melodiesofeternity | Player Plot: A (skele)ton of Work

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Player Plot: A (skele)ton of Work

Who: [AU] Papyrus and everyone else attending the expedition
When: January 7th
Where: The I.B. Magitek Tower
What: The I.B. Magitek Tower may rest on top of the ruins of Asura's temple. Thus, it's up to our heroes to investigate the tower in hopes of finding the great Eidolon within.
Warnings/Notes: Let's just say it's gonna get... topsy turvy. ;)

Everything is pre-arranged. The flight to the tower. The appropriate waivers. Naturally, everyone who accompanies Papyrus will have to sign to gain access- the Triumvirate was rather adamant about preserving the more confidential secrets within the tower, after all.

But once the appropriate paperwork gets signed away, the tower staff escorts the group toward the elevator. Though with the sheer turnout, it may take a few trips to get everyone down below.

[ooc: Info and sign ups are here!

As a quick clarifying note, here's the gist of how the temple and tower relate.

- Characters can access terminals on specific floors, which will open up stairways to an upside down and photo negative version of the I.B. tower without any people in it. Characters enter on the ceiling, which is now the floor, but must proceed to doorways that are on the floor (now the ceiling).

- The elevator does not function on these flipped floors, but it does function on the regular floors, which is what will allow them to skip around to key areas.

- For the trials, there are only terminals within three floors of the destination (as outlined in the comments).]

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Before following the main host up into the next room, Sephiroth spent some time investigating the crates in case any of them might be of some insight or use. You never knew where you might find answers in this Temple, after all.

The fight is already well underway when he finally ascended into the fray; deftly dodging out of the obvious line of sight of that Golem, right away. Negative Aura was cast again as it seemed to have assisted in the last battle, followed with Fulminating Oblivion when he got a chance. Afterward, it was time to see exactly what his physical attack power might do here; Sephiroth charged in for a quick flurry of strikes against a flank of the Golem.

Just give Red a second to catch up-- he'd spent the aftermath of their last battle quickly patching himself up with a little •Magitek Force. Even if he did intentionally make himself a target, those hits would add up if he let them linger.

By the time he's caught up, though, it's already a fray-- a spectacle of fire and darkness. So much for tactics and coordination.

Oh well. Why stop playing it by ear? So long as he could still keep covering Megatron with •Sentinel, it wasn't like they could botch this one too badly. And the arms of his beloved DAHAK were still nice and sharpened, to boot. In conjunction with the other blows, charging in for a mech-mounted •Magitek Sword would hopefully be enough to turn that golem to gravel.

Uendo has to take a moment as well -- while not as tiring as the real thing, even a partial summoning has a bit of a cooldown. The others are quickly moving on though, and he follows suit as soon as he's able, getting ready for another casting...

...Though his gaze lingers on Sephiroth for a moment. That's funny... He feels like he's seen that dark attack before, but where...?

Nevermind, not important. They have a battle to win. Uendo calls upon Ifrit this time, unleashing Meteor Strike on the second Ice Elemental. It's just too bad he has no earth magic to deal with the rest...

The fire magic deals devastating damage to the Ice Elementals, though in desperation, they retaliate with their own ice magic. But with the way they're bobbing and twitching, they've certainly seen better days. One more strike ought to finish the job.

The Lightning Elementals launch their own Thundaga spells, aiming for Sephiroth and Red. As for the Golem? It staggers at the physical attacks, but retaliates by swinging its arms outward in a counterattack and then striking the ground to create a rumbling shock wave.

Best to fan out, team! You have an AOE attack on your hands! On the positive side, this golem's at critical health.

On the negative side, it seems a two more tubes are starting to drain, containing two more golems.

Edited 2019-01-11 04:24 (UTC)

Making like an action game protagonist, Tyzias leaps out of the way of the golem's AoE attack, avoiding the crushing tremor. Moonsetter activates from her swift reflexes, and Tyzias slices into the golem with another Deduction Cutter, scoring three critical hits.

Sunslammer gives Tyzias enough of a speed boost from the crit for her to springboard off the crumbling golem and towards its fresh cohorts. She dives down towards the newly-emerged monster, blades spinning in another Deduction Cutter. Her swords cut deep, getting three more critical hits as she studies the monster.

Now that it's finally her turn, Tyzias lands, then dashes seemingly straight through the monster, weapons outstretched in another Judgment Piercer.

With the golem seemingly handled for the time being by Tyzias, and the ice elementals clearly on the way out the door, they need to clear the field as quickly as possible before the other two finish being deposited. The lightning elementals are currently the most pressing threat, so let's do something about those. As Megatron repositions himself to stay out of the AoE attack he sees that Red has still to act and so casts another [Tabula Rasa] enchanting his Gunblade with the [Earth] element to give him more of an edge against the remaining two strongest enemies.

At the rate it was being carved, that Golem was due to crumble to dust any minute now; unfortunately, that meant that Red was staring down two elementals that required the proper magical response-- something that his •Magitek Wall counterattack wouldn't be able to provide, and of an element that he had no way of loading up into his weaponr--

Wait. Did the awesome battle robot just load up his Gunblade with earth magic? Never mind! They were back in business. It just took Red a few clanks of his gunblade against the DAHAK's arm to transfer over some of that magic, and soon enough they had a noticeable coppery sheen running across their seams.

It was far less glamorous than unloading with magical beams and bullets, but •Magitek Sword backed by the power of earth would hopefully suffice for that lonely Lightning element whom the group had yet to engage.

The remaining ice elementals are, at least, not likely to cause much of a problem. With his cloak on he barely even notices the chill of their attacks, and he retaliates with an [Area Firaga], aiming to kill the remaining ice elementals and perhaps distract the others into the bargain.

Ah, damn. More Golems? Uendo won't be able to do much about those at all. Maybe he should switch to a support Job soon...

For now he's going to try to help Red get rid of the lightning elementals -- though with his summoning on cooldown, all he can do is fire off a Ruin spell at one of them. Still, it's better than nothing.

Richard heaves out a sigh, then looks at his spear. He didn't have any idea what the hell to really do. He could feel the magic melt off of his body and exhaustion start to sink in. There were golems ready to take him on. He didn't think he could muscle them over.

... Unless.

Richard did the unthinkable. He took off his coat.

Dragoon schools tended to let the student decide just how their teachings are implemented. Some people had a talent for magic. Richard did not. Richard did, however, have a talent for devices. And he was an amateur electrician, after all. So he decided to stick batteries on his person connected to some muscle convulsants. Whenever he needed a little extra strength, he used the convulsion harness to essentially bypass the part of his brain that regulates his ability to protect his own fibers from heavy movement to temporarily disable.

Which is how his Spirit Charge worked. He essentially made himself go into a state of hysterical strength and dealt with the consequences later. Only now, he had to punch out golems two times his size and made of rock.

So he charged his batteries with the magic from the one spell he actually managed to work out. Sparks sputtered off the glowing features on his body.

And then he dove. One, huge, [Chaos Thrust]

Edited 2019-01-13 03:50 (UTC)

The combined power of the party was enough to send the new golems crumbling and demolish the remaining elementals. Now only a pile of runes and pebbles remained of their foes. A clear path lay wide open to the party...

But it wouldn't last long, for they'd soon find the next floor absolutely crawling with Skeletons and Zombies. On their own? Not a problem. But they approached in a mob of rattling bones and putrid flesh. A miniature army of the undead, poised to strike. And potentially devour their brains, if not hit the party with the ever unpleasant zombie status.

On the positive side, only one floor remained after this.

Even with the boost that Illusionist gave in terms of magical defense, Thundaga being a higher-tier magic spell still damaged more than Sephiroth would like. It paralyzed him in place at the same time, so that he barely had a second before the ground slam from the first Golem had smashed into the ground. Fortunately, he'd managed to leap back in time but did stumble from the tremor all the same.

It stung deeply that everyone else involved was still clearly more powerful than him despite having picked up a Job that felt so powerful, but there's no point brooding on that now.

Next floor; light AOE's would be the medicine for sure.

Not his forte again, but quickly Sephiroth made sure to position himself as far back, but more to the side of the group, throwing out Negative Aura once more. Then started to charge up Hell Judgment; taking a steadying breath as all that dark energy was summoned. His aim was to focus that powerful beam of dark energy right across the front line of the mob of undead as they approached.

Normally, Megatron tries to avoid direct violence whenever possible. Healing and support, yes. Directing the flow of a battle, yes. These are things he feels comfortable doing. But he survived-thrived-on violence, on anger, and hatred for so long that even though he's more relaxed now in his vow of pacifism, it's still not something he likes to engage in. His indulging in violence led to far too much death and destruction, and now, as a medic, an Autobot and the leader of the Anti-Vocationist League, it's not something he wishes to continue to do if at all possible.

But these creatures are already dead. Putting them down is a kindness, a grim necessity in the face of this perversion of life. So Megatron feels no shame in charging up a [Shadow Flare] and aiming it at the approaching horde of undead. He doesn't aim for any specific abomination; but the group is large enough that he's guaranteed a hit regardless.

Tyzias tilts her head back and unleashing a gut-deep frustrated moan as she sees the undead horde assembled before her. "This is gonna be such a fuckin' chooooooore," she groans. Even if the monsters wouldn't take much effort to take down individually, it's still going to be a massive pain to clear out the entire room. Sighing dramatically, Tyzias leaps into the fray, slicing and dicing into one of the skeletons with a Deduction Cutter, scoring one critical hit, and using the burst of energy provided by Sunslammer she quickly moves on to another skeleton, attacking it with Deduction Cutter once more and scoring two more critical hits.

Kuja almost smiles. Here, here is what a soldier might call a 'target-rich environment'. As Sephiroth and Megatron add their attempts to control the crowd, admirable though they might be- he wonders- Is there really going to be an opportunity to use it better than this one?

Time to show the fruits of all that labor. He rises into the air, azure fire gathering, swirling, forming into orbs of raw magic that rise into the air- and then explode, bathing the rabble in a thousand bolts of light.

He's left breathless, at the end of it, touching back to the floor and having to adjust his hair. It'd always been a rush like nothing else, casting [Ultima]. "Minor time-saving measure. Goodness, it's been too long since I've used that spell."

Wow, okay. There was no way those undead would have a chance, especially once Kuja unleashed his Ultima. With so much power, those foes crumble to ashes, leaving a clear path to the final room. Well played. Very well played.

Best enjoy the victory while it lasts, though, for as they make their way to the final floor, they'll definitely see a chest. Unfortunately, said chest rests behind a snarling Chimera. It sniffs the air as its challengers arrive...

That's the last warning before it charges forth. Better prepare for a brutal battle, folks! Unlike the previous fights, this is a foe with strong magic and physical defenses and a nasty bite to match.

Tyzias puts a hand on Kuja's shoulder, a serene, contented smile on her face. Zombie viscera drips from her hand onto his outfit. "Thank you. So. Fuckin'. Much." She pats him on the shoulder again, breathes a sigh of relief, and trudges down the stares. Ah, Black Mages. When you have an Ultima, everything looks like a trash mob.

Her smile drops when she sees the chimera, though. "Well, shit." She sighs, flicks her blades free of gore, and directly charges the beast with a Deduction Cutter, getting three critical hits, and immediately follows up with another Deduction Cutter thanks to Sunslammer, scoring two critical hits. Tyzias darts all around and even on the chimera as her blades flash through the air almost too fast to track, cutting deep into its hide.

"Alright! Nice one, Kuja!" Uendo had wondered whether he should use his one full summoning to clear up the undead horde. Thank goodness it wasn't needed.

He's especially glad he saved it when he follows the others to the final floor and sees what awaits them. Oof, this looks like a nasty one... Time for him to bring out the big guns as well. No settling for a partial summoning this time.

"O Sage of the Storm, let loose your divine lightning! Come to me, Ramuh!"

Dark clouds gather in the ceiling and Ramuh arrives in his true form, looming over the Heroes and the Chimera alike. The Eidolon raises his staff and brings down Judgment Bolt on the monster, not only dealing some serious lightning damage but hopefully also leaving it electrified and taking additional damage for the next two turns.

Well...Megatron was expecting that to be more of a fight, but he's not going to complain.

The Chimaera though, that presents a real problem. A high magical defense means that as a Scholar, Megatron will have to switch back to focusing solely on support and healing; as a Chemist there still isn't much he can do.

He casts [Fae's Blessing] and summons [Eos] as her healing spell, weak though it might be, can be a useful supplement for the time being. Shields can come later, but now they'll be better prepared when the chimaera makes its counter-attack.

Finally-- no more brittle golems or elementals. This was an enemy he could actually sink his teeth into... but, unfortunately, it also seemed very much willing to return that favor. And it had a lot of teeth.

"Tch...!"

New floor, new fight, new friends-- But if he was going to take a hit or two, had to get back into some sort of order with the others while they dashed around slinging spells. Megatron's summoning made it easy to go back to keeping a •Sentinel position in front of him; he may not have been the only fragile one here, but he was the one doling out heals. Some things you just don't mess with.

But just to make sure he kept the Chimera's attention, he'd fire off a few •Water Bullets into its maned mug. Unfortunately not nearly as flashy or impressive as a summon or a dancing flurry of swords, but at least it got the job done.

Richard was done with this nonsense. And there's a way out, right past this chimeric thing. He wished that there were fewer people here. But then again, if Tyzias, Red, and maybe even Kuja weren't there, he wouldn't ever do this. He wished he could say that what was to happen next was entirely a matter of protective rage, but in truth, he was also tired of fighting and frustrated with yet another god damned thing in their way.

He could feel the Dragon Heart's loosening grip, so before the zombies went down in a blaze of horror and gore, he'd [Spirit Charge]d and pumped the mana into the batteries hoped that it was for naught.

It wasn't.

He dropped his spear into the ground and marched up like a predator. His movements were steady, punctuated by the unnatural twitching of his arms. Eyes hidden behind the rim of his fedora. Face tucked into a disgusted scowl. The seam of his trousers glowed brightly. And for a short time, the environment seemed to take on a faint blue pall. He stood in front of the beast and his head bobbed slightly, like he was looking at this thing three times his size and only finding something worthy of utter contempt.

And then it began.

It was a beat down. It lacked all virtues of proper fighting, every measure of politeness or reason was no longer participating. Richard had grabbed the Chimera's ears, dragged them down, and stuck his boot over the creature's head. There was a bright blue flash as his Gatecrasher let loose an explosion, a foot-mounted shaped charge usually meant as a breaching tool, now repurposed to drop a monster. In the midst of the smoldering, before the beast could even react, he grabbed the creature's mane, yanking it violently. Then he proceeded to just start pummeling it with clenched fists. At first it was somewhat normal, as normal as such an absurd picture could be. But then the blows increased in frequency into something utterly inhuman. It stopped being evocative of a man punching something and began to evoke a measure of a machine that required logistics to operate. A machine gun. A jackhammer. The piston off of an old engine in action. It seemed to go on forever, captured in the span of around an uncomfortable thirty seconds.

When Richard stopped, the batteries had stopped discharging. A very discerning eye could see smoke or vapor lifting off of his heaving body. He took a moment to catch his breath, then planted his boot once more into the creature's face, and shot it away with another explosive kick.

Edited 2019-01-15 01:57 (UTC)

From far away at the door of the final room, Asriel's head pokes out.

"...Holy s."

The bombardment of attacks makes the Chimera screech, roar, and hiss. Its eyes light up in fury, and it prepares to retaliate-

...And then Richard's melody kicks in, not only dealing hefty damage but stunning the darn beasty.

Seems you guys have another round to prepare before this thing snaps back into action. Use it wisely.

At first, Tyzias has visceral flashbacks to the times when she had the misfortune to walk in on a highblood in the middle of the "noble's rage." Nothing noble about it at all, just some poor troll getting beaten into a smear on the ground by a crazy indigo or purple. But... when she looked closer, this was different. More mechanical. Less like a berserk beast and more like an unstoppable, impassive machine. It was somehow even more upsetting this way.

She couldn't deny it was effective, though. Tyzias gives Richard an appraising look before diving back into the fray, blades driving into the chimera with a Judgment Piercer... which, unfortunately for the monster, scores a critical hit. Sunslammer Gavel Technique activates, and Tyzias continues her assault, swords hacking into the chimera with unerring precision and force. Two blows cut particularly deep in two critical hits.

Sephiroth enters the fray just in time to see the almighty display of power that Richard unleashes into the Chimera; that deserved a moment to really appreciate the untold damage that the man was delivering. That was a melody, right? This worlds version of a limit break. It drew a flash of memory back to when he'd nearly been primed for his own, months ago now against the Medusa in the Mad'ni shrine. Even when training at the Monster arena he'd never really used his own; something to consider experiencing.

Power like that begged to be used.

With the beast stunned for a round, it was time to prepare for the next. Negative Aura goes out against it as soon as Sephiroth put himself in range to do before, again the dark energy enveloped the keen edge of his short-katana as he charged into melee - using it to deliver Fulminating Oblivion this time but then immediately retreating to give himself and others room to counter for when the chimera would inevitably attack next.

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tyzias is a crit build don't judge me

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