OwO

Sleepless Nights\\ Iron Cages

CLEANERS Honest Tough Love: Refuses to act unless ??? or ??? Yasu Cam Nils Emma	TARGET LIST Lion-headed Ringleader [HEALTHY] [2] Beast of Rage: ??? ???: ??? Half-Man Sized Car [UPTURNED] [1] Clown Car: If possible, creates another clown. Elephant-headed Unicyclist [HEALTHY] [1] Elephant-headed Trapeze [DISMEMBERED] [1?] Clown with Accordion Arms Clown with Oversized Axe Clown with Undersized Mallet Clown Covered in Party Poppers
Special characters have special qualities that may be hidden until they become apparent. Undetected characters can freely act until detected, but can only take one action that would reveal them.	Elite entities require multiple actions to fell and have special (possibly unknown) characteristics. Greater entities may require multiple actions to fell. Lesser entities can be slain by a single action. Destroyed entities are usually out of the fight [state] denotes their current state and [#] denotes how many actions they can perform each round. > {Name} denotes who the enemy is currently focusing on.

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With a swift cut of the blade, the trapeze had been wrested from its ceiling domain. It plummeted to the ground, its natural fortitude preventing damage from the fall. The stage was a different story as the trapeze's body created an indent. The trapeze didn't move in response; it required a brief moment to recover.

The supernatural did not conventionally have brains, but they were still beholden to the concept. If a monster had a head, slicing it off would defeat it. Of course, that only held true if the monster didn't possess using qualities like false body parts and regeneration. Luckily for Yasu and Emma, this was a case of a simple monster. The mind of the trapeze, if mind was even the appropriate word for it, was contained within the dangling body.

If they managed to--or even wanted to--grasp the limp length of sinew that now helplessly dangled from the roof, they could dangle above the stage out of reach. However, the falling party streamers and lumps of flesh signified that the sinew would not last long.

The performance was ruined. That's what the expression of the ringleader's face said. It warped and contorted with rage and anger. Its previous disgust at the troupe's lack of audience seemed to be nothing in comparison. The whip cracked as the ringleader swung it. This time, it slashed a deep gouge on the stage. It would stop these interlopers from ruining its performance. It approached Yasu as a quiet growl escaped its lips. The difference in height became apparent with each step; the ringleader was approximately two Yasu tall.

The unicyclist had chosen a different target. Not swayed by an innate rage, it had chosen to violently throw its pins at Emma with a remarkable lack of accuracy.

Reckless brutality was enough to silence the accordion clown. Cam's choice to bite down the neck of the axe clown wasn't the best. What flooded her mouth was not the familiar taste of blood, flesh, and evil. What she had tasted was spoiled cream and mouldy pastries. It wasn't poison, but it was still not pleasant for someone who one job away from eating the finest the district had to offer.

But there was one thing Cam's violence missed: the true reason why the clowns were trying to upturn the car.

A rumbling came in front of the bestial cleaner. The innards of the car groaned and creaked. The doors rattled as something tried to emerge. Suddenly, it stopped. A brief moment of silence before the door violently swung open. A clown covered in party poppers had been launched towards Cam.

A supernatural car that lacked eyes, of course, could not aim. The party-popper clown flew above her by a few feet and did what it does best: exploded in a shower of red mist and confetti as it struck the ground behind her.

At first, the mallet clown was as distracted as Cam was. Bewilderment turned to scorn as tears (blue paint, rather) began to flow from its glassy eyes. It swung violently at Cam, its surprisingly quick little swings only diminished by the fact that its arms and choice of weapon were too small to even scrape her skin. Cam could have simply stuck her hand on the clown's forehead to completely stop his reckless advance.

Poor mallet clown.

Sleepless Nights\\ Iron Cages

Also I'll update tomorrow, most likely.

Sleepless Nights\\ Iron Cages

Going down with Yasu's all good! I'm sure OwO will tell us later what would've happened if we stayed in the stinky room with the finger of death. Cause I do need my curiosity sated.

@Vertigo

IN DUE TIME SINCE IT'S STILL RELEVANT

Expedition to Isekai

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Unfortunately, Rin had not yet constructed a spiked fence when a beast had arrived. Even if Masato had been able to warn her, she wouldn't have been able to react since she wasn't listening to him anyway.

It was a strange experience. She had gone from dangling on branches to prone on the ground with a beast on top of her. Claws pressed into her waist, the weight of the beast-amalgamate stealing her breath. It was certainly different. Rin was used to being injured. After all, whenever Kunio wasn't with her, she'd have to personally test what she made. Her thoughts of what she overlooked usually dulled the pain.

This time, there were no thoughts. There was no reason why this had happened. There was no math error. There was no point of failure. There was no scrapyard bolt that sheared. There was nothing she could try to solve as she lay on the ground. It wasn't like she could think, anyways; thinking was a privilege afforded to those not on the precipice of life.

For the first time in her life, Rin had nothing as she watched others try to deal with the beast that had oh-so-lovingly whetted its appetite on her branch. The flying kick of Maki who had bought her seconds of time. The footsteps of beasts running past at least signalled that she wasn't immediately to be devoured, despite what the beast on top of her would want her to think. The stones of Kogen, a pitcher's attempt to fight, would briefly steal its attention. But it was just a boy throwing rocks. The beast could easy tear her throat with a single tooth and deal with the chuunilinquent later.

She felt her heart beat. There was no breath to cushion the reverberations. Her heart refused to stop beating. Even if Rin couldn't think, her heart would guide her. No inefficient solution to a problem this time. Her long forgotten sense of survival was guiding her. It was a surprise that it came back; Rin was the type who refused to eat for entire days because she wanted to finish something. A wave of warmth washed over her and flowed into her arms.

Was it a blessing that she had not landed with her tools on her back? Was it a curse that she was not protecting her most prized possession? She felt the familiar nylon.

Her hand gripped her bag as tight as it could, her fingernails dripping with blood as the warmth hid the pain.

If the beast wished to eat, then it would certainly eat. Rin would force nylon, polyethylene, and steel down its throat until it was full.

Her first words upon arrival were not instructions nor did they make conversation.

The first thing that came to her mouth was an indecipherable scream of anguish and survival.

"ぎゃーー"

She swung her bag at the beast, the weighty tools jingling as they collided with each other inside.

Sleepless Nights\\ Iron Cages

So almost done with my post, just a quick question re: how to end it.

Emma would've definitely followed Yasu up the stairs (or rather, tried to drag her along, even), so I can react to the stuff in the projector room if I decide to yeet her there, but should I end the post upstairs or is the hope that we'll all end up in the theater asap? Also, would we see down to the theater from the projector room/the hallway/the balcony? Might have her peek down there while Yasu's doing projector room stuff.

@Vertigo

You can do either or both. You can hop down from the projector room to the theatre since there's a big window where the projector is. You could see below for the same reason. From the hallway, not unless you go further than the project room (think of the stairs and projector room all converging at the bottom of the U). It's basically a U-shaped hallway with door frames. One door leads to the projector room, the rest are open to the balcony.

You don't have to immediately participate in combat, either. You can wait and do a sneak attack (or abuse summons) from projector room.

Sleepless Nights\\ Iron Cages

The implication was that Yasu was gonna hit up the stairs, ye. Is it an action to get into the projector room or naw?

@ERode

Nah. You can just have her doing projector room stuff and file it under "she was doing it while they were opening the door."

If she opens the projector room:

The lock is one on the knob, so it's not very secure. Kicking it open is enough, but it would take Yasu a few kicks. She can pick it too, but it takes a bit of time. Either way, she can hear some shuffling and goopy noises inside before she can get the door open.

Inside the projector room is a set of four corpses. The bodies are pretty recognizable: they're wearing the uniforms of Hylic operations teams. Think something like this but everyone is wearing a mask/helmet. There isn't a sign that the supernatural killed them, but their necks have been snapped and bones broken. The bodies seem recently deceased judging by their lack of smell. Besides that, the room is filled with boxes and old reels.

There's a single green finger that's difficult to spot (lack of light) on one of the boxes. If Yasu sees it, it'll red flag every one of her base human instincts and she'd want to leave the projector room as soon as possible.

There is a faint smell in the projector room, but Yasu wouldn't know it. The most she knows is that it smells wrong and seems vaguely poisonous, but her instincts tell her that it won't actually harm her at this level.

For everyone:

The left and right stairs both lead to the same hallway that surrounding the theatre filled with doors to access the balcony.

Sleepless Nights\\ Iron Cages

CLEANERS Honest Tough Love: Refuses to act unless ??? or ??? Yasu Cam Nils Emma	TARGET LIST Lion-headed Ringleader [HEALTHY] [2] ???: ??? ???: ??? Half-Man Sized Car [UPTURNED] [?] ???: ??? Elephant-headed Unicyclist [HEALTHY] [1] Elephant-headed Trapeze [HEALTHY] [1] Clown with Accordion Arms Clown with Oversized Axe Clown with Undersized Mallet
Special characters have special qualities that may be hidden until they become apparent. Undetected characters can freely act until detected, but can only take one action that would reveal them.	Elite entities require multiple actions to fell and have special (possibly unknown) characteristics. Greater entities may require multiple actions to fell. Lesser entities can be slain by a single action. Destroyed entities are usually out of the fight [state] denotes their current state and [#] denotes how many actions they can perform each round. > {Name} denotes who the enemy is currently focusing on.

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With Niid boldly leading the way, Niid and Cam found themselves in front of the heavy door. Thankfully, Niid had taken something that relaxed him rather than a pure stimulant. Nobody had kicked the second set of doors down as Honest had done to the entryway. The heavy door opened without a sound and revealed the next room to Niid and Cam.

Opposite of the entryway was a mixture of theatre and stage. Far above the entry group, a projector without a reel buzzed while illuminating a tapestry screen. In turn, the front half of the theatre was given light. The top half of the walls gave way to balconies full of seats. The ground floor was much more sparse; the seats that had survived the scavengers were long since reduced to an uneven rubble.

There were six entities that they could see near the stage.

An unconcerned ringleader with a lion's head paced the stage. It growled at a non-existent audience as if to narrate a performance. The lack of response of the nonexistent crowd was interrupted by the ringleader cracking its whip and pacing to the other side of the stage to repeat itself.

An elephant-headed figure on a unicycle rode in circles on the stage while juggling three bowling pins. Perhaps "on a unicycle" wasn't the most accurate description; its lower half seemed to be the unicycle itself with flesh making tire and bone making spokes. The bowling pins were made out of similar organics.

Another elephant-headed figure dangled from the roof above the stage. Following its rope-leg up to the roof revealed something distinct: the roof had been covered by a web of flesh and party streamers. The flesh made sense, but the party streamers were new

In front of the stage lay three half-man sized clowns and a small upturned car. The three clowns seemed to push and pull at the car. The clown with accordion arms was the most involved as it pushed and pulled. Its arms made that signature sound that filled the building. The other clowns--one wielding a large axe and another wielding a small club--were no help in returning the car to its upright position.

The existence of these figures was confirmation that something was in this building. Supernatural occurrences in unpopulated areas usually confirmed the existence of a relic. It was either that or a hiding immortal. Sometimes it was both.

Thankfully, the shadows had allowed their entry into the theatre room to be undisturbed. Not one of the entities had noticed them open the door.

Honest had followed Nid and Cam. She entered the room and stood against the wall opposite of the stage. When someone looked at her, she gestured her head at the stage as if to say "deal with it already." She wasn't exactly keen on doing the dirty work when her job was to look after the kiddos.

Though maybe Honest should have kicked the entryway to this room in too. The door probably would have cleaved the three entities on the stage in half.

Sleepless Nights\\ Iron Cages

Back from my personal sabbatical.

This introduces us to combat. Or an introduction to the combat scene if you wish to close the door and explore the stairs first (I won't hang people up on this since I skipped the last week; they lead to the upper balconies of the room ahead and the locked projector room).

Each character can take up to three actions. If you want a definition, consider an action being "something that could change the state of something else." Moving around and speaking are free as are things that wouldn't really alter the scene in meaningful ways.

If you extend yourself to do something beyond your limits/do things in absolute desperation, that takes two actions.

You don't have to take three actions. Any unused action means that you're better prepared to react to what the enemy is doing (as you're not overextending yourself).

If you're undetected, you can take one really good action (that would reveal you) for free and the supernatural won't be able to harm you for it. Alternatively, you can ignore this and just do 3 actions like normal, but the enemy will respond normally as well.

If everyone's undetected, you can just leave the encounter. Might be important in the future, might not be.

There's three enemy types. Elite, greater, and lesser. Elites have special properties (as written), greater entities are just strong bunguses, and lesser entities are mooks to balance the action economy. If you attack an elite or greater, you write an attempt (ex. you swing at them). If you attack a lesser, you can just straight up kill them in whatever way you want.

Expedition to Isekai

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Rin's only thoughts on the bus was that it was a shame. There was no fixing up that bad girl. Maybe if they tore out everything when the fire stopped, she could convert it into some kind of shelter. Or she could pull it apart for the precious scraps of metal that adorned its frame. Well. She didn't really have any ideas now. It was something she'd have to think about. Thankfully, Rin being at the back of the bus combined with her disinterest let her ignore an inconvenient truth held within.

That someone had died and their corpse had been burning.

Perhaps it was better to not think of it at all.

...

Well, no sense in standing around. Rin always hated that. Standing around. Nothing interesting happened when people stood around. After all, they had the threes of survival to follow. What were they? Three minutes without air, three hours without shelter, three days without water, and three weeks without food?

It was probably about three minutes since they crashed. That meant that the air was probably fine. That meant that she had to work on shelter! They only had three hours, after all! Of course, the part that Rin didn't care enough about to remember was that it was three hours in extreme conditions.

She'd already got to work on her own.

In true Rin fashion, she hadn't told anyone about her plans for shelter. She just immediately went to break some branches off of the weird trees. She'd leave being affable to the more social members of her class. For now, at least.

Decibitus

Lucian

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~1440 | PARIS | FASHION SHOW VENUE

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Unfortunate as the falling lights were, Lucian had neither the processing power or time to try to help strangers. In all fairness to him, he didn't even see the lights fall down either. He was too busy watching as Vera was being roasted (he was praying for her right now) and he was being charged (he was praying for himself right now).

Lucian, however, had a trick up his sleeve to deal with his draconic foe. Well, it was the same trick all reapers had. Lucian was not exactly a man built for fights. His magic was much too fickle and indirect for that. Instead, Lucian possessed an item that was the only thing someone needed to win a fight.

He had a big stick.

The smokey gem on his finger erupted into his infamous pool cue. Had Lucian been more intelligent with more time, he would have set out a trap. Some pool balls on the floor for the horse-sized skeleton dragon to run over and trip on. Unfortunately, Lucian was not that intelligent. He ended up just holding out his pool cue to jab at the charging monster. Rather than an honorable battle cry, he more was letting out battle yelps.

"Eerp!"