Mosaic City, located along China's coast, is quite large city sometimes called the Crossroads Between Nations due to its diverse population. While it was once a large tourist spot, the city was placed under a blockade as the military appeared claiming there was a radiation leak. The true hazard, however, is much more sinister.
Post by Nisha Dovickssen on Mar 23, 2014 21:13:56 GMT -5
It seemed that the arduous battle was over. Despite the trials that they all faced by being split up, the group had persevered. The giant smiled slightly before putting her hands together briefly. The Shadows were powerful, yes, but she'd like to think that they, too, would maybe have a chance at being born into a more peaceful life. For their existences to end in battle like that. . . it was just too sad. Convinced that she had done enough, the giant relaxed her arms and looked around. Everyone was doing their own thing. The injured were being healed. Others were heading off together. Some tension was building, but was reasoned out. They stood together again, and all was well. For the most part. She smiled slightly. Victory, like most things, felt better when observed with others.
. . . but it was time to head back. She performed her role to the best of her abilities. More than that, she didn't want to ruin the mood. Besides, Yippa was likely concerned over her absence. Yeah. It was time to head “home”. The woman slowly strolled out of the center.
Amane watched as the numerous attacks crashed into the pair, finally killing them. Amane sighed in relief as she watched...well...what was left of her staff drop to the ground. Maybe throwing it at them wasn't so wise in retrospect. She looked over at the dark silhouette escape. She arched an eyebrow but before she could make note of it, the world around them turned back to normal. What in the world was that? She walked over to pick up her staff.
"Well let's head on ho-" Amane turned around just in time to see the rather...unique method of which Ran's persona decided to heal others. Suddenly Amane wondered if she should be accepting healing from this persona anymore. Not to mention it was setting off all kinds of personal alarms. "Um...I'll be heading home. I won't be joining for a party this time around." With that Amane started to walk off. She would spend more time with Ran but quite frankly this hasn't been the best full moon battle experience for her.
Post by Phoebe Minola on Mar 24, 2014 8:33:22 GMT -5
Well, shit. Chaos, that's what happened. At least, a small-scale version of it. Jaelyn... Jaelyn worried her. But hey, if that was her choice, Phoebe felt she couldn't interfere in that mess, but she wasn't gonna allow for another fight to break out, no matter the reasons.. She strode towards them and grabbed John by the rear of his collar.
"John," she said calmly. "John, just leave it. Please. I'm sure they've got their reasons. Calm down. Whatever's happened, it's done with now. Nobody's fighting anyone now-- Gin, knock it off, seriously."
Everyone was very much on edge, herself included. But someone had to keep a calm head and she felt like she was doing a better job at that than others. She joined the strange girl in the maid outfit in her orders. "She's right. Look, nobody's gaining anything by starting a fight now. We've all been through enough of a hell for one night."
Then she gesticulated at Vice a little angrily, about the gun. "Vice, dammit, don't point that thing around, you'll put out someone's eye, or worse," she groaned. "You've got a point, but Christ, no need to drive it home with a gun. Everyone just calm down."
She recognized the woman with Jaelyn now. Her name, if memory served her correctly was Sakuya. They'd met once. She still wasn't sure what to feel about her and Jaelyn but really, now was not the time. She just nodded at them. "Jaelyn, just ignore him. I'll talk to him. You aren't killing anybody. Take care, both of you."
Phoebe gently ushered John away from them. Honestly, everyone was jumpier than a cat on crack and it would've taken just a small thing for someone to snap and for everything to go pear shaped. "Come on, old man, we're getting grub and some booze. You need to calm down. You're not doing your blood pressure any favors."
She smiled tiredly at Alisa. She hadn't seen her in a while but was glad to. Alisa looked... different too, like something was bothering her. She could imagine what part of that was; she must want to talk to her about Gin and the matter of Shadows. She was fine with that - in fact, she'd be happy to talk to someone who wasn't losing their head over it. "Sure thing. Come on. I know a nice, quiet place not too far. It's open all night so there'll be no rush."
"Better to write for yourself and have no public than to write for the public and have no self."
Cyrril Connolly
Post by Akira Nakajima on Mar 24, 2014 9:21:15 GMT -5
”Be sure to come next Moon. We need as many capable people as possible.” The boy in drag told the woman he had argued with before. He could've said other things, but there was no point when everyone was getting ready to leave. His first revival was complete, so when the other man dropped his second charge before him, he just nodded. ”Sure thing. Good work.” The boy waved slightly before kneeling and planting Alma Elma's tail over the second victim's face. The woman called him CJ. Well, CJ, DJ, MJ, whatever-J, this dude was going to be fine shortly. A bit of ooze and a bunch strange and wrong-sounding occurrences echoed from the action. However, as the tail retracted, there was only one thing wrong with the scene. You know, the whole “face covered with sticky, semi-clear substances” deal. Either way, he'd be fine, just like the boy that was already up and arguing with people. With that done, he stood straight and stretched before waving to both the woman from before and Amane.
”Now then. . .” The boy gave the surroundings a look over before spotting some very nice-looking scissors. Plucking them up, he compared the new set to his current selection. ”Well, shit. This is nice. I'm happy now. Time to go eat somewhere.” The dual-scissor wielding crossdresser noted as he twirled and hummed before exiting the center.
That said and done, everything was finally coming to a close even if Phoebe still had to go ahead and do something like that. For the most part, the biker just latched on the safety, gave the firearm a spin, and shoved it back where it belonged inside his clothing. Still, with everyone already leaving and the situation having more or less devolved into something petty enough to not grow into something more troublesome, Vice decided that now would be the prime time to start hauling ass if they wanted to avoid becoming suspects for when the world decided to move forward again.
Before that though, the young man finally worked up the needed words to at least try and get some digging done. There were a lot of things that he couldn't check out on his own, having been using up his time either exploring the harsher areas of the outside area or training the new bloods for this kind of thing, Vice couldn't really throw himself into information gathering where too much time was required to get anything substantial. Which then led to him looking over at the robotic maid with an idea popping into his head. If this didn't work, well, there were still other candidates that he could talk to…but he honestly hoped that he wouldn't have to resort to them.
"Pyxis?" Vice began, his voice just loud enough so that the girl in question could hear it. "Think I can ask a favour from you?" Whether she agreed or not didn't matter, there really wasn't a lot of time left and planting the seed for it was essential while everything was still riding off the high of the battle. "I'm sure you've seen what just went down tonight, and we're sorely lacking information in that department. If you could, gathering any information on the Human Shadows would be helpful. Their User Links would be a good start. Thanks." After that, the red eyed chinese man just gave a stiff nod of his head, understanding whatever choice the anti shadow weapon was going to make if she decided to vocalise it here, before turning around and going to the same direction of where a lot of the others were heading.
There was still unfinished Business.
Last Edit: Mar 24, 2014 9:26:45 GMT -5 by Vice Ysal
Pyxis didn't really appreciate the woman named Phoebe's interference. She could see that there was no point trying to argue with her, though. Everyone, it seemed, was starting to calm down and go their separate ways, so she could freely do the same. It would probably take some time to power down tonight, so she'd probably just go and play video games until she didn't have the energy to remain active. Before she could leave, though, Vice addressed her, speaking in an undertone that she could only pick up because of her enhanced hearing.
Pyxis listened and considered his request. While investigation was not her strong suit, she had to admit that she was a good fit for the job. Although it was impossible to tell for sure while in the safe zone, or else on full moon nights, she should at least be able to pick up hints that a person was a shadow hiding in human form. That, too, she could only guess at, since the snake woman and, presumably, the tiger shadow were the only such shadows she had definitely met. All she had were theories at the moment, and she would have to test them out before she could adequately pursue what Vice was asking of her.
Maybe it was time to try and meet BrideKnight in person.
As for their "User Links" as Vice put it, she did at least have a place to start. The woman who seemed to be familiar with the tiger shadow was a substitute teacher at the school, and the snake lady seemed to be very close with the dark-haired girl she'd just left with. How to approach them, though...
Well, she did at least have enough to go on that investigating them wouldn't be impossible. She nodded in response, approaching Vice to give her answer in a similarly quiet voice. "I don't know how much I can get you, but I can probably at least find something out." Vice nodded in response, then turning away to follow several of the others. Pyxis nodded back and strode away from the scene as well, heading back to her apartment. There wasn't much more she was going to be able to gain tonight.
Post by Layla Amare on Mar 24, 2014 18:43:45 GMT -5
Whew. That had to be the roughest battle they had yet. But they had survived it. Not one, but two shadows had attacked them, but they had prevailed, and were safe from a similar fight for the next month. Layla smiled, then turned towards the two shadows that had showed up in the middle of the fight. Both of them, for whatever reasons they had, had taken their side and turned against the sun and moon shadows. Letting them go, for now...yes, that sounded like a good idea. She'd give them the benefit of the doubt, one more time. If it came back to bite her...well, she'd deal with it then. And there would be others who could help deal with them as well. Despite the rather messy first part of the fight, her side at least had come together as well before when it came to it. They could do so again.
"Great work, guys," she said, yawning. "Hopefully I'll...see you all soon." Soon, yes. She needed to get to know more of these people. She was familiar with Holly, and Alisa, and even passingly familiar with Maria, Tristan, and Nisha, but for everyone else, they couldn't stay as strangers she happened to see when big shadows showed up.
And speaking of Nisha...
"Hey!" Layla called out, seeing the giant of a woman already well on her way out of the shopping center. But either Nisha didn't hear her, or didn't recognize that it was directed at her.
Another time, maybe. Now that the adrenaline from the fight was starting to wear off, she was starting to realize that she was too tired for much of anything else anyway. She needed sleep, badly. With that in mind, she made her way out of the shopping center as well.
Post by John Nicholson on Mar 25, 2014 17:52:22 GMT -5
It appeared there were not many that shared John's current sentiment. At first he was quite inreceptive as the arguments he heard were brougth forth by strangers. He started listening once Vice and Phoebe joined in though. He cautiously pushed away the arm of this seemingly robotic boy. "Well, It seems that this is a fight for another day." The people that had gathered around by now were mostly strangers to him. He took a last good look at both the snake lady and her seemingly human companion, then tured around to go with Phoebe to whatever food joint they were going to hit. He turned around to the snake lady one last time before leaving though. "This will not be the last you'll hear of me. I can guarantee you that." He then wandered out of sight to wait for the rest of the gang to catch up.
Last Edit: Mar 25, 2014 17:54:23 GMT -5 by John Nicholson
Post by Gin Takemoto on Mar 26, 2014 2:56:21 GMT -5
Gin watched as the old man stood down. Good job. Didn't want to have to kill you, old man. He then listened as the human "vowed to return." It didn't take much to make a human hold a grudge, apparently. Still, it would be amusing to see the old man confront Sakuya. Gin wanted to be there, partially to have a laugh, partially to break it up before it got too bad.
He turned to Phoebe. "You're wanting me to calm down? Heh, I'm not saying I'm gonna fight here and now." He looked over the amount of Users still in the area. Most of them were leaving as he spoke, but some were still sticking around. "Too many enemies. Not enough friendly faces. Besides, I'm not simply going to fight against injured, exhausted humans; and definitely not when I'm about to have to change to human form." He started to head out the door, but turned to say a couple more things.
"Feebs, you wanna extend that offer to a shadow? I get the feeling that it'd be best if we were to talk. Soon." He then started to address everyone who was still in the room. There wasn't much left that could be said, but Gin had something that he wanted everyone to know. "Also. If anyone were to wish to spar with a shadow, let Feebs here know. She'll get a hold of me, and I'll work out a time. Just... Bring someone to back you up. Someone strong. That way, if I were to, say, go ballistic and attack with intent to kill, there'd be a higher chance that one of you can tell he rest of the humans. Also, it puts you on more equal footing. With that said, I make my escape. Nice meeting you all." He was as good as his word. He left, changing to his human form out of sight and starting to patrol the city.
People actually agreed with him, or at least followed his same notion. Humans were quick to cover for each other, even when they were going against one another in conflicts such as these. Like waving a stick in a pot full of rice, they clung to the matter and each other. With this similarity, did this mean that he was more human than he thought? Unlikely. At the root of it all, he was still a robot.
There was temptation to squeeze harder on the old man's shoulder, but his arm was removed gently by the intended recipient. Everyone around him was a stranger. He hadn't necessarily cared to go out and look for allies. This mission that was given to him was always worded by him to be done 'solo' unless allies come forth to help him. It wasn't supposed to be the other way around. However, considering the efficiency of this extermination, he might have to rethink his strategy. More is more.
Crux recorded the faces of each and every person he could see, taking special note of Pyxis and the Shadows. If he were to meet any of them again, he'd be certain to be more open with them. None of that 'student' crap. Besides, his utterly-destroyed clothing should give away that he's machine.
While he was still 'invisible', Crux departed from the scene, wiping his face with the rest of the scraps of clothing he still had while wrapping his arms with a new roll of bandages.
Post by CJ Jackson (TechChris) on Mar 27, 2014 18:32:46 GMT -5
CJ slowly opened his eyes. Through his still-blurred vision he could see dozens of silhouettes standing about or moving around. There was something important he tried to remember. Something he should be doing...
The battle!
He pulled himself up as fast as he could, only to realize that the battle had been over for some time now. He gradually recalled what had happened, how he was hit pretty hard and had passed out. He checked his hands and face. It seemed like the blisters on his flesh had dissipated completely, as if he had not been hurt in the first place.
Way to go, healers. Not even a scratch on me. ... Why am I sticky, though? What's with this goop?
He could vaguely recall the dream he had while he was out. He dreamed he was back in school, in that dorky private school uniform, with all his friends around. Only the school was run by a bass in a human robotic body, and there were fish guarding the school in every corridor and every classroom. He also dreamed Uroboros was there, only instead of a snake devouring its own tail it was a young boy nibbling at his fingers.
Well, that was weird... Glad I'm back to reality.
Reality, with its succubi and female hoplites and all sorts of different oddities floating next to some interesting-looking people.
Yep. Reality is far saner than my dream.
He had gotten up just in time to hear Phoebe's open invitation to dinner. His contribution to the fight was so minimal that he felt he didn't deserve to dine with the victors, and yet it would be a great opportunity to learn a little more about the people who fought beside him.
"I'm game, Feebs," he said, "As soon as I go get myself cleaned up. My clothes are ruined and I'm all sticky. ... Feebs, why am I sticky? Do I even want to know why I'm sticky?"