=>[META] Personnel Deck (Trouble)

[Doutei]

Quote:

HP: 4/20
Damage: 0
Military grade weapon: +1
Adept Offensive Style B: 0/2

9 zombies remaining
Tevini is using her telekinesis!
2d6 Deal double damage on this attack, 2x per battle. 1 ongoing damage for all turns after. The ongoing damage from these stack.

"I-I..." Tevini continued shooting but felt the corners of her mind begin to fray. She tried to back against a wall to steady herself but could see her hands trembling as she tried to aim. It was no use, her body was too spent. Her mind was too distracted. The clashes of light and sound were starting to overwhelm her and Tevini lowered her gun, afraid that if she shoot anymore she'd be shooting blindly. She didn't want to accidentally hit any of her teammates.

"I'm sorry!" The redblood cried out as more daywalkers approached and it was all she could do to block them from attacking her with the blade on her gun. She felt terrible at how useless she was becoming. Maybe he was right, she couldn't handle this. She couldn't handle her powers, she couldn't handle that video, she couldn't handle her emotions. She didn't have any business telling others to have hope or to count on her. She was a mess.

Knocked down, she glanced up at an approaching daywalker and raised her weapon once more to attempt to protect herself. But why bother, a voice asked. They were all going to die anyway. Why put off the inevitable?

Why not now?  

[Yamashii]

Quote:

HP: 6/20
Military Grade Weapon
Novice Tactics
Training Leadership

Cerpin is punching zombitches
damage: 5
zombitches left: 4
can autokill: 5

14/16 advances
2/3 minibosses defeated

Tevini fell to the floor but no blow would come to her. A swift kick slammed the daywalker away from her. He could recognize the frantic spiraling look in her eyes. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to comfort her. Instead, he opted to distract. Stabbing his sword into the ground, he reached down to take her weapon from her and twirled it in his hand. Cerpin was no marksman but he'd seen and messed around with this gun before enough times to know how to fire it.

"There are plenty of ways you can hurt a man
And bring him to the ground
You can beat him, you can cheat him, you can treat him bad
And leave him when he's down, yeah!"

His voice was breathy from exhaustion but the usual warm playfulness had returned to it. Ducking and weaving through the zombies, he kicked and shoved them away from his partner. Once they were lined up, he sang another snippet of the song. If only he had been able to play the guitar riffs as accompaniment!

"But I'm ready, yes I'm ready for you
I'm standing on my own two feet
Out of the doorway the bullets rip
Repeating the sound of the beat-"

He shot a look back to the rest of the group to make sure they were watching this showstopper of a performance. They needed to get some life back into them. They needed to be loud obnoxious fun-loving trolls in case they did fail! He wanted to go out as he was, a kickass fighter and rockstar musician. He would not fall the way the trolls had died in the video prior to this, dressed up in a uniform clutching at their heads.

"Another one bites the dust, another one bites the dust
And another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust!
Hey, I'm gonna get you too-
Another one bites the dust!"

He pulled the trigger to the beat, shooting the zombies in the head as he finished the chorus. Bodies dropped in lieu of percussion.  

[seekingCylem]

Sascha attacks the zombies!

HP: 7/20
Military Weapon: +1 DMG
Trinkets:
1/3 Defense Style A: 2 damage is detracted from last incoming attack.
0/1 Defense Style B: Nullify damage from the last attack.
Telekinesis: 1/2 Offensive Style B: Attack does double damage, and detracts 1 health from opponent every remaining turn. Recurring damage effect stacks.

Sascha was barely attuned to the commotion beyond whatever zombies were within arm's reach. The blunt contact of fists and wet slice of knives were all that kept Sascha grounded in the moment. Each blow lasted less than a second. He was compelled to keep slogging through the rapidly dwindling masses.

Was that... Singing? It was breathy and faint behind the pounding in Sascha's ears, but intentional. The longer Sascha listened, the clearer it became.

"Are you-" Sascha elbowed off a zombie that had attempted to latch onto his shoulder. Sascha balked as he turned to witness Cerpin putting on a show for the undead--all while shooting nails into the crowd. Where had- What was Tevini even doing!?

Tevini was in a heap on the ground, sitting but apparently conscious. Either she was well enough for Cerpin to not be throwing a fit, or the latter was having a complete breakdown. At least it was an apparently productive one. "Get your act together, you two!" Followed by a hasty, "I KNOW WHAT I SAID; DON'T EVEN START WITH ME RIGHT NOW."

Sascha does 0 damage!

Zombies Remaining: 4
Minibosses Slain: 2/3
Ship Advancements: 14/16
Illicit Gerbils: 1  

[Doutei]

Quote:

HP: 4/20
Damage: 0 + 5 = 5
Military grade weapon: +1
Adept Offensive Style B: 0/2

0 zombies remaining
Using the 5 autokill (novice tactics +2 from cerpin and etsali)
Tevini is using her telekinesis!
2d6 Deal double damage on this attack, 2x per battle. 1 ongoing damage for all turns after. The ongoing damage from these stack.

Why not now? The answer turned out to be pretty simple. Death was fixed, a certain thing. She knew what to expect.

But life. It was full of surprises. It was full of songs and screaming and laughter. It was full of light and sound. Of joy.

Sitting up, Tevini looked over at her team. Etsali, in her confusion was laughing in the face of death. Bouncing around walls and around danger. Even with their imminent doom she wasn't giving up, she was finding the little things to hold onto. Stealing moments to savor, even if only she noticed them. That smile! It was incredible.

Sascha, he held onto his fighting spirit, roaring them into life. The spark in him hadn't wavered, it'd only glowed brighter. Hollering at them, she could feel his energy. The act he put on couldn't fool her, he was loving this. Wild and desperately clinging to the edge suited him much more than the restraint he'd been showing earlier. Those eyes! They were dazzling.

Then there was Cerpin. He was the very essence of what made life worth enduring. Unpredictable. She hated to admit that she loved his antics but it was true. He walked his own path and made his own rules, whether that meant busting down doors or bursting into song. He did what he loved for he knew, he only had one shot. He made no excuses, just a trail. In time others would follow. That man. He was everything.

She didn't know what she was yet. She was lost. But as she pushed up off the ground, Tevini grabbed a hold of his sword. Maybe Cerpin was beyond her now, continuing ahead without her. But she wasn't afraid anymore. If he left, she'd look for his golden footprints to follow.

"Sorry. It won't happen again." Tevini apologized to Sascha, wiping the tears from her eyes. She then turned and hurled the blade through remaining zombies towards Cerpin. As her hand extended, she caught her gun in return.

"Thanks." She smiled.  

[seekingCylem]

Sascha advances.

HP: 6/20
Military Weapon: +1 DMG
Trinkets:
1/3 Defense Style A: 2 damage is detracted from last incoming attack.
0/1 Defense Style B: Nullify damage from the last attack.
Telekinesis: 1/2 Offensive Style B: Attack does double damage, and detracts 1 health from opponent every remaining turn. Recurring damage effect stacks.

The last of the daywalkers fell--not with a battle cry, but with laughter. The exhaustion was truly setting in. Tevini apologized and all Sascha did was groan dramatically and roll his head back. The zombies were gone. Everyone was in one piece. All they had left to do was get to the damn propulsion systems and stop the Battleship Condescension from crashing into the planet. No big deal.

Sascha waded through the mess of ruined daywalkers. "Why the hell were there so many of them over here?" Sascha grumbled. He wiped his boot off on some undead's uniform. It was a valid question. The daywalkers seemed to group up instinctively despite the lack of proper brain function. If Alternia knew more about daywalkers they might have been able to approach this mess with some degree of tact.

Not that trolls were especially known for tact.

"Like if we're actually lost and end up turning a corner into a window facing the sun I'm gonna be pi..."

Sascha turned the corner and stopped. His boots toed the edge of a pitch black stain. Scorch and ash coated the entire alcove surrounding an equally darkened door. Sascha crossed the threshold, leaving smudged footprints in his wake. He looked haunted. "This is..."

Oh no.

Oh no.

Sascha gripped the door frame. His gloves smoothed over the name plate outside. "STARBOARD PROPULSION SYSTEM 4" collected in the grooves of the engraving.

Sascha walked until the shambles of the machinery blocked his path. The fleshy, biotech wires had burned away, leaving only their snaking impressions across the walls and floor. The center-most console had burst open and melted in on itself like a blossom. Sascha placed a hand on its surface. He traced where the keys had once been.

"Report back to command. It's up to the other teams now."

Minibosses Slain: 2/3
Ship Advancements: 15/16
Illicit Gerbils: 1  

[Yamashii]

Quote:

HP: 6/20
Military Grade Weapon
Novice Tactics
Training Leadership

Cerpin is checking the hallway
15/16 advances
2/3 minibosses defeated

"s**t, this is awful." Cerpin surveyed the damaged room with a sort of awe. It was truly destroyed and useless beyond belief. It reminded him of Tevini's failed model rocket experiments. Except this was full sized chaos. The magnitude of what they were trying to do was not lost on him, merely emphasized. The pressure to get it right was only increased. Sascha ordered them to fall back and he complied. There was nothing for them here.

Well, Etsali seemed to have found something. He shrugged and allowed her to investigate without any complaints from him. The orangeblood had a knack for finding hidden treasures and who was he to deny her that? They could use a distraction from the reality of what had happened here. Staggering towards the door, he noticed Tevini behind him at a slower pace. There were still streaks of red on her skin, most noticeably her face, and he turned towards her.

"That's enough heroics for one night, huh?" He wrapped an arm around her before using the other to scoop her up into a carry. She looked worn out in every possible way. Truthfully, they all were. But his priority was making sure his partner made it out of here comfortably. His emotions had been a complete mess earlier and the sight of Sascha still caused uncomfortable thoughts to bubble in his stomach. But he'd sorted out one thing for sure on this hell of a mission. He would not lose her again. She was shackled for good this time.

"I think I'm gonna pass out in the pod." Cerpin admitted with a hint of a laugh in his tone. The humor was somewhat insincere, though he was honestly exhausted. The truth was that he planned to sleep to avoid the questions he knew were going to come his way over his earlier aggression. Neither Tevini or Sascha had seemed satisfied letting this go. Maybe if he sat next to Etsali, she'd shut down any further dramatics on their voyage home.

Once there, the plan was to run.