=>[META]The Scathing Selfishness of the Empress (SpaceGoats)

[Green Minuet]

☯ Degrass Tysson

Health: 7
Military Weapon: +1
Defensive B Trinket: 1/1
Support A Artefact: 1/1
Novice Leadership, Grandmaster Strength, Academics Training

Bad attitude, but good thinkpan on his shoulders. It seemed all too familiar. Ephias tossed the capsule towards the tealblood. As he watched its arc through the air, he had a vision of it falling to the ground and shattering into a hundred pieces. It never came to pass. Deimos caught it midair, and without wasting a second turned to administer it to Nahori. Ephias and Mahmud just needed to give him time.

The daywalker veered toward him after the tealblood dealt it a crushing blow to the head. Ephias oriented himself to stand further between the daywalker and the others. His shears hovered in front of him like a sword, ready to parry or strike. He watched the daywalker cautiously. As it steadied itself on its feet, and lunged towards him, Ephias moved. The shears flashed, and a second later, an arm landed on the ground.

[ Ephias does 5 damage. ]
[ Boss Health: 6 ]

 

[Green Minuet]

☯ Degrass Tysson

Health: 7
Military Weapon: +1
Defensive B Trinket: 1/1
Support A Artefact: 1/1
Novice Leadership, Grandmaster Strength, Academics Training

With the daywalker short-handed and unbalanced once more, Ephias took the opportunity to glance over his shoulder. Nahori had begun to recover but looked disoriented. A bloody gash marked the side of her skull. Ephias withdrew the bandage he had taken from Mahmud and tossed it towards the orangeblood along with his armband.

“Cut on your thinkpan. Use the... use the button on the side. It should have a little bit of a charge,” Ephias instructed. Those were the only words he could afford. The daywalker rose up again. Teeth grit, Ephias held his shears steady.

[ Ephias heals Nahori for 5. ]
[ Boss Health: 6 ]

 

[saedusk]

Quote:

Miniboss HP: 5/30

Coming back felt a lot like spinning in circles and trying to walk in a straight line. Nahori could see all of them, Mahmud, Deimos, Degras... She knew Deimos had been the one to wake her up, she could still hear his biting tone in her sponge clots. Because this was Nahori, it should've made her feel bad, should've drove her deeper into self loathing. It didn't. It only made her angry.

Stumbling to a stand, still feeling like trash but looking alive thanks to Degras, she managed to shove the daywalker away. Let it know what it was like to stumble like a drunken idiot, too.

"Take your own advice!" she slurred at Deimos, spinning on him with an unusual fire in her eyes. "Every step of the way you've been... been nothing but contradictory, so don't try to pull that o-on me now! Being in the military i-isn't about one troll's strength, it's about working together." Maybe she sounded stupid saying these things, but for once she didn't care. "G-Get over yourself!"

Turning back to the daywalker, she noticed it wobbling towards Mahmud. Despite the way her legs still shook, she ran in his direction, shouting to distract the cook. It seemed to work. "Mahmud! Do it now!"

--

Nahori Caviap
HP: 6/20
Military Grade Weapon: +1 dmg
Training in Discipline

Advancements: ?/15
Minibosses: 2/3
 

[penemueIntuition]

Mahmud Seshat: 4/20 HP - 3 HP = 1 HP
Artifacts:

show spoilerhide spoiler
Boots, Defense type A (novice)

style A -2 damage taken, 3x per battle., used 2 times


Hair clips, Agility Type B (novice)

style B 2 2d6 hits with +1 to accuracy to each on this attack, 1x per battle* *roll 4d6, first two numbers are the 'hit or miss' determiners, second two are the damage done., used 1 times!


.

Seeing everyone work together like this... or rather, hearing it (opening his eyes for long made the room keep spinning) was heartwarming. What was even more impressive was Nahori standing up for herself. Mahmud couldn't help but give a little chuckle as she went off on Deimos; Not because he was happy Dei got a scolding, but because she must have felt much better if she was going off like this...

Note to self: Thank Degras and Deimos later for all that they did.

Limply nodding when given his order, Mahmud decided to finally open his eyes and try and concentrate on what was going on. There were two... no one, now two... ugh. He knew there was only one daywalker there, and that it was looking in pretty bad shape. But he was in bad shape too... And that's when it struck him. Mahmud's Really Dumb Plan.

"Gimme a sec here..."

Taking a deep breath, Mahmud ran to the monster, his vision still going in and out at times, but stopped when he felt he got close. Mindlessly, the creature lunged at him, determined to get their hands on him and succeeding. "Yes! Good!" The stupid creature took the bait... but Mahmud seriously misjudged his own current state. Instead of being able to yank himself out of the chef's grasp, he was instead trapped in its arms. <********> After some struggling, after a lot of pulling, he finally managed to get his arm loose. This monster was strong, but it was stupid. Even if Mahmud couldn't see the best, it was hard to miss an enemy at point blank range. Twirling the screwdriver a bit to get it in the right position, Mahmud quickly shoved it into monster's neck. Despite its screams and struggles of protest, he refused to let go. Instead, he used the opportunity to get his other arm free and reach for yet another screwdriver.

At this point he really wished he had something witty to say, but in times like this, all Mahmud really wanted was to be home.

Instead, he shoved yet another tool into the monster, this time in its head again. Why he felt like he had to go for the head was beyond him; perhaps it was all those spooky stories he was told as a wriggler. Maybe if he did that, it'd be dead, very dead, and leave his poor companions alone.

Soon enough, the creature stopped struggling, and Mahmud pulled his tools out of it, panting as he watched it crumple to the floor like a ragdoll. It was done. It was... it was finally done.

Screwdrivers slipped from his fingers and clattered on the ground, as Mahmud collapsed in a heap to the ground. They were bloody, they were bruised, but...the did it in the end.

For a moment he was still, silent, motionless except for the faint chest raising that indicated he was living. And then? Mahmud laughed. Just little giggles at first, which slowly built up into full blown belly ones that reverberated throughout the room. At some points there were soft hiccups, and his hands raised up to touch his own face and wipe what could have been blood, but was mostly tears. "W-we... we did it... its done..." The very effort of wiping his face was exhausting, if he was honest with himself.

Until they left on their shuttle, Mahmud just stayed in his place on the floor. Any attempts to convince him to sit upright were met with protest, and the couple times that he tried to himself ended up with him... erm... well, if he wasn't throwing up before, he certainly was now.

Something wasn't quite right with him; it could have been the blow to the head earlier that evening, or the sudden relief of anxiety. But if anyone were to ask if he was alright... Mahmud would just start up his tired giggles again and nod the best he could from his position on the ground. Though his speech was slightly slurred, he'd say...

"Everyone's okay... I'm great. I just... need to sleep for a while."

The world was spinning for him, there was this awful ringing noise, and gog was he exhausted but... they did it. They were finally a team.

He closed his eyes and drifted off.

 

[saedusk]

Quote:

1 - Powering on the ship is easy enough, with the instructions from headquarters in your ear. The screens show that the ship is functioning perfectly, and headquarters patches in the control of a remote helmsman. They wait until you have returned to your boarding pod and leave, before steering the ship away.*

It was only a few doors over they'd find the control room. She thanked each troll for their work despite any feelings she may have about the whole thing. Hell, she even managed a small, awkward, sympathetic smile for Mahmud after his short outburst. It was easy to understand how he felt. They may have been surprisingly similar in some aspects, but she'd save her tears for Alternia.

"It looks functional..." she told them as she toyed with the ship's systems. Her voice was strained, her eyes dead tired. "I'm... radioing headquarters." and for a moment she went silent, "We're being connected with a helmsman, they're going to... take the ship back." Saving the vessel was a legitimate relief. On top of simply surviving, they'd actually manage to do something right.

"So we... need to get back to the pod." It was finally over.

--

Nahori Caviap
HP: 6/20
Military Grade Weapon: +1 dmg
Training in Discipline

Advancements: 7/15
Minibosses: 3/3
 

[nepsah]

Deimos is ******** done with this ship

HP: 7/20

"Whatever you say, commander." Deimos could only roll his eyes at her outburst. She was barely able to walk straight, but still managed to land at least some form of a hit on the creature before it took off toward Mahmud. Well, she wasn't totally useless, just. In need of some carrying.

They--... they did it. Mahmud dealt the finishing blow, after Degras had tried to take it down and Nahori had... Well. She'd done something he supposed. Aside from rant at him about being a s**t the whole time. He hadn't been that bad, had he? He reattached the mace to his belt, struggling to control his breathing again. This was the last part, right? They didn't have to go any farther?

The ship was salvageable, technologically speaking. He didn't want to be part of the crew that came in and cleaned it up after it landed, that was for certain. Exhausted and aching all over, he dropped to the floor to just breathe for a while. God he really needed to get his prosthetic upgraded.

"Mahmud that was some pretty serious a** kickin'. Nice work." He leaned back on his hands and looked over at the brownblooded boy. He looked sick. Dei made a mental note to not get too close when they left..... just in case. Which was quickly confirmed as the brownblood vomited when he tried to sit up. Oh, gross. He hadn't been on a ship where one of the squad members had that reaction yet.

He looked back to Nahori as she spoke, heaving a long sigh. "Y'know, just sayin' we gotta get back to the pod isn't real direction. What do you want us to do. Who leads? Who's carryin' Mahmud? Just 'cause we just cleared the path don't mean its still clear." Not that he'd run into more things on the way back in previous ships but... if she wanted to dole out actual commands so badly he was gonna prod her for them. He pushed himself up to his feet, testing the prosthetic... "I can prolly help with Mahmud but I gotta get to a mechanic- I won't be able to support him by myself." Hell he wasn't sure he was gonna have an easy time walking on his own. But... he was less than keen on taking his boot off to examine the damage in front of other people.

Advancement: 7/15
Minibosses: 3/3

Quote:

Training Pins:
Novice Agility [Cooldown 0/6]
Tactics (training now)

Inventory:
Trinket: Novice Offensive Type B - 0/1 uses

 

[saedusk]

It didn't surprise Nahori that much that her scolding had fallen on apparent deaf ears. After all, she wasn't big or intimidating, she wasn't all that put together, either. Still, she didn't regret what she'd said. She let Deimos have his moment and then turned to look at him. Since he was so keen on following orders, sarcastically or otherwise, she'd give him some.

"Don't worry about it," she told him, "Focus on walking. I'll support Mahmud. If you... if you think you can take point, do it. We'll follow you... since you're so skilled at scouting ahead and all."

Then she turned to Degras. "How are... you feeling? I think it would be best if you watched the rear. We'll make it back that way."  

[nepsah]

Deimos is ******** done with this ship

HP: 7/20

"Great plan." He deadpanned in response, then pushed himself up to his feet. God, he didn't have nerve endings or anything fancy but the vibration of metal moving the way it wasn't meant to certainly put his nerves on edge. "I'll go make sure the hall is clear." With that, he shuffled off, mindful to step carefully on his right foot.


Advancement: 7/15
Minibosses: 3/3

Quote:

Training Pins:
Novice Agility [Cooldown 0/6]
Tactics (training now)

Inventory:
Trinket: Novice Offensive Type B - 0/1 uses

 

[saedusk]

At least Deimos didn't sound as sarcastic this time, even if it was obvious he wasn't exactly on her side, either. Nahori watched him go without a word, looking over at Mahmud who was still resting against the console. Everything would be fine. She sniffed. Everything would be fine once they got back to Alternia.  

[Green Minuet]

☯ Degrass Tysson

While the others had their backs turned and Mahmud lay passed out on the floor, Ephias slipped over to the control console. The last two ships he had explored ended with sirens sounding the inevitable cry of destruction. His last vision of either had been a sharp burst of light before the debris shot off on a journey to the reaches of the galaxy and infinity. It was a sad sight, rather like the death of a star.

This time though... Ephias gently pressed his fingers against the chitten frame of the console. No warnings. No error messages. Just quiet. The ship had survived the sweeps of isolation and decay to begin a new venture. With a note of bitterness he remembered it would be falling into the hands of the military.

The redblood dug around in his pocket, after a few seconds retrieving a serial scuttle grub. It took him another couple of seconds to find a usable dock. Glancing over his shoulder, he checked on Nahori and Deimos. The two trolls were still too preoccupied over what to do with Mahmud to pay any attention to him. Ephias resumed his task. He plugged the scuttle grub into the port near the back of the console, then slipped away. He would retrieve it later.

Ephias stepped away not a moment too soon. As Nahori went to gather up Mahmud, she addressed Ephias. The redblood nodded in response to her suggestion, only hastily remembering to throw in a salute at the last second. “Can do, commander. I won't let you down.”