melodiesofeternity | Player Plot: It's Die Hard on a Ship

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Player Plot: It's Die Hard on a Ship

Who: Closed to those who (before this posting) signed up for the plot. Feel free to comment to the Job Interview thread even if you haven't!
When: On or around early-mid November.
Where: In the sky! On the Pravoka Interviews take place at Ashelia's apartment in Lavode.
What: It's Die Hard on a ship.
Warnings/Notes: Violence, cussing. Okay, all done! Tag in, y'all! Please reemeber to tag yourselves :) Yippie ki-yay, mofos!

Loading up the ship seems to be going smoothly enough, despite the harried look on Lady-Captain Ashelia’s face. She walks to and fro, Kupozencrantz struggling to stay by her side, as she refers once, twice, three, four, more times to her iMog slate. She makes a call - and after a short discussion, appears to acquiesce. Loading and boarding seems to proceed apace. The crew is signed in, inventory is checked and double checked, and the maiden voyage of the Pravoka under Lady-Captain Ashelia B’nargin Dalmasca is on her way.

The atmosphere on the ship is calm and easygoing; there’s a lot of cargo to guard, but a lot of people to guard it. The meals are generous, just on this side of lavish, the mattresses in the (albeit cramped) bunks are surprisingly soft and fluffy (is that memory foam? Does memory foam exist on Vaikuntha?) and the air circulation would put some spas to shame. It’s a more or less pleasant time. Until it isn’t.

Shortly before midnight, with the crew scattered about the ship, the lights are cut. Radar and monitoring equipment just shuts down. The ship shakes and groans and, depending on where you are, footsteps can be heard. Hushed voices. Then, you smell something. Or do you? Before you can react, everything goes black. Blacker. More black.

When you come to, you have no idea where you are for a good couple minutes. The room spins around you. You try to move, but find you can’t move your arms. They’re tied behind you, or to the arms of another one of your companions, or above you...are you in the brig? No, you realize as you feel yourself sinking into the plush mattress beneath you. Not the brig at all. Regardless, your next course of action is clear: get free, figure out who did this, and make them pay.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

And Angeal sent a Shadow Flare at the remaining guard, before moving quickly to the iMog slates to start handing them out. Once the guard was definitely out, he added, quietly but very seriously, "please put them on silent. A single message or call at the wrong moment can cause a lot of damage in a hostile situation."

Lessons learned in the Sakura Forest.

He looked around the faces of the rest of the group, then nodded to the one remaining door.

"I suppose we go on that way, once we make sure the guards don't have anything important on them."

Keys, maps, anything else that might help them further. Searching a fallen enemy wasn't his favorite, but it was sometimes necessary.

As Angeal hands out the iMog slates, the screen on each one of them flashes. They've got mail, apparently.

Once opened, it reads as follows:

If you are reading this, rendezvous by the bridge. Please hurry.

Frisk keeps to the shadows--so much so, in fact, that when Angeal goes to retrieve their iMog slate (covered in skeleton, heart, and cat stickers), it's simply... not there. Instead, the group gets a message from Frisk.

don't worry, i'm here. just tryin to keep all stealthy-like. don't worry, it's on silent, but

Invitation to Linkshell: don't die, airship edition

we should probably all try to keep in contact with this for silent planning and if we get separated and stuff

Vax picks his iMog slate up. He thumbs through the invitation; there is a moment's hesitation, before he accepts the invitation. He sends a quick message off:

Right. Let's get to the bridge, yeah?

His eyes narrow, before he pulls out his daggers. They spin up, and he glances back to the others.

"Let's hurry."

Well now, Madhuri seemed to have this all well enough in hand.

Sephiroth did continue to eye the second guard though as he came through into the hallway, and then Angeal threw some sort of magic in that direction; too much of a loose end to keep untied. The silver-haired warrior kept his attention fully on that threat before it was clear it had been dealt with.

He looked from one to the other of the rest of their group as Sephiroth casually took his iMog Slate back from Angeal and made sure his back was to the door they just came through before making sure it was all in order. Silent mode on. Wasn't sure a Linkshell was such a good idea though; if all of them had been separated it wouldn't take much for any one of the pirates to snoop in on the messages being sent to any of the others. Not to mention his overall distrust of the Mognet itself.

Time to press on.

Keeping himself to the wall of the hallway, Sephiroth starts to proceed down it, alone. Cautiously being as light on his feet as possible and keeping the majority of his focus forward, in order to hear what might be coming around the next corner.

Sure they could all head to the bridge as-is if they liked, Sephiroth had other plans. He knew where he was going first; the armory.

Not quite alone, no. Angeal did press accept to the linkshell and sent off, quickly, unless it's another trap when Sephiroth took off by himself and Angeal. Let out a breath too controlled to be a sigh and gave the others a wry smile. He mouthed, let me know if things go haywire and set off after his former friend.

Sephiroth was Sephiroth. Probably always one step above and beyond what even he and Genesis could do. But he was still relatively recent arrival to this world, and, well. Dealing with an unknown number of hostiles who, going by the initial job specification, were very likely to be ruthless? Not the time to let anyone go without watching their back.

He also made no effort to either hide his presence from Sephiroth, nor to stop or question his direction. If the choice was a bad one, they would have time for that later.

Well, so much for needing to start a rum fire or two. Red hurriedly tucked away the flask and was quick to retrieve his iMog slate, giving it a quick once-over before letting himself into the linkshell and deciding it'd be better off on silent mode. No point typing a response if he planned on keeping pace with the others, anyhow. The weird silver-haired guy and his dark-haired buddy could split off if they really wanted.

"Right behind you," Red muttered to Vax under his breath as he folded back the sword portion of his gunblade, everting a thick barrel in its place, glancing back over his shoulder toward Madhuri.

Strange-- on the one hand, he was obviously waiting for her to follow. On the other hand, his stare seemed a little bit less friendly and a little more conflicted than it usually was.

"Excellent. Now, if you'd be so kind as to hide your friend and help yourself to a nap in this cabin, that'd be just dandy. Before that, however, would you mind telling me how you and yours got into the ship?" May as well work out if there were unauthorized ships that needed to be brushed off like a bad case of fleas.

She gathered up her iMog Slate and agreed to the invitation, and it seemed like everyone was heading for the bridge. That was fine.

She'll just meet them there.

The tiefling saluted once she got her answer, clicked her heels without another word, and disappeared. She'll just take a handy Dimension Door to check in on a potential trap, wedging herself somewhere small and handy to maintain a steady lookout. How was the bridge looking?

Edited 2018-11-13 03:55 (UTC)

i'll be scouting ahead. will let you know if i run into any trouble i can't take care of myself

Frisk takes a moment to LOAD three of their files, which is thankfully a much less flashy process than SAVE-ing them in the first place.

FILE LOADED: Frisk
FILE LOADED: Frisk (LOVE)
FILE LOADED: Frisk (Bravery)

Maximum health up +10%!
Speed up +20%!
Attack up +20%!
Healing down -20%!
Health down -5% every turn (in combat)!

They admit, they may have gone a bit overboard on the animation for SAVEs for as simple as they were back underground. So sue them if they wanted to look cool like everyone else!

With that, Frisk is in the wind, completely silent (they internally thank Quiet Steps for actually being useful instead of just scaring their friends whenever Frisk would show up apparently out of nowhere) as they scout the quickest route to the bridge, staying concealed in the shadows.

The berserker answered in a monotone, already moving to drag his companion back into the bunks. "The captain gave us the flight plan. We knew where to intercept when the most people would likely be asleep. Boarding was easy," he finishes as he drags the ranger's unconscious body into the bunks.

The quickest route to the bridge is through the door at the end of the hallway from the bunks, and then a right through the galley to another hallway that connects to the bridge. In the galley, Frisk can overhear a heated conversation.

"You aren't worried?" There are four sky pirates in the galley, milling about. A paladin, two gunslingers and a black mage. One of the gunslingers is pacing more than the others, clearly agitated.

"Why should we be? We got 'em all tied up, from the looks of it." The paladin rests his hand on the pommel of his sword, clearly not concerned.

"But I've heard the captain says she's a Hero of Light, and if she is, then doesn't it stand to reason that the others could be too?"

"Yeah, well I heard the Don's got 'her in 'is pocket, irregardless," the black mage chimes in. "And he been in 'ers ,if you know what I mean." The sky pirates laugh at that, but the agitated gunslinger is not convinced. "Anyway, soon our little present will be delivered, and we can go home and forget about this whole thing."

The agitated gunslinger shakes her head. "No. No, something's not right with this whole thing and I - I don't care. I'm going to find John. Turn me in for insubordination if you want."

"Oh come on now, Holly. Wait - Holly!" the paladin calls after the gunslinger, but she leaves through a door directly across from the door Frisk would have entered from.

On the bridge, Madhuri will find three men working in silence at the navigational computer. She is able to discern their jobs as well; Magitek Knight, Illusionist and Templar.

Edited 2018-11-13 19:32 (UTC)

Frisk frowns from within the shadows at the exchange. Clearly, something was wrong here; this wasn't just an ordinary hijacking. The pirates needed the airship for something, which is probably why they just didn't take the loot and blow them all to smithereens in the first place. Time to let the others know.

two gunslingers, paladin, black mage up ahead in galley. one of the gunslingers got all uppity and separated herself from the rest of the group, i'll try to KO her quietly. also, the pirates are using this ship to "deliver" something. go ahead and move ahead (head thru doorway at end of hall and take a right), be prepared for a tough fight, lmk when you're in position

Now that they're officially in the danger zone, Frisk's Bravery activates. Frisk equips their shuko and black ninja gear, jumps, ricochets off the hallway wall, and "lands" on the ceiling. They swing off the top of the doorframe to reach the ceiling of the galley, and keeping to the shadowiest corners, they silently crawl across the ceiling until they reach a corner of the kitchen out of sight of the rest of the pirates. They hit the floor with nary a sound and dash into the hallway that Holly fled into, once more getting up on the ceiling. If their maneuver succeeds, they'll drop down and Effectively Invisible ~~Assassinate~~ Nonlethal Takedown the gunslinger, hopefully saving their party a little trouble.

Edited 2018-11-13 19:38 (UTC)

Sephiroth being Sephiroth knows full well that he's got a companion for his quiet advance down one side of the hallway; Angeal gets the briefest of glances that is neither grateful nor surprised. At least it's an acknowledgment. He'll really have to try to get to grips with exactly how Angeal knows a version of him from another life, one of these days; he is one of the least useless of the off-worlders that he has met, so far.

By the time Frisk's message comes in, they are just about at the door at the end of the hallway. Thankfully he glances back again, just as his companion-in-arms is checking the text message. Sephiroth turns so that he can read it better, between the two of them.

As he's reading, a thought goes on like a lightbulb. Perhaps it was residual haziness from whatever it was that had them knocked-out; Sephiroth grumbles lowly to himself as he fishes his iMog Slate back out of its inside pocket and turns to his Job sets. Tentatively he selects Swordmaster again; as if it were de-selected somehow. He's not sure of the process or how it works, yet he found once more that the short-katana he's favored has appeared where it should be at the right side of his belt.

With a nod to Angeal, he turns back to the doorway and spreads his stance out on the blind-side so that no one coming through would be able to immediately see him. Always best to have the element of surprise in a melee position; he knows this as naturally as breathing.

His left hand already resting intently on the pommel of the still-sheathed sword, Sephiroth is ready as soon as everyone else is

Vax pulls up a little behind Angeal and Sephiroth. He takes stock of them -- then he activates his own Smokescreen. With a puff of smoke, he vanishes.

After that, he slips into the bridge. Vax moves to the side, eyes on the group of people already in the bridge. He doesn't move for one yet -- he decides to wait. After all, he can strike quickly.

Unfortunately, Holly is not in the hallway that Frisk pursues her in. She's vanished, seemingly. There are signs of a struggle; a couple bloodstains, bullet casings...was there even a gunshot...?

something's off, gunslinger went even more AWOL. plot is thickening as we speak. investigating. stay sharp, peeps

Frowning, Frisk follows any trail the bloodstains provide, or if there isn't any, they continue to creep down the hallway, even more on alert than usual. Somethings seriously weird is going on here. Just in case, they activate Transience. Better to be safe than sorry, after all.

Red would leave the detective work and exploration to the others... but, unfortunately, he didn't have the ability to be quite so sneaky with his plays. At least it meant they now had members of their group on both sides of the galley.

Oh well. If he was going up against a group like this, no sense keeping himself held back. Even if he probably couldn't bring his DAHAK into a place like this, he'd be better off sticking to his own strengths.

He quietly reconfigured his Gunblade into its more familiar swordlike form, and switched himself over to Magitek Knight on his slate. Sky piracy could wait-- for now, it was back to his usual fare. And he'd take a moment to load in those •Water Bullets he'd been meaning to try.

Then, clutching his weapon to his chest, he gave Sephiroth a quick nod. Subtlety was never his strong suit, anyways.

Looking around between those bunched and ready to go, it doesn't take more than a moment longer for Sephiroth to realize that -somehow- he'd ended up on point. Not his intention really, but natural leadership has always been a silent quality of his when comes down to it. In any other world than this one, he'd relish the superiority it delivered; but here it grates a little, he knows how inexperienced he is in his asterisks probably compared to the majority.

Not about to own up to that fact any time soon, though.

Enhanced Counter up and Sephiroth steps away from the wall and begins to lead through the doorway (into the galley?), silently pulling his sword from his sheath and holding it close but edge-forwards. What he wouldn't give right now for just an ounce of the heightened senses he had with his previous form; for now, he'll just have to rely on a mixture of intuition and that second-nature tactical combat instinct of his.

Angeal is not immediately behind Sephiroth - even while the silver-haired man might not remember, Angeal does, when it comes to them fighting together - but he has got him all the same. Fully aware just how short Sephiroth's time on Vaikuntha has been, he casts Adloquium, an additional shield to decrease damage coming to the Swordsman.

Then his attention returns to keeping track of their surroundings, ready to back up whoever needs it - or call on Eos, should the need arise.

His mind, now fully awake, is also trying to sort out how they all lost consciousness. There are only so many ways that can happen, but he needs more clues before he can be certain.

As Sephiroth enters the galley, he'll see two figures immediately visible, sitting at two separate tables but nearby each other, a black mage and a paladin. By some stroke of luck, he is not immediately seen.

The galley is a large space, a number of long tables spaced evenly throughout, bordered on all sides by a balcony/overlook on a second level, the stairs to which are accessible from the back corner of the room, diagonally to the left of the door Sephiroth entered from. Underneath the overhang directly across from the door Sephiroth entered from is the kitchen, barely visible through the dim emergency lighting.

Meanwhile in the hallway Frisk is in, the trail of blood ends abruptly halfway down the hall. There's no clues as to where Holly went or who took her. There is a door halfway down the hall that opens up into a supply closet, and a door at the end of the hall that opens into another hallway. This side of the ship seems quiet.

Still with his smokescreen up, Vax slips inside behind Sephiroth. He quickly slips to the side; his eyes are on the black mage. He hedges his bets for a moment -- and then decides that the Black Mage could pose a larger threat. He looks in Sephiroth's direction, though he cannot meet his eyes; then, he looks down at the Black Mage, as he steps behind calmly.

One of his daggers comes out. Vax's eyes narrow, for a moment.

Then he strikes for the assassin's back, with a quick flourish of the blade -- an effort to Assassinate him. This also, abruptly, makes him visible to everyone there.

Everything about this seemed Very Much Not Good. Maybe there was some kind of mutiny on board the ship? Or was something more sinister at work here? Regardless, they couldn't stop now. But they had to be clever about this. They'd be at a disadvantage if somebody saw them as they were opening the door. This would require some... finesse.

Frisk reequips their shuko, jumping high into the air and flipping upside down to cling to the ceiling with their climbing claws. Then carefully, ever-so-carefully, they get out their grappling hook, tossing it at the doorknob to the surprise closet, twisting the knob to unlock it. Frisk then violently retracts the grappling hook, hopefully opening the door, then clings to the ceiling, making themself as flat as possible.

Immediately presenting the paladin and the black mage right there -albeit on separate tables- as they go through the door, Sephiroth immediately flicks his gaze around what details of the room he can make out and makes a left side-step, lowering himself more into a crouch and scoots a bit to put a table between him and what he judges as what could be line-of-sight for either of the two enemies.

Once the maneuver is performed he waits, hearing strained as much as he can mortally pay attention to it, just in case there was any tell he might have been spotted before slowly edging himself around the back of tables towards the table where the paladin was sat. He's already picked his target, based on his own strengths.

So much for trying to slip through undetected-- It looked like they were going to fight their way right through this one. At least Vax went for the Black Mage first; hopefully they wouldn't have to worry about having fireballs slung through a tight area like this.

As tempting was it was to open fire with the gunblade then and there, Red caught himself with a second thought just before he pulled the trigger. No... the last thing they needed now was a bunch of noise to draw in the others. On the other hand, one way or another, they'd have to tie up that Paladin before he caught on-- or, worse still, before he could make a scene. And with Vax and Sephiroth both getting into position, all he needed to do was give them an opening to end this quickly.

Well, SOMEONE had to run in and let themselves be seen for that to happen, right? Hopefully it wouldn't cause too much of an obvious commotion as he opened onto the Paladin with a strike or two from his •Magitek Sword attack.

Knight, Illusionist, Templar. Okay. But who among them were allies...? Or were they all in the same boat? She needed to work this out before she proceeded. She had time before the others got here.

With another Dimension Door, she found a place to wedge herself and peeked around for a sort of clue. Sure, she could attack the lot of them, but where would that take them, especially if one of them may have asked them to meet 'em here?

The black mage is taken completely by surprise; Vax's Assassinate scores a critical hit, and the magician goes down like a sack of bricks.

"Holy shit!" the paladin yells, springing to his feet as soon as Vax is visible. He draws his sword, but before he can do much else, is hit by Red's Magitek Sword. The paladin weathers the strike, though, turning to deliver his own Shock Break combo to Red.

There's a yelp from above them, though, as a previously unnoticed gunslinger springs into action, unleashing a Trigger Happy barrage against Vax.

Meanwhile, on the bridge, the three men continue working on the computers. They mostly cycle through documents, scanning the text for something they don't seem to be finding. Madhuri is able to stay concealed.

Inside the supply closet, Frisk will find a myriad of cleaning products, brooms, mops, a med kit full of bandages and potions, some rope, coolant spray rags and a bucket.

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thank god for parkour (HEALTH: 90/100)

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doing a short tag, since it's gonna be busy tonight and I don't wanna fall off too hard!

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HEALTH: 85/100

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ATTN: THE ROGUE IS PULLING

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