I'm just wary of having solidified grief near a meguca's soul gem.
Oh. Don't worry about that.
Reaching out with your powers, you yank at the Grief in the Soul Gem. It comes free easily, like every other cleansing you've done - no! You bear down on it, even as Sakura and Rin begin to shift, and the Grief flashes into a solid mass, a band snug around the Soul Gem, and you pull-
Can't get more near than that :p

Well, ignoring grief inside gems, but that is also under our control.

Counters to the plan that I see: with the grief defence idea in general and TKing at up to supersonic speed in particular is how we do that and release Rin; Are we really not going to hand UG over? Are we competent enough?

Thankfully, we already wiped Ishinomaki, so we have a quick counter to these concerns if they are aired and we don't get pre-emptively removed.

I also find them unlikely enough to stick with "Reassure UG".
 
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I'm really considering adding Ugo's "immobiliize" vote

@Cannongerbil We already did reveal our competence when we stomped the IG. It'll take more than 24 hours before our rep spreads around. What I'm really paranoid about is Homu's warning about the light and shadow manipulators. She did specify them for a reason. Not to doubt the UG's competence, but we are protecting 5 more MGs this time and we're going against a merc group: girl's who have much more experience in PvP.

Think we should use the quick-and-clean option this time for now?

Here's also CG's latest intel compilation on the groups involved:


And here's a something to think about: If you're the leader of the Fukushima merc group and the Sendai girls are in your disposal, how would you plan against the Sabrina's group?

I stand by what I said earlier. I'm against restraints as an opener. At least for now. Sendai hasn't shown itself as a threat that needs to be immobilized instantly. If the Sendai/Fukushima alliance was this capable, Ishinomaki would've been done in years ago.
 
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I stand by what I said earlier. I'm against restraints as an opener. At least for now. Sendai hasn't shown itself as a threat that needs to be immobilized instantly. If the Sendai/Fukushima alliance was this capable, Ishinomaki making would've been done in years ago.
I don't think Akiko would have hired help just to fight the Ishinomaki girls. Both because it'd cost seeds, and because it's a personal grudge. She hired them now because the Ishinomaki teamed up with the UG, so we can't say for certain that Ishinomaki ever had to fight against both Sendai and Fuskushima, together, or that Sendai and Fukushima fought together often at all. 20 seeds are a lot, even with Akiko's stockpile, and I doubt she'll want to let go of even one of them if she didn't consider it completely necessary.
 
I don't think Akiko would have hired help just to fight the Ishinomaki girls. Both because it'd cost seeds, and because it's a personal grudge. She hired them now because the Ishinomaki teamed up with the UG, so we can't say for certain that Ishinomaki ever had to fight against both Sendai and Fuskushima, together, or that Sendai and Fukushima fought together often at all. 20 seeds are a lot, even with Akiko's stockpile, and I doubt she'll want to let go of even one of them if she didn't consider it completely necessary.

The Sendai group only has five girls. Ishinomaki has at least seven. I disagree that Akiko would leave it at just between her group and theirs. It goes against everything we know about them thus far. It would also make no sense as to why they have these alliances in the first place.
 
The Sendai group only has five girls. Ishinomaki has at least seven. I disagree that Akiko would leave it at just between her group and theirs. It goes against everything we know about them thus far. It would also make no sense as to why they have these alliances in the first place.
This alliance is been in the making for about a year. That's the UG-Ishinomaki.

I won't call Akiko hiring the Fukushima an alliance. If Homura is right, it'll be only three of them that get involved. Three girls, twenty seeds, and who knows how long they'll work with Akiko for that amount. They may ask for more after a single fight.

So I do see Akiko not hiring them to attack the Ishinomaki girls, due to her obsession with grief seeds. If she hired them with any regularity, they'd bleed her dry.
 
On strategy; I don't think Akiko will defer to Fukushima so much and give them that much control over operations, unless of course they're a specifically combat orientated/experienced group.
I chose the perspective of the Fukushima group leader, because I kind of expected a lot of non-serious answers if I said "What would you do if you were Akiko?" :V
How does gravity control affect paper control and grief control?
On Grief control: Based on how our grief wings worked? Gravity does jack shit. The "flapping" motion wasn't actually necessary for us to fly. We can attach it on our back, have it remain still, and it can still yank us in every which direction.

So if we did get hit by something like a x5 gravity field, we'd be in a world of pain, but our grief platforms would probably not be affected.
What the heck is plant or paper control even good for? Can she make paper constructs, like airplanes, platforms, spears, etc?
I'm thinking she's like Yomiko Readman. Also, paper cuts hurt like a bitch. A thousand of em...
What about other allies of the University Group?
The IG is the only ally the UG has, or at least Akiko knew of... And we also kind of told her that the IG agreed to a cease-fire, so they wont be expecting to come down for this fight.
Mami to follow, with endless Tiro Finale.
*winces at mass collateral damage*
We can only do that while inside a witch barrier. Right now, we're on top of populated buildings...
The counter to this would be Sabrina's grief shields, to block out the light and/or the metal. The problem is that this still results in not being able to see where you're going, and allows the forcefield generator to do the hemming in procedure.
We can already make our transmuted grief transparent, so visibility won't be too much of a problem with our shields.
 
This alliance is been in the making for about a year. That's the UG-Ishinomaki.

I won't call Akiko hiring the Fukushima an alliance. If Homura is right, it'll be only three of them that get involved. Three girls, twenty seeds, and who knows how long they'll work with Akiko for that amount. They may ask for more after a single fight.

So I do see Akiko not hiring them to attack the Ishinomaki girls, due to her obsession with grief seeds. If she hired them with any regularity, they'd bleed her dry.

I just don't see why Akiko wouldn't have called in everything she had to put down Ishinomaki. Either it's not enough or a hang up is preventing her from doing so. Akiko has been extremely active outside of Sendai so I don't get it.
 
"We've Got Hostiles" pt. 32
Time and then again to adjust another relative ass-to-ears ratio.

"Yes," you reply to Chouko. "Mami, Kirika, you heard?"

"I did," Mami says, and out of the corner of your eye, you can see Kirika nod sharply.

A sharp cracking on your right - Haru's vine uprooting itself as it snakes around her torso and arms, forming thorny, whiplike extensions.

You raise a clenched hand, and an accompanying effort of will forces the enormous quantities of Grief into solid, torso sized plates. Each one glows in your awareness, settling into drifting, unpredictable orbits around the blazing storms that are the University girls. And a handful more for yourself, and Mami, and Kirika. None for Yuko - highly visible markers of her position seem contraindicated by invisibility.

None for Rin.

"What are you-" Rei, looking nervous.

"Defenses," you answer tersely. You can see how she edges towards her sister - that's fine. You shuffle their shields together to form a single larger cloud of plates with the two of them standing at the center. "I can sense and block with... reasonable reliability."

"I... we mean no offense, Miss Sabrina, but I don't think that's a good idea," Chouko frowns, throwing you a glance as she moves towards the edge of the roof. "You don't know how we fight."

You grimace. "If you're-"

"We're sure," Chouko says. "We need to move. This isn't a good position to fight."

Chagrined, you pull the shields away from them, turning instead to look at Mami. "Mam-"

A magnesium white flare of light explodes behind you.

Stark, black shadows race out from your feet. Sharp relief against the rooftop.

Screams. Flash-blindness.

An enormous impact. A girl, standing where Mami was. Shadowy wisps lick over a black dress.

There and gone in a heartbeat.

Grief crashes against the rain-slick concrete a moment too late.

Mami, tumbling across the rooftop, limbs flailing in the slowly fading light.

The University girls, just beginning to orient themselves.

Haru slams her vine down. Living wood explodes into the air around her and her sister.

A whump. Shadow-girl slamming into Mami again, from the opposite direction.

An explosion of golden ribbons, Mami twisting impossibly. Shadow-girl -Nishimura Moe- is slammed face first into the rooftop, Mami's knee in the small of her back.

Chouko throws herself into the air, butterfly wings pumping. Clawing for height.

"Move! Move move move!" Chouko roars.

The roar of rushing water. A presence, dopplering in at high speed. Four presences.

Vwwp. Sakura, teleporting in next to Rin. A girl you don't recognize at her side - lanky, white and orange armour in sliding sections.

Yuko, moving unseen.

And an ugly crunch, answered by a clear, bell-like tone. A shimmering iridescent field, cracked down the center, appears before the new girl. Yuko's presence goes flying backwards.

A fast moving black blur -Kirika- hammers into the barrier with a feral scream.

Rin staring wide-eyed at the chaos. Sakura grabs her, and drags the healer's head down to her chest.

It clicks for you a heartbeat too late. You throw your arm over your eyes. "Cover yo-"

That magnesium-bright strobe of light again, bright enough that your vision flashes red even through your arm.

Another thundercrack of impact. Kirika's scream. Her presence going over the edge of the roof.

Dam- MOVE!

Instinct screams at you, and you obey without even looking. A bound straight up into the air is supplemented by your wings of Grief, billowing out from your back as Grief whips around you in a torrent.

Light, pure and focused, slashes across the rooftop where you were a split second ago. The beam lances across the roof, rain hissing into steam in its wake. Across the rooftop, a pair of screams - Rei and Haru. The light slices effortlessly through their growing fortress of paper and wood, charring and burning.

You slam a Grief shield in place of the beam, and whip another dozen into whirling, slicing buzzsaws. Angry sputtering as the beam fails to burn through your shield.

You spin, just in time to see Sakura appear on a distant rooftop beside another two figures, one almost shimmering with pulsing waves of light and the other with a hand to her head and the other outstretched. Sakura spills another girl onto that distant roof. A glance backwards-

Sakura took Rin.

Damn.

Masses of Grief roar towards them - you need to do something about light-girl. Sasami.

The booming of Mami's muskets on your left, the sound familiar and welcome. Shots ring out staccato, answered by the bell-like chimes of Tamiko's forcefields. You look over, a fragment of your attention directing the Grief on the attack.

Mami dives smoothly out of the way of a force field hammering forward, and tugs with one hand. Ribbons whip upwards and lean forward to slam their mass down on Tamiko. Mami continues her roll, musket forming in one hand, rising just in time for-

Vwwp.

-Sakura's katana to smash into it. Mami leaps, releasing the musket and kicking it in a single motion that cracks the butt of the musket against Sakura's chin. The teleporter's forced to take a step backwards.

Mami whirls, snatching the rifle out of the air. And a shot booms out at Tamiko.

A warhammer crystallizes in your hand. Your wings fold, and you slam a massive, overhead blow down towards Tamiko.

An iridescent, fractured crystalline force field shields her from the blow.

You throw yourself backwards.

Your eyes meet Mami's golden ones as you clear her lane of fire. Steely determination and terrified worry and firm assurance passes in that one glance.

One presence burning in your senses, entirely too close. A frission of understanding between the two of you - you spin past each other in a motion that couldn't be smoother if you'd planned it.

A fraction of your attention on the Grief you sent after Sasami - the Grief is pounded off course by gravity strikes, but you snarl and force it forward.

More present threats - Akiko, riding high on a wave of water, flowing through the air in defiance of gravity. She crashes to a halt on the roof and drags the water around her in a spinning barrier.

You snarl, and hammer a spinning disc of Grief at her, and it punches clear through the barrier on sheer brute force. You have a split second to enjoy her shocked expression as she folds nearly in half around it.

You clench your hand tightly.

Grief deforms, and enfolds Akiko's legs.

You flip your hand and flatten it parallel to the roof.

Akiko whipcracks through the air. Concrete breaks under her back as you slam her into the roof.

Tamiko's body crashes past you, bound securely in a cocoon of ribbons.

You flip your hand again.

The bluenette swings the opposite direction, smashing face first into concrete.

You flip your hand agai-

Instinct, some sixth sense, has you turning. Shields of Grief snap up, just in time for another burning beam of light to splash. The backscatter is bright enough to glare off the brooding clouds above.

Vwwp.

You whirl on the water controller, just in time to see a flash of steel - a katana hurled at you. You sidestep sharply, a disc of Grief whirling up to block.

Vwwp.

Akiko's gone.

Vwwp. Sakura, new katana already swinging. You meet her with a warhammer, flash formed out of the air. You match strength against her - she's stronger, and your wrist bends inwards.

A mass of Grief hammers her legs out from under her - and she's gone before she hits the roof with another vwwp.

Her reappearance, meters away - and an immediate leap backwards. Chouko slams down feet first a breath later, and whirls to block a katana strike with her butterfly wings.

The sharp report of Mami's muskets, shots hammering towards Sakura, who darts backwards from Chouko and meets the barrage katana first. Sparks flash across the night as she parries the musket balls.

Every ball parried is Mami twirling and spinning and dancing a step closer, ribbons wrapping into a neverending stream of muskets.

An explosion of ribbons, slithering and tangling around Sakura's wrists and sword.

Vwwp.

Rei and Haru leap away from the rooftop. A glance lets you see ragged burns on them. Haru's arm hangs limp, and her sister supports her as they bound away.

An effort of will send shields of Grief whipping around them.

Actinic light blazes again.

This time, you're unlucky.

You scream, feeling like someone's jabbing ice picks into your eyes.

A thundercrack of a blow tears Haru from her sister's grip, sending her spinning into the alley below.

Kirika re-enters the battle, throwing herself bodily at Moe in the moment she's still.

The pair of claws flash under the light. Bright crimson blood flies.

Moe disappears again, speeding off.

Kirika lands on the rooftop in a low crouch, lips peeled off her teeth.

Chouko dives across the roof, coming to a halt beside a recumbent figure. Yuko - unconscious. When did tha-

"Go! Go, go, go!" Chouko roars, suiting action to words. She scoops Yuko up, and takes wing.

[] Follow
[] Fight
- [] Focus
[] FWrite-in


=====​

I swear I didn't design Tamiko to be an Eva. Or maybe I did; past me is an idiot sometimes.
 
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[] Fight
[]Regroup with Mami and Kirika.
-[]Sakura. Light. Shadow. Evagirl.
-[]If they bunch up, get Kirika to pulse them or use a grief plate.
[]Use mass grief control for area denial and slicing attacks, and keep the hammer for if our grief shields get dropped.
[]Grief-pull from Seeds or Gems where possible to immobilize or cripple.

Well, this is a mess, but running'll just make more problems than it solves. We don't know Haru's status.
 
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I am incredibly jealous of that girl's lasers.

Also, damn they're good.

Can we do something about the light hurting our eyes. Like turn our pain reception waaaaay down or off again?
 
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Cliff notes version:
Koizumi Sasami has the usual array of light based powers. Laser beams and flash bangs. She can attack from massive range and provides covering fire for the others. Is not able to break through the grief shields, but cuts through other defences easily.
Nishimura Moe is a shadowjumper. She can leap out of shadows and travel between them at will. She basically has Sakura's powers, except slightly more situational. Sasami's flashbangs create more shadows for her.

Akiko has basically been Loki'd, but got cut lose by Sakura.
Rin has been rescued.
Tamiko may have been bound by Mami. Current status uncertain.
Rei and Haru are both injured. Laser burns. Haru fell down into the streets somewhere. Rescue a priority.
Yuko got knocked out by a forcefield. Currently under Chouko's care.

We suck at melee combat. The warhammer is worse than useless. Stick to grief for now. Get Kirika or Mami to give us close combat lessons later.
 
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[] Fight
[]Regroup with Mami and Kirika.
-[]Sakura. Light. Shadow. Evagirl.
-[]If they bunch up, get Kirika to pulse them or use a grief plate.
[]Grief-pull from Seeds or Gems where possible.


Well, this is a mess, but running'll just make more problems than it solves.
A little more direction would be nice. Something like:
[] Push you grief-TK to the limit, keep the hammer for defense.

The hammer's been really useless just now, and we really need to push those grief abilities. We could be making tons of blades, spikes, etc. and harassing all of our enemies at the same time, all the time.
 
[?] Fortify
[-] Fight
[!] Flay
[*] FEAST
Well, this is a mess, but running'll just make more problems than it solves.
Pretty sure they're looking to reposition to somewhere other than the killbox, not disengage outright. This sounds wise, in that our allies are getting messed up here; we can make a fighting withdrawal of it, inflict casualties as we go if the opportunity presents itself, but making our stand in a disadvantageous position isn't a good idea.
 
Can we do a sitrep on our entire group while we're regrouping? Find out who's still conscious and combat-ready.

Rei and Haru are both injured. Laser burns. Haru got knocked down into the streets somewhere. Rescue a priority.
Yuko got knocked out by a forcefield. Currently under Chouko's care.
Current operational members of the UG include Chouko and Rei. Haru is missing, Yuko is knocked out. Rei is injured, but still mobile.

No casualties on the Mitakihara front.
 
[?] Fortify
[-] Fight
[!] Flay
[*] FEAST

Pretty sure they're looking to reposition to somewhere other than the killbox, not disengage outright. This sounds wise, in that our allies are getting messed up here; we can make a fighting withdrawal of it, inflict casualties as we go if the opportunity presents itself, but making our stand in a disadvantageous position isn't a good idea.
Except that our allies can regroup, we've been giving as good as we're getting, and we can't leave while some of our allies are down for the count here.
 
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I noticed we were mostly just smashing things or grabbing them. We really ought to get going with the slicing and de-limbing. It'd be quicker and more permanent than blunt trauma.
 
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