[CLOSED] UFS Spar: amenities vs. Ataraxy

[amenities 3775]

***THIS IS A TEST***

Ash fluttered from the flaking frame of a townhouse and drifted past Michael's face. He sat on what had once been a counter top beneath the infrastructure, heels bouncing off the blackened cabinets until his boot cracked the door and it fell, poofing to dust when it hit the ground a mere foot below.

In the young man's left palm sat a malformed chunk of cherry oak. Fringes of the chunk were charred black and dead, but the core was still virulent with color and moisture. Slowly, lovingly chinking away at the protrusions of black with a penknife, Michael whittled within the one house in the cul-de-sac that had been reduced to smoldering rubble, a wooden hilt sitting on the dark counter beside him.(1)

Spoiler

1) Prep

@Ataraxy

 

[Ataraxy 8113]

Tick tock the clock struck twelve. The little doors opened and a plastic yellow bird flung itself outward with the wild abandon of a broken toy. 

"Cukoo! Cukoo! Cuckoo!"

3 times.

"Cukoo! Cukoo! Cuckoo!"

6 times.

"Cukoo! Cukoo! Cuckoo!"

9 times.

"Cukoo! Cukoo! Cuckoo!"

12 times the bird shrieked, each scream signaling an hour of the past.

The tempo of her steps matched in pace with the failing bird clock, disrupted only by the soft jingling of the two swords which clung within their sheathes. Tightly snuggled against her hip so that they bumped against her legs as she walked, metal cling to a beat only slightly slower than her steps. Her face was covered by a white mask decorated in purple swirls, her eyes vanishing behind purple slots the mask allowed her to see through. Luckily it was made to not damage her vision, direct or peripheral. 

Around her hovered 10 similar masks, each with different designs swirling and lashing about them. Some looked angry, some looked sad, some anxious. Their emotions changed as the designs moved like snakes or spiders, ever shifting into something different. One in particular seemed full of rage, it's shape and pattern morphing at a speed exponentially faster than others(1). Dark energy surging through the illusioned object. It hovered nearly 5 feet in front of the mask woman.

Behind her mask Joanna Vyse spoke as she entered through the door, easily pushing past its single hinge holding, "Trick or treat, Peacekeeper."

The entrance was to the house was rather wide, no walls to box her in at first. Though it was filled with many modern appliances. An odd place to fight but one sub-scripted to her nonetheless. 

Spoiler

Total Preps [1]

(1) RG Dot -> 1 prep

 

Edited February 6, 2019 by Ataraxy

[amenities 3775]

There was another, internal ticking. One that didn’t cuckoo, but perhaps one that was a little cuckoo. These ticks were the turning gears of warlord deranged for battle, deranged for blood; only a skin of virtue with which to mask intent. Truth was, free from the rules of the world he’d been molded into, he wasn’t what you’d think a Peacekeeper to be. Not even a little. The happenings of Valucre had so warped Michael from his original course that, outside of it, he felt a semblance of himself that came before Gaia and her saints saved him. Joanna would see as she approached Michael’s left side one crystal nestled beneath his earlobe like jewelry, a cosmic purple color. Below his other ear was one blood red.

Michael was wearing a chainmail t-shirt and black shorts tied up by a white sash. The sash seemed to secure one red-gilded plate of armor which protruded from his waistline to his abdomen. His fingers and wrists seemed to do all the work; the boy’s outfit bereft of motion.

The distant cuckoo, the clinking swords. The carving didn’t stop, but increased in pace. (1) Besides light reflecting off the facets of his crystals, Joanna would also see the shifting glimmers in his eyes as his gaze shifted between her and his work. It was as if he knew where she was, but kept looking just to be sure she was really right there. (2)

Joanna and Michael, about thirty feet apart, were down the charred hallway from one another. From her view, Michael sat with his left side facing her on a counter just through the doorway to what used to be a kitchen. Electricity sparked from a loose wire protruding from the recently burned rubble.

Spoiler

 

Preps Gathered: 1

1) Gathering prep

2) Innate Effect: True Sight

 

 

[Ataraxy 8113]

The young warrior tilted her head at the bejeweled man who sat at the end of the hallway diddling with a piece of wood. She'd been told the match would prove to be one of her hardest yet; a face off against a powerful peacekeeper. However, just looking at Michael, he struck her more as a lost child. Or, at the very least, someone struggling to find their place in the world. Some how that didn't impress her. She wasn't overwhelmed at the Peacekeeper, but nor was she underwhelmed. In the face of her current opponent Joanna was simply... whelmed. 

Following her casual movements of entering the house and seeing Michael not bother to get up or settle into a defense stance, Joanna flashed her arms toward him. At her movement the distorted mask, the one struggling to maintain its shape, shot forward toward Michael like a bolt of lightning (1). Crossing the distance in the matter of a second, the distorted mask exploded into dark energy particles, or, to the average observer, a cloud of thick dust. One not even the best eyes could see through. The dust cloud's dark energy particles, however, would quickly melt into the walls, ceilings, and floor so that visibility would once again return if only after a minute or so (2).

Behind the mask followed three almost imperceptible white slivers, only noticeable by the occasional light that bounced off their lengths. To Michael, however, their shapes would likely be blocked from sight due to the cloud of dark energy, their steel designs stabbing ruthlessly into his chest at various points (3). 

Joanna, meanwhile, ducked into an adjoining room a split second after releasing the silver needles. The door way she slid into was at a distance of 20 feet from Michael. If he didn't want to walk through the dust cloud to reach her, he would have to make his way around through the kitchen- the only room which connected to the living room she current hid in; knives between her fingers and at the ready. 

Spoiler

Total Preps: [2]

(1) Quickdraw attack: Needles thrown

(2) Prep: RG Dot [1] -> RG Cloud [2]

(2) Environmental Advantage -> Needles harder to see/ dodge because of design + "dust" cloud inhibiting vision

 

[amenities 3775]

Joanna flicked her arm and the needles flew, masked by the motion of the first mask and its distribution of dark energy. Both motions would have warranted the same action separately. Pinpricks of yellow signified Joanna’s needles plinking against a barrier about three feet before they reached Michael’s left shoulder. (1; 2) Besides these snaps of light and the needles tinkling to the ground, the only indication Joanna had ever thrown anything was a subtle smile on the lost boy’s face. Her analyses of his stance and demeanor were correct. He hadn’t been preparing to fight when she came along and here, he wasn’t concerned with the goings on of world Valucre.

In fact, Michael thought while examining the piece of wood after shaving the last necessary piece from it (3), he had just been about to kill himself when she came along. But you see, it wasn’t because he was lost; certainly wasn’t because his conviction was weak. It was because the only way out of here was through victory, death or defeat; because every time he came to this damn realm, nobody could do either one to him.

Scooting his butt off the counter, Michael’s boots would hit the deck just as Joanna secured her knives. Only, he wasn’t going through the hallway with the scary death mist (fuck that), he walked to the wall adjacent to the doorway he was just visible through, to where a pile of rubble with a sparking wire sat. On the other side of this intact wall was the living room with Joanna in it. By this point the walls and the house’s siding were charred and dried up, plastic wicking off of the lamps and skeletons all that remained of furniture.

The hilt of the Tenchi-Ken Peachy Keen still sat on the counter where once a lost— but mostly bored— Peacekeeper sat.

Joanna would hear Michael’s voice resonate throughout the frail household’s remnants. His tone was casual, as he had been thousands of times before in the seconds preceding someone else’s death.

“I hope you don’t want a treat” he chuckled, “because I ate all the food here while I was waiting. And now I'm gonna get you, trick!”

Spoiler

 

Full Preps: 2

1) Quickdraw Defense: peachy keen's light barrier

2) Innate Advantage: true sight; magical veiling effects are weakened, ethereal plane becomes visible as do the machinations of magic therein.

3) Gathering Prep

 

 

[Ataraxy 8113]

“I hope you don’t want a treat, because I ate all the food here while I was waiting. And now I'm gonna get you, trick!” [Michael]

What a patronizing asshole. A quip she would have responded with had it been anything less than a death match. Although Joanna wasn't one of those meta-humans with super hearing more sensitive than a dog's, that didn't mean sound was a completely useless tool to her. Michael spoke long and loud enough for her to pinpoint his general location: he was more or less in front of the wall that was in front of her. For a split second there may have even been a direct line between the two of them, though since all she had to go off of was his general location she'd deduced. 

But that wasn't enough. Sometimes in a fight you just had to trust your gut and go with it. 

Which is exactly what she did. 

Waving her hands forward slightly, it was more of a quick jerk than a wave really, one of her masks shot forward. The wall between them, not having been originally that thick was no doubt dilapidated like the rest of the house and the rotting structures lacking the durability to truly put up much of a fight. The first hit the wall with a violent thud, exploding on contact.

The blast radius was approximately seven meters though it extended forward just a smudge more for the mask's original momentum. Michael, who had just walked toward the rubble on the other side would be well within the explosion's reach. But, because of the nature of the explosion, it would be much more than a simple boom of fire and propulsion. Wooden shards would also be launched in Michael's direction, though not necessarily on at him specifically. The heat from the mask exploding would also set of an electrical explosion produced from the fire sparking high energy into the exposed wire's electrical arc. The mixture of the chaotic electricity, flames of exploding dark energy, and the gas from that electrical breakdown would no doubt result in a fairly bombtastic BOOM (1/2/3/4). 

Joanna, as the mask collided into the wall and exploded, rounded back into the first room she'd been in; where she'd have a direct line of sight to the potentially injured Michael. A mask perpetually 2 meters in front of her. An angry looking bastard. It's crazy, empty eyes peering out at what looked like wiggling black mold growing from the ceiling above the table Michael had been sitting at. 

Spoiler

Total Preps [3]

(1) Quick-attack: BOOM BABY BOOM

(2) Environmental Advantage: Open wire/ wall shards

(3) Environmental Advantage: Michael is near the wall

(4) Preps made [1]: Maelstrom

[2] preps dormant: RG Dot [1] -> RG Cloud [2]

 

[amenities 3775]

Suddenly, the moment Mike picked up the wire protruding from the rubble, the wall before him burst into splinters. The advantage of stealth in regards to magic use was certainly Joanna’s. While he had had to walk to the wire, speaking, undoubtedly giving away his position, her masks flew across the air like specters. While he could see the masks themselves in a line-of-sight scenario, the wall had kept them from being detected until impact. Luckily Michael had kept the orb of light around him as he began charging the wire with his energy, but the attack was still alarming.

The Bastion shielded his face as shards of wood and drywall broke the light orb and pelted against his forearm and torso (1). His exposed forearm skin was rendered scraped and somewhat burned by the aura that managed to bleed through his orb. As fire and foreign power encroached on the enorbed boy and the wire he held, he enacted his magic to ride the wave of fire that had already besmirched their suburban arena. The wire delving into the ground at his feet was within his personal orb and, connected by the wire to the house’s structure, he pushed Explaudere back into the network branching through the house to cause an immense explosion that ignited the perfect tinder remaining of the entire remaining structure. Just as Joanna made to move for the entry room, fire swallowed every room whole in the time it takes for a shockwave to spread through the house (2). Should Joanna be unable to prepare herself, she would be utterly lambasted out the front door by spears of heat and fire flying from every remaining wall, stud, and joist.

As flames emanated from Michael and everything his wire and those connected to it touched, whether his multifaceted flames devoured or overcame those of Joanna’s fire mask, they spread wildly and bombastically throughout the house’s infrastructure. Joanna’s explosion would be the catalyst to the house’s destruction; her’s and Michael’s acting as one blast, as Michael’s did indeed feed off the kinetic energy created by hers. Just as a furnace needs to let in air so its fire can survive, Michael's chest billowed outward as the hellfire surrounded him and became the entire house. His bellows widened, allowing for the accordioning of great force into his magic as the entire house burst to its fruition. (3)

Spoiler

 

1) Quickdraw defense: Mike puts his arm in front of him + Innate Advantage: Light orb still present from last turn

2) Expend 3 prep attack, powering Mike's pyromancy into the house to explode it + Environmental Advantage: House is already charred to a premium tinder.

3) Gathering Prep

 

 

[Ataraxy 8113]

The thing about time is that while it's relative, it's also largely constant. So despite Michael's burst of hellfire being quick, it was not so quick as to catch Joanna prior to her reaching the entry room. She was not so slow that she would only begin to move in the span it took for her attack to reach the wall, explode the wall, hit Michael, and then wait for him to give sweet release of his metaphorical blue balls. 

No, rather by the time her mask struck the wall, she was already rounding into the entry room. For all the good that would do her against a storm of fire that would then proceed to rage throughout the house and try to raze it down. There was not, in fact, much that she could do in the face of all that. 

So she did what she could and sprawled to the ground in the middle of the room and covered her head with her arms, her masks collapsing upon her in a dense black shield that would resist the flames until it was burnt into nothing (1/2).

In the room where Michael was, Joanna's original explosion had gone off though without doing nearly the damage she'd expected. However, it was something as warrior of Joanna's experience would have planned for in advance. Her attack had, of course, been imbued was dark energy. And as the shards and heat rushed toward the previously approaching Michael, so did the dark energy which had ridden on the explosion. If mere shards and heat had managed to get through with enough kept strength so as to burn the Peacekeeper, the dark energy attached to both of those would have gotten through the light orb as well. So when fire erupted from Michael, it act as the catalyst needed to set off the maelstrom of dark energy which had penetrated the orb of light. Although unlikely to do much damage to the boy who was releasing such a magnitude of fire, it would result in decreasing the fire's raw energy output (3). A little, anyways. 

Pop pop pop the dark energy would go, little explosions kicking a tantrum at the mommy fire. 

While her little plan at laying tiny clay-mores in Michael's room was, uh, relatively successful, Joanna wasn't having as much luck in her little dark energy dome. Though the attack was strong, it was widely dispersed and in every direction, so the power wasn't as dense as it could have been (4), that wasn't much help for Joanna who was feeling fairly fucked at the moment. Michael's power was no joke. 

Within moments the fire ripped through her defensive, scorching her back, legs and arms with heated fangs and swords of rage. Then it surpassed scorching and essentially proceeded to melt skin and burn muscle. The back of her left thigh was burned so badly so if Michael had been standing above her, he'd be able to see the bone. Clothes were smoking and ripped, hanging together by only the thinnest of strands. She wasn't exactly immobile, long since used to such pain, but she certainly was wounded. Very much so as her back cracked with first and second degree burns along with the occasional third. It took everything she had not to whimper at the pain of it all. 

The fire burned everything it touched, licking everything with heated desires. Even the walls and ceiling, what remained or was burning was black as night (5). It was an odd sight that the seemingly black mold from before had survived the blast, as if it enjoyed the heat and grew with the roar of it.

Spoiler

Total preps [3]

Preps expended this turn: [1]

(1) Quickdraw: Dark Energy dome to defend against fire

(2) Innate Advantage: Reflexive defense -Because of Joanna's exposure to so much Dark Energy, there is always a small lining of dark energy around her. If an attack comes within a two feet radius of her, the energy around her expands into a defensive bubble. It retracts like an inflatable suit once the threat is gone. This is automatic.

(3) Maelstrom [1] prep - offensive defense against fire, pushes back against it to lower ultimate output by damage around 1 prep worth

(4) Environmental Advantage: House is a big place and it takes the full 3 preps to burn it down. Because of the dispersion, the 3 preps is spread throughout the house is not centered on Joanna. Following the maelstrom defense, this would lower it to be more like a spread 2 prep.

(5) RG Dot [1] -> RG Cloud [2] -> Last Stand [3]

 

[amenities 3775]

The offshoot of dark magic encroaching on his hand battled the force raring outward from the direct source of Michael’s power for a moment, splashing against the tangible light emanating from him before being largely overcome by the blaze that swallowed the house.

Michael’s and his skin’s tolerance to flame was, while penetrable, incredibly high. When his skin was burnt it wasn’t born of the explosion, no— it came from the small bits of dark energy that had infiltrated his light orb and now exploded in trace amounts along his forearm. So it was with genuine pain and a baring of the teeth that Commager flinched his hand back at the same time as fire swallowed the house, minor energy burns having become open wounds along his arm. The pain stifled his inhalation, but did not stop it, clean and hot air streaming into his nostrils. The bursts of energy that frayed his hand and wrist’s skin hurt, as did any injury, but he was calmed by a warrior’s mentality and the knowledge that here, within the center of his light and detached from the source, Joanna’s dark energy could not persist. Already like an autonomous being, focused pricks of white dancing along their master’s burnt cuts to purify them of the little foreign energy that still tainted them.(1) After years of training, he knew instantaneously that all he needed focus on was killing.

Much of the house which had, in essence, only ever been a standing skeleton of tinder, was fallen almost immediately. Though all that now remained was the wooden frame, it was still clothed in so much fire that the now nonexistent walls were nearly palpable. Another palpable effect was the warring of Michael’s natural flames with a darker counterpart Tori showed him. She also showed him Joanna’s energy signature just as her shield deteriorated and the fire now gnawed at her open flesh. He didn’t need to will the flames on. In that flash, they had been targeted to devour her. Joanna’s dark energy was attached to the house’s frame, but it would take genuine focus to unravel his control over the specific flames whose purpose was to incinerate everything between him and her and deal as much damage to her as possible. 

The flash signifying the house’s demise had issued, Michael flinched simultaneously with the flash before controlling his inhalation as he overcame the pain; then, with the heat already welled inside him, he found Joanna about six seconds after the blast. There was no time for him to consider mercy. There was no dark shield remaining; Joanna’s clothing just having ignited. Her back was facing up.(2)

Even as her back and legs began to bubble, Michael exhaled through his mouth; flexing his entire torso to push the heat he had gathered through the narrow conduit that was Tori. It was a single shot of focused energy that only lasted for a fraction of a second. Instead of Michael coming up behind Joanna to appraise her emerging bone, what came from behind in that moment was a ray of red light which would lance from the crystal at his neck straight for Joanna’s nearly exposed spine to sever the connection between two of her vertebrae.(3)

Just after issuing the incendiary shot, Michael bolted to his left. Now where once the wooden hilt to the Tenchi-Ken Peachy Keen had say was a bubble of light like a smaller sibling to that which surrounded Mike. The peacekeeper swept his hand through the smaller sibling bulb (and it blipped blood red) as he swiveled left before diving straight through a wall of uninfected flame separating him from the outdoors.(4)

Spoiler

1) Innate effect: orb of Mike's energy purifies foreign energy that slips inside

2, 3) Expend 1 Prep + Environmental effect: incendiary beam + Joanna's deteriorated defenses and unfavorable positioning

4) Gathering prep