Grand Central
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Previous)
The deliveryman helps me lift the crate out the door, then I find the handle and trolley it along behind me. He's professional enough to wait until I get inside to drive off, at least - I wouldn't want to be walking this across town if this turns out to be the wrong address.
The big doors open with a beep, and it turns out this
is the right place. It's sort of obvious from the fact that the whole station appears to have been converted into a workshop/factory/junglegym. Lots of tools-on-rails here, autojigs and other things, and it looks like they sort neatly onto the walls. It's all fairly clean, which is nice.
Oh, and some of those tools are actually guns tracking me. Okay then. Hands up, call out to check if anyone's home, see if I can start infusing my body with Devildoor without too many side effec- nope, even if it does work like that this is
not the time to risk it. I'll just try and be ready if they go hostile, then.
...Through the other end of the building, I can see the train. Shiny and black, wide as a house, taller than a schoolbus. Which is actually shorter than the trains back home, but looks much more stable. Its' armor is covered by a web of golden triangles, and it looks like it... well, I'm not rightly sure how tough it is, but I guess it won't matter against the Siberian. It's beautiful.
I still haven't heard any alarms or warnings. I'm starting to think those guns just track people automatically. I lower my hands, and two of them follow. Yeah, probably. Regardless, I'm going back outside and buffing up.
Van's gone. There's a wall between me and the visible weapons. Try infusing my left arm only - oh
wow that's awful. Like an oil burn
and being kicked in the crotch. But it
is blessedly brief, and when it's over my arm looks honestly pretty vicious. The hair on it looks like razorwire, and it moves
really fast - I'm pretty sure it can pull Ashitaka-style arrowcatching stunts. Hopefully it can also block bullets. A quick stab at the ground suggests the claws aren't impractical either.
This is honestly really neat. But should I do more? Pretty sure mental contamination would be bad, but so would getting shot. Which am I more worried about?
[ ] Violaceous Devil Arm
Keep one arm buffed, and be ready to pull the Element out of it on short notice. This isn't
super safe physically, but is the most reliable way to avoid friendly fire or craziness. Also, it's a pretty traditional aesthetic!
...This
isn't going to cut it when I meet the Nine.
[ ] Knight of Rippers
Buff all the way up to the lower jaw. Between adrenaline glands and digestive tract, I'm going to have a
pretty impressive blood-hungry battle instinct. But on the other hand, I'm probably also going to be MGR Raiden tier in terms of strength and speed. I could almost certainly survive that security system even if it does activate! Provided it doesn't manage an immediate headshot.
-[ ] The Ripper King - Infuse the rest of my head, trying to avoid my brain. Unknown effects. Probably less dangerous than trying this in a combat situation.
[ ] Hands Down
Defuse fully, in the hope that it's an advantage for negotiation. It's... probably not
relevantly less safe than Devil Arm?
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Last vote was unanimously in favor of Power Now, but only got three participants. I wonder what this one will look like?