Javier - Repair (warmth security)
Maria - Yugoslavian Promenade (better to scout things for a while, info is needed)
Javier - Repair (warmth security)
Maria - Yugoslavian Promenade (better to scout things for a while, info is needed)
Be sliced by the blades of summer snow, fragile thing..
Hmmm... It would be much more sensible to secure the base first, but I want to know more about Father Scherer. I'd say both Javier and Maria should Explore the Promenade.
Casa Volante Hostel
Day 01
Evening Phase – 01
Cold (-13 °C/8.6 °F)
I really wish I could complain, but I guess that would be petty of me.Character & Base Status
Everything I do feels so sluggish in this cold, but it’s hard to be quick when shambling around covered in thick blankets like some shitty attempt at a ghost. The first thing I do is slowly, painstakingly pick up all of Maria’s belongings, which she haphazardly dumped on the floor to take the empty bag with herself. The point is to raid the portside mall and supermarket for food and more appropriate clothing for the two of us. Her “Counter Force” powers or whatever seem to give her superb resistance to this unholy chill, but it is not complete immunity. Her body is still that of a human.
For such a, well, ebullient young woman, her luggage is actually quite simple and sedate. I may even call it pragmatic. Then again, just what was I expecting? Silk pajamas and lace? She said she’s been backpacking for almost a year, so she’s gotta know what she’s doing by now.
Picking up Maria’s things and depositing them in the lockers takes far more time than it would have in any semblance of normal circumstances. Weather is truly a fearsome enemy—ah.
It’s snowing. Thus far it was just ice everywhere and that insufferable wind, but now actual snow is falling from the sky, and it feels like the wind is picking up a little.
That does it. I gotta do something about the windows.
Broken by the onset of this frozen hell, the chilling breeze rushes in unimpeded. There’s no difference between lurking in here or exposing myself out there—if anything, the wind gains speed in these small spaces and narrow corridors. I have to change this situation, at the very least in this bedroom and in the kitchen and dining areas, where Maria and I will spend most, if not all of our time in here.
I’m pretty sure there are tools downstairs. The real issue are nails and the actual thing to cover the windows with. That’s how I end up lying on the bed, pondering the available options.
Plastic degrades in subzero temperatures, so garbage bags are out of the question. Cardboard can handle the cold better, but we’re at in a coastal city, so there will be constant wind and even snow like right now. Hell, the wind would just tear plastic and cardboard off whatever I use to hold it in place.
Unable to stay in place, I shift my weight on the bed to the side, and it creaks as if in agreement with my frustration.
Wood would be the most realistic option, but it’s not like I will find wooden planks lying around in a hostel…
…
…huh.
*** ***
Nueva Estación Puerto
Severe Cold (-16 °C/3 °F)
Snowfall
Ignorance is bliss.
So they say, but right about now, another person’s ignorance is pissing off one Maria Westinghouse.
“What the fuck, Javier!? There aren’t any clothes here!” shouts the pseudo-Servant while pulling her hair.
Indeed, the small shopping mall standing between the city port and the main coastal thoroughfare, Errázuriz Avenue, shines for its lack of large clothing shops.
“Aaah, fuck you Subway! Your sandwiches suck!”
Maria’s opinions in no way reflect those of the Quest Master.
With an empty camper’s backpack on tow, Maria walks to and fro across the small structure, confirming over and over that, indeed, she has not missed what was in fact never there. Her feet step on shards of frozen glass—the vast structure of the harbor shopping mall, framed in glass instead of concrete or brick from the second level upwards, has of course collapsed upon the advent of this supernatural winter. The mall looks like a skinned animal, its innards exposed to both sight and the elements.
“Aah, so many electronics shops, so many mobile accessories…so much useless crap.”
Maria Westinghouse, in spite of her last name, is not particularly adept at technology. A mobile phone was a thing to make phone calls with. She was just getting used to sending text messages when she was told she could surf the web on her phone. She had not taken a mobile phone with her on her long trip; she not want her family hounding her wherever she went, or maybe she just liked holding a paper map in her hands.
“And who the hell comes to a shopping mall for dental care—ooh, chocolate shop!”
And thus, Javier is promptly forgiven. Setting aside the appropriateness of a chocolate store within reach of a dental care office, the blissfully uncaring young woman sets aside her immediate objectives to add a new item to her raiding list.
“Unhealthy amounts of brick-hard chocolate” added to the inventory.
“Uuh, this stupid place keeps reminding me that I suck at energy transfer,” grumbles the girl to nobody but herself as she examines an unfathomably hard rectangle of 60% cocoa. “Um, can I reimagine it as flow of molecular movement? Ugh, it feels wrong somehow, using thermodynamics to form the image of a spell.”
She pauses for a moment.
“Speaking of that, I’d like some rope.”
In the end, she relies on A-rank (teeth) strength.
“So good~” squeals the girl as she but skips her way across the mall one last time. “But it’s way too hard. But it’s so good~”
Chocolate aside, the lack of a suitable store means her first objective ended in failure. That worries her. She has already noticed the snowfall, and closer that she was to the sea, she can also clearly feel the strengthening wind. Night is approaching, and she intuits that the temperature is going to drop, fast. She can somehow manage as a Servant, but she honestly worries for Javier, and hopes he can at least do something about the broken windows.
“Well, no point dwelling on it if I can’t do a thing about it,” she concludes, being the kind of girl who keeps her sight on the road ahead.
Fortunately, there is no doubt about there being a supermarket. The ingredients for the previous day’s delicious chili con carne came from that place, after all. After dropping back to ground level and checking the streets nearby for anything moving—or rather, the lack thereof—, she steps into Unimarc to look for anything she can stuff in her empty backpack.
The one convenient thing about this unnatural winter is that all foodstuffs are frozen, so they won’t go bad. Anything is rendered unusable solely because the packaging cannot withstand the cold and breaks, either spilling or damaging its contents. Thus, all things stored in plastic or glass containers are lost. Metals fare a little better, unless they were directly exposed to the initial pulse of extreme chill that converted Valparaiso into a frozen hell. With that in mind, Maria was aiming not for the food on the aisles, but for the stock held out of shoppers’ sights—
It takes her three steps to notice, and she only notices because accepting a Counter Guardian within herself boosted her base physical stats.
There is somebody else in this place. Somebody well hidden.
Her brain received a lot of information upon being possessed. She understands the concepts regarding Heroic Spirits, Servants, and the qualitative assessment of their abilities. She knows there is such a thing as an “Assassin-class Servant”, with the Skill “Presence Concealment”.
Maria quickly dismisses that knowledge. If this were in fact that Skill in effect, she would not be aware of a presence in the first place. If this were a Servant, it would register in her mind as an unmistakable “mark of mystery”.
She is just dealing with a mortal particularly skilled at skulking around.
So, what to do here? Should she just announce that she comes in peace? Who’d take that seriously? Right now, she looks like a creepy cosplayer with an unholy resistance to cold. There is no need to dispute the food; even if there were, she was the top dog in this building. Maria Westinghouse is a person who would rather get along with everyone, but can she one-sidedly make contact with this stranger?
No, even before that issue, why is this person not entombed in ice?
She walks slowly, and mentally kicks herself for that; her caution all but revealed she had noticed the other’s presence. Nevertheless, her objective has not changed, so she makes for the back of the supermarket—
The crashing sound from behind most definitely does not startle her. Her first reaction is to turn around and face the source, but she stops before actually doing so. This is perhaps the cue of the one Maria has offered her body to.
Someone has toppled down a shelf. That was not an act of clumsiness.
Maria then understands: this someone wishes her to turn her attention to themselves.
No, that’s not it.
This someone does not want Maria to go to the back of the store.
It is only with this awareness that Maria turns back. Indeed, there is a fallen shelf, but no sign of the one responsible—
“Shit…” Her escaped breath utters that word, which the chill transmutes into a cloud of condensed vapor.
She can see it, a small shape just across the street. A second later, she catches a second, and then a third one. One after the other, they shamble out of the narrow streets past Errázuriz.
It’s strange.
It’s too strange.
She had checked the vicinity. There was nothing nearby. Where did they come—no, how did they arrive so quickly?
When it snows, it pours.
Choice Time
Last edited by Daneel Rush; June 28th, 2018 at 05:58 PM.
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1.
That's a relief. I was worried that the quest master had shit taste for a moment.“Aaah, fuck you Subway! Your sandwiches suck!”
Maria’s opinions in no way reflect those of the Quest Master.
Also 1.
Originally Posted by Arashi_Leonhart
1
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1).
My guess it's either Ricardo Scherer, (Church figures always provide something in the Fate series) Assassin (presence concealment was suggested) or a New enemy NPC (as the First boss/opposing master)or Seigi Nomikata making a 5 second cameo. Also Maria has strong opinions on Subway.
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1. Find and confront the hidden person.
(Do we not get an action for Javier, or should we just assume that he's about to start disassembling beds?)
Anyway, those zombies can't hurt Maria as she is now, so there's no point bothering with them. We can let them come to her on their own time. We however, have to find this hiding spook.
- - - Updated - - -
I have to admit, I laughed out loud.
This whole section was hysterical.
I can't be the only person thinking this, so I'm just gonna ask: Is she grumbling about thinking she's not good in bed?
I'm sorry to say that I share those opinions with her…
Likes attention, shiny objects, and... a ball of yarn?
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I joined two years too late...
1
The Act of dozing off in the afternoon is a luxury indeed.
Coffee would be nice, though.
[Collection of my Servant Sheets]
Now Revamped!
1
Be sliced by the blades of summer snow, fragile thing..
1 but also confront Maria about Subway and the realities of its former spokesperson
and then ask if she's watched the south park episode
Though abandoned, forgotten, and scorned as out-of-date dolls, they continue to carry out their mission, unchanged from the time they were designed.
Machines do not lose their worth when a newer model appears.
Their worth (life) ends when humans can no longer bear that purity.
^Seconded just for the humor value, not because I believe in it.
Likes attention, shiny objects, and... a ball of yarn?
F/GO Supports
I joined two years too late...
Casa Volante Hostel
Day 01
Evening Phase – 02
Severe Cold (-18 °C/-0.5 °F)
Snowfall
It’s getting colder. I can tell it’s getting colder, probably because I’m standing in front of the window, trying my darnedest to use a hammer with stiff, aching and (mostly) freezing hands. This is not good for a person’s health.Character & Base Status
It’s not like I mind the job—I’ve done plenty of chores like this in the past ten years. But the wind stings the skin and pulls away my body’s warmth. The blankets that somewhat protect my body cannot afford the same protection to the laboring hands.
There are plenty of planks in the hostel’s many beds. There are barely enough nails to block the wind from rushing into this room. Hell, I’d use more nails if I had more available.
In any case, this will take me way longer that it would in ordinary, temperate weather, but it will help make this room a bit more survivable.
Until the hole that is the window frame is completely sealed, I will be pelted with snow as I struggle to hammer. The howl of the wind smothers the sound of my hammer, or so I hope; it would be annoying if my work attracted those zombies. But the snow itself may be even more dangerous, as it clings to my body it will bring down my body temperature, like wearing a wet t-shirt. I’ll have to change clothes after this, and I might have to consider switching on the magic again—
It’s like a scene out of some picturesque indie movie, or maybe The Twilight Zone.
In the midst of the frozen street, surrounded by frost, snow and ice, a girl walks alone. What would be an utterly ordinary event in an ordinary world becomes the epitome of absurdity precisely because of its normalcy. A plain girl, walking uphill along the street in plain clothes, unmindful of wind and snow. To be honest, the combination of white t-shirt, black jacket and baggy pants are the kind of stuff I’d wear. In a normal situation I’d even admire the sight and nod approvingly.
The girl walks past the hostel building, but then suddenly stops. She turns back and looks up.
At me.
My breath is taken away.
Her face…
She nods curtly, respectfully even, before turning back to the road and going on her way.
Hey.
Heyheyheyhey, hey!
Are you just gonna nod at me like meeting some random stranger on the street?
You can’t just pretend everything’s fine and dandy and go on your merry way, whoever you are!
As if mocking me, the world responds with a particularly strong gale that makes my bones shudder, further announcing that the snowfall is growing stronger.
Fuck you, winter.
Javier’s Choice Time!
*** ***
Unimarc Puerto
Severe Cold (-18 °C/-0.5 °F)
Snowfall
Maria Westinghouse is not an idiot.
She just does not like thinking much about things.
Her grandmother understood this, and in her lucid moments mocked her relentlessly for it.
Ignoring the mirthful voice in her head asking her how many walls she had run into that day, Maria followed her straightforward heart yet another time in her short life.
“Unlimited…poweeerrr!”
Maria Westinghouse is not an idiot.
But she is a proud and eager fool.
Showing off her superhuman athleticism, the girl jumps to the top of the nearest shelf from a standing position. From her new vantage position, she immediately catches sight of her target, and goes for it without hesitation while calling upon her long, jagged blade. The figure—a male in a trench coat, she notes—also notices her abrupt assault and does his absolute best to sneak away, but Maria has both the superior specs and the higher ground, jumping from shelf to shelf.
Less than ten seconds later, she stabs the tip of her sword in the wall, an inch from the man’s ear.
“Look, let’s not make this harder on us, okay? Just tell me what the deal is before you get swarmed by the undead.”
The man’s look of alarm disappears quickly, but Maria can tell it is being replaced by a cold resignation.
“Tch, you got me,” he says, his voice deep and cold like a tomb. “Just get it over with.”
“Eh? Nah, nah, why would I kill ya? Can’t speak for the zombies, tho’.”
“Won’t kill me?” The man oozes distrust. “Aren’t you one of them? The Nazi—”
The blade stabbing the wall sinks almost to the hilt when Maria kicks the pommel, startling the man and dispelling his cold aloofness. One leg still raised to rest on the sword’s hilt, she leans closer to the suddenly tense and wary male.
“Alright, a piece of advice: don’t make that misunderstanding ever again.”
The man is clearly at least fifteen years her elder, but he has stepped on the tiger’s tail.
“I fucking loathe Nazis.”
The sound of footsteps on broken shards of glass draws Maria’s attention to look from the corner of her eye. Her attention split this way, she only notices the man reaching into his coat when the dark luster of painted metal glints from his direction.
It is superhuman reflexes that save Maria Westinghouse.
The gunshot rings painfully in her head, even as she manages to move out of the way of the bullet. Her body acts, and right after that she perceives, thinks, and reprocesses the sudden change in the situation. Her eyes glance between the man already rolling aside before jumping to his feet, and the pair of undead already rushing in her direction. His right hand holds a small gun that elicits conflicting thoughts in her mind.
“Fuck! Are you trying to pull every zombie—”
He flings a small, cylindrical object over his shoulder, and she had watched enough movies to recognize a—
“Flashban—!?”
Her eyes are flooded with light, and for a few moments she could not hear her own cursing. She could not see or hear anything, and the next thing she feels is a heavy impact on her left side that sends her tumbling to the floor.
“Aah, fuck off!”
Maria only knows she has grabbed something and sent it flying. She quickly leaps back to her feet and relies on memory to find and reclaim her sword. It is at that point that her sight and hearing return, in less than half the time it would take an ordinary human.
Of course, the man is gone by this point. She could see the sway of the back door, snitching the man’s escape route. Maria concludes that he is either very confident about his chance to get away, or there is something extremely important in the back of the supermarket that he must safeguard at all costs.
The second zombie lunges, and Maria bitchslaps it away without even sparing it a glance. Four more zombies advance, already less than ten yards away.
At this point, Maria could insist on going after the man. If anything, it is sheer curiosity pushing her in that direction. But then there’s that sound. A new sound, one that only entered her audible range after the effect of the flashbang was brushed away by her superhuman sturdiness.
It is not a familiar sound, for she has only heard it in Youtube videos and military documentaries. But Maria Westinghouse would never mistake that sound for anything else.
Zombies are pushed and flung aside as Maria steps out of the supermarket into Valparaiso’s main avenue. She does notice that most of them purposely avoid her, aiming for the open door at the far end of the aisles. She cares little. Curiosity, empathy, worry or solidarity do not exist in her at this moment.
The snowfall, she notices, has grown stronger. The sky promised an honest-to-God blizzard in the near future. But Maria right now does not feel the cold. The one and only important thing approaches from her left, still about sixty or so yards away.
The soldiers and their machineguns are annoying, but relatively easy to deal with.
The Panther? The Panther is a joke.
No, the only thing in Maria’s sights at the moment is the man in uniform standing atop the tank. With arms crossed and a cool stare, he projects calm, unpreoccupied confidence, like his current situation is just another day at the job. The red, white and black armband is an unsettling oasis of color in the cold monotony of the frozen city.
But his expression and his uniform are secondary to the unique signature his mere presence leaves on the world. Maria can feel it in her guts, and the sensation spreads to her accelerating heart, her tensing muscles and her incensed eyes.
This man is a Servant.
The zombies that were about to close in on the supermarket skulk away and back into the narrow streets past Errázuriz Avenue, seemingly aware enough not to get caught in the potential crossfire. The few zombies that remained inside the supermarket were no longer her business.
“Get closer!” calls out the girl, resting her sword on her right shoulder. “I wanna hit you with my sword!”
The man says not a word. With a gesture of the hand, the masked soldiers deploy along the sidewalks, perhaps aiming for an encirclement.
Spoiler:
Last edited by Daneel Rush; June 28th, 2018 at 05:59 PM.
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Ordinarily I'd say Javier should go after the girl, but if Maria drains his battery while he's out and about he's more than toast. 3 - Shout and wave to get her attention. Even if it doesn't work at least we tried and can get back to fortifications.
but more importantly NAZI SERVANT NAZI ZOMBIES
I get the feeling Himmbbels here is a QAABB here, so let's go with Q for now.
Last edited by Rafflesiac; June 29th, 2018 at 06:53 PM.
NAZI MEME SERVANT I don't expect
I go with Q also, so he didn't assume our true talent on brute forcing things with our natural triple B, then we can gather those crit stars for surprise Buster in the face next turn.
Javier: chase her
Last edited by Spartacus; June 29th, 2018 at 09:49 AM. Reason: forgot the Master choice
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chase girl
Spoiler:
Because no one starts with a Q until its QQQ
Though abandoned, forgotten, and scorned as out-of-date dolls, they continue to carry out their mission, unchanged from the time they were designed.
Machines do not lose their worth when a newer model appears.
Their worth (life) ends when humans can no longer bear that purity.
I say we stay in-character:
Javier - Go after girl
Maria - Buster
Javier - go after the girl (go for harem route)
Maria - Quick
Be sliced by the blades of summer snow, fragile thing..
Javier:
3.Go after the girl, but only so far as the next few blocks: If she gets too far away from the hostel, it would be smarter to retreat and go back to fixing the window.
3. Lure her back with visual promises of food (go to the next room and hold the pot of soup on top of the windowsill).
Maria:
Choose "Drac A" or "Drac B" for the style you wish to use from this point forward:
(Do we not have the option to flee and go after the guy who hates Nazis?)
Last edited by Draconic; June 29th, 2018 at 05:26 PM.
Likes attention, shiny objects, and... a ball of yarn?
F/GO Supports
I joined two years too late...
Javier:
Going after her in the growing cold without backup is bad. The fact that Maria is only gonna drain mana is worse. On the other hand ignoring her and focusing on building, although good now, may bite our boy in the ass later.
3 - Shout and wave to get her attention. Even if it doesn't work at least we tried and can get back to fortifications.
Maria:
Now while my experience tells me that NPBB Brave Chains never fail, we're outnumbered. Time to plan:
Q is worthless at the beginning of the chain unless it's QQQ, I'll go with Arts as defence is needed at the moment, once we get that break through we can waste him with a Buster Brave Chain.
Maria has never been more valid.
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