To make people actually remember, here's it once for posterity: Minako is nonbinary and uses they/them. This message will be pinned so you people stop getting it wrong and pissing me off. If you get it wrong in the future I'm going to be much less nice, considering you have to scroll past it just to read the quest.
You jump just before a blur of light slams directly into your cannon. Its three barrels, already spinning, melt and splinter before momentum carries them sideways. One hits the back of the wall, another flies directly upwards into the sky, and the third impales a nearby building with a crash of steel and glass.
You flip backwards, your gloved hand scraping the pavement as you whip your hand over your head and turn it into a rifle. You don't give your opponent time to speak as you fire. Sixteen shots go into a cloud of dust and twisted magical metal at rapid speed, sixteen guns fly over your shoulder as you fire and fire and fire and oh, oh you so wish Rin was arrogant enough to come down.
"Brimstone lay beneath me, my past and present are unjust."
Except you aren't that lucky. Because out of the cloud arrives someone else entirely. Her wings are enormous and golden, her eyes blazing with heat. Her mouth hangs open as smoke billows from between her teeth, as black hair contrasts with snow-white skin. Her left hand is a gauntlet of gold, her right bearing a red-hot claymore.
"My sins weigh on mine back, my soul is blackened and tattered."
The snow around her feet melts and boils, her soul gem gleams on her breastplate, her eyes stare you down, and her teeth chatter.
"Repentance is my name, she who walks the valley of death, she who escapes the Six, she who holds the Glow."
Her eyes glance towards your soul gem as she raises her sword. But neither of you quite notice the sound of smashing concrete and heavy footfalls.
"Forgive me for this." She raises the blade...
And then to the shock of the both of you, she turns. An entire car screams through the streets, tumbling end over end at hundreds of miles per hour. She slashes, the two halves split by a line of molten metal as they tumble across the ground, gasoline in the tank spilling out and catching fire.
She has the blade still in her hands as she hisses, as the ground ripples. You turn to look where she's facing.
And with two stone fists, still charging at full speed, wrapped in a ball of flame and rage, is Akane.
"GO BACK TO HELL, YOU BITCH."
[=]
[=]
Your name is Sayaka Miki-Sakura, and you are in the middle of dashing towards the one last safe passage between Mitakihara and Kasamino. With the bridge destroyed, the rail and roads between the two towns are now limited to an unsafe mountain passage that makes it take an hour to travel five kilometers. It's a nightmarish passage, and it's been barely maintained for the past twenty years.
It's no wonder then that the Glow has instead opted to travel the mountaintop, but the artillery barrage has made that passage near-impassable. A quick glance as you and the rest of the defenders dash over there says that the magi on the mountain range have retreated back towards the underground roads.
It's a nasty bottleneck. Worse, you know that one of the magi can use the shadows to hide.
And as you and the other defenders reach the mountain-pass entrance, you can see that the power's already been cut. It's pitch-black.
You glance behind you; one of the magi has a gun. He loads his weapon, a double-barreled break-action shotgun.
You make a fist and turn the back of your hand to the group. Everyone freezes before you take a knife hand and slap it against your chest. A quick back-and-forwards motion before you point to the top of the tunnel.
Without hesitation, he raises the shotgun to the roof of the tunnel and fires.
It explodes in a cloud of smoke and ash, the cracks rushing through the mountain face above. You all take a few quick steps backwards as the entire mountain face collapses before you, rock smashing into earth as the ground shakes and the road ahead of you shatters.
But you're not stupid enough to think that'll stop a magi. You glance to your right. Another magi, this one wielding a torch, slams it into the ground. The open flame gleams with a sky-blue glow before turning red-hot. The entire area is filled in light, enough to illuminate the entire pathway and the forests around you.
A shield materializes in your left hand as your saber twirls in your right. You briefly let go of your shield, letting it stay upright on the ground, before taking your fist and facing it outwards.
And everyone moves outwards. You don't know if anyone's gonna try listening, but you'd rather not take that chance, and you memorized these godforsaken tactical hand gestures. You're gonna use them, goddammit.
The tunnel's out. The mountain pass to the left is out. But the mountain pass to the right is very, very open. And very, very vulnerable, especially to Tomo's team. You turn to Toji, who already has an umbrella up.
It's dead quiet. It's the kind of quiet that you hate because you know it's tenuous. It's the kind of quiet where you can feel a gun barrel on your temple, and you can hear the twitching of someone's finger on the trigger. You know that the bullet will be fired soon, you know something's going to drop, and you know that people are probably going to die.
You hear a tap. You glance to the tunnels. You can hear someone shouting something muffled. Another shout, and you turn upwards.
'See anything, Tomo?' you ask.
'No,' Tomo says on the other end. 'We are ready to approach when things go south, but right now all's quiet on the western front.'
You grunt and turn back. You hear the tapping of metal on stone. Someone threatens to break through with each new tap...and then you glance to the side.
Your eyes widen. You grind your arm against the shield and raise it as a shot fires from the mountaintop. It slams against your shield, shattering into thousands of pieces. Your attention is divided.
And then the tunnel explodes. A wave of flesh barrels out of the gloom, taking debris with it. The distraction is enough to take you by surprise, but everyone else has time to react as the meaty onslaught slams against Toji's parasol and threatens to knock you off your feet.
And over your head, riding on a wave of flesh, is a magi with abnormally long limbs, gleaming pink eyes, and a charming smile.
"Apologies, but you know what they say about desperate times."
[] Leap and Strike. [DIFFICULTY 1] (You don't know this situation, but she's making the rookie mistake of gloating)
[] Stay your ground. [DIFFICULTY 2] (Keep yourself down and locked on the ground. Don't lose your footing.)
[] Ignore Saskia. Go for the sniper. [DIFFICULTY 3] (You have no idea where the sniper went.)
[x] Leap and Strike. [DIFFICULTY 1] (You don't know this situation, but she's making the rookie mistake of gloating)
The sniper is probably not going to be able to do too much to Sayaka, especially if she's a moving target. Doing so risks hitting her own ally. And we need to take this flesh battering ram down.
It was an Original Character Tournament run by Abbadon, the guy behind Kill Six Billion Demons. 64 artists (myself included) competed to make comics within two weeks.
We had a two page minimum. People regularly turned in 20+ pages (I myself pumped out 24 pages in two weeks for Round 2).
TL;DR it was a comics contest with insane standards full of crazy people.
It was an Original Character Tournament run by Abbadon, the guy behind Kill Six Billion Demons. 64 artists (myself included) competed to make comics within two weeks.
We had a two page minimum. People regularly turned in 20+ pages (I myself pumped out 24 pages in two weeks for Round 2).
TL;DR it was a comics contest with insane standards full of crazy people.
There's a tiny pool of ground at your feet, just enough to give you a secure place to stand. You have a split second to react as you quickly bend your knees and leap. Your armored pauldron slams the girl in the face hard enough to knock her off of her feet and dislocate her jaw. She looks shocked, eyes wide and limbs creeping outwards as you reach in to grab her neck.
Momentum carries the both of you through a tree, her back awash in bruises and splinters as she reaches with her fingers in an attempt to grab your face. You quickly enclose your head in a helmet as she struggles to get a grip on you.
Then the two of you slam into the ground, tumbling and tearing up dirt and grass as those spidery digits scramble for purchase. But elongated limbs, even supernatural ones, have a hard time keeping a hold on you as you finally grab Saskia by the shoulder and pull.
Her arm, long and spindly as it is, gives way. Flesh and bone tear. Blood seeps through her sleeve as she clenches her teeth. You twist your hand. She struggles against your grip as the waves of flesh underneath undulate. The ground twists and screams as she tries to keep her smile.
It's unpleasant. You feel sick to your stomach. But you still close your eyes and heave.
Her arm gives way, and her scream is shrill. It makes your skin crawl as you pull further, as the flesh around you fluctuates and disintegrates.
Her jaw hangs sideways, and she forces herself to talk through it just enough to scream "S-STOP! Please stop!"
This isn't a woman; it's becoming increasingly clear that this is a child.
And it's enough for you to just let go. She backs away, her arm hanging off of her body. She forces it back together, knitting skin and muscle and bone together in an attempt to stitch her arm back to her body, but despite being a fleshmancer, she is hardly a healer. It's a haphazard job, an ugly, ungainly sight as she stumbles aside and forces herself to her feet.
You take a deep breath. You don't want to kill another person today, let alone a child. "You're what, sixteen?"
"Almost...s-seventeen," she hisses. "I-I'm-"
"A child," you say. "You're a kid."
"I'm NOT," she shouts, and then she snaps her jaw back in place. The pain immediately causes her to wince and tears to stream down her face. It takes all your willpower not to just look away. "I am a trusted member of The Glow. I am a member of Rin's Inner Circle. I-!"
"Shouldn't be in the middle of combat. You aren't cut out for this. You shouldn't-"
"I AM! Do you believe I do not have the mettle for death?! I know death! I know death well!"
She raises her hand. The flesh pile quivers and quakes from the side as she brings it towards you in a spiraling whirlwind of bone and blood. It turns into a massive toothed drill before plunging into the ground. It's a clumsy strike, as she's still clearly in pain.
It takes no effort for you to dodge it. You slap her in the face with the flat of your sword. "Did you kill for-"
"O-Of course I did," she spits, but you're not sure she's actually being truthful. Why would she be? Why would a teenager be so willing to admit to a crime? "I have-!"
"You're falling apart from a minor injury."
As though to respond, she screams, and a massive toothed jaw erupts from the spot you just dodged. You raise your arm.
She rips it from your body, teeth digging into armor, tearing away your arm and ripping a hole in your breastplate. Your ribcage is exposed, organs flying across the ground. Your helm is scraped by the hit, but you're careful to keep it and your soul gem just out of reach of the mouth.
She stares at you with a smile, a wide smile as though she finally, successfully told you off.
Then you grip your shoulder and pull. First bone, then sinew, then muscle, then skin all rush back onto your body in a second. Her eyes widen as your armor comes soon after with a flash of light. You twirl a grief seed and slam it into your soul gem, throwing it over your shoulder to be eaten by some wayward incubator.
"Like I said. Minor."
She takes a bewildered step backwards, her organs still dripping. "Y-you-!"
"My wife and I know what it's like to be lost. And trust me when I say we don't want the same for you." You look down...then past her. "Now, don't go anywhere."
She grunts. "W-what-" before you dash past her. You plunge a saber through her foot, ignoring the scream of pain as you dash back to the rest of the defender's group.
The sniper from earlier continues their assault, and from the opening you can see the rest of the attacking force flooding out from under the mountain; a force of twenty magi, some adults, most not. You glance around the mountainside as your forces desperately block the attacking force, as you parse out where the sniper is coming from.
She's on the mountainside.
[=]
[=]
Your name is Minako Miki-Sakura, and you and Takane are close to the city center. The both of you were assigned to the Info team, presumably for Takane's tactical brilliance and...your parents' fear of you getting injured. Because of course.
But even this far from the front you're not at ease. Quite the opposite, in fact. You're jittering. You can see explosions on the other side, some from gunfire reaching into the sky, some from the mountainside. It's hard to believe there are less than a hundred combatants in this.
You're sitting atop the Seed at the center of the city with Takane standing beside you, Yuki on a laptop behind you, and the rest of the info team on their own devices. They set up a platform quickly; a few boards and supports to keep you level, with a number of ropes wrapped around the top of the Seed to keep you from slipping downwards.
It's surprisingly sturdy, all things considered. But then again you'll be tearing it down after the night is over.
You're bundled up in a fluffy, coat-like version of your magi outfit, and your girlfriend's changed her own outfit to fit the weather. It's absolutely frigid up here, colder than it should be at the end of October. You exhale, and the cloud from your breath is carried off into the city below.
The cold, dead city below.
You glance back up, your stare drifting towards the sky.
"The majority of forces are at the mountain pass," Takane says. "Still no sign of breakage from the wall, but I wouldn't doubt that they are attempting to open that up. Get the rest of the Glow's Forces in through the front of the city."
The dots of Rin and the rest of her group flying above stream across your field of view. A chariot slams into the ground below, blasting apart a chunk of the wall. "Do you think they'll aim at us?"
"Probably," Yuki mutters. "But their goal is to get to the Seed. Even this thing will break with enough force applied."
"And what happens then?" you ask.
"It explodes and destroys the city and prooooobably a massive chunk of Japan." He shrugs. "It's a lot of energy and it's gotta go somewhere."
You wince. "It...this is a bomb?!"
"It's a bomb that takes a very focused and very powerful strike to open, yeah." He nods to one of the other magi, who promptly closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.
You look between the two, then take a look back out. You can sense determination and dread from each and everyone around you...except for Yuki.
From Yuki you just get resignation.
As though he knows that something will go awry.
[] Confront him about it. [DIFFICULTY 3] (He'll try to weasel his way out of giving an answer, you just know it. This can be reduced by trying to reason with him)
[] Let it stew for now. It'll happen when it does. [No Roll]
What isn't a minor injury to a magi?
Really hoping this is just someone thinking the plan going off the rails is inevitable. Worst case scenario, he got turned while infiltrating Kasamino. [X] Confront him about it. [DIFFICULTY 3] (He'll try to weasel his way out of giving an answer, you just know it. This can be reduced by trying to reason with him)
Decapitation and literal complete disarming are nuisances at least. Shooting the bit the soul gem is attached to a long ways from the rest of it is also a pain, if in the opposite manner.
[x] Confront him about it. [DIFFICULTY 3] (He'll try to weasel his way out of giving an answer, you just know it. This can be reduced by trying to reason with him)
Might be a hard one to manage, but now is an especially bad time to be blindsided.
[x] Confront him about it. [DIFFICULTY 3] (He'll try to weasel his way out of giving an answer, you just know it. This can be reduced by trying to reason with him)
[X] Confront him about it. [DIFFICULTY 3] (He'll try to weasel his way out of giving an answer, you just know it. This can be reduced by trying to reason with him)
