Offer of Protection (Isolde, Phoebe; Battle)

[Gin Takemoto]

Gin had been wandering the Shadowlands daily in case someone decided to take him up on the offer he made after the big fight. He wasn't overly surprised that noone had come to spar against him, yet he was shocked that none of the Users came just to try to kill him. He considered the possibility of them actually trusting him slightly, then started to laugh. Phoebe didn't even trust him, and she had spared his life.

He encountered some weaker shadows who were ignorant enough to try to attack. With a simple kick, he dissolved one and crushed the other's mask. Not wanting to waste anymore time with weaker enemies, he changed into his shadow form before scaling a building. It was a good position to watch other shadows mull around as well as to see if anything were to come within a good portion of the area he was in. Satisfied with his choice of location, Gin then started to watch the happenings of the area.

[Phoebe Minola]

Phoebe had gone out on a short patrol of the Shadowlands. She walked through here with more confidence than before after the full moon incident and ever since she found that strange torc. She'd taken to wearing it all the time now when she came out into the Shadowlands and it paid off. Certain Shadows simply ran away when they saw or sensed her coming. She wasn't like Vice, who could scare off a lot of Shadows just by looking at them the right way, but hey, she was getting there.

She climbed over a bit of debris and saw two fairly familiar forms in the distance. One of them was a tiger - that was certainly Gin. No mistaking his stripey ass now. The other was... oh, what was her name again. She remembered the girl from the bookstore and then the full moon battle but they hadn't really spoken. She had a peculiar, but charming name. Now what was it...

With a small degree of alarm she saw the girl inching closer to Gin. Yes, Gin had offered to spar with people but Phoebe still didn't completely trust him... or most of the other Users. She didn't trust them not to kill each other. She hurried on over towards them discreetly but didn't speak up, waiting to see what they'd do. If they fought, she could act as... a referee, maybe?

[Gin Takemoto]

Gin watched as multiple humans entered the area. He couldn't really make them out, but one of them was definitely familiar. He considered approaching the human when he realized that the other was coming ever closer. He bounded down the building towards the human, who he recognized was at the full moon fight. He considered changing to human form, but decided it would be unwise.

He started to pace around and see what the girl would do when he noticed the other human approaching rapidly. He sat on his haunches, watching to see what would happen while hoping that the old saying didn't come true for him.

[Deleted]

"Your name is Gin, right? It's nice to meet you. I have seen you before at the full moon battle, but I never caught your name." she spoke to the tiger. There was also another person, perhaps a Persona User that ran up to them. It was that lady she recognized at the bookstore and the full moon boss battle. Although, the lady seemed to have forgotten her name. From the lady's actions towards the old man, she seemed to protect the tiger from the old man's threats. It was a good course of action, otherwise the tiger-like Shadow would've killed him right then and there. She spoke to the lady, "I know you from the battle too. It's nice to see you again, Phoebe. If you forgotten my name, it's Isolde." Even though she distrusted the tiger, she knew that the tiger meant no harm to the other Persona Users. Protecting a Shadow had its consequences, but there was a belief of hers that would bring about peace between them. She waited to see what they would do next.

[Phoebe Minola]

Phoebe caught up with the girl and panted a little bit, but then smiled at her tiredly. "Oh, thank you for reminding me!" she said. "I'm so bad with names sometimes, when I don't see people often enough, it's kind of embarrassing. I'm glad to see you got out of the full moon battle alright. Yes, I'm Phoebe," she blurted. "Uh... what are you doing out here? Have you come to train or something?"

She eyeballed Gin who sat on his haunches in an almost demure manner and wondered what the Shadow was up to. If he was up to any mischief, she had to step in to make sure it didn't go too far. He'd offered to be a sparring partner for Users and Phoebe had been concerned about that offer. She was worried both about Gin overdoing it... and of a User with more malicious intent than just sparring.

"Hey Gin. What are you up to, fuzzball?" she said, trying to sound light-hearted.

[Gin Takemoto]

Gin grinned at the female User who spoke to him. It wasn't everyone who would be polite enough to attempt to speak, after all. He could feel from her emotions that she didn't trust him, but he didn't mind. He actually would have been surprised if she had trusted him.

He noticed that the other human, Phoebe, had finally approached. He had been wondering who it was, and he wasn't surprised. He expected her to show up eventually. However, the odds of the two Users encountering him at the same time... He figured something was up. He grinned even wider.

"My name is Gin, Miss," he told the girl. "It's a pleasure. As for you, Phoebe, have you finally decided to take me up on my offer to train? You know that next month will only be more difficult, yes?" He stood up and stretched. "I hope everyone will be prepared. I'd hate to hear of someone dying." He considered a moment, then spoke up again. "Yeah, I'd hear about it. I'm not sure I'm gonna help this time around. Too many people want me dead in the community."

[Phoebe Minola]

Phoebe cringed a bit at the mention of training. She still had the bad aftertaste left by Tristan and his idea of training. She sulked a bit.

"I suppose you could say that," she muttered. "I'm mostly here to make sure you don't get up to anything stupid, Gin. Or in case someone tries to come and make a rug out of you," she said a bit reproachfully.

She realized Isolde probably had no idea why she was on so casual terms with a Shadows. "Oh, er, right, you probably don't know," she said. "Gin and I have a... deal of sorts. An agreement. He doesn't try to hurt people unprovoked and I... well, I don't hammer his ass into the ground."

Figuratively, anyway. She wasn't entirely sure she could take on Gin for real if she had to. She had gotten stronger since their first near-disastrous encounter and she was quite the mean fighter now, but apparently, so had Gin so there was no telling how a real fight between them would go. But he did have a point. Full moon battles would only get harder from here on and she needed to constantly keep herself on her toes in order to deal with the situation.

[Gin Takemoto]

Gin grinned on. It appeared to him as if he might get his training in after all, and who knows? Maybe afterwards, more people will come to train with him. That would be nice, if just to see who all would be willing to accept help from a shadow. He hoped the one girl would come, if just so that they could finish their fight.

However, he had two fighters right in front of him. He wondered what Isolde's strengths were, her weaknesses, her support capabilities. He wanted to know how much stronger Phoebe had gotten with her new Persona. He waited for the inevitable offer to train, but he would say something if no one else did.

[Phoebe Minola]

Phoebe sighed a little. "Well, I can see that I won't be stopping you guys, so I guess I'll join. But since I already know Gin's weaknesses I'm gonna take the support role. I can't heal you, Isolde, but I can boost your defense so Gin doesn't deal more damage than necessary," she said and drew her warhammer from the holster.

She tapped the floating blue card and Hypatia emerged from the small flare of blue light, poised for battle with her shield gracefully held up in pride. The moment she appeared, a flash of sweet orange light danced around Phoebe and Isolde, bolstering their natural defenses.

"I've automatically boosted our defense for now. Don't expect Gin to be a pushover. I can probably weather his attacks but don't overstretch yourself until you get a feel for what he can do, okay?" Phoebe said to Isolde and then assumed a deadpan expression. "And don't be afraid to kick his ass. He can take it."

[Gin Takemoto]

Gin started to laugh at the two Users in front of him. "You really think this is a good idea?" he asked. "Well then, I'll oblige you two. I had a feeling that it would end up going this route." He watched as Phoebe strengthened the defenses of the two. "You might want to prepare yourselves. This isn't going to be easy!" 

Battle Start! Ready your weapons...

---

He jumped over the pair. He wanted to start off with a good position, and appearing behind them would give him a momentary upper hand. He considered the best way to approach the situation. He knew that the usefulness of his skills would be diminished the longer that Phoebe had to strengthen the two of them. With that said, he decided to cut off her casting. He cast Makajam and hoped it affected her. Either way, he wasn't going to focus solely on forcing her to stop casting. He'd have to focus on Isolde next turn, probably.

((Makajam))

Silence Roll- silence on 1
eSchEciz1-4
1-4

[Phoebe Minola]

Phoebe blinked in surprise as the silencing spell hit her. She'd seen her Persona cast it hundreds of times so she recognized it instantly. She really didn't think it would've connected but it did.

She started to curse internally because she found she couldn't speak at all. She could open and close her mouth like a fish out of water and strain all she wanted but nothing came out.

My power has been sealed, Hypatia whined. This is very vexing.

You're telling me! Phoebe growled internally.

She knew that the silencing spells wore off after a while but until then she'd be rather useless as an attacker or a defender. She could still take some hits for Isolde fortunately and attack Gin with her hammer but she wasn't sure how much good that'd do. Without much preamble she psyched herself up and rushed him, silently screaming obscenities. She reeled her hammer back and swung for his head.


[[Action: Strike Attack, boosted by 25%]]

[Gin Takemoto]

Gin started to laugh when Phoebe strained to speak. He hadn't expected the spell to actually work, but at least it provided him some time before she could start to boost the defense of her little duo. He started to wonder why he didn't use the spell more often before closing the train of thought. He needed to focus on the fight.

He saw Isolde summon her Persona before feeling a deep cold penetrate his being. He decided to take note of how she started with ice in case it became helpful in the future. When he finally freed himself, he looked up to see Phoebe attack him with her hammer. She surprised him with that attack, causing him to be unprepared to react.

He looked at the two. They were both upper-tier Users as far as the tiger could tell. He knew they weren't top-tier, but they were close. Sadly for them, that meant that Gin would need to find out what tickled them. He decided to start out with his weakest attack: Mahamaon. He felt his energy deplete slightly as the area bathed in light. He was curious to see how the females would react before he moved on to his stronger attacks.




((Mahamaon))

[Phoebe Minola]

Phoebe was staggered by the light spell that hit her, but she was tough enough to weather it, for the time being. It seemed like Gin was trying to put them through their paces. While normally she would've been okay with such training, her silenced situation had made her quite indignant. She was all but out of the game right now. Neither she nor Isolde seemed to be particularly hurt for now, which was good. Isolde was pretty good with ice spells, dishing out quite the considerable damage, but Phoebe could tell it wasn't something that would knock Gin on his fuzzy ass for long.

She shook herself down, cursed a little more in her head and launched another attack on Gin, plowing straight on and swinging her hammer at his head.

Normally, she would've never contemplated getting this up close and personal to a Shadow. But now there was really nothing else she could do.

[[Action: Strike attack, 25% boost]]

[Gin Takemoto]

While he was glad when the Users took his attack in stride, Gin was slightly concerned. Phoebe already seemed as if she was willing to kill, for some strange reason. He would have to ask her about that. After she could respond, of course.

He felt another Ice spell envelop him. He broke free, only to have Phoebe repeat her actions as well. This angered Gin, if only because they were reusing the same attacks. He knew Phoebe had no choice, but that didn't matter. He was suddenly starting to get angry.

He looked at the two females before stretching. He then walked over to Isolde and slashed away with his claws.



((Normal slash on Isolde))

[Phoebe Minola]

Gin!! Goddammit, get back here!! Phoebe thought, running after Gin as he attacked Isolde.

She tried to jump in the way of the attack since she nulled slash, but she didn't have the time. She determined to stand between Isolde and Gin no matter what. She turned to Isolde and made some wide gestures to try and make her understand that she should keep behind her when Gin came close. Phoebe knew the spell had to wear out at some point and when it did she was going to get back at that overgrown cat with a vengeance.

She charged him again and swung her hammer once more, hoping to get him good.

[[Action: Strike attack, 25% boost]]