PREP Highschool

Locales found within the main city centers; primarily Inside, Riverside, and Skyside.
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bc56
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by bc56 »

[R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂]
This isn't a dream anymore. It's a nightmare. That thing is not about to let Aiko escape from its labyrinth so easily.
Well now you've done it, Mary's voice comes from nowhere, I was hoping she was gone for good.

Who's that voice behind the wall?
Whispering inside your head
Proud you are before your fall
Very soon, you'll wish you're dead


The thing makes a pulling motion and Mary's voice screams "Nooooo!" as a blue gemstone, decorated with filigree to look like a sailboat, crystalizes out of thin air and settles into its hand. It gently, carefully, nestles the gem among the debris of its chest, right over the heart.
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Earl of Purple
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Earl of Purple »

Snek Lunch

"Any time, Natharia. I mean it, join me again for lunch some time. And yeah, I will. See you then." Aigothurz smiles and finishes his own lunch before they part ways.
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Rebonack
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Rebonack »

[DERPy Chase]



Khannie takes off after the fleeing villains! No way she's letting them get away.

Unfortunately their foes aren't just going to stand around and let her bail.

"Cacturn! Use pursuit!" one of the three DERP grunts calls out, pointing at Khannie as she sprints away. The prickly pokemon launches itself at her from behind, neatly avoiding a telekinetic clobbering! Normally this would result in some pretty unpleasant levels of getting thorned but Khannie is, thankfully, no newcomer to combat.

See, if there's one thing pokemon trainers don't seem to get it's that broadcasting what attack you're using against someone who actually knows what they're doing is a stupid idea. Especially when the someone who knows what they're doing is an illusionist.

Khannie steps out of her human disguise, allowing the cactus pokemon to plow into that rather than her. Planting one paw on the ground she gathers FIGHTING SPIRIT into her fist and pivots, translating all that momentum into a ferocious brick-breaking punch. The blow comes flying right toward the pokemon's center of mass just as the human teen girl illusion is dissipating, giving it no time to react to the face full of fingers.

There comes a sound like a melon being crushed as the pokemon gets knocked head over heels and lands in a heap at the feet of the grunt. "Wuh-one shot? Ugh we stole some useless pokemon!" the grunt... grunts... as he draws another ball off his belt and releases a zweilous!

Colby, meanwhile, pulls off his hat to reveal-!

Another pokeball under it. He had hid one of his pokeballs from the goons when he heard the commotion! "Go Wobs! Use Play Rough!"

Wobs?

Oh hey, that's a wigglytuff.

Upon being released it gives its warbling cry which translates in pokemon-talk to-!
<Wigglytuff>

Okay yeah this thing probably can't speak in any appreciable way.

When Gaudia smacks the Dragonair Wobs is waiting. She grabs the dazed dragon pokemon and begins tickling it!

Mercilessly.

The unglued DERPs, meanwhile, continue their rapidly hastening retreat!
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Ironsmith »

bc56 wrote: Dec 06, 2022 4:10 pm [R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂]
This isn't a dream anymore. It's a nightmare. That thing is not about to let Aiko escape from its labyrinth so easily.
Well now you've done it, Mary's voice comes from nowhere, I was hoping she was gone for good.

Who's that voice behind the wall?
Whispering inside your head
Proud you are before your fall
Very soon, you'll wish you're dead


The thing makes a pulling motion and Mary's voice screams "Nooooo!" as a blue gemstone, decorated with filigree to look like a sailboat, crystalizes out of thin air and settles into its hand. It gently, carefully, nestles the gem among the debris of its chest, right over the heart.
[R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂]

Well. If that thing needs that gemstone badly enough that it's focusing on it before dealing with her, it must be important. Which means it's in Aikobaz's best interests to take it while she has the chance, to deny that thing whatever advantage it would gain from having it.

yoink!

...Although, that's probably also going to have the effect of focusing its attention squarely on her. Which then means now would be a good time to get out of here, even if her only options are to go elsewhere into her dream.

Admittedly, that's probably not going to do much. Time and space don't have a lot of meaning here; that was part of the appeal of using it for a study hall. No matter where she goes, that thing's going to be on her heels the whole way, because she won't have gone anywhere.

But maybe, if she surrounds herself with the right tools...

Aikobaz turns and runs, heading out the hole in the wall and running toward a crystal palace off in the distance.

Zenith. Her old home.

If this thing is going to try to fight by making things unchanging, she can work that to her advantage.
Rebonack wrote: Dec 06, 2022 5:10 pm [DERPy Chase]

Khannie takes off after the fleeing villains! No way she's letting them get away.

Unfortunately their foes aren't just going to stand around and let her bail.

"Cacturn! Use pursuit!" one of the three DERP grunts calls out, pointing at Khannie as she sprints away. The prickly pokemon launches itself at her from behind, neatly avoiding a telekinetic clobbering! Normally this would result in some pretty unpleasant levels of getting thorned but Khannie is, thankfully, no newcomer to combat.

See, if there's one thing pokemon trainers don't seem to get it's that broadcasting what attack you're using against someone who actually knows what they're doing is a stupid idea. Especially when the someone who knows what they're doing is an illusionist.

Khannie steps out of her human disguise, allowing the cactus pokemon to plow into that rather than her. Planting one paw on the ground she gathers FIGHTING SPIRIT into her fist and pivots, translating all that momentum into a ferocious brick-breaking punch. The blow comes flying right toward the pokemon's center of mass just as the human teen girl illusion is dissipating, giving it no time to react to the face full of fingers.

There comes a sound like a melon being crushed as the pokemon gets knocked head over heels and lands in a heap at the feet of the grunt. "Wuh-one shot? Ugh we stole some useless pokemon!" the grunt... grunts... as he draws another ball off his belt and releases a zweilous!

Colby, meanwhile, pulls off his hat to reveal-!

Another pokeball under it. He had hid one of his pokeballs from the goons when he heard the commotion! "Go Wobs! Use Play Rough!"

Wobs?

Oh hey, that's a wigglytuff.

Upon being released it gives its warbling cry which translates in pokemon-talk to-!
<Wigglytuff>

Okay yeah this thing probably can't speak in any appreciable way.

When Gaudia smacks the Dragonair Wobs is waiting. She grabs the dazed dragon pokemon and begins tickling it!

Mercilessly.

The unglued DERPs, meanwhile, continue their rapidly hastening retreat!
[DERPy Pursuit]

Gaudia frowns at the grunt that just lost his cacturn. If this were a regular pokemon battle, she wouldn't be too upset, but his continuing to struggle is just wasting time for her and her team and she doesn't much care for it.

Throwing the lopunny aside (it's probably out cold by now), Guadia turns her attention to the grunt and raises both him, and the pokeball that used to hold a cacturn, up into the air.

And then promptly combines the two elements.

There. That should take him out of the fight, and in a fittingly ironic way to boot.
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Rebonack
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Rebonack »

[DERPy Pursuit]

"Woah what hey you aren't supposed to attack the trainer that isn't allowed!" the grunt complains right before getting clonked in the head with an empty pokeball. The impact is easy enough to daze the guy, leaving the two headed dragon he just sent out standing around blankley waiting for commands.

Khannie charges straight toward the leaderless pokemon, vaults OVER the pokemon, and tackles the lopunny's trainer before she can get out another ball. The girl yelps as she goes down, "Hey that's cheat-"

Then there comes a THUNK as Khannie punches her square in the face. The punch is carefully controlled, the punch of someone who has clobbered plenty of super villain stooges and knows how careful you have to be when abusing the human body. The DERP trainer is out like a light.

"Woah I surrender!" yells the third DERP grunt. As the dragonair goes down he raises his hands.

But it would seem the grunts served their purpose. The Boss are the DERPifying machines have a major head start!

Save for the one Khannie snared with an illusion.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Ironsmith »

[DERPy Pursuit]

Oh, now they care about the rules? Gaudia would be much more willing to listen to them if she couldn't still smell pester ball on her clothes.

As it stands, she can simply run past the remaining conscious grunt and after the Boss, flashing him an unrelentingly furious glare as she pursues him.

Granted, she's not used to running like this, so he might still be able to maintain a lead, despite the burden of the machines and Gaudia's own reflexes. But he won't be getting away clean either way.
Who're you? ...Don't matter.

Want some rye? Course ya do!

Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
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bc56
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by bc56 »

PE Block
"What a mess. Looks like someone did some sort of ritual here? We got the face at least." Mary apparently resists the supernatural fear. She peers inside, looking into the crystal ball briefly before picking up the notebook and thumbing through it. "What was this all about?" she muses to herself.

R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂
Aiko now has a gem! It seems important, but how?
The creature has finally started moving, riding along a rising tide of sludgy industrial waste and diseased frogs. Aiko's palace is now uphill, and the ground is getting steeper.

Mary's disembodied voice protests this course of action;You're only making her angry! She hates everything beautiful! ... But, um, don't give up. That last part is kind of tacked on. She realized her rival is the best shot she has of winning this, if only because the part of herself that has agency in the dream world is out of control.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Ironsmith »

[R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂]

"As if that wasn't obvious." Aikobaz snarks, rolling her eyes. The creature (if it can be called that) is targeting her, after all.

Getting up to Zenith was never going to be easy; its real-life counterpart was just off the peak of a mountain, after all. If it's merely an uphill climb, her dream is making things remarkably easy for her. Either that, or setting her up for grief later, with the waste-pool coming in.

Aikobaz sets the gem into her necklace (the dream version of her jewelry simply molding itself around the stone) and sets to work climbing the hill, before she realizes something important.

She still has magic.

Funny what a difference a few months made in her approach to problem solving.

The witch-queen makes a powerful gesture toward a spot further up the hill, causing the foliage there to overgrow, the roots and branches both serving as potentially useful climbing aids.
Who're you? ...Don't matter.

Want some rye? Course ya do!

Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Earl of Purple »

PE Block

Fred recovers a bit after the symbols are wiped off the face, and is panting a little. "Oh, man, that was harsh,
Don't worry too much about getting it all off, Synthia's got her own polish she uses to keep herself shiny."
Fortunately for the current effect, the magic's imbued mostly in the symbols, enhancing the war face's primary purpose- to intimidate and unnerve- to supernatural levels. Removing the symbols reduces the effect closer to its usual, unenhanced level of scary.

The notebook is filled with diagrams and blueprints, though there's no full description of what it's all for. Whoever wrote it knew what they wanted, and just wrote down how they wanted to go about it. It does mention that the bottled storm contains electricity, and that the VHS machine requires electricity- and that it records video. No explanation of what 'video' means, though hopefully Mary is familiar with the word anyway. The crystal ball is a scrying aid, and the runework around it and on its stand is specifying a distance and place to focus. It'd require a bit of work and examination to figure out where exactly they're focused on... Or Mary could look into the crystal ball, and see the shower block.
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Rebonack
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Rebonack »

[DERPy Pursuit]

Of COURSE they only care about the rules when they're on the losing end of things.

By now Wobs has hugged the dragonair into submission.

Khannie, for her part, drops to all fours and takes off down the hallway at full speed. She races straight past Gaudia without too much trouble on account of not having tiny noodle legs. <I'll chase them down! Go get the balls out of the machine I glued to the wall before it finishes whatever the heck it's doing!>

Probably a good plan, there. Khannie is quite a bit more fleet of foot than Gaudia is AND there are still pokemon caught in that sinister looking contraption.

Should Gaudia heed Khannie's advice she'll find that the DERP device has six slots for inserting pokeballs into it, foreboding looking energy seeping out of the machine and into the balls. An obvious on/off switch will shut the machine down and a lever releases the clamps to allow the balls to be removed. Though pure good fortune, Gaudia will discover that all of her friends are accounted for!

-except Bits.

His ball must have been in one of the other machines.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by bc56 »

R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂
Don't die. I'm going to call for help.
Mary's disembodied voice begins chanting something over and over under her breath.
Sakiril-Ess, Toktr Etsa Korrel, Etsa Myn-Erl, Nolvilik Kendek, Resyr Lotaka, Okaril-Ess, Keyra Dogetal, Etsa Sukkubei, Rel Ysm, Strel Hof, Lumsa Okarr... Sakiril-Ess, Toktr Etsa Korrel...
Meanwhile the corrupting presence of the pursuing being is already twisting these new features of the dream to its own ends. The mountain is quickly becoming a colossal garbage dump, the plants twisted constructions of scrap metal and barbed wire. And the tide is rushing closer with that thing at its head.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Ironsmith »

[R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂]

"And some more insightful advice from the ever-wise Mary Brigno-AGH!" Aikobaz bites back a curse as her hands catch in barbed wire, which does exactly what it's supposed to do when exposed to supple flesh and placed under pressure. Ugh. And it's probably also all rusted and gross besides. If this wasn't a dream, Aikobaz would have to go make sure she's up on all of her shots after this.

Nevertheless, she keeps climbing the wire until she's near the top of the hill, pulling herself up and running toward the crystal palace's gates, the sludge no doubt already setting in behind her. "Rezrov!" She shouts at the massive ingress, which already moves to obey her command and admit her into her home.


[PE Block]

"...Okay, if we weren't already in a place only other teenage girls could get into, that would be creepy as all." Tahara grimaces, staring at the crystal ball and its apparent focus on the locker room. "...Actually, scratch that. It's creepy anyway. Who would want to do something like this?" The trash witch lets her roaches run all over the interior of the locker, nuzzling their antennae around in an attempt to find another scent. "Is there a name on the front page or something?"


[A DERPy Chase]

Gaudia nods and does as she's told. She's probably done about as much as she can in this chase anyway; now she needs to worry about freeing her friends.

So she goes back to the machine and starts pulling pokeballs free, popping them open as soon as she can.

The first one, disappointingly, contains Lola. "(Well! It's about time you showed-)" "(Shut up and help me with the others.)"

The next, more mercifully, contains Biff. "(Where are those pokemon-stealing sons of Steelixes? I'm going to give them a piece of my mind!)"

Then, Casper. "(Oh, good, it feels so nice to be out of there. Especially with what they were trying to do. Gaudia, if I ever give you a hard time for psychic stuff again, I'm sorry, it's nothing compared to this nonsense.)"

Then Mai. "(Thank Arceus you're okay!)" The peliper takes a moment to wrap her wings around Gaudia, rubbing her bill against the Gardevoir's cheek.

And then Bria. Who exits her pokeball and immediately feels the need to stretch, her spine crackling as she stands up straight. "(Damn inconsiderate, these youngsters. It's bad enough they had to go and abduct us, but then they put us through slipshod programs? That's just rude.)"

And finally, the sixth pokeball contains... a random elekid. "(Ugh... gee, thanks, lady, I owe you one.)" The electric pokemon smirks before toddling away.

...That's not right.

Gaudia lifts the machine and looks under it, as though expecting to find a pokeball that had rolled under there. Maybe it's in amongst the boxes? She'll check in among the boxes.

It's not among the boxes.

"(Bits? Bits?!)" Gaudia calls, as though she expects the Ralts trapped inside a pokeball to be able to answer. "(Bits, where are you?! Bits?!)"

"(...Gaudia, honey, I... I think they still have him.)"

("No! You shut up! You shut up with that right now!)" Gaudia whirls on the lopunny and advances on her, furious. "(Maybe you've gotten close to him, but he's my dad and we're not going to stop looking for him until I say so! Got it?)"

"(Gaudia... she's right.)" Bria intercedes, placatingly putting a bud-hand on the Gardevoir's hip. "(Look around. All the pokeballs were tied into machines. That villain got away with the rest of them. If he's not here, he's got to b-)"

"(Then he's here!)" Gaudia snaps.

"(Where?)" Bria says, gesturing around the abandoned pokecenter. "(Where do you see that he could possibly be?)"

"(I don't know! Somewhere! He's... he's here! He has to be!)"

"(...No, hon. He isn't.)"

"(Hey, not to point out the obvious, but isn't Khannie still chasing the bad guy down?)" Casper adds. "(She's strong. I'm sure she'll catch up to him, bring us back Bits, and this'll all just be an unpleasant memory. So hang tight, okay? It's going to be fine.)"
Who're you? ...Don't matter.

Want some rye? Course ya do!

Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
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Rebonack
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Rebonack »

[A DERPy Chase]

Khannie, for her part, is going full speed ahead! There's no telling whether Gaudia's friends are in the rack she pinned or not and considering that there were FOUR of the dumb things the chances aren't in her favor. So she needs to catch these creeps and make sure everyone gets their pokemon back! Gaudia is counting on her and she's going to her best not to let her friend down!

And, well, Colby too. Probably.

She rounds a corner and comes to... a stair well? Those machines were on rollers how the heck did they get them down these things? The stairs sort of zig-zag back and forth with a central shaft going all the way down the middle. Without pausing for a second Khannie bails over the edge and straight down the shaft. Back when she was Olympia she came up with this air-bag scarf idea where she would create a big cushion to land on and break her fall. But now that she's a pokemon again that really isn't needed to defeat the rapidly approaching basement floor.

The zoroark slams headlong into the concrete and simply explodes in a roiling cloud of white mist streaked with crimson.

"Woah what the-!" gasps a pair of DERP grunts guarding the door at the bottom of the stairwell, waving their arms around in a futile attempt to ward away the bitterly cold fog they suddenly find themselves enveloped in. Mercifully for them it doesn't stick around for long, flowing under the door before coiling back into a pokemon on the other side. "H-hey! You're supposed to stop and fight us!"

Khannie doesn't stop and fight them.

These idiots have no idea what they're messing with, as far as Khannie is concerned. She might not have her Ghost gear with her right now, but she's got no real intention of holding back. And her target is rapidly going into view. The machines are waiting on a boarding platform and some kind of subway train is just pulling up? That is absolutely NOT Riftline so what the heck is that thing and what's it doing down here?

"It's that zoroark again!" the Boss yells, "Stop her!"

DERP grunts begin pulling out their pester-balls again and Khannie reaches out with her magic.

Before all of this nonsense started she was a natural prodigy with shadow illusions. Then she got the fox-tail illusion from Jade, kitsune and kumiho illusions to the mix. And THAT resulted in her reversion into a pokemon. A zoroark. The illusion fox pokemon. Khannie tends to be a very straight forward person. Very direct, willing to wear her emotions on her sleeve and speak her mind. So she isn't the sort that would normally be associated with tricky foxy deception. She seems ill suited for that kind of conflict.

That's why she has learned to wield seeming like a sword.

The hallway and train melt away around the grunts, replaced with a sunny, cheerful, grassy field. The light is warm and the breeze heavy with the scents of the field. And then the grass grows taller. Up to the chest. And the grunts are getting nervous. Each is alone. Each yells out into the endless rolling Elysian fields. Each is met with only the sound of the wind rustling the grass. Then the warmth dies as heavy clouds block out the sun. As the grass withers and dies. As snow begins to fall, quickly giving way to a blinding blizzard. Teeth begin chattering as the grunts grope about blindly through the phantasmal storm. One tries to RUN and slams headlong into one of the very real hallway walls.

Khannie weaves between the disoriented guards, the darkness of Bitter Malice roiling around her, and heads straight for the train.

The door of which slams shut right in front of her nose.

"Smell ya later!" the Boss jeers as the train pulls away.

Thankfully with only ONE of the DERP machines. The other two are as good as recovered.

Meanwhile!

Colby, who has no way of understanding pokemon talk, decides to help Gaudia in her frantic search. Wobbs the wigglytuff just sort of... toddles along behind his trainer. A few minutes later Khannie will return with an armful of twelve pokeballs, looking pretty gross that she didn't get ALL of them.

"I caught up with 'em and they were loading the machines onto a train down there," comes the zoroark's ghostly voice. "I zonked most of the grunts but the boss got away with one of the machines."

Twelve balls, roiling with foreboding DERPy energy, are laid out on a table.

"We should follow those tracks and figure out what's up with these guys. They definitely seem like trouble. Gotta recover the rest of the pokeballs, too. If they're doing this anywhere else they've probably got loads of 'em."
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bc56
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by bc56 »

R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂
Mary continues chanting as the gates slide open, the hinges rusting and screeching even as they move. The entity is right behind them. Is this a palace? Or the crumbling hulk of an abandoned factory? This is where the battle will be decided. The frogs are already calling for blood.

PE Block
"It doesn't say. But I think we should break this machine. I don't want anyone spying on me while I'm bathing." That can't be hard, right? Destroy the components. "Then maybe we can watch this locker to see who comes to check on it?" Mary is not above a little intimidation to get some creep to stop spying on her.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Earl of Purple »

PE Block

The scent of the aftershave does leave the locker, headed out of the locker room. They could try following it. One of the roaches may get eaten by the rubber spider, however, if they're too insistent in poking it with their antennae.

"Sure, I can do that." Fred grins, and steps back, pulling the nimcha from her scabbard. As she does, she starts to glow- her skeleton silhouetted against her skin and clothes, the latter of which are briefly transparent before reappearing reconfigured out of a uniform and into a frilly black dress and lace gloves, long white stockings visible up to the knee as the dress ends mid-thigh. She's going to pull the tape machine out of the locker, setting it on the floor before swinging her sabre and easily slicing the machine- and the tape inside- into two pieces, and then again, and again. "Do one of you girls want the crystal ball? They're valuable. If not, smash it. Don't break the storm jar indoors, that seems a bad idea." Unless the want to get out of a class in a slightly dangerous way, anyway.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Ironsmith »

Rebonack wrote: Dec 10, 2022 4:42 pm [A DERPy Chase]

Khannie, for her part, is going full speed ahead! There's no telling whether Gaudia's friends are in the rack she pinned or not and considering that there were FOUR of the dumb things the chances aren't in her favor. So she needs to catch these creeps and make sure everyone gets their pokemon back! Gaudia is counting on her and she's going to her best not to let her friend down!

And, well, Colby too. Probably.

She rounds a corner and comes to... a stair well? Those machines were on rollers how the heck did they get them down these things? The stairs sort of zig-zag back and forth with a central shaft going all the way down the middle. Without pausing for a second Khannie bails over the edge and straight down the shaft. Back when she was Olympia she came up with this air-bag scarf idea where she would create a big cushion to land on and break her fall. But now that she's a pokemon again that really isn't needed to defeat the rapidly approaching basement floor.

The zoroark slams headlong into the concrete and simply explodes in a roiling cloud of white mist streaked with crimson.

"Woah what the-!" gasps a pair of DERP grunts guarding the door at the bottom of the stairwell, waving their arms around in a futile attempt to ward away the bitterly cold fog they suddenly find themselves enveloped in. Mercifully for them it doesn't stick around for long, flowing under the door before coiling back into a pokemon on the other side. "H-hey! You're supposed to stop and fight us!"

Khannie doesn't stop and fight them.

These idiots have no idea what they're messing with, as far as Khannie is concerned. She might not have her Ghost gear with her right now, but she's got no real intention of holding back. And her target is rapidly going into view. The machines are waiting on a boarding platform and some kind of subway train is just pulling up? That is absolutely NOT Riftline so what the heck is that thing and what's it doing down here?

"It's that zoroark again!" the Boss yells, "Stop her!"

DERP grunts begin pulling out their pester-balls again and Khannie reaches out with her magic.

Before all of this nonsense started she was a natural prodigy with shadow illusions. Then she got the fox-tail illusion from Jade, kitsune and kumiho illusions to the mix. And THAT resulted in her reversion into a pokemon. A zoroark. The illusion fox pokemon. Khannie tends to be a very straight forward person. Very direct, willing to wear her emotions on her sleeve and speak her mind. So she isn't the sort that would normally be associated with tricky foxy deception. She seems ill suited for that kind of conflict.

That's why she has learned to wield seeming like a sword.

The hallway and train melt away around the grunts, replaced with a sunny, cheerful, grassy field. The light is warm and the breeze heavy with the scents of the field. And then the grass grows taller. Up to the chest. And the grunts are getting nervous. Each is alone. Each yells out into the endless rolling Elysian fields. Each is met with only the sound of the wind rustling the grass. Then the warmth dies as heavy clouds block out the sun. As the grass withers and dies. As snow begins to fall, quickly giving way to a blinding blizzard. Teeth begin chattering as the grunts grope about blindly through the phantasmal storm. One tries to RUN and slams headlong into one of the very real hallway walls.

Khannie weaves between the disoriented guards, the darkness of Bitter Malice roiling around her, and heads straight for the train.

The door of which slams shut right in front of her nose.

"Smell ya later!" the Boss jeers as the train pulls away.

Thankfully with only ONE of the DERP machines. The other two are as good as recovered.

Meanwhile!

Colby, who has no way of understanding pokemon talk, decides to help Gaudia in her frantic search. Wobbs the wigglytuff just sort of... toddles along behind his trainer. A few minutes later Khannie will return with an armful of twelve pokeballs, looking pretty gross that she didn't get ALL of them.

"I caught up with 'em and they were loading the machines onto a train down there," comes the zoroark's ghostly voice. "I zonked most of the grunts but the boss got away with one of the machines."

Twelve balls, roiling with foreboding DERPy energy, are laid out on a table.

"We should follow those tracks and figure out what's up with these guys. They definitely seem like trouble. Gotta recover the rest of the pokeballs, too. If they're doing this anywhere else they've probably got loads of 'em."
[DERPy Chase]

There's a small upshot Khannie will get to enjoy as the boss gets away.

Namely, that he was still the target of Gaudia's Future Sight attack, prior to the chase taking place. So he'll at least have his last laugh cut off by a surge of psychic power.

For what good it does.

-

When Khannie returns with the other machines, Gaudia hastily starts undoing and opening the other pokeballs, but as she feared, not one of them contains the ralts she's looking for.

A ralts, yes, but she's very clearly not the object of the gardevoir's search.

bc56 wrote: Dec 10, 2022 11:52 pm R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂
Mary continues chanting as the gates slide open, the hinges rusting and screeching even as they move. The entity is right behind them. Is this a palace? Or the crumbling hulk of an abandoned factory? This is where the battle will be decided. The frogs are already calling for blood.
R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂

Of course it's her pa-

...Well, apparently not her palace. A palace, certainly. The nightmare might twist it into something it's not, but it can't deny the building's magnificence.

Aikobaz turns and slams the diamond-plated... or rather, the wrought-iron gates shut behind her. That won't be nearly as effective at keeping the monsters out, but she doesn't need it to be; she only needs to delay it long enough to prepare her defenses. Like the mystic runes- okay, fine, naval cannons that collectively turn themselves toward the gate, in response to their mistress's clear distress. And the throng of nameless, faceless, uniformed soldiers that respond just as quickly, forming a firing line in front of her, each equipped with a top-of-the-line bolt-action rifle; brand-new creations, where she comes from.

As soon as she's in here, Mary's monster is going to be facing summary execution.

bc56 wrote: Dec 10, 2022 11:52 pm PE Block
"It doesn't say. But I think we should break this machine. I don't want anyone spying on me while I'm bathing." That can't be hard, right? Destroy the components. "Then maybe we can watch this locker to see who comes to check on it?" Mary is not above a little intimidation to get some creep to stop spying on her.
Earl of Purple wrote: Dec 11, 2022 6:35 pm PE Block

The scent of the aftershave does leave the locker, headed out of the locker room. They could try following it. One of the roaches may get eaten by the rubber spider, however, if they're too insistent in poking it with their antennae.

"Sure, I can do that." Fred grins, and steps back, pulling the nimcha from her scabbard. As she does, she starts to glow- her skeleton silhouetted against her skin and clothes, the latter of which are briefly transparent before reappearing reconfigured out of a uniform and into a frilly black dress and lace gloves, long white stockings visible up to the knee as the dress ends mid-thigh. She's going to pull the tape machine out of the locker, setting it on the floor before swinging her sabre and easily slicing the machine- and the tape inside- into two pieces, and then again, and again. "Do one of you girls want the crystal ball? They're valuable. If not, smash it. Don't break the storm jar indoors, that seems a bad idea." Unless the want to get out of a class in a slightly dangerous way, anyway.
[PE Block]

"Valuable and very much not ours." Tahara points out, nodding at the crystal ball. "Granted, it's being misused, but... come on. We are still breaking into some girl's locker and going through her personal things. I mean, it's different when people throw stuff away, they clearly don't want it anymore, but that's not at all what's happening here. I say we leave everything else where it is an- YIPE!"

Tahara recoils as one of her roaches is devoured by what she assumed to be a mere children's toy, before reaching in, grabbing it, and spiking it into the ground, stomping on it several times, scraping her foot side to side emphatically afterward.

"...You all saw it. That was self-defense." She mumbles sheepishly.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Rebonack »

[DERPy Chase]

Yeah the boss getting clobbered is nice.

But that doesn't actually fix their problem.

Their problem being a rack of pokeballs still missing.

Also?

It's worth noting that as soon as the first pokemon is released out of its ball (a fairly strong Flygon, as it happens) the shadow clad and derp-faced pokemon will IMMEDIATELY attack our heroes! Normally this could be a pretty major issue but the enraged, violent pokemon gets tackled by Wobbs and tickled without mercy.

They don't call it Play Rough for nothing.

What follows is something of a slog. But when you have a series of eight-on-ones those fights tend to be pretty one sided. In the end Colby has recovered most of his team (which he's pretty happy about) but it looks like Bit's is in another proverbial castle.

It's...

Pretty obvious to Khannie that Gaudia is upset about all this. And she'll try for a reassuring shoulder pat. If only because Khannie is bitterly cold when she isn't disguised. <We'll get him back, okay? We'll get him back for sure.>
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by bc56 »

PE Block
Mary lacks Tahara's qualms. The ex-urchin isn't going to leave a valuable prize in the hands of some miscreant. "I'll take it," she snatches up the orb. "If I don't, she'll just be able to set this whole thing up again." She peers into it and shakes it. "I wonder how I get it to look at something else."

R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂
The frogs come first. Dozens of the things, most normal sized, but some bigger than an adult. Corpulent amphibians with sails and smokestacks belching forth choking smoke and trailing reeking muck and paint along the ground. The bullets tear through their oncoming ranks, and still more pour through, the smoke clouds thickening and blocking vision even as they die to massed fire.
Then the Witch emerges. Guns misfire and rust as she approaches. A windstorm kicks up, carrying the sooty smoke further into the room.
Mary's chanting stops. This is her nightmare, and even though she's discorporated, her terror is obvious.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Earl of Purple »

PE Block

"If we don't keep it, we try to break it. We're already smashing stuff that don't belong to us, the only issue with theft is it can be traced back to us. In this case, though, that ain't a problem. Whoever did this most certainly don't want what we see here getting out to the teachers." Which raises the possibility of why nobody's suggested telling a teacher yet.

There's a passage in the notebook about focusing on the crystal ball; it does not describe if focusing is with one's eyes on a more mystic, meditation-based approach.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Ironsmith »

Rebonack wrote: Dec 13, 2022 5:08 am [DERPy Chase]

Yeah the boss getting clobbered is nice.

But that doesn't actually fix their problem.

Their problem being a rack of pokeballs still missing.

Also?

It's worth noting that as soon as the first pokemon is released out of its ball (a fairly strong Flygon, as it happens) the shadow clad and derp-faced pokemon will IMMEDIATELY attack our heroes! Normally this could be a pretty major issue but the enraged, violent pokemon gets tackled by Wobbs and tickled without mercy.

They don't call it Play Rough for nothing.

What follows is something of a slog. But when you have a series of eight-on-ones those fights tend to be pretty one sided. In the end Colby has recovered most of his team (which he's pretty happy about) but it looks like Bit's is in another proverbial castle.

It's...

Pretty obvious to Khannie that Gaudia is upset about all this. And she'll try for a reassuring shoulder pat. If only because Khannie is bitterly cold when she isn't disguised. <We'll get him back, okay? We'll get him back for sure.>
[DERPy Chase]

It probably doesn't hurt that Gaudia and Lola were both trained to employ gratuitous rushdown tactics, to strike first and with overwhelming power; in the form of psychic assaults in the former case and physical strikes in the latter. If they were being fought one-on-one, there might be a way to get around them that involved the use of a focus sash or ridiculous defenses, but both simultaneously, plus six more, is too much to ask of anyone.

Which might make the slog a bit less of a slog.

When it's all over and the ralts is still conspicuously absent, Gaudia still looks upset, but the fighting seems to have helped dull the worst of it. So when Khannie offers her reassurances, the gardevoir answers with a little nod, looking more determined now than she was before.
bc56 wrote: Dec 13, 2022 5:46 am PE Block
Mary lacks Tahara's qualms. The ex-urchin isn't going to leave a valuable prize in the hands of some miscreant. "I'll take it," she snatches up the orb. "If I don't, she'll just be able to set this whole thing up again." She peers into it and shakes it. "I wonder how I get it to look at something else."
Earl of Purple wrote: Dec 13, 2022 1:58 pm PE Block

"If we don't keep it, we try to break it. We're already smashing stuff that don't belong to us, the only issue with theft is it can be traced back to us. In this case, though, that ain't a problem. Whoever did this most certainly don't want what we see here getting out to the teachers." Which raises the possibility of why nobody's suggested telling a teacher yet.

There's a passage in the notebook about focusing on the crystal ball; it does not describe if focusing is with one's eyes on a more mystic, meditation-based approach.
[PE Block]

"I'll be sure to remember you said that." Tahara replies, her voice momentarily taking on an ominous undertone.

But it doesn't last for long.

"You know, that's actually a good idea." The trash witch says with a smile. "I mean, the teachers are going to want to know about this, right? Spying on students getting dressed is most definitely not good. We don't have to hunt down the culprit ourselves."

With the help of her roaches, she will.

But they don't have to.
bc56 wrote: Dec 13, 2022 5:46 am R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂
The frogs come first. Dozens of the things, most normal sized, but some bigger than an adult. Corpulent amphibians with sails and smokestacks belching forth choking smoke and trailing reeking muck and paint along the ground. The bullets tear through their oncoming ranks, and still more pour through, the smoke clouds thickening and blocking vision even as they die to massed fire.
Then the Witch emerges. Guns misfire and rust as she approaches. A windstorm kicks up, carrying the sooty smoke further into the room.
Mary's chanting stops. This is her nightmare, and even though she's discorporated, her terror is obvious.
R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂

That's about when the room will light up dramatically, a blinding flash filling the entry hall, accompanied by the unmistakeable boom of superheated air being displaced, most of it in the space between Aikobaz and the horrible amalgamation of metal that is her target. The scent of ozone is still heavy in the air as she stares down the monster, her palm glowing a bright orange as her veins flare under her skin from the amount of magical power just released.

"Nobody told you to stop shooting!" The empress admonishes, arcs of electricity rolling up her fingers as she steps forward. "I want every last one of those freaks slaughtered! Use your bare hands if you must! I, Empress AIkobaz the Third, the true heir to the Astral Empire, command it!"

Punctuating the statement, she pushes her palm forward again and sends another bolt of lightning at the witch.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by bc56 »

R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂

The first lightning bolt hits the Witch and causes an explosion of boiling toxic mud. Not pleasant but fortunately no one was standing close by. The second bolt is blocked, a wall of grimy bricks forming from nowhere to deflect the attack, then vanishing again. The Witch continues to advance over the charred corpses of the frogs closest to her.
But things seem to be going from bad to worse because it's at this moment that a new, external presence manifests in Aiko's dream. A woman steps into the palace from thin air. A demon clad in flame and darkness, with a glowing golden crown atop her head.
The family resemblance is unmistakable. But Mary is not much of a princess. She's messy, sometimes rude, has a habit of scrounging for food in unusual places, and so on. The newcomer (her mother, presumably) is every bit the royalty that Mary fails to live up to.
Of course what happens next depends on how Aiko responds to this new invasion.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Ironsmith »

[R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂]

"You think that's going to slow me down?" AIkobaz challenges the Witch, scoffing at the newcomer (who looks suspiciously similar to Mary). "I told you before, Brignole! You don't scare me!" She throws another bolt of lightning, this one aimed at the supposedly illusionary queen, in an attempt to dispel the image.

"You don't even get why I have that, do you?" She adds, stepping forward and throwing another bolt at the Witch, switching her hands to do it (the first is starting to go a bit numb). "I'm sick and tired of you looking down at me. I've seen the way you talk with me about your so-called 'friends'. It's not enough for you to say I'm an awful person, which, by the way, is all the worse coming from a stupid demon." She claps her hands together and sends a shockwave rolling over the entry hall, the sort of thing that would shake a brick wall to pieces. "No, you have to go and pity me. You don't get to pity me! Maybe you're too blind to see it, but I am, and always will be, the Empress! How lofty do you think your station is if you can look at me with pity?!"
Who're you? ...Don't matter.

Want some rye? Course ya do!

Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by bc56 »

R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂
Contrary to what Aiko probably expects, the lightning bounces off the "illusion" with no effect. Furthermore, it doesn't seem to pay her any attention. Its gaze is fixed on the Witch.
"Mary!" Shock and alarm cover the demon queen 's face. She rushes to the Witch's side and catches the monster in a hug. "Mary, it's okay. It's me. Your Mum. Don't give in to this. Please." She ignores the toxic mud, the scratches from scrap metal blades, the biting frogs. It's clear there's one and only one thing on her mind.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Ironsmith »

[R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂]

...Wait a minute.

That lady's real?

And she's... trying to calm the Witch?

...No.

Nononono no.

That's not fair. Aikobaz had this. She didn't need someone else invading her dream to bail her out.

"Hey!" The empress snaps, raising her hand toward Sekhmet again.

It's all the warning she's going to get before a flurry of lightning bolts strike, about half a dozen of them, one after the other.

Her soldiers, meanwhile, will continue holding back the frogs. For as relevant as that is.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by bc56 »

R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂
The demon queen wraps her wings around the Witch as the lightning strikes, taking the hits with pained cries but not letting go. "I promise you, as long as I live, I will always be there to give you hope." She seems to realize something is wrong. Something is missing. She points at the strange gem Aiko set into her necklace. "I need that. NOW!" Her voice carries all the fury of a distraught mother being kept from her child.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Ironsmith »

[R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂]

...Oh.

Aikobaz sees it now.

This was Mary's sad attempt at getting her to drop her defenses. Well... witch-Mary. Whatever that thing is called. It all makes sense now; the tone evocative of a distressed mother, the aura of pestilence the Witch chose to surround herself with, the heartwarming defense of said "mother" throwing herself in harm's way to prevent the Witch from being damaged... all designed to exploit weak points in Aikobaz's psyche. To get her to hesitate, yield, or some combination thereof.

A very convenient fabrication, on the Witch's part.

"Figure out you can't take it with force, did you?" Aikobaz taunts, wrapping a hand around the necklace. "I saw what you intended to do the second it appeared. And I'm not going to just let you have it!" She throws her other hand back behind her, swishing a cape that wasn't there a second ago dramatically. "Brignole might be an ass, but if you think that's going to keep me from getting between you and her, then you have no idea who you're dealing with!"

As though picking up on her second wave of bravado, the floor beneath her gains a diamond-like sheen, which is already starting to spread rapidly re-take the floor. The Witch co-opted it, but this is her dream, her home, her domain. And she will not surrender it to anybody.

"Soldiers!" She commands, as her men snap into formation; even the ones that were apparently dead respond to the command. "I have tolerated these interlopers long enough. See to their execution!"

That marks a distinct shift in the soldiers' priorities. Sekhmet quickly finds herself staring down all the barrels of various antique firearms, and a few cannons. It's unlikely to be any more effective than the lightning bolts were, but Aiko's counting on the idea that, since the Witch was clearly being damaged, this shield she's conjured has an upper limit, too. All she needs to do is keep hitting it.
Who're you? ...Don't matter.

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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by bc56 »

R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂
"No! Please!" The demon queen continues to interpose herself between the soldiers and the Witch. "Aiko! No!" Mary's faint disembodied voice manages to chime in.
But before any decision can be made, Sekhmet gurgles wetly as a rusted steel blade pierces through her chest from behind. She sinks to her knees. She's not dead, or even going to die, but that hurts. A lot. The Witch withdraws its weapon from the demon queen's body and steps past her. It twists the blade with a flourish, leaving a spray of black blood that sizzles on the ground.
"Mum!" Mary screams. A cooler head might see the injury rapidly knitting back together, but the disembodied demon princess is in no state to notice that.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Ironsmith »

[R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂}

Aikobaz doesn't allow herself to be at all perplexed by what she's seeing. What kind of idiot just stabs their perfectly-good meat shield?

Whatever.

"FIRE!" The empress commands, giving the signal by lowering her arm.

Fortunately, as Sekhmet just got stabbed and fell below normal shooting level, the soldiers take the opportunity to shoot at the Witch instead. As extensions of Aikobaz's own influence in the dream, they don't actually need her to specify when to shoot or what at... but it's more satisfying that way.

Of course, they don't actually all shoot at once. The volley is staggered such that bullets and cannonballs are always flying at the Witch, with the first soldier to shoot reloaded and ready to fire again before the last soldier has discharged his weapon.

Aikobaz herself, meanwhile, will simply step back and take a seat on the elaborate crystal throne that just sprouted out of the ground, watching the "execution" with growingly detached disinterest.
Who're you? ...Don't matter.

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Here's to us!
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by bc56 »

PE Block
They're protagonists. It would be weird if they didn't hunt down the culprit themselves. "I'd still want to find her. She might have more of the, um, tapes." and Mary wants to be face to face with the creep who was spying on her...

That means the other two might have to restrain her from escalating the situation.

R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂
The amassed weapons hit their mark, but there's a problem. The Witch has no flesh to pierce, no bones to break, and no blood to spill. In other words, bullets are almost entirely ineffective, and cannonballs aren't much better, only temporarily splattering her form.
Mary, meanwhile, sounds desperate. "Mum! No! You can't die, don't die! You're the best thing to ever happen to me and I love you so much please, please don't die!"
Black blood bubbles out of the wounded queen's mouth
Avatar by me! No more outsourcing!
Ironsmith
Poster from Beyond the Veil
Posts: 2997
Joined: Aug 01, 2022 12:46 pm

Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Ironsmith »

[R̸̺̼͚͗ŏ̸̳ŏ̶̤̲̪̍m̴̡̩͔͒̂͘ ̶̢͎͒ͅ?̵̘̆͊?̵̥͛͛̕?̶̠̘͂]

"Oh, grow up." Aikobaz rolls her eyes, temporarily putting the Witch out of mind to do something about the disembodied voice of that classmate she found so obnoxious. "You make it sound like this is all about you. Even forgetting for a moment that this is definitely not your palace that you're in right now," She gestures around the increasingly-crystalline throne room. "Is that really your only basis for not wanting that lady to get stabbed to death? Because you love her and she was nice to you? Has it occurred to you, Brignole, that the world doesn't revolve around you and what you want?" She gives the air an annoyed snarl, flashing a thumbs-down in front of her. "Or is that the extent of your concept of right and wrong, fair and unfair?"

"...Although I will grant that you're right about one thing. She can't die. We're in a dream, remember? And speaking of which..."

She doesn't really need the bullets and cannonballs to hurt the Witch very much. She just needs it distracted, unable to focus on keeping her here. Thousands of lead pellets tend to have that sort of effect on a person.

Aikobaz raises her hand and snaps her fingers.
Who're you? ...Don't matter.

Want some rye? Course ya do!

Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
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