[IC] Blue Fog - A Survival and Society Building Game

[Rune_Alchemist]

~Lizaveta Koshkov~

"Whee, food!~" Despite her enthusiasm, food was a necessity for her. Moreso than most humans, really. Considering the fact that the nanobots pretty much gobbled up anything she hate to run themselves and keep her running in the perfect order it always meant she had to always have a bit of food on her. "Hehe, don't worry. Liza is a bit more refined than the scaly alien." She reached into her clothes, pulling out a military issue combat knife and picking up one of the armadillos as she listened to the others speak.

"Liza is fine with me. It's what most of my brothers and sisters called me after I earned my name." She cut into the armadillo with a knife. It wasn't cooked, but it'd should be fine if she ate it. Might get a little stomach ache if there was something bad in the meat, but for the most part it shouldn't be an issue. The cloned listened silently as she cut some meat off the animal, gathering some information from the talkative ones since she hadn't been here for the first part of whatever this was.

A game? If this was a game it was a fairly poor one. Virtual reality wasn't as fun as it sounded, really. It was extremely good for training, though. She pulled a piece of meat off the small animal with her hands, bringing it to her mouth and chewing on it as they continued. Hunger was a very real problem, wasn't it? Especially for civilians. Civilians got crazy if they didn't have their munchies. Unlike trained soldiers they could easily turn on you if they got desperate.

Not the first time she saw it happen on the front lines of some ill conceived war.

"Bwahaa!" Liza chewed on the armadillo meat some more, shoving her knife back into its sheathe. "Wow, someone's a bit too loyal, heh!" She turned her head towards Aleksander with a grin. Seemed like he and her may perhaps be of similar backgrounds, judging from the way he carried himself. Meh, no matter. She wasn't going to associate herself with the empire any more. "Ahh, team meetings like this aren't my thing. Just give me a target and something to shoot, please!" She continued, stopping a moment to take another bite of the armadillo. "Might as well introduce myself again." She picked some more meat off of the deceased creature as she started walking slowly around the group, getting a good look at everyone present.

"I said I was a clone, but It's a bit more complex than that. To put simply I'm an enhanced soldier genetically engineered to well, fight. The template I was cloned form was focused on psionic abilities and aptitudes. I didn't get anything fancy like some of the grav-mods my siblings got, but I did get experimental nanites that can basically keep me alive through anything. Small team operations mostly. I'm the girl they called to quietly clean up their messes and take care of...opposition." The girl twirled on her heels again, digging more meat out of the armadillo. "I don't really care what you guys do as long as I get to shoot something, so lets get this show on the road, so I can pew pew things with my gun."

[Kazemitsu]

Rafael

Rafael turned his dimly glowing eye towards Mable as she seemed to give him an order. "Let someone else get their hands dirty. It'll be a good learning experience on how to skin, debone, and gut something." He said, he obviously had experience in it. Especially with the 'tools' he had at his disposal. Although he doubted anyone paid much attention to his body shifting and molding to fit what he needed when he needed it. Hell even the people back in his world barely paid attention, more intend on filling him with bullets or fleeing in terror.

Rolling his shoulders a bit he plopped down on the grass. The plague-man seemed to be havi9ng a break down at the revelations of the absence of a plague. It was probably his entire existence to fight it and here they are plagueless. "Settle down and save the meltdown for a fight. Better to put all that emotion into combat than a conversation." He said while playing with the grass. It was still weird touching it, experiencing something he hadn't for so long.

While he toyed with the plant life the others were introducing, reintroducing, and telling the rest their objectives. A clone, which was just barely legal in his time, a soldier of some sort, and the rest. The one who called for the meeting shot the ground near the reptile who was mowing down on a whole linebacker. "Thought reptiles had a stupidly slow metabolism. When was the last time you ate?" He questioned while using the tips of his fingers to pluck the grass and make little grass mounds.

[BayRat]

Kriv 'Jackal' Westari

---

The sudden alarm of a gunshot caused the beast to screech and leap away from the impact of the bullet. What was that sorcery? Observation deduced that it came from the device in that one fleshy creature's hand, yet the machinations perplexed him in how it could do that. That alarm of fear was replaced with curiosity, he'd have to inspect its details later. The message was sent, and Jackal didn't attempt to turn violent; for now at least. It was clear that they all needed to eat like some sort of pack, perhaps he had eaten too much for the sake of the other tribe. He wasn't entirely sure if he could trust these lot, especially after the warning, and he'd be sure to keep a close eye on that creature that gave that attempt of intimidation.

The reptile looked towards the strange abomination that had asked him about his last meal with cold eyes as a piece of the burned corpse's tail hung from his saurian lips. "3 moons ago." He replied, and had little else focus with what the group was discussing for the moment, he was more curious of the water that had formed.

Having approached the body of water, Jackal dipped the tip of his tail into the newly made ditch of water to test if it wasn't toxic. Sure enough, his tail wasn't damaged by the liquid. He then slowly pulled his head over and licked his forked tongue across the surface. From what he could tell the water seemed safe, and appeared to be clean. It wasn't some kind of chemical or acid that resembled water, to his relief.

With that in mind, he decided this would be a great place to build shelters, or at least, a shelter for himself. With no trees in sight, he decided to dig. While his claws tore away at the dirt easily like a dog tracking a mole, a roadblock came in the form of some kind of stone. The rock was flat, and more importantly, impervious to his attempts at digging it. He couldn't even chip off pieces of it to his dismay. By his judgement, the 3 foot wide hole was only five feet deep. Far too small for his leisure.

His distraught sparked a new idea for shelter. He started to widen the premade hole, and began to dig forward to create a thick line in the dirt; meanwhile the dirt he scooped out was thrown inward. Within 10 minutes he had dug out a five foot trench that was six feet wide and 15 feet long. It wasn't much, but it was a start. He crawled out and stood over his dig to further consider the shelter he was building. Ideally, he wished to expand the hole more so and use that dirt to build some kind of mound for a wall around it. A process that by his estimate might take hours if not a whole day; and even succeeding in that he still lacked any sort of material for a roof.

Perhaps he could instead build up a huge mound of a dirt and dig within it for his shelter. Though to get a mound that size would take just as long as his previous thought for digging it up alone. How long would it be till nightfall? The sun was different in size and color then his own sun, he had no idea how long it would take for night to settle. He then turned back to the group that was some meters away;
He considered asking their assistance.

[Hammerman]

The group then returned back outside, after meeting up with a couple of other branded ones that were too late to arrive in time for their little game, since the entrance to the arena was blocked when the game was going on. They were going to share the meat of the armadillos they just killed with the hungry people outside. Thanks to the box, they could carry all those meat easily.

The crowd wasn't really that pleased however, with them saying how the meat wasn't enough for all of them. Illia could certainly see their point. There were a lot of them after all.

Suddenly, Mable's speech was interrupted by another earthquake. However, the tremor clearly came from the wall. And the tremor seemed to create an unnaturally rectangular hole in the wall. A torrent of water then came out of said wall. It wasn't finished however, as the ground soon changed as well, creating a depression for the water to go through.

A river was now with them.

"Earth and Water magic..." Illia mumbled to herself. She then walked to where the river was and used her force magic to grab a decently sized ball of water from it, bringing it close to her face.

"...It doesn't seem to be contaminated by anything. This is really pure water, most likely from a spring."

Illia was familiar with the procedure of manipulating the lay of the land to help with areas plagued with drought. Something like this could be done by high-ranking mages.

Illia then drank the water, sipping the bubble as it floated near her mouth, before returning to talk with the others.

The water was indeed delicious.

The meeting enlightened their current problems. First, they need food. Sooner or later, they would run out of food and things would get ugly. If she were a plant mage, she would probably be able to grow some fruit for some sustenance, but eating just fruit would be unhealthy for everyone involved. There was also the talk that this was some kind of game. She didn't know about that. There was still a lot of things they didn't know in order to draw that conclusion. And then she heard the girl named Lizaveta talking about herself being a clone created and designed to be in combat in such a young age. It reminded her of the homonculus, the ultimate mark of the knowledge of a magi. Artificial human created with magic. Creating one was hard enough, but to modify them purposefully to transcend the limits of a normal human, that would require an immense attention to detail and a long, long time to create. The magic tools to create them were incredibly hard to make and they would break after the first usage.

Her opinion on the matter? She didn't like the whole thing. She knew how to make one but she never attempted to do so, even in her long 300 years life. There wasn't an official ban on making them however. It was just her personal opinion after all. She didn't like the concept of creating sapient life just to serve you.

However, her thoughts were soon interrupted by Kriv, the winged lizard man, as he asked the group for assistance to build his shelter.

"I will help," she answered with a smile. "Using my force magic, it should be quite easy to do."

[GreenGoat]

Evfimiia Serdiatnitskiia

---

Her head was still spinning from both the hit and what was happening.

Sudden dislocation to this place, marks, dangerous armadillos, and all these different races and people. How exactly was she to react to everything? Evfimiia could hardly even react to the fact she was just in a very dangerous game that might as well end her and the other's lives. It was hard to gather one's mind when event after event happened in quick succession, like that waterfall just forming a river out of nowhere after they got out.

Seeing her chance, she coughed once to catch their attention, and started introducing herself to the rest as well.

"I am Evfimiia Serdiatnitskiia, librarian of the Great Arachne Library of Eros, though I am far from the library now." Holding up the scroll she generated with the Linebackers' information on it, she continued speaking. "It would seem I can make records of anything I perceive due to the mark I have. However, I do not have any sort of experience dealing with the dangerous."

There, she got that out. With the born small soldier there, that odd thing that was in a boxing match with the large armadillo, and maybe even that lizard thing, it was unlikely they'd need someone like her. What happened before was just a fluke after all.

"This might be a bit late, but armadillos may have the flesh rot disease, or leprosy on them. Considering these Linebackers's seem to be similar to armadillos, the same might apply to them."

She blurted out that bit of information before she could consider the feelings of the others, some of which were already eating the meat. At least they had a large quantity of fresh water there.

[Piercing Light]

Mable had her head firmly resting in her hand as she hummed, deep in thought. It looked like they had not one but two soldiers from modern times, (at least from her view) eager to complete a mission and little else. They would be useful in the cave at least, she wasn't sure how much they could bring to the table otherwise. The man covered in chitin armor could basically be a swiss army knife for them, but he was apparently too stubborn to do simple tasks.

The lizard seemed like an idiot, but he did look strong, and he could dig pretty well. She raised her head and looked at the man in the plague doctor uniform. She had no clue about him, but he did manage to handle himself fairly well in the cave. "I'll come back to that one..." She whispered to herself.

She looked to Illia, who had just finished tasting the water from their new river. With her ability construction would be a breeze. She then looked to Septim. He seemed to be experienced, at least when it came to combat. He likely had some survival experience as well. But what exactly could she bring to the table? Well, she'd think about that later.

It was then that the spider girl spoke up. Even after she'd finished speaking Mable had to take a moment to process her name. She repeated it in her head until she felt it stuck. Aside from that her ability lit a spark in Mable, the fact about the linebackers possibly being diseased didn't seem to worry her. She jumped up and hurried over to her. "Whoa whoa, that's super useful! We don't know anything about this place, if you can do that isn't it really amazing?" She beamed at Evfimiia as if she were star struck. "We need to go back down there as soon as possible, having you there would mean we won't be going in completely blind."

[HokumPocus]

In the middle of his bony breakdown Sieve received advice from the poorly dressed mercury automaton. It made sense to calm down before saying anything potentially crude.

This "future" seemed more like a new world. Everything from the species discrimination to the hyper-conservative atmosphere of his old steam-and-cogs world was smelted into a new unwieldy metal. He would have to adapt and live on, even if that meant having conversations with naked people. The plague doctor would have to set a new course of thinking, no matter how much his brain yearned to put black tarp over everyone except the thick-robed magician woman.

It was then that the spider woman revealed her name and abilities. Evfimiia Serdiatnitskiia, a name that sounded large to the others, but was closer to the fantasy equivalent of "Bob" when placed next to the sadomasochistic naming schemes of Cogshire nobility. He could only "sigh" in pity as he recalled the princess who was named after the noise a steam train makes when it breaks down.

Evfimiia's abilty worried Sieve. As soon as she would perceive the clunky, tiny man it would be obvious that he was little more than a bag with bones in it. Judging by the way the merwoman was shocked while chatting with Evfimiia, he reasoned that they weren't used to seeing such diverse life forms either.

Sieve subconsciously adjusted his robes a bit before replying to the ocean woman. "If we were to return to that area, is it possible that the dimensions inside of it would be different as from before? I only hope that it doesn't have the same floor of occult white runes."

[Rune_Alchemist]

~Lizaveta Koshkov~

Ah...flesh rot disease? Good thing she wasn't exactly prone to disease and the nanos would take care of any bad material. Probably. Chances were it wouldn't make her sick or anything. Perks of being a genetically enhanced super soldier with experimental tech. As she finished off as much of the Armadillo meat she wanted, she tossed it on the ground and walked over to Mable. Going back in? It sounded fun at least. She hadn't been here for their first little venture, and she was feeling a bit bored.

"Ah. I dunno what you all did down there, but it sounds fun." Liza laughed. "Ah - It seems I can also sort of 'sense' where other people are too, by the way! That's new. Should be good against Ambushes. It's how I found this place, heh." Everyone here was just so interesting! So new and shiny! Perhaps she was just glad to be away from the Empire, but she was starting to feel a little excited. "Ah, but come on then! Liza is excited to see this place - ah...though I am not sure how useful in combat I will be should we need to defend ourselves. I am skilled with rifle and hand to hand training, but it would likely be best to conserve bullets or I'll run out quite swiftly."

[GreenGoat]

Evfimiia Serdiatnitskiia

---

Eh? Why was Mable getting excited?

There was this growing horror that she might not be able to get out of delving the dark dangerous dungeon. Maybe not so much as the dark part, but it certainly was dangerous. And going back there immediately? That was far from what she wanted at the moment, not so soon after dangerous armadillos with large disemboweling claws. Had she been in her library, she'd start jumping up and out, just to get away from ever being pulled into that place again.

But she wasn't, and Evfimiia wasn't sure they'd survive if they were to sit around on their thumbs.

Coughing again to get Mable's attention, she spoke again. "Miia is fine. I understand our names are sometimes a mouthful for those unused to it."

Latching onto Mable's obvious difficulty in pronouncing her name, she diverted her attention to that instead. And speaking of names, she wondered what even the ot-

Without warning a bunch of scrolls started appearing one by one, the mark on her hand glowing and pulsing with every single scroll that appeared. Picking one up, she turned towards Liza, even as she continued reading the scroll. Again, it simply detailed what she was, and not who she was, with details like her measurements, height, weight and physical characteristics, while detailing nothing about how she thought, or even her history. Presumably there was one scroll for every one of them, judging from the number that appeared.

"Hmm, it appears my ability fires whenever my curiosity piques. This one." Miia handed a scroll to Liza. "is yours."

Perhaps with this unexpected but fortunate diversion, they would forget to take her with them?

[BayRat]

Kriv 'Jackal' Westari

---

"We build shelter, yeah?" Kriv asked, his tongue still adapting to this foreign language. "No trees, plants too thin, Stone doesn't break...I only have dirt to sculpt." He gestured as he held up a clump of dirt. "Not deep enough for simple holes, perhaps I could craft a single dirt hut with some great passings...Long time to dig out all that. Any other ideas?" He directed his speech to the strange hairless mammal that offered assistance, but still kept his voice loud enough for the rest of the group to join in.
"It is best we build something to sleep in, it is always dangerous to be left in the open. Caves, I do not trust those caves in that unnatural mountain. We need materials to build with.."

The bipedal reptile scanned the rest of the group that had gathered. The weird spider-hairless mammal hybrid had power over knowledge, the strangely robed creature professed something of 'magic'; There were fables of the dangers of witches in his old world, but giving the situation he'd get over that stigma for the sake of survival. She seemed harmless enough. Others were talking about other worlds, other times. That explained their alien appearance. They all had marks on their hands too, so the gift he was given wasn't entirely a coincidence. Some reason for it..a reason he'd have to deduce later.

"Can any of you fashion supplies in this green wasteland?" He asked, as if they could fabricate wood from thin air. Hopeful thinking it was.

[Kazemitsu]

Rafael

Rafael watched the group for a moment as they bombarded the poor drider with questions, the plague doctor seemed to be calming thanks to his words, and the reptile was digging. Shaking his head he stood up from the grass and "cracked" his back. He didn't have vertebrae so the gesture was more habit than anything. Now suddenly there were scrolls everywhere, the spider girls gift going bonkers. "If you happen to find mine, try not to look at it. You wouldn't understand regardless of your technological level." He said, his genetic make-up alone would have filled an uncountable number libraries.

The reptile questioned about supplies. "Nope, I can only destroy and 'make' creatures. At a cost." He said while idly shifting his hands into those monstrous claws from before. Then they were back to wiggling fingers with slight points instead of fingernails. "Now can we take a little adventure back in there already? As interesting as grass is We'd like to actually do something with our indiscernible amount of time left." He said, his tone dull with boredom. The team meeting hadn't exactly accomplished a whole lot.

[Hammerman]

Illia Anastasia

---

"I suppose a dirt hut would suffice for now," she replied to the lizardman. She wasn't fond of living in such a settlement, but it would have to do for now.

She brought the the dull tip of her staff to the ground, hitting it once. And with that simple movement, the dirt began moving as if it was alive. It shaped itself into a simple hut, pressing into itself so it would solidify. And just like that, the hut was complete in no time at all.

"There," she returned her attention back to the lizardman with a smile. "I'm not that good in architecture so I could only make a simple one."

@dragonmancer

[BayRat]

Kriv 'Jackal' Westari

---

The primitive creature was less interested in the strange abomination and his creature making, and more so in the fact that the earth had arose to form a hut by sheer will. The creature was fascinated, intrigued. "A shelter made..so quickly..without the lift of a finger!" He commented as he inspected the simplistic design. It would suffice.

"Can you make more with your witchcraft?"

[HokumPocus]

The plague doctor unintentionally mimicked a bird as he divebombed the chaotic jumble of scrolls. Beings from more contemporary worlds would have classified these movements as "trash bag flailing in the wind". Sieve began to sift through the information with the intent of preserving his facade of being human.

Of course, like any good steampunk lad, he had the literacy level of a goat. The kingdom's war generals only taught necroorganic soldiers their own names, the names of royalty and cheeky stick figures. As such, Sieve couldn't write half a sentence but could skillfully churn out even the most atrocious, pompous names created by more-is-more nobility. While the rest of the party exchanged banter on terraforming and who could despise cooperation the most, Sieve frantically unfurled scroll after scroll, basing himself off of the pretty pictures contained within.

Curses! This is some type of soldier! What sort of musket is that, I reckon.

I've not a foxes' tail, so this can't be me.

I've a beak but no wings. Or claws. Or tail. Come to think of it I'm nothing at all like this.

Sieve unfurled a very large scroll that would have honestly probably killed him if he knew how to read.

The indecent exposure machine man!

At last, the reanimated set of bones opened up the smallest scroll. It had to have been his, considering the austere nature of his physical characteristics. If this were to depict my three sizes, I-I'd be very angry! With one hand subconsciously pressed against his flat chest, Sieve readied himself for whatever was inside. A familiar image of a humanoid in a plague doctor uniform. After being relieved of his worries while conveniently ignoring all the text describing his bones, the magician quickly scampered away from the others, now brainstorming on what to do with the paper.

[Piercing Light]

Mable blinked in surprise as multiple scrolls materialized in front of Miia. The thought of anyone seeing hers made her a little uneasy, she didn't want these people to hate her just because of the way she was born, not like on her home planet. Before she could subtly attempt to pick out her scroll, the plague doctor jumped onto the pile. She was nervous at first, but it seemed he was only looking for his own. If he had a secret to hide, he wasn't doing a very good job at making sure no one knew. Once he ran off with his own scroll Mable picked out her own and read it. She let out a sigh of relief, it didn't have any of the information she was worried about. "My measurements are in here, my fans would love to get a hold of this." She said, walking over to the box and tossing it inside. She then looked over to the lizard and Illia, they needed materials for shelters?

She carried the box over to them and opened it, then dumping out the disassembled bleachers. All together it weighed around three tons. "Illia, do you think you could shape this like you did the dirt? If it's too hard we'll have to find a way to heat it up, but I'm sure that won't be too tough." She said with a reassuring smile. "We're about to head back into the cave by the way, I guess you can come with us or work on this." Mable said. She moved back towards the cave entrance and up to Miia. She had gotten a bit excited when she learned of the girl's ability, but she hadn't quite taken into consideration her survivability. "You can stay back if you really don't want to go in. I'm not going to force you or anything." They'd handled the first challenge just fine, she figured the next wouldn't be so difficult.

She turned to the rest of the group. "I think everyone else is ready to go in, right?" She asked, but didn't wait for an answer as she was already heading inside the cave, having picked up the limitless box and walked off. The path looked much the same as last time, however once she reached the end of the path and the wall raised into the ceiling she saw that the scenery was different. The mishmashed sports field had been replaced with what looked like a training field. There were multiple brick walls around the room, each of them five feet tall. Barrels were placed around the room, as well as a few boxes. There were also a few large rocks in the room, at least four feet tall. To their right was a stone building twelve feet tall and thirty feet wide. A simple wooden door appeared to be the only way inside. It seemed the plague doctor had the right idea, somehow the entire room had shifted. Once everyone had entered the room the wall closed as it had before. Static suddenly came from a speaker, and the same androgynous voice spoke.

"This is a recording. Your next challenge will be a test of your wits and strength. Here in this room you will face six opponents, the rules are simple, either destroy or incapacitate all of your enemies. That is-"

"What, no bonus prize?" Mable interjected.

"That is all... there will be no bonus prize." The voice responded.

"Wait, this isn't a recording, is it?" She asked, feeling the last bit had been tacked on. After a few moments of silence a horn blared, signaling the start of the game. "Oh of course, if you hate your job you should quit!"

From various points in the room a hole opened, and from them robotic humanoids emerged. They were covered in thin metallic plating, and had blank glass faces. In their hands they each held what looked like a rifle, though of advanced design. In the far back of the room, behind two of the robots a sixth robot emerged. It looked similar to the others, only it's armor had red stripes along the arms and legs. The face of the striped robot lit up with a red light, and right afterwards the remaining five robot's faces lit up with a green light. They lifted their weapons and took aim at Mable and the others.

"Whoa! Take cover!" She screamed, dropping the box and diving for the wall in front of them just as a red plasma bolt was fired her way. The robots began taking more shots at them, firing in intervals of three seconds. As the plasma hit the stone wall it left a scorching mark, and with repeated strikes would likely begin to melt.

(OOC Note: The blue squares on the map are the placements of the robots, with the far back one being the striped robot.)

[Kazemitsu]

Rafael

Rafael watched the plague doctor dive into the pile of scrolls. That got a kind of low chuckle from the anomaly. Going over he looked over the scrolls, they were kind of small, probably because the woman couldn't list every single detail since they were all virtually unknown to her. So reaching in he snagged the largest since he displayed the most 'weaponry' and characteristics. Lo and behold it was his scroll. Which promptly vanished into his hand with a dull crunch. The heavily clothed magi was helping the lizardman with his shelter. Whatever they can have all kinds of fun with their dirt.

Finally things seemed to be getting underway. He followed along beside Mable with his hands claps behind his head. They entered the cave and the voice from before popped up, except it was supposedly a recording. "Most recordings don't actually say they're a recording unless the message is on repeat." He called out, his tone dull. He felt like they were actually in a game and the game master was just being childish and trying to mess with them. It worked on Mable but it really didn't work with the mutated being.

Robots appeared which seemed to liven Rafael up a bit. "Feels like home now." He said with a laugh before peeling off to the right. Bobbing and weaving between the plasma fire as if he had done this before. As he moved he counted how many shots were fired before they stopped. Three seconds, more than enough time.

If anyone was looking at him they'd see his arms bulge briefly before two large eggs were released from his palms. They grew large before splitting in a wash of green sludge to reveal two of the scariest looking canine-like creatures the group had probably ever seen. "Go, circle around." He mumbled to his 'pets. The plasma fire kicked up again, but he was on the other side of the wall to the room the robot was camped in.

Rafael's whole arm changed this time, not just his hands. It became long, his fingers three great claws, and spines jutted out along the length. When the shots ceased his arm literally whipped around the corner and grabbed the robot by its head before dragging it back and hurling the mechanical being into the wall closest to the group. Meanwhile his creatures had circled around the right side of the room and the T shaped wall. They were coming up on the 'leader droid'. One was charging along the ground the other was clinging to the ceiling and moving a little less swift.

[HokumPocus]

The scroll in Sieve's hand was twisting from being clamped so hard. The phrase "white-knuckling the scroll" would have been handy here, but Sieve's knuckles are always white. As soon as Mable announced that she was returning to the rune-cave the skeleton quickly began to chase after her.

"W-wait please! It might not be safe for organi-"

"Er, I'll help!"

---

While it is true that most of Sieve's abilities were irrelevant know that people knew all about the benefits of washing their hands and wiping properly, he was still a super soldier created with the intent of scouting areas too dangerous for those who had pink mushy bits inside of them. So, while the doctor's extensive know-how on burning corpses and not sneezing into people's mouths was now worthless, he still excelled at his primary purpose of being a mine canary.

The scout neatly and quietly took off his boots and set them behind the wall the party had taken cover in. His body movements were too calm to make his robes flap around, keeping a pair of bony lewd feet secret from everyone else. And of course, his scroll was held tightly in his left hand.

Sieve now knew how to glide around with wind, but he was too cautious to be using such a new ability so soon. Instead, the soldier began to run towards the left side of the room, roughly slamming on the floor everytime a projectile came too close. By having wind instead of fat in his body, the skeleton slinked around quickly but very, very loudly.

After speed-stomping around for a bit he quickly began to inhale air while brainstorming without a brain. Their mechanical opponents seemed capable of firing off green light with the power to melt metal. Figures, the second I'm to develop miraculous powers everything else does too.

Sieve keenly paid attention to the battlefield, but neglected to factor in just how silent the robots were in comparison to him. One of them cutely emerged from one side of the wall, forcing Sieve to play a nice game of hot-potato-but-with-weapons.

Barrels turned into toothpicks and the wall began to melt into a nice iron mousse as robot and skeleton traded ranged attacks. While the pile of bones had regained composure, his cautious, precise shots struggled to actually land against the machine. The robot's green orbs of light were a bigger threat, but the opponent had difficulties in charging up as much. It was a tense, slow paced battle decorated by inhales of air and violence happening elsewhere in the room. Sieve made a big deal of being tired, limping and everything, as he stuck out his left hand. With a flutter of robes he had managed to bait his foe into firing at the scroll. The skeleton was giddy with excitement.

Oh, the joys of not being ostracized are simply too wonderful!

[Hammerman]

Illia Anastasia

---

@dragonmancer
"Sure!" Illia replied. "Something like this isn't that big of a deal, really."

Her gaze then fell on the commotion happening in the distance. There was now a pile of scrolls all over the ground. She wondered where they came from.

"Please excuse me for a moment," she said to the lizard before going to where the scrolls were.

She began looking through them. Hmm, these seem to be detailing the personal info of all the people present here. Curious magic. Do I get one too, I wonder?

And indeed she did. Reading the contents inside, there was nothing really private or shameful that was written. It was just describing what she was, not what her thoughts were and her history. Nothing that was a big deal.

Well, perhaps it having her three sizes was a little bit shameful. Anyone reading it would know that she was secretly more well-endowed that she looked, thanks to her loose clothing.

And that was why she quickly ripped it apart with her magic to pieces once she finished reading it.

She then was approached by Mable, who asked her if she could shape some bleachers.

"Hmm, let me try..." she answered. Focusing her magic, she began bending one of the bleachers. And sure enough, just as she had expected, it still bent.

"Yes, I should be able too," she said to Mable. "If just bending it and shaping it."

After their brief break, the group returned back to the cave. The field they were before had now been replaced by some sort of a training room.

"This is a recording. Your next challenge will be a test of your wits and strength. Here in this room you will face six opponents, the rules are simple, either destroy or incapacitate all of your enemies."

Another one of these games. I wonder what their end goal is. It can't be just for their amusement, can it?

And then, the robots appeared. And without giving any signal beforehand, they fired off some sort of ball of energy towards the group.

Illia, unlike some of the others, didn't bother taking cover. Instead, she merely activated her barrier, deflecting any energy balls heading to her way. Slowly, she marched to where the leader robot was (she assumed it was the leader judging by how it looked). Being in the open, she quickly became the target of most of the robots, and the energy balls hitting her barrier over and over again were starting to drain her mana.

...Perhaps this isn't the best idea...

She hoped that the others could use this opportunity to attack the robots as she was not exactly in the ideal position to mount an offense as well.

[GreenGoat]

Evfimiia Serdiatnitskiia

---

"If you happen to find mine, try not to look at it. You wouldn't understand regardless of your technological level."

She picked it up, and sure enough, the scroll unfurled itself, growing longer and longer as she pulled it out. There were terms and details explaining what he was, and his makeup, but Evfimiia was neither a scholar nor a wizard, and everything just made her head spin. The skeleton — hard to miss what he was, with the unnatural way he flapped about — swooped down on the scroll like a demented crow, before swooping away just as quickly with his own scroll. The robed girl however quickly dispatched her own. Perhaps she didn't like her measurements? Evfimiia made a mental note to make another and see what it was in the scroll. The lizard... well, she didn't feel safe around the lizard, like he would just twitch and eat off her head before she could react.

"You can stay back if you really don't want to go in. I'm not going to force you or anything."

Evfimiia did stay for a bit, before realizing she felt extremely awkward around the people without the marks. Perhaps they weren't actually doing so, and understood why she wasn't going, but it still felt as if their stares bore into her, silently cursing her for not going with the group. For not doing anything when she could.

U-urgh! Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea!

Her calm exterior never faded however, as she seemed to close her eyes in contemplation, before following the main group silently. Almost immediately they were in another room, this time with a prerecorded voice. Or perhaps it was just someone speaking normally?

In any case, she seemed to have followed them into another deadly situation. Having been going behind the group, the witch's barrier protected Miia from any stray shots. Perhaps just as well, for her first reaction to those things shooting at her was to freeze in place in fear, though her outwards reaction and expression changed but a little.

Taking her chance, she jumped haphazardly towards cover, as her hand glowed, giving her the information on the bots.

Combat Droid MKIII: The MKIII is a robot created using advanced technology. Their frame is made from titanium, with points of articulation covered by a silken material stronger than steel. They move their bodies using synthetic muscle which is five times stronger than that of a humans. The muscle is controlled via electric signals throughout the robot's spine, or in the case it is damaged, from individual batteries in it's limbs. Their face is covered by bulletproof glass, and acts as an advanced head up display. They are able to track multiple targets at once, and switch to infrared vision. In battle one robot will be designated as the 'leader' and will act as the remote controller of the other robots in it's squad. Should it be destroyed, another robot will take it's place as leader. Since the leader is controlling multiple bodies at once, it's combat effectiveness is tied to how many it must handle at the same time. The less of them there are, the more lethal the MKIII becomes, gaining speed and inhuman reflexes.

HPR: Full name 'High-energy Plasma Rifle.' The HPR is a weapon designed to fire ionized gas in the form of plasma. When fired the weapon creates a magnetic field to contain the plasma, on it's way out the plasma is covered in a thin film that retains it's shape until it comes into contact with a surface, or after traveling more than 300 meters. The HPR is effective against organic targets, but has little penetrating power.

"Those automatons!" She shouted from behind cover. "They get stronger and faster the less of them there are!"

Miia was deathly afraid, but still, her voice and demeanour did not waver. The others could handle them while she cowered behind this wall.

[Piercing Light]

Mable let out a disgusted yelp as she saw Rafael spawn two horrifying creatures from his body. If this weren't a life and death situation she might have hurled. Meanwhile, the robots had several things to react to. Sieve appeared to be a low priority target at the moment, he was difficult to hit but his offensive capabilities weren't as high as the target that had created additional foes for them. The three robots in the far back of the room all focused on the two dogs, their head snapping on target. They quickly aimed at the dog on the ground and fired. They did not all shoot in the same place, but instead shot in different locations, giving the dog no feasible way of avoiding the shot without the plasma being blocked, the dog moving at the speed of sound. They then aimed at the second dog, and fired in the same way. They did this in one second, showing that they were not firing in three second intervals because they had no choice. Their guns visibly smoked from their barrels, indicating that the guns were heating up.

The robot in the shed was unable to react quickly enough to avoid being grabbed by Rafael, and it's head shattered upon being slammed into a wall. The robot stopped moving, and at the same moment the rest of it's squad had a visible jolt go across their blank faces. At this point Illia had stepped into the middle of the field and created a barrier. The three robots in the far back all fired at once, their guns having cooled by now. Realizing shooting the barrier may be futile, the robot on the right (looking from the entrance) dashed straight for Illia and began bashing the barrier with it's titanium hands. The two others near it focused their fire on Rafael, with the striped robot moving to flank him from the right side of the room.

The two robots on the left side focused on the rest, firing at anyone that dared to peek out of cover. At this time Miia called out to everyone, revealing what information she had. There wasn't much they could do to stop the robots from getting stronger, but at least they could prepare for it now.

Mable leaped for the HPR that the defeated robot had dropped, just barely missing a plasma bolt as she scrambled back into cover. She didn't quite know how it worked, but it had a trigger, so it didn't seem all that different from how a normal gun worked. The robot on the far left jumped up on the wall to gain a sight on them, Mable let out a yelp and fired three shots at the robot. One of the shots hit it's torso, causing it to fall backwards. It was still able to move, but it's movements were sluggish as it got to it's feet. Mable almost moved to hit it while it was down, however she dropped the gun as it heated up, turning red from the heat of three consecutive shots.