Terminal

The Final Hazard

"A game? Toying with people's lives? How about ours? I didn't choose to come here, I didn't want to make enemies, but when you try to kill me, what do you expect to happen but us responding in kind? Don't you understand the concept of cause and effect?"

@Cruallassar

As Kael fumbled within the bag to retrieve the solvent, he realized a crucial complication: His arms no longer had the range of motion to apply the solvent anywhere. He could probably just manage to point some of it back at himself if he held each can just-so, but the process of ridding himself of the metal was not going to be a quick one.

The pavise knight finally turned to look directly at Kael.

"Cowards." He said flatly. He raised his crossbow and pavise once more, the former peeking over the edge of the latter - shielding himself from the possibility of Kael throwing anything from the bag or his person. "Take responsibility for your choices."

There was a metallic twang as the next crossbow bolt was fired dead at Kael.

The Final Hazard

Chicken? He could play that. Kael ignores the shot, intent on typing out his next command. How nice of the knight to take his time with quips and flairs as he gives Kael lots of time to finish his plan...
"Alter time Entity VII accelerate 100x"

@Cruallassar

The bolt hit Kael directly across his chest, at a slight angle. The cylinder-tip erupted in a burst of iridescent light, and Kael was treated to an oddly pleasant sensation of warmth spreading across his chest as both his shirt and skin were plated with silvery metal - its spread continued even as he typed, reaching up to his neck and seizing the motion of his head, as well as encompassing his shoulders and locking the angle of his arms in place in an odd, hunchbacked posture.

Absolutely nothing hurt and he appeared to be uninjured, which was good. What was bad was that no matter how hard he tried, he could not seem to shift or crack the metal at all.

>Entity VII [4167067] Kael Arvindr accelerated to one-hundred times current velocity.

Without any further notice, Kael's face slammed downwards, his indestructible cranium tearing through the computer screen and obliterating the keyboard, sending the delicate nacreous keys with their ornate emerald typeface spiraling through the empty world along with a thousand tiny shards and fragments of broken pewter and rent brass. Glowing ciruitry and cables from within the monitor flickered and sparked before turning dim and dead.

Kael's entire body continued its end-of-end tumble, until his head slammed directly into the surface of the monolithic stone slab the computer had been housed in - and this time, he bounced, his momentum drastically reversing and flinginh Kael's body in the opposite direction, sending him backflipping through the void behind the machine. He appeared to have already slowed down somewhat from the impacts and shift in direction, so the one upside appeared to be that he was not stuck at one-hundred times acceleration.

"The Allineator, much like the world, was adopted to suit all your needs. It accommodates some more than others though." The pavise knight remarked of nobody in particular and he casually reloaded the crossbow once more, drifting forward to approach the shattered remnants of the keyboard and display screen, looking with faint interest at the tangle of now-severed cables drifting through the air.

"That will take me ages to fix with the world like this. You witless heels. Did you think this was a game? Do you enjoy toying with peoples' lives?" The knight muttered to himself, an irritated expression crossing his face.

The Final Hazard

He wills one of the small rubber balls in his pouches to appear outside said pouch and shoot at the knight, that would be a nice nuisance for him.

@Cruallassar

...But nothing happened.

In a quick frenzy of movement, his fingers reach out and tap the keys as fast as he could, just in case the knight wasn't bluffing.
"Shield Entity VII from harm"

@Cruallassar

>Entity VII [4167067] Kael Arvindr marked invulnerable.

"Bluffing is boring anyway. How well does he play chicken?" The pavise knight quipped to the empty vacuum again as he swerved through the air to Kael's right a scant three meters from the machine, his pavise still raised in protection. With a metallic twang, his crossbow fired the cylinder-tipped bolt loaded in its till at Kael.

Kael had plenty of forewarning of the attack - from the predictable trajectory of the knight's gliding motion through the void to the verbal challenge immediately prior, and being able to see the crossbow fire. He could easily dodge out of the way.

...Which would take him out of reach of the keyboard. The pavise knight was close. What might happen if he reached the keyboard himself?

On the other hand, the computer screen's readout was telling Kael that he had been marked as invulnerable. Did he even really have to dodge the crossbow bolt...?

The Final Hazard

@Terminal

Kael moves himself over to face the keys on the machine, typing out the word "reset" on them to see what happens. Then the explosion sounds and he twists around to view the last of his comrades...and the erstwhile murderer...expire. Lovely. So much for saving anyone else then. "You know, this situation might seem a hell of a lot more hopeless if you were doing less trying to kill everyone and convincing everyone of the fact. As it is, I'm inclined to disbelieve you." He notes the detachment of the knight's shield...interesting. So he was still vulnerable to the metal bolts. Kael wills the knight's crossbow to explode as an afterthought as he hastily returns his gaze to the machine's screen.

@Cruallassar

>Resetting all valid entities.

Just as the knight's bolt exploded in an iridescent flash of light, the command Kael had entered in the machine took grasp of what little was left of the world and reshaped it.

Kael found himself without the accouterments he had picked up since arriving in the limousine, and all that he had arrived with had been restored - and the Knight was suddenly standing tall in the dark pitch of the world, with a new pavise strapped to his left arm. His crossbow was raised, a new cylinder-tipped bolt placed neatly in its till as though nothing had happened.

Kael immediately noticed - he could no longer see the conduits that bound the machine and the knight together, nor the strange internal passage through space within the machine's interior. His sight had gone.

The pavise knight shook his head, a wry smile on his face.

"If he touches the keyboard again I'll just shoot the Allineator." He called out again, floating off to the side of the machine in order to get a clear shot off again at Kael, his pavise raised in anticipation of another attack.

TTL: The Final Hazard OOC

I'm not sure why that final act of violence was necessary, but fine, Andy is dead.

Which does bring a question to mind. @Terminal, when a character dies in an iteration, can that character be used again in another iteration or not?

<Snipped quote by shylarah>
I thought that was the goal as well, but people are free to play how they want it. The RP would have been more fun and probably survivable for more if we all would have worked together to defeat the enemies and find a way out. Especially since the RP is not a 'the last man standing will win' kind of RP, at least that's not the impression the parameters of the final hazard gave me.

@WiseDragonGirl

You are free to reuse the character if you see fit.

I will also say your impressions are correct. Keep in mind that this ultimately boils down to all of you versus me, after a fashion. That said, you are also all free to roleplay however you like.

TTL: The Final Hazard OOC

Roster updated.

The Final Hazard

Kael hastily examines the machine in front of him, looking for controls or other devices that might suggest a reset command.

@Cruallassar

Set into the face of the sixth stone slab from the bottom of the cairn was a computer screen gilded in brass, with a pewter case seated within the monolith's body. A fine mechanical keyboard with extremely robust but ornate pewter keys with pearl-coated surfaces and emerald typeface extended from below it. The computer's readout currently was not displaying anything helpful - nearly all of the text, if it could even be called that, was completely illegible, save for a single repeating line that reappeared at the bottom of the screen every few moments only to rapidly scroll upwards and vanish at the top.

>Current Allineation Target Lost.

As he moved he took one of the field triage kits from the backpack and hurled it at the pavise knight. It probably was one of the worst distractions he could come up with, but maybe it would help.

@WiseDragonGirl

Anybody and anything within twenty meters was essentially fucked.

@Doc Doctor

The field triage kit was sent flying as a shard of Donny slashed across its surface, sending it flying through the bleak emptiness. The knight raised their pavise, several metal-coated fragments smacking into it and losing most of their momentum, drifting eerily in place. After several moments he lowered the pavise, and without even looking at the surface - now covered in rapidly spreading metal, releasing a keening, screeching sound akin to metal being compacted and sheared - pressed some control on its inner surface, causing the clasps to release from his arms and send it drifting as well. He then set his sights to look for Andreas in order to determine if the doctor had survived Donny's final act of violence.

"Does it look like there is any method of escape here anymore?" He said again, though as before the comment did not seem directed at either Kael or Andreas. "It is hopeless."

TTL: The Final Hazard OOC

@Terminal
Might I inquire as to the fate of the crossbow bolt that was redirected back at the Pavise Knight?

@Cruallassar

Check the post.

The Final Hazard

He willed a slug to form very closely around the Pavise Knight...the same as the slug that they had had such a dangerous ride in, which had claimed the lives of three people.

@Cruallassar

The dark air wavered very briefly as something began to form - just for long enough to send the deflected bolt spiraling away into the void at great force - but then settled as whatever effect had been about to manifest faltered and vanished.

"Why are you even fighting back?" The pavise knight called out to the endless pitch void as he calmly and methodically reloaded his crossbow with another cylinder-tipped arrow, having fully set his left arm into the straps of his pavise. "This world is far too broken for anything worthwhile to be learned now, especially after killing your main source of information. You should just let them die. I do not promise their deaths will be painless - but they will be quick."

Kael seemed to be in control and Andy decided he would go over to him and see if he could help him with the device, but not before he knew what Donny's fate was.

@WiseDragonGirl

@Doc Doctor
In that single moment of eternity as the bolts materialized from thin air, Donny was very briefly entertained by a curious, foreign thought.

'You seem out of sorts. A little stuck, unsure and therefore unwilling to proceed. I can sympathize - but this world cannot get anymore broken.

I will ask you one question - what do you want? I am not talking to you, Donny-boy. I am talking to you.

Deliver an interesting answer and there may be a way out for you - although, naturally, your own situation is still yours to escape from. I refuse to clean up your mess.'

TTL: The Final Hazard OOC

@Terminal

I'm going to wait and see how you interpret the goings on before posting. Whatever you say happens, happens!

@Doc Doctor

The bolts were successfully moved, but it is not yet any of my business as to whether or not they make contact with Donny. That would seem to be an issue to be decided by you alone. Do let me know if any kind of contact with the business-ends of the bolts should occur though, and I will take it from there.

Roster updated.