Drifting Pollen

Mage against the machine! (Drifting Pollen vs Kagebaka)

So, he wasn't going to come quietly? Irksome, but not so unusual for powerful individuals such as this. Johannes fell silent, offering no immediate response to his target's challenge. He would no longer waste time trying to negotiate. From here onwards, things would be decided in a simpler, more brutal manner.

He strode forwards, moving roughly towards where Thomas had shot his spell up into the air. Mechanisms shifted within the drone body, as he diverted power to its right arm, charging some of the more dangerous systems concealed within.

His opponent had gone and showed off his location by firing that shot in the air, obviously attempting to draw notice. But was he so overconfident as to lead the drone directly to him? Johannes doubted it. That meant the shot was a diversion, and attempt to attract the drone precisely where Thomas wanted it and expose it to an attack. The mage himself would be moving, likely prepared for a direct assault.

The engineer, however, had other plans. The drone body was certainly powerful enough to resolve matters through brute force, but its master preferred to work with a hint of subtlety.

As he drew nearer where the spell had been fired off, he changed course. Instead of directly approaching its location, he moved leftwards, slowly and carefully altering his route. At the same time, he was watching at listening, and quickly found the hint he was looking for. Jumping from tree to tree certainly made one hard to keep track of, but unlike Johannes' cautious plodding, it was not a quiet means of travel. Though there was no way for Johannes to immediately pinpoint the location of one who was moving so fast, the shifting of leaves and the thud of feet against bark were clear signs of what his opponent was doing.

Time for him to set a trap, then.

The drone had been recording all that it saw on its march through the jungle, and storing that information for later use. Now, the time for that use had come. On its chest, a powerful projection device whirred to life, accessing images stored in its databanks to create holograms, three-dimensional projections almost indistinguishable from the real thing.

Thomas would soon notice that the treeline was growing denser. Were his eyes sharp enough, he might even catch new trunks and branches appearing out of nowhere. None of these were real, mere illusions being generated by Johannes' powerful projection mechanisms- and yet to an outward observer, they looked the same, down to the tiniest detail.

Not only were these additional trees providing thick cover for Johannes, making his drone body far more difficult to spy, they also posed an indirect threat to Thomas himself. With false trees now being projected around the area, it was only a matter of time until he tried to jump to one, only to find it was not real, likely resulting in a loud and painful crash.

Mage against the machine! (Drifting Pollen vs Kagebaka)

@Kagebaka

Made a thread! Post whenever you're ready.

Mage against the machine! (Drifting Pollen vs Kagebaka)

The jungle was a living thing, all that lay within it constantly churning and changing, growing and evolving. Trees extended their reach ever higher, massive leaves grasping for the sun, even as vines crept up their sides, forming parasitic networks of life. Small animals scurried to and fro in both the undergrowth and the canopy, shrieking and chirping and hooting at each other as they went about their frenzied business of survival and reproduction, ensuring that their cells and genes lived and prospered for as long as possible.

The ground? Covered, with hundreds of different species. The air? Warm and humid, ideal conditions for the sustenance of such dense and varied creatures. It was a strange jungle indeed, being situated on an alien world far beyond the borders of explored space, but the sights and sounds were still recognizable to any who had trekked through similar ecosystems in more familiar lands. It was a classic, storybook landscape, a place where everything was alive...

My Hider

...except one thing.

Animals of every shape and size scattered and fled before the sound of the heavy, measured footsteps. A shadow moved through the strange trees, quiet and implacable, striding over tangled roots and thick vegetation without so much as faltering. Its movements were fluid, almost graceful, but unnaturally so. Every kind of animal had its quirks and inconsistencies, those tiny little tics when muscles didn't do quite what they were supposed to, but this newcomer had no such margin of error. Its every step was precise, moving the exact same distance with the exact same timing, making only minute adjustments to compensate for terrain.

Though it dressed in elegant silks, as though it were some high-society gentleman, it was neither human nor alive. A vessel, shaped roughly like a man, its skin a dull grey metal and its insides a tangle of wires and gears, pistons and capacitors, and all manner of complex and intricate mechanisms. A dead, soulless construct.

The mind behind the machine was a vast distance away, and yet he saw what it saw, felt what it felt, and commanded its every movement. Johannes was perfectly in sync with this body, this hand of metal that worked to spread his influence in distant lands. It provided the raw strength and firepower, and his mind supplied the knowledge and cunning to use these.

A deadly combination indeed.

At present, the drone was hunting, trekking miles through the wilderness to track down a mysterious and elusive target. A young gunslinger-mage who his informants had told him might be dangerous.

Johannes didn't like that kind of danger. It represented a risk, even if it was a small one, to his plans for this place. Such unknown factors could not be left alone, lest they spring up at an inopportune moment and cause undue disturbance. Better to deal with them quickly, and move them somewhere they could be controlled, turning the risks into potential assets. Or, if it became necessary, simply eliminate them.

The drone's blank eyes swept back and forth over its surroundings, methodically taking in every minuscule detail it could find. All that it saw was recorded, information stored in dense databanks for later use. The shape and size of leaves, the texture and thickness of what passed for bark around here... Johannes was no specialist in biology, having devoted his life to the ways of MicroClockwork, but he could still appreciate the little intricacies of life from time to time.

Something caught his attention. A tiny glimpse from a clearing ahead, a sign of movement slightly out of the ordinary. Was it his target? It was hard to tell. Johannes wasn't going to attack immediately, however- if the mage was here, he would confront him openly, and offer him a chance to surrender.

"Thomas Minlors."

The voice was calm, the tone of someone speaking rather than shouting, and yet the drone projected it as such a volume that it the sound boomed outwards, alerting anything nearby. Insects and animals took flight or hid themselves away, alarmed by the sudden noise.

The machine, meanwhile, was striding slowly forth, making its presence clear. "I know you're there, Thomas. The Engine will no longer permit your presence here, and as its highest authority, I am now enforcing this. You will surrender yourself, and abandon whatever business you have here. Cooperation shall not be punished. Resistance... will be met with as much force as necessary." Though distorted by the speakers through which it sounded, there was no missing the hardness in that voice, more unyielding than even the steel skin that carried it.

"You have five seconds to comply. Five..."

Everyone who wants to battle can come here

Cool, here's mine. So do you want to make the thread?

@Kagebaka

Okay! I have some stuff I need to take care of first, but I'll try to make something in a couple hours or so.

Everyone who wants to battle can come here

Will this guy work as an opponent? Or rather, one of his robot bodies...

Meticulous Master of Machines!

Name: Johannes Larque
Race: Unknown
Gender: Unknown. Presumably male.
Age: Apparently somewhere in his forties. However, this cannot be confirmed.

Physical Appearance:

Johannes Larque's real body has never been identified, though he does have one. However, all of his public activities are conducted via advanced humanoid drones, which are controlled remotely. These drones are semi-autonomous, and can function on their own, but are not fully sentient, merely clever vessels for their master. There are twelve in total, and all are near-uniform in appearance.
Drone height: 6'9''
Drone weight: 553 lbs



The drones are clad in real silk suits, tailored specifically for their form. Though their movements when acting alone are clunky, with Johannes in control they are capable of performing even the most specific and complex actions, with all the grace of a living being. This can make them seem somewhat unnerving.
Though usually silent, the ticking sound of clockwork can be heard when they move quickly. They have no voice of their own, but will transmit a distorted version of Johannes' own when he is controlling one.

Abilities:

Genius engineer: Johannes is the finest known engineer of MicroClockwork in the world, using it to create elaborate mimicries of organic creatures, as well as powerful mechanisms for energy storage and transfer. With enough time and materials, there is little he cannot create. None of his creations rely on magic in the slightest, being things of pure science.

Combat training: It is rare to see one of his drones actually engage in combat, but it is clear from the few instances where it has occurred that their controller has some hand-to-hand training.

Drone Abilities:

The drones are far stronger than baseline humans, and can move with surprising speed and agility for their weight. They are also highly resilient, capable of taking bullets in their more heavily armored segments (arms and torso) with little to no damage. They do not feel pain, and will only lose functionality when part of their body is simply too badly damaged to continue. When control of them is released (either due to Johannes moving on or the transmitter in their abdomen being destroyed), they will take whatever actions are necessary to keep themselves and any pre-designated targets safe, without harming others if possible. They can also be given simple orders without Johannes assuming direct control.

Mechanical senses: The drones have normal auditory senses, and no sense of smell or taste. They can feel things, but not very well, being able to make out shape but not texture through touch. Their vision is slightly better than a human's, being able to zoom in on faraway objects and see perfectly well in low-light conditions. They can also record what they see.

Light projectors: Each drone is equipped with a projector, which may be used to create realistic three-dimensional holograms. These images cannot be created from scratch, however. Projections can only be made of people, events, and things that a drone has recorded with its visual sensors.

Arm tools: The forearms of Johannes' drones are quite large, and contain some simple equipment, within both the fingers and the arms themselves.

Both arms: high-voltage electric circuits in the fingertips. These can be used to start other devices, revive those undergoing cardiac arrest, or to simply electrocute disruptions. Their batteries are run down by default (so that drones can shake hands without... you know) and require a short time to charge.
Left arm: automated screwdriver in the hand, powerful piledriver in the forearm.
Right arm: tweezers and magnifying glass in the hand, heavy plasma-powered cannon in the forearm. The cannon fires superheated projectiles with adjustable velocity, but generates a large amount of heat in doing so. It cools itself by gathering large amounts of water from the surrounding air and releasing it as immensely pressurized blasts of steam. Making more than two shots in a row without cooling will result in the weapon breaking down, becoming temporarily unable to fire.

Everyone who wants to battle can come here

Sure, I'll fight you. What kind of power level are you thinking?

Dark god Darko welcomes challangers

@Drifting Pollen

Elly is free and stuff. She can now keep looking at those Tiger Beat magazines.

@Doc Doctor

Wh-what?! I never mentioned she had those!

...

How did you know?

Dark god Darko welcomes challangers

Yeahhh, probably best I step in here.

@Doc Doctor
With Eubeal gone, would the Malocchio still be switching his and Eleanor's sight, or can we consider him just completely vanished for now?

EDIT: never mind. Should have intervened sooner, I knew this was going to happen...

Dark god Darko welcomes challangers

I'm gonna exit this RP now, it was fun, but my interest in battle RPs has currently waned

@Mikellh Dejax

See ya! Not sure if this'll go on much longer anyways, our dark god has fallen strangely silent... still, if you do ever want to battle Eleanor or what have you, just let me know.

Dark god Darko welcomes challangers

Eleanor was honestly starting to wonder whether it was worth it.

She could have killed the Pater already, if she'd actually been bothered. On the other hand, Satori had seemed to eager to fight it, and Eubeal had told her to take care of his tuxedo (which at the moment was being carried away on the APC, having been left behind when Eleanor had hopped into the future). There had been no good reason to ruin the fun for the other two, and so she'd stayed her hand.

Right now, however, the Magna Pater was making the grave mistake of interfering with what she was doing. Eleanor liked her sight very much, and wasn't inclined to idly continue with her travels while it was impaired. On the other hand, simply waiting around was boring. She wanted to get going again, and as the seconds ticked by, she had less and less faith in the abilities of her two companions to actually finish it off. Perhaps they were simply taking their time, toying with the creature before finally snuffing it out, but Eleanor was getting impatient. If they took much longer, she'd steal their prey for herself, politeness be damned.

As it was, she was learning a great deal about the beast. The spiders her brother had made for her had found a nice little sack of meat to play in, and though they were cast out from the body where they had made their home, there was still a great deal to be learned from loose gristle. Every single cell in an organism contained the code for its entire structure, and much else besides. As they cut and crawled, dissecting and analyzing the dead tissues, the spiders were feeding back to Eleanor what they found. Given a little time, they would be able to tell her the locations of all the Pater's major organs, the chemical composition of the goo it excreted, its maximum potential speed and strength, and many other useful tidbits.

Eleanor slowed, her ascent gradually coming to a halt around a hundred meters above the forest, where she floated, weightless and upside down. Just for the sake of trying, she disconnected her optic nerves- or rather, the cords that had long ago replaced them -removing her own vision. Easily undone, when the time came, but for now it might reveal a little more about this nuisance. Could the ability still work when an affected individual possessed no sense of sight?