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Volta; [Bog, Exo, Fish, Kuuji, Prince, Wands, NS; All others ask first.]
Topic Started: Nov 21 2013, 09:44 PM (3,740 Views)
FirebreathFishslap
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I'm the best! I'm the king of me! I'm gonna eat chips out of the garbage!

Manabu covered his nose as they stepped into the room. The ozone smell was awful. Had this been a computer room at some point? Clearly something had melted or was melting somewhere in the vicinity. And even more strangely, the room was getting quieter. He took his eye off the backs of the people in front of him and looked toward the radio.

"Clip-off? Kellipot? Rio-chan, what are you--" He cut himself off as Rio's voice faded away. A scanner. Shadows shouldn't have been able to scan other users. Had the humanoid shadows further in the ruins figured out how to replicate their scanning powers? But why would that cause radio feedback?

He didn't have a chance to think any further on the subject, because a hand of pure nothing had just reached through the passage. That was the only way he could think to describe it. Someone had reached a hand into the fabric of reality and carved out the shape of a man, his proportions stretched to grotesque lengths and adorned with a mask no shadow wore before him. The more Manabu stared at him, the more his remaining eye began to ache, and he winced and looked away.

"Clip-off," Manabu breathed, almost inaudible. He laughed, just a small chuckle. "...Qliphoth. That's the word you're looking for, Rio-chan." He chuckled again. He couldn't sense this thing, but he didn't need to be able to scan it to know that his attacks would do nothing against it. A bat couldn't hit something as real as that.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Kyo stuck close to Hanako, finger on the flashlight's button. She didn't want to turn it on just yet, didn't want to give away their location, and as long as they could still see, the flashlight wasn't needed yet. Daichi made a flame then, though, and Kyo glanced back. The sight of fire made her nervous, but she nodded all the same and slipped the flashlight into her pocket. Stealth probably wasn't going to be an option in the first place, and they probably didn't have the time for the slow and careful approach, come to that...

Gah, I am way too jittery right n--!

The green-haired girl reflexively stepped in front of Hanako when Rio's signal started to distort. That was when that thing came into view. If asked to describe it after the fact, Kyo wouldn't have had words for it beyond "It looked like a hole in the wall, except it was walking around." And that was what it looked like to her, a big, fat walking hole. Empty, Rio had said? Empty...

...Empty...

Kyo stared, one hand inching up toward her enchanted kodachi. But this sort of thing was probably not the kind of enemy you wanted to attack physically, that would be like trying to mend a stab wound with a pitchfork. Manabu's clarification of the name might as well have been "Klingon" for all she cared. Kyo immediately yelped, "Who the hell cares what it's called?! Tell us how we can hurt it, I don't want to shoot lightning at this thing unless I'm sure it won't... ah, right, I null dark. Get behind me!"

And Kyo did the only logical thing that didn't involve standing there with her thumb up her butt waiting for Rio to get her priorities straight: she stepped even more directly in front of Hanako, held out a hand, and blasted the strange "Qliphoth" thing with a ball of dark magic, a crackling black-and-purple ball of Mudoon. If it drained, there weren't any wounds for the spell to heal; if it reflected, the spell would just hit Kyo again and mess up her clothes a little; if it didn't do anything, then it didn't do anything. Either way, she could reclaim that expended magic energy with a quick Spirit Drain, so at worst they would gain nothing, at best it would be first blood...
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Nonsequitur
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Yellow Bubblegum
Q!ipoth. That was a thing in Kaballism, right? And that connection was literally the extent of her knowledge of it. Whatever it meant, the thing that defined itself so strongly by what wasn't there stood right before her. She remembered mainly why she was here.

"I'll be careful." A lie, considering what she planned to do. She had nothing to fear from Dark-type attacks herself, so she ran out from behind Kyo and hoped to attack it from a side. Given just what it was, there probably wasn't even anything substantial enough for her knife to find purchase.

That was somewhat besides the point though. Manabu was the most vulnerable one there, and anything that drew its attention from him was good. Even if that was trying to draw it's attention by getting in it's face and trying vainly to give it a few anatomically superfluous holes.

The detail that it scanned was worrying, but nothing that could have been done about it at that point. "Daichi! Stay with Manabu!"
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Czernobog
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Best Influence.
Click: "Arrogant Qlippoth! Don't -- bzzzzzz -- peat, ssss bother with physical attacks and...shit, it's got a weakness, but I can't kkkkk it is. Physical, fire...some weird zzzzzz --ty and force shit. Full combo platter of terrible. Get out!"

The bolt of darkness spread across it, and caused it to stagger. On the contrary, Hanako's knife slid across the nebulous boundary of its body, failing to penetrate even a hair. It raised its right hand, and there was a flash of red. A wave of fie emanated from that point, rolling across the gallery.

It moved past Hanako, its eyeless gaze seemingly fixed on Kyo, the only one who had manage to cause it any measure of damage.

[Enemy has cast Maragion.]
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Exodin
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MAHHA
"Manabu! Get down"

He rolled out of the way, springing back up. Though now, he was further away from Manabu and closer to Kyo and Hanako. Physical didn't work...so what was it about...fire.

"Sensei! Hanako-san! We need to get out of here! Come on!"

His job was to protect Manabu. He couldn't just hoist the boy over his shoulder and start running though. Especially when there were people he cared about down here. People that were more important than him. That had people that actually cared about them.

"Let's go! Rio said to go!"

He could try and get it's attention. He'd been told not be a hero, but damnit Kyo was weak to fire of all things. He'd do as he was told to for now, but if the situation got dire...well hopefully he could buy the three of them enough time to escape.
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FirebreathFishslap
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I'm the best! I'm the king of me! I'm gonna eat chips out of the garbage!

Qlippoth. A hole in reality. Husks. Kabbalah. Oh, this was absolutely wonderful. What they were dealing with couldn't possibly be a Shadow. No, it had to be more. This had to be the anomaly consuming Nagashima. Manabu watched it move, wide-eyed, the headache boring into his cornea the more he stared at it. He only barely registered everyone around him talking, only acknowledging the danger he was in in the deepest recesses of his brain.

The Maragion struck him head on, knocking Manabu to the ground and knocking him out of his reverie. He twisted in midair so he landed on his side instead of his back and winced before scurrying to his feet.

He looked around. Hanako had tried to attack it head on. Kyo had attacked it with spells. It was going after Kyo. The gears in his brain began to turn. There wasn't enough information, not enough to go on. He had to get away and observe it from a safe distance. They all had to--

"Run!" Manabu finally yelled as he began to make a break for the entrance.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Oh for the love of--!

Shit.

When Kyo saw the wave of fire, she knew she wouldn't be able to dodge it. If Isoroku had been here, she might have been able to count on her friend's Magarudyne spell to blast the flames away--why she even bothered considering that at the moment she wasn't sure, but the thought came and went in a flash. After that, it was nothing but instinct.

Kyo spun around, and threw herself to the floor, covering the back of her head with both arms. The heat of the flames rolled over back, and she felt her jacket ignite, and her left pant leg, she could feel the flames burning at her flesh through the clothing--and then the flames passed, and Kyo did the logical thing: having already come to a stop, she dropped to the ground and rolled over.

That wasn't going to put the flames out, but it would, at least, keep them from spreading--she hoped. She paused in this act just long enough to don the studded-leather mask, and then occupied her hands with extracting Death's Compass from her jacket as she tried to pull her arms out of the flaming gauntlet.

It only took a few seconds--then she was up on her feet, one of her pant-legs smoking but extinguished, mask on her face, jacket on fire and hanging from one outstretched arm like a banner flag, and the other hand clutching the Compass. Nevan took form as she stood; the Leanashe's expression was something like a combined smirk and grimace.

And then Kyo ran--but not away, rather straight at the Arrogant Qlippoth. "Oi!" she snapped. "I ain't got six billion yen t' throw away on new jackets like Spencer does, asshole!"

And then she tossed the flaming jacket over the Qlippoth's head like a drape, at the same moment Nevan cast a Zionga spell aimed at the creature's white mask. Then, then she turned to flee. Her leg and back were pretty much just wide patches of pure pain signals at this point as far as her brain was concerned--her shirt hadn't ignited, but that hadn't prevented heat from penetrating. She still held Death's Compass in her hand; boy's pants she might have been wearing, but they weren't nearly baggy enough that she could put a hand-sized metal ring-thing in one of the pockets without stopping to do it first.

"Hanako! I need healin'!" Kyo called out. "Shit, why'd it hafta be fire, why did it hafta be fire?!"
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Nonsequitur
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Yellow Bubblegum
In stark contrast to Manabu's thoughts. Hanako's were somewhat more grounded: A powerful and unusual Shadow was still just a shadow nothing more. Though they were obviously poorly equipped to deal with the Qlippoth, the facts were still the facts and no need to jump to ridiculous conclusions.

"Shit." The flames hurt. What's worse those nice, flame resistant clothes Chika went though the trouble of getting here were long gone thanks to a swarm of sapient rats chewing it to tatters. The clothes she had on now were alight, and her flesh charred and blistered. The knife in her hands was uncomfortably hot.

She needed to respond, and effectively. She failed as a diversion, but she wasn't without resources, she cast Maraqua, strategically she'd catch herself and the Qlippoth in the blast radius, and arrange it so the splash would have hopefully helped Kyo put out the flames without actually damaging her.

"Daichi, stay with Manabu, and alright Kyo!" She was right behind her. She had hopped that an indirect attack of a Pulinpa could have deterred the Shadow's pursuit. But she deferred that plan until later, as soon as her focus returned to an acceptable point, she cast a Dia on Kyo to help. A second one would have been on the way.

Hanako remained remarkably calm even as they fled for their lives. Having time to mentally anticipate that it might have ended up just as it was certainly did wonders for her ability to stay cool under fire.
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Czernobog
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Best Influence.
The flaming jacket and lightning bolt both caused the creature to stagger backwards, though the jacket was immediately extinguished by the burst of water, as the maraqua sucked all of the moisture out of the air and then exploded in a shower of hydraulic death. The remains of the jacket slipped down the elongated figure, and water beaded across the surface of is unfleshed body, running down it as if its skin were absolutely frictionless.

The group escaped, moving back onto the bridge, the structure of which was pitted with rust and melted in places. Air moved in the vast subterranean space, the only sound coming from the gurgling shadows below and from themselves: their heavy breathing, their feet treading over the shards of broken glass.

Instead of pursuing, the monstrous shadow behind them moved to the side apparently ignoring the persona users and moving behind a column, almost as if to hide.

There was an intense wave of vertigo that passed over the group of persona users, almost as if the objects in their immediate surroundings were flexing, like the distances between things were stretching and compressing. Visible below the bridge, several maya seemed to collapse; a homicide crab began to move in a circle, weaving drunkenly.

From the stairwell ahead, the Arrogant Qlippoth appeared, striding forward to block the persona users' escape. Now, they were running toward it.

[Enemy used Ambush: short-distance combat teleportation from cover to cover if unobserved.]
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Exodin
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MAHHA
Daichi had immediately started to run after Manabu. Placing him second to the front as far as he knew. He just had to maintain the light source, and get to the entrance. If they could just get there everything was going to be fine. Then, suddenly the large boy found it hard to control his speed and momentum. Essentially turning him into a battering ram, which was headed straight for Manabu.

Come on! Come on!

If he could just grab the other boy's arm, irish whip him behind himself. So that Manabu would be out of immediate danger. So that the Qlippoth was making it's way toward him instead of a boy with no persona then it would be fine. Then he could launch the sustained Agi at it. Then...he would be the primary target hopefully. He could distract it, ensure the others made it out. Then...he'd figure something out. Have Rio pull him out. Of course, this entire plan hinged on actually grabbing Manabu's arm. If he could just do that. Then at least he could say that he'd finally done something helpful. Hanako, Kyo, even Manabu, they were all more important than him. Every single one of them had people to care for. He didn't, he was the cannon fodder and he knew it. He was okay with that. He wasn't scared, oh no.

He was terrified.
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