destinystrings | The 13th Hour

[This will also be your posting order.]

Edited 2012-10-25 00:33 (UTC)

[This will also be your posting order.]

Edited 2012-10-25 00:33 (UTC)

[This will also be your posting order.]

Edited 2012-10-25 00:33 (UTC)

((OOC: Sasha's current Persona is Phaeton; information through here.))

The Scorpio ward had always been one of Sasha's favorite places to wander to in the city, so of course she'd wind up here in this time of crisis. At least, that's how she saw it, anyway. She hated the destruction of such a beautiful place of art... all that time and effort, destroyed by monsters!

The moment she saw the beast for herself, her jaw nearly hit the floor. What kind of monstrosity was this?! ~~And why did it have to have six boobs on full display?! Why?! WHY?! At least use beastly pasties or something!~~

Whatever it was, it needed to die if the city was to stay intact and peaceful. Now was Sasha's chance to be a hero! Once the blue light surrounded her, she summoned the chariot driver Phaeton and flung an Agilao towards the creature. She'd certainly learned her lesson from before... no more screwing around with her natural magic, which seemed to be ineffective. It was going to be pure Persona power while she was here.

((Persona is Enki! Weakness is Earth, Resist is Water. Detailed information here!))

"The closest, huh...?"

By mutual agreement, he had split with Misery after a undetermined period of time spent fruitlessly searching for the hypothetical Source around the city. ...Ten seconds before a familiar voice began ringing in his head. He glances over to see if the witch was still nearby - likely, but waiting around to reestablish communication was a waste of time. They would run into each other on the ground again, anyway.

Minor teleportation and flight was something he could take care of well enough on his own. With a nod to the raven perching on his shoulder and the angel supporting him from behind, Atsuro flickers out of view from the rooftop and reappears on the ground -- ten feet away from something that had walked straight out of the portraiture of Pickman's Model. His throat dries up instantly.

"Haaaaaaah.........."

Courage wasn't a personality trait he generally found wanting. True, within the space of a month, he was ranking pretty high in the running for Olympic gold for Running Like Hell - but that was sound strategy rather than fear. A giant fly that caused unholy abominations to erupt from your body? No sweat. A blob composed of four or five of the most powerful Bel demons in existence? Bring it on. Heck, bring on God and Lucifer and Satan! They could take it! As long as Kazuya was around.

Yes, the combination of grotesque and horrific wasn't something that should faze him... But for a few moments, he can only stand in place, his legs frozen to the spot as his mind tries to make some cognitive sense of this monster. (Those aren't scales those are eyes!!!) He gives up once he spots the excess mammary tissue.

Shaking his head, Atsuro averts his eyes slightly and snaps to awareness - it's obvious he's in grave danger; there's no time to stand around gaping. The boy allows himself a brief glimpse around to ensure that he isn't alone before he takes a step forward and calls out sharply. His voice isn't entirely steady.

"This was a pretty nice place to live before you came along - let's keep it that way. It's up to us to survive...! Enki!"

The Persona flickers into view and without further ado, kicks the battle on the Left end into gear. The streams of water cascading around its body surge forward, becoming a floodtide of Water Amp-boosted Malaques that rushes towards the creature.

Edited 2012-10-25 01:11 (UTC)

((Currently using Omoikane. Weak against Ice, Strong against Lightning. Since level 5 skill is unlocked, she's got some strength against poison too. See here for details.))

She'd had a vague hunch about this place. Scorpios being affected? An entire district called "Scorpio?" It's almost too easy. Still, they'd searched elsewhere anyway, partly because it DID seem too easy. And, as it turns out, the finding part was. Not so much the giant monster at the height of demon activity bit.

It seems like splitting up was the proper move; the size of this creature is enormous. She doesn't care at all for the fact that she's been dragged into this battle, but for the time being she doesn't really have any time to complain about it. She's seen worse. Really, she's WORKED for worse. But she can see this is going to be a tough battle.

"So you're the troublemaker, huh... Seems like you need to be put down a bit. And covered up, while we're at it," she mutters, staring at the creature's... exposed parts. She summons a card, crushing it. "OMOIKANE!"

The somewhat beleagured brain Persona appears. She swings her staff in the direction of the creature. "I think we both know the drill here. This thing will hit hard enough by itself. TARUNDA."

The creature weaves its tentacles and casts. Misery begins preparing on her own terms.

Edited 2012-10-25 01:21 (UTC)

To a former knight such as him, he was used to dealing with beasts of all manners. But of course, this had to happen when he was twitchy like a leaf, a side-effect of trying to curb the growing chill that continued to pervade his body, and the thoughts of everyone else, especially Arturia dying continued to haunt his every movements.

...But this monster...

He... resisted the urge to scream loudly upon the horrendous sight before him; Unfortunately, while he was able to choke some of it down, a strangled yelp still escaped his throat before he actually jumped back.

NOT ONLY IS THIS CREATURE DISGUSTING, IT IS INDECENT WHY, GOD, DID YOU CREATE A BEAST SO FOUL TO HIS EYES!?

Regardless, with shakiness, he commanded his own body to stop shaking like a leaf, and with a force of will and yell, charged forward with a downward slash.

((Persona is jolly old Santa Claus - Weakness is Fire and Lightning and he absorbs Ice. Detailed info over here!))

This boss was quite frankly one of the ugliest things Santa had seen since coming to this place and, unless Lotus showed her saggy face here, he doubted that would change for quite some time.

Thankfully (or at least Santa thought so) ugly stuff didn't really bother him in the slightest; it mainly registered as something that was there and something that he might occasionallyy give a bit more attention than anything else he had his mind on. It was only human nature to assume that ugly meant bad, after all. Wasn't it?

He made a mental note to bring up the finer points of such a thing with Junpei and Snake when this whole thing was done with - Snake especially - before he put it at the back of his mind for the time being. It was time to turn his attention towards the kid who already had his Persona out like a fuckin' show off. ~~Someone should really tell him that nobody was going to be handing out medals for this thing.~~

Santa shook his head with a sarcastic smile on his face - which admittedly he was using to hide a little teeny tiny ever so slight sense of "oh my God that thing is huge we're going to die" - before he called out in Atsuro's direction.

"Hey, kid! Calm down, will ya? If you attack it too much from this side it'll turn around and face us and before we know it we'll be neck deep in massive scorpion tits."

His own Persona burst onto the scene with a jolly laugh before it shielded their group with a defense boosting spell. The Persona vanished quickly but Santa's smug grin, and psuedo-question psuedo-order didn't.

"Seriously, quit attacking until everyone else has it's attention."

[ OOC: Snake's Persona is Ouroboros. Weak: Dark, Water and Block: Light! ]

Snake, despite his lack of vision, had a good idea what had happened to Scorpio. He couldn't see the ruined buildings, the broken streets, or even the upturned tramway, but the sheer lack of people and the sheer amount of debris he had to navigate his way through in order to reach his assigned destination made things clear enough. The monster's form was unknown, Q said? Given the recurring theme of Scorpios and trouble over the last few days, Snake would happily wager they'd be fighting some kind of giant scorpion.

He wasn't too far of the mark; but a giant scorpion with six naked breasts and a tail covered with eyes wasn't exactly something he thought he'd encounter during his stay in the city. He couldn't see it, but oh boy could it see him.

Snake had summoned his Persona before he got close enough to even hear the monster; Ouroboros hovered above his head like an over-sized leather halo when he arrived on the scene. It came as some comfort that there was no one else around to get in the monster's path. No one but Snake and the ten other Persona users who were ordered to engage the beast.

He could hear fighting nearby, it sounded like some kind of fire magic, so he rushed to the aid of whoever it was. He'd at least need their name in order to make his CommLink work, so he made sure to ask for it as soon as he could.

"We haven't met before, you can call me Snake. I'll be supporting you during the fight, but I'll need to know your names."

[ooc: Yosuke's got Susano-o, who's weak to electricity, blocks wind, and resists fire~]

"Careful!" Yosuke's shouting to Mordred, as the nervous knight moves in for a physical attack. "This guy looks tough, physical damage might not do too much, if anything!" And so, with a physical attack coming from Mordred, he was going to test out this thing's weakness to elemental attacks instead.

Holding out his hand, Yosuke crushes a card with his Persona on it, shouting as he does. "Magaru!" Susano-o appears before him and sends a gust of wind at the giant gross looking scorpion. Yosuke would say he was particularly creeped out by this thing but then... he's honestly seen worse.

[ooc: Saori has Persephone, who's resistant to Light and weak to Dark. Also, credit for Persephone's art goes to Griff! ♥]

Well, this wasn't what Saori was expecting when she sensed something in the Scorpio district. You'd think she learn not to follow her curiosity after what happened with Eikichi's post.

But everyone around is fighting, doing their part to fight off the monster, just like in an action movie.

Saori figures she should do hers as well.

Hands clasped, Saori bows her head and calls "Persephone, please come." And from behind her a woman in a robe and mask appear, wearing a necklace of pomegranate seeds. Immediately placing on Saori a crown of laurels, she begins scanning their target.

Edited 2012-10-26 03:36 (UTC)

Garviel has his original persona here, tarik torgaddon. http://greyerrant.dreamwidth.org/855.html

"My name is Cerberus, and I have come to put an end to my fear." He snarls through the Commlink, punctuating his proclamation with a long, heavy burst from his boltgun, pummeling the giant scorpion with mass-reactive explosive rounds, the rocket-propelled shots spitting fire as they scream from the chamber of his massive cannon. His persona stands behind him, a green-tinged mirror of the grey-armored knight errant, not acting yet.

[[Neku's Persona is Narasimha, who's weak to Dark and Earth but blocks Mind.]]

Neku walked up, attempting to not look at the thing's breasts. What? He was fifteen. At the question from the guy with the snake he overheard, he rolled his eyes.

"The name's Neku. And this thing is going down!"

He reached out and grabbed the card, crushing it in his hand, and the leonine Persona burst forth, attacking with a Zionga.

((Persona is Kinnara: WEAK: Fire, Lighting, RESISTS: Ice, Water. Info here: http://ice-cream-ai.dreamwidth.org/1105.html))

He's not even sure why he is here - actually, he got an idea, as terrified as he was of, well everything - being cooped up in his apartment with no contact with anyone was even worse. Kaito looks to the two, a hand over his heart, aware of how much he was shaking especially as the mon...monster was in sight.

Can't run, can't run - it'd leave people undefended unprotected. The android blinks as something seem to spark inside him just begging to be unleashed. "I...I- I might be able to keep it from attacking."

[For the next attack next round, I will need 4 numbers from each of you from 1-10. Please do this twice!]

Misery's spell reaches first, lowering the creature's defenses. Mordred's attack slashes at one of the arms, where it mets the tough outer shell. The skin starts to crack from the impact, and the eyes nearby close, appearing to be in pain.

At first it looks like Yosuke's attack will do some damage, as one of the legs gets brought up and cut, but the wind dissipates in a sudden flash, and the creature seems to have ignored it completely.

Saori for her part starts to scan the target, as information is relayed to her. The scan is slightly more powerful against a monster than another user, so she can see more than just the Persona it is using. Information and words are whispered to her...

SKORPIOS ♏
HP [████████████░]
SP [█████████████]
ARCANA: DEVIL | LOVERS
NULL: WIND | ??? | ??? | ???
WEAK: ???
REFLECT: ???
ABSORB: ???
NORMAL: PHYSICAL | MIND | ??? | ???

Now it was just a question of finding its weak point, and avoiding whatever could heal it or be reflected back at them.

Unfortunately, they have angered Skorpios, as it lashes out to them with a flurry of attacks. As it lets out an unnatural screech, the two legs closest to them moved together, casting Aques on Yosuke. The torrent of water rose from under his feet, scorching at his skin. Then, it unleashes a second spell, the darkness circle of a Mudo, on Modred. It seems like an eternity as the symbols slowly swirl around him, the chances that he might be knocked out from the battle and...

...Thankfully, it isn't successful.

It seems to want to try casting something else, but then becomes disoriented and distracted from the attacks on the other sides. In a desperate attempt, it uses its front claws to slap at their faces in turn, dealing the equivalent to a high physical damage attack (with Misery's spell helping lower that to a medium).

Your move.

Edited 2012-10-26 05:53 (UTC)

[For the next attack next round, I will need 4 numbers from each of you from 1-10. Please do this twice!]

Sasha spell reaches first, and the leg lights up in fire, as it roars in pain, the skin bubbling and scorching, tough outer skin cracking. This, combined with Garviel's and Neku's attack, as the first leg comes crashing down to the ground, close to Garviel and causing the ground nearby to shake. The leg is nearly ten feet tall and still on fire, sending the decaying smell right into their nostrils.

As Ouroboros moves around Snake, he can hear Q's voice trying to reach him but there appears to be interference. Even if he cannot see, there are words, and information that he now seems to know, like he'd always natrually known them, about this monster.

SKORPIOS ♏
HP [███████████░░]
SP [█████████████]
ARCANA: DEVIL | LOVERS

This wasn't much information, but it was a start. It seemed like the combined attacks from the other team were working.

Skorpios was defiantly not pleased about losing an arm so quickly, but it does distract it from fulling attacking the two other groups, it's attention on them. It begins to lash out to them with a flurry of attacks, the lost hand meaning it can't cast certain spells. The eyes where the legs is gone look at them, as red targets appear each in turn over their heads.

It has cast a target spell that will work the next round, but then follows up with a second attack, the winds around them picking up as it uses Magarula on the entire party, medium spell snapping and slicing at their skin. The last leg of the creature then rises into the air and slaps all of them in turn, dealing a high physical damage, in an attempt of knocking them to the ground by force.

Your move.

Misery swoops back, but not before one of the claws managing to scrap her face. She scowls. Wretched creature, how dare it? If this scars...

She barks another order. "Sukunda!" Let's see how well it attacks when it's moving like through molasses. In the meantime, as the Persona casts and lets fly, she sets up her own spell, on her own terms. A series of hard, dark orbs surround her, orbiting her and making further such physical strikes a dicey prospect.

((Oops, almost forgot. 4, 7, 2, 5 and 3, 9, 1, 7))

Edited 2012-10-26 07:29 (UTC)

"Hooooooooo!!"

A Pyro Jack flew down over the heads of the three boys, waving its lantern with jubilation and hitting the monster with a small burst of flame-- a rather small one at that, to be more of a cover up or a nuisance than an attack.

The demon laughed gleefully, looping around in the air and flying around this side of the monster, while Reiko approached the group of three from behind, and with considerably less fanfare than her pumpkin-headed companion.

"Don't worry!" She said, placing a reassuring hand on Kaito's shoulder and smiling before pointing to the monster.

"When we learned that the members of the populace going insane were Scorpios, Q and I looked into it a bit more. So this monster must be aligned with Scorpio, right? And each sign is associated with an element..."

She lowered her gesture and turned her attention to Atsuro. "Scorpio is a Water sign, so water and Ice attacks won't work on it. I think that's why Pyro Jack is so excited!"

[For the next attack next round, I will need 4 numbers from each of you from 1-10. Please do this twice!]

Reiko's guess still needs to be proven, but she already seemed to be correct; before arriving the Malaques that rushes at the creature is siphoned and turned into energy as the creature absorbs it, letting out a moan.

Well uh...wasn't that just the greatest thing to witness.

Really.

Santa's spell hit on all of them granting them a boost, but for a demon on the team it would simply not be enough.

As it is now on the attack, and with the other spells hitting it from all sides, the creature does not take too lightly to having demons also interfering and using fire against it. Skorpios' first attack is precise and deadly as hands quickly form a spell together, casting Bufudyne. At first it aims for Kaito, but Pyro Jack steps in, not knowing that the other has the ability to resist it. "Watch out, Hooo---"

It doesn't have time to do anything, as the ice attack hits him head-on. The ice forms a crystal-like ball all around it, snuffing out all life, as it crashes to the ground near him. The prison cracks, breaking but leaving the poor creature to a former shell of itself, the normally lit eyes lifeless, cloak tattered and worm. It will need to be healed up quickly. And Kaito has just the spell...

...but he needs have to overcome his fear and help or the demon in front of him that had protected him with its life.

And before they have time to react, it follows up attacking Santa this time with the same attack, but is met with him absorbing the attack ~~and hopefully not moaning~~. Angered, it goes to try another spell, when attacks from the other side case it to scream in pain and it simply raises its largest leg instead, slapping them all in the face with the equivalent of a large physical attack.

Your turn.

((New Persona is Gates! Information here. It's weak to Water and Dark and absorbs Ice.

Numbers: 4-10-5-3 and 3-1-8-5.))

"I-It's on fire! How does it absorb water?!"

Atsuro feebly protests as he watches the strongest attack in his arsenal amount to little more than a splash in the ocean. The ocean of... passionate Scorpio... lust. ...Never mind, crappy metaphor. "Oh, geez." The boy retreats back a few steps towards the others who had arrived on the scene, catching the tail end of Santa's reprimand as well as his group defense spell.

"...Hey, thanks!"

He makes no comment to Santa's suggestion at first, glancing towards the third member of their party instead. One of the victims of the Fear effect... No point wasting a Patra spell; he'd tried it a half-dozen times already.

"We're in this together here. If it takes out the others, we're dead meat. We've got to give it all we've got." He addresses Kaito directly. "Try to work through it! It's a spell effect; it'll pass once that thing's down!" That was the best encouragement he had to offer as Reiko and Pyro Jack arrive on the scene; a faint blush rises to his cheeks as he hears the explanation behind the creature's stats. Of course, he couldn't be expected to know the intimate details of the Western zodiac, but if he'd taken some time to look into it after the COMP announcement...

"S-Sorry about that. But... all I've got is -- "

He cuts off for two reasons. First, no he doesn't. Second, in rapid succession, Pyro Jack was out for the count, and the sweeping leg was rushing straight at his face. There's no time to dodge; Atsuro merely flinches, his arms flying up to try to defend himself however he can. Though the force of the strike sends him reeling back, the Rakukaja has mitigated the damage somewhat...

Atsuro slowly staggers to his feet and stumbles forward a few steps. There was nothing he could do for Pyro Jack - his role, as always, was to take the front lines and soak up as much damage as he could with his natural Strength and Vitality.

"Ghh -- ! Strong against Water, huh...?"

There is a faint sound of shattering glass as he raises a hand in concentration. Something shifts within him, almost tangibly visible as a faint blur briefly envelops his body.

"Gates!"

The blur rushes forth, coalescing into the form of a bespectacled man surrounded by spectral screens and monitors as an unusual chime sounds. The new Persona pauses, adjusting its glasses as it evaluates the creature before dispassionately reaching forward and pressing a single button on a keyboard.

A wave of flame erupts around the Scorpio monster. An Overheat, equivalent to an Agilao.

Edited 2012-10-26 14:55 (UTC)

((Numbers; 1-5-7-8 and 2-3-4-6 ))

Know what surprised Santa a little? How totally unaffected he was by that ice attack. Maybe having Santa Claus as a Persona wasn't so bad, after all!

Know what surprised Santa even more? Getting his ass floored by a giant scorpion's attack. He shakily gets back on his feet and dusts himself off - taking great care to spit any dust or dirt he accidentally inhaled onto the ground.

"Fuckin' asshole..."

Santa extends his arm and - with another laugh - his Persona reappears. After a brief and uneventful pause the Persona vanishes again. All Santa does is smirk.

"Actually, I'm gonna pass this time, 'kay?"

He turns his attention to Kaito and gives him a thumbs up for ~reassurance~

"Say, kid, what do you know about star signs and their compatibility? I dunno much about it but I think it might be kinda relevant right now, don't you?"

~~Atsuro has the best team. Everyone else is jelly as fuck.~~

Kaito let out a yelp as he's knocked back by the sudden strike letting out a horrified gasp as the Pyro Jack dropped. It tried to save him and... and....

A 0 had switched to a 1 inside his mind - the fear was there, but something else had just turned on.

"I... I think I know the idea."

Slowly he stands up, eyes sliding closed as he clasps his hands over his heart. Scorpio is passion, too much passion are like chains. His voice starts at the lowest register he has - baritone, rising to countertenor in a wordless hymn.

A figure suddenly appears - a male with the lower body of a swan with outstretched piano-key wings, the soundhole of a guitar over it's heart, f-holes on it's belly, and strings drawn down over it's metallic skin from forehead to groin.

"Marin Karin." He called out as his Persona Kinnara strummed it's fingers over it's hollow heart before stretching a hand out to the monster, giving a come hither gesture as a pink mist circle around it and towards Skorpios. If he could strike some kind of blow again it... perhaps, perhaps the fear would disappear.

((numbers: 7-10-6-1 and 6-3-3-5))

Edited 2012-10-26 22:19 (UTC)

(2-3-9-4 and 4-9-8-2)

"Jack!"

Reiko took a step back and crossed both of her arms in front of her, letting her forearms take the brunt of the attack. Discouraging yes, but it was nothing she hadn't dealt with before-- just shrug it off!

She lowered her arm and hit some buttons on the COMP, unsummoning Pyro Jack and returning it to the device in a flash of light.

"If I remember correctly, Scorpios match best with Cancers and Capricons-- I don't think any of those have been acting too strange though.

"Atsuro has the right idea though," She dded, holding her hand out and summoning her Persona and casting a spell to increase their attack power. "I think fire is our best bet-- even better if Kaito's plan works!"

Edited 2012-10-27 03:28 (UTC)

Darkness.

To be frank, Mordred felt like his breath was taken away by an ethereal being as darkness darkness darkness symbols flew around him, as if it has the capability to decide his life. When it turned out to do nothing, he was still overwhelmed by the fear of I'm going to die I'm going to die I'm going to die.

The full brunt of the blow sent him crashing to the ground, and even if he's still awake, he was too overcome with Fear to even be able to be coherent except to babble some inane strings of:

"W're dying, we're dead, dead, I tell you, there is absolutely no way we can defeat this monstrosity! NONE! WE'RE DEAD!"

((Roll: 10,8,9,1 and 3,4,7,2))

((First set of 4: 8, 2, 6, 10. Second set of 4: 10, 6, 4, 2.))

Sasha was able to bear the wind attack with a little noise (yay for natural magic resistance; not-yay for said magical resistance not working so well for this world's type of magic), but she flat-out screamed when the physical attack hit her. It sent her flying a good few feet or so away and sent pain flashing through her body; being short wasn't always an advantage (that is, you fly farther). Man oh man did she hate physical attacks. It wasn't like she was weak to them or anything, but being a squishy mage with lower pain tolerance than the standard physical warrior made them that much worse.

Struggling to get to her feet from being on her back, she nonetheless managed to summon Phaeton for another Agilao. It worked before and it was what she was most comfortable with using, so why not try again? The chariot driver thrust his hand forward and sent another fireball hurtling over his horses' heads towards Skorpios as Sasha got up.

"Damnit, wind isn't gonna work against this thing!" Yosuke shouts as his attack connects but does no visible damage. "If you have elemental spells- fire, ice, lightning, whatever- try testing for a weakness!"

He's hit with the water spell only a moment later and ow it feels like he'd just been sprayed with boiling hot water. The hit afterwards leaves him disoriented for a moment before he notices one of his teammates was beginning to have a breakdown.

He had no skills that cured fear, but he could still rationalize with the guy and at least help him up. Running to Mordred's aid, Yosuke takes his hand and pulls him to his feet, giving him a serious, but calm look. "We're not gonna die, we've got three teams going after this thing, and several of us have fought things bigger than this. Just keep fighting. If you leave yourself vulnerable you'll get hurt."

In a means to comfort him, and generally heal up the rest of his team in the process, Yosuke casts Mediarama over all four team members.

[Roll: 3, 9, 10, 4 and 5, 7, 6, 2]

Edited 2012-10-27 18:12 (UTC)

Saori is equally afraid when the Mudo spell is cast on Mordred. She doesn't know the attack name yet, but she's thankful it didn't kill the boy. Unfortunately, she doesn't have Patra yet so she can do nothing for his fear.

The slap with the claws does work though, and she cries out from the pain. Saori's never been the most physically fit girl, so without Misery's Tarunda that would have knocked her over instantly. And it's not long before Yosuke's Mediarama helps ease the pain enough that she can speak.

"Thank goodness. Everyone, it's like he said. Wind spells don't work, but at least Physical and...Mind attacks do. Please keep it up."

And since her other skills won't be a help, she asks her Persona, "Persephone, if you're able, can you try hitting him?" The woman above her nods, going over to Skorpios and slapping it.

[Roll 1, 8, 4, 8 and 10, 2, 6, 5]

Edited 2012-10-27 22:16 (UTC)

[Atsuro : 4-10-5-3 | Result: 2 (FAIL)
Santa : 1-5-7-8 | Result: 8 (CHARMED)
Reiko : 2-3-9-4 | Result: 8 (FAIL)]

Reiko's hunch proved right again, as the monster screamed in pain from Gate's boosted fire attack, stepping back long enough to adjust itself, as the first leg bubbled up and melted away, the smell akin to rotten eyes and overcooked lobster. It was about to turn their attention to them when Marin Karin hit.

It connected, but perhaps not in the way that Kaito had expected. The eyes suddenly all turned towards him, before the middle arm gently grabbed and positioned him....right in the middle of her chest, leaving him stuck between the breasts.

He was hers now, at least for a couple of turns. Yet it was also a unique strategy point, considering the creature's underbelly was soft, unlike the carapace of outside, and he couldn't be harmed from ant of her attacks. That and he was probably living the dream life of a dozen teenagers in the process.

...On the other hand, he was stuck inside a pair of breasts the size of a human, terrified.

That done, it returned to attacking, sending out a large stream of ice at all of them...which did nothing more than be absorbed by the three of them, and refreshing their health. This victory would be short lived, however, for a certain member of the team.

Kaito wasn't the only caster who could use a charm spell. The creature, in fact, happened to be quite a master of it, merging charm and illusion into one deadly skill. All of the eyes blinked at once, sending out a large pink heart that enveloped each one.

Santa fell prey. The scene and reality around him started to melt, as it twisted his mind. No longer was there a Scorpion monster in front of him, but his sister Akane, as she tried to reach out for him, but the fires around rose like a wall.

"It's hot!" she screamed in pain. "It's really hot! Please make it stoooop!"

Stop the fire. Stop them from burning us. Stop the pain.

Your move.

((As neither of these are standard skills, Turbo is a Mind Charge that works only for Fire, and Might Call is a guaranteed Critical for a single person.))

"Oh, crap!"

Too much happening at once! How many turns did this thing even get?! It was totally unfair for it to act three times in a row against them when there were only... four of........ Alright, fine, the extra turns were probably warranted, but it was a lot to take in at once, still.

Kaito was snagged (a fate worse than death), pink hearts were floating all over the place, and Pyro Jack was still out for the -- oh hang on, Reiko had recalled it. Speaking of... where the heck had Power and Badb Catha gone? Ditching him in the middle of a fight? He supposes he can't blame them - they probably would've been wiped out by the group ice attack just now, anyway.

...On the plus side, he felt fine. The refreshing stream of icy-fresh negative damage had done wonders for the initial attack he had suffered. On the minus, it looked like only two of them were still in fighting condition. Things would be bad if they couldn't snap Santa out of it. Though he'd never seen a Charm attack in action, he was pretty sure he'd played enough games to correctly identify what exactly a bubbly pink heart would do to someone. Unfortunately, he couldn't do anything about it...

"Reiko! ...I'm gonna try and blast it with everything I've got! Can you fix the other guy?"

He just needed to survive a turn to pull it off - Endure, hopefully, would help with it. With another vaguely familiar chime, Gates appears once more to log in another keystroke.

Atsuro feels a power building inside of him... His next Fire attack would be immensely strong.

--Meanwhile, under the breasts--

Atsuro's musings as to where Badb Catha had gotten to could be answered by Kaito. It appears that the raven had teleported in for the attack -- and had immediately been squished. Merely a black smear of feathers on the ground now, it was no wonder it had gone missing.

But its HP was low, not completely depleted. As Kaito appears trapped within monster's chest, the injured demon caws sharply and lends the man its support in the form of a Might Call.

Kaito's next attack, if he could muster the will to fight, would be a guaranteed Critical strike.

Edited 2012-10-28 00:46 (UTC)

The blood just drained from Santa's face and he stood watching what he thought he saw. This was actually the worst thing he had ever seen and if he wasn't already on edge from this fight then he would've probably thrown up without a second thought.

When he heard her shouting to make it stop - and he remembered Atsuro and his fire attack earlier (or did he? His mind wasn't too clear right now) he didn't even have to think twice about what he had to do next. He threw a hand into his pocket and yanked out what was inside which - if the fact that he had just summoned his Persona didn't manage to distract you - you could see that he was now holding onto a rather deadly looking golden revolver. He wasn't aiming it at anyone. Not yet, anyway.

"What the fuck do you think your doing?!"

Don't answer that guys, it's obvious you're setting his sister on fire don't even try to deny it.

"Santa; chop that fuckers arms off of his shit for brains body!"

Santa didn't event bother waiting for the attack to land, get blocked or even be dodged completely; he's already got the gun pointing towards Atsuro and he's leveling one hell of a glare at him.

"Put the fucking fire out right now."

[ Numbers: 3,4,5,7 and 1,6,8,9. ]

The first blow - pun not intended - which lands isn't something Snake has any past experience with. A windy day during a harsh winter? Kite flying weather compared to what he had to deal with. The pain was different than he'd anticipated, even from all his reading up on magic. It cut through him with little resistance and caused him to yell in pain. The fierce wind roared around him and drowned out all sound, causing him to lose his bearings for a brief moment. Thanks to that simple little distraction, he didn't even know the second attack was coming.

Snake's natural tenacity was enough to mitigate at least some of the physical damage sent his way, but it didn't stop him from being knocked onto his back with an unpleasant thud. It was an unpleasant experience, leaving him rather dazed, and he had no desire to experience it a second time. But compared to the responsibility he and the other 10 Persona users have right now? Well, he couldn't exactly spend his time complaining about a little unexpected lie down.

At least, he noted as he struggled back onto his feet, the wind attack did something about that ghastly smell.

"In case it wasn't patently obvious..." his voice sounded a little strained as he spoke over the CommLink, "Skorpios doesn't like it when we set it on fire. At least we chipped a small chunk off of its health bar."

Kaito did not expect this! He lets out a muffled distressed noise as he's being smothered by tits that would put Dolly Parton to shame. He struggled, trying to get out when he sees the crushed black bird. For a moment he stops, he tries to reach down, maybe pull it out with him.

He blinks, biting his lip to swallow an angry cry as it cast a spell on him instead of trying to help itself. Nononono, not again!

Water and Ice won't work, and he's no fighter... but this place is soft, almost distractingly soft but... it should wield. Trying to find a brace, he squirms and swung his legs kicking as hard as he could against Skorpios.

Loken snarls, not knocked down because of his sheer (half ton) bulk, but his armor is at least partially abraded and holed by the wind strike.

"Take a defensive stance, or you're going to die well before that damnable thing will."

Behind Loken, a Green armored figure appears, casting Marukaja on the group to allow them to endure a physical assault a bit more effectively.

Thankfully she didn't have to brace herself for the ice attack, but she turned to Atsuro with a growing look of concern. "I can try, but... there's something about this spell that doesn't seem like a normal Charm skill!"

With those floating hearts, it was obvious what it was-- but she'd never seen one work like this before...! Which was just about confirmed when Santa started talking nonsense and lofted a gun at them.

She turned to the COMP on her wrist, summoning her oddly garbed Jack Frost.

"That's no proper way to act, hee-ho! You need to learn some proper manners, like hee-me-ho!" The Frost bounced around in front of Santa's view and cast a Patra spell on him with an upwards gesture. Reiko wasn't sure if it would work given the odd nature of the spell, but it was worth a shot...

"Just keep attacking the monster, OK?" She called to Atsuro, while keeping her attention on the delusional gun-toter.

[[2, 5, 10, 3 and 8, 6, 3, 1.]]

Neku crosses his arms in front of himself to brace for impact, struggling through the wind. The physical attack sends him reeling backwards, not knocking him over completely but staggering him significantly.

"Let me know if you guys need a healing spell!"

But fire, huh? All right, he can do that.

"Come on!" Narasimha appears, casting Maragi at the monster. Hopefully the weakness of the monster would make up for the weakness of the spell.

1 3 6 8
10 4 5 2

[Misery: 4, 7, 2, 5 | 6: (FAILED)
Mordred: 10,8,9,1 : 4 (FAILED)
Yosuke: 3, 9, 10, 4 : 10 (CHARMED)
Saori: 10, 2, 6, 5 (I used your 2nd numbers since the 1st had a double): 3 (FAILED) ]

It counters Misery's spell in turn, using a skill to boost back its speed, but that did mean it couldn't cast something else in the meantime. Persephone, and Sasori by extension, were able to see more of what was happening thanks to all the attack spells being used by all three teams...

SKORPIOS ♏
HP [████████░░░░░]
SP [█████████████]
ARCANA: DEVIL | LOVERS
NULL: WIND | DARK | ??? | ???
WEAK: FIRE
REFLECT: ICE
ABSORB: WATER
NORMAL: PHYSICAL | MIND | ??? | ???

Misery's personal defense was a good idea in theory, but the creature was having none of it and uses its claws to swipe at the orbs, knocking them away like balls of a pool table. That, combined with the slap to the face by Persephone diverts its attention away from other things...at least until they all witness it grabbing someone from another side. Skorpios now carries Kaito in the middle of its massive breasts, which meant they'd need to be careful how to attack, and not cause him to die if it falls over. Moreover, it had used a powerful charming-illusion spell on the other group...now it was their turn. With a wink of one of its four front eyes, the spell sends a stream of pink hearts that circled each of them, taunting for a few seconds...

Out of the four, Yosuke fell prey.

Immediately the area around him melts, the creature turning into Saki, and his teammates into shadow clone copies of Adachi who start to laugh at him, pointing their guns.

"What's the matter, kid? Are you going to just stand there while I murder this bitch again?"

The illusion of Saki scrams and cries falling to the ground, clutching at her head.

"Don't let him harm me Yosuke! I don't want to...I don't want to..."

Your move.

Edited 2012-10-31 00:21 (UTC)

One teammate reduced to a gibbering moron. Her entire previous move, negated in one stroke. And she's not sure what that hearts spell is, but it can't mean anything good. And then there's that idiotic boy stuck on the thing.

This is beginning to irritate her greatly.

For a moment, the temptation rises again, the temptation to use HIM... but she waves it down. She'll show him. Just because she tried to get his power doesn't mean she NEEDS it. She sends Omoikane forward. "Strike that ludicrous thing for me, will you?" she orders, watching it surge forward to slap it on its face.

She won't use that man. She doesn't need him.

[Santa, it is up to you if the spell worked in healing him or not, I'm okay with either!]

Kaito's kick connects, and it does take damage, but the skin's fat absorbs most of the shock. The fleshy mounds move along as it attacks the other groups, but nothing to smoother him with quite yet, and it doesn't seem to be trying to harm him otherwise. There's just the risk of it dying with him stuck under her...

It then did a series of spells in rapid succession; a Sabotage+ spell that halved their attack, defense and agility, then a Crimson Reign on itself to boost its own attack, defense and agility. If that wasn't enough, it then cast a power charge on itself, meaning that its next physical attack would be two and a half times stronger. There was a soft hum to everything, foretelling of terrible things to come...

Whatever Skorpios was planning for, it was definitely going to hurt a lot if they didn't do something...

Your move.

"If you had a gun, why the hell weren't you using it earlier?!" Atsuro feels his own strength depleting slightly as he performs some quick mental arithmetic in order to determine the full efficacy of -- Alright, no, who was he kidding he had no idea how all the boosts and dispels balanced out. The only thing he knew for certain was that he still felt significantly more powerful than he had before, courtesy of Reiko's Matarukaja and his own 'Fire Charge'.

It seemed he was the only one with any useful attacks amongst the lot of them. From the looks of things, they needed to bring the enemy down fast. "Just calm down and -- " A flinch as the ridiculous-looking Santa Claus rushes towards him.

...But never reaches.

"Behold! Thou gazest upon the deepest anguish of thy heart with beclouded eyes. And thy answer... In thy powerlessness, thou seekest to inflict suffering just as great." The red-armored, metallic angel had appeared out of nowhere to catch the blow. Though seemingly unaffected, its stoicism masks the damage it had incurred. "Such is the weakness of man. Fear not; the LORD's grace shall prevail."

The Lord's grace apparently involves gliding forward with spear outstretched for battle. Atsuro breathes a sigh of relief as he allows Reiko and the Power to deal with the crazed Santa.

"Here goes...!"

Windows 8, activate! ...That is, Persona, go! There is a glint in the Persona's eyes this time as it appears; the keystrokes ensue with much more vigor and enthusiasm. A brief pause... and then -- a tremendous fire erupts underneath Skorpios.

He'd tried to aim back behind the abdomen, away from, er, Kaito's prison.

[Sasha: 8-2-6-10 | Result: 7 (FAILED)
Snake: 3,4,5,7 | Result: 10 (FAILED)
Garviel : 1 3 6 8 | Result: 6 (CHARMED)
Neku : 2, 5, 10, 3 | Result: 9 (FAILED)]

Hot, hot hot! The monster roared in pain as that attack was sent by all sides as they had all guessed its weakness, it's eyes starting to turn red both from fear, anger and knowing if this kept up, it's end would be soon.

Unfortunately, there was still someone stuck inside it's fleshy mounds, and that could prove to be dangerous if they let him inside there. Yet Skorpios' pain was so much so that it only had time to cast two spells, before it blocked attacks from the other sides.

The first was a large ice spell that it threw at them, the coldness snapping right into the core of their bones. And as dangerous as that was, the real threat was what came next...

Not much time to think about that, unfortunately, it began with a strange charming spell, as all the eyes looked at the four of them sending our a stream of hearts that entered their bodies before disappearing. Merging charm and illusion into one deadly skill, it could be extremely dangerous.

Garviel fell prey. The scene and reality around him started to melt, as it twisted his mind. No longer was there a Scorpion monster in front of him, but members of his legion. His allies where now Eldar looking down at him in disgust, before aiming their weapons at him.

Your move.

Santa felt a wash of reality wash over him as he came back to his senses and, along with his senses resurfacing, his Persona quickly vanished again. He took a good hard look at Skorpios and eventually shook his head - he'd have to make a note to kick himself later for actually falling for that one; there was no way that was Akane.

It did cross his mind to inform the others that he'd been cured; but that was probably obvious by the change in his actions; right? If not then fuck 'em they could figure it out in their own time. Meanwhile he would answer that question about his gun as if the answer was the most obvious explanation ever.

"Didn't I say I didn't want to attack that thing until it was totally ignoring us? Why the fuck would I shoot it before that happened?"

"...Right."

It wouldn't do for a Knight of the Round to be terrified of monsters such as these; he faced worse foes before and this... indecent thing is just one of them. With deep breaths, he readied his sword, and charged forward for yet another slash.

He won't lose, and he's certain of it.

So okay, Yosuke was being nice to his teammate there before, and encouraging him in battle, but looking back at the ugly thing--

Suddenly the whole world is upside-down, melting away into unclear and unimportant nothingness. Nothing really makes sense or matters, except for two very clear things. Saki is standing before him, crying out for help and pleading for Yosuke to save her, while three Adachis look as though they're about to shoot her down. Before he can even act, one of the Adachis had already unleashed an attack on her, making Yosuke charge at him (Misery) first. But then, as Mordred-Adachi charges at Saki to fire his pistol, the confused teen whips around and starts shouting at the top of his lungs.

"STOP, STOP, LEAVE HER ALONE!! I'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID YOU BASTARD!!"

Thrusting out his hands, Susano-o appears, casting Magaru on all three of his teammates.

A high-pitched scream rang out from Sasha's direction as she collapsed to the ground, shivering. She was naturally weak to the ice element, and so was her Persona. She was so overwhelmed by this attack that she couldn't even get up to fire off a much-needed Agilao. However, perhaps it was best that she couldn't use her attack; she had seen Kaito stuck between the thing's... things and had become worried that her next attack might send the monster toppling on top of him. "I-I'm sorry, everyone..." she stammered. "J-Just give me a moment..." A healing spell would really be handy right now, but did anyone even have them?

Kaito jerks, trying not to suffocate as the monster's huge tracts of land absorbed some of the shock of his attack. What now? What now? He pondered as he tried to think of something - ANYTHING to keep it from attacking.

...He groans one idea came up.

Guess he'll have to live with the risk of being seen as a pervert. The Vocaloid tries to find good leverage... and starts to rub his hands against her breasts to try to distract it.

God, he'll need a dozen showers after this.

Saori should have practiced swearing more, because now would've been the perfect time. Whatever Misery's magic balls were, the monster had swept it away like nothing. Then there was another group's teammate stuck in the creature's...oh god can she even bear to look?

The Charm spell took the cake. Initially she didn't know what the heart things were, but seeing it affect the boy...Yosuke Hanamura, right? It became obvious what kind of spell it was.

At least Mordred had snapped out of it, but now he had to deal with a pissed-off Yosuke.

"Guys! There's been some hypnosis spell placed on Hanamura-kun! Someone snap him out of it--ahhh!"

She couldn't even finish her sentence as the Magaru spell came into contact.

Edited 2012-11-12 23:21 (UTC)

The 13th Hour - BOSS LOG

Misery | Mordred Pendragon | Yosuke Hanamura | Saori Hasegawa (FRONT)

Sasha Fyer | Snake | Garviel Loken | Neku Sakuraba (RIGHT)

Atsuro Kihara | Santa | Kaito (LEFT)

ATTACK | FIRE | Current Persona: Phaeton

ATTACK | WATER | Current Persona: Enki

ATTACK | MIND | Current Persona: Omoikane

ATTACK | Physical | Current Persona : Morgan Le Fay (Locked)

SUPPORT | Marakukaja

SUPPORT | CommLink | Persona: Ouroboros

Attack | Wind | Current Persona: Susano-o

SUPPORT SKILL | Analysis | Current Persona: Persephone

Attack| Physical/Fire

Attack | Elec | Persona: Narasimha

sorry guys! Persona Kinnara (pass)

ATTACK -- WATER (YOSUKE) + DARK (MODRED) + PHYSICAL (ALL)

SUPPORT- (POWER BOOST FOR 2ND TURN ATTACK) | ATTACK : WIND (ALL) + PHYSICAL (ALL)

Attack | Mind / Support | Dark-Mind

ATTACK | FIRE

ATTACK | ICE (PYRO JACK), ICE (SANTA), PHYSICAL (ALL)

PERSONA SWITCH -> ATTACK | FIRE

Pass it like it's hot

STATUS SPELL | Marin Karin

SUPPORT | MATARUKAJA

N/A | Paralyzed with Fear

ATTACK | FIRE

Healing | Mind/Support | Assisting Mordred

Attack | Hysterical Slap | Physical+Rage

ATTACK - GRAB KAITO, ICE ALL, CHARM ALL

SUPPORT | TURBO (SELF) || SUPPORT | MIGHT CALL (KAITO)

Attack | Arm Chopper | (Atsuro)

SUPPORT | CommLink | Persona: Ouroboros

Attack | Physical

Support| Marukaja

SUPPORT | PATRA (SANTA)

Attack | Fire

Numbers!

ATTACK - MIND @ SELF, ALMIGHTY @ MISERY, MIND @ALL

ATTACK | PHYSICAL | HYSTERICAL SLAP+RAGE

SUPPORT | SABOTAGE+ (ALL), CRIMSON REIGN (SELF), POWER CHARGE (SELF),

ATTACK | FIRE

ATTACK | ICE ALL, CHARM (ALL)

Pass - but thankfully un-charmed

Attack | Physical

Attack | Wind | Teammates

N/A - Pass- Weakness struck

Attack | Physical...?

Re: Attack | Wind | Teammates