GW3 Summary (Rated T)

[Draco]

Dec 24, 2009 9:20:19 GMT -5 Celestial said:

(How did that rap from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann go again...?)

Do the impossible,
See the invisible
ROW ROW FIGHT DA POWAH

Touch the untouchable
Break the unbreakable
ROW ROW FIGHT DA POWAH

What you gonna do is what you wanna do
Just break the rule, then you see the truth
This is the theme of "G" coming through baby!
ROW ROW FIGHT DA POWAH!


There you are. ^_^ *plays 'Libera Me From Hell' over GW3*

<sub>It isn't really 'row row fight da powah' but that sounds much better than the original lyrics.

Also, this is just the chorus. x3</sub>

'Libera Me from Hell' would actually fit in pretty well in some parts of GW

[Celestial]

Dec 24, 2009 14:01:48 GMT -5 Draco said:

Dec 24, 2009 9:20:19 GMT -5 Celestial said:

Do the impossible,
See the invisible
ROW ROW FIGHT DA POWAH

Touch the untouchable
Break the unbreakable
ROW ROW FIGHT DA POWAH

What you gonna do is what you wanna do
Just break the rule, then you see the truth
This is the theme of "G" coming through baby!
ROW ROW FIGHT DA POWAH!


There you are. ^_^ *plays 'Libera Me From Hell' over GW3*

<sub>It isn't really 'row row fight da powah' but that sounds much better than the original lyrics.

Also, this is just the chorus. x3</sub>

'Libera Me from Hell' would actually fit in pretty well in some parts of GW

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks so. xD

[Deleted]

You guys... xD

Dec 24, 2009 17:20:07 GMT -5 Celestial said:

Dec 24, 2009 14:01:48 GMT -5 Draco said:

'Libera Me from Hell' would actually fit in pretty well in some parts of GW

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks so. xD

Me three. Okay, so I keep visualing potential moments when I listen to it, but still.

Second verse dedicates to the real peeps
What we gotta say is so real thing 'cause
Revolution ain't never gonna televise
Kickin' a mad flow, microphone (...I didn't understand this word)
(more stuff I didn't understand) --overground
I'm 'bout to hit you with a scream from the underground
Whole city covered in a cyber flavour G is in your area
One of the toughest enigma

(Oh yeah, and the summary's updated! Just need to get up-to-date with Page 27 sometime this week.

One quick note: my computer will be upgraded later today, and it's a particularly tricky upgrade to install, so there may be an amount of time where I won't be able to update the summary. Oh, yeah, I can access the forums and update a document (I keep a document on hand; very handy!), but since I do a lot of post editing and won't be able to log in (unless I remember the password somehow... no, I'm not changing it!)... yeah.

Thought I'd let you guys know in advance in case anything happens.)

[Deleted]

Episode Ten
Countdown to Page Thirty

PAGE 28

Huntress: Cap'n collides with the same table that Nasue's on, creates a Sue-shield, checks the crossbow to see if it's damaged (giving it higher priority than, y'know, herself), and then the flashbangs go off with the sound of, and I quote, a herd of soprano elephants practising The Ride of the Valkyries. So she goes under the table. Then the blarf shows up, conveniently blocking the only other way out (unless someone blasts a hole in the ceiling); Cap'n tells the blarf to stay put.

Zylaa: Zylaa manages to summon her horde of weasels (ooh! She has 300 warrior-poets at her command!) to attack - after the flashbang, mind you. And then she recognises who the attacker is. "Celestial?!" My god, she's still as beautiful as ever! *MAULED*

Kiddo: In a conversation that happens before Aly arrives at the basement, Kiddo says that she does know of a way to fight the Underdeep. Two, actually. 1. Kill fear, which is impossible unless you visit the right neurosurgeons. 2. Turn into a mindless berserker, push the U-Deep away, and seal it. The former ninja decides to follow Aly from a distance, preferring to be out of sight.

Celestial: U-Deep!Cele (I'm kinda tempted to call her UDC, but that can only end in pain) gives up on trying to tear off Strife's armour and decides to go after Hunty, when FLASHBANG! Interestingly this seems to hurt the Underdeep inside of her, or at least stun it; Cele regains control of herself in time to recognise Zylaa (It's been so long, my lo-- *MAULED* Okay, okay. I'll hold back on the Foe Yay gags for now.), and starts begging for help when THAT THING WE CALL THE UNDERDEEP repossesses her. U-Deep!Cele leaps into the air, planning to land on Hunty--hang on, Hunty's under a table. Wouldn't you be landing on Nasue instead?
Ack! The Author reads the summary! The catgirl thing was a joke, I swear! *ahem*
Anyway, the AI with medium awareness patches herself up after being hit by the LAZOR, and decides to fight internet memes with internet memes! (I have a suggestion: "I AM A MAN!" *PUNCH* Or, "Bees. My god.") She turns herself into Dr. Octagonopus, shoots her own LAZOR at Mini OSS... and then walks up to him and gives him a chance to escape the shutting-down of the satellite networks(!!!). Then she hurries back to HUL.

Jina: After who-knows-how-many pages, Jina wakes up from unconsciousness when she hears an explosion. She follows the Blarf into the house, but can't enter the lab since an 11-metre-long (approximately) black furry thing is blocking the way.

Strife: Strife's all psychotic and violent when BANGFLASH and he's on the ground shrieking in pain. He recovers in time to see normal!Cele turn back into Underdeep!Cele and charge at Hunty. Reluctantly (politics are a pain) he summons a wall of stone to protect Hunty and her Sue-shield, not that Sue-shields NEED to be protected.
Mini OSS is just as blasted by the LAZOR as the Author was. When said Author approaches him with the offer, he's confused... and then turns into a fridge. (There's a trope joke in there.) In the real world, Haggoth and the subcommander find the wires, one of which leads to the satellites. Haggoth is impatient, especially since he can't just rip all of the wires out - they need to not cut the power to life support.

Rider: A very confused Rider eventually comes to the conclusion that Cele is trying to kill the captain. She comes up with a plan: lure the dragon-mage away from the Underdeep. This requires Hunty and Fraze to get on the blarf and get the hell out.

Huntress: After recognising Cele and climbing on top of the earth wall (I think...), Cap'n concludes that the dragon mage must be possessed and then shares a very odd choice of story: she used to have a crewmate named Dragon, Dragon got possessed, and to fix that Hunty stabbed her in the heart(?!). She decides that hey, that might be a good way to fix Cele--and then Rider wakes her up to reality. Bloody Mary orders the blarf to pick up the captain, and it does so with one of its tentacles.

Scar: Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer's fantasies of wooing Lady Sarinon are quite rudely interrupted when things start going to hell. Realising that Sarinon is in danger, and that he has to obey the order of an angel who appeared outta nowhere (can't wait to see his reaction when he discovers that said "angel" is Sarinon's brother!), he decides to do so the Gentleman Adventurer way. This involves using his whip (which, I remind you, was previously being used as his belt) to grab a chandelier, swing across the room, grab Sarinon, and then swing around again to kick Rikku.

Kwoiffei Nasuella: For some bizarre reason, the FLASHBANGS made Nasue's headache less bad. Of course, they also gave her ANOTHER one, so all's right with the world. She leaps up onto the tentacle that grabbed Hunty, and for the first time, starts to wonder what the heck's up with the headaches.
We also get exposition on Drakhé D-Man, who is an amnesiac dragon man working as a janitor in the tavern that Oncara visited. What does it have to do with the story? Well... I'll let Rikku think of something.

Jina: Jina draws her dagger and peeks through the door. Hey, Hunty and Fraze are in there, y'know! *brick'd*
Halin and Corenu reunite with Sandra. It's confirmed that yes, Patri was killed by the explosion - oh, yeah, and the promised help did not arrive. So they need to start over - but first, Corenu needs to revive Patri. And since he doesn't have the entire corpse, Corenu will have to improvise. Fun.

Draco: While Gil drives, Draco explains that he also has a vial of dragon's blood, though he's keeping it for the time being. Gil asks if anyone has any plans aside from dropping Scar off at the hospital; he is curious about why Brassport suddenly appeared in another world.

Fraze: So apparently the flashbangs were duds - as in, the effects lasted seconds rather than minutes. Also, Fraze's flechette gun (quick reminder - it shoots THOUSANDS OF NEEDLES) is vibrating, which it hasn't done since GW2. When he hears Rider's plan, he decides it sounds reasonable, partly because he's trapped in bureaucracy; he sprints across the room, eventually reaching and climbing onto the Blarf.

Rikku: Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer's kick connects with the back of Rikku's head. The necromancer is sent for a head-on collision with the floor, which actually drives the Underdeep out of her head for a few moments. Not that it does much good; she's pretty out of it.

PFA: Jernath likes the sound of Draco's offer. He tells Gil that aside from getting help for Scar, the group might do some scouting in Tabloid Town (THE PLACE TO BE!).

--

PAGE 29

Strife: --stays in the lab, holding his STEAMPUNK MOTORBIKE defensively in case Fraze decides to fire the flechette gun. Also, this Blood Knight would love to see Underdeep!Cele get shredded by needles.

Celestial: Underdeep!Cele tries to melt the earth wall with white-hot flame (...wouldn't that have knocked Hunty unconscious?), but this turns out to be pointless as Hunty and a few others get away. She decides she might give the Blarf a head start, and turns into a chameleon has one eye on the Blarf, and one eye on Strife.

Celestial: Yes, she did just do a double-post. See, this one is a WALL OF TEXT!
Okay. First, the Author has her own case of Fridge Logic when she sees Mini OSS turn into a fridge. She thinks about her purpose in the RP, and realises that she'll have to modify her code so she won't show up as a virus. This is where HUL comes in. After a brief discussion involving the definition of "virus" and whatnot, HUL finally agrees to her plan. Oh yeah, and a joke about combining is almost stated. COMBINING IS A BEAUTIFUL THING~!

Moonlight: Wilhelm admires the Phantom Merc, is amused at Draco's offer (since, you know, he's a Mercenary), and goes to sleep. Well what do you know? He has similarities to Liyer, after all.
Speaking of whom, Rivanth decides he needs to figure out what's going on. So he summons Juverna (whose wounds have healed, more or less), and Liyer, who... has changed. Yeah. Did he turn into a human or a humanoid cat or something?

Amnei: Amnei catches on to the plan quickly, and decides to try incapitating Underdeep!Cele. He does so by shouting to catch her attention, and then shining the dazzler in her face. ZE UNDERDEEP, IT MIGHT DO NOTHING!

Jina: Jina climbs up on the Blarf.
We get a brief explaination of how Corenu's revival abilities work. Basically, if the dead body's incomplete, it'll steal from whatever's around it (and if a person happens to be nearby... yeah). Corenu comes up with the solution of using wood(!!!), turning Patri into some half-human half-wood golem freakish psuedo-cyborg thing. Just avoid fire, water or electricity (particularly if you're wet) and you should be fine.

Strife: The subcommander finally finds the cable to the satellites, and together, he and Haggoth rip the cable apart and pull the plug. Now the computer guys have to get to work fixing it; meanwhile, Haggoth thinks about the problem of long-distance communication. And then he has an idea - isn't there someone in Spacefleet who can contact Commander Fraze... through telepathy? Yes, folks, we're about to see Cyclops again! (Minus the half-italics font, I hope.)

Huntress: After being pulled onto the Blarf, Hunty gives the order to move out, back to the White Weewoo. During this trip back, it turns out that Hunty's tired - the Sue-sword stops glowing - and she still has her mind on finding Rane.

Celestial: Underdeep!Cele doesn't fall for Amnei's trick - ZE UNDERDEEP, IT ACTUALLY DID SOMETHING! - but instead looks away, and then throws some fire at him. By now the Blarf and co. have gotten away, so she turns into her dragon form (causing massive amounts of collateral damage while doing so) and flies after them. Since she has to intercept them before they can get to the ship, she... roars a shockwave at them, and then dives. (Wait. Is she 15 metres or 23 metres long? I'm confused.)
As per the laws of dramatic writing, the last of the Author's code was copied just before the power was cut. True to HUL's word, she ends up... somewhere else, with new rewritten code so she won't show up as malware unless she does something, y'know, malicious. After hitting one of his nerves by asking a question, she leaves his place and heads back into the Spacefleet network. Right now there's nothing to do, so she'll wait for future posts.

Strife: Strife grabs his STEAMPUNK MOTORBIKE and dash-teleports the hell outta the collapsing mansion, following the blarf. He counters Underdeep!Cele's shockwave with a psionic shield of rocks, and decides to attack the dragon directly. This is done by shooting into the air with rocket boots, preparing to use the bike as a chainsaw, and yelling, "Drink rubber!" ...wait. Drink rubber? What the flying frolicking fruit fox fudge fissures?

Omni: Somewhere in the GREAT DARK BEYOND THAT IS NOT THE UNDERDEEP (confirmed by OOC!Omni), people are watching and waiting.
Somehow Ethan had collapsed. He insists that he's fine, gets back into the shuttle, and flies towards the hospital.
IC!Omni adds to LH's lesson, saying that things in general are just... odd. Then LH says that someone might've cast a spell that caused the earthquake, and Omni is immediately all, "Wait, how did you connect those dots?"

Amnei: Amnei's clothes are set on fire and he narrowly avoids being crushed by falling debris. But at least a nearby waterpipe is working. He tries to contact Spacefleet, but doesn't have any luck. And then his mind connects some dots and realises that when hackers attack Spacefleet networks at roughly the same time as the Underdeep is going bananas, it's probably not coincidental. But first, he needs to get out.

Jina: Jina is on the Blarf Express when Underdeep!Cele attacks. She tells the Blarf to "throw her up"... which it interprets as "throw me at the large and dangerous and most likely possessed dragon".
Owen says that he only felt one earthquake that day - when Brassport was teleported. He then wonders if anyone's done any research on the Underdeep, scientific or magical. I'd love to tell you that both kinds of research have been done, but I'm OOC and you're IC.
The four they-think-they're-possessed adventurers revise their plan; this time, they'll be less subtle about it. Their preparations for leaving are interrupted when Halin senses that someone's coming; they all decide to hide, except for him.

Huntress: The Blarf Express turns out to be a somewhat accurate name, as it's moving fairly quickly. When Underdeep!Dragon!Celestial (isn't being needlessly long-winded fun?) breathes a shockwave at the group, the Blarf shields Hunty from it (intentionally? dunno), throws Jina at the dragon, leaps to the side, and speaks. Hunty - who is hoping that other guilds don't end up blaming the pirates for this - doesn't know what the blarf is saying, so Bloody Mary translates into English. Blarf sez, "I am what you are. They are mine. Do not cross me."

Michelle: Ro arrives at the Assembly Hall, Asta makes an improvised belt for Overlord, and the two characters meet up. Asta grabs Rikku's wand, Ro blocks an attack from one of the golems, and the two introduce themselves to each other.

--

PAGE 30

Kwoiffei: Aaaaaaaaand we're on Page Thirty now! It took us... longer to get from pages 28 to 30 than it did to get from pages 1 to 3. Not that that's bad or anything.
*ahem* Anyway. Nasue is also on the Blarf Express. She spends more time being useless, and goes into Shinji Ikari mode as she mentally repeats "Don't panic" to herself. (She should get one of those books with "Don't Panic" written in large friendly letters on the cover.)

Shade: Amazingly, Shade gets to the ambassidor's place without trouble, and even manages to change into combat gear before the messenger shows up. After some messages she hears about the dragon/blarf fight and decides to go investigate that.

Fraze: Fraze gets back onto his SPACE BIKE and follows the crew on that. He tries contacting Amnei, then realises that using long-distance communication isn't gonna work (blast that so-not-a-hacker!), so contacts Amnei via a short-distance communicator. Then comes the dragon's aerial attack! So he switches the bike to "Look Ma No Hands" mode, dives beneath Underdeep!Cele, and fires his superpowered flechette gun at her.

Sarinon: Sarn is all MALICE MODE at Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer, but then the latter saves the former's life, and the winged guy instantly changes his mind. He uses spellsong (technically the Star Dance, but he's singing) to freeze the golems. Then he collapses from exhaustion, and asks... whoever has Rikku's wand to give it to him.
Sarinon has a nice little mental debate when Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer saves her. Afterwards she follows the sound of her brother's voice, and finally finds him. A nice little reunion follows.

Michelle: A very confused Asta doesn't get the chance to give the wand to Sarn, as Ro takes it from her, saying that Sarn's not in good shape. Ro thinks about the wand, realises that a mage was responsible, and mentally resolves to ask Aly some questions ASAP.

Celestial: Underdeep!Dragon!Celestial is hit by Strife's motorbike attack - in the leg. She catches Jina and throws her away. She laughs at the blarf's warning and says she isn't afraid, then sends another shockwave at it. To counter Fraze, she turns into her human form (but with wings... yeah), deflects the flechette gun's projectiles with TEARS(!!), creates a tornado around Fraze, lands on a roof and waits for one of her multiple opponents to make their next move.
Overlord isn't too keen on hiding at first, but the golem attack makes him reconsider. He tells Asta to get outta there ASAP; the main conflict's elsewhere.

Jina: After landing in a fruit vendor's cart, Jina hides the chloroform, turns her cloak into improvised dagger-chucks, climbs up a drainpipe which happens to lead up to the same roof Underdeep!Cele's on, sneaks up, then attempts to grapple the mage. Oh, and stab her as well.

Strife: --does some mid-air dodging, lands quite loudly on the ground, sees Jina preparing to attack, turns off the bike, teleport-dashes over to the house, and climbs up the chimney.

Amnei: Luckily, Amnei's short-range communicator still works. He can't do anything else other than lie still or try to get out, so he decides to work on getting himself out of the rubble.

Huntress: The blarf shields himself (and riders) from Underdeep!Cele's second shockwave breath, Bloody Mary breaks the fourth wall, and Hunty decides she might as well do something about her (I think you know who that might be). So she asks the blarf to take her to a nearby address.

Celestial: Underdeep!Celestial counters Jina's attempted grapple by sending a wave of fire/air, then a wall of fire at her. She turns into her dragon form, causing even more collateral damage, and flies after the Blarf. After doing some planning, she lands, breathes another shockwave at the Blarf, then charges, teeth and claws readied.
The Author gets into a part of the network devoted to security camera footage, and decides to watch the feed in the labs.

Kiddo: Kiddo speaks to the other people present, saying there might be records of how the Biggest Underdeep Entrance of All™ was sealed away. Then she does some more thinking, and realises that these records are probably back in the Ninja Dojo... where the current Ninja Superior is dead.

Draco: Gil drives the PM (Phantom Merc, not Personal Message) through Tabloid Town, passing Beaver Hills on the way. Draco notices that something's happening, particularly in Beaver Hills - and for some reason he hopes that that part of town was roughed up!

Jina: Owen thinks that only sealing away one U-Deep entrance isn't very smart, and wonders if they can't just blow it up.
After being thrown off the roof and landing in a hedge, Jina's just getting back her chloroform when one of Beaver Hills' inhabitants shows up, upset about losing his house. She ends up stealing his hovercar and presumably going after the dragon.

Strife: And now for some gratuitous strategy game humour! In a cutscene Strife falls off the chimney, using his psychic powerz to stop debris from falling on him. Enemy unit Underdeep-Celestial is chasing the Blarf, and sends out a powerful shockwave. Gameplay begins. Select Strife, move him between the Blarf and Underdeep-Celestial, then select Strife's "Purple Means Stop" attack and use it on U-C. The attack animation shows Strife jumping into the dragon's mouth and attempting to chainsaw her throat from the inside. Let's face it: this guy is HARDCORE. Move other units, or End Turn?

Well guys, we've reached a milestone. We've passed thirty pages, and over ten thousand views of the topic. One of these days, perhaps later in the month, we'll hit fifty pages. Then sixty. Then ninety, then a hundred... hey, I'm just looking at the trends for GW RPs. 'til next episode, keep on playing!

End Episode Ten.

[Huntress]

Dec 23, 2009 4:15:52 GMT -5 @kwoiffei said:

So that's Episode Nine. Will Fraze's flashbang trick work on Celestial? What is the meaning of OMINOUS MESSAGE that Kwoi (presumably) left behind? Who killed the Ninja Superior? Did Patri really die? Mummy, can I have a Blarf for Christmas? (...what?!)

=D



Thirty shinies apiece, only four left in stock, get 'em while they're... um, fuzzy? (We should revive the guild shops sometime. There's currently nothing but GWstuff going on in the guilds and while it's fun and all, it's still kinda excluding non-roleplaying guilders for well over half a year inna row.)

...yeah, the summary's still awesome as ever x3 I read all posts these days and I still use the summary to pick out the central point of all posts, easier that way.

[Jina]

Celestial: Yes, she did just do a double-post. See, this one is a WALL OF TEXT!

Fraze actually posted in between, but then he deleted his post.

[Celestial]

(Wait. Is she 15 metres or 23 metres long? I'm confused.)

Fifteen. I changed the measurements so that while Dragon!Celestial is fairly big, she isn't as big. ^^ Sorry.

[Strife]

I made Strife say "Drink rubber" because he aimed for the throat of the dragon. xD; I probably just ended up giving him a Narm moment, though.

The summary is just as fresh and exciting as the RP itself! ^_^ Keep it on up!

[Deleted]

Episode Eleven

PAGE 31

Lupehunter: LH says (in what seems to be a kinda angry tone) that no, blowing up the Manor will not solve the problem. He heads towards the library to see if he can find any information about the Biggest Underdeep Entrance of All™.

Bengal Tiger: After mourning the death of the Ninja Superior, the tiger does some sniffing around. Seems he died of natural causes. The big cat catches another scent, follows it, and finds PFA... who is currently trapped in a scene that's in stasis!

Kiddo: Kiddo repeats herself, states the size of the Biggest Underdeep Entrance of All™ ("tall enough for a dragon to walk through [But that would depend on the size of the dragon.] and wide enough for an army's legion"), says that destroying the Underdeep would be downright stupid... and then panics when she hears about people going in there.

Huntress: The Blarf goes into armadillo-mode, and tells the people riding it to get off. Hunty and Bloody Mary find that amazingly, one house was not damaged by the shockwave; turns out this house is actually a shop belonging to some ambiguously ethic mage named Zagora. She has anti-Underdeep dreamcatchers, but they're a bit expensive for Hunty, so she asks Zagora to find Rane. And... he's in the Silver Ring tavern, just three miles down the road. Well that was anticlimatic.

Jina: Owen gives the "mysterious disembodied voice" (read: The Possibly Invisible Kiddo) a summary of what happened to him: his home city was teleported, two mages arrived in the city and tried to manipulate people, and things presumably went downhill from there. He doubts that sealing up the Underdeep would stop the mages from acting the way they are.

Celestial: Underdeep!Dragon!Celestial dislodges Strife from her mouth with another shockwave. She notices the shop that Hunty went into, but can't approach it thanks to anti-Underdeep charms... so the Underdeep leaves her and forces the now only-slightly-possessed Celestial to go and eavesdrop. She hears about Rane in the tavern down the road, goes there and tells him she has a message from, "um, Kienne". Oh, and by the way, the Underdeep has a deathgrip on her internal organs the entire time. [sarc]How charming.[/sarc]

Strife: Strife goes COMPLETELY bananas, enjoying the bloodshed before he's shockwaved out of Cele's mouth. Didn't mention this in the previous post, but dragon!Cele tries to step on him. How is this relevant? Because he brings up the STEAMPUNK MOTORBIKE to shield himself... and it's crushed under the weight of a 15-metre beast. After she leaves, Strife just lies in the crater, staring at the sky and wondering what he should do about weaponry next time.

Ikkin: I think this post beautifully lampshades how long this scene stalled - Ikkin grows frustrated with waiting for Jasor, takes Sev, and begins to carry him to the Manor herself!

Jina: Jina comes across the crater, finds Strife in it, and asks "whatever your name was" what happened to the others. And to keep the post from being too short, OOC!Jina gives some details about the hovercar. (The important thing is that it's [dark] red, because RED MAKES VEHICLES GO FASTER!)

Kiddo: Kiddo freaks the hell out when she hears about the two mages, to the point she even becomes visible for a moment! She demands to know who went in and who came out.

Jason-Kun: Jasor is snapped out of his thoughts by Kovaran's voice (... I think there was a time warp), pulls the healing scroll out of his pockets and begins to recite it when the tiger interrupts. And then he notices that Ikkin and Sev are gone.

Michelle: Aly says that Rikku and Cele were dragged in and possibly possessed - and, oh yeah, Sev and Ikkin came out as well. And they need that hole sealed up pronto. She muses on what Kiddo said about how to fight the Underdeep, and wonders if anyone's up for travelling.

Huntress: The Silver Ring is a high-class tavern. One of the patrons is none other than Rane (accompanied by some officers). When sort-of!Underdeep!Cele tells him about the message, he believes her and decides they'd best head outside. NOES DON'T DO IT!!1!11one

Kwoiffei: Kovaran facepalms at just how long the situation took. Then he notices the tiger, and we learn that where the big lizard is from, tigers are large enough to carry big lizards into battle!
Nasue follows Hunty into Zagora's shop. She looks at the window--and sees a bunch of colours in the shapes of things. And the coati's eyes are glowing when she sees the colours. Somehow she realises that they need to hurry.
And Drakhé D-Man's janitor-ing is interrupted by an assassin. One off-screen "so amazingly cool it's not even funny" fight scene later, the assassin's gone through a window, the law enforcement's on its way, and D-Man would rather pay for the window than lose his life.

Kiddo: Kiddo decides that learning about the seal on the Biggest Underdeep Entrance of All™ is a higher priority than trying to figure out how to seal this minor entrance permanently. She slips into slightly fragmented sentences as she says what boils down to this: "Yeah, I'll go, on the condition that only I go into Ninja territory. Aly goes with me; the rest of you stay and guard this entrance. When we get back we'll seal it in a can."

--

PAGE 32

Amnei: Amnei finally gets out of the rubble that was once Merpo's home, and after some backtracking he's able to contact the Spaceport with his short-range communicator. He explains the situation, and requests an attack ship. He's in luck - Spaceport has an armed dropship with laser cannons and rockets. Because there's no kill like OVERKILL, babeh!

Michelle: Kiddo's plan is fine by Aly. Having mental debate with her cat is not.

Jina: Owen says that if he came along, they'd probably get to the Dojo quicker (Steampunk mecha) and wonders how long it'd take for Kiddo to get the info she needs.

Moonlight: So apparently Liyer used to be a human, but was turned into a cat for a handful of years. He does some yelling at Rivanth and knocks him out, then heads to a certain old bookstore along with Juverna. They wonder what book to find first. Meanwhile, a cat stares at the human-turned-cat-turned-human.

Bengal tiger: Speaking of cats, this feline wonders what's the best way to avoid conflict, and so approaches Kovaran and does a gesture that says, "I mean you no harm". Or something. He (the tiger) also wonders if PFA would recognise him.

Rider: After some sort of commentary about how Rider might not have taken certain comments kindly if she'd been more active, Ms. Sol (who's already heard about the Silver Ring, as well as any other place that serves alcohol) buys a poultice. She heads outside, finds Strife, and asks which way the dragon went.

Kiddo: Kiddo repeats her terms, as well as elaborating on them. She's kinda touchy about non-Ninjas being in the Ninja Dojo. She's also hungry. And she's starting to speak like Kovaran (except with less misused words).

Scar: Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer makes a one-liner in response to Rikku's non-sequitur, and turns around to find - to his surprise - Lady Sarinon sobbing in the arms of Sarn. Naturally, Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer is all, "Explain PLZ!" (Ooh! Ooh! I think I know what's coming next! He finds out that Sarn is Sarinon's brother, and--)

Strife: Strife makes an "I dunno" kind of shrug to answer Rider's query. So he starts sculpting stuff (possibly a weapon) from the earth. Unusually for this guy, he's doing this very calmly and very concentratedly. Should I be scared?

PFA: PFA prepares to defend herself when the tiger appears, but relaxes after a little while. Only then does she notice that Ikkin's disappeared. (Let's~ do~ the Time~ Warp~ again!) Only then does she start wondering where she's seen the eye of the tiger before.
Once the Phantom Merc arrives at the hospital, Jernath has a slight mental debate. Something feels just plain wrong, but the rational part of his mind is saying "Shut up". I think these two sides will have a nice little boxing match for the next few PFA posts. Then he does the, "HELLO? Anyone there?!"

Celestial: Oh, right - I shouldn't be scared of Strife, because Celestial still has that [EDIT]ing avatar! Anyway, the situation is simply too good to be true for Underdeep!Cele; the only problem is that she doesn't want Rane's officers to hear anything suspicious. So she creates a vacuum around herself and the Pirate Lord. And then ZE UNDERDEEP takes repossession, and she/it captures Rane, turns into a dragon, flies off, and finds the Underdeep entrance in the hospital.

Bengal tiger: The tiger is happy to see that his person recognises him, and for a moment acts like a housecat who just got offered a scritch. He then runs after Ikkin (pausing to... make some noise at the others).

Kwoiffei: Kovaran is confuzzled at the differences between his world's tigers and this tiger. Anyway, he follows Ikkin as well.
And meanwhile, in an alternate dimension, Kwoiffei's master tells a messenger to shut up. "The Underdeep will fall. There will be no failure." Nice going there, tempting fate like that!

Omni: Both Ethan's and Siber's danger senses tingle when they get close to the hospital. Since the shuttle doesn't have a cloaking feature, he lands a good distance away; when the two re-arrive at the hospital, they both see distant people. Ethan hides, telling Siber to pretend to be a lost dog.
Meanwhile, Omni tries to sort out what happened since her last post. (That's very nearly a direct quotation, by the way.)

Draco: Thanks to a little in-joke in the OOC thread, Gil accidentally runs over someone (they're perfectly fine, BTW). See, this is why Gil sticks to the air - you can't run over people in the air!

--

PAGE 33


Strife: In the 'Fleet's arboretum, Haggoth finds the being he was looking for - Cyclops, a telepathic pile of slime with a single giant eyeball. Cyclops gets into his robo-suit, and briefly talks like this before switching to a British accent (the robo-voice annoys Haggoth). In the conversation involving big words that follows, we learn that Cyclops would need a device to allow his telepathy to go long-distance and contact Fraze, and Fraze alone.

Fraze: brb; cursing OOC!Fraze for getting "Uninstall" stuck in my head. (I'll just get vengeance with "Yuusha-Oh Tanjou!", then!) Anyway, IC!Fraze pulls out of Underdeep!Dragon!Cele's tornado, and spends some time angsting about the destruction before he pulls himself together. He flies to the Spaceport, learns about the dropship that Amnei asked for, gives information about the attacker, and gets a pair of wrist-mounted shields. Then he flies back to the battlefield.
Meanwhile, the voice synthesiser Fraze asked for arrives in the remains of Merpo's lawn.

Jina: The not-possessed adventurers notice that something's odd - the Underdeep's on top of the hospital roof, where it shouldn't be. So Halin takes Sandra Troll Slingshot Airlines to get up there, and asks the "fellow servant of the Underdeep" if she's there to help them.

Huntress: While Hunty doesn't think she has to hurry, Zagora agrees with Nasue. Of course, cursing the dragon is too expensive, so the captain just heads outside, gathers the group back up, heads back on the Blarf and heads off. Zagora advises going west when they reach the Silver Rang tavern.
Rane's been quiet during his tenure as Underdeep!Cele's prisoner so far. When they land on the roof, he just asks what's going on.

Amnei: Amnei is sure he can handle what he has to do. He picks up the voice synthesiser, heads into the dropship, gives the people on board submachine guns, gets the wrist-mounted shield, and gives the order to move out.

Rider: Rider isn't too impressed with Strife, so she heads off to the Silver Ring with the rest of the crew. Once there she asks if Rane's there... and he isn't. [And she asks in such a way that WIS was clearly her lowest stat.]

Celestial: Underdeep!Cele isn't exactly patient, but she supposes she could be called a fellow servant of the Underdeep, and asks where the nearest U-Deep entrance is. She also tells Rane that he's just been dragged into a war (And you had better not be a fan of rock'n'roll music! Sorry. In-joke.) as she sees ships with guns that could easily blast her to bits.
The Author eavesdrops on Haggoth and Cyclops's conversation, and then discovers that there is indeed a ship that's about to blast Celestial to pieces... even though she's not supposed to know about it. After wondering what to do, the Author gets into the dropship's computers by... oh dear lord... BREAKING OUT OF RP VIA THE FOURTH WALL AND THEN BREAKING BACK INTO IT! Ladies and gentlemen, that is easily the most meta-flavoured Crowning Moment of Awesome I have ever seen.

Sarinon: Since Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer had to ruin the moment, Sarn and Sarinon... apologise for being harsh towards him, and thank him for saving "the vixen". Sarn heads over to the prone Rikku, and is naturally shocked to discover who it is. He tears off a bit of his cloak, turns it into a rope by singing (only in fantasy does that sort of thing make any sense), and ties Rikku's hands behind her back.

Lupehunter: LH has a hard time finding information specifically about the U-Deep in the library, but he discovers that there's a large opening in Tabloid Town. So he heads back to the basement to tell the others.

Aerisa: WARNING! NEWCOMER! Anyway, someone named Déliana (I do so love accented 'e's - I tormented people with them back in GW2!) is planning on going into the manor to kill... someone. Judging from who's posting it I have some theories, but I'm just as likely to be wrong as I am to be right.

Ikkin: Ikkin is grateful to see that Kovaran meant it when he said he wanted to help. She isn't sure how much longer she can carry Sev, so she suggests the big lizard carry the "firebird" to the Manor for her. That is, of course, assuming that Kovaran knows his own strength (which he probably does, but still).

Jina: Halin says that the entire hospital is basically the Underdeep; he also offers to show Underdeep!Cele the way himself. He does some thinking, and asks if she's a resident of Mage Manor. Uh-oh...

Rikku: --has some lovely mental arguments with the Underdeep in her head, says Brassport's inhabitants will never get home, wants to give Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer a very M-rated death, and doesn't know what she wants. Ah, isn't being possessed fun?

Strife: Strife finishes creating a new weapon - a sword made out of earthy stuff. Who needs a blacksmith when you have EARTH POWERZ?! Unfortunately the sword probably won't be good in actual combat, so its will-be wielder heads into Zagora's shop to ask for some improvements to the blade. Oh, and he intends on paying for it with Brassport currency...

Kwoiffei: Kovaran reminds himself that yes, he does know his own strength (including how to be gentle). He picks Sev up and promises to get the "firebird" to the Manor as quickly as he can.
Nasue's thoughts about following the dragon can be summed up as, "yeah, that's a good way to get yourself killed". Nonetheless she rejoins the group. Once at the Silver Ring, she decides to... stay outside, wondering if the tavern has a "no pets" policy and musing on what Zagora said.

Next episode: The plot actually begins to take shape. While it's a war between the NTWF and the Underdeep, there are other, smaller conflicts - and perhaps, conflict between guilds. Who knows what will happen? Not I. Also, Strife is not a CHAR, and Celestial probably won't die in lava.

End Episode Eleven.

[Deleted]

He uses spellsong (technically the Star Dance, but he's singing)

Um, yeah ... The Star Dance is music made by the movements of the stars. Enchanters of Feberi blood like Sarn (and Sarinon to a small degree) can sing Enchantments that manipulate that music to cause powerful effects. But the Dance part is purely celestial bodies. And I'm not talking about Celestial's celestial body (though it is rather hawt. ^_~)

*cough* Not that it matters anyway. *slinks away to my den*

[Deleted]

Go! Go! Fight Soul Go!
NTWF's saikyo league of right-- Oh, wait. This isn't NTWF: The Animated Series. Right. Nevermind.

--

Episode Twelve

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Huntress: Hunty finds out that Rane is gone, concludes that it has to be Celestial, and decides to head west. This results in another scene with the two watchmen, who tell the passing Cap'n that the dragon went "that-a-way".
Zagora (who is now eligible to join the "Former One-Shot Character Club") notices the bones are acting funny, hears what Strife wants, and names the price... before pointing out the odd currency that he brought along (but she accepts it anyway). After warning him that voodoo is unpredictable, she disappears with the sword, does some fancy voodoo stuff, and talks about what it can now do.

Strife: Strife tells Zagora to "buy something nice" (whatever that means) before leaving the shop with his voodoo-ised sword in tow. He teleport-dashes into a nearby alleyway, looks inside a bag that was placed in the sword's hilt... and yes, there's a decapitated head inside it. So he puts it in the hilt, and the sword is properly voodoo-ised - as is he. Guess who promptly teleport-dashes VERY VERY FAST through Tabloid Town?!

Seresuchiaru Celestial: Underdeep!Celestial would be grateful to be shown back into the Underdeep, since she can't regenerate outside of it. When the other "servants" show up, she comes up with a plan. Hide Rane where he can't be found, find Rikku, and set the Underdeep free... somehow. And even the U-Deep reads the summary! Ack!
Meanwhile, die Autorin (behold my terrible German!) decides to hijack a screen in the dropship. She appears on said screen, claiming to not have done anything with the system and that she wants to help with the dragon problem.

Draco: Gil feels that something is very not right with the hospital. Draco tries to open the front door, but it's barred. (Wait, didn't Kwoi bar it from the outside? ...I'd better retcon that!)

Amnei: --doesn't buy what the Author says, so he shuts down the monitor she appeared on and orders the crew to cut communications systems that can send transmissions. Uh guys, that ain't gonna work. Kudos for deciding that she must be working with the dragon, though.

Jina: Halin tells Corenu, Sandra and Patri to take Rane to the lodge that the group stays at. They do so, each using their own magic powerz to make sure they get there unharmed. Meanwhile, Halin asks Underdeep!Cele to get him into the hospital... preferably without the people down there noticing anything.

Strife: Strife may be able to move at super-speed (and cause TONS of collateral damage on the way), but it turns out he doesn't have super-reaction time or super-reflexes when he accidentally goes towards the Blarf and runs up the side fast enough to be sent flying. After recovering from a somewhat smooth landing, he simply says, "The Dragon".

Huntress: The Blarf is confuzzled by Strife running into him. Hunty asks Strife if he can track her down.
Meanwhile, Rane is surprised about having to leave Tabloid Town, but his protests are abruptly cut off by... something. He tries to fight the something in his head, but ends up losing. And HO-LY FREA-KING CRAP. RANE IS POSSESSED BY TMC! TMC, who apparently died in GW2, but was turned into a gem - the same gem that Rane now holds!

Strife: Strife agrees to track Cele down, so he promptly vanishes in the direction the dragon went.

Rider: Adeline manages to block out most of what Rikku says, but when she finds that Sarn knows her... well, first she still wants to get home. Second, she asks him who he is and how he knows Sarinon and Rikku.

Celestial: Underdeep!Celestial is happy to know that things are going well so far. As far as getting Halin and herself into the hospital subtly... well, apparently using super-hot fire and strong air currents to cave in the roof counts as "subtle". Inside, while she feels herself already starting to heal up, she realises that something seems to have gone wrong and asks Halin to get her to the Underdeep entrance quickly.
A very disgruntled Author just turns the monitor back on, telling them that shutting off communications won't work (and nearly saying she's an AI). Oh yeah, and she's not actually working with Celestial, otherwise the ship would be crashing by now. And it isn't. You do the math(s).

Rikku: And in Brassport, Underdeep!Rikku recognises Sarn, and takes a shot in the dark, saying, "Go on, tell her how it's your fault Brassport's in another world." Of course, for all we know, she could just as easily be wrong.

PFA: PFA follows Ikkin and the tiger.
Jernath wonders if they should help the guy Gil ran over, wonders why a hospital entrance would be blocked (I'm wondering if Kwoi's soul is kicking herself for that--no, wait, she was a soul!), and wonders if there's any other entrances.

Moonlight: Wilhem Scream also wonders if they should help the guy who got run over. He also tries knocking on the door, then he gets an idea: "Anyone got any bombs?" Because no GW RP is complete without EXPLOSIONS.
In the bookstore, Liyer grabs a book and recites what turns out to be a spell that restores Juverna's ability to speak! He decides to keep the tome. The black cat, who was previously asking for affection from Juverna, starts making angry noises at a wall. Note how the post ends with a deliberately ambiguous sound effect.

Draco: Draco has bombs ready alarmingly quickly, and tosses them at the door, advising the others to get the hell away. Good advice. And to think, these are apparently his weaker explosives.

--

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Omni: Ethan tries to spy on the people on the roof, but doesn't have too much luck since he has to, y'know, climb the building to do so. Now, he does have better luck spying on the group of mercs. When Wilhem suggests Things That Go Boom, Ethan heads out to try and warn them, but it's already too late. Like Draco, the cyborg then decides to warn the others to, "HIT THE DIRT! LAY DOWN!" LET ME DO SOME MORE SHOUTING!

Amnei: Amnei tries to think about the logic of what's happening and just ends up confused about this "Fourth Wall" thing. So he just tells the Author that while she might have a point, she still hacked the satellite systems--wait a second, how did he jump to that conclusion?!

Jina: Owen's fine with the conditions Kiddo set, though they haven't answered his question of whether they'll let him come along. He's got a Steampunk Mech; they can just sit on his arms!
Jina follows the blarf in her sweet new ride, and wonders whether the crew should just get back to the Weewoo and get the hell outta there.
Halin is true to his word, leading Underdeep!Cele into, well, the Underdeep.
Finishing off this post, Patri doesn't believe TMC's claim of being a Horseman since, y'know, he's not Pestilence. With a one-liner, she sends a signal to the other two adventurers. Corenu raises a shield, Sandra begins turning into a troll (don't troll me!) and Patri tries to use Grapple to pull the gem away.

Strife: Strife does some scouting, tells Jina that hey, no-one's stopping her from going home if she wants (with an appropriate laugh to go with it), and reports that the dragon's descended on the hospital. "Be prepared for blood" indeed.

Scar: Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer, decides to be all, "Hey, I was doing what any Gentleman Adventurer would do in this situation, man". And hey, the day is saved. Somewhat. His tune changes when he hears what Rikku's saying, and wants to know Whiskey Tango Hedgeclippers is going on.

PFA: While Jernath doesn't actually facepalm in this post, I'm pretty sure it'd be perfectly in-character for him to do so when he hears Wilhem's suggestion. He takes shelter behind some debris.

Michelle: Asta and Ro are both confused, though about different things. Asta wants answers thanks to Rikku's "go on, tell them it's your fault", but Ro speaks in Spanish as she decides to interrogate the Underdeep!mage. (The word "callete" looks awesome, by the way.)
Aly heads off to pack for the trip. While doing so, she has a little discussion with Lika - what if her dark magic overpowers her fire magic? Lika wants Aly to stay out of danger, but, y'know, knowledge of how to seal off the U-Deep is important.

Celestial: Underdeep!Celestial is glad to be back inside the Underdeep, since it heals the wounds she took back in her battle against Strife. Of course, the thing possessing her acknowledges that things have gotten a bit more dangerous. And of course, after leaving, U-Deep!Cele follows a powerful energy... thing... and discovers Rane. And she very quickly figures out that he's possessed by TMC.
The Author decides to tell the truth: she hacked the 'Fleet's security systems because she was bored, and it gave her an excuse to see how good it was. (And she was impressed.) If the people are willing to give her a chance, she'll help. If not, she'll just ask one favour and then leave.

Amnei: Amnei's response to the Author is interrupted when one of the technicians (whose name is Lavern, btw) finds Strife and Pirates. He [Amnei] gives the order to land nearby, open the doors, and make sure Strife gets the voice synthesiser. After that, he resumes his response, which is basically, "How can you help?"

Huntress: Cap'n points out to Jina that running away won't be a sound plan, since 1. The Underdeep is ev-er-y-where, man/It is ev-er-y-where, 2. Rane has a gem which can protect them from the Underdeep, and 3. A dragon is going after Rane. And then the crew discovers--
But first, exposition! Specifically, exposition regarding the relationship between Rane and TMC - they've hit a compromise regarding the whole possession thing. But it's not a perfect compromise, as we soon learn. "Rane" sends a shockwave at Patri, there's an argument inside his head, he creates white-hot flame and sends it towards the attackers... then U-Deep!Cele shows up, and TMC TAUNTS THE FREAKING UNDERDEEP. And then un-possesses Rane.
However, we then hear the Blarf's cry of "Foooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo--" *brick'd* "Fooooooooood."

Draco: Even after the bomb goes off, the door's still barred. Draco and Gil talk about why a hospital would be empty in a very not-empty town, and wonder how they can get in now.

Sarinon: Sarn tries to explain himself - and you know what that means. Backstory Time~! He used to be part of Brigaia (where Brassport used to be), got pulled into the NTWF via a "rift", and years later, found another rift and decided to pull his sister into the NTWF. Of course, he accidentally pulled A WHOLE CITY through as well. He's willing to try and make up for that, if the people are willing to give him a chance. Oh yeah, and Rikku doesn't normally act like that.

Ikkin: Ikkin flies towards the dojo to get some medical supplies. However, when she sees the rest of the Kovaran Squad following the tiger (itself apparently following her for... some reason), she decides to land and ask if they have bandages.
Sev comes up with an idea to get rid of not-Sev, and asks Kovaran what a firebird is. Bird, you don't know what you just brought upon yourself...

Kwoiffei: ...because once Kovaran has found a place to sit down, he launches into a semi-soliloquy about his backstory and folklore. But pay attention to what he says; there's some very important stuff in there.
Nasue is clinging to the Blarf Express, trying to hide. Oh yeah, and not only are her eyes glowing, but her voice has changed colour to yellow! ...no, wait, that's just the text. Nevermind.

Strife: For some odd reason, while he's looking at "Rane" and U-Deep!Cele, Strife's sword vibrates. (... I MEANT HIS BFS, darn it!) So he heads towards the group of mercs, eavesdrop on their convo, and decides to use his powerz to un-bar the door. After doing so he tells them that "your nightmares await", and he disappears into the building.

--

PAGE 36

Jina: Patri is sent flying by the shockwave. The group takes advantage of "Rane" being distracted to get out of there and find "a place called Brassport". On the way, though, Sandra spies a certain blarf... wait, she's a shapeshifter, isn't she? And the blarf is male... well, there's a mental image for you.

PFA: PFA doesn't have any bandages on her, but hey, there's likely some back at the dojo. As far as tigers go, she says that she doesn't know anything about big kitty, other than that it's friendly and seems to want people to follow it.
Jernath is, naturally, confused when Strife (who he doesn't know is Strife) zips over to the door, de-bars it, gives his kinda-sorta-warning, and goes inside. He wonders if the group should head inside.

Celestial: Underdeep!Celestial does some laughing, first at TMC taunting her, then at the sound of the Blarf's battlecry. Then she... goes back inside the hospital OF DOOM. Inside, she hears Strife coming, realises that he has voodoo OF DOOM, and realises she's not in a good situation. So the U-Deep de-possesses her, but "charmingly" does its death grip on her internal organs, and as Cele collapses, she's scared.
As for Ji Oorusooru (The Author in mangled Engrish), the help she can offer is as follows: she can give info about Celestial, aaaaaand she can take control of stuff. Like dropships. But the latter's only a suggestion; they don't have to trust her to not turn on them and blow [EDIT] up! I mean, hey, it's Guild Wars 3! Paranoia is the In Thing!

Draco: D'n'G (Draco and Gil) come up with a sort-of plan about what to do now that the hospital is apparently open. The NNPC who co-piloted the PM (Phantom Merc) can look after the injured, all two of them, while D'n'G go inside(!!) to get some supplies and whatnot.
And meanwhile, continuing Draco's running gag, three NNPCs tempt fate, and end up being crushed by MORE things falling from the sky. This time, the stuff barring the hospital entrance!

Amnei: Amnei wants to know what the author means by both of the ways she can help, but, again, he's interrupted. He tells the technicians to wait for further orders, then heads outside and asks the Pirates what's going on.

Omni: Ethan is all, "O___________O" when he hears Strife's voice and sees the former Commander walking into the building. After being snapped out of his thoughts, he tells the mercs about the people on the roof. Also, he doesn't know much about the Underdeep... well, I think that'll change shortly, man.

Strife: Inside the hospital OF DOOM, Strife walks around until he enters a particular room. The ceiling melts, with the drips turning into shadow tentacles - but they're stopped by Strife's voodoo sword OF DOOM.

Kiddo: Kiddo wants to get to the Dojo so badly she gives people permission to godmode her! (Heh... only in the summary is that sentence possible.)

Huntress: "Oh bugger," says Rane, but please refrain from being profane towards Captain Rane. TMC wants exposition, since he's not in a good position to get info of his own volition from Rane's mind-ition. Hunty wonders if Nasue's okay, noting she looks a little freak-ay, greets and asks for news from Amnei (...does that even rhyme?!), and with Rane engages in parlay. Or something like that.
The two captains share information, and Rane says that while his gem can close Underdeep entrances, fixing the very global problem from the inside-out is a complete no-go, since a certain TMC is inside.

Jina: Owen picks up Kiddo (and I mean that literally), and also gives people permission to godmode him.
Through some of Patri's magic and Halin manipulating the Underdeep (dayum!), the adventurers make their way to Brassport via the Underdeep. Once outside, they set up some magic and illusions so that Patri and Sandra, going inside, are disguised as Tabloid Town watchmen. (Ruh-oh!) The two find "Randomen Peesee", who points them to the Assembly Hall.
Jina is confused about why Cele just flew off, so she asks if anyone would like to come along, then drives towards the Underdeep Mage... who, last I read, was in the hospital.

Moonlight: So apparently the black cat can talk! Or, rather, Liyer can understand Cat Language (I envy him; I have trouble understanding my own pet). The cat, whose name is Raphael, says that the large blast came from the direction of the hospital - oh, and if Liyer and Juverna plan on keeping that book, they'd better make sure the owner doesn't see them stealing it. They don't got no dough. *claw'd* Outside, the pair narrowly avoid being crushed by large pieces of metal, and decide to hurry.
Meanwhile, Near Da Hospital-- *MAULED* --Wilhelm Scream brushes some debris off of himself... and then a voice speaks behind the mercs. It's Rivanth, whose arm appears to be injured! Or something.

Lupehunter: LH catches up with Owen, Aly, Kiddo and Cat, and decides to ask Kiddo if the largest Underdeep Entrance is in Tabloid Town. And he... doesn't get a definite answer!

Tokala: Blackstone is very, very confused. Nonetheless, he pulls himself together sufficiently to ask to speak with Sarn in private, and ask Athar to keep an eye on Rikku. Athar is willing to oblige.

Rider: Despite her better judgement, Rider decides to come along with Jina. On the way she spies the mercs and a ninja, along with an injured guy. Guess who's instantly suspicious? And guess who probably just screwed over the mercs' chance at redeeming themselves by asking what in the blazes they're doing?

Draco: Well, now that D'n'G don't have to go into the hospital quite as urgently, they can focus on more important matters, like Rider. Draco responds by telling her what they were planning to do, and throws an accusation at her. Ooh, it's ON. And meanwhile, Gil is amazed that there are pirates in the NTWF - and knights, too. (Wait a second, wouldn't Brigaia have pirates as well!? I mean, hell, modern-day Earth has pirates!)


LET'S GO! Let's break through to the dawn we dreamed of...

End Episode Twelve.

[Deleted]

For this episode, we're going to... do nothing special. Yeah. Seriously. Unless it involves gawking at the awesome mental image of FRACTAL WINGS.

--

Lucky Episode Thirteen

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Rider: The last episode ended with a little sniping from a ninja to a pirate, so naturally, this one should begin with some sniping to the mercs. Oh, and by the way, did any of you guys see a dragon? And what the heck's up with Gil's outfit?
Since the "watchmen" asked what happened, Adeline is the first to respond. And her version of what happened is short, sweet, and to-the-point.

Rikku: Rikku's both in a good position and in a bad position. See, there's things you can do as a prisoner, but at the same time... she's tired. So she decides to catch some 'zeds'.

Draco: One, Draco mentions that not only is Merc HQ gone, but he hired them to help in his investigation. Two, he doesn't know what the Underdeep is. Three, he didn't see a dragon, but he did see a guy blowing up whatever was blocking the hospital entrance. And fourth, Gil introduces himself and wonders what pirates would want with a dragon.

Jina: Jina pulls over near the Mercs, mentions that hey, the dragon stole our treasure, and, well, why would you want to go into a sub-par hospital?!
In Ye Olde Brassporte, Sandra and Patri, still disguised, say that they'll take Rikku back to town. They'd like some people to come along - perhaps, they're saying, set up a meeting with Spacefleet to get back home? Oh, they're also looking for a conman, and they'd appreciate some transportation... (Maybe these guys should be the Underdeep's messengers!)

Strife: In the Hospital OF DOOM, Strife finds Celestial, and goes into... I guess it's a Hannibal Lecture, telling her that the only way to save herself is to embrace what she's become. Then he prepares a potentially deadly sword-swipe at his target, and swings.

Kwoiffei Nasuella: Nasue continues to do nothing, although she finds herself not liking something about Rane for some reason. Or maybe it's the gem. Meanwhile, a message written in blood begins to glow.
And in The River Tigris, there's conversation between NPCs! D-Man, trying to stay awake by means of caffeine overdose, wonders why anyone would want to kill him.

PFA: Jernath doesn't know too much about the Underdeep, but what he does know tips him off to the fact that Underdeep = bad. And then the entire RP starts congregating around the area. Jernath lets Draco know that hey, did you really need to tell them that the Mercs are base-less?!

Tokala: As confused as Blackstone is, he's still in a position of authority. And he's suspicious of the two "watchmen" - what exactly should make him believe they're being honest, as opposed to being friends of Rikku who are planning to get her out of trouble?

Jina: Hey, look at this! A post that is 100% dialogue! Anyway, one of the "watchmen" says that Rikku's under their jurisdiction, that these interdimensional breaches happen now and again, that they need witnesses, that Spacefleet can help them get back home, and that the conman they're looking for likes to pick people who are in similar situations to the one that Brassport is in. (Long sentences yay!)

Rider: --says that the guy who un-barred the hospital entrance is with the crew and that the dragon in question attacked them (the crew). And wonders what the heck a Steam Machine is, wonders what the heck Brassport is, and what the heck is up with Gil. Also, she makes an offer to the Mercs - a "help us and we'll help you" sort of offer.
After making a Wizard of Oz joke, Adeline asks the "watchmen" what sort of conman they're looking for.

Fraze: Fraze is still on his SPACE BIKE. After scouting the town to find out what parts of it were worst-hit (look at him; brain the size of a planet most important guy in the 'Fleet and he looks around) and while monitoring the short-range communcations, he does some thinking about the situation, and eventually decides to not intervene for now, but prepare in case something happens.

Tokala: Athar thinks the "watchmen" are out of their mind. And Blackstone's still suspicious, as you might guess. So getting them to talk to Spacefleet will be a bit harder; they'd also prefer the "watchmen" stop being so condescending to them. Oh yeah, and a large reptile left some time ago.

Jina: According to the "watchmen", the conman is some kind of shapeshifter, and direct attacks ain't his style. Heck, it might even be the big reptile who showed up earlier (but I thought Celestial was female! When did she get a Strange Potion?). Regarding the whole jurisdiction thing, apparently Brassport doesn't have a choice. Hand over Rikku, or Tabloid Town brings down an army on their backsi--wait, no. I'm not going to finish that sentence.

Any relation to real people: A VERY confusing post about the Fourth Wall. (Do the impossible, see the invisible!) At some point I gave up on trying to make sense of it, so here's a super-fast summary: the Fouth Wall creates a new character for this story. And she (the character) doesn't know much about what her story's supposed to be, just yet.

Michelle: Long post ahoy! Ro is also suspicious of the "watchmen", but takes a different approach to Blackstone - she asks for proof of their being part of a city watch.
Aside from being likewise suspicious, Asta has a headache from the stress. She asks Overlord what he means - then Ro asks what the bird said, and identifies it as a Weewoo. Cue some more confusion on Asta's part.
As for Aly, well, she does a little godmoding, and has the group arrive at a near-Dojo-ish spot at some undetermined time. (Presumably LH came along.) Kiddo can now go off to the Dojo while the rest of the group waits.

--

PAGE 38

Draco: To Jernath, Draco quietly tries to justify why he mentioned the whole merc-base-blowing-up thing. To the pirates, he vouches that neither the mercs nor the Steampunk guy are dangerous.
After deciding he likes the sound of "Steampunk" (The hills are alive with the--! Dude, I really need to cut back on the pop culture references.), Gil explains what his steam machine is and what he does, asks if anyone's interested in how he got here, and stares at the hovercar.

Celestial: I'm here and waiting for you/Where are you? I can't find you/I'm here and waiting for you/I'll wait forever for you...
A very distressed Celestial listens to Strife's Hannibal Lecture, preparing a defensive spell which the voodoo sword neutralises - then rolls out of the way, and pleads with him to spare her life. She's not possessed anymore; she can help the good guys end this war! But Strife probably won't listen... and she knows this.
The Author isn't amused about how Amnei had to answer the call of the Plot. So she decides to pass the time by striking up a conversation with the technicians.

Jina: The "watchmen" still insist, saying that Rikku and the conman are their problem. Oh, and in response to the proof question, Patri creates illusions of badges - and "real" badges as well. (And as far as they're concerned, they just need to get Rikku.)

Strife: And as Cele guessed, Strife doesn't listen. Instead, he declares that he'll end it now, and takes another swipe at her.

Celestial: Reacting out of raw fear, Cele tries to counter the sword swipe with a dagger swipe, and shoots a fireball at Strife.
In Brassport, Overlord (suspicious of the "watchmen") explains to Asta that Cele's no doubt causing trouble elsewhere, and to Ro that he used to belong to the dragon - oh yeah, and most Weewoos aren't telepathic.

Rider: Rider doesn't get why Draco used the word "punk" in "Steampunk". (Well, that would require research into the origin of the term "cyberpunk"...) She decides she wants to know Gil's story and what he has to do with the Underdeep.

Draco: Gil tells the story of Brassport (mentioning that the place has alchemy while doing so), and explains that he flew out to do some scouting of the world that the city was pulled into. Oh, and he doesn't know what the Underdeep is.

Strife: HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP HOLY--okay, lemme calm down and find suitable music before continuing.
Strife's voodoo sword goes through Cele's dagger. He tries to block the fireball, but the fireball causes the sword to scream and fly out of his hands. Angrily he grabs her throat and tries to strangle her--then the sword floats up, and impales its own former wielder. After it pulls itself out, Strife lies against the same wall that his opponent is on, and then, a familiar voice begins to speak to him in his mind...
The Underdeep. He speaks to it, it heals his wound, then he stands up and picks up his sword. And then, what he said earlier about accepting the nightmare comes back to haunt him, and he accepts this deal with the devil. Giving Cele a warning that she had better leave NOW if she wants to live, Underdeep!Strife begins to psionically destroy the ground beneath their feet.
Underdeep!Strife... I thought I wouldn't ever say that. But HOLY CRAP that's exactly what happened. WOW.

Rider: --warns Gil against being so open about the alchemy thing, since the NTWF kinda has had bad experience with it. (Hi, Leraye.) She opens up Lexandr's book to check if the Underdeep can be used to go from world to world... and a bookmark flutters to the ground. Two watchmen instantly accuse her of littering (as per a dare), Rider cusses, and drives into the (collapsing) hospital.

Draco: Gil tells the watchmen to get lost before following the hovercar. Draco tries to dive out of the way of said hovercar, going into the collapsing hospital as well.

Strife: The telepathy-enhancer device has been completed, and Cyclops can now contact Fraze. He does so, reporting that the virus's signature was reported as analog, so maybe it's some sort of microscopic creature - then he detects seismic activity beneath Commander Fraze. I'm sure it'd be in-character for Haggoth to swear in response, but you know what the forum's language filter is like, so he just settles with "What!?"

Celestial: Cele can only watch what happens to Strife, and quietly accept what's going on... then the Underdeep takes repossession of her. Why should she fight Strife, now that they are both messengers? (OH CRAP!) So she turns back into a dragon, flies out of the hospital (that's THREE places destroyed in GW3 so far), lands in the crowd, plays un-possessed and tells everyone there to get out now.

Fraze: Commander Fraze gives Cyclops a summary of what's happened so far, and gives some more orders: get down a peacekeeping force and a disaster relief force, get them to help Tabloid Town (be it via evacuation or, well, disaster relief), give them instructions about the Underdeep situation, get a moonside team to work on a way to detect the U-Deep directly, and send Fraze his old skinsuit.

Draco: Draco, inside the collapsing hospital, notices that it doesn't seem very stable (no [EDIT]). He realises that someone's still in there, finds Strife, and suggests getting out of there... which would be suicidal, except OOC!Draco has confirmed that he doesn't plan for IC!Draco to die.

Kwoiffei Nasuella: Nasue walks over to the message written in blood, and is immediately all "OMGNOES" as she realises who it was written by - an enemy she's been running from for about two years now. Not even the NTWF is safe from them, it seems. Somehow this causes her to change back into her standard anthro-coati form, as well as send her into a world of pain and leave her unable to respond to anything. How convenient.
A certain Big Jerk ninja-panther parkours his way towards the hospital.

--

PAGE 39

Michelle: Ro exposits to Asta about what a mystic is (in this context, a magical, telepathic animal). Of course, both Ro and Asta are still suspicious of the "watchmen" - but it's Asta who takes action here, telling them off for their attitude and mentioning that taking a clearly dangerous mage to who-knows-where is not smart.

Huntress: Rane would like to be on his way, but TMC quickly realises that something is not right - as does Rane, once TMC lets him know. Then the hospital explodes (though it's not really an explosion, as we'll see in a later post). Bloody Mary points out that Rider and Jina went INTO the hospital, leading Cap'n to get the Blarf to start running towards what's left of it. Then the dragon flies out, then TMC lets Rane know that this problem is going to be REALLY BAD... and then Cap'n spies the transformed Nasue and asks if the coati still has friendly intentions.

Amnei: Amnei realises what's going on and hurries back into the dropship (anyone who can come along is welcome to). He tells the technicians to get it flying NOW, so they do.

Omni: Ethan recognises Fraze, then the dragon flies out and the hospital... well, kinda explodes. All he can do is stare.
In that GREAT DARK BEYOND WHICH IS NOT THE UNDERDEEP, time is running out for whoever's in there to take advantage of the "opportunity".

Jina: After letting Rider drive for a while, Jina realises that this is a Very Stupid Idea and takes the wheel back, and drives them out of the hospital. The blarf pushes the hovercar down onto the ground, avoiding a collision; Jina hits the brakes and asks if now would be a good time to get the hell out.
At first, the two "watchmen" decide to go along with the idea of interrogating Rikku right now... then they notice that she's unconscious. And at that precise moment, Sandra's patience runs out. She turns into a Roc and grabs Rikku with one foot, Patri also drops the illusion and grabs the other foot, and they fly off. Fortunately, they fly through the same hole that Cele made a while ago, so no collateral damage is done.

Strife: After recieving the information from Fraze, Cyclops tells Haggoth (as well as Subcommander Obvious and Subcommander Noname) that Tabloid Town is under attack from "subterranian anomalies". He also tells them the orders that Commander Fraze gave. Haggoth will happily lead the peacekeeping forces ("Peacekeeping... hah."), Subcommander Obvious decides to let the other subcommanders know what's going on, and Subcommander Noname volunteers to get Fraze's skinsuit.

Strife: Oh, a double post. That must mean--OH MY FREAKING GOD.
Okay. This is it. This is the post that changes everything. This is the one that truly sets the plot in motion, and establishes Strife's status as a major antagonist once again. (And in "lucky episode thirteen", no less!)
Underdeep!Strife destroys the hospital with his psionic abilities, leaving a huge pillar which he stands on the very top of. He makes an announcement to the world: he will become the Commander of the entire NTWF. People have a choice to either side with him... OR ELSE.
From Underdeep openings throughout the NTWF, a strange black ooze emerges; this ooze turns everything it touches into black, cold stone. The remains of the hospital, patches of the ocean, the trees near the ruins of Merc HQ, the river in the mountains where the Ninjas reside, a cornfield and its farmer in Dunburrow, the walls of Brassport, and everything outside of Mage Manor all meet this fate. The Manor itself is safe, at least for now.
Now, it's a fight for survival. What greater reward is there than your own life?
(Strife mentioned that the ooze won't actually kill anyone, but I'm keeping the last sentence anyway, because I think it's suitably... epic, I guess.)

Draco: Draco escapes from the Ooze Of Death by turning into his shadow form. Gil, not wanting to know what the Ooze does to a living person, quickly calls people to get back into the vehicle A.S.A.P. Of course, Draco's shadow form has to resemble a black ooze... which Gil whacks with his wrench spanner. But once he knows it's only Draco, he begins to work on trying to get the PM to turn on.

Lupehunter: LH spies the mist/Ooze, realises that something is not right, and suggests the group get the hell outta there.

Celestial: Now, since Underdeep!Strife is doing so much, Underdeep!Cele doesn't have to do as much, although she decides that she might as well go and open the entrance in Mage Manor. She swoops over Tabloid Town, booming a message for people to go to Mage Manor, as it'll be safe. Yeah, safe until you open the entrance!
The plot is moving, and the Author is pleased! Rather than saying anything, she decides to find the radio to play some appropriately apocalyptic music. (My choice? DMC4 soundtrack, disc 3, track 4.)
Overlord points out that no, he can't contact Cele - he lost contact when she was possessed. Then he senses the Underdeep coming in, and suggests that they might want to use any flying vehicles they have.

Sarinon: After what apparently was dozens of edits to a single post, Sarn and Sarinon both realise that something ain't right with the "watchmen". When Sandra breaks disguise, Sarn tries to get her off Rikku, but that doesn't work (winged guy VS. giant bird = lightweight VS. heavyweight). So he decides to fly after her. Meanwhile, Sarinon turns into a fox... something to do with the Star Dance Dance of Death.

Kwoiffei Nasuella: Nasue, recovering from the transformation, doesn't get much of a chance to speak before Underdeep!Strife appears. At this point, the coati loses all rational thought and scrambles onto the blarf, saying that right now, she just wants to live. (Oh, and her voice keeps changing from yellow to normal every few words. In-universe Narm!)

Moonlight: Wilhelm realises what's going on, and suggests that people get into the PM if they can't already get out of here quickly. He does so himself.
And meanwhile, Liyer and Jun [Juverna] notice the black dust/mist, realise that something's up, and hurry back to the hospital. Meanwhile to that, Rivanth is definitely conscious, trying to work out what's going on. He isn't too happy about being run over, shocked that Jun can speak, and recognises the book that Liyer carries. "If you want to get out of here, hand me that book." Ah, conundrums.

Jina: Outside Brassport, the Rock-O-Vision becomes a regular rock again. But Halin and Corenu ain't worried - and hey, they're pleased when the Ooze OF DOOM shows up. Of course, they aren't affected, leaving them free to decide to go back to the hospital.
Owen agrees with LH that getting out of here would be a good idea, and asks if anyone has any objections to going back to the Manor, nearly quoting one of the Terminator movies in the process - I don't know which one.

Rider: The Blarf is running back towards the White Weewoo. Rider throws a dagger at the Ooze OF DOOM, but it does nothing except for turn to stone. The two watchmen are petrified, and the Blarf runs on... as the episode ends. (Meanwhile, Shiva goes to Mage Manor at the speed of plot, picking up some lunch on the way.)
Adeline runs into the Aerodome, climbs into her ship, the Lunar Moth, writes "Rescue vessel, crew needed" on a bedsheet and throws said bedsheet over the side. As the episode ends, she realises that bedsheets don't matter anymore... survival does.

--

Angels of doom come calling with no mercy
No fear, no heart, no judgement, no clemency

~"Angels of Doom", Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone OST

End Episode Thirteen.

[Celestial]

HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP HOLY--okay, lemme calm down and find suitable music before continuing.

This good?

On a different note, still doing a great job, Kwoi. <3 Your summary is a real life saver and is still very funny.

[Draco]

Jan 17, 2010 15:37:47 GMT -5 Celestial said:

HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP HOLY--okay, lemme calm down and find suitable music before continuing.

This good?

On a different note, still doing a great job, Kwoi. <3 Your summary is a real life saver and is still very funny.

I know the right song to play when total chaos is taking place in the NTWF ^^ But I won't say it out of fear of people's brains melting

[Celestial]

Jan 17, 2010 15:57:30 GMT -5 Draco said:

Jan 17, 2010 15:37:47 GMT -5 Celestial said:

This good?

On a different note, still doing a great job, Kwoi. <3 Your summary is a real life saver and is still very funny.

I know the right song to play when total chaos is taking place in the NTWF ^^ But I won't say it out of fear of people's brains melting

The Shiny Happy Suicide song? =3 (I plan to use that if my plan goes well)