linkingup | Argenti's Palace

[ Other people are talking to the knight, trying to dredge answers out of him. The hissing voice doesn't bother Maika in particular; perhaps that's a song too, just a discordant one.

For the moment she'll look for those red petals while she listens to the discussion in the background. Do they lead to/from anywhere, or are they just at the spot where Argenti vanished? ]

[ Well...

The red petals scatter, almost randomly, except...they seem to separate into four different directions:

North, East, South, West. Does she pick a direction to follow? ]

[ Maika is nothing if not decisive. For a moment she tries searching for a scent that her currently pitifully human nose can't detect.

...Nothing to choose from but luck and intuition, then. She'll head south. South is where she went to search for her own answers, where the body of a betrayed Old One became the bones of an entire island. That'll do for a start. ]

[ Maika's nose takes her good sense of direction, fortune, and luck takes her south.

Then, she steps on a white rose.

Images flash by her head, of scenes where one moment there is life in so many scenes - animals, people, flora. And then in the next, death - absence of animal presences entirely, craters, burned/destroyed buildings, where there were once harmonious land marks, and dead bodies strewn which way or that.

A boy with short light-colored red hair with green eyes can be seen as he emerges from a destroyed house. He's covered in dirt and wearing raggedy clothing, holding something small in his hands. Though, he looks back at the building, looking lost, and afraid...alone.

There's nothing left for him anymore.

As soon as that short memory ends, everything seems like it should be settled, right?

No.

...S̸̳̱͔͔̲̼̐̊͐̅̀͌͌̄̓͘͠͝omething else is nearby.

But can she sense or notice it?

(Roll a 1d20 for perceiving. 11 and above to succeed.) ]

[ It's too familiar, too sharp. As brief as the memory is, for a second Maika can almost taste ash and blood and dirt in the air. She takes a step forward towards the image of the child, half reaching out her hand.

She'd wondered. It was one of the possibilities among many, something she'd turned over in the back of her mind on the walk here. But it's so vivid like this.

Maybe that distraction is why she only manages an 8 for perception, too focused on the faded memory to sense anything else lurking nearby. ]

[ Maika has not noticed whatever is there.

But she can hear some dreaded whispers: ]

We won't let you go any further. He's ours now.

[ Something approaches her from behind, and strikes out! Two monstrous beings appear to have taken the form of knights but clearly something is off in a different way than the other Knight everyone is talking to.

Two of the Triple Demons strikes!

One of them of them tries to attack her with an Assault Dive, but misses (1), one of them casts Fear, though that misses too.

But the other one rushes her with Assault Dive, dealing heavy physical damage (13)! ]

[ Fucking hell. This is what her mother always taught her. Pity is a weakness, no grief unless it too is a weapon. Maybe if she remembered that, she wouldn't be getting her ass ambushed right now.

Maika reels back with a snarl, springing for the nearest demon to... rake the empty air with her claw gauntlet (1) in a swing that leaves her wildly off-balance.

Whatever. At least she can still yell about it. ]

Spit on that. What the fuck are you supposed to be? The ghosts of his regrets and his fear? If that's enough to drag him down, you can keep him.

[ Did they just try to Fear her??? She's so mad right now that it may as well have been a Rage. ]

Us? We're what tempts these so-called Knights...though if you hardly care, then why not turn back? You can abandon him whenever you'd like.

[ The other then adds: ]

Yes, just go back. He isn't worth the trouble. We'll let you exit this area if you agree to leave this space entirely.

[ They start to laugh, voices haughty and boisterous, like they're at some kind of party and someone's foolishness is on display.

The first one tries to cast Fear (6) on her again but misses again. This one follows up with another Assault Dive (19), hitting Maika pretty hard.

The second one just flat out swings a claw at Maika (16) ]

Edited 2024-09-16 17:47 (UTC)

I'll abandon him when I'm good and fucking ready. And not before I hear from his own stupid, flowery mouth that he's given up.

[ Their "temptation" is a laugh, and so are their so-called attacks. Sure, they hit hard; that claw rakes over her side, the Dive cracks against her useless shoulder. The smart move would be to stop and heal...

But now she can't accept a victory by running. The lightning crackles around her as Anubis manifests, dropping a medium-damage Mazionga blast on each of these annoying demons (15, 20). ]

We'll see how long you stick to that!

[ The creatures grumble at her commentary, apparently not liking the fact that she's stubborn. Also her electrical spell hits hard, and they recoil, growling at her.

One of them lashes out with a Psio spell that goes wide (3), and then the follow-up strike at her with Assault Dive does hit once more (16)

The second completely whiffs its Fear + physical attack combo, hissing in irritation (6) ]

Edited 2024-09-16 20:29 (UTC)

Is that the best temptation you have? Safety? Peace? I've never been safe a day in my life.

[ Come on. At least offer something good. Something real.

The Assault Dive sends her tumbling, and Maika is looking more than a little battered by now. But she's fought through more than this. Whether intuition tells her support is on the way or whether she's too stubborn to flinch now, she rolls right from that hit into launching a Fang, Claw, and Fulguration (18) at the demon that ate the last crit. ]

Is that what you try on Idrila's knights? Does that really sing louder than the voice of a god?

[ Hit her with the real temptation here, she's waiting! ]

[ As she heads south, Aerith hears a very familiar voice and she picks up her steps so she can meet up with Maika ahead, only to come across her engaged in battle.

Well, there's no reason not to join in.

For her grand entrance, she sends a Diarama Maika's way to heal her up. ]

You finally got your fight.

We've never been able to pull him away from the clutches of that wretched goddess, it's true, it's so aggravating, and yet now he finally has the chance to fall into our grasp thanks to that-

-Hey shut up, don't tell her anything!

[ These guys sure are bimbos, aren't they. The one that gets hit pretty bad with Maika's attack reals, and snarls lashing out at Maika blindly without finesse, twice (17, 16)

The second one rampages in Aerith's direction and whatever spells or attacks it has is definitely not happening (5) ]

Edited 2024-09-16 21:32 (UTC)

[ Oh, company? Maika glances back at Aerith with a grin that might be just a little battle-crazed.

She just appreciates the heal. ]

Sorry I didn't wait. That wasn't the knight I was looking to talk to.

[ And Maika doesn't know all the rolls are equal! As far as she knows, she has a heavy disadvantage on persuasion. That's why she's here, doing persuasion of a more percussive variety. With her support now secured Maika rolls with the heavy hits and lashes out with her claws at a demon's face (13). ]

We were just having a nice chat here. What was that? Thanks to what?

[ Without Zinn, she can't put the hair-raising eldritch echo in her voice. But she sure as fuck can still do a wolf growl. ]

[ Aerith nods and smiles at Maika, not bothered by that battle-crazed look. After all, she's been in enough fights by this point that that doesn't bother her.

Instead, she'll just echo Maika: ]

Yeah, thanks to what? What's that all about?

[ C;mon, tell her! She'll even pout just a bit too, as she sends out a Makouha to do light Bless damage to both demons (9, 10). ]

[ Maika's strike actually ends up killing the first demon instead of it saying anything else on the matter. Which, considering everything, is probably more of a blessing, than anything.

As for the other one...well, Aerith's strikes miss, but so does its attempts to fight back (6, 6), so they are equal in this. ]

Unlike that other one I have no intention of telling you a single thing.

[ Even though the creature missed horribly... ]

[ Damn... she kind of liked that demon. Whatever. Maika turns towards the next one opportunistically. ]

Are you sure about that? You have a lot more reasons to be afraid of me than that god of bullshit right now.

[ Or so she says, but given that she rolls an (8), she, the demon, and Aerith are going to keep doing the Dance of Fools (special move) for a bit as she misses her next swipe. ]

Kind of rude to attack us and then not tell us anything, don’t you think?

[ As if she didn’t just join this battle…

But she hits the demon with another Makouha, landing a hit this time (15)!!! ]

Oh yeah, like what?

And so what if I don't tell you anything?

[ There's the tiny scared voice of false bravado because it is the only one left.

It looks like it is five seconds from retreating, especially since it got hit right in the face with some Blessed Damage and that hurts like a bitch! It recoils in the face of its weakness...

Anyway it gets one last wind to cast Fear successfully on Maika this time and then lash out at her (15) ]

[...Hey, hasn't Maika been gone for a really long time?

Celeste is pretty sure she went south, so with the objective being to gather everyone up, he'll just go ahead and head that way, Eli in tow. (Don't Look too close, Aerith.)]

Are you doing alright?

[Regardless of the answer, Maika is sure going to get herself a Rakukaja!]

[ So lucky for him to arrive right as one of these twerps finally manages to hit her with Fear. Maika hisses through her teeth as she doubles over, wrapping her arm around herself. Being scared? That just pisses her off more. But she still can't make her frozen body jolt forward. ]

Just... perfect... better when this ugly bastard is just a stain left behind on my claws...

[ SHE IS LOOKING, CELETE!!!

Aerith frowns at Maika, considering using Energy Shower, but she sees that this demon has a weakness to her magic and Maika would probably be happier if she took advantage of that over healing her. So...

Aerith sends another Makouha (11) at the demon. ]

Edited 2024-09-16 23:39 (UTC)

I'll help!

[ At long last, Eli will let go of Celeste's hand. Buddy system broken, but at least he's still in sight. Time to charge in like a good wolf should! Of course, this proves to be a bad idea because his leaping in with a Great Slice (5).... misses. By a lot.

Great. ]

[ It's fine, Aerith's got y'all.

Her spell attack hits and since it is the enemy's weakness, it also wipes it clean out, ending the battle then and there! ]

Argenti's Palace

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Fight Encounter: Two Demons

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