced his ears as though she had misstepped. His head jerked quickly up, only to see her shadowy form begin to lose balance, and in an instant his mind cycled through the options. He grabbed forward, not caring what part of her he could get a hold of—anything was good for keeping her out of the pit. He’d deal with any violations of personhood later, but for now it was his task to simply keep her out of the black hole.

Her form dropped as his lunge completed, hands closing around her wrists just as they were about to disappear. He himself was slipping forward, but that would stop once his arms stopped acting as levers. Despite it, he could feel the strain in his arms and hands, and thanked God she wasn’t a heavier woman.

“I’ve got you!” he half shouted, his grip about her wrists tightening. Pulling her out would suck. if she went catatonic on him…

A hitched breath came out of the darkness. Then, “Oh God. Oh God, oh God. Dien?” There was a vagueness and panic in her voice, though at least she didn’t seem to be struggling. Her fingers twitched slightly as though looking for something to grab onto.

“I’m here,” he replied, struggling to find the strength to lift her out. Despite the World’s mechanics that allowed him to jump five feet in the air without issue, it was proving inconveniently realistic when it came to trying to lift the weight of an entire other human being. There was no way he could let her fall, though. He needed-

Power? He had power. He was an Emissary of Vulcan, empowered to serve and protect those who called on the god’s name in battle. Eyes closed, and all at once the air around him seemed to begin glowing once again. It was back! Opening his eyes revealed that it had also extended itself around Senna, doubtlessly shielding her from the slight draft that came up the hole that they were in. It still needed to be focused, though. It took a great deal of concentration, but in an instant he was ready to go.

“Senna?” he asked, trying to gain her attention, “I’m going to try and heat the air beneath you and make you easier to pull out. Are you ready?”

There were a few seconds of silence, then she said in amore controlled voice. “I’m ready.”

“Okay,” he said, “this may hurt a little.” Eyes closed, and all at once the wave patterns of the field emerged before him in a flowing view. It didn’t make any sense, but around him, they seemed to veer off and jitter into a strange fuzz. Crap, he thought, what now? There was no way of knowing if he even could surge all of his power in one direction, let alone which direction it would flow if he were to succeed.

To hell with it!

Mind clicked, and his eyes opened to watch as the hot air seemed to gather about the longarm and then shoot straight downward into the shaft, condensing itself beneath her and fulfilling its purpose. Now to lift her out. It still took a great deal of effort, but his tactic seemed to work as with one last heave she was lifted upward.

But as seemed to be the case with this entire interaction, it didn’t end there, as he went tumbling backward onto the stone. This left Senna, who he neglected to let go of, awkwardly on top of him. Somewhere between exasperation and sheer amusement, he began to laugh, and finally let go of her wrists.

“Oh my God, I thought… thank… eep!” The situation seemed to take a moment to sink in, at which point she hurriedly righted herself on the path instead of on Dien. “Sorry!”

“No worries,” he said, letting his laughter die down as he himself stood up, his Corona still faintly aglow to shed a brighter light into the room, “are you alright?”

“No,” She said. “But once we get out of here maybe. Jeeze, that was so… I AM sorry. Put you in trouble ‘cause I didn’t tell anyone. Never thought it’d come up, you know?”

“Acrophobia, right?” he asked, knowing the answer, “yeah, though if we were to go to Dun Loireag, I think it might’ve shown up.” Smiling, he extended an arm to her. “It’s no problem. What was I gonna do; NOT save you? Come on, I’ll walk you through ‘til we’re safe.”

“Yeah,” She affirmed his guess. Then… “Thanks. I appreciate it.” From there, the two moved onward, slower than the rest so as to accommodate Senna’s fear, but steadily nonetheless. Every once and again they had to stop completely for Dien to plot a course through the room away from the holes that had been growing in number and size. It all came to a head in one room where a walkway barely wide enough for one person to move forward on was the only path. The girl froze in her steps, not wanting to make any motion onto the bridge. By this point, they were the last members of the Freedom Fighters to have reached that point – the rest already well beyond by his guess.

He could feel her shaking. Clammy hands grasped at his elbow desperately, and he could practically smell the fear seeping out of her. If it had essence, it probably would have shown brighter than his own Corona. This was going to be hard on her, no matter how they played it.

“Senna,” he said, turning his head to her to find her only barely less than expressionless with her fear. Eyes turned to face his, and he continued, “I’m going to ask you to close your eyes and stand still for a little bit while I get behind you.” There was no visual response that he could see, let alone anything verbal. God, was she really this afraid? His hand reached up, this time coming to a firm hold on her arm, which he gently shook to snap her out of it—at least enough to where he could get her to cooperate with him.

“I need you to trust me,” he said, “I’m going to lead you safely across.” Her gaze turned to the narrow bridge and then back to him, obviously terrified by the prospect, and obviously not trusting him as much as he wished. “Please,” he said, “just trust me.” The girl’s eyes pinched shut, and she nodded quietly. Positioning himself directly behind her, the blademaster placed both hands in a strong grip on her shoulders and leaned forward, verbally coaxing her to move forward. Slowly, the two moved across the bridge, the constant encouragement from Dien likely the only think keeping his partner’s sanity intact. After the longest two minutes the longarm would ever face, they had reached the doorway to the next room, and the girl was allowed to re-open her eyes.

Compared to that, the widening ground ahead was a welcome sight, and her hold of Dien’s arm, while still strong, wasn’t nearly as panicked. She almost reminded him of Lila…Justice. His own eyes were closed, though sorrow was their weight in fear’s stead. There was no telling if Senna even noticed: his stride didn’t change in the least, as their path was literally quite straightforward. Would she be able to understand the loss of a dear friend? The inherent betrayal of another? Could the girl next to him possibly understand the turmoil that wracked his heart? Could any of them?

The doorway was crossed into the room, and it became obvious to Dien from the get-go: this was their next puzzle. His free arm reached up to wipe any lingering tears from his eyelids so he could see clearly, but it was pretty apparent that in terms of holes, this room was far safer than the last several had been.

“No holes here,” he said, clearing his throat after giving the room a once over, “you’re good to let go now, if you want.”

She breathed a sigh of relief and let go. “Is it bad I’d rather face those fire elementals again than that…” she trailed off. The rest of the sentence was obvious.

“No,” he said reassuringly, “nothing wrong at all. Though I would suggest that you have a seat against a wall and calm your nerves a bit.” A smile crossed his lips, before he spoke again. “I’m gonna take a crack at solving this riddle. Revive me if I happen to die?” It might have seemed like an awkward question at first, but it was only prudent in the face of one of the Elites’ puzzles. Death was often the response one received when incorrect.

“That I can do,” She said with a wavering smile and another salute.

Or rather, so he thought he’d do. Apparently, in the wake of his slow trek through the holey black with Senna, Lighteria had happened upon a solution. So it was all he could do to sit and wait.

(OOC: I had had three attempts lined up and pre-arranged with Nighthand, but since Lights so quickly figured it out before I could post, there was no need to post about it)
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Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Nighthand » Sun May 11, 2008 9:11 pm

After a couple of misfires, the puzzle appeared to be solved, and the majority of the damage had been dealt with. Lighteria, formerly spending a quiet moment studying the puzzle while others tried a more hands-on, and damaging, approach, seemed to get the gist of the mysterious board-and-statues combination. After a time, and some comically awkward moving of heavy statues, he was settling down the final statue and hoping that they wouldn't all explode in his face and kill him.

While something DID happen, it wasn't the expected explosion. Each statue's hands emitted their beams, and none of them found another beam in their path. There was no conflict, and while the room was filled with light, all was still. Then abruptly the statues exploded again; this time, sans damage. The flash of light and wind caused the statues to return to their original positions, and when the dust settled, all of the stone rods were gone and the soot and salt were irrecoverably mixed up together. Effectively, the chessboard was gone.

It wasn’t long before the party discovered that the door on the opposite wall was opened, and it didn’t take much longer beyond that for them to get moving. The doorway turned out to be a stairway leading down, and as they progressed deeper, the walls changed into something hopefully easier for Senna to progress through, and certainly easier to make out the detail on. The points of light merged and faded until the walls were simply made out of a pale white stone. The floor was still a starry black, but with the contrast in the walls, it looked more like speckled marble tiles than it did a void of space.

Eventually they emerged into a small antechamber, looking much more refined than the floor above, but still not quite as refined as the castle-type dungeon typically was. The room was small; barely large enough to hold the whole party. Something seemed off, though, and before progressing to the next room, Nighthand stopped them all. His caution was realized when voices echoed through to their room, muffled, but intelligible.

“…breaking into the fortress. How they got past the elementals without the key, I don’t know.”
“They must be strong. But, no matter.”
“Yes, no matter how strong they are, it’ll take them too long to accomplish anything.”
“Accomplish anything? Are you daft? They won’t be able to make it much farther anyways. Even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to beat any one of us.”
“I’m not willing to take that chance. I’m going to go prepare a defense.”
“I’m going too. We need to be prepared.”
“…I don’t care what those two think. We can handle it. At least handle it until Boss comes back with the experiments, and one of the Elites to pick up Nall.”
“Agreed. Even so, we shouldn’t take unnecessary risks. We should return to the Items and be prepared to guard them, should this group come.”

At this, the voices faded, and Nighthand pushed open the door to reveal a now empty room with three exits aside from their entry. It was plainly their meeting room, and also modified recently. Each door had a newly-installed sign on it, to go under older signs, that identified the previous function for each of the hallways. One, labeled Testing, was also labeled Water. The second, labeled Lab, also had the indicator for Earth on it. The third was labeled Storage/Dungeon, and had the word Time written below it.

So now they were faced with a choice. Which way would they go? Sheena was eyeing the door labeled Time, knowing that somewhere in that dungeon was Nall. But she also knew the other two were most likely locations of the Twilight Items Nall had carried, and she knew if given enough time, they might be lost forever. Most people couldn’t equip a Twilight Item and be safe, but it was possible that over time, they would learn how… or an Elite would come and pick them up.

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Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Asgard » Tue May 13, 2008 6:20 pm

The boss? So they must either be the three sub-bosses, or three powerful lackeys.

Did I hear them right in saying they had ‘items’?” the Fist Fighter spoke in a hushed voice as the group entered the now silent meeting chamber. He saw Sheena nod at his question. “And anything that they find of such value that they’re trying to prevent us to get to, must mean they’re detrimental to us relieving them of.” He kept himself low to the ground to hush his movement, or at least try to, and proceeded to notice the doors.

The lab, the testing chambers, and the dungeon.

Earth, water, and Time.


Earth…” He moved closer to the door labelled for the Laboratory area. He knew that Nall would most likely be held in the dungeon, or maybe the testing room if they were set on experimenting on him, but something drew him towards the door. Almost as if it were a beckoning. As he put his ear on the smooth door, he could feel the entity pulse harder, and then, in an instant, recognized the familiarity.

Terro! He had sent his gryphon familiar into the zone as a scout. The Fist Fighter thought that his natural prowess to meld with the earth would make him an ideal spy, but it seems that there was a factor that he didn’t take into account, and that factor got his ally into terrible trouble. Asgard did not know what the three individuals were planning, but they might be underway to seeing on what Terro is made of. That, of course, could not and will not happen. The Fist Fighter’s left hand shot out for the doorknob, but intelligence and wisdom stopped his dexterous digits inches from the goal. If they had no plan of attack, then their excursion would end abruptly, in the subterranean rooms of this volcanic dungeon.

Okay, so we have no idea what we’re up against or what these guys might have in store for us, but I believe that we only have a few options, and very little time to execute them in before the ‘boss’, the elite, and their experiments come back.” Asgard looked towards the dungeon door, and pointed towards it.

First off, we could all spill into the dungeon and reclaim Nall from the hackers.” Sheena seemed intensely focused as he spoke, and the Fist Fighter surmised that she was going to take that plan anyway, without his opinions stated. “However, most of these situations involve a high risk gamble, and that one of the three is in each separate area. This risk being that we could easily overpower our way into the holding cells, but that may trip off alarms to the other two and they could throw heavy resistance at us on the way out.

Secondly, we could evenly split our forces to both relieve these individuals of their ‘items’ and to stop the individuals from helping each other out, the high risk entity here being that they and their defences are stronger than the division of our forces, and we are forced back into this room, buying time for their masters.

Lastly, we could send all of our forces, minus two to four, into the dungeon. This plan hinges solely on the fact that whoever is in the dungeon, will request help from the other two, near his or her defeat. When the other two emerge from the lab and the testing rooms, the selected few will enter the lab and the testing room to get the item that they were talking about before, and turning the fight against the remaining two into a pincer battle.

I am all for any of these plans, but my only stipulation is that I am involved in breaching the lab. I’m under the impression that my familiar, Terro, was captured scouting the field, and is being held there. As well, we need to figure our plan of attack quickly, for time, as always, is against us.
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Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Phoenix512 » Wed May 14, 2008 2:55 am

After Lighteria managed to figure out the solution to the puzzle, Phoenix thought to himself that he was about to head in that direction as seeing the initial result. Lighteria has been proving himself to the blademaster as he saved him from the narrator in Angel’s mansion and solving the puzzle just now. The twin blade has some skills for sure. As the Freedom Fighters continued deeper into the volcanic dungeon, Nighthand stopped the group as he heard voices. Phoenix listened to the conversation intently.

Elite lackeys. They are cocky like their masters but without the power to back it up. At least their boss isn’t around. I don’t want to stay here and see what Elite and experiments that their boss will return with.

After the voices became silent, the Freedom Fighters entered the room and found it to be empty with three doors. Earth, Water, and Time. Isn’t Nall’s ability Time? If that is true, then earth and water must be the Twilight items that Nall took from Kuja and Jett. We can’t risk the Elites getting those items back and finding new suitors for them. Also we can’t give up this opportunity to find out what the Elites have been doing.

After Phoenix’s train of thought ended, Asgard was beginning to discuss their next course of action. After listening to him, Asgard was right about one thing: any course of action will be risky. The first option is just too dependant if Nall is in the dungeon. The third option is dependant on if the other two lackeys will help out their comrade. Especially if that comrade is the one that was so confident that they could handle things without preparing. The blademaster was more inclined towards the second option as it wasn’t dependant on the enemy but the selection of the group itself. Since Asgard wanted to do the lab while Sheena would want to head to the dungeon, Phoenix felt that he should head to the testing ground.

“I want to go with option two. We should split up and strike all three areas at the same time. We should find out what the Elites have been doing and maybe we can find out what are the experiments that they were talking about just now. I think stealth should be applied until we meet up with one of the lackeys. I will head to the testing ground for this plan.”

Phoenix walks to the door to the testing ground and lean on the wall while waiting for the others to make their decision. Suzaku, I think I will need you soon.
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Part 5

Post by Dien » Thu May 15, 2008 6:02 pm

“Needless to say I am vehemently opposed to splitting up again,” Dien said aloud after fistfighter and blademaster had spoken, “I don’t think you were here for our first attempt at the flashmail hubs, Asgard, but in my experience we don’t handle being split up that well. At the same time, though, I see what you’re saying. Going for Nall will undoubtedly trip some kind of alarm and limit our chances at the items. But I think the same would be true of any of our options.” He paused, taking a moment to consider the options that had presented themselves. The decision was not an easy one at all to make, especially in terms of strategy. Part of him wished Rayo were still around – it would make him a little bit more secure in forming his opinion on the matter to consult the group’s other notoriously strategic mind. Or Zan. At the very least, Zan would be able to help him set his mind at ease.

“Ideally,” he began again, “we would be able to go into all of the rooms one at a time without any issue at all and free their contents into our hands. I seriously doubt this is the case. The only room whose contents we can be sure of is the one labeled ‘time’ – almost undoubtedly, this is where they have Nall. We also know that they have the Twilight Items he was carrying. Now, I don’t know much about them, but I’m pretty sure that the only one who can actually use them correctly is Nall himself.

“We have to consider the options: either they have been split up between the rooms, or they’re both together. There is a laboratory and there is a testing facility, from what the signs say: my guess is that, if they’re in the testing room, we will have to face their power in some way in order to retrieve them, while if they’re in the laboratory, all we’ll have to do is take them from whatever apparatuses are holding them.

“There are other things to take into account, though. First, there are the guardians of this dungeon who we will doubtlessly have to face at some point. From what I heard, they seem pretty confident that they can overpower us. Frankly, I’m not too worried about that: they didn’t think we’d get through the door, either. There’s also the fact that they have a member currently off the field and on his way back with an Elite in tow. It limits the amount of time we have considerably until the cavalry arrives in force that won’t be easy for us to overcome.

“In any case, we have a considerable amount of fighting ahead of us. While I can’t say what condition Nall will be in, I do propose that he himself with his unique talents is our greatest asset in fights to come. If he is anything more than half dead, his help will be invaluable in whatever’s ahead. If he is falling apart, though, then we really should get him back to the hideout so Sheena and Raine can fix him up. We should also go for him first, as the defenses surrounding him will likely be the strongest, so we’ll need everything we can to get him out.

“So there’s my vote: everyone goes to get Nall first, and then we decide what to do from there.” His monologue complete, the blademaster went to the door that they’d entered through and leaned against the doorframe.
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Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Lighteria » Thu May 15, 2008 6:37 pm

Ok... statues blowing up is usually bad... But I'm not in a giant wad of screaming pain, so I must have done SOMETHING right.

Fortunately for the twin blade, his logic train apparently decided to not take a trip to idiotville today and the puzzle was indeed solved. Lighteria lets out a long breath of relief when he sees the doors on the opposite end of the room open. Not only does this mean saving him a great deal of pain, but it also means he won't have to commit seppuku out of shame and embarrassment for screwing up the puzzle and getting everyone hurt. Also, in a fortunate twist, very little is said after it's done. Both praise and criticism have a nerve-wracking effect on the painfully shy player so having the party head deeper into the dungeon with relatively little said is blessing. Not that anything needs saying. Dungeon crawling is pretty par for the course at this point and there are (depressingly) enough people in the group that most puzzles will get solved by SOMEONE eventually. Either way, getting over it and moving on is standard procedure and Sheena certainly is eager to go forward so...

"Guh-!" Lighteria nearly falls over when Nighthand stops the group for a round of eaves dropping. Apart from verifying that Nall is here and that there are apparently three people that can fight inside the room, the conversation is rather cryptic. Still, it having them mention that the party broke into the dungeon makes the twin blade wonder why they're still in there, knowing they were en route already. Maybe they thought the puzzle would keep them occupied for longer? Or perhaps they were banking on someone tripping and falling down a pit? Or maybe they were expecting the lot of them to stare at the crystal wall with rivulets of drool falling from their mouths whilst murmuring "Oooooh... shiny." Regardless, the meeting quickly wraps up with the freedom fighters making their way inside with their typical lack of urgency.

3 Doors...

Lighteria grimaces. Having a split path means two things. 1: We're going to get split up in some shape or form and 2: We're going to have to talk about it.
Number two in particular gives the twin blade a stomach cramp. Thank goodness Asgard speaks up quickly with the list of options.
Bum rush to Nall. Crude, but with merit. Since he's the main reason the group is here, going full force to save him is perfectly reasonable.
Split up and follow them. Well the team's got an advantage in numbers... not that that usually helps them. Still, with whoever the heck those people were already leaving, it's probably the best option.
Half get Nall, half wait for the baddies. While hinging on there not being alternate routes other than the doors and also banking on them not having any super-cheap teleporting hacks, the option has its merits.

Still, while weighing these options in his head, Phoenix basically speaks what Lighteria is subliminally thinking. Option two. With his decision to go to the testing ground and Asgard's desire to check out the lab, the twin blade's mind is made up that much faster. Waiting politely for Phoenix and Dien to finish speaking, Lighteria pipes up in his typical, meek voice.

"T-then I'll head for the dungeon. W-we should hurry though... m-maybe reach them before they set up traps." With that said, the twin blade quickly averts his gaze from the party, lest he catch someone looking at him. With a quick stride he heads for the door marked Time, sure that Sheena at the very least will follow him so there's no need to waste time worrying about it. Of course, a little imp in the back of his head is harping that that fact alone is why he chose to go to the dungeon... which is probably the case actually. Still, if quiet, nagging doubts about his motivations stopped the twin blade, he would still be sitting in the hideout trying to figure out what, exactly is the most non-threatening way to say "hello".
Lv. 37 Twin Blade (180 SP)
Weapon: Rashou (Thunder Coil- 30, Suvi Lei- 20, Mumyn Lei- 30) (Life Drain)
Armor: Holy Tree Mail (Juk Kruz- 20) - Scarab Earring (La Repth- 20, Rip Maen- 40) - Time Sandals (Ap Do- 15) - Forest Gloves (Juk Kruz- 20)
GP: 14384

Wish list (In order of priority): Angel halo accessory, chibi angel wings, Bone Armor, Professional

Lighteria: "Obsessively updating my profile since Fri Oct 01, 2004 7:10 pm"

Hacorie
Ikkitousen
Posts: 105
Joined: Thu Sep 30, 2004 11:30 pm
Location: Here and there.
Contact:

Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Hacorie » Thu May 15, 2008 11:19 pm

Unable to actually comprehend the lovely puzzle put before the party, Hacorie decided it was best for him to just sit back, relax, and hope the other party members had the brains which were currently unavailable to him. After many tries from various players and only one from most, Lighteria, the weirdo god of orbs cracked the code. Within an instant, radiant beams escaped from the statues’ hands. Crack, Boom, Whoosh… With a flash of light and a gust, the statues returned to where they had all first stood, and the sandy chess board disappeared leaving only barren ground in its absence. With the puzzle solved and the door to their next destination now open, Hac felt he was once again in the Freedom Fighter’s ‘useable list’. The Heavy Blade paced alongside the party while quickly gazing at his equipment, just in case.

Click, click, click…. If the Heavy Blade was still in the real world, he would have heard the annoying noise time after time as he analyzed each item. Of course, this sound was not present, but Hac could only hope it would reappear one day. The character clad in blue walked through the first doorway and descended the eventual stairway unto the next floor of the dungeon. Finally deciding on his equipment, his all water regiment, the Heavy Blade decided to pull two small cards out of his pocket. Flicking his wrist in a clockwise motion, the two small charms disappeared up the characters sleeve and gently stuck to his golden skin.

Just in case we are taken off guard, these will be easy to summon…

After he was finished with his inventory sweep, the Heavy Blade stopped quite abruptly. Voices began resonating within the tiny room the party had found themselves in. Even though the voices themselves were barely audible, Hac could make out the gist of the entire conversation going on ahead. It also helped that the party became quite quiet. Once the voices faded into nothingness, the party slowly began to move forward. Three doors of exit, each labeled, were listed for the party as they entered the room. All most immediately, Hac began to have a bad feeling; he knew the appropriate outcome for the situation.

“Freddy said it best…Let’s split up gang…” Hac whispered as Asgard and the others began to spout their opinions. Once close enough to talk to Senna, the Heavy Blade started the conversation.

"So, Senna...made a decision about what to do now?" Hac said as his eyes glanced from door to door.

"I'm with them, as well as the last split-up worked," She said. "We have to get out of here. Fast."

"I...actually have to agree with you, again. The last split up was on a larger scale. I believe we would have a better chance of splitting up at this point in time. Here, we are all connected. There, we were in separate fields.”

"True. Either way, my only worry is I'm not sure assaulting the dungeon'd draw them out." Hac sort of did not understand the logic of his ally. Assaulting the place would most likely upset the ones running it; this would most likely draw out the person.

"Maybe, but it may. Which door you thinking about?" Is all Hac could think to say. His added question on the end would hope analyze Senna in regards to her priorities. The two, after all, were a team; knowing one’s teammate would help the flow of the said team as a whole.

"I"ll go wherever. No preference," She said with a shrug. "You?" And….foul ball… Hac thought as his question was not answered with a decisive answer. Oh well…

"Do you really have to ask?" Hac says as his azure eyes shift to the door labeled ‘Water’ and ‘Testing’. Even though the door had two signs attached, the one starting with a ‘T’ did not interest him at all. However, the Rue based Heavy Blade knew he could not resist a door labeled with his favorite element.

"Heh. In retrospect, it was a dumb question, wasn't it?"

Understatement of the year…

"Haha, I would say so, but you never know where my mind will wander."

"Well, either way, good luck eh? Stay safe." Senna replied as the conversation came to a close.

"Thanks. You too bucko."

“Well, if we decide to split up, I request to go into the Testing Room. If we stay together, I will go wherever. Let’s just do this, and do it quick. This place sort of gives me the creeps.” Hac said as he began to walk up to the door of the door labeled ‘Testing’.
Hacorie
Level 36 Heavy Blade
Gold: 21237

Equips
Oceanic Aura/Sharktooth-Ice Helm-Winter Coat-
Shiva's Rings-Bondage Pants
---Water Magic, BL Yokohama

Wishlist:
Level Meh Up
Weapons: Sakabatou/Rock n Roll/Peace Blade
Body: Knight's Armor
Other: Earthlore/Feng Shui
--------Water/Earth Scrolls

Lord Canti
Exalted Player
Posts: 300
Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 3:58 pm
Location: In da' plains of hell, natch.

Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Lord Canti » Fri May 16, 2008 3:38 pm

(He had raised Nighthand, though it wasn't all that necessary at the time. Well, someone had to bring him back, even if the battle was practically won. A sign that Canti still managed control was that he actually took time to do that. With the way clear and the door open, the Twin Blade took Sheena's advice and headed on in. He was anxious, nay hungry for more battle. Despite the blackness, one could probably see it in his eyes. Hmmm... It was much darker inside, yet...cool and inviting. How curious. That probably meant his huge cache of healing items wasn't needed so badly now. He saw that there were actually crystals here lighting the path. Well, it stands to reason, doesn't it? Their enemy isn't blind, so why should THEY be? However, the hallway was not just that. Someone had taken chunks out of it, holes. Canti merely followed Nighthand and Sheena, waiting to see what followed this crazy deal as he hovered right over them like a Shinigami. No harm, no foul. What annoyed him was the lack of battle, and his demonic features that had risen before now slipped back under the surface, no longer aroused by the thought of violence. He didn't even pay attention to the holes now, ignored them even as they came to the first room that was intact and...familiar?)

Canti: Off hand, I'd rather play Global Thermo-Nuclear War.

(It was a chess set, a big one. It made up practically the entire room. Okay, it wasn't EXACTLY so, since the 'pieces were eight-armed figures with glowing bits to signify something, but the fact was that this room was a puzzle, 'cause there was a sealed door with no explanation at the other end of the place. This left Canti scratching his head. He was able to play chess, but was that the 'object' of the game? What were they suppose to do with the placement of those pieces? He decided to sit this one out for now and just watch. There were better people at this than him. He was strictly amateur for this game. Phoenix gave it a couple shots and soon found out that this game had consequences. Some sort of trap triggered against the party for filling it in wrong. The chessboard was trying to kill them! He would've cussed out the the guy, except he DID heal them all. Then...Lighteria said that he was gonna try. Did he have a plan? Canti stood hovering and watched. It wasn't easy for the guy to get around with those pieces. However...he seemed to have the thing solved, as when the next explosion occurred, it didn't hurt and the door was opening.)

"Another puzzle? Why do you suppose they bother?"

(He had been so absorbed in this that he didn't notice Senna walking up. She would see this much as he had been hanging back the whole time, letting others at it. Canti landed and looked in her direction.)

Canti: I dunno, 'cause they think they're clever. Probably keeps most people out, I guess.

"Yeah, but why not just...I dunno, a wall? With a password to open it? This just seems uselessly complex."

Canti: That, I can't help you with. If I were them...? I'd have a door with a combination lock that didn't even work. Hell, it wouldn't even be a door, just a really nice-looking wall that doesn't do anything.

(That was...a decidedly evil door-wall-thing. No possible entry, save for the few and the proud. If you design a place to lock others out, shouldn't it actually keep them out? Canti would give other hopefuls a certain amount of despair, laughing at them when they find out it's pointless. Very evil...)

Canti: But I'm not complaining. Doing that means we have a real chance.

"Still, hate to be the guy going through this to get in. Eh. So what next, do you suppose? More puzzles?"

(At first, just shrugging...)

Canti: Whatever it is, it ends with finding Nall. And if we're lucky, we get something really solid against the Elites.

(Now, he grinned.)

Canti: 'Course, I don't envy Dien and Lights the puzzles. They seem to be better at 'em. Actually, you're pretty good yourself, right?

(Senna shook her head at this, though.)

"Some word puzzles. That's it. I don't think around corners. Though, the faster we can find Nall and get out of here the better, Elites or no."

Canti: I didn't mean it'd be lucky if we found Elites here. That's kinda' how I got in this.

(Yeah, as in the huge battle at Mac Anu where there were not only monsters and Cobalt Soldiers, but Admins and Elites. Somehow, he ended up killed in that, and it was suppose to be one of the powers the Elites had. Xenobia or something, right? Canti had already let that memory pass into a blur. Best to look towards the future than the past, if can be helped. Then, a thought occurred to him.)

Canti: By the way, where were you?

"Eh... took a slight detour back in the pit-garden. Sorry about that."

(The Twin Blade arched an eyebrow. Detour? No comprende', señora.)

Canti: What kinda' detour? Something happen?

(This led to a sideways, almost embarrassed glance.)

"Uh... I almost fell."

Canti: You...

(His confusion subsided, remembering how easy it was to just hover over the gaps in the floor there. He hadn't even thought of what kinds of difficulty his teammates were having, just naturally assumed that they walked or jumped or whatever they'd have to do. Judging by the response, Senna must've had real trouble with those rooms.)

Canti: Oh man, sorry. I could've helped. I was thinking about what's ahead, not under.

(He felt awful, not paying attention to his surroundings because he'd either been lazy or distracted by the mission objective. He should've been paying attention, especially considering how Senna was still with them, complications aside.)

"No, no worries. It was just unnerving. All turned out fine though. So far..."

Canti: Well, the puzzle exploded a couple times, but Lights got it right off.

(They were heading down the next passageway, though Canti's focus was now not so much on his surroundings.)

Canti: If I had to guess, I'd say we're gonna pull this off. It's not luck. We're actually that good.

"Even with what I've heard about these elites? I thought you...we...couldn't touch them."

Canti: I've been thinking about it lately. We take on these challenges and make them, all the time becoming stronger and more capable. They don't get stronger and we keep looking for ways to tear chunks out of their arsenal. Eventually, the playing field will be closer to level.

"Hmm. That makes good sense. Hope we don't find out this time though. Get Nall and get out."

Canti: Heh, granted. Well, if something did...

(He had to pause then, because Nighthand held them up and soon...voices could be heard from enemy guards. It sounded like they were discussing events of late involving - big surprise - the gate-crashing Freedom Fighters. Overconfident types, weren't they? Well, at least now they knew that these guys were preparing something for their welcome. Any trap wouldn't be so much a surprise, but just another obstacle. They'd go on, knowing its a trap and expecting the unexpected. As soon as they were gone, it was safe to chat again.)

Canti: Guess we're not too far.

(Wait, then what was he saying before? Changing the subject on us like that...)

"Yeah. Good luck, going forward, hmm?"

(This was when they hit the split into three different paths, each one with a title and an...element? Lab, Testing, and Dungeon...with Water, Earth, and Time. Canti glared at the dungeon label for a second.)

Canti: Time? Is that even a proper power? Can The World even handle it?

(He looked at Senna, hearing the conversation in the room with the others. They were discussing either heading all in one or splitting apart and which way to go. Asgard was definitely for Earth and both Lighteria and Sheena were definitely in for the dungeon. Canti was curious, though...)

Canti: Which would you pick?

"Even split."

(She said it without hesitation.)

Canti: Yeah, but I meant...

(And at this, he smirked slightly.)

Canti: ...you in particular. I can't really decide.

(Smirking back, Senna replied...)

"I leave THAT to the thinkers."

Canti: Well, that counts me out, but I'd like to avoid water, personally. You know why.

(She nodded at this.)

"Yeah. I don't at all envy you that. Even with the cool flying."

Canti: You mean you're not even curious about it?

(This kind of struck Canti as odd, since...lots of people always wanted to fly!)

"No. People might get more expectations."

Canti: Eh, I guess. I just like being able to do more with it. More angles to strike with and so on.

"Yeah, I could see how it would be a huge asset in battle. So it's really good for someone like you who's already got the skills, you know what I mean?"

(At this, he smiled.)

Canti: Me and my air force academy training, right? I'm no better at this than you'd be. And you still have the cooler temperament.

(Fact is, as far as flying goes...he'd been winging it.)

*Rimshot*

"Well, that DOES make sense now, doesn't it?"

(She cracked a grin, and really, he had to agree. Some people were better-suited to it, but was it the cool-headed types or the hotheads like him? Maybe because he was just fierce about things...)

Canti: Almost makes me sad to have to give 'em up when we're cured.

"Uh...yeah. Makes me glad I've got nothing to give up when that happens, I guess."

Canti: Your powers haven't manifested? No way. You joined not too far behind me. You oughta' have something.

(This was a subject they'd gone over before, the way his powers developed and Senna's didn't seem to even make an appearance at all. The virus was nothing if not consistent on this. Was something wrong? Senna just shrugged at this, though.)

"I guess I'm a late bloomer. Makes me pay attention to my fighting more, right?"

Canti: Fairly important. I think it's gotta come naturally. I tried to force it with alot of training and...the virus got kinda' pissed off.

"Pissed off?"

Canti: Homicidal.

"I... I"m sorry."

Canti: You don't have to apologize. I was frantic for control because I attacked Angel in pure madness. I make my own problems, and then I ram through 'em. I'm okay, really. I just didn't want to degenerate into something I'd hate.

(Actually, he'd mentioned this before. Why had he forgotten that? Was his memory going too? Nah, it couldn't be. Must've slipped his mind. And hers? Hoo boy... A sudden thought of corrupted viral data infecting their memories came to mind. No, that wasn't a pleasant thought. He hoped it was just deja vu or a just a slip-up.)

"No, I can't blame you. Who we are is sort of all we have in here..."

Canti: I guess I don't like me very much, then. Hey, maybe you don't have powers because you don't really want or need them.

"That's not what I meant. But...maybe."

(Hmmm? This got his curiosity going.)

Canti: Then...what did you mean?

"Just that...well, here even more than in reality, the truth is subjective. All we really know is.."

(She tapped her temple.)

Canti: Well, at least they stay up there. Might be awkward, otherwise.

"Heh. True enough."

(Because, really...some of them might not be as good friends as they were now if all their thoughts became manifest, entwined in reality, and stuck up right in everyone's faces without control. Best to keep it in your head until the time is right. Getting over his problems, and helping out with others...Canti felt that he could look forward...and hope.)

Canti: Maybe I should brave the waters after all...

(For now, he waited to see what the others here would do.)
I'll have a doozy of a sig later, I swear. It'll reflect ".hack//CODE" an' everything.

Hey look! A profile! It's got items and stats and things! Cool! If it isn't fully up to date, it will be, so don't worry 'bout it.

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