I'm going to be honest, I'm not going to be super nitpicky as to exact mana costs for skills and abilities. Going to be very hands-off on people doing stuff under the assumption that I can trust that they're not pulling some insanity by dumping all of the everything out at once. To that end, costs don't really need to exist in this context (beyond any translation of mechanics like you suggested for the card system). That being said...
Yeah those numbers are more there for comparing to each other effort/power wise (Death Spiral is a big expenditure, projectile destruction explosion not so much) (and now that i write that I might have to get the rest of the actual names so i never have to write 'projectile destruction explosion' ever again), rather than for doing exact math which would be a pain in the butt
Mana exists within the world as its own... Thing. Would that mana and the mana that the character uses fall under the same umbrella and, if so, what effects does that have in turn?
Hmmm, good question. Either we make it it's own thing that only she can see/interact with ooooor, and I think this could lead to some more fun situations, it is very much floating globs of mana that anyone, friend or foe, can absorb if they have the capacity for it. But only if they have spent mana somehow, to prevent non magical foes from just reabsorbing it. Naturally this means that she would be very bad at wizard duels, because if she hits them with her bullets they are going to be able to steal the mana it produces. If we do that then she can also gain mana from other sources, potions or what have you, but either does not gain passive mana, or does so very slowly compared to the locals.
Dashing as you have it is a very literal translation of game mechanics to prose, which I don't think would allow for anything like "abusable iframes" in this context. Could do well enough to remove it or rephrase it to be more of a general movement option.>/list>
To clarify, 'dash' is a short range blink teleport rather than an iframe filled combat roll or something of the sort (traversal wise it gets used to bypass barriers/walls for more context).
If I where to rephrase it to something like: "Blink Dash: Rayne can perform a straight line teleport, warping a fixed 3 meters in any direction in the blink of an eye, with the path she takes being outlined by a visible woosh of magic and a bright flash on arrival. There is only a short half second cooldown between dashes, making it quite useful for mobility as well as dodging" would that work?
if that is too much we can nerf it into a dash rather than a teleport tho, which will lead to either a panicked moment where she gets hit whens he thought she wouldn't, or a funny one where she rams face first into a wall ... ok i'm honestly kinda sold on that now lol
Appearance: Rayne is a halfling, with (pierced) pointy ears and a rather short stature.
Personality: Rayne is a kindhearted soul, brave if not daring, determined and honest even when it is to her own detriment. Despite having had some self confidence issues, she is no pushover, and will stand up for what she thinks is right even if the whole world is against her. She is notably very much against the idea of killing people, even if they are her enemies.
Brief History: Rayne comes from a world devastated by the byproducts of magitech, and while the regime responsible for that devastation has been overthrown, it was too late for the surface world. The sky was shattered, bathing the land in deadly radiation and the last living souls in the world had to hide away in a series of underground caverns known as Dungeonidas. Rayne herself was at one time member of the Knight Witches, a 5 women group that overthrew that regime, but was ejected from the group before battle for the fate of the world took place due to branding reasons (her name and that of the leader Robyn were considered too similar).
Despite this ejection (for, unbeknownst to her, very stupid reasons) Rayne still held the power of the link, the power to gain magical strength merely from having people put their faith in her. Thus, when the remnants of the regime's golem armies invaded Dungeonidas, and with the other Knight Witches nowhere to be found for unknown reasons, Rayne was the only one able to stand up against them.
After a series of conflicts, twists, turns, and conspiratorial backstabs she eventually discovered that the new society had simply traded one world destroying magitech powersource for another, hexoil, power stolen form the circle of life itself, one that began to slowly rend reality asunder as the war for Dungeonidas reached its peak. She delved into the cracks in reality, defeated the avatar of this new apocalypse, the fallen knight witch Robyn, and was poised to become the avatar of life itself, Gaia, charged with restoring life to her ruined world.
Then, instead, she found herself here, in this new one.
Universe of Origin: The Knight Witch
Equipment:
Armor: Rayne’s armor is somewhat fashion over form, but the solid plate covering her chest, shoulders and hips still provides a fair bit of protection
Runedge: An enchanted blade made to be far heavier than its form suggests
Abilities:
Flight: Ryne can effortlessly hover through the air, though her jogging pace speed leaves much to be desired.
Dashing: Rayne can perform a straight line dash, teleporting a fixed 3 meters in any direction, which renders her immune to damage while doing it (but unable to take any other actions at the same time). There is only a short half second cooldown between dashes, making it quite useful for mobility as well as dodging.
Weapon Summoning: Rayne can store weapons in her magic, and then pull them out in the blink of an eye to attack, before returning them to storage at the end of her stroke.
Magic Bullets: Rayne can fire large magic bullets from a hovering glyph at a slow but steady pace, and for little to no effort. They have a fairly limited range however, and simply dissipate when they exceed it.
Spell Cards: Rayne can also use mana, which is dropped from enemies she damages (and which then hovers where it falls in the form of football sized glowing blue orbs that she has to get close too to pick up) to cast larger spells. Her max mana pool is pretty limited (and she can only briefly hold over her maximum of 8), but she has incredible versatility in the spells she can cast. The only issue is that it is based on a deck and card draw system, with 10 cards in a deck, and 3 in hand, rather limiting her ability to effectively wield that versatility. (Rather than try and simulate this however, let’s say that once Rayne has cast a spell, she then has to cast a few other, different, spells before she can cast that same spell again). Note that these spells occur around her rather than being fired in a direction.
(mainly for my own benefit (why did I make myself do this, there was no wiki for me to steal from))
(6) Creating a Death Spiral (a shmups worth of bullets for several seconds)
(2) 3 seeking swords (stun enemies)
(3) A giant sword to spin around her for a while
(3) A giant axe to spin around her once
(3) A vertical lighting bolt that strikes down from above her to below her
(4) causes two giant wrecking balls to smash out from either side of her
(4) armageddon, a massive wave of destructive magic
(1) wreckless blasts, which also hurts her
(1) a blast that destroy enemy projectiles,
(2) a blast that reflects enemy projectiles
(2) a blast that stuns enemies
(2) a single touch/damage activated bombs
(4) a rain of several touch activated bombs,
(2) Create a damaging cloud of darkness
(4) 4 orbs of ball lighting fired around her in an X
(3) death ray (does more damage the longer it hits a single target
(2) reload the current weapon.
(3) Summon a permanent ring of (destroyable) floating rocks,
(3) Summon a temporary indestructible floating shield,
(4) Summon a temporary automated turret that copies her current weapon
(5) Summon a temporary accompanying (dragon whelp shaped) that copies her current weapon
(2) Summon a temporary accompanying (raven shaped) familiar that fires seeking swords when she casts a spell.
(5) Give herself ethereal armor, letting her take an extra hit (does not stack)
(0) Restore an 8th of her mana pool,
(0) Attracting all the mana in the area towards her
(2) lets her gain 1 mana for each enemy destroyed for a time
(3) makes the next drawn card cast 0
Momentos: Rayne can gain cards themed on the abilities of bosses she defeateds.
The link: the more people who feel gratitude and have faith in Rayne, the more powerful she becomes (gained from people directly giving her thanks). Specifically her base bullet damage/rate of fire increases, and her mana generation and spell power/duration increases. These upgrades are noticeable, but not massively dramatic.
Personality: Rayne is a kindhearted soul, brave if not daring, determined and honest even when it is to her own detriment. Despite having had some self confidence issues, she is no pushover, and will stand up for what she thinks is right even if the whole world is against her. She is notably very much against the idea of killing people, even if they are her enemies.
Brief History: Rayne comes from a world devastated by the byproducts of magitech, and while the regime responsible for that devastation has been overthrown, it was too late for the surface world. The sky was shattered, bathing the land in deadly radiation and the last living souls in the world had to hide away in a series of underground caverns known as Dungeonidas. Rayne herself was an original member of the Knight Witches, the group that overthrew that regime, but was ejected from the group before battle for the fate of the world took place due to branding reasons (her name and that of the leader Robyn were considered too similar).
Despite this ejection (for, unbeknownst to her, very stupid reasons) Rayne still held the power of the link, the power to gain magical strength merely from having people put their faith in her. Thus, when the remnants of the regime's golem armies invaded Dungeonidas, and with the other Knight Witches seemingly nowhere to be found, Rayne was the only one able to stand up against them.
After a series of conflicts, twists, turns, and conspiratorial backstabs she eventually discovered that the new society had simply traded one world destroying magitech powersource for another, one that began to rend reality asunder. She defeated the avatar of this new apocalypse, the fallen knight witch Robyn, and was poised to become the avatar of life itself, Gaia, charged with restoring life to her ruined world.
Then, instead, she found herself here, in this new one.
Universe of Origin: The Knight Witch
Equipment:
Armor: Rayne’s armor is somewhat fashion over form, but the solid plate covering her chest still provides a fair bit of protection
Runedge: An enchanted blade made to be far heavier than its slim form suggests
Abilities:
Flight: Ryne can effortlessly hover through the air, though her jogging pace speed leaves much to be desired.
Dashing: Rayne can perform a straight line dash, teleporting a fixed 3 meters in any direction, which renders her immune to damage while doing it (but unable to take any other actions at the same time). There is only a short half second cooldown between dashes, making it quite useful for mobility as well as dodging.
Weapon Summoning: Rayne can store weapons in her magic, and then pull them out in the blink of an eye to attack, before returning them to storage at the end of her stroke.
Magic Bullets: Rayne can fire large magic bullets from a hovering glyph at a slow but steady pace, and for little to no effort. They have a fairly limited range however, and simply dissipate when they exceed it.
Spell Cards: Rayne can also use mana, which is dropped from enemies she damages (and which then hovers where it falls in the form of football sized glowing blue orbs that she has to get close too to pick up) to cast larger spells. Her max mana pool is pretty limited (and she can only briefly hold over her maximum of 8), but she has incredible versatility in the spells she can cast. The only issue is that it is based on a deck and card draw system, with 10 cards in a deck, and 3 in hand, rather limiting her ability to effectively wield that versatility. (Rather than try and simulate this however, let’s say that once Rayne has cast a spell, she then has to cast a few other, different, spells before she can cast that same spell again). Note that these spells occur around her rather than being fired in a direction.
(mainly for my own benefit (why did I make myself do this, there was no wiki for me to steal from))
(6) Creating a Death Spiral (a shmups worth of bullets for several seconds)
(2) 3 seeking swords (stun enemies)
(3) A giant sword to spin around her for a while
(3) A giant axe to spin around her once
(3) A vertical lighting bolt that strikes down from above her to below her
(4) causes two giant wrecking balls to smash out from either side of her
(4) armageddon, a massive wave of destructive magic
(1) wreckless blasts, which also hurts her
(1) a blast that destroy enemy projectiles,
(2) a blast that reflects enemy projectiles
(2) a blast that stuns enemies
(2) a single touch/damage activated bombs
(4) a rain of several touch activated bombs,
(2) Create a damaging cloud of darkness
(4) 4 orbs of ball lighting fired around her in an X
(3) death ray (does more damage the longer it hits a single target
(2) reload the current weapon.
(3) Summon a permanent ring of (destroyable) floating rocks,
(3) Summon a temporary indestructible floating shield,
(4) Summon a temporary automated turret that copies her current weapon
(5) Summon a temporary accompanying (dragon whelp shaped) that copies her current weapon
(2) Summon a temporary accompanying (raven shaped) familiar that fires seeking swords when she casts a spell.
(5) Give herself ethereal armor, letting her take an extra hit (does not stack)
(0) Restore an 8th of her mana pool,
(0) Attracting all the mana in the area towards her
(2) lets her gain 1 mana for each enemy destroyed for a time
(3) makes the next drawn card cast 0
Momentos: Rayne can gain cards based on the abilities bosses she has defeated.
The link: the more people who feel gratitude and have faith in Rayne, the more powerful she becomes (gained from people directly giving her thanks). Specifically her base bullet damage/rate of fire increases, and her mana generation and spell power/duration increases. These upgrades are noticeable, but not massively dramatic.
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic Underground Roadway (Seiran Rebel Base Outskirts) Below City of glass entrance (plate maintenance tunnel) Vandelay Campus (Alleyway)
”Oh for the goddess’ love, I can’t stop messing up, can I” Midna bemoaned as Hanabi figured out who’d put the hit on them, namely the braincase of a man who she’d knocked out rather than simply ended the life of.
She was not, it seemed to her, on the best streak when it came to her attempts at keeping casualties to a minimum ”This is what I get for not murdering people who annoy me I suppose.”
A lot of the following PSY-OFF intrigue discussed by the group went over her, a flurry of names she did not recognize/remember, but the last part about Raz being in trouble after he’d pursued a suspicious high ranking member of the organization, now that she didn’t need any additional details to know what to do about.
”Agreed, let’s bail the kid out.”
The appearance of the Others was something of a complication, however. It was also somewhat strange how they arrived, namely in bizarre vehicles that Midna mentally labeled as trucks rather than buses, that were suspended by balloons.
”Is that. Normal?” she started to ask, because the Other having transports was certainly pretty different when compared to the weather phenomenon they were often described as, before shaking her head, slipping on her mask, and deciding to do something about the situation instead.
”Vibrava! Fly up there and dragon fire those flying trucks and falling Others!” she commanded, as she portaled in the minion in question, launching it out of said portal to give it head-start.
“Wait, don't!” Hanabi shouted in warning, having overheard her plan, before trying to explain “The Extinction Belt’s way too low, it’s too dangerous to fly up there right now!” when Midna questioned her about it.
The princess took only a moment to heed her warning, unknowingly doing so just in time when the minion was mere moments away from doom, and recalling the pokemon via portal. It vanished from the sky, and reappeared next to her as she asked ”What’s the danger anyway. Other than getting hit by stray bolts being fired up into it.”
“I don’t know exactly, but they always ground air traffic when the belt is low, because no one who goes in ever comes back out,” the psychic explained as they kept moving towards the closest landing zone.
”Got it” the princess agreed, putting the discussion to bed, for now, but internally still wondering what the exact reason was. That question, and the one regarding the out of place air busses, then got shunted all the way to the back of her mind as they rounded a corner and came across a horde of Other tearing up the town and hunting down the populace.
They had places to be, and the other teams on the ground presumably considered them hostile, but there was absolutely no question about what they were going to do when confronted with this situation.
Without a moment's hesitation, the princess shadow stepped into the fray, blinking ahead of the rest of the Seekers whom she’d been lagging behind anyway. In a breath, she appeared in the doorway of one of the buildings along the street, right next to a family of humans in the midst of being hemmed in by a stalking trio of Vase Paws.
”Stand behind me!” Midna called out, echoing a certain lovable defender, as she leapt past them and into the fray. She dropped her Roadblock striker between the family, letting the Exosuit’s massive energy shield be their Braum, while the princess herself was all aggression.
Lunging forwards into battle, she smoothly dodged under a flying kick from one of the Paws before spinning around and quick-drawing her volcano fragment and slashed that same Paws, all in a single smooth continuous motion. The obsidian blade more or less glanced off of the vase of the Other, but that didn’t really matter, because the hit promptly set it on fire, which was ever so effective against the plant portion of the foe.
As the first burned and panicked, the second came in, trying to headbutt her with its thorny foliage. In response she met it motion for motion, swinging her own head forwards as if to headbutt as well, but instead launching her shadowhand up from her hair, slamming her palm against the head and grabbing it. They strained for a moment, till Midna first ditched her axe, before portal launching, catching, and finally unloading both her revolver and musket into it at point blank where even she couldn’t miss.
The heavy rounds wounded and unsteadied the monster just enough for her to wrench it to the side and slam it into the ground, leaving her free to drop the guns back into portals and to close in and give it a flurry of dragon claw swipes with all 4 of her hands.
Speaking of dragons, the third Paw was first blasted with Dragon Breath by her skirmishing Vibrava till paralysis took hold, at which point buzzed in and grabbed the edge of its vase with its claws, from where it began crunching its way through the foliage.
There was a panicked scream from behind them, however, as the third Vase Paw stopped burning and slammed itself against Roadblock’s shield, only for it to be set on fire again as Hanabi came rushing in and delivered a burning beat down, arriving just in time before the striker’s 10 second duration was up.
As the psychic put an end to that Paw, Midna did the same to the other two, the princess slamming a super sized wolves down on top of her one as it tried to rise, before turning and crescent moon slashing her sword tipped spear into the third in one clean motion, landing a final blow for her minion.
”Street’s clear the way we came from” she instructed the family they’d saved, before offering Hanabi a ”Thanks” for her part in it.
There was still plenty for them to do, and the trio rushed forwards to help wherever they could.
A little way down the road a number of armed citizens had either driven or pulled a car off the road and in front of a storefront, using it as a barricade to protect them from the Others. With improvised spears and a few handguns, they had, it seemed, managed to take down a Rummy, but where now being suppressed by a pack of Bile Pools that where hosing them down with their water blasts, allowing more Rummys to close in and start smashing at the barricade.
Midna’s speedy vibrava arrived first on the scene, buzzing straight for the Bile Pool squad, weaving between watery blasts and then slamming down into the ground among them, sending out a radial shockwave that rattled the Others. Then it gripped the earth and began to buzz its wings, somehow channeling the vibration of them down into the concrete and creating more shaking, creating a localized earthquake that threw the Bile Pools into disarray.
That freed up the civilians to start fighting back again, gunfire cracking and spears stabbing, though against the number of Other that were coming after them, it was only buying them time.
Fortunately, a little more time was all Midna and Hanabi needed to catch up with their flying frontrunner and engage the Rummies. Armed with polearms wreathed in lightning and fire respectively, they both avoided slam attacks from their chosen targets, before slamming their polearms forwards, delivering an elemental payload to the chest of an Other.
That’s where things deviated however, as Hanabi flicked her double ended weapon around to bash the Rummy with the other equally superheated end, knocking it to the side, while Midna repeated her opening strike, delivering several swift thrusts with her treespear’s long blade.
The treespear’s own lightning did rather little damage on its own, as unbeknownst to Midna it drew from her faith, of which the Princess ironically had very little due to her direct interactions with the divine, but the additional electrical payload she had charged it with still did plenty. As did her comboing her shadowhand into the mix, the princess ending her stab combo with a mighty punch that sent the Other sprawling.
She pulled the spear to her chest, salvaging some of the charge and recycling it back into her weapon, while at the same time opening a portal and calling out an enlarged Wolfos. The beast pounced on the fallen Other both paws slamming into it and crushing its weakened form, before it lunged forwards and bit another Rummy using its massive jaw, savaging the Other for a few moments before it had to return to the twilight realm.
The savaged Other barely had time to recover before Midna rushed in and delivered an overhead chop with the sword-like tip of her spear, bringing a corresponding lightning bolt crashing down atop it for good measure, expending all the charge she had recycled.
That lack of charge resulted in her follow up stab having far less bite than she wanted it too, the lack of staggering impact allowing the Rummy to recover and fight back, spinning on one of its pointy legs like a top and smacking the spear out of the princess’s hands in the process as the severed Rummy arm it used as a weapon smashed into it.
”You think that’s all I’ve got?” Minda taunted the headless thing as she stepped away from its spin, only for Hanabi to come to her unneeded rescue anyway. The psychic came running over and with precision borne of experience against these foes, ducking low stabbing her staff under the spinning arm to strike the single leg the Runny was balancing on, causing it to tip over and fall to the ground.
”I had that in hand” the princess insisted, before adding ”But thank you anyway” to try and avoid being needlessly abrasive.
Before the psychic could take things one way or the other, there came a loud crunch of metal as a goat like Wither Sabbat slammed its head into the car protecting the civilians, opening the way for the Rummies to try and climb their way into the store.
”Oh no you don’t” Minda said, before summoning Roadblock again, and having the exosuit pound a fist against his shield while the princess called out ”Over here you twisted things, come and fight me!”
It worked like a charm. It also attracted the attention of every single other in the local area, which on top of the Rummies and Sabbat, also included a small flock of Plateau Pendu. The electricity slinging Other swooped in, blasting at Roadblock’s shield and undercutting Midna’s bravado as she flinched away from them, where she’d shown zero fear of any of the other Other.
”Goddesses, not again” she gasped, briefly paralyzed by fear, and prompting Hanabi to ask her if she was ok even as the psychic moved to engage the closest Rummy that had been drawn to their position by Roadblock’s taunt.
”I’m fine. I’m fine” Midna insisted, mostly snapping out of the fear, but still feeling her heart beating faster for a reason she still didn’t understand. Working under the stress, she summoned her initiate strikers and chilfos behind the shield, having them toss psychic/ice spears from behind its cover, while she herself used it to prepare for battle.
Unfortunately, in having successfully drawn the attention of the hulking goat Other away from the civilians, she had prompted it to charged towards them instead, the Sabbat plowing aside one of its fellows before it slammed into Roadblock’s energy shield, cracking it. Midna responded by blasting it with her musket, again using the close range to compensate for her general lack of skill with firearms, even if practical experience was making her slightly better over time.
The heavy metal slug wasn’t nearly enough to dissuade the goat however, which rose up on its hind legs, and then slammed its horned skull into the shield again, shattering it, and slamming into Roadblock in a single strike, causing the princess to yelp and stumble as she suffered recoil damage.
The impact blew apart her little defensive line, all the strikers dissipating within a few heartbeats of the impact, and leaving the pair of ladies alone against almost a dozen Other.
Bur only for a few seconds.
Midna’s vibrava returned in just the nick of time, having slaughtered the last of the bilepools and now immediately laying into the Pendu upon its arrival, even more deadly against them due to being entirely immune to their electrical attacks.
”Yes! You’re a better knight than the darknut will ever be” the incredibly relieved to not be dealing with those princess cried out as her (suitably green) defender tore into the source of her stress. Well, the unnatural source anyway, dealing with the ground based Other was still plenty stressful.
At least their heavy blunt attacks were fairly predictable, and there was space on the long wide road for both Midna and Hanabi to backup and avoid getting surrounded. The princess did particularly well at this, skirmishing back, and blasting Rummies with her musket (and making sure to check what was behind them this time to avoid hitting any friendlies this time) till the goat like Wither Sabbat charged out of their ranks, splitting itself from the pack with its speed.
”There we go” Midna said smugly as it did what she wanted, before calling over ”Together?” to Hanabi and getting a nod in reply.
The two ladies dodged to either side as the goat charged in, before lunging back in to hit it from both sides. As the psychic laid into it with her flaming quarterstaff, Midna (who had ditched her musket in a portal) crescent moon slashed a plain longsword into the world and cleaved it into the Other, not doing particularly much damage with the mundane blade but still redrawing its focus with another taunt.
This prompted it to turn to attack her specifically and rear up to deliver a headbutt, but having expected this she was entirely prepared to dodge away. While Midna had its attention, Hanabi had plenty of opportunity to attack its weaker rear, culminating in her igniting the beast with her strikes.
”I love it when you do that!” Midna praised a little too excitedly, having prepared for this moment by pulling out her sun on a stick earlier when she was taking cover behind the shield. Now that the Other was burning, she ditched the longsword and instead grabbed the bat with all four hands, dodged another headbutt, and then slammed the (rather short because of how she was holding it) weapon’s spiky head into its side.
It produced that satisfying critical hit sound as it did triple damage to the burning foe, a sound that resounded several more times as she went to town on the Other, and ending its life just in time before the Rummies caught up.
Hanabi was already ready for them when they arrived, and swiftly intercepted the front stumbler while Minda caught her breath. Once she had it, the princess stored her sun on a stick, and then glanced up to see that her Vibrava had added all the flying Other to its already impressive kill count for this fight, and was heading back to join her.
”Alright, let’s clean these up” she declared, referring to the five or so remaining Rummies. She ducked past one, and behind the one fighting Hanabi and then raised her shadow hand up in the air as the other three closed in. At her feet, a ring of orange power filled with shadow expanded across the ground, engulfing all of her foes seemingly harmlessly till she had them all inside of it, at which point she snapped the shadow hand’s fingers.
Orange lighting lashed out from the dark energy zone, stunning the remaining others, and marking them for death as her Vibrava swooped in and with lighting fast speed delivered devastating crunches to each and every one, killing the softened up ones in and leaving the few that remained heavily damaged. Certainly damaged enough that Hanabi was able to dash in and finish them off before they, Midna, or her vibrava had recovered from receiving/delivering the devastating attack.
”Good job thing” Midna praised her pokemon as it buzzed over and landed on her shoulder, before offering the helpful psychic some praise too for good measure ”and you too Hanabi. A joy to see you in your element” because she really did love that element (namely fire).
Now that all the foes were felled, she quickly retrieved her treespear from where it had been batted away too (as well as grabbing and crushing a few spirits with her shadow hand, most notably the Wither Sabbat’s) while Hanabi checked on the well-beings of the civilians they’d just bailed out of danger.
Items obtained: Prometheus Torch Type 3 The improved version of the Prometheus Torch bo staff uses the highest quality oil. This increases the quality of the flame and its temperatures. It incinerates weaker enemies in one hit. By adjusting its internal mechanisms, this torch is about two-thirds as heavy as a normal one. The lightweight design is easy to carry and wield. This takes the burden off the wielder's arm saving energy
Power Cell A cartridge loaded with electricity. Its built-in converters mean that it can be used to fully charge almost any device that runs on electric power
Orange Gel A sweet medicinal jelly capable of providing 33% instant healing when eaten
”Oh hey wait, is this…?” Midna began to ask as she caught the item she’d just made, one that seemed nearly identical looking to Hanabi’s own weapon. She gave it a twirl, finding it surprisingly light. Lighter than Hanabi’s? It was hard to judge when she hadn’t held the other one, and hard to know if that was a good or bad thing (and thus whether the psychic would benefit from a trade) without trying it out.
”Plenty more Other to test it out on” she said to herself, as she dropped the gel and power cell into a portal, and then strode forwards into the fray once more.
“Ah yes, the Sinmara, of course” Fae replied to the muscle bound oni of a women’s claim of fame, even as he set a subroutine to look her up on the weave. Said routine rapidly fed him back a picture of the woman that was practically identical to the one he’d gotten already, which was fairly amusing to the cyborg. Truly, he thought, sometimes you really could judge a book by its splendid cover.
“And perhaps I will take you up on that offer a little later darling” he in the meantime replied to the one she had made about sparring, adding that “It’s always useful to acquire relevant combat data, and it’ll give me some practice at stitching your remarkable looking physiology up after battle to boot” something he expected he might have to do a lot if she where as daring/reckless as she seemed
He was rather glad he’d specified later, because the woman had to subsequently take several moments to realize that this was not exactly the place to be thrown down when she misinterpreted a comment from one of the other arrivals about stepping outside.
He was rather less glad that his attempt at initiating introductions only really got him a response from Sinmara, lovely as it was, whereas the other two who he identified by their eccentric garbs seemed more interested in her than him. Still he got a bit of an understanding of them regardless, with the young woman in a schoolgirl uniform clearly being older than she looked (something they shared in common, he mused) whereas the other was of all things, a Jester. He was also, perhaps, an illusion, which would mean this man also had something in common with him, interestingly enough.
As he scanned the room to check for the source of the phantom funny man, he detected something much more interesting, and was as a result quite prepared when their real host popped in behind him to make her little comment.
A camera in the center of one of his mecha-tendril claws leaned in to get a closer look at her as the man in control of it casually replied “Really now? That is quite last century thinking, my dear” and intentionally leaving it quite unclear as to whether it was the assumption that he’d hold back against women or that he’d was only ‘gentlemanly’ towards women that he was correcting.
Naturally, it was both. He was sitting opposite a prime example of why the former was a foolish notion, after all, but was unfortunately bereft of any fine specimens with which to demonstrate the error in her assumption of the latter.
At any rate, after her little hazing game the woman, Acacia, formally introduced herself and filled them in on some extra details that hadn’t been in the invitation. A little presumptuous, he thought, to assume they were all already onboard, but the apparent need for expediency, and lack, it seemed, of many viable candidates, did mean it made sense.
If anyone did back out now it would be pretty disastrous given their low numbers.
Said expediency would apparently see them heading out the very next morning, which did not leave a lot of time for preparations. The self declared Red queen seemed like she was ready to go right this very moment, flashily donning a set of magical armor and summoning a fascinating looking great axe as she declared as such, and Fae was, as it turned out, somewhat in the same camp as her.
“I’m able to prepare whatever we need on the fly,” he informed them, before placing one mecha-tendril claw above the other and having them spin rapidly for a few moments as they printed a living photosynthesizing rose out of thin air. He caught it in one claw, took a moment to breathe in its authentic scent, and then handed it to one of the servers, who he informed that “it would look lovely sticking out of your breast pocket, my good sir” before focusing back on the group.
“Weapons, ammunition, medicine, you name it, I can produce it” he informed them, before adding an addendum that “it does take some time to make the more complicated items however, so I shall endeavor to find out a bit about this island chain we are being sent too and manufacture/acquire a few things accordingly ahead of schedule”
He also had a few affairs to take care of as well. He might be a free agent, but it would hardly be prudent of him to simply up and disappear on his various associates and clients now would it? Plus, no one had sworn him to any kind of secrecy, as much as that has been implied, so he was certainly considering filling in a few trusted members of his movement on a detail or two on the nature of this matter.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
Rika: Electro-swarm Hangers (Dark Magic Lampyre): Rika can now use SP to launch small swarms of insects (that look a bit like fireflies) formed out of pure electricity from her gauntlet mounted hangers. For a small amount of Sp she can launch a diversion swarm, which buzz around a target and flash and blink distressingly, lowering their accuracy. For a larger SP cost, she can create a shocker swarm, which upon closing with the foe discharge their electrical charge in a series of small lightning bolts which can deal a hearty amount of damage if they all manage to go off, while also draining some stamina from the foe as well.
Bowser and Jr: Olympian: The one with this strength has competed in numerous summer and winter Olympic games, and has experience in and talent at all the various sports. They are proficient at any activities that are represented by those events. Notably it does not improve basic skills like running, jumping or swimming, but instead provides an extensive if esoteric list of talents from discus tossing to rowing to skiing, basketball, rhythmic gymnastics, bobsledding, etc.
”Oh phew” Jr sighed in relief when the additional information the travelers had acquired via following up troops lead turned up that he was off the hook due to being a minor.
”That is good. Nine thousand nine hundred less points we need” Kamek calculated, before turning to Rika and asking ”Or possibly twice that? How old are you exactly, young mistress?” and then feeling a little guilty he’d never asked this. Or when her birthday was, which he did ask as well, but unfortunately the answer to both questions turned out to be the same.
”I dunno. Don’t really remember much in detail before a few days ago when I became Rika instead of just another abyssal mook” she replied, before thinking about it a moment before getting an idea, saying ”oh, I know!” before trying to snap her fingers like she’d seen it demonstrated, only to fail to make any sound.
”Oh. Um. How do you…?” she asked while trying it a few more times
”like this!” Jr jumped in to demonstrate, only for Kamek to point that ”Your using your claws young master, she can’t do that, plus that’s not quite how you’re meant to do it anyway”
This seemed to surprise both Jr and his papa (who also just used his claws), and soon enough all three royals were getting rapid clicking lessons from Kamek, filling the air with flubbed clicks till they all got it, all four clicking at once, resulting in only Bowser having a number appearing above his head.
”There we go, well done all of you” Kamek praised the royals, before realizing another implication of the situation, saying ”Ah. I hope no one saw that I don’t have a number” quietly, before more loudly stating ”But it does indeed look like you are indeed exempt, young mistress. Good news indeed”
Rika declared this ”Neat” before adding that ”I’m glad I don’t have to do it. I’m not sure I’d have been any good at it” sheepishly
”I’m sure you’d have done great” Bowser assured her with a reassuring clap on the shoulder before suggesting ”But yeah, being forced to by some rhythmic schmuck would be a pretty crummy way to learn, that’s for sure. You can always try it out for fun some other time instead though? You know, for fun. Because that’s what it's supposed to be”
”That… might be neat?” Rika agreed, a touch hesitantly, before pessimistically adding ”Assuming we can get out I mean. Getting from one hundred to ten thousand is a lot, right?”
”Eh it’s just numbers, and we only need nine more hundreds” Bowser assured her, confidently, before brushing off Kamek’s correction that it was ”actually ninety nine more hundreds, sire”
”Well, whatever. Either way, all we need to do is take on one of those big bosses to get everything we need. Should be no problem for the king of dance!” Bowser declared confidently.
”Perhaps you should warm up sire? Challenge, say, a skeleton or some other undead perhaps” Kamek suggested, already thinking about all the ways this could go wrong. 100 points was barely a margin after all, and if he lost by any amount at all, that would be the end of it.
”Nah” the king replied dismissively, before turning and calling out ”Hey, Cadence!” once again startling the blond woman, and this time putting on guard for a moment to boot, perhaps believing he intended to challenge her, but instead he simply followed up by asking ”Where’s the nearest boss I can stomp?”
Naturally she too, tried to dissuade this course of action, but ended up getting off on the wrong foot when she thought he was being noble (as in not wanting to knock people down to rise himself up) rather than egotistical, and so was near effortlessly steamrolled by the King’s villainous charisma in a matter of moments.
“If you really do want the closest one, then he’s just through here” she nodded her head towards the door she was leaning next too before beginning to exposit about how “He’s the one that knocked me out and cost me my soul-” only for Bowser to give her a thumbs up and a ”Thanks” as he stomped past her to take a look inside the room.
What he found inside was an undead parish, which you wouldn't exactly think made for a good dance floor, if it weren't for the way the pues had been cleared away to make place for a horde of skeletons to get down to the electro-gothic music pumping through the air.
”Soooo who’s the boss?” Bowser started to ask, before spotting the man at the front of the ‘congregation’ and correctly ID’ing him as who he was looking for. No normal person would ever dress like that after all.
Dead Ringer!
The king took a long look at the man and then gawfed ”What kind of getup is that! He’s got a bell on his head?!” which caused the man in question to snap his head to the side and to fix the king with a single eyed but incredibly intense stare.
”Oh yeah, real intimidating” Bowser taunted as he stomped on into the room ”You ain’t got nothing on me, pipsqueak, so bring it! You and me bell head, let’s do this thing. Best dancer wins!”
Rather than give a verbal reply, Dead Ringer disconcertingly jolted his head to one side, cracking his neck and setting the bell encasing his head ringing as its edge hit one of his shoulder pads, a low endless chime that seemed to reverberate through the rest of his brass armor. In response, the dance floor was swiftly cleared, and four large bells where placed around it on equidistant spots on the dance floor.
”What’s this, some kinda gimmick? What have these got to do with dancing?” Bowser asked, right as the dread ringer reached behind the church's pew and pulled out his massive signature hammer. He spun it once, before raising it up above his head, and laughing a deep and dreadful laugh as his music began playing.
And then rather than start dancing the dead ringer began advancing (though his every step was flawlessly on the rhythm), hammer held high and prepared to strike the king down.
”Coming at me? Oh so it’s a fight you want?” Bowser snarled, putting up his dukes even as he bobbed to the beat ”Tough luck with that, I’m even better at those!”
“Wait! You can’t fight back or you’ll void your contract and he’ll eat your soul!” Cadence shouted out from, which for some reason prompted a few shouts along the lines of “hey come on!” and “spoilsport” from the other neutral observers.
”What?” Bowser shouted back as he snapped his head around to double check if he’d heard her right, only to get bonked on the head by the hammer blow as the deceptively quick Dead Ringer reached him. The king stumbled back, head reeling, and just entirely off beat, and getting several boos from the crowd as a result.
Rather than follow up on the blow however, the dead ringer stepped away from the king and strode towards one of the bells. Upon arrival he raised his hammer and struck the bell, causing it to toll loudly, after which then seemed to lose its color, turning from gleaming brass to a dull gray.
It also summoned a hulking green dragon near as tall as Bowser was, towards which it started to stalk (on the beat) while the dead ringer moved in the opposite direction to go ring another bell, which would no doubt have a similar miniboss summoning effect.
”What! Oh come on!” Jr cried out in dismay, before demanding to know ”How is that not against the rules!”
“The bosses aren't contractors, they don’t have to follow the no fighting rule!” Cadence told him, before shaking her head in dismay at their foolishness.
”Wait…. But I’m not a contractor either… so I don’t have to follow those rules either!” which prompted a whole bunch of questions to be shouted by the non troop members watching, all of which Jr answered by shouting ”I’m a kid” as he leaped into the fray.
”Get away from my Papa you overgrown lizard!” the prince yelled as he formed and then hurled an iron javelin with practiced skill at the great beast, striking it right in the eye. It roared in pain and staggered back, only for the roar to be joined by the ring of a bell, as the Dead Ringer summoned a hulking ogre into the fray.
”Hey, stop that!” Rika shouted as she also stepped onto the dancefloor as well, and then proceeded to open fire on the Dead Ringer with all her firepower. The crack of her rifle and thump of her rigging turrets laughing disruption blobs drowning out the music, prompting yet more boos from the audience.
”Oh no no no no no” Kamek panicked, as he realized that the kids off beat actions where not crowd pleasers ”Even if we can fight back, doing so is making it harder for his grooviness still needs to win the dance off ”
Worse, her shots seemed to have no effect, being slowed by some invisible barrier right before striking, and then vibrating in the air for a moment before being spat out onto the floor.
”Uh oh” was Rika’s rather understated response to this major set back, while Kamek proceed to freak out even more, snapping his gaze to the side and beginning to cry out ”Sire you still have to win the dance-” only to pause when he saw he’d been beaten to the punch on that turn of logic ”-huh?”
”What, you think this is the first time I've danced after getting smashed by a hammer while dancing? Compared to last time, this is nothing. Mario’s was ten times that big! Also rocket powered” Bowser replied to the shocked gazes at how smoothly, if a fair bit dadishly, he was getting down to the beat, before blowing a fair few minds as he kickflip out of the way of a club strike coming from the summoned oger.
”I. Well. I suppose that solves that part” Kamek acknowledged, before addressing the kids, saying ”Now we just have to back him up in style, troop! Move and fight to that beat just like the summoned monsters are doing!”
”Argh, this is exactly what I didn’t want to have to do!” Rika complained, before she tried her best to block a hammerswing from the Dead Ringer that was coming her way in a rhythmic fashion.
She failed, and was sent tumbling into the crowd.
As Kamek flew to assist the girl, her brother was having a much better time. Tapping into his rhythm gymnastics experience the prince gracefully stepped out of the slow dragon’s reach, spinning and then jabbing it with a pair of iron spikes he’d formed to use in place of the clubs that performance usually involved. It involved quite a few unnecessary tosses and flourishes of the spikes, but the tumbles and pirouettes he did worked well as synchronous dodges of the dragon’s own slow on beat strikes.
Bowser meanwhile was doing pretty well at keeping away from the ogre’s blows, right up until another bell rang and out sprung a minotaur with harp strings strung in between its horns.
Despite the elegant instrument adorning its head, the bullheaded beast was just as brutish as its brawny body suggested it would be. The minotaur immediately charging towards Bowser upon spotting him, forcing him to slide to the left to avoid the charge, only for him to have to slide to the right to avoid another club blow.
”I could use some backup dancers over here!” Bowser shouted as he was forced to contend with two brawling brutes trying to club and gore him, a losing game if ever there was one.
Fortunately Kamek had successfully retrieved Rika, and the two now re-entered the fray, the first indicator of which was a giant wasp woman who came buzzing across the rooms, crimson ribbons streaming from her antenna, to slam her oversized cleaver into the ogre’s back. The monster roared in pain once, and then again when on the next beat the ichor queen thrust her stinger into it, injecting a hefty payload of venom.
As the striker turned to a mote and returned to its mistress, Rika (empowered by the poisoning) unleashed a second attack, launching a swarm of electrical insects from her gauntlet hangers. These formed a swift moving swarm who’s shape pulsed in time with the music, and then when they got close to the toxic stricken ogre, unleashed their eclectic payloads in a strobe light like series of discharges till the monster.
”How’s that!” Rika asked/taunted, as she bobbed on the spot, still not at all confident enough in her dancing skills to do anything but throw summons out that could feel the rhythm in her stead.
”A good start!” Jr called back in response, as he did a cartwheel out of the way of a lunging dragon snout, before perfectly timing his firing of a shower of iron knives into its brain with a rapid fire drumbeat in the song ”But you’ve got a way to go till your good as me sis!” The prince clearing having gotten over any embarrassment his out of character dancing style was causing and into the swing of things. Employing it for violence certainly helped.
”But I am sure you will catch up in no time, young mistress” Kamek reassured Rika, as he used his magical fist spell to give the minotaur an on the beat beat down while sitting safely out of range of any harm, broomstick rising and falling in time with the music.
AS a result of these attacks, the three summoned monsters were taken care of in quick succession, the minibosses no match for the equal number of boss monsters Bowser had supporting him.
Before he could gloat, however, the fourth bell rang, summoning forth a towering nightmare wreathed in a shadowy aura. Red eyes glowed in those shadows depths for a moment as unseen stagehands jumped in and removed the bells in a flash. When some others tried to bring something on stage however, there was some kind of scuffle and a shout of “Don’t give 'em the gong, the spoilsports don’t deserve it” before they all cleared out of the arena.
”A gong? How would that help us?” Kamek asked, floating up to look for it. Yet when the shadows cleared there was no sign of the stage hands, nor the removed bells, nor any kind of gong.
The rest of the troop where a bit more distracted by what had caused the nightmare’s effect to clear, namely the Dead Ringer slamming forwards at light speed, road killing the monster in the process, and appearing right before Bower, who he promptly slammed with a hammer again.
”Wait what!” Jr called out in surprise, only for the Dead Ringer snapped his gaze around, tensed, and then lunged forwards again, flash stepping in front of the prince and smashing him in the chest, launching him clear into the crowd just as his sister had been a few moments ago.
Then his gaze snapped to that same sister, causing her to give a panicked ”Eek!” as she proceeded to launch herself into the air like a startled bunny using her feather fall rune before he even charged, which the undead audience found hilarious. Thankfully her helmet prevented her from braining herself upon impact with the ceiling, and the slowfall effect of the rune kept her from simply dropping back down into hammer range.
As a result she had time to observe Kamek futility blasting the Ringer, as a barrier of sound caused by his vibrating armor tore apart or deflected any spells before they could hurt him. Worse, with only one target still on the dance floor due to Jr’s ring out, and the other two’s floating, he now only had one target. The hammer bearer moved to line up another charge on the king, who was still dancing even as he looked dazed.
”Don’t you dare!” Rika shouted down at the ringer, as she launched another wave of electrical insects from her hangers. Rather than zap the man she was now pretty sure they could not hurt, these instead flashed and pulsed right in front of his eye, partially blinding him, and throwing off his footing just enough that when he slammed forwards he sailed past the king rather than take him out.
The impact with the wall, and brief stun it caused gave the king the rest of the time he needed to recover, but he was still pretty worse for ware, and, worse, they couldn’t heal him without causing him to cause an explosion of damaging spores (due to a charm he had equipped) which would most certainly count as fighting back.
He managed to dance his way out of the next few flash charges, thanks in no small part to Rika’s follow up swarms repeatedly blinding him, but their luck, Bowser’s stamina, and Rika’s Sp reserves all weren't going to last. Even if the inevitable next blow didn't end him, Kamek was pretty sure that the rule of three would result in a third blow guaranteeing him a loss in the eyes of the audience anyway, which was just as deadly. They needed to end this on their terms, he was quite sure, and so after a few moments he called out.
”We need to find the gong they didn’t give us! I don;t know what it does, but surely it must have a use if they denied us it” thinking it the only chance they had, even if it was a longshot.
”Way ahead of you!” came a hoarse call in response, before said voice announced ”I made us one!” as a massive disk of iron came rolling into the arena, pushed by the last of the prince’s stamina, the rest having been spent using feromancy to form the massive instrument on the fly.
”I got it!” Rika called, as she dropped down from where she had grappling hooked the ceiling to avoid being forced to dance dodge, and prepared to receive their incredibly heavy salvation.
Unfortunately she did so just as she came into the line of sight of the dead ringer. He turned and squared up to charge right as the princess focused on catching the custom made gong on beat, prompting all the other troop members to cry out in alarm.
The Dead Ringer flashed forwards, his hammer crashing forwards like a comet before it struck the gong as Rika thrust it in front of her rather than abandon this linchpin to ending the fight. A final mighty knell tolled through the room, shaking its foundations to the core, and also sending reverberations thumbing into the Dead Ringer’s hammer. Down into his armor. Then finally up into his bell like hamlet that rang and vibrated like mad before it suddenly split in twain, twin halves falling aside and revealing a face that, while gaunt, was by no means dead like his name sake might suggest.
Amber locks fell around his face as he slumped to the ground, and prompted an expected cry of “Dad?” from the crowd as Cadence rushed forwards out of the crowd and towards the fallen man’s side.
“Cadence, I’m sorry” the man who had cost Cadence her soul coughed as he tried to reach a hand out to his daughter “I was under his spell”
The unexpected family reunion was thankfully not cut short by an oblivious to what was going on Rika, as Kamek managed to shout out for her to ”Stop! Don’t kill him!” before she eviscerated the formerly enthralled man with her chainsaw bayonet.
”Oh, ok” she agreed, backing down without any questions asked, before finding an entirely different question to ask, namely ”Soooo, now what. Did we win?”
”Music’s still going!” Bowser pointed out as he shimmied on over, before requesting ”Kamek, give me some dry bones as back up dancers! I want to actually show these ghouls my stuff, and without any interruptions this time!”
”I… very well sire” the mage agreed, before doing just that.
The dance floor was cleared of all who’s souls were not on the line, leaving the king and his horde of skeletal koopas to strut their stuff, and really give the crowd a thriller they’d not soon forget for the remaining thirty seconds of the track.
After those thirty seconds were up, well, there was nothing to do but bask in the candlelight glow of those sweet sweet 10,000 points. For the troop anyway. Cadence and her father were much too distracted embracing and catching up.
“Good morning, Mr Enzoani. I’ll cut straight to the chase: it has come to our understanding that you have been recently contacted by a group known as the Denizens Of The Damned”
So spoke a plain looking man in a plain looking suit, hat and sunglasses who had arrived in a plain looking vehicle, and had then promptly invited himself into the back alley studio-clinic, while remaining undetected by all but one of the security systems, of the person he was addressing.
That person skilled in their work, fingers of ivory and gold pausing their dance across the spinal column of a woman who’s cybernetics he was repairing, before just as swiftly resuming what they had been doing. There where a few small flashes of arcana, and then the hands withdrew
“There, that should resolve the jitters you were having” the man who had been operating told his patient, before adding “Now rest assured, I could suture you back up in my sleep, so I hope you don’t mind if I speak with my ever so rude guest while I do?”
A mere courtesy, given that they were currently anesthetized.
The man turned around, leaving his mecha-tendrils to do the work of closing back up the patient’s back, and in so doing revealing his face to the plain man who had asked him a question. Even in the dim light of his out of the way clinic, and surrounded by the scent of blood, solder and sorcery the man still managed to look like an immaculate picture of beauty, at least if the multiple parts of body that had been replaced with cybernetic components didn’t ruin the view for you.
“Please, call me Fae darling, everyone else does” the doctor replied at last, before promptly pausing to take a small sip from a glass of water, and then continuing “well, everyone I’m on friendly terms with at least. Are we on friendly terms mr …”
“West” the plain man responded simply, before reminding the doctor that “I asked you a question, mr Fae”
“Yes, yes, I know I know, mr west” Fae replied, not at all believing that was his real name, yet also finding it interesting that Mr West had (mostly) bowed to his wish in terms of his preferred address. As a result of that, after setting the glass down, he explained that they had come “A few days ago in fact, attempting to harang me into assisting them with some farcical venture. Dark One this, new world order that. I turned them down, of course. I’ve been working the backstreets long enough to smell trouble a mile away, and those fellows positively reeked of it”
“We know”
“Yes well, spooks like have been trying to monitor me for long enough I quite hope that you know that I know-” Fea began to go on, only for the man to interrupt him by clarifying that what he knew was “That you turned them down”
Fae paused, before beginning to enquire “Then have you come to me to find out what they’re up to? Because I’m not particularly interested in-” before being cut off again by the clarification “We know that as well”
Fae raised a hand in light incredulation, and then sighed, before requesting to know “Then why, my dear, are you even asking?”
In response the plain man reached into his suit and handed Fae a golden envelope. After making a comment about how out of mode such a thing as the written word was, he sliced the letter open with a scalpel tipped finger and then proceeded to scan the contents, remaining eye widening and then narrowing as he did.
“You wish me to believe that not only was everything those delinquents said true, but that the illustrious Unity Organization seeks my help in trying to stop them” he said after he was done, before asking “Is this some kind of a joke?”
“Not at all” Mr West replied, before explaining that “As you know, we’ve been aware of you for quite some time, Mr Fae, and though I, we” he corrected himself “do not particularly approve of your work, we do believe that you are, as they might say, on the level. Your actions a few days ago are additional proof of that. You also have a particular set of skills that can be put towards the cause of keeping a rather … diverse team in one piece, as well as the combat skills to keep up with them” Mr West indicated to a hereto irrelevant carcass of a laser burn riddled and partially dissected nightmare of metal and flesh from the wilds that was taking up a large portion of the room.
“You’re also desperate, if you’ve come to me” Fae filled in “I’m hardly the only combat capable engi-tor in the world” though admittedly it wasn’t a particularly common profession “and if you couldn’t get them, what makes you think you can get me? You should already know I don’t take bribes or sell out, so what could you possibly-”
Mr West calmly pulled out another, much plainer, envelope and handed it to Fae. He rolled his remaining eye at this, and then opened and read the letter inside, this one, it seemed, personally written by a rather distinguished researcher who was now working at the UO. After reading through it twice, he had to conceded that “well then, it seems you have my attention”
"Then we shall inform the Organization to expect your arrival” Mr West replied, before snapping his fingers, and causing both of the letters to spontaneously combust and turn to ash in an instant.
“Yes yes. Now be off with you Mr West, I have a patient to discharge” Fae told the man dismissively, as his mecha-tendrils finished flawlessly stitching the skin of his patients back back together, leaving not a hint that she had been being operated on mere moments ago.
Mr West nodded, and without another word, left the way he came.
“Uniting weapons to bring world peace. Ridiculous” the doctor muttered to himself disbelievingly, but even as he dismissed that, and started to wake what might be his last civilian patient in quite some time, his mind was already wondering at the marvels those weapons and whichever ancient places they dwelled within might hold. The promise of priority access to those had been, he had to admit, the perfect offer to make him.
It was certainly enough to convince him to travel to the center of town to join this little party of theirs at the very least. As such, he took the next train from the outskirts, the magitech marvel cruising along artificial ley lines at a blistering place, and arrived at the venue with plenty of time to spare.
He certainly drew some looks as he entered, striding into the resplendent halls of the HQ, and once seeming to fit right in with his immaculately kept appearance and flowing garments of a classical bent, and yet at the same time sticking out like a sore thumb with his extensive mechanical augments. His mecha-tendrils click clacked on the floor as they walked with him, while his holo projector created a small 3d model of a human with most of their internals on display which the doctor openly tinkered with as he walked.
He did at least have the decency to put the body horror show away when he sat down at the table where people were eating (he himself ordered only some light horderves after flash-forging a mostly illusionary chair he could actually sit in while still wearing his backpack), and instead switching to working on something wholly mechanical. He proceeded to tinker away for a while, openly displaying designs that would put the work of many corporate cybernetics departments to shame, and doing so without a care for who saw what to them would have been top secret information, till the commotion the Chairwoman caused caught his attention.
The entire spectacle was, he had to admit, highly amusing, and had Fae not so subtly laughing behind a raised hand at the chairwoman’s embarrassing escapade.
“Well then, this already seems promising, if I am to have such delightful company in this endeavor” Fae said, mostly to himself but not at all minding if the boisterous woman overheard him, before deciding to speak more broadly to those of his fellow invites who had arrived “Ah, but where are my manners, I’ve been antisocially tinkering away instead of introducing myself”
Upon saying that, he stood and proceeded to do just that “I am Ferdinand Altori Enzoani, humble seeker of the perfection of the human form, but you can call me Fae darlings, I much prefer it. A pleasure to make your acquaintances”
He gave a short but thoroughly theatrical bow, one set of arms held to his chest, the others spread out to one side, before inquiring “Now, if you don’t mind me asking, to whom do I owe that pleasure?” as he sat back down, intrigued to know if the others would turn out to be just as delightfully eccentric.
NAME: Ferdinand Altori Enzoani (Just call me Fae darling)
AGE: Unknown (It’s rude to ask you know)
GENDER: M
APPEARANCE: While Fae may be a cyborg, he has put in the effort to ensure remaining biological features are supernaturally perfect. His marble skin unblemished, his silver locks silky smooth and tangles-less, teeth pearly white and his remaining eye a striking ruby red. Put this all together and he should be teetering on the edge of the uncanny valley, and yet he deftly defies it regardless.
Where his body is augmented, it has been replaced or plated over with a mix of unnaturally warm gold-brass alloy and durable black steel. The most inhuman augmentation can be found on his back, out of which clusters of tool tipped arms and dexterous mecha-tendrils sprout, all powered by a thaumi-nuclar battery housed within the (detachable (and able to operated independently)) backpack. It also comes with an inbuilt oxygen mask for navigating aquatic/toxic environments.
Most of the components that actually replace body parts aren't that much more powerful than their flesh alternatives, but do provide Fae with an extensive life support system that preserve and prolonged his life, and makes him rather resistant to environmental hazards despite his light garb. An exception is his right eye, which has numerous sensors that can see far better, and a far wider spectrum, than the human eye.
He carries with him a tablet computer stylized as a tome oh his hip, one that houses the blueprints for much of his work, and is often seen wearing a set of flowing red robes.
ATTRIBUTES: Mind = 5/10 Body =0/10 Agility = 0/10 Craft = 5/10 Magic = 0/10
WEAPON: Fae does not carry weapons most of the time, but he has plenty built into himself. His mecha-tendrils are strong and swift (and entirely capable of lifting his own body), and are equipped with laser emitters at their tips, while his remaining arms consist of a gravity gun (capable of picking up and launching heavy objects), a combat drug injector, and a hard light hologram projector.
That said, his tendrils are also able to 3D print objects, which means that, if he is given time to prepare, he is able to arm himself as the situation demands. As a result he often ends up producing heavy ordnance such as missile launchers, HMGs, laser cannons, flamethrowers etc. which his additional arms can help carry and stabilize, greatly bolstering his firepower.
MAGIC BRANCH: Dark magic (reshaping and augmenting the flesh is hardly natural, though Fae does resent this designation somewhat) and illusions
Notable Spells/Skills: Repairs: flesh and steel are much the same to Fae, and he is able to repair both, using injections of magical chemicals to stimulate rapid regeneration, or using welding and soldering beams to fix armor and circuitry.
Glamor: Fae predominantly works with hard light constructs when it comes to illusion magic, something he started out doing to make blueprints of metal and flesh to help both plan his work and show what the results of his work would be to those he would be working on. As such he can change people’s appearances with relative ease, as well as create fake objects such as doors, walls, keys, etc. etc. to fool his foes. Said objects can be physically interacted with, but they are relatively flimsy, and become especially so if someone sees through their ruse.
He can also create semi autonomous illusions of people, animals, machines, etc. which follow simple instructions programmed into them at creation. Useful for making distracting doppelgangers, weak disposable minions, scouts (an illusion can hold/be built around a real camera after all) etc.
Synthesis: Fae’s tendrils can be used to 3D print objects from thin air if given time, creating more permanent objects out of more or less anything, be it meat or metal. This has a lot of utility both for more in depth repairs and for creating tools, weapons, combat drones, etc. as the situation demands.
Synthasist Legion (Signature skill): Fae digs out a mass of blueprint from his internal library, and flash-forms a host of ethereal warriors based on the many designs found therein. Despite being illusions, they can still pose a threat with their various weapons if the targets’ minds are weak enough to believe that they are being harmed.
BIO/FUN FACTS:
Fae is a prominent and perhaps founding member of a growing Transhumanist movement known simply as the Synthesists. As a very loosely aligned group, they seek to enhance the human form beyond the peak reached by evolution, while still clinging on to the things that make the human body worth living in.
This certainly puts them at what many would consider the extreme end of augmentation, though they are strictly against going full machine. What the line between having enough humanity left and going too far down the mechanical rabbit hole is, shall we say, and oft argued about point within the community. What they can agree on is that the Mechanists, who go full robot, have gone too far. Naturally there are also biotech-essentialists and non-replationists who think the Synthesists themselves have gone too far, all of which leads to a lot of transhumanist infighting
Fae has dedicated much of his (possibly) long life to furthering the cause, creating many of the blueprints and thesis used by the movement. Relatively well known within it, he has little fame beyond, and certainly little fortune to his name, due to open sourcing a lot of his work.
As for why he specifically seeks the seven? Predominantly, Fea hopes that the weapons will be able to provide at least the inspirational spark needed to push his craft to the next level, having fallen into something of a rut as of late. This may seem like a somewhat selfish goal that would put him in the V’s camp, but the ideals of the Synthesists are, ultimately, a pursuit of a utopian dream that they hope will benefit all. To make a better human, one that does not age, suffer, or wither away. One that has the strength to survive and thrive in an uncaring universe, and, importantly, one that still embodies positive human traits such as empathy, compassion and kindness.
He is, it has to be said, somewhat skeptical about the mysticism surrounding the seven, particularly the idea that the uniting of the weapons brings peace, a thing he thinks is simply too ironic to be true. The rising of the dark one, whatever they may be, has a bit more credence in his eyes. It would certainly be a dark age if those who would do the world ill for their own gains got their hands on the seven, that he can 100% agree on.
His definition of ‘those who would do the world ill for their own gains’ might be a little wider than his recruiters own however.
Fetzen
Frettzo
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Neziul
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Shadowheart
