Turboshitter

Fate/stay Night - War of the Fourteen Magi - High Casual

@vancexentan

Fate/stay Night - War of the Fourteen Magi - High Casual

Albert Prelati

Interacting with: Berserker [Roland] (@Grey), Leon & Saber + the Padre & Berserker [Beowulf] (@vancexentan)

Jonathan's base of operations - 2:48 PM December 2nd, 2012

Hider

The tension in the room was reaching a slow boil. Saying the wrong words right now could topple the whole flimsy house of cards, a disturbingly literal metaphor in this case. But Albert was having the wrong reaction. He chuckled. At absolutely the wrong time, and the wrong place, he couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh zis is rich. You're just giving up? Some Master of Saber you are!" he yelled at the retreating Leon. "And zey say ze French are cowardly!"

Albert sighed, having gotten it all out of his system. Well that had been short-lived. However, at the end, they'd both said all that needed to be said about their relationship. He just couldn't work with someone who turned tail and ran so quickly against an opponent like this, that was all there was to it. Now he needed to save his words for someone else.

He craned his head back to look at the mercenary Executor.

"You up zere. 'Oly man," he said. "Before you pull ze trigger, why don't you riddle me zis. If I'm ze selfish, dis'onorable one, zen why aren't I up zere where you are, holding zat gun? If a magus is scum like you say, zen why is ze only one I see 'ere threatening ze lives of 'undreds of innocents just to prove some idiotic point ze man 'iding be'ind ze cross? Make your excuses all you want, padre. God will not show you 'is mercy when you go to 'ell. And neizer will I."

He stepped out into the open so his voice could be heard better. Loudly and clearly, he accused the man. Condemned him. Lectured him, even, as if he did indeed have the balls to insult an enemy to his face as Beowulf claimed.

"A necessary evil does not kill a 'otel full of people just to eliminate two magi. A man of ze cloth does not condemn ze blameless for ze sins of all mankind. And a hero of justice does not stoop to such cowardly actions for ze sake of zeir own personal vendetta! You're a liar if you zink you are any of zese zings." Albert pointed his finger up at the clown-faced man. "I was willing to negotiate wiz you before. I was willing to settle for leaving here wiz ze fairies if I needed to. But now I'm not. Because I see what you are now. You're not a righteous man, an Executor, or even a crusader."

Albert's eyes darkened as they took on a disdainful, almost savagely hateful look.

"You're just a shit'ead wiz a gun who zinks ze world is really as simple as black and white. And I cannot stand men like you."

He waited until he was sure Leon had left the building. Angry as he was at his fairweather friendship (not that they'd ever really been friends to begin with), he wasn't so petty that he'd deny him his chance to escape. Flourishing dramatically, Albert held his arms out at his sides like he was posing for the cross.

"Go a'ead and pull zat trigger, padre! Do it! Do it, you mozerfucker! Va te faire foutre!" he spat. "And when you do, both you and your Berserker will be dead, and we'll all get to see just how fast a Servant is compared to a bomb!"

Albert swallowed hard the lump in his throat.

Ma chère, he thought quietly. I trust you. Do you trust me?

RWBY Roleplay

Would anyone be interested in a RWBY RP? The last one I was in ended very abruptly, so I was wondering if anyone would be willing to do this kind of roleplay with me. Our characters would be just starting out at Beacon. I'd like you to follow the color naming rule (if you end up making a character).

@canaryrose

I would be very interested, Mr. Crazy Scorpion Man sir.

Mass Effect RP

I'm interested, but I don't know how soon I'll be able to get something up. Thinking human cyborg, maybe even an ex-Cerberus operative looking to turn over a new leaf.

Fate/stay Night - War of the Fourteen Magi - High Casual

Albert Prelati

Interacting with: Berserker (@Grey), Leon & Saber (@vancexentan)

Jonathan's base of operations - 2:40 PM December 2nd, 2012

Hider

Albert looked around at the room, stunned. A pacification field. He'd had no idea Durandal possessed this sort of ability.

He sighed. Well, that was that then. Their cat, unlike David, still chilling in the hotel icebox, was officially out of the bag. Oh well. He could hardly complain. He'd asked her to do it after all, and while it may have seemed as though the effort had come to nought, Berserker sounded like he already knew the identity of that sword anyway. Said that he didn't want to cross paths with it "again".

But that confused Albert. As (his) Berserker had revelatorily explained, the man before them was none other than Beowulf. Yet, to his knowledge, Beowulf had lived in a completely different part of the world hundreds of years apart from Roland. How would he have ever encountered Durandal? It was impossible. Unless he meant of course that someone else in this War possessed the same Noble Phantasm as Berserker did. Now there was a worrying thought...

Albert decided not to think too hard about that just yet. For now, it seemed as though the sacrifice they'd made in revealing Berserker's identity today hadn't been entirely without meaning. That alone was worthy of some measured amount of relief. And now they had a clue as to the identity of another enemy Servant. A very confusing one, but a clue nonetheless.

Already some names occurred to him. Weyland the Smith seemed the most likely, as many versions of the Matter of France attested to him having forged Durandal, as well as the twin swords of Beowulf, Naegling and Hrunting. But then wouldn't Beowulf have addressed him with more familiarity? It wasn't much to go on, but it was a start.

He frowned. The real problem now was,

"What do you mean you don't 'ave ze equipment?" he asked Leon accusatorily. "You can forge a geas wizout a scroll, can't you? Seems to me like zat should be much easier to do zan making one of zose accursed zings. Did your mozer really not teach you?"

He'd been hoping Leon would say he could make a proper scroll. Self-geas scrolls tended to be much more binding than the relatively informal version he was now being forced to propose. They'd hold fast even after death, whereas a geas forged by a mutual agreement between two magi without a scroll could still be undone (albeit with significant effort).

He didn't doubt they'd try either. These men, and the man behind him... they were clearly all fanatics worse than Roland. Reasoning with them was pointless from the beginning. But if they could just get out of her with their squishy parts still inside them...

That's when he noticed. Something interesting had popped up on his Servant's stat sheet.

Hamartia...?

Fate/stay Night - War of the Fourteen Magi - High Casual

Ren Mizushima

Interacting with: Rider (@1Charak2), Sosthenes (@Grey), Lancer (@Eklispe)

Fuyuki City, Miyama Town - 2:06 PM December 2nd, 2012

Hider

He nodded, signaling he understood.

I'd be happy if you called me Ren... Medusa, he thought, trying the name out. It had a feeling of trust behind it when he used it, but something about it still felt like it must carry painful memories. To be remembered the way she was, to die like that and be reviled by humanity to the point that she would even call herself a monster.

He turned his back to her while she put on the glasses. It would hardly do to make accidental eye contact with her right now. Too risky, at least until they knew the glasses worked.

He knew the Medusa myth, after all. The real story too, not the dime store fiction sold to the masses in pop culture. He'd crawled ass-first through enough ancient Greek ruins to know that Medusa hadn't started life as a monster. She had been a beautiful mortal, or in some stories a lesser earth goddess, who had been wrongfully punished by the gods for crimes she did noy commit and was cursed with a mane of snakes and looks that could kill. Most people thought Medusa was just another monster, but he knew the truth. Medusa's tale was a sad story, not a happy one about heroes and villains.

Rider finally putting on a pair of his glasses was the thing that snapped him out of his contemplation. He looked up, and for the first time in thousands of years, a mortal locked eyes with the dreaded Gorgon.

"W-Wow..." he couldn't help but say. Her eyes were as beautiful as she was. Powerful, elegant, and demanding. They had none of the predatory feeling he'd been expecting. To him they seemed like unblinking white orbs carved from marble, a crystal-like iris framing perfectly square pupils to signify her non-human ancestry. There was no better name for such oblique yet exquisite artistry than "jewels".

Painfully aware he was staring, Ren blinked. Quick! He needed to change the subject!

"Because I'm like you," he blurted abruptly. "That's why I have them, I mean..."

Ren smiled sheepishly.

"Well, that's not exactly true, I guess. My Pure Eyes are nowhere near as coo-... dangerous as your Eyes of Petrification," he said, trying to catch himself before he said something that might offend Rider. "All mine do is let me see into the past, and I can't shut them off. Kinda dumb, huh? I need these glasses so I can, y'know, function normally. It's total sensory overload if I take them off. And yeah, I get that a lot. I think it's these glasses. They make me look younger."

When she asked him about new clothes, seeming uncharacteristically embarrassed, he suddenly became aware of just how lewd Rider's outfit really was, and in no time at all he was blushing so hard he looked like a giant strawberry. He hadn't even thought about it before. With the blindfold on it kinda just seemed to... I dunno, suit her? It didn't seem as weird as it did now.

"Y-Yeah! Here, le-lemme go get you some!" he shouted, flustered. He practically ran up the stairs into his mom's room, looking for some loose-fitting clothes like sweaters or old jeans.

He hadn't turned to stone yet, but something else certainly had...

After splashing himself with cold water and giving himself a minute to calm down, Ren returned with some of his baggier sweatshirts and hoodies as well as a few pairs of his mom's old jeans. He gave them to Rider. Much to his embarrassment, he'd noticed while picking out outfits that the size of clothing he and his mother wore weren't actually all that different, painfully reminding him of how short he was for someone his age.

He sighed. Hopefully his sweaters wouldn't be too small for Rider to wear. They wouldn't have many options left if they were, besides an impromptu shopping spree.

"How are they? Do you think they'll fit?" he asked cautiously.

Fate/stay Night - War of the Fourteen Magi - High Casual

Albert Prelati

Interacting with: Berserker (@Grey), Leon & Saber (@vancexentan)

Jonathan's base of operations - 2:40 PM December 2nd, 2012

Hider

Albert's heart stopped the moment he felt the cold metal kiss of the gun barrel against his head.

Damn.

Well this was hardly ideal. How had he not noticed him? For that matter, how did Saber not notice him? Bah, he'd been sloppy. Or perhaps in Saber's case, intentionally inept. It was awfully convenient that Albert was the only one here with a gun to his head...

He cursed under his breath. Then he saw the man who'd cornered him, and he flat-out swore. If he'd said it once, he'd said it a thousand times. Never trust a priest!

No, not a priest. Not exactly. This man was either an Executor or an Eighth Sacrament member, perhaps even a Church-affiliated mercenary. The violence and hypocrisy of God personified. Or perhaps just what man believed to be God.

As he laid out his terms, Albert bit down on his lip, trying to keep quiet until he could put away the urge to say what was really on his mind. Blood squirted down his chin. Mindful of his situation, he turned to the man behind him.

"Ze next time we do zis dance, I'm coming for you first. I'm sure you'll make great puppy-chow."

Some of his anger vented, he looked up at the Dead Apostle Hunter.

"As much as I despise your smug attitude, I wouldn't say I 'ave any great desire to die today eizer. Satisfying as it would be to take a self-righteous ass'ole like you down wiz me in a fiery chasm of shame and jet fuel, I have greater ambitions to live for past ze next five minutes."

He sighed, breathing deeply as he took his life into his own hands with his next words.

"'Owever, a man who admits 'e cannot be trusted should probably be taken at 'is word, and zerefore I propose a trade. If we truly all want to leave zis building alive, razer zen one party conning ze ozer and killing zem as soon as zey've broken eye contact, zen I would 'ave you agree to play 'ost to a few friends of mine. A few fairies to keep a finger on ze killswitch is all I ask, at least until I'm convinced we are out of range of any 'idden snipers. Failing zat, I feel as zough signing a geas scroll forbidding you and your men from attacking us again until nightfall should be no unreasonable demand. My friend Leon 'ere tells me 'e is quite good at crafting such scrolls. Aren't you, Leon?"

He nodded at his erstwhile "partner" (for Berserker was his only true partner in his mind), and then returned his gaze to the hunter.

"Well? Zose are your choices. Clock is ticking. Eizer you agree to my terms and we all walk away or I'll tell ma chère it's off wiz your 'ead and we all get to die togezer."

Ma chère, if you've got any tricks up your sleeve, now is ze time.

Fate/stay Night - War of the Fourteen Magi - High Casual

Albert Prelati

Interacting with: Berserker (@Grey), Leon & Saber (@vancexentan)

Jonathan's base of operations - 2:32 PM December 2nd, 2012

Hider

Albert sneered at the enemy Berserker's sexist comments towards his Servant. "What a lovely man 'e is. Truly a gentleman and a scholar, zis one."

But he was curious. Why did his own Servant not use Mad Enhancement to boost her abilities? Had she not understood his command? Or was this simply another aspect of her pride?

He winced in pain. Even with the field gone (all thanks to Berserker no not that one), he could still feel the residual effects like red hot needles tickling his nerve endings. His Circuits needed stretching and some time to heal, and time was something they couldn't afford to waste while Berserker was still in the area. Luckily, he had an idea.

He checked the positions of his wraiths. Still regrouping. The field had momentarily disrupted his ability to exert fine-tuned control over the summoned spirits, causing them to drift farther apart. It would mean further delays before they could hope to corner Berserker or force a retreat. What he needed most was to buy a few more seconds of time. Immobilize Berserker and catch him off-guard.

He gave the order.

At that moment, Albert's fairies dove out of the thick cloud of dust and smoke they'd been hiding in, two of them trailing a large strip of cloth cut out from the hotel curtains. With the efficiency and grace of tiny fighter pilots, they wrapped the cloth around Berserker's left leg, tripping him up and hopefully yanking him to the floor with an upward motion. Though they could not hope to do more than deter the Servant for a moment, let alone hold him, they could do all they needed to do. Thirty-four pairs of arms grabbed Berserker from below, grasping and clawing at any point of purchase they could find in his flesh. The wraiths rose from the floor, piling on top of him like a solid mass and weighing him down until he couldn't move. While their ability to interfere physically with the material plane was low as mere individuals, together they could hold him. At least for a little while.

Albert looked down on the enemy Berserker from the floor above.

"I am afraid you and your Master 'ave underestimated me, you musclebound oaf. You zink you can just walk out of 'ere after all you've said and done? No no no, mon petit chien. I fight for my own future," he boasted. "And ze one I see is one wiz you dead on ze ground."

He turned to his own Berserker. "Ma chère? 'E's all yours."

Ren Mizushima

Interacting with: Rider (@1Charak2), Sosthenes (@Grey), Lancer (@Eklispe)

Fuyuki City, Miyama Town - 2:06 PM December 2nd, 2012

Hider

Though it seemed at first that he wasn't registering all of Rider's insults about his mentor and the Servant neither of them really knew, Ren did take notice of Rider's words. Just perhaps not the parts she'd wanted him to.

Wait, you can't see them? he asked incredulously, but then he immediately began backpedaling. I-I mean obviously you couldn't with that blindfold on, but I thought you must have been using some kind of magic that allowed you to see through it. You mean you really can't?

Ren thought briefly about how he might fix this issue before dopily remembering who Rider had introduced herself as. The fact that she was Medusa, or at least claimed to be, did worry him a little, but it explained a lot about her current predicament and what he might be able to do to solve it. The answer was so easy in fact it seemed almost mundane to someone so well-versed in the subject.

Rider, he began before correcting himself. I mean Medusa... do you want me to call you "Rider" or "Medusa"? I mean I can do either-! Wait, that was stupid of me, nevermind... Ummm... that blindfold. It's for your Mystic Eyes, right? The Mystic Eyes of Petrification? The lost Jewel-class ocular magic that nobody has possessed since the Age of Gods? If... if that's why you can't see, I think I might have a fix for that.

Ren sat up, and did a quick jog up the stairs to his room. Fumbling around with the nightstand, he clumsily pulled out a drawer that was full of unused pairs of glasses. Glasses like the ones he wore, as a matter of fact. He rummaged through them, looking for a pair that he thought Rider might like. Eventually he settled on a simple wireframe set with oval lenses. Tough, durable and no-nonsense, like her.

He rushed back downstairs carrying the glasses, leaving the drawer lying open on his bed. Excited, perhaps more than was reasonable, Ren said "Try these!" and pressed the glasses into Rider's open palms.

"They're Mystic Eye Killers," he said aloud. "They should help suppress the effects so you don't have to wear that blindfold anymore."

Truth be told he was supremely curious to see what Rider's eyes looked like. Both because she was already beautiful even with the blindfold on, but also because so few people had ever gotten to see the Gorgon's eyes up close, and fewer still could claim to have survived. He felt like he'd be joining an exclusive club if he could catch a glimpse of them. Ren Mizushima would be the first mage in millennia to gaze upon the Mystic Eyes of Petrification. People had written entire thesis papers based on less than that!

Plus, he thought, blushing a little, he wanted to be helpful to Rider if he could...

Fate/stay Night - War of the Fourteen Magi - High Casual

@TurboshitterAlright then Turbo how do you want me to change it then? I don't want to make the enemy berserker come off as a mary sue the floor buckling caught him off guard. Endurance isn't his defense stat in it's entirely either it's how much damage he can withstand have the ability to pierce and wound him doesn't mean he can't shake it off. Perhaps I am underselling the effect of the blow though. Endurance doesn't effect Durandal's ability to hurt it does effect how much pain the berserker can withstand. Negating magical defense and armor doesn't equal negating one's ability to take a blow.

Short story even shorter I can have him use one of either of his noble phantasm swords to block it. Regardless the blow should hit him at least once even slightly.

@vancexentan

I think you're missing the point I was trying to make. He can soldier through it or have his Master heal him or something, but the blow should definitely still register. He shouldn't just be able to shrug it off (unless I was misunderstanding you the whole time and you just meant his injury didn't affect his ability to fight).

Fate/stay Night - War of the Fourteen Magi - High Casual

@TurboshitterI'd say it a pretty good wound but Endurance Level of A and Battle Continuation of B let him pretty much tank a solid shot like that. If I need to I can have him use instinct even further to prevent an overly fatal blow. You know who this guy is regardless do you think he would buckle over one solid sword blow? Or does having a better durability level than Cu Chullain mean nothing?

@vancexentan

When it comes to Durandal? Yes. The Noble Phantasm's effect is literally "be the sharpest and most durable sword there is". That was explicitly mentioned in @Grey's character sheet when you accepted it:

>"The sword is unbreakable and unstoppable. Regardless of the owner’s magical energy, the sword does not lose its sharpness, and regardless of physical defense, the sword is capable of piercing it as long as it is not a Noble Phantasm."

I don't know how deep the wound was meant to be, but if Durandal cut him, there should be no resistance regardless of his Endurance. That's the whole point. It can only be dodged or blocked with another Noble Phantasm. That's been a part of what makes Roland dangerous from the very beginning. The wound she gave him doesn't have to be fatal or even that serious, but his own Endurance and Rank in BC shouldn't affect it at all because Durandal bypasses those things.