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>>37303845

HOLLOW SUN: 11.5% [NO ACCESS]

http://pastebin.com/QhA7P9S4

RESEARCH:

[X] FIRMWARE UPGRADE
[X] RESEARCH: SUPERHEAVY CHASSIS
[X] ARC CHARGER
[X] CHOIR BEACON
[X] DIRAC TRANSMITTER II
[X] TACHYON REACTOR
[X] NEUTRONIUM REFINERY


VOID ANCHORS:

ORIGINAL HIVE
THE TRIBUNAL
NARAKA
THE VAULT
TUSITA

HOLDING: 0 (VECTOR GEIST: 1)

RED COMET GUIDE:

http://pastebin.com/hmcAYhRE

>>37303888

(Gentlemen; I've been thinking about this very, very carefully, and I've come to the conclusion that it would be inappropriate to allow access to the Hollow Sun beyond this point, unless the situation changes drastically. Usually, there would be the potential for access, in a kind of off-screen research and inventory management - At present, however, no such opportunity exists.

I highly, highly encourage you to think tactically - with regard to your present arsenal, abilities and resources - to overcome challenges from this point onwards. Be aware that - With the VECTOR TRAP researched - you can now change your weapons freely at the start of this turn, instead of expending an action to do so. I failed to include that on the character sheet, and for that you have my sincerest apologies.

Rest assured that if you die at any point, I will strive to give the Quest a comprehensive ending. With that said, I hope you will enjoy the present episode.)

OP, does Vector Trap help with summoning Neutronium relics?

>>37303962

(That's actually a very good question. To step into system discussion for a moment, Neutronium weaponry and Relics are meant to provide immense power at the cost of less tactical flexibility/a significant change in playstyle, in order to offset their advantage. I feel, at this juncture, that it would not be appropriate to allow a rapid switch - But at the same time, the VECTOR TRAP is meant to be a substantial upgrade.

As a compromise, I'd say that you can be assumed to have Neutronium Relics 'stored' on your person, granting you access to them. However, summoning a Neutronium Relic is still a significant task that would take about a single action, but the entire round to complete. To be specific, you will only receive access to it on your next turn, after choosing to summon the relevant Relic.

Thus, the sequence of events would looking like this:

[Red Joker's Turn - Summon Relic] - [Opponent's Turn] - [Red Joker's Turn - Access to Relic]

If I recall correctly, the only Neutronium Relic you presently have on hand is the THE ADAMANT.)

>>37303845
I'm surprised you're able to run again after last night.

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>>37304054

Across the narrow distance, at the eye of the storm, you face your foe.

Beneath your armored hooves, vines squirm. Ugly, tumorous, a blossoming thicket of odd, twisted thorn brush - the gnarled, wrinkled plant matter crunches underfoot, the thorns long and barbed and sharp. They make the sound of chittering mandibles, of clattering insect wings, swaying in time to the moan of the wind-

And beyond, the black rain continues to fall. The spires of Arcadia are stained black, beneath sullen crimson skies; A stain that expands ever-outwards, to engulf all before it. In that distance, through the shuddering veil of roiling mist and liquified matter, you glimpse - Or think you can see - the familiar structures of Seisin High, oddly forlorn against the desolate, empty silhouette of the alien city. Growths, like weeds and climbing plants, twitch fretfully in suppurating half-life; the constant deluge like the crash of acid waters against a broken shore.

Before you, the White Joker stands. Singular, solitary - black smoke boiling from the wake of his limbs, fluid and solid at once. Amorphous shapes, twisted and malformed - the suggestion of talons, bludgeons, blades - churn within it; a seething primordial chaos, reality so badly damaged that a noxious infernal light shines through the punctures. He is a walking contradiction; A pale thing, a sterile thing, but shot through with smoke and darkness.

Threads of heat around a cold heart.

In one hand, he bears the sword of red iron, glowing like a brand. In the other, the Beam Magnum - the Carnifex gleaming like a badge of office, malevolent blue light bleeding from the eyeslits of his helm.

(Continued)

>>37303948
>Be aware that - With the VECTOR TRAP researched - you can now change your weapons freely at the start of this turn, instead of expending an action to do so.
Does this include Hollow Sun weapons?

>>37304299

(The actual intention was for it to be limited to the weapons in your inventory, to be honest.)

>>37304242

The Plasma Caster is levelled before you, as you find your footing. Sparks flicker from the damaged knee-joint of your left leg; Vapor wisping from the charging chamber, as the echo of the blast fades. As the ragged smoke-wings - Now rent and blasted - unfurl from the White Joker's form, a circle of killing frost expands around him; the uncertain, fibrous plant-growths flash-freezing into abstract twists of brittle crystal, frozen eternally between one state and the next.

There is a wariness to him, now. This is no longer an execution, no longer play - Perhaps for first time, the White Joker is fighting for more than victory; He is fighting for his life.

Power flares around him.

The two of you, together, have equal and opposite halves of the same power. Head-to-head, against each other-

You could tear the planet in half.

You wonder how long he's spent studying you. Styuding himself. Cycling through every possible combination of skils, powers, tactics. You can feel the probe of his sensor fields, watching - waiting for any hint of what you might draw, and what you might do with it. It is a break, a lull in the fury of the combat to come; that long slow measuring moment where you psych yourselves into the killing zone.

The faintest suggestion of tension, myomer muscles moving beneath white carapace-

-He's chosen.

And so have you.

HP: 158.9%
COBALT BOOSTER: 170%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 95%
METER: 8%

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>37304348
Tyrant Burst 1 + Crisis Arm double fist and Abruption Jets

Tyrant Burst 3 + Flechettes + Dual Tau gun + repairing our knee

>>37304348
Should we drag out the fight so that we can fill our meter up to 100% and do the black hole thing? I don't think anything else is going to kill him.

>>37304348
OP, is Aquila still active?

>>37304372

(Yes. Your Tempest Scrander is currently in Aquila mode, as according to the last thread.)

>>37304364
Forgot to add:
Use Booster on TAU

Evening OP, hope you're well. Surprised to see you again after last night's monster session.

>>37304348
Let's follow up on the plan from last thread: Chaingun in the right arm talon and Immolator in the left, boosting the Immolator.

We doing the spoiler thing again? Hit him with Exec_Harrow, and signal Leukocyte to fire the Distortion Cannon. Summon Rubicante and Cagnazzo to take advantage of the expenditure. Use some booster to repair Joker's eyes.

>>37304364
I'm against the flechettes, the shroud is the one thing that isn't regenerating here. More defense=more chance of surviving.

>>37304401
I'll second this, and spoiler just in case.

>>37304401
>I'm against the flechettes, the shroud is the one thing that isn't regenerating here. More defense=more chance of surviving.
Point.

>>37304364
So, do this without flechettes.
Also, can we feint the unspoilered thing? With Vector Trap we can switch relics quickly, so activating the Crisis Arms and heating the abruption jets, while the Tyrant Burst charges, should be possible, without delaying the summoning of our Tau guns.

>>37304401
>Distortion Cannon.
Isn't that a weapon with bad accuracy? It's destructive, but the chance of it actually hitting a Player are extremely. Something precise, like the Tachyon Disitegrator might be viable here.

>>37304401

Why, exactly, do you want to keep using the Distortion Cannon? What makes you think he's going to stand still long enough for us to hit him with it?

Rolled 1, 6 = 7 (2d6)

>>37304427
*chances of it actually hitting a Player are extremely low.

>>37304428
Especially now that he got the Carnifex.

This is going to make reading the archive really annoying

>>37304450
Well, crossed-out is less obnoxious than actually spoilered, imo.

>>37304428
It's actually an AOE weapon--you don't NEED to hit anyone with it head on, the blast is going to be nasty no matter what. I'd prefer to use Exec_Smite, but that's a huge expenditure. Plus this puts a Harrow lock on him, giving us a much better chance of seeing him coming regardless of any tricks he pulls.

Tell you what though, if you're really so against how about we hit him with a surprise Smite? It's the same to me.

>>37304478
Sure, I like Smite more, even if this means giving away two trump cards this time.
But no one is watching, right?

Smite costs 104%, iirc. Let's see if we have that much.

>>37304493
Booster's full.

>>37304493
>>37304504
>There is a brief lag before the resulting explosion, however: The effect can be detected, if you know what you're looking for.
Probably not the best idea, given the situation.

>>37304504
Thank fuck for us upgrading that thing last time.

>>37304521
I seriously hope that we don't get punished for an unspoilered quote.
Because the plan is currently using TAU. Which is a weapon with a delay.
Imagine if he expected a weapon with a delay.

>>37304531
I'm pretty sure he's just reading our movements, not our mind. Even if he is, it's not like that means anything by itself.

>>37304364
>>37304390
>>37304401

The Tyrant Burst system hums with building charge - the suggestion of actinic motes in the space before you, as the thing that was Naoya Shiga - that *is* Naoya - levels his Beam Magnum in an unwavering hand-

He fires. Not the sustained swathe of destruction, but a single overcharged round; the entire charge of the condenser. There is an oscillating scream of energy and pressure, accompanied by a micro-pulse of electromagnetics. The beam - raw sunfire, with a crackling fusion core - bangs painfully as it erupts, scoring through the defending fog...

-But you're ready for it. Your Tempest Scrander plumes thrust, a violent evasion that wrenches you to the side; the burning wake of the shot hits the ground, spontaneously excavating a narrow trench of superheated, fused rock, the secondary heat-shear igniting spontaneous fires against the thrashing ground.

The wrist-thick particle beam that streaks across the distance, in answer, fumes with ice-white energy. It is as hot as a main sequence star; The White Joker's smoke-cloak forms into a palisade, a barrier of liquid darkness, taking the shot head-on-

The hammer-blow impact smashes him back. He staggers, checked a step, momentarily off-balance - As you skid to a stop, emerald light ambling down your shattered knee, sketching itself into existence: A lattice of crimson gridlines forming into the blunt man-killer of the Tau Gun-

Another.

The simultaneous discharge sounds like the very crack of doom itself.

(Continued)

oh jesus and i wanted to sleep.

THANKS OP

>>37304531
He isn't reading RJ's mind, so OOC comments should be fine even if unspoilered.

>>37304583
Looks like unspoiler feinting doesn't work.

>>37304583

Twin blurs of antimatter. Twin linear distortions, invisibly fast, their doubled blast striking less than a heartbeat apart.

Your first shot goes wide. The ground erupts in a vertical plume of swirling destruction, the antimatter shot detonating like a short-fused grenade at the White Joker's feet. He powers forward, leading with the sword of red iron; His smoke-cloak gathering around him, like an orbital time-lapse of burning worlds-

He was expecting you to close.

In that, he is deluded.

The discharge hits him head-on; The targeting laser burning a molten furrow starting just inside the left shoulder, and down to his center waist - And then the overlapping plates of his ivory cuirass glow with unnatural light, armor composite blurring out of phase-

The explosion comes from within. A fist-sized chunk of his torso erupts outwards, large black gobbets spitting from the smoking crater like blood spurting from an open vein; Flaws skittering outwards, that flawless plate warping around the hideous injury, sparks flaring deep within, the lurid glow of his reactor flaring higher.

-It seems that inside, you are both the same.

(Continued)

>>37304660
>The explosion comes from within. A fist-sized chunk of his torso erupts outwards, large black gobbets spitting from the smoking crater like blood spurting from an open vein; Flaws skittering outwards, that flawless plate warping around the hideous injury, sparks flaring deep within, the lurid glow of his reactor flaring higher.
That is one hell of a crit.

>>37304696
He can probably heal.

>>37304700
Well yeah, lachryma.

How interesting. Did he actually expect Joker to engage in melee as per >>37304364 or did OP just fluff it that way?

>>37304660
>He was expecting you to close.
>In that, he is deluded.
Shit, it worked.

>>37304711
Probably the second, but at least we know we can feint.

This progression is hilarious.
>"Time to get serious!"
>White Joker kicks our shit in and takes the Carnifex
>Feels secure in seeing an empty boast
>And then shit gets real anyway
That's like stumbling to the stage and then making an awesome performance.

>>37304756
Actually, since the Carnifex is damaged, wouldn't that shut it off?

>>37304768
Man, the guy must feel furious.
We didn't just take his stuff. We even got it permanently damaged.

>>37304660

As your faceplate shimmers back into existence - Cybele's love remaking you, your high-crested form restored - you hurl the Tau Guns aside. The crimson lattice of the hypersphere sears into existence, the tumbling mass of your grossly oversized weapons denuding, unmade before they hit the ground...

And your fists clench around the mismatched grips of Rubicante and Cagnazzo, as you begin to fire. They begin to boom, lighting the gloom with vivid muzzle flashes; Cagnazzo fires first, the burning lines of shot zipping across the distance, *curving* on impossible trajectories-

The White Joker's sword blurs, and the blade of red iron smashes the shots aside. His blade blurs in a complex web of parries, and flicks the rounds aside - Still buzzing fractiously, the burning rounds spit off into the darkness...

-As Rubicante's entropic wake engulfs him. You actually *see* his smoke-cloak shred, twist apart; Ripped into twisting strands of mist, denuding before the impact - It hits his right arm, and the oblivating force chews a furious passage through the limb, like the gnashing teeth of a furious bite...

...And something whirrs out of the darkness, and smashes you from your feet. A spinning blade, chopping around like a murderous propeller - the lethal velocity scouring into your armor, the shriek of metal-on-metal becoming a brutal *crunch* as it bites deep. Black fire erupts across your scarred plate, as the disc of knives screams away, curving in on another attack run - Until a single brutal punch from your Crisis Arm breaks it in half.

(Continued)

>>37304786
Wow we turned this around pretty quickly

>>37304786
>...And something whirrs out of the darkness, and smashes you from your feet. A spinning blade, chopping around like a murderous propeller - the lethal velocity scouring into your armor, the shriek of metal-on-metal becoming a brutal *crunch* as it bites deep. Black fire erupts across your scarred plate, as the disc of knives screams away, curving in on another attack run - Until a single brutal punch from your Crisis Arm breaks it in half.
I told you it was interceptors. Melee interceptors.

>>37304756
The Carnifex is powerful, but that drawback isn't to be taken lightly. There are some attacks that you can't dodge, and an armor reduction during the big ones?

>>37304768
Has to be a HARD hit. Probably doesn't count, but I will laugh myself sick if it does. Here's hoping SMITE takes it home.

>>37304807
I'm thinking an interloper.

>>37304818
>I'm thinking an interloper.
He had those blades form around his shoulders in the last thread.

I would laugh my ass off if they weren't upgraded, just like ours.

>>37304786

You switch sides, faster than thought. Rubicante booms, a flickering cross of muzzleflash lighting the gloom; the thunderous shot hits the second aerial Fang head-on, and splinters it into a dozen fractured blades. When you land, your autoreactive talons dig into the ground - sparks shrieking from the point of contact, bringing your mismatched guns to bear...

-At your back, the Tempest Scrander judders, spits a final plume of thrust, and goes dead.

The White Joker is on one knee, his hand extended. Lurid fires flicker at the scalpel-points of his talons. Corrupt code claws at the edges of your vision, your jump pack unresponsive, dead; there is a great crater in his torso, a crater that bleeds black Lachryma, the edges of the gaping damaged scorched and cooked by superhearing. In the span of a breath, strands of clotted black fluid stitch across the wound - Reversing their descent, shards of white armor drawn back into alignment.

The malevolent blue glow in his eyeslits gutter out. The light that returns is baleful, red, lighting him up from within. It seeps up from his gorget, underlighting his face as he slowly raises his head, his Essence signature ghosting in and out of cohesion, subtly altered - Like a distant mirage. Spines push from his back, seething with charge - the proportions of his legs shifting, curving into blades.

NO MORE FLYING.

HP: 176.3%
COBALT BOOSTER: 111%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 71%
METER: 26%

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>37304909

(Gentlemen, your leg and your head armor have been repaired.)

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>>37304909
>The malevolent blue glow in his eyeslits gutter out.
Get fucked

>>37304909
So, do we use EXEC_DISRUPT? Or EXEC_BARRIER? Or do we stay with SMITE?

>>37304909
>Like a distant mirage. Spines push from his back, seething with charge - the proportions of his legs shifting, curving into blades
Guys, that's a tell.
Be careful. I'm outside.

>>37304909
Move to the side using the Abruption jets aim the Rubicante and shoot again.
Exec_Harrow, grab the Chaingun in the Midas Arm and prepare Lvl 2 Sinistral for his likely oncoming attack.

>>37304909
We need something to deal with his bits. Kind of a problem we got rid of our own, here. I suppose we should use our remaining Slake arm to deal with them, as best it can.

>>37304909
Repair Slake. Fire it, the (emulated) Condemner and the Axel Grips all at once.

But seriously repair Slake. Exec_Disrupt, see if we can target the CARNIFEX with it. Fire Rubicante and Cagnazzo some more, and DO use the Axel Grips if he closes in.

Just to be clear, he's disrupted the Scrander, yes?

>>37304956
This is actually a good idea, activate the Sinistral 2.

>>37304966

> Just to be clear, he's disrupted the Scrander, yes?

(Yes.)

>>37305023
Aight. Go ahead and start rebooting it/fighting off the corrupted code. Pretty sure it was fluff but it helped when Kraken did it.

>>37304956
>>37304966
>>37305047

You bring the Sinistral up, the crackling wedge of field energy expanding - A heartbeat before the high, rising whine of charge reaches a crescendo, before the cising spines erupt forth in a torrent of scourging lightnings. Bitter ozone writhes as the forked bolts slice towards you, echoing the lightning of the storm beyond-

Lightning blasts the clouds above, and lightning blasts forth from the White Joker, and you have time only to angle the Sinistral to catch the forking arcs of pure, dazzling hatred that claw towards you. The howl of writhing energy lights up your HUD - the brutal blurt of static churning the edges of your vision into snow, the electrical fury slashing against the ground on all sides as the Sinistral's surface crackles with chained lightnings...

Your Cobalt Booster pulses with renewed charge, fed by the White Joker's malice. The ravening force slams into you, the Sinistral's generator whining fractiously - even as your gyroarm articulates, the Hailfire Chaingun locking into the Hand of Midas, the Talon's gravimetric suspensors engaging-

-And you begin to fire, the Hailfire Chaingun's multi-barrels spinning, rotating muzzles kicking out star-shaped flashes of ignited gas. High-velocity shells blast across the distance, a blizzard of shots, a hail of gunfire - the white killer reels, buckles, jerks, unable to ignore the kinetic impacts that batter him like torrential rain...

And then he vanishes.

Like a ghost. Like a phantom. A blur.

(Continued)

>>37305167

Instinct saves you, the echo of a hundred years at war. The Sinistral's edge hisses out, as the blade of red iron deflects from it; Charge writhing at the point of impact, ghost-steel against the seething blade as you swing the Chaingun's bulk in a short, brutal arc, rotating gears whirring shrilly...

The White Joker slices with his sword-

-And cuts the Mauler in half.

The explosion - As his molten blade slices into the ammunition belt - is a point-blank thunderclap, shards of shrapnel bursting from the ruined mechanism in a hail of flechettes. Your feet leave the ground; the impact swats you away, hurls you across the full length of the garden...

But even as you're falling, you're firing. Your fists come up, mid-tumble, and the burning light of the Axel Grips spear into him, with a noise like the amplified shrieks of eagles. The streaming beams slash across the distance, in lines of fuming illumination - The White Joker wrenches himself aside in a violent evasion, a hand raised in a gesture of primoridal defense-

The first beam *splits* around him, as if refracted through a prism. The terrible impact drives him from his feet, like a punch-drunk boxer...

You never see the second one hit, as he levers himself to his feet, his sword burning molten and deadly in his feet. The White Joker springs forward, coming back up at you-

And he stops, as if only just realizing something.

There is a slit in his armor. It starts at the base of his neck, and goes across his chest and out under his right arm. Only a hairline crack, a tiny fissure - But it is clean through his armor. As he moves, you can see the edges of the slit articulating independently, the bright lips of sheared ceramite and myomer-

(Continued)

(Gentlemen, my sincerest apologies: But I need to step away urgently. I should be back in less than an hour.)

>>37305293

Black lachryma jets out from the wound, right across the crater of your earlier shot. Great, squirting gouts of black blood, stinking in the cold darkness. The White Joker makes a sound, staggering back down a step of two - His left hand clamped to the thin but astonishing slit, as arterial fluid continues to spurt out from between his fingers, streaming down the belly and flanks of his armor.

YOU-

Not dead. Not even close.

But there is a crack, a flaw in his confidence, an infinitesimal hesitation.

For he cannot believe, not for a moment, how badly you have hurt him.

HP: 146.9%
COBALT BOOSTER: 146%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 58%
METER: 37%

HAILFIRE CHAINGUN DESTROYED

TIER TWO WEAPONRY UNLOCKED

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>37305306

Stop breaking our stuff you shit.

>>37305306
"Me."

I want to point out: He's bleeding base lachryma. Lachryma burns.

Draw emulate the Immolator. Spin up some missiles and cobalt boost them.

Tag him with Exec_Harrow. Swap the Photon Beamer into the Midas Arm and use its alt-fire. Draw and boost the Plasma Caster.

See you when you get back OP.

>>37305167
>Your Cobalt Booster pulses with renewed charge, fed by the White Joker's malice.
Ah, so THAT is how the energy absorption works.

>>37305306
"No one fucks with my girls. Which includes my guns."

>>37305411
That made me grin but no.

>>37305411
I'm just going to veto this.

>>37305588
WELL THEN I'M GOING TO VETO YOUR VETO.
YOUR MOVE.

So, if Cybele calls us up to her demense and furiously demands to know what the hell happened, I suggest that we give it to her straight.
- We won't kill hundreds of innocents, for anyone
- We have a girlfriend in the real world

Then we tell her that we would gladly kill any actual combatant (excluding our friends. Already had enough of that shit in the tournament) for her. She's a Hyades, so she's got an enhanced mind and the ability to watch battles.
If she knows of any player who could help us help her, no matter if dead or alive, we'd gladly take that chance.
And, as an alternative, we tell her about the Athame. If she really doesn't trust us to continue helping her, she can choose to take it.

And then we tell her that we'd introduce her to our friends. If possible, right in that moment.
She does have the necessary charge, after all.

>>37305691
There is no alternative, anon. The Hyades wouldn't be so desperate to kill each other if they knew a different way. And it's also impossible for Cybele to forgive us after we betrayed her like this.
You're just grasping at opportunities that don't actually exist.

>>37305691
Let's just murder her, jeez. No need to be such a drama queen about it.

>>37305773
As I said, it's only for if she angrily confronts us. It's in our power to let her meet some real people before her demise, at least.
In any other circumstances, we use the Athame without saying anything, aside from maybe an apology.

>>37305375
Should we heal?

>>37305804
>It's in our power to let her meet some real people before her demise
I don't understand your thinking here at all. "We're going to kill her, but at least she'll have met some people"? Yeesh.

>>37305804
That will just make things worse for her. You're telling her that she is going to be executed, but are also offering her taste a bit of freedom before doing the job. And that is really fucking cruel.

>>37305818
Closure.

>>37305815
Only restore functionality until we slip under 100. We're doing okay so far.

>>37305852
That wouldn't be closure.

>>37305375
>>37305319

Across the distance - As the killing fire builds at the Helix Gauntlet, a smoldering inferno - you hurl the flames of EXEC_HARROW at him. It is your symbol, cast in violet light; A glyph that spirals onwards with a terrible velocity of its own, coiling hungrily towards your opposite number-

It hits him, head-on-

...And shatters.

The streaming flames break around the White Joker and find no purchase; they roar up, pink-hot, sour, fierce - and then gutter out, the small fires around him wisping to steam. Motes of dancing flame drift apart, like petals - they limn him in a flickering aura, for the space of a second, before they die, too. The filthy red light that throbs out of him backlights his form, and makes silhouettes out of the writhing hydra-smoke that churns around him.

Quietly, like a prayer:

REMOTE ACTIVATION.

What-

The air erupts with coiling black tentacles, flapping and snaking, reaching out from somewhere-

-behind you-

The first of the twisting worm-limbs find you, constricting around your form. They snatch you off your feet, the flailing tentacles wrenching you away, the world whirling past - Like liquid muscle, a gathering amphorous mass that braids together into a single unfurling limb that flings you aside, sending you skidding and tumbling across the scarred surface of the battlefield like a toy in the hands of a cruel child-

(Continued)

>>37305886

God damn it.

>>37305886

Now, and only now, can you see the source; an orphaned lance, planted point-down - pommel bristling with spikes - the gleaming mass of it erupting forth into twisting limbs. One is already constricting around your leg, pressure warnings flaring as your armor begins to distort, to bend, the barbed edges scouring your plate as your airborne tumble becomes a wide-swinging head-down arc. From your upside-down vantage you can see a thick, blade-thorned length carving towards your neck...

-the Hand of Midas chimes with the green telltales of connection, the charging elements pulsing to life. As the arc of your swing sends you whirling towards the White Joker - a sickening lurch taking you out and over the tumorous mass that Mio has become, that Mio *is*, straining towards the sky-

The Photon Beamer's white-cored ray is Cobalt Boosted, and it slashes through the tendrils like a sword of light. Sheared through, they recoil violently, the edges of the cut glowing with molten heat; You turn your fall into a flip, landing you on your feet - Twisting to bring the Plasma Caster to bear, as the White Joker levels his open palm at you-

You fire as one.

When the pressure blast hits you - No distortion, no trail, just a sudden and spontaneous eruption of vectored force - the impact folds you in half. The force is enough to scramble your optics into snow - The wind whips past as the titanic sledgehammer blow sends stress-fractures flawing through your frame, shreds of armor flaking free as mechanisms rupture within - And vision returns in a static-laden wash of red-tinted sight and flickering displays...

Just in time to see - In double-vision - the White Joker speeding towards you.

(Continued)

>>37306022

He flies across the ground in a blurred sprint, his boots barely gracing the earth. A pale blur with a burning sword, resolving into half-glimpsed lines, the blast of your Plasma Caster wreathing him in flame; Fire streams freely from where the black oil has ignited, joining the smoke of burning worlds that trails in his wake, shot through with an ember hell-light...

Except there are two of him.

Left and right, moving in perfect unison, converging - over the hiss of the Photon Beamer's muzzle cooling, blades lashing out faster than a serpent's tongue-

HP: 111.1%
COBALT BOOSTER: 79%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 58%
METER: 49%

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>37306035
shitshitshit

>>37306035
Huh. I don't know how to deal with this.

Not. Create a doppleganger from the Assault Shroud and step backwards. Cobalt Boost and emulate the Crisis Arm and punch them BOTH. Then draw the Fusion Annihilator, give it six charges and fire the beams individually.

>>37306035
Charge him with the Crisis Arms. Stab him with the Shroud.

Cobalt Boost Chain Mine
Fire a set of missiles
Brace with dual Cobalt Boosted Sinistrals, use them offensively if he gets into range

>>37306085
Add:
Abruption Jets to add even more oomph to Crisis Arms.

>>37306035
We still have him argus locked right? I say Triskellion Launchers or chain mines. Abruption Jet out of the way too.

>>37306035
Whip out the Rubicante and shoot an essence-charged shot once they get in range.
Use the Abruption Jets to move back, activate Argus and fire a Cobalt-booster Phalanx. If it doesn't stop them/they reach Joker before he fires, use Exec_ Rend to phase through the attack (Use Nihil Sphere charge).

>>37306085
>>37306092
>>37306103
>>37306107
>>37306110

Your Abruption Jets *repel* against the ground, violently - the fibers of your Assault Shroud scattering, dispersing; A ghostly, orphaned silhouette left in your wake, for the space of a distant second-

-It's the one on the right.

The White Joker's sword rips through it, chopping down - Cleaving only air, air and nanomaterial, the burning blade emanating ozone mist at it rasps through the frozen air. A blurred curtain of lightning trails in the wake of that slashing track; you are a heartbeat ahead, as - without pause - his follow-up swing slices upward in a gutting stroke, a stroke that misses you by inches as the Crisis Arm pistons forward, sizzling with force, to meet him...

He tilts his head back, and *howls*.

The sound - It makes the world wobble on its axis, your field of vision blurring. If you had teeth, if you had a skull, they would ache - the force rocks you, blots out all thought, before you can block your helmet's audio-pickup; Cracks splitting against your optic lens as the savage shriek reaches its apex-

But as the sword carves towards you, the Helix Gauntlet's shutters slid open - Crazing with violet light, as you *flicker*...

(Continued)

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Shit. i missed the vote for betraying the shit out of Cybele.

>>37306085
Using his momentum against him, I like it. Add Abruption Jets to make it even worse.

>>37306262

The blade of red iron does not pass through you - Not cleanly. It may be the fall of the Shroud, or some savage property of the sword itself; But you *feel* the White Joker's sword rip through you, the crackling wake leaving a cascading ripple that tears through your ghosting, half-real form - A buzzing ache you can feel in the very core of your being. Tendrils of your ethereal substance boil away beneath the singular stroke, sickening disorientation coursing through you...

-But while you're still alive, you can do *this*.

Cold blue fire limns your form, as it snaps back into solidity. Your fist draws back - Elbow thrusters firing, acceleration rings cohering, as the Crisis Arm surges forward in a thundering straight-ahead punch, a battering ram racing towards final impact...

When you connect, the shockwave races out from the impact point, the churning firestorm sucked back in again by the vicious overpressure. The bow-wave rips vines from the ground, the ground juddering in sympathy - dislodging slates, ripping them away in twisting contrails, splintering against your armor like hail.

(Continued)

>>37306406
Jesus. Did his sword just suck out some of our Essence? Is it made from lachryma or something?

>>37306448
Cut the essence core. Going by the description, I thought the sword was made of magma.

>>37306469
>Cut the essence core.
Whelp, we're fucked.

>>37306282
Shades of Steven Universe up in here. I'm not the only one who sees it, right?

>>37306491

That's the intention, yes. I'm working on Sugilite, but I haven't had the time to finish shading it.

>>37306469
I can't tell if that's worse or better. Probably worse.

>>37306483
We'll see how the Crisis Arm did.
But MAN, this guy will make a snazzy hat.

>>37306483
Only mostly. If we kill him we Leech him. If we disable him we can consume him. If we make him run we can stabilize the core.

It's not good for if he tanks this of course.

>>37306491
He's mentioned that's what it's fanart of. That's not his JQ work.

>>37306406
OP, if we never get an accurate, detailed depiction of some of the armours from this quest, like the White Joker, the Red Joker, the Black Joker and others, I'mma cry

>>37306503
Nice

>>37306406

The kinetic slap rings out with a deafening sonic boom. It smashes the White Joker back; it flings him away, in a barely-controlled skid - Heels trailing sparks as scorch-marks crawl over his ivory plate. His whole form smolders, locked in a stiff posture of defense - the great wounds you have inflicted upon him still raw, like deathmarks-

There is a sharp sound. A *crack* - a tiny noise, a thin ceramic sound.

The White Joker's plated arms *fracture*. There is a whirr of hydraulics shorting out, servoes taxed beyond their limits - the armor shredding away. He shudders, as the cracked ceramite splinters like glass - You can see the raw myomer beneath, the squirming veins that pump the black blood of the world through him ruptured, drooling forth in viscous strands...

> Cobalt Boost Chain Mine.

You try-

-Hydraulic pressure is dropping. Your Essence Core, cracked, flickers within you - Impelling your failing limbs. Even the redshifted blur of the launcher materalizing is sluggish, your reactor guttering like the fading pulse of an arrhytmic heart...

A twisting strand of smoke-light, a snaking tendril of wretched darkness, bursts from the White Joker's shoulder and lurches towards you. It snaps around your neck, tightening, *straining* - torsion warnings pulsing on your HUD...

-He's trying to pull your arm off.

And your head.

It takes everything you have left, but you wrench the Condemner up - the burning edge of the photonic blade slicing into the void-hard darkness - beginning to glow with heat, burning into the coiling psuedopod; Carving it into as your arm twists out of alignment, the endosteel structure fracturing with a *crunch* like breaking bones, the vice tightening, tightening...

(Continued)

Hmm. You know, just in case Joker does die here I'm up for a bit of spite. What do we say to make him kill Bell Zephyr?

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>>37306601

You try to brace, trying to find your footing - You feel his grip slacken, just the faintest suggestion of give. The White Joker has the Beam Magnum in his fist, fighting to bring it to bear-

-You're sinking. Both of you.

The tarry ground is giving way, drawing you in, like quicksand - Hungry webs of Lachryma latching onto your armor, dragging you deeper, deeper, into the mire. It is a morass, sucking you in - Your limbs churning the slurry beneath you, fighting the inexorable pressure-

Your arc of vision halves, as your helmet crumples inwards. The flaws cobweb across your visor, as your systems struggle to process what you're *seeing*-

...Pulling you down into the darkness. A compacting, an enclosing. Fastening clutching fingers upon your armor-plating and drawing you down, down, away from even the memory of the light. And you are *still* locked in place, the insectile buzz of the Condemner's flaring edge the only sound in the world, struggling to cut your way free-

HP: 82.8%
COBALT BOOSTER: 62%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 37%
METER: 26% (CHAIN MINE ACTIVE)

YOU HAVE CONTROL

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>>37306584

I DO have a Red Joker drawing that I haven't gotten around to finishing, however.

>>37306702
HEAL INTERNAL DAMAGE TO GET SYSTEMS OPERATIONAL
USE MULETA TO DESTROY WHATEVER IS CLINGING TO US AND TO SLOW DOWN WHITE JOKER
SET THE FUCK ON FIRE WITH CHAIN MINES AND MISSILES
EXEC_CONSUME ON THE LACHRYMA

If we had more booster, I'd be in favor of using EXEC_REPULSE

>>37306702
"Sorry Kotone. Not yet."

No point in holding back or hiding. Full body Cobalt boost and to the Condemner as well, and see if we can bring the Scrander back online. First priority is "Get out", second priority is getting to Mio and third priority is firing the Chain Mine in White Joker's direction.

If the Scrander does come back, actually, send the lightning bolt through White Joker's noose.

>>37306710
Looks like Grey Fox.

>>37306768

Who is Grey Fox?

>>37306702
Heal damage using meter, use Booster to enhance our physical abilities and shoot the goddamn chain mine.

>>37306768
Why no spoiler? Is like you want to die.

>>37306751
Alright, let's roll with this because everything is fucked.

>>37306792
Add the full body cobalt boost.
That suggestion of Watashi is good. It's exactly what we need to move freely.

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>>37306782
CYBORG NINJA

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>>37306782
>Who is Grey Fox?
Ever play Metal Gear Solid?

>>37306786
There's no point anymore. The fight is on hold since the stage/reality is going to the pits. We're fighting it as much if not more than White Joker. That's why our priorities need to change. We can't kill him unless something changes right this second, but we can serve him a healthy heaping of failure by getting into the Diadem with Mio.

>>37306834
What's your take on consuming lachryma?

>>37306845
It's not life as human souls are.
I'd say it's a bad idea.

>>37306834

Ah, no I haven't actually.

>>37306824

Very helpful. I shall add him to my collection.

>>37306834
I see. In a certain sense, we're probably also fighting Black Joker, aren't we?
So it's a fight with all three Jokers.

>>37306834
Wata, this is stupid. We need to disguise our actions anyway, its not like White Joker is going to let us get away if he knows what we're doing

>>37306882
I agree. It certainly can't hurt us.
Policy for next fights should always be to try and feint with spoilers at least once, to see how the opponent reacts.

>>37306702
>>37306783
>>37306768
>>37306751

Cybele's Emblem flares, with viridian radiance - the motes of light filtering across your ravaged form...

-And down. Sucked away by the black void. You're losing power - Even your Cobalt Booster's glow is fading, a juddering spasm beginning in your fractured form as you fight for charge. The targeting reticule flickers, as you try...You have to-

You can't break free - Not from the coiling smoke that vices around the Chain Mine's launcher, that fouls that shot. The Condemner's blade casts a peculiarly pale light - Much too pale. The containment field crackles, fracticiously, as the constant stream of photonic radiance gutters...

-And winks out.

The sensation of drowning is strangely familiar - the thing made of night engulfing you, dragging you down, blinding and choking and drowning everything, oozing like pressurized oil through the cracks in your armor, filling your mouth, filling your lungs, swallowing all light, all screams-

-Down.

Ever down.

god

its

forever

is

there

no

end

(Continued)

>>37306918
This. We nearly fucking died this time because of it. Not the first post though. We'll make the second one spoilers in future.

>>37306927
BACK TO HELL, GENTLEMEN

>>37306845
Don't think it'll work. Consume drains essence from living subjects, lachryma is a substance (that comes from a living(?) thing). It'd work on something infused with lachryma but not the stuff itself.

>>37306882
He doesn't have much of a choice. His arms are broken and the lachryma has him. He's probably getting healed from it, though I suspect he doesn't have a way out himself.

>>37306938
You're assuming the stuff pumping through his veins will kill him. You're also assuming that he wants to live more than he wants to kill the Red Joker.

>>37306971
>You're also assuming that he wants to live more than he wants to kill the Red Joker
He very obviously does. He isn't Kraken.

>>37306971
No, the lachryma won't kill him, he's taken steps to prevent that. He's still stuck if you read the description.

And of course he wants to live more than he wants to kill Red Joker. Red Joker is stopping him from reaching his goal, it's not personal.

>>37307003
>>37306998
After the thrashing we just gave him?

>>37307014
If you haven't noticed, he still hasn't completely lost his composure. He'll obviously take his own survival over mutual destruction.

>>37307014
...Yes?

If we put what he wants out of reach, then he'll have a problem with Red Joker.

>>37307046
>Black lachryma jets out from the wound, right across the crater of your earlier shot. Great, squirting gouts of black blood, stinking in the cold darkness. The White Joker makes a sound, staggering back down a step of two - His left hand clamped to the thin but astonishing slit, as arterial fluid continues to spurt out from between his fingers, streaming down the belly and flanks of his armor.
>YOU-

Just because he isn't being Bardiel doesn't mean he isn't fucking PISSED

>>37306927
.
.
.
.
Red light, like the issue of a dying sun.
.
.
.
Anon.

Anon, wake up.

In the dark, you surface from your slumber with a hiss.

You gag on dust-dry lungs. You pull a rattling breath through parched lips. Senses flickering to life. Memories accreting. Dreams receding like echoes.

You're on the - a - floor. You don't know how you got there.

You feel...broken.

Slowly, you find your hands. Your feet. Getting on all fours is hard - Getting to your feet is Everest. The world lurches left then right, with sickening disorientation. The disconnect - It feels like working a marionette, a puppet of yourself. A wave of bile rolls through your stomach, another wave of vertigo and nausea.

Your vision, blurring. Desperately trying to come up for air.

You-

...You are in the last church, at the end of the world.

(Continued)

>>37307116
Shit, where's Mio

>>37307116
Anon, not joker?

>>37307116
Oh, hello Kotone.

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>>37307116

A sound. The answer to your question.

One girl. Just one girl, sobbing out her heart. As if her world is crumbling-

And perhaps it is.

The sound of footsteps, behind you. On your hands and knees, now - A half-turn, half-fall. The sickness is within you, now; Blood, not dust as all, is streaming down the walls as the shadows draw close and murmur, tenebrous shapes - leviathan shapes - beyond the fragile barrier of the walls.

Over the crying-

"-Welcome home, Anon."

Naoya stands over you, a hand extended for you to grasp. There is nothing but friendship and openness in his remarkable eyes.

Or perhaps there is simply nothing there at all.

"I think," he says - quietly, but with care -

"-I think it's time we had a talk."

JOKER QUEST

EPISODE 118

TO BE CONTINUED

>>37307325

(Gentlemen; I would love to continue, but it is extremely late on my end...And, unfortunately, tomorrow is the start of another working week.

There's comparatively little I can say about this session, other than to congratulate you on your survival this far.

Good night and God bless - You've been a wonderful audience, and I hope to see you again soon next week.)

>>37307325
What the bloody hell is going on

Are we infected with Lachryma?

>>37307325
So, all three Jokers are meeting up and having a talk?

>>37307369
Yeah, so... how did we do? Was survival the best we could hope for?

>>37307369
Thanks for running. Intense stuff, just the way I like it! Can't wait for the next tread!

>>37307399

(To be brutally frank, I thought that you'd be dead from sheer attrition - and that the next session would be the postgame wrap-up.)

>>37307520
Impressive. Are the fights after this going to be so intense?

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>>37307520
I am not even surprised, just impressed.

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>>37307520
Welp.
Maybe we'll get a bit of calm now.

>>37307520
Well, shit.

So, did we barely win or was this a decisive victory?

>>37307604
It sounds like we'll have Joker exposition now.

...Fuck, we lost the EXP that we invested into Carnifex attunement.

>>37307630
No one won. It was a tie because of Kotone's intervention. It's unknown whether we would kill him with the Chain Mine or if he would rip our head off first.

>>37307630
Mechanically it's a win, since the guy running this expected a game over. Storywise a technical tie since neither fighter is dead. Closer to a loss for us since we lost both the Carnifex and the chaingun.

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>>37307653
Maybe he'll give it back if we ask nicely.

>>37307708
If at all, he'd trade for the Magnum.

>>37307696
I thought the chaingun was destroyed temporarily, like sometimes happens.

>>37307735
No, it's gone. It's a Relic weapon, not one of Joker's built-in weapons.

>>37307767
Fuck this shit.
We lost one of our only kinetic weapons. (In fact, I'm pretty sure that it IS the only one, outside of Hollow Sun equipment and not yet unlocked weapons)

We seriously need someone with repair abilities.

>>37307787
Rubicante and Cagnazzo are technically kinetic weapons, I think.

>>37307787
Repair doesn't help complete destruction.

>>37307827
But Argent could repair the shield that we originally had.

Well, at least we didn't invest XP into that thing...

>>37307787
I think we may be a bit beyond the opportunity for repair at this point.

>>37307844
True, considering we just stole the damn thing from a random Smiler scrub.

>>37307844
What? No he couldn't. The Sinistral is not the Adjudicator.

>>37307846
Pretty much.

Where did we get the Carnifex, by the way?
I don't remember.

>>37307844
>But Argent could repair the shield that we originally had.
There was nothing to repair. The thing was completely melted.

>>37307879
Gift from the Thief, I think.

>>37307879
The Thief. He claimed it belonged to Red Joker.

>>37307893
>>37307900
Man, we are a walking armory full of loot and bling.

Wait, we are Red.

Do we have Blood Raven relations?

>>37307893
>>37307900
So where the hell did he get it?
Was he in cahoots with the White Joker?

>>37308068
>So where the hell did he get it?
He stole it, plain and simple.

Man, the ensuing talk would make for an awesome omake.
>"Why is your hand gold?"
>"Why are you black?"
>"How the fuck did the thief steal the Carnifex from you?"
>"Where did you get my Beam Magnum?"

>>37309396
>"Oh my god, Naoya, you can't just ask someone why they're black!"

>>37309506
For that matter, how did the White Joker turn partially black?

And why does he have ice powers? Why don't we have that?
I mean, we have plasma, which is essentially fire, but we don't have a plasma aura.

...Maybe we should try orbital re-entry.

>>37309590
Well, I think he's actually someone who started in the same situation as Anon.
That being that he was a guy, trapped in the Red for an idiotically long time, probably way longer than us. That's the reason he's got more relics and experience.
Hell, something that popped into my head just now is that it could even be that he's the "first" White Joker, having built it from scratch, instead of inheriting a template, like we did.
or I'm talking out of my ass, who knows

>>37309590
>For that matter, how did the White Joker turn partially black?
Lachryma bullshit
>And why does he have ice powers? Why don't we have that?
Because he chose that upgrade path? The White Joker and Red Joker are not one and the same, so it's natural for them to have wildly differing powersets.

>>37309679
...What if our Evol ability unlock adds a plasma aura?
It does add inherent abilities, after all.

>>37309706
Man, if this quest ever stops, I really want to see OP's notes and reactions to all our bullshit.

>>37309729
Definitely.
He already mentioned that he might do an annotated version of the story.