The World

Symphony on High

Marrie Knight

Shit! Marrie found herself entangled with what she hoped was a Freelancer before she could even attack the monster. Fallen on the ground, she looked up to watch as the mantis was impaled by a lamppost. Finally, some good fucking food a Freelancer she could trust to kill something. As she untangled herself and stood up, she had a realization. Had she even met any other Freelancers who didn't leave right away when in danger, other than Pac and that Bates guy? Was Pac even a Freelancer? She couldn't remember. She shook herself out of her thoughts to find that she had been standing still in confusion. Looking around showed that the semi had stopped and the fight was over.

The thoughts of what had happened today began to creep their way back into her mind, forcing her to shove them out once again. It wasn't quite over yet since the water hadn't been delivered. She headed over to the semi only to find that nobody was there. Hadn't another esper gotten control of it? She didn't know who or where they went but she silently thanked them nonetheless.

She gave the water a quick once-over and took a picture of it, sending it to the job poster, along with a message.

-Hey. So the water's been recovered, but it's not going anywhere anytime soon. The tires are shot, and it'd be smart to bring someone who can purify the water since the guy who had it last mentioned doing something to it.
-...
-Also probably someone who can take care of some people who died. This whole thing was a mess.

With that hopefully sufficient, she leaned against the trailer and closed her eyes. She'd be having nightmares about today, she knew.

Stats

19 | Female | Freelancer | Misty Steps
Apexer Predator | Dagger | Physical | Heavenly Chain
Wind-Carved Glacier | Masking
Step of the Monsoon | Wind | Riding the Currents
After You Get Smacked Up | Gunstock
[Storm (4), Flight (6)] Damage (2), Damage X (6), Slow Fall (4), Blink (4), Transplace (8), Magic Sense (6), Heal (16), Stabilize (0), Portal (8), Rain (2), Bounce (0), If Foe (0)

DAMAGE: C | SPEED: D | SENTINEL: C | 232

PHYSICAL: E | ARCANE: D | CHAOS: C | 232

Symphony on High

@BrokenPromise
Kk, will alter it to that.

Symphony on High

This was technically okay'd last season, but to make sure it's not too strong (unlikely) or too weak (likely) or just otherwise won't work, here's my upgrade attempt.

Style:

Bronze

Wind-Carved Glacier
Marrie gains a winter aesthetic and small pieces of armor that look made of ice on her cheeks.

GRADE: Bronze
PHYSICAL: E
ARCANE: D
CHAOS: C
SPECIAL: Masking. The "armor" on her cheeks can be targeted by spells for defensive purposes. Otherwise it's entirely cosmetic.

Silver

STYLE: Arctic Storm
Marrie's sweatshirt now flows in the wind like a capote, allowing for melodies to be put on it for protection.

GRADE: Silver
PHYSICAL: E
ARCANE: C
CHAOS: B
SPECIAL: The "armor" on her cheeks can stop physical critical attacks from hitting her head. This special can activate twice per operation.

Yu-Gi-Oh!: Perils of the Night

Luna Abbott

---

It was two hours after Luna had obtained her invitation, and she was still fuming about her loss in the tournament.

Gaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!! I can't believe I made such a basic mistake!

It's called a basic mistake because it's easy to make and lots of people would make it.

Shut up, me, what do you know anyway!?

Well, at least she wouldn't be making the same mistake in the future. Special Summoning in attack mode when the battle phase isn't over and her monsters were in the hundreds of attack points, what was she thinking!? Similar thoughts hounded her despite her best efforts to drown them out with music all the way until nighttime. It was because of these thoughts that she didn't pay any attention to the envelope she was given for participation, nor why she received one when others didn't, until she was ready to go to sleep on a park bench. Finally somewhat calmed down, she opened it to read what was inside.

Well, this was suspicious. Luckily, it was suspicious in the cool way, but whoever decided they had to say "tell no one" twice in a six step (if you count the words on the outside of the envelope) set of instructions might want to get checked for paranoia. Still though, she had nothing better to do other than putting distance between herself and her family, so she decided to show up. The worst that could happen was that she'd waste a day in Old Domino City, right? Well, that or kidnapping, but it was better not to think about that.

It took a while to figure out where the cemetery actually was, but she ended up getting there at about seven minute after midnight, having trouble following the directions she was given to get there in the dark.

Symphony on High

Marrie Knight

Marrie watched in what seemed like slow motion as Oros turned to face her and fired a melody of her own. Regardless of what it was, it meant that Finn would end up getting hurt, despite her efforts. She had been half hoping that Oros would try to deflect it and she'd switch places with her sword, but she didn't expect the pink haired girl to anticipate a feint like that. Surely it would have made more sense to assume she was attacking her, right?

... Her head hurt, and she found herself standing where Finn had just been. Still, she turned quickly to look at where she had started, only to see as Finn lost his legs. She couldn't react. She couldn't think. She couldn't even move. And that paralysis continued as Oros walked over and asked for a reward for only taking off one person's legs.

Marrie's mouth was agape. If she weren't somewhat traumatized by the day, she might have thought that Oros' request was unwarranted. As it was, though, she could see the logic behind it. Holding back when you want to go all out is hard; she wouldn't have been able to hold back against the cultists who slaughtered the homeless people.

"... I don't know how to respond to you. Like, in general. As a concept." Marrie closed her eyes for an instant, before opening them and looking over the scene that was (now) in front of her. She couldn't see the truck, but she could hear it, so its tires must be missing. Oros was standing right in front of her, and behind her were the remaining cultists who seemed to be leaving. Leaving? Was she going to let them leave after that? Rage boiled up from her gut before she continued dragging her gaze across the area. There was the boy who had saved her. She had almost forgotten about seeing him losing his lower limbs from all the shock of Oros' comments. And on seeing him laying there all of her anger left her, the void left by it quickly filling with worry.

Welp, time to be a smartass, she figured as she cast a melody.

{Bronze Beam - Rain - Stabilize - Heal}

And as the beam fell from the sky towards Finn, she focused on Oros. What kind of thing would someone like her even want? Her mind went blank. After a quick reboot, she tallied the espers who she knew were there. There was herself, Sovereign, that one who was on the roof, and now the boy who had saved her and was (hopefully no longer) bleeding out. If Oros was bothered by the others, but not Marrie, that left three. She hurt one of them, pretty severely, so... That left two and a half out of three, right? "Well, you half killed the guy who saved me, but you haven't hurt anyone else, so..." A pause. "I'm not sure what kind of thing you'd want, so I guess it's like a giftcard instead of an actual present sort of situation."

Then it hit her. Why was she even here? "A fourth of the water, maybe? Otherwise I don't have a ton of things to give out, and I'll probably get in trouble for even that, bu-" The hamster in her mind fell off its wheel, and she was suddenly once again aware that the water wasn't secured yet.

Shit. Marrie glanced over her shoulder to see... holy shit where did that mantis thing come from!? Turning back to Oros, she gave a quick request. "Quick raincheck, we can figure something out in a bit?" Then she began to run towards the palemancerguardmantisguy, putting her Instrument in her left hand and pulling out the pistol she was glad to have brought with her with her right.

Stats

19 | Female | Freelancer | Misty Steps
Apexer Predator | Dagger | Physical | Heavenly Chain
Wind-Carved Glacier | Masking
Step of the Monsoon | Wind | Riding the Currents
After You Get Smacked Up | Gunstock
[Storm (4), Flight (6)] Damage (2), Damage X (6), Slow Fall (4), Blink (4), Transplace (8), Magic Sense (6), Heal (16), Stabilize (0), Portal (8), Rain (2), Bounce (0), If Foe (0)

DAMAGE: C | SPEED: D | SENTINEL: C | 360

[Bronze Beam - Rain - Stabilize - Heal] = 128

PHYSICAL: E | ARCANE: D | CHAOS: C | 232

Yu-Gi-Oh!: Perils of the Night

@RickyG85
Yep, personally just trying to get some stuff done unrelated to this before making a post.

Symphony on High

Marrie Knight

She was lucky that she was used to flying around at this point in her esper carreer, or she might have lost her lunch. She even managed to fire off her Melody, in an even better position than she had planned! Silver linings, right? And speaking of silver linings...

"Oros!?" Marrie blurted out, once the shock had died down enough for her mind to process what had just happened. The rush from being grabbed out of the air before she could react was still running through her, causing her mind to run at a million Tails, er, miles an hour. At first, seeing Oros was mixed news. On the one hand, Marrie had no ill will towards the esper that everyone seemed to hate, but on the other, her being in the group of cultists was a bad sign. As she began listing off the other freelancers there, though...

God really does hate me, wow.

In all the commotion, she hadn't even noticed the exploding tires or the now crashed semi. As she looked to follow Oros' movement towards Finn, the truck entered her sight and she blanched. Did that mean the water was toast now? Well, if she assumed that, then the only remaining points of importance were defeating the cultists and keeping the other espers alive, not necessarily in that order. So seeing the debatably most dangerous esper in Pax rushing at the guy who saved her, and who she was pretty sure she had seen during the Diver fight, she subconsciously made a pretty simple decision. Chances were that she'd respond, but if Marrie was right about this, that'd work out just fine too, and so she cast a Melody aimed straight at Finn, right over Oros' shoulder.

{Silver Beam - Transplace}

A life for a life, huh?

Stats

19 | Female | Freelancer | Misty Steps
Apexer Predator | Dagger | Physical | Heavenly Chain
Wind-Carved Glacier | Masking
Step of the Monsoon | Wind | Riding the Currents
After You Get Smacked Up | Gunstock
[Storm (4), Flight (6)] Damage (2), Damage X (6), Slow Fall (4), Blink (4), Transplace (8), Magic Sense (6), Heal (16), Stabilize (0), Portal (8), Rain (2), Bounce (0), If Foe (0)

DAMAGE: C | SPEED: D | SENTINEL: C | 504

[Silver Beam - Transplace] - 144

PHYSICAL: E | ARCANE: D | CHAOS: C | 360 (No scope)

Yu-Gi-Oh!: Perils of the Night

@Randomguy
It would be hilarious if none of the PCs won the tourney.

Symphony on High

Marrie Knight

"Tch!" That was all Marrie was able to get out of her mouth as she was tossed over the paleguard with its rather impressive technique. But this was fine, she had expected something like this. She let go of the grip of her Instrument, and with the very last instant of her flight Melody, she adjusted her course so as to only clip Finn rather than barreling into him. It was only a few degrees off from the aim of the throw, but hopefully he'd be able to put that change to use. Much more importantly, she was glad that her Instrument had changed as much as it had since coming to Pax. When she was flung she initially had horrible flashbacks of her first mission again, and wondered if something similar would happen.

As she rolled to her invisible feet, relief washed over her. It seemed that her chain was working well. And to better use that chain... She prepared to rip Apexer Predator up and through the paleguard's shoulder, hoping to sever it complete, when the giant snake slammed into the MicroMart. As the cultists swarmed out of the snake, Marrie had a single thought.

Why does god hate me?

It didn't help that the truck began to take off, rightfully so, or that the homeless were beginning to be-

Fuck... She slapped herself on both of her temples, just hard enough to hurt but not enough to knock her unconscious. Rationalize later.

Did she dare try to switch places with the one-and-a-half-armed man, on a moving vehicle, with the only cast note that could do it giving a huge warning to him that it would happen? ... Probably not. But what was she supposed to-

And then it happened. Something, some fucking THING, slammed into the front of the truck. Well then. I suppose that solves this mission. She tore her gaze away from the truck before she could see what happened to it, but she'd made up her mind on what to do. If these bastards were going to hurt genuinely innocent, unlucky, fucked-over people... To kill them... Were they any better than any of the few people Marrie'd been forced to kill? Was self-defense the only acceptable reason, or did protecting other count? Even if she couldn't save any of the homeless people who were here, wouldn't she be saving people in the future from the same fate?

Rationalize. Later.

With her Instrument still stuck in the paleguard's back, blade pointed upwards and its chain laying across its shoulder next to its next opposite the stab-wound, she couldn't just leave it. But these things were fighting for the mob, right? They were trying to protect them from the Freelancers like her. Would they fight for them against this group of trash? She could only hope so.

Besides, better to fight them than another esper, in her experience. So she stood up, jumped forwards as hard as she could, and hoped the monster was stronger than it looked. The instant her feet left the ground, she retracted her Instrument's chain, using the paleguard, who moving in the opposite direction, as a weight in an attempt to trebuchet herself at the actual cultists. The musculature was hopefully just strong enough for her to highschool physics class her way out of this, and just weak enough for AP's blade to come loose once the stronger force was put on it from the launch, letting it come back to her hand as she flew. It was up to fate-

- that she would succeed. As she flew the few yards that her maneuver had afforded her, AP would return to her hand as she instantly began casting a Melody, pointed directly at the group of cultists. She'd make sure not to hurt anything other than those fuckers.

{Silver Beam - Scatter - If Foe - [Warm (+1 Rank) Damage X]}

- that she would fail. After quickly regaining her balance after being swung about slightly, she'd dash forwards and retract her chain, now from the direction of the paleguard's back, to return AP to her hand and cast a Melody through her foot onto the ground.

{Silver Touch - Portal}

Stats

19 | Female | Freelancer | Misty Steps
Apexer Predator | Dagger | Physical | Heavenly Chain
Wind-Carved Glacier | Masking
Step of the Monsoon | Wind | Riding the Currents
After You Get Smacked Up | Gunstock
[Storm (4), Flight (6)] Damage (2), Damage X (6), Slow Fall (4), Blink (4), Transplace (8), Magic Sense (6), Heal (16), Stabilize (0), Portal (8), Rain (2), Bounce (0), If Foe (0)

DAMAGE: C | SPEED: D | SENTINEL: C | 744

{Silver Beam - Scatter - If Foe - [Warm (+1 Rank) Damage X]} = 240

{Silver Touch - Portal} = 48

PHYSICAL: E | ARCANE: D | CHAOS: C | 504 <OR> 696

Yu-Gi-Oh!: Perils of the Night

@Randomguy
It's player to player, there's no bot. It's basically playing the game in person at a table, you have to manually do everything the cards say. But, once you're used to it, it works well, and it allows custom cards to be made/used. So it would work best by having us play the duel out between the RPers and put the dialogue/etc. in the log as we do. Then it's just a matter of prettying it up and adding things that would be known to the reader but not the other player (ie thinking "Oh, thank goodness, I drew Pot of Desires right when I needed to. Good thing my opponent doesn't know that") since putting that in the log would obviously be telling the other player what happened.

The biggest downside, if you consider it one, is that you do need to make an account for the site, but it's super easy to do so. Then just make a private duel with a password and you can duel a specific person by giving them that password and having them put it in at the duel table you make.

But, uh... It's probably a good idea to ignore the front page messages/statuses. Back when I was on Duelingbook much more often, there were times things there got sort of stupid.