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Previous Thread:

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/33643691/

Archive:

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Joker%20Quest

Equipment FAQ: (UPDATED)

http://pastebin.com/hYnqjFsi

Player List:

http://pastebin.com/rRSM6LgW

Episode Guide (All credit to Watashiwa):

http://pastebin.com/DNGtTt04

Yui IF scene (Adult content):

http://pastebin.com/8CSEVSXB

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JokerQuestOP

Recap: You are ANON, the RED JOKER. In our last instalment, you rendezvoused with MIO at the heart of the MAIDEN'S LABYRINTH - Before your meeting with UTOPIA RULER and your planned infiltration of the DIADEM.
>>
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>>33694488

HOLLOW SUN: 8.2%

http://pastebin.com/JN4Xsuna

RESEARCH:

[X] TERMINUS SCANNER
[X] FALSEHOOD ARRAY
[X] RESEARCH: ASSAULT HARDSHELL
[X] DIRAC TRANSMITTER I
[X] MASS DRIVER
[X] SCRANDER PROPULSION SYSTEM

VOID ANCHORS:

ORIGINAL HIVE
THE TRIBUNAL
NARAKA

HOLDING: 1

FLARE ORIOLE: 1
SILVER CROSS: 1
IRON OGRE: 1

RED COMET GUIDE:

http://pastebin.com/LJAfQmXy

UPDATES:

- Added AXEL GRIPS to Equipment FAQ.
- Hellion production levels adjusted.
>>
Episode 100
Time for something flashy.
>>
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INTERLUDE

STAGE: NARAKA

Naraka at night. Light, twitching and frantic, flickering across the writhing grey mist that coils around the arena; Flashing, freezing the action into a series of strobing shots. The grand half-sphere of the duelling cage lights up with white-hot sparks, the high, reedy cheers of the figures in the stands rising to the false heavens.

CHROMIUM REAVER and ARGON SNIPER circle, cautious now. Executioner's sword against long rifle - Two armoured forms, facing off at the centre of a circle of dim light. Smoke wisps from the ruin of Reaver's arm, his mirror-bright blade turning in his remaining hand. Argon's rifle winks at minimum charge, the barrel scarred with frantic deflections, one leg sparking as he drags it beneath him.

They've come far, these two. Not from the beginning - Only the Red Joker, distant, enigmatic, can truly lay claim to that - but both are certain of one thing:

-They'll be there for the end.

Chromium feints, faking a lunge - Steel-hooked teeth gleam in the darkness of his articulated mouth. Servos purr, as Argon stirs...But does not fire. He has enough charge for a single shot, a final one - His finger curling hungrily against the trigger, waiting for the perfect moment when target and sight merge into one.

In Chromium's eyes - A cluster of them, glowing - only hunger.

In Argon's, only ice.

But then the crowd's attention wavers - Heads turning, wondering, at the scraping, dragging sound that begins in the distance, and draws closer with each breath.

Joker, someone says - And the thready whisper becomes a murmur, the air growing taut and charged with anticipation, with trepidation; Someone, somewhere, laughs.

It's not.

(Continued)
>>
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>>33694817

The form is towering, powerful - Steel cables for muscles, ratcheting with each lumbering stride. Optics wink to life, red and pulsating, like the throb of a furious heart.

Once, Titanium Gigant had a strange dream - An odd, passing one - where he died. Now, six years later, the dream comes true.

The Gatling Laser feels unfamiliar, alien in his grasp. The feeds siphon power from his charging elements, the drain making his weary footsteps heavier still - But the barrels begin to cycle as his fists clamp down on the firing mechanisms, the rising surge thrumming through him in an endless machine-noise.

He faces the crowd, and hefts the weapon to face them.

"If my world ends," he rumbles, "so does yours."

The first bright spears of energy - Ice-blue, hot as main sequence stars - spew forth.

----------------------------

STAGE: ARCADIA

"Since the beginning of their supposed evolution," Utopia Ruler intones, his staff clicking against the cobbles underfoot, "-Humans have had a weakness. A ridiculous thing, really; A *flaw*, I say - An oversight in their minds. It turns the most acute intelligence into a thing of dumbstruck naivety, logic into a last desperate gasp."

His head turns. His mirror-masked face, reflecting everything and nothing, shimmers with the wan colours of the bruised sky.

"-What do you think it is, Joker?"

Arcadia, by night, is hauntingly beautiful. Away from the lush gardens of the Maiden's Labyrinth, the vast towers have an ethereal, forlorn majesty of their own; Forever turning towards the distant light, shifting uneasily at the pulsating radiance in the heavens.

The winding streets give way to the wire-grass and platinum trees of the now-familiar grove, the humming light-spheres - Cradled in oddly organic structures - resonating in time to the moaning breeze, the sound that is forever on the edge of perception.

[ ] "Love?"
[ ] "Greed?"
[ ] "Regret?"
[ ] "Hatred?"
[ ] "Get to the point."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL
>>
>>33694994
>"Get to the point."
>>
>>33694994

>"If my world ends," he rumbles, "so does yours."

WELP.
>>
>>33694994
"Emotions?
Do you seriously think that humanity would have survived had they not had the ability to feel empathy or regret?
That's like an animals without the ability to feel pain.

Are you real human or are you defective? I've been wondering. It would be a nice irony to have a sociopath who's magically forced to fall in love."
>>
>>33694994
RIP in piece.
>>
So, those guys know about the end of the world because of us and are now doing an apolyptic highlander tournament?
>>
>>33695081
*apocalyptic
>>
>>33694994
"You're describing only one side of the coin, Utopia. No need to be so shy. What you describe is a weakness only if the human himself is weak."
>>
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>>33695035

> Do you seriously think that humanity would have survived had they not had the ability to feel empathy or regret?

"Think of it in machine terms," Utopia says, with a well-tailored shrug. "Empathy is the very least of humanity's flaws. I'm loathe to believe that we were *ever* designed by a greater hand; No competent craftsman would've made us as we are. So limited an array of operating environments, so many useless parts, vital systems so inefficient and prone to breakdown..."

"-Not to mention that we are difficult to repair, and *prohibitively* expensive to replace."

> "What you describe is a weakness only if the human himself is weak."

"My dear boy - Humans can't help but *be* weak."

> Are you real human or are you defective? I've been wondering. It would be a nice irony to have a sociopath who's magically forced to fall in love."

"I prefer to think of myself as...'between states.'"

He smooths down his coat with his free hand - Apparently admiring the sculpted lines of his form. "I must admit - Our aesthetics are delightful. Metal for structure, and myomer for muscles and nerves - Clean, elegant and *pure* in operation."

"My mind is already a glittering construct: All gears and ratchets, springs and weights and balances of impossible precision..."

"-Why shouldn't my body reflect the truth?"

(Continued)
>>
>>33695181
>"I prefer to think of myself as...'between states.'"
Wonderful. A high school nihilist.
I guess his plan is the equivalent of a school shooting.
>>
>>33695181

When he turns his head, you catch a glimpse of your crimson reflection - Striding, Tempest Scrander at your back, autoreactive talons retracted. The Assault Shroud flutters in the faint breeze, as Utopia Ruler comes to a stop.

"For a flaw to be imposed upon me - *inflicted*, really - is..." A pause, as if he's searching for a sufficiently cutting word. "...Is intolerable."

His cane taps lightly against the ground. As before, the high, singing whine of power builds in your sensors - The illusion at the heart of the grove falling away, as the structure of the teleport nexus emerges. Violet gems glitter, in the curving spiral of the floor; Twisting fronds braiding together in writhing organic contrails, humming with internal life.

The archway stands perhaps ten feet tall, and the ring upon which it stands is perhaps forty feet in circumference - The street abruptly giving way to smooth curves and arching lines. Elegant, bulb-bearing barbs and spurs adorn the portal, a large crack - Like a torsion fracture - marring the tiles at your feet.

"-And so we come to the end of our tale," Utopia says, stroking his chin. "Now..."

He turns to face you, all levity gone from his voice.

"The Nihl Sphere." A white-gloved hand extends, beckons. "-Give it to me."

[ ] "No way in hell."
[ ] "-What do you need it for?"
[ ] "The portal's damaged, Utopia."
[ ] "...You could sense *that*?"
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL
>>
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>>33695301

(Apologies, forgot my picture.)
>>
>>33695301
>"No way in hell."
>>
>>33695301
>"-What do you need it for?"
>"...You could sense *that*?"
>>
>>33695301
"What do you need it for?
How the fuck do you even know?"
>>
You know, we really need to murder the dude after this is over.
And make a pimp-ass coat out of him.
>>
>>33695339
We already have the Assalut Shroud. A coat would redundant
Now a pimphat is an option.
>>
>>33695374
Maybe a cane.
An autoreactive cane built into our forearm. When we need to look pimp, it extends to the ground and lets us grab it.
>>
>>33695301
"What do you need it for?"

"No way in hell."

"You want to kill the Hyades so much, you do this on your own just as I'll end this on my own."
>>
>>33695327
If he knows about the Nihl Sphere, it could easily be that he's connected somehow to Trisagion's Menagerie; our possession of it was one of the secrets we traded to him, after all, and Ruler's temperament certainly fits.

That said...

>[X] "No way in hell."
He might've gotten the wrong idea about us if he heard that we were giving out all sorts of toys to our collaborators, but this isn't some kind of mass-production trinket we can just lend out.

>[X] "The portal's damaged, Utopia."
But if he needs us to use it to bridge the gap, maybe we can talk.
>>
>>33695435
>If he knows about the Nihl Sphere, it could easily be that he's connected somehow to Trisagion's Menagerie; our possession of it was one of the secrets we traded to him, after all, and Ruler's temperament certainly fits.
An entire squad of flamboyant players with infuriating behavorial ticks.
>>
>>33695301
>[X] "The portal's damaged, Utopia."
Isn't that the real problem here?

"Equivalent exchange. You're about as loathe to part with your baton as I am the sphere."
>>
>>33695459

> Give him the Nihl Sphere...
> While it's in full absorption mode.

It'd be hilarious if we DO give him the Nihl Sphere and it just absorbs him.
>>
>>33695474
I wonder if the limiter would engage if we used the associated Codeburst.
>>
>>33695327
>>33695319

> "...You could sense *that*?"
> "How the fuck do you even know?"

Utopia sniffs.

"An educated guess," he allows, gesturing at your right arm. "-I must say, that deformity of yours...It's done a remarkable job of concealing it. And yet - To unveil it less than the span of an hour ago...It's hard *not* to know."

A flourish of his wand takes in the portal. "If this device - for example - is the equivalent of a whisper in a crowded room...A power of *that* magnitude, *that* intensity, is like your iron friend - Ogre, was it? - hammering upon a gong larger than a rich man's house."

> "No way in hell."

He sighs, parting the folds of his coat, reaching for a hidden pocket.

"Wretched boy. It's fortunate that I'm a man of means."

A violet glow - A harsh unlight - gathers. A breath, an inhalation, stealing power from the universe. It flickers across Ruler's form, ambling down his cane; A twitching, unwholesome radiance that does nothing to the gloom except make it dirty.

The archway quivers, slightly. Mechanisms deep within the base of the dais whirr and click, making grinding, scratching noises...As it begins to turn. Slowly at first, rotating sedately - Gathering speed, until it spins like a gaming wheel.

The crystals embedded in the base begin to shine, the hum building, building - An eldritch reality whorl distorting the view through the arch, until a blazing doorway creeps into existence, fuming with furious light.

> [X] "The portal's damaged, Utopia."

"-Indeed." Utopia's voice quivers with the beginning of strain, his form remaining locked in place - His coat drinking in the light, a tremor coursing through his form.

"But for our purpose - It should yet serve."

He's right. The doorway flickers, unstable - Not like the hard-edged glow you've glimpsed before, in the Smiler Rig. This one looks tenuous, makeshift; Damaged mechanisms forced into new alignments, jury-rigged into full function.

(Continued)
>>
>>33695474
Why would it be? The mission would end in failure and we're back to killing Bishamon and Iron Ogre for lack of alternatives. You can hate Utopia Ruler for being a dick, but he happens to be our chance at getting what we want out of this.
>>
>>33695482
...How many NIHL spheres are there?
Is Pazuzu now blind?
Is the entire pimp cane faction run by Pazuzu?
Is the White Joker one of its members?
>>
>>33695488

After the mission then.
>>
>>33695502
Also no, he's bringing people to help kill Smilers. Hate him after he does more than show you up.

>>33695500
No to all the questions it applies to, and just two to the first. He used a purple crystal. Remember those?
>>
>>33695516
>Remember those?
Oh yes, I do.
I wonder if AP ever managed to get anything out of the one that we gave to him.
>>
>>33695531
Oh, probably. I'm praying it doesn't have anything to do with containment breaches, if you catch my drift.
>>
>>33695482

"Joker-"

It's a miracle that you can hear Utopia Ruler's voice, over the swirling, crackling chaos of the emerging gate; The taut edge of effort in his words. If he had teeth, he'd be clenching them, each word coming out harsh and rasping. A wisp of smoke rises from his cuff-links - The tiny amethyst stones within them burning out, one by one, taking on the dull grey sheen of flaking jewellery.

He focuses. The portal resolves into a blaze of fulminating light.

"Sometime today - If you'd be so good, Joker - Before I give myself an aneurysm-"

[ ] "Where does it lead?"
[ ] "What, *I'm* going first?"
[ ] Enter the portal.
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL
>>
>>33695558
Enter the portal.
While walking, Argus Scan it.
>>
>>33695558
>Enter the portal.
>>
>>33695482
>-I must say, that deformity of yours...It's done a remarkable job of concealing it.
Hang on, what's he on about. Midas? Or "actual problem with Red Joker that keeps being hinted at"?

>>33695558
>[X] "What, *I'm* going first?"
>[X] Enter the portal.
>>
>>33695577

He's talking about our Helix Gauntlet. He's just being a prick about it.
>>
>>33695577
I think it's Midas, considering that Midas is basically a tumor.
It's also golden, despite us being an avatar with a red color scheme. So "deformity" in the aesthetic sense.
Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if all of our gear made us look a bit top heavy.
>>
>>33695590
>Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if all of our gear made us look a bit top heavy.
We really need those Vanquish-esque rocket knees
>>
Oh, this is a pleasant surprise. Good evening OP, players. How's the weekend treating you?

>>33695558
>[X] "Where does it lead?"
>[X] Enter the portal.

>>33695577
It seems like it would be Midas, doesn't it? At the same time, it's phrased just peculiarly enough to raise suspicions. You'd think there'd have been a mention somewhere about the sphere and Daegal interacting in odd ways.
>>
>>33695622
How about Armaros mentioning Joker couldn't be scanned?
>>
>>33695607
>rocket knees
>not leg guards version of Crisis Arm
>>
Rolled 69

(Just rolling for something, gentlemen.)
>>
>>33695766

W-what?

B ut you've always rolled in secret before.
>>
>>33695568
>>33695573
>>33695577

> [X] "What, *I'm* going first?"

"No, darling boy - We'll skip through, arm-in-arm, like the fondest of friends."

The sneer is in Utopia Ruler's voice, now - The veneer of civility vanishing at the strain, as his mirror-mask darkens to opacity.

> [X] "Where does it lead?"

On that, now - He's ominously silent.

>[X] Enter the portal.

Now or never. Two long strides take you to the portal; The third takes you *through* it.

The world freezes. The light boils up to engulf you, the moment stretching into infinity. Static flickers, in your field of vision - The blurred glimpse of the clearing lingering in ghostly blips, like a vinyl record stuck on the same incessant skipping phrase over and over again, the eternal noise of a white screen at the end of the programming day.

Oblivion.

---------------------------------

The teleport burst scorches and jolts every molecule of your form. A blinding flash, a bang - A phantom aftertaste like bile and burned paper, bewildering sensations that blur your vision, make you feel like you've been pushed through the mesh of an electrified sieve. The artificial thunder from displaced air echoes, filtered to barely-tolerable levels by your helmet's autosenses.

A sense of bewildering calm-

Gale-force winds slam into you, and wrench you from your feet.

'Blizzard' doesn't come close. 'Hurricane' misses the mark. 'Wind tunnel' is barely adequate, but it can't convey the gut feeling.

You only have time for the briefest of impressions - Curving, ribbed walls - A twisting shaft, like an enormous flue rising vertically through pitch-black stone - Your surroundings, blurring past...

(Continued)
>>
>>33695781

You're borne along, twisting and tumbling, through the deep dark level where extinctions are made; A storm of gritty sand, *spore* blasting down, around, past you like a hail of needles, like ball bearings from a railgun. You can't even see where you are - There are flickers of orange light, flickers of blue, everything high-contrast and stroboscopic; Blind to anything more than a few centimetres past your faceplate.

The Argus Sensor picks up *so many contacts*, all it registers in a haze; Warning lights flickering to existence on your HUD, alarms flaring - But you *feel* the impacts rather than see them, your armour abrading around you like a heat-shield on re-entry...

And amid all that red, an emerald flicker-

LIMITER DISENGAGED

HP: 227.2%
COBALT BOOSTER: 150%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 106%
METER: 15% (TIER ONE WEAPONRY UNLOCKED)

YOU HAVE CONTROL
>>
>>33695766
Ah. Portal instability brought on by a damaged teleporter and an even more impromptu power source than usual? Were you aiming high or low?

>>33695774
Not true, it's just been a very long time. First meeting with Cybele is the last I recall. Been a handful of times other than that.

>>33695795
Sinistral 2 up in front, Scrander to stabilize so that we're not being dragged every which way. Ride it out I guess.
>>
>>33695795
Sinistral, Scrander and let our Shroud prioritize the most vulnerable parts of our armor. The ones that would really suffer from minor impacts and won't be activated in this environment, anyway.
>>
>>33695819
>>33695894

You wrench your Sinistral up - Your Tempest Scrander flaring at your back, the Shroud stiffening into it's defensive configuration...But you're still tumbling end-over-end, the frantic jet of thrust throwing a new vector into the spinning confusion. The rattle of spore against the Sinistral is like hail against a tin roof - You clench the grip, expanding the field, already buzzing and whining from the continuous impacts, the gritty substance boiling away to nothing where it meets the ghost steel...

And then you slam into the wall, and the wind slams down on you like a mountain at mach two. Your armour shrieks as it leaves deep grooves in the onyx surface, sliding and skidding and trailing sparks - Some protrusion knocks you into the air again, borne like a leaf on a gale, carried onwards-

Until your right hand grabs onto the first thing that hits your fingers. It's the Hand of Midas that saves you; You'd never have made the catch without it. And if you *had* match the catch, you'd never have held on - Your right arm left hanging against the wall, while the rest of you slams into...

-What, exactly?

There's an upwards curve to the tunnel - Something you can dimly intuit, as the rasping, sparking abrasion continues; The wind resistance is too great to really bring the Tempest Scrander to bear, even as you slam the field of the Sinistral into the wall/ground before you - Anchoring yourself, the wedge of ghost steel gouging deep into the wall of the shaft. You have no idea what earthly purpose the tunnel serves - Conduits? Power lines and vital circuitry? But you can *feel* the vibrations that shake the walls, threatening to fling you loose-

(Continued)
>>
>>33696008

And then - With an effort that sends static fuming through your field of vision - you wrench yourself to the side. The wind screams sideways instead of up, and you can just barely roll into the lee of some protruding piece of machinery half-embedded into the wall.

It's still not even close to calm air, the scouring gale continuing to erode your armour - But it's a respite, as you hang on grimly, the myomer muscles in your arms straining to sustain the lock.

Across you - Your Argus Sensor pinging, faintly, the sound drowned out in the endless torrent - an alcove, an opening; Or just a phantom return. Your sensors pick out a vague divot, a shape concealing a hollow space...An airlock? A hatch? There's power beyond, a dull glow of energy that can't quite be concealed by the abrasive storm-

Further up, the dark walls give way to the texture of glass, of glittering artificial diamond - Something etched to appear frosted, utterly invulnerable to the scouring sweep of the vertical hail. Light boils out from within, a reflected wattage that's muted to a dull, crimson glow in this tumbling space.

A groan echoes in your sensors. The ground beneath you begins to shift, to judder - The raised block of machinery beginning to recede into the walls, grinding as it articulates, retracting along a new passage; As it shrinks away, moving along revealed horizontal tracks, the wind picks up - Your Sinistral's field flickering as your grip begins to slip.

HP: 201.8%
COBALT BOOSTER: 144%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 79%
METER: 15%

YOU HAVE CONTROL
>>
>>33696078
We probably could shatter the safety glass with the Crisis Arm, but we are trying our hand at this Tactical Espionage Action thing. Go for the alcove. Use a cobalt leap and supercharge the Scrander.

Also, retract the Assault Shroud. We can regenerate HP, but not the shroud. Once we're out of the cloud we can let it hang again.
>>
>>33696078
I guess we should try to reach the Alcove.

I'd suggest Cobalt assisted movement.
However, we need some more assistance.
Can Muleta strengthen our grip and create footholds?


If the alcove turns out to have something blocking it, use Harrow to explode the object.
>>
Hopefully we can heal up in the alcove.

Also, shouldn't our meter go up from being damaged? Or is the wind blowing the essence away too quickly to recover?
>>
>>33696127
>Can Muleta strengthen our grip
No, it isn't capable of fine motor control, and the blades are so thin the wind will probably shred any we produce. Besides, isn't the tunnel made of metal? We have maglocks. Use those instead.
>>
>>33696157

Meter only goes up from the damage you inflict, IIRC.
>>
>>33696157
>Hopefully we can heal up in the alcove.
I honestly think we should not. Only thought of it after I posted, but using a Hyade power in the center of their domain might not be a good idea. There's still the Leech module for healing, but we'll want to ask Ruler if we dare.

>>33696161
Damage dealt and received, but much less of the latter.
>>
>>33696113
>>33696127
>>33696157
>>33696159

(Gentlemen: Alcove it is, but I'll point out that it's a closed door. Is there any consensus as to how you might want to open it?)
>>
>>33696174
If we can maglock to the wall, punch it open with boosted Crisis arms.
Otherwise explode a Harrow on it.
>>
>>33696174
Either smash through with both the Midas and Crisss Arms or use one of the Accel Grips to cut it open.
>>
>>33696174
Any visible handle or latch? An access panel? It's best to open the door properly if we're going to try sneaking. Unseal the Nihl Sphere momentarily, just to see if the unlock power will deign to work for us.

If it's featureless and blank, then ram the Sinistral into the edge and cut the lock off. No need to make it flashy.
>>
>>33696207
>Nihl Sphere
Oh right, it is a skeleton key. Try this, then cut the lock. No booms until we have no choice.
>>
>>33696157

(You're right, but it's not actually inflicting Essence damage - It's just rapidly eroding away your armour.)

>>33696113
>>33696127
>>33696157

> Go for the alcove.
> I'd suggest Cobalt assisted movement.

Your window of opportunity is shrinking - Somehow, somehow, you manage to draw your legs in - Your boots thudding dully against the surface of the curving inner wall, autoreactive talons deploying; They gouge into the dull metal on the third kick, giving you a tentative toehold. Your legs bunch beneath you - Myomer fibres cording, the crimson paint eroded away, scarring your armour down to grey-

...It's going to be tight.

Azure light flickers. Your limbs sting with strength, the Cobalt Booster burning cold in your torso - A familiar sensation now, the light almost drowned out by the howling dark...

> Can Muleta strengthen our grip and create footholds?

You *focus*. The Assault Shroud, worn thin in place, extends - Unfurling from a coat, a pelise, into Shrike Blades. The pointed tips skitter off the metal, in places; But others stab into place, finding purchase, the nanomaterial strands anchoring you, curved spines growing outwards from your wrists, stabbing deep - Until you crouch on the surface of the wall, waiting for your moment, the Tempest Scrander sparking at your back...

With a shuddering tremor, the rising tumour of machinery slides back into the wall, shutters grinding shut behind it. In the span of that moment, before the storm can sweep you away-

-You *leap*.

Your trajectory is a flaring blue leap - You *fling* yourself forward, like a bullet - the winds wrenching at you, turning it into a tumble, the Tempest Scrander flaring fiercely as you cross the distance; The gale wrenching you off-course as your initial momentum fades, hurling you sideways in a very fast, very forceful *shove*...

(Continued)
>>
>>33696260

But then the Hand of Midas gouges into the raised edges of the alcove, and instead of hurtling over the edge you slam down hard enough to crush all the breath from your lungs.

Fortunately, you don't have lungs.

The gale howls in your ears - As you cling on, digits sinking into the corner for purchase, legs trailing out behind you horizontally as abrasive spore and gravity and the wind assaults you-

>>33696188
>>33696196

The Emulator Module hums to life, at the base of your spine - But the angle is wrong. It takes *everything you have* just to hang on, as the first hairline cracks skitter along your armour - Your left hand comes up, smouldering with the fires of EXEC_HARROW...

>>33696219

...And then with a metal-on-metal hiss, the shutters of your Helix Gauntlet slide apart. The light of the Nihl Sphere smokes in the narrow space; The furious illumination leeched away, dimming ever-so-slightly...

-The hatch opens. Slowly, agonizingly, it slides open, retracting into the wall - Dim light glows from within. You haul yourself forward - Then *in*, out of the angry black thunderclouds, the grinding particles that boil around you.

Gravity abruptly reasserts itself as the wall becomes the floor, and you slam down to the ground as the hatch slides shut behind you. The door on the other side of the tiny chamber is a perfect match for the one you've just entered; The vents on the walls inhaling sharply, the overpressure keening in your ears as it shuts the storm out.

(Continued)
>>
>>33696338
>Helix Gauntlet
I find myself making this mistake far too often, myself.
>>
>>33696338

One door closes, and another opens. Orange light wells up before you, as you haul yourself to your feet. There's a stiffness to your joints, the abrasion damage more superficial than crippling; But it's eroded away a significant amount of your armour, the scars etching scraping lines across your form.

The chamber beyond-

...It's a pit. You're at the bottom of it, a riot of alien machinery sitting in the center of the space like a nerve ganglion, three massive spokes radiating out from the core; The spire rising from the center, adorned with spines and pipes and glassy see-through panels - In the walls, in the raised column, the sickening orange glow coming from slots in the spire, flickering against your armour.

Outside, clouds of spore continue to swirl and seethe, random and chaotic, like boiling water trapped in a pot; The place is pristine, but silent - Almost abandoned -

And then a shape looms out in the curving glassy panel before you. Not *all* the windows open to seething blackness, you realize - Some of them are *cells*, bringing a distant memory to mind; The very top of the Bastion, Argent's forge, where similar cells contained...

-Where your gaze settles, secret lights flicker into existence. The sight before you is awful, startling - Pulsing slabs of muscle, wrapped in ragged strands around a riot of flapping tentacles, vast splaying roots of flesh, in circular pods with a hundred toes waving in some unknowable pattern, around a single fractal insect eye-

A Corrector. A kind you've never seen before - It looks like something from the darkest depths of the acid ocean, something scarred and bleached from corrosive fluids, held frozen in suspension; Only the thin curve of not-glass separating you from the tusked nightmare, hinged jaws forming a tooth-fringed opening like a chapel cave, fronds of knotted flesh coiled around the central mass.

(Continued)
>>
>>33696500
>A Corrector
Oh what the fucking hell. What IS this place?
>>
Do we have a void anchor we can plant here?
>>
>>33696500

It's not the only one. The other pods hold similar shapes, vague shapes, creations in all the myriad forms flesh-warping horror can take - Things like knotted bundles of slimy ropes, creatures with horrible funnel mouths on the ends of long trunks-

You look away.

The light illuminates the panels beneath the sealing bubble - One the pitch-black of the spore-storm without, the other winking an actinic green.

[ ] Activate the black panel.
[ ] Activate the green panel.
[ ] Examine the central dais.
[ ] Climb up.
[ ] Free

HP: 173.4%
COBALT BOOSTER: 121%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 55%
METER: 15%

YOU HAVE CONTROL
>>
>>33696538
Nope.
>>
>>33696538

(You're carrying one Void Anchor. Cursory examination doesn't reveal any obvious power source for it to feed off, however.)
>>
>>33696539
>Activate the green panel
>>
>>33696539
We have black and green...
Black either means destroying the thing or setting it free. The same goes for the green.

Does each pod have its own set of panels?
>>
>>33696552

But isn't everything technically made of essence? What about either one of the panels or the dais?

Anywhere near the creature?

I'm all for inspecting the dais before touching ANYTHING at all.
>>
>>33696521
...I think it's an Essence forge. Argent used something similar to make the Sinistral.

>>33696539
>[X] Activate the green panel.
>[X] Examine the central dais.

>[X] Free Argus Scan the area.
We know what green means in the Red World.

>>33696538
Yes. Look at >>33694522 if you want to know how many we have. First reply always has a list.
>>
>>33696570
>We know what green means in the Red World.
You mean essence?
>>
>>33696567

(Yes, every pod has it's own set of panels. Not every pod contains something, though.)
>>
Can we j-j-j-jam the void anchor into the green panel then?
>>
>>33696592
That would be a terrible idea.
>>
>>33696590
And the ones that don't contain something are black.

Well, green sounds like the right option.
>>
>>33696539

> [X] Activate the green panel.

DO ITTTT.

All the cool kids are doing it!
>>
>>33696600

I really don't want to risk waking that thing up.
>>
>>33696612
But that would give us some more essence.
We can't lose with it.
Just need to avoid destroying the dais, considering that it might have another I/O port for us.
>>
>>33696568
>But isn't everything technically made of essence?
Oh, I can answer that, I asked a while ago. To activate a Void Anchor you need to kickstart it, right? That requires either a Player/special Corrector, or enough ambient Essence to taste. Non-living things don't have enough essence to get a reaction.

>>33696580
I mean Essence. It's either going to feed the things Essence or kill them to release Essence. Here's hoping it makes us something cool out of it.

>>33696592
Panel means "button" anon. All that would do is use the Void Anchor to push the green button.
>>
>>33696619

Well, can we inspect BEFORE we press anything?
>>
>>33696539

I don't suppose we could spend 30% from our Cobalt Booster to heal our selves?
>>
>>33696663
Just discussed:
Might be a bad idea to use a Hyades power here.
>>
>>33696612
In recognition that this is a fine time to be paranoid, I suggest drawing the Arc Gun.

>>33696663
I suggest we do not, just because we don't want to attract any attention here.
>>
>>33696561
>>33696570
>>33696600
>>33696604

You reach out. Holographic light gathers, briefly, around your armoured fingers as your hand presses down-

You hear: Drip.

A fluid trickle, sliding from the edges of the pod-

And then the dribble become a *roar* of escaping fluid, and a sick fleshy weight crumples onto you - A thick mass of clotting meet, squamous and wretched, drooling alien fluids - with a sound like an overripe fruit. The entire mass of the abyssal Corrector slumps outwards, in a tide of slimy, rancid flesh. Spine teeth, as transparent as glacial ice and dewed with drops of mucus, scrapes against your armour as it falls *onto* you, noxious white froth boiling out from the vast tonnage of it's bulk, as if it has steam for blood, a glassy, staring eye looking directly into yours-

A pink slit opens, as the stinking, milky white fluid gushes out. It puckers and dribbles as air - As *liquid* gushes out of it. There are *things* riding the rancid wave; Vaguely wormlike, grossly tentacled, each one the size of your fist - Splattering against your armour in a spew of the foulest filth -

For a moment, all you can see is the noxious, sticky body sac of pulsing viscera. It's crushing you - You're pinned beneath it, suffocating beneath the flesh-

And thank god, thank *God* you can't smell anything. If you had a mouth, you'd vomit all over yourself, but it'd hardly make the situation any worse.

(Continued)
>>
>>33696732
Why does nothing in this Red World come with a user's manual?!
>>
>>33696732
People just HAD to press the shiny button...
>>
>>33696747
Because people in the Red don't put comments into their code.
>>
>>33696732
You know, EXEC_REND would have hilarious implications in this situation.
>>
>>33696753
Hey, there were TWO shiny buttons. One we could have resisted, but even the most strong-willed fall to temptation when there's two.

>>33696757
I suspect it has more to do with outsourcing their technical writing to a shell company.

>>33696766
Doesn't Rend just redirect force?
>>
>>33696777
>Doesn't Rend just redirect force?
It's vague about that.
The wording implies that either the whole attack (which would be that corrector) transports into the Real or that just the force of the attack is transported.
>>
>>33696732

The Sinistral's blade flickers to life. The Corrector's flesh boils away where the energy field touches - Gouging, myomer muscles straining, you carve a deep wedge into the thing's flesh; Your free hand clutching at the ground, pulling at it, until you finally manage to wrench yourself away, crimson armour slick with fluids, joining the spreading stain.

Your armoured boot comes down on one of the Corrector's spawn, and it pulps in an explosion of gore.

The Corrector doesn't move. Smoke wisps from the wound you've carved into it's surface, cauterized; The tentacled mass slumps upon itself a little more, sagging in a boneless, liquid way that's equal parts deflation and decomposition.

It doesn't move.

After a few tense moments, you conclude that it's probably dead.

You think it may have been dead for a long, long time.

Again, you're immensely grateful that Players can't throw up.

------------------

You leave a trail of slime in your wake, as you cross over to the central dais. The interface, at least, is vaguely reassuring in how utterly alien and incomprehensible it is; But there's a familiarity to it, like with the Manifold Towers, the Hollow Sun...

-The twin metal rods sliding sedately out from the console, a striking contrast to the black composite material, almost like carbon fiber, that makes up the rest of the glassy surface.

[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL
>>
>>33696844

Hold both rods, obviously.
>>
Wait a second, "Abyssal" Correctors that look like things spawned below the Midnight Zone? In an area reminiscent of the laboratory of a (probably mad) scientist with a record of modifying Players? Is this where Kraken came from?

>>33696813
Ah right, and then there's the line about "unpredictable effects" or something.

...Good lord that would be nasty. Imagine one of these poking out into the real world. Heh, imagine one of these poking out into the festival.

>>33696844
Wait, dead things that don't disintegrate into Essence? We have a problem.

Not much of a choice OP, you know how we're swinging this. Activate the Tower.
>>
>>33696844
Too bad that the thing was dead.
Consume would have been nice.

Anyway, time to interface.
>>
>>33696866
>Is this where Kraken came from?
I really don't want another kind of foreign substance to power our armor.
>>
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>>33696844
We don't need caution where we are going.
>>
Hey hey, episode 100

Congratulations, OP. We've come a long way.
>>
>>33696886
Of course we do.
>>
>>33697023
Oh hey, you're right, we should do something to celebrate even if the actual 100th thread was somewhere in the 80s by our numbering system. If we had Hollow Sun charge, I'd suggest building one of the vehicles. I suppose we'll have to settle for wrecking catastrophic change on a small corner of the Red World without meaning to.
>>
>>33697075
I thought that wrecking the Diadem and bringing the tournament to a grinding halt was the celebration?

It's like a very Red Joker Christmas, or something. He gives the gift of chaos.
>>
>>33696865
>>33696866
>>33696868

You reach out. Arcs of aureolin lightning flicker between the contact elements of your gauntlets, and the struts of metal. Your gauntlets lock in place, as alien data floods your HUD - Symbols scrawling over your field of vision, resolving into letters you can't read, but which impart their meaning directly to your brain-

> PROCESSING SYSTEM ACCESS AUTHORITY...
.
.
.
> RECOGNIZED
> SYSTEM AUTHORITY ENABLED
> ID: JOKER
> LAST ACTIVATION: 1632.2 HOURS

> ERROR: FRAME INCOMPATIBILITY DETECTED
> SIMULATION BODY...NOT AVAILABLE
> ASSESSING...
> ALL FUNCTIONS AT MAXIMUM AUGMENTED LIMITS
> CAPACITY EXCEEDED.

There's more, flooding your HUD - Things you can only begin to grasp, to guess at.

> LAST EXTRACTION
> SPECIMEN 55
> SPECIMEN 67
> SPECIMEN 792
> SPECIMEN 891
> (CON.)

It goes on. A long, numerical list, with over two hundred specimens tagged to it.

> ESTIMATED GRAFTING COMPATIBILITY...0%
> PREVIOUS ESTIMATED GRAFTING COMPATIBILITY...94%
> PROJECTED POTENTIAL: UNKNOWN.

> RECORD/REPLAY
> GRAFTING/EXTRACTION

The entry is blanked out, somehow. Inaccessible - To you, at least.

> ACCESS: PANOPTICON
> ACCESS: QUANTUM PORT FACILITY
> ACCESS: TERMINAL
> ACCESS: CRYPTID STORAGE
> ACCESS: PRESERVATORIUM [X]
> ACCESS: SIMULATION NEXUS

YOU HAVE CONTROL
>>
>>33697111

> Record/replay
> Access Panopticon.
>>
>>33697111
Is there some way to interface this place directly to the Hollow Sun?
>>
>>33697111
Holy shit, this means the Joker Suit has already been here once.

And we are at maximum augmented limits?
Does that mean that Vitruvian devices can't add anymore gizmos?

Anyway, replay first.

Wait, do those access things change the room around us?
I'm in favor of Cryptid Storage. And then Simulation Nexus.
>>
>>33697111

Oh. OH.

Guys, I think I get it.

This is a zoo. They're STORING Correctors here for some reason, maybe even the place where they're created.
>>
>>33697154
Yeah, it has.

A little bit over two months ago...that might mean it's when we took control of the Hollow Sun.
>>
>>33697111
Wait a second, grafting compatability?

This is how Argent made his souped up players. He's fucking grafting correctors onto people.

Holy shit, why did I think he was one of the good guys again?

> RECORD/REPLAY
> ACCESS: PANOPTICON
> ACCESS: TERMINAL
>>
>>33697154

>1632.2 hours

That's roughly 68 days. Two months ago.
>>
>>33697097
Christmas in July, two days late.

And yes, that was the implication.

>>33697111
> ID: JOKER
> LAST ACTIVATION: 1632.2 HOURS
Oh shit, it's not recognizing us as Red Joker, and it says we were here two months ago. ...Was our CORE replaced?!

So we're IN the Preservatorium. We want... hm. Terminal.

>>33697152
Quantum Port Facility would let us jump there, presumably.

>>33697166
Close. It's a splicing lab. The upgrades we get from the Hollow Sun one of the other Jokers is getting from adding Correctors to their body. Poor Kotone.
>>
>>33697181
Let's do it.

Hook this place up to the Hollow Sun directly. Plug everything, we have a biological facility that'd put Argent's to shame.
>>
>>33697111
>REPLAY

Also,
> ACCESS: TERMINAL
>>
>>33697111
>>33697111
>RECORD/REPLAY
>ACCESS: TERMINAL
>>
>>33697154
>Access Joker.
Not Red Joker. Just Joker. The implications are both better and worse, I feel.

>>33697172
He's not the one doing this, if only because he doesn't use Corrector DNA, he uses their Essence as raw materials.

>>33697212
First let's take control of the facility. Then we can connect it. We want to know what's here before we go plugging it in to our precious.
>>
>>33697235
I'm pretty sure our system ID has always been JOKER

And Argent might well use essence to create relics, but how is he creating those hypertrophied players? I'm willing to bet that it's based on corrector grafts.
>>
>>33697181
>Was our CORE replaced?!
We are Daegal. And have a Nihl sphere grafted into our gauntlet.

I guess Terminal is the best thing for control.
Personally, I think that the Cryptid Storage will contain a good farming place for essence. Cryptids could be correctors.
>>
>>33697235
A fair point. My guess is that this is, as you said, a splicing lab. The Red World's tries at creating a biological component just as lethal as the mechanical suits, to spice up the playing field, as it were.

The Collectors were taken from this place, or samples at least, and somehow given to Alarune. She used them for her own purpose, feeding on the essence they devoured. She didn't design the Collectors, merely mass-produced them.

That would make this the design facility.
>>
>>33697249
>I'm pretty sure our system ID has always been JOKER
I suspect that the system can't tell the difference between the three Jokers and just counts them as the same entity by default.
>>
>>33697268
Did you forget what happened when a small bit of Black Joker got even CLOSE to the Hollow Sun?
The system is *very* good at recognizing the Black Joker and distinguishing it from the others.
>>
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>>33697172
>>33697132

> RECORD/REPLAY

A bewildering array of screens flickers to life before your sensors. They blur, most of them fuzzed to indecipharability, barely visible.

> ERROR
> ERROR
> TERMINAL CORRUPTION DETECTED
> LAST ENTRY: 7320.2 HRS (SIDEREAL TIME)

Your vision narrows to a blurred tunnel, and then-

A view from above. The same space as before, unchanged by time; Nothing truly ages in the Red World. It could have been a day ago, or a hundred years. A wan light flickers, wavers, takes form - The thunderclap of displaced air oddly tinny, filtered by the recording.

The shape that emerges is hardly impressive. It's slight, slender - With long, tapering limbs, ending in hooved feet that make no sound. It moves with the cautious motions of a puppet in the hands of an inexperienced puppeeter - The faceplate blank, unmarred by augmentation, the figure lightweight and almost delicate.

And familiar, instantly. A Player, the same kind as Chiffon Doll and White Licorice - Unarmed, barely armoured, faceless head turning this way and that, with an almost scientific curiosity, taking in the sights.

As it draws close to the console, the twin metal rods articulate outwards, rising from hidden slots.

> SIMULATION BODY DETECTED
> PROCESSING SYSTEM ACCESS AUTHORITY...

The voice is flat, lifeless in it's cold mechanical precision - Startling, until you realize that it's merely an audio accompainment to what you're seeing.

> RECOGNIZED
> SYSTEM AUTHORITY ENABLED

A long, damned pause -

> ID: JOKER

(Continued)
>>
>>33697326
>SIDEREAL TIME
I will be making note of all of these terms.

Seems like this access was less than a year ago.
>>
>>33697249
From when we got Red Comet:
> ACCESS GRANTED: RED JOKER

This one doesn't differentiate between Jokers.

I am suddenly reminded that the Maiden's Labyrinth has three paths that split off, and then come together at the end.

>>33697250
Actually, I might have it backwards. Joker lost his "heart". His Essence Core, perhaps. Something took it, and Anon has a memory of the Black Joker putting its fist through his chest.

>>33697265
Alura doesn't create the Correctors. From what I can tell, she uses her plants to deliver Black Joker Essence/blood to creatures. She's upgrading them, not making them.

>>33697326
>LAST ENTRY: 7320.2 HRS
Just ten months ago?

And oh Jesus, poor Kotone. Her father might not have done that to her after all.
>>
>>33697326
Well...that answers that question.

I say we go and threaten them in the red world for info. "I am not Kazuya, as you believe. But I know who you both are. And I can kill you as surely in that world as I would be able to in this one, were there not so many...restrictions.
>>
>>33697377
Only our weapons are locked, we can still beat them to death.
>>
Let's use one of our EXEC:s on it.
>>
>>33697326
OP, are those system messages the ones that we see or the system messages that the Player sees?
>>
Guys, let OP finish.
If my hunch is correct, we are about to get ghost data for the Simulation nexus.
>>
>>33697377
It's not Shino. Whoever this was (Kotone?) was one of that kind of Player, and stumbled in here ten months ago.

>>33697394
I thought we were done being this dumb?
>>
>>33697412
I wasn't suggesting that we did, just pointing it out.
>>
>>33697412
...We're about to see how the Black Joker was made aren't we?
>>
>>33697412
>Whoever this was (Kotone?) was one of that kind of Player, and stumbled in here ten months ago.
That person seems to be new in this body.
They might have made themselves players somehow and then started investigating the room.
>>
>>33697412
Hahaha

The ride never ends
>>
>>33697426
Seems much more likely that it'd be the White Joker.
>>
>>33697412
>It moves with the cautious motions of a puppet in the hands of an inexperienced puppeeter
Look at this line.
It's an important hint.
>>
>>33697431
JQOP Might as well call himself Mr. Bones by now.

>>33697447
>Origin Biingoo

Captcha...what are you saying?
>>
>>33697423
There's a time and place for gratuitous violence. This is not it. Save it for Kraken. I want to see if Exec_Dictum can make him spend his last seconds screaming.

>>33697429
>>33697451
Most of them are like that, just slightly less so now that they've had some time to acclimate. Descriptions mention that they don't move like Players should.

>>33697426
Odds are good. That's the one we know is associated with the Correctors.
>>
>>33697468
>Descriptions mention that they don't move like Players should.
Yes, but not in a way that suggests that they've only started using the armor recently.
The description is more like a more extreme version of Haze. They never had to change their mindset and just see their player armor as normal human bodies.
They move like humans. Not like someone in physical therapy.
>>
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>>33697404

(They're what the Player is seeing.)

"Power, stamina, coagulation: Minimal."

The figure speaks. The sound is immediately different from the lifelessness of the system; It's clinical, measured, oddly cultured - Unrecognisable, from the blank anonymity of the body it wears.

"-Not good enough."

Grasping limbs articulate from the ground, from the floor - Rising up, needle-mouthed and spindly, curling around the slender form. They are thwart with spikes, with recurve barbs - Like implements of torture, devices of pain, rotating about their own axis.

"Begin."

The curved edge of a scalpel bites into the Player's shoulder. Not deeply, a shallow slice - Black oil welling forth, like blood. The second cut comes, parallel to the first, the third one a long, vertical slice that connects the centre of the other two - A flensing cut, pincer-arms lifting a corner of the carapace at the intersection of the cuts, working the knife beneath it with long, slow strokes. The 'skin' comes up easily, exposing twitching red myomer muscle and globules of subcutaneous fat.

And more black oil, welling from the wounds, trickling to the ground...

The Player lifts it's head, and the grinders descend. Enamel skitters in the air, the high rising whine of a surgical drill echoing in the chamber; Excising, with remarkable precision, pulling back the flaps of carapace, flaying the not-flesh away. Black oil runs down it's chin, like tears - The face revealed, as the mask is sawed away, is remarkably human.

It's skinning itself alive.

(Continued)
>>
>>33697509
OH GOD WHAT THE FUCK?!?!
>>
>>33697509
Yo what the fuck
>>
>>33697509
Looks a lot like someone who doesn't live in the Red but is using it for something.
>>
>>33697482
Sorry, I was suggesting they were a new Player; in the same vein as the other Seisin girls. This is obviously not true as of OP's next post.

The key term is simulation body. This is what we've been missing: they're weak Players made to experiment on. Every girl in this school is a living guinea pig.

>>33697509
...You know what, I'm not sure this place is worth it anymore. Either we completely scrub these systems and every Corrector here, or we blast it to oblivion.
>>
>>33697447
>Seems much more likely that it'd be the White Joker
>They move like humans. Not like someone in physical therapy.
>; It's clinical, measured, oddly cultured
It's the cripple president, isn't it?
>>
>>33697581
Does that mean that the Simulation Nexus will contain rows upon rows of these bodies?
>>
>>33697581
...I say we keep the data, and the samples.

Everything else gets purged/recycled.
>>
>>33697611
I agree. The data may come in handy.
>>
>>33697581
Fuck that, we need to milk this place for all it's worth.
>>
>>33697607
Oh christ.

>>33697611
The samples go. We want no part of what they offer; we reclaim the bodies for Hollow Sun charge. The data... jeez. Really depends on what's there. Pure information, sure. Combat data is fine. Research results we keep.

Instructions on how to replicate these experiments? Destroyed outright.

>>33697622
We're going to. But sometimes choosing the lesser of two evils doesn't result in a net good.
>>
>>33697667
No, no, and no.

We don't have to condone these experiments, but alot of pain and #suffering went into them. The moral obligation is to keep everything that's here, however repulsive the methods by which it was acquired. Else, what was the point.
>>
>>33697509

The sizzle and spark of cutting lasers, the faint strands of flesh-analogue adhering to those slender arms as the skin is peeled away, like a long, trailing sleeve - The sounds mark nothing more than the passage of time.

Myomer muscles ripple in the flayed limbs, as the Player turns, unsteadily - The initial stiffness fading, as if it's pared itself of unnecessary weight.

It looks up. Moist eyes move in reddened sockets.

"-Hmmm."

Liquid gushes, foams. White fluid spreads across the floor in an expanding slick, a gross, moist shape slumping to the ground; It's vaguely cephalopod, a pale, bleached white - The bony exoskeleton and cartilage ribbed and roughened, as hard as meteoric iron.

A laser flickers to life. Delicately, it cuts along the arch of the figure's back, opening it along the spine - Steam wafts up from the cut, the raw fibres exposed to the air.

The figure reaches up. A gantry arm lowers a glittering tool into one hand: Fingers squeeze down, as a tiny arc of welding flame flickers at the tip. Moving with a growing confidence, a growing grace, the Player's knees fold beneath it - Cutting, carving, sawing. More arms descend from above, to retrieve the prize-

A mottled, lumpen tentacle, flapping and snaking, ending in a foul beak of clear cartilage. Wretched brown ichor oozes from the wound. The dripping worm-limb turns, almost delicately, in the manipulator arms - As white as a sea-floor mollusc. It presses up against the raw spine; The pallid tentacle hanging limp, as other arms descend, obscuring your vision, an intense blur of surgery...

And abruptly, the web of articulating limbs withdraw. The flayed Player stands perfectly still, slim fingers folding against it's palm - An air of intense concentration lingering...

The tentacle *moves*. The beak *clacks*, juddering with sudden life.

"Better," the Player says.

"*Much* better."

(Continued)
>>
>>33697720
FUCKING KRAKEN.
>>
>>33697720
WHAT IN THE BLUE FLAMING FUCKING FUCKER FUCK

I'm getting a boner.
>>
>>33697720
This looks like the birth of Kraken.
If he really is a Joker... And possibly the white Joker at that...
Well, it explains the Hollow Sun a bit more.
>>
Your vision blurs, and the scene fades out.

You don't open your eyes, not really, but the recording ends. You stand in the hollow chamber, your hands still fastened to the controls.

[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

(Gentlemen, I wouldn't usually ask this, but: Is there a consensus for the ACCESS list?)
>>
>>33697720
That tears it, at least this entire needs purging through fire.

>>33697753
Don't be vile.

>>33697754
A final thought occurs to me: The Black oil. The stuff that this player is bleeding, the stuff that runs off of Red Joker. Maybe that's the common feature.
>>
>>33697720
Kraken is the White Joker.

Fucking called it.
>>
>>33697786
Let's...yeah, let's see what's in the various options. Would that be in access, or no?
>>
>>33697807

(My apologies, they're under Access.)
>>
>>33697786
The terminal.
>>
>>33697786
Panopticon.
>>
>>33697791
>this entire FLOOR needs purging
I am usually not this bad.

>>33697786
Plurality for terminal. If you don't mind me asking though, can you please give us a rough estimate of how long we have here? I do want to check the other floors.

Also: Is this the Diadem at all?
>>
>>33697786
Well, the simulation nexus would be fun for shits and giggles, but I guess it's either Terminal or Panopticon.
>>
Can we access two? I want both Terminal and Panopticon.

I want them all, really.
>>
>>33697815
Anything that can give us an assessment on what everything is? Or would that be in access too?
>>
>>33697815

Panopticon first, Terminal next.
>>
>>33697791
>The stuff that this player is bleeding, the stuff that runs off of Red Joker. Maybe that's the common feature.
But why would both the White and Black have the same oil, while the Red is immune?
...And there aren't any hints towards a Blue Joker, who'd also be immune.

But it's fascinating that Kraken apparently had NO upgrades or combat experience before he did his Corrector merge thing.
It also explains why we are stronger than him.
>>
>>33697667
Fuck good or evil, I just want some info on this world. Bit of power wouldn't hurt either.

>>33697786
Access storage.

I think Baphomont was made in the same way.
>>
>>33697869
I think the white ooze acts as a controlling agent for the black ooze
>>
>>33697869
Oh, I'm not saying Red is immune. In fact, I think he's infected as well, he just took to it better. Our Red Joker would have made a FANTASTIC Black Joker.

I think he rebuilt himself INTO Kraken after being destroyed. Just grab another simulation body and rebuild the old one.

>>33697873
We'll have enough power to choke on, and never enough information. Some compromises are not worth it.
>>
>>33697827

(Yes, you're in the Diadem.)

>>33697827

(You're uncertain. At the very least, you haven't been discovered yet.)

>>33697844

(That's literally all you can see, at present.)

>>33697817
>>33697831
>>33697834
>>33697855

> ACCESS: TERMINAL [X]

The air flickers. The charged feel of ozone lingers - Sparks cising against your crimson plate. You have a moment - A moment to remember how much you hate tele-

-------------------------

-portation.

You materialize. You stumble, static fizzing across your vision. Beneath you, a deck; A transverse assembly platform of grey adamantium, thick plates interlocking into a solid corridor. You stand within a vast interior space, a brightly-lit superstructure filled with a vast network of chrome pipes, rods and cablework-

Before you, an intersection - A four-way cross, the left side leading towards the curving outer ring of the Diadem. Directly before you, the grey metal gives way to a thick, fibrous surface; Like a carpet on the floor of the walkway, criss-crossing the empty space, leading to a massive pair of doors - At least five times your size, hewn from the same impenetrable metal, bare except for a single numeral.

IV

To your right - Light. Colour. A rich green glow, filtering from around the corner, a fluctuating radiance.

*Behind* you-

-Footsteps. Clattering, careless. Voices:

> "...Volt Weapon already? Haaaa...That makes me jealous."
> "-easy if you try, you know."
> "...not gifted like you."

Someone's - Or *multiple*someones - are coming this way.

The voices becoming clearer:

> "-anyone to *fight*, anyway."
> "Hikari-chan...There'll be plenty of time for that later."
> "Annnhhh ~ It's not *fair* if you keep it to yourself. Please teach me~"

[ ] Free

HP: 173.4%
COBALT BOOSTER: 150%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 55%
METER: 15%

YOU HAVE CONTROL
>>
>>33697925
You can't be sure though. We took risks when we consumed Daegal, took over the Hollow Sun and opened the Jokers Memory as well.

All of those paid off. Lets get a better idea of what we working with before we write it off as a "bad idea".
>>
>>33698055
I believe some of the girls like to venture out and fight, if that dialogue is anything to go by.

OP, do we have an access port here?
>>
>>33698113

(You've materialized directly on one, in fact. My apologies.)
>>
>>33698055
Fly up to the ceiling and cling to the corner between the left and back passages.
>>
>>33698055
IV? Ah, countdown. Well, it's a coinflip between the doors and the light. The number has Asuna's blessing though, and if I recall that painting correctly...

And how interesting, the girls CAN develop weapons.

>>33698086
>Jokers Memory
>paid off
Anon...

Also, none of those involved systematic mechanisms of torture.
>>
>>33698154
...What painting?
>>
So, do we hide until they go away?
Too bad that we don't have a cloaking device.
And we don't have Capote. Otherwise I'd say that we just do the Hobbit rock trick.
>>
>>33698166
From the museum date with Asuna.

>COMPTE A REBOURS:

> An ebony statue - Feminine in form and face, a white veil fluttering in an invisible breeze - stands ringed by twelve figures, vines and ivy coiling across the pitch-black surface. Like the hands of a sundial, twin shadows slant across the figures - At a glance, it is almost midnight.

I admit uncertainty as to whether the near midnight time is significant, but the implication I see is that Hellebore is nearby.
>>
>>33698154
We found out what the Black Joker is and what we are to it. That's a bit boon.
>>
>>33698206
We have a door with the NUMBER FOUR printed on it and you think of the hands on a sundial?
>>
>>33698217
I'm gonna be honest man, I've read that thread twice and still have no idea what was going on at all. Way, way too purple for comprehension.
>>
>>33698261
When printed in Roman numerals? Yes, actually, though I could admittedly be wrong.
>>
>>33698277
>red Joker is the avatar of the red world
>black joker is the avatar of the black one
>Correctors come from the black world

That's why we learned.
>>
>>33698336
What. Fucking IPhone
>>
>>33698336
>red Joker is the avatar of the red world
>black joker is the avatar of the black one
I don't remember this at all.
>>
>>33698336
And Kraken is the avatar of the Real?
We are doomed.
>>
>>33698277
I understood it as The Fissure being a door to a third world, The Black. It's basically the source of all Correctors, the Black Joker and is the place where Frost Cestus met the Old Joker.
Oh, and it also has a continent-sized corrector/Eldrich Abomination that I suspect is the actual Final Boss.
>>
>>33698365
That makes more sense, thank you.
>>
>>33698365
Also, player armor apparently doesn't form in the Black.
So good luck surviving there.
>>
>>33698354
Kraken probably isn't a Joker. We saw WJ in the last Kotone dream.

Dubya will be called White Joker.
>>
>>33698385
Then how did he get Joker access?
>>
>>33698380
We never entered the Black through the fissure.
>>
>>33698365
That big corrector is the REAL BLack Joker. The one in our world is something that split off from it.

>>33698353
We found out there is a red world and a black world. Currently, the jokers heart is in the black world, linking the black joker and the red joker. Currently, we can't reach max potential because a chunk of us is over there and it's letting correctors through.
>>
>>33698395
Black Joker blood, he was hemorrhaging a small lake's worth. Assuming that was in fact Kraken and not a clever ruse on OP's part, I'd say the system recognized him as the Joker based on how much of its essence was in his system.
>>
>>33698055
Access the port
>>
>>33698427
This would explain why it took him longer to get access.
>>
>>33698423
>Currently, the jokers heart is in the black world, linking the black joker and the red joker. Currently, we can't reach max potential because a chunk of us is over there and it's letting correctors through.

Don't make things up, we don't know any of this at all.
>>
You know, I want to talk to the girls about upgrades.
Their frames are all identical, aren't they?
I would love to know if their upgrade paths are also identical. It would tell us quite a bit about player armor and Joker's supposedly lost ability.
>>
>>33698143

Your legs coil beneath you. You *leap* - The Tempest Scrander flaring, twin columns of charged air oozing from the turbines, crimson particles fuming it the wake of your passage. Just a crackle, as you soar towards the distant ceiling; Clearing the divide of adamantium, losing yourself in the dense and complex architecture of pipes and towers, vents and arches.

The footsteps stop, abruptly.

"Did you hear that?"

The voices are very close now, just around the corner. Your autoreactive talons dig into the wall - But it's your right hand that counts, the powerful fingers latching around a protrusion, finding a handhold for your left. Myomer fibres stiffen - If this was your real body, you'd never be able to hang on.

But here...

"Y-u-z-u-k-i~" the second voice is playful, mock-wheedling - A child pleading with an indulgent parent. "-I said, teach me~"

"Really, you two..."

A sigh, from the third speaker. The trio turn the corner - The same graceful shapes you remember, moving with the ever-so-slightly tentativeness of Players new to their bodies. Three colours - Sky-blue, magenta and lime green, the first Player turning a humming blade in her hands; A weapon that flickers with a charged edge, one that she's eager to keep away from Lime Voleur - Even as Magenta Wheel merely shakes her head, her slender arms folded over her chest.

"-That's not a toy, you know."

"You're such a spoilsport~"

They pass beneath you. Voleur's slim fingers spread before her, as a holographic window winks to life.

"Ara~? But I don't *want* to go to the Preservatorium...It's *creepy*~"

"Here - Just reset it." Magenta Wheel's voice is clipped, curt - She's clearly reaching the end of her patience, making a swift gesture. The symbols on the window blur to nothing, returning to a steady,
winking green.

"Yuzuki, can you-"

(Continued)
>>
>>33698507

"Fine, fine."

The pale blue player - LAPIS BLOSSOM - passes her sparking sword from one hand to the other; It shimmers to schematics, to motes of light, then is gone.

She cants her head to the side, laying a finger against her cheek - "I'll tell you, but..."

A pause, considering, as Lime waits with bated breath-

"...Two crepes from Charmant tomorrow."

"Haaa, that's *greedy*-"

"You never stop thinking about food," Magenta mutters, irritably. She hesitates, her voice thoughtful - Glancing down the right corridor, but never up. "For a moment I thought-"

"Thought what?"

"-Nothing."

They're still arguing, good-naturedly, as the teleport field descends; All three shimmering out of existence, fading out like ghosts. You wait, a moment longer, until you can be assured of the silence - They're gone, that's for sure, a stillness descending once more.

[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL
>>
>>33698523
>Charmant
Guys, there's a third world!
We need to find Gaim. He might help us.

Anyway, do we go through the door and investigate? Or do we go to the panopticum?
>>
>>33698523

> Charmant
MISTAAAAAH DANGEROUS
>>
>>33698523
Glance down the corridor where the light's coming from, I'm slightly curious. Then open up the door.

Also, note that we're going to have to be careful about our teleporter usage. Remember to wipe the last indicator.
>>
>>33698577
He might give us combat lessons IRL.
He does have better training in the real world than we do.
>>
>>33698577
>>33698552
Charmant? Rings no bells to me.

Also go down the corridor that girl was staring at. THIS IS A STEALTH MISSION.
>>
>>33698661
>Charmant? Rings no bells to me.
A Pâtisserie from Kamen Rider Gaim.
Run by an ex-Spec Ops dude who behaves like a woman and hates the MC for being an Aquarius.
He's also one of the Kamen Riders. His fruit is the Durian.
>>
>>33698523

Go down the corridor. Goooooo into the lighhhtttt, jokerrrrrr.
>>
>>33698696
This light wasn't made for us, though.
>>
>>33698446
Actually, we do.

We've seen from the paintings that under the Red Joker's body is the mark of the Black Joker. We know we're missing most of the capabilities of a Red Joker for "some reason" and we know that our memory and knowledge of our abilities isn't complete because we're missing a chunk of ourselves.

This is all due to us not having our heart safely inside us where it belongs.

>>33698523
I vote we scan where we are and look for signs of some sort. If we can't find anything, follow after the girls to the Preservatorium.
>>
>>33698696
>>33698661
Open the door first, I'm mad curious.
>>
>>33698708
>follow after the girls to the Preservatorium
...Dude, they didn't go there, and that's where we just came from.
>>
>>33698708
>follow after the girls to the Preservatorium.
What do you want to do?
Threaten to kill them here if they don't fuck us IRL?

But really, what are your intentions. How could blowing our cover possibly be beneficial?
>>
>>33698708
>If we can't find anything, follow after the girls to the Preservatorium.
Do you want RJ to take a second vomit shower?
>>
>>33698757
They pass beneath you. Voleur's slim fingers spread before her, as a holographic window winks to life.

"Ara~? But I don't *want* to go to the Preservatorium...It's *creepy*~

That's where they're going now.

>>33698732
>>33698730

Seems like the best place to figure out WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON rather then just fumbling around into random doors.
>>
>>33698832
>That's where they're going now.
Read the line below.
>"Here - Just reset it."
>>
>>33698696
>>33698661
>>33698585

You let yourself drop. The Tempest Scrander hums at your back, slowing your descent; Your knees bending slightly beneath you, to take the impact.

>>33698708

You activate the Argus Sensor. The sensor sweep filters down the corridors, as you turn slowly - The great doors before you (marked 'IV') are impenetrable. They're made of some impossibly dense substance that refuses to give up their secrets; Behind you, from where the trio came, there's a passage leading to a large hallway - The Argus Sensor registering motion, but no power readings...

-Wait.

Down the right corridor. A faint, fleeting sensor blip; A ghost return, nothing more.

You pace forward, cautiously. When you turn the corner, the sight is stunning, achingly green; A lush jungle, spreading as far as the eye can see - The tangled upper branches of trees coiling upwards into a sweltering sky, the grass rustling underfoot. As you take your first step into the chamber, the place comes alive with noise; The rush of wind-rattled leaves, skrills and clatters of insect calls, the dim dopplered shrieks of passing birds, the howls and coughs of distant predators.

It's a diorama - Through the eddies and boils of sound drifts the breeze, stirring the trees, so *real* you can almost feel the heat of the day, the sunlight coming from everywhere and nowhere at once...

Your Argus System registers...Confusion. It's like the place is *there*, yet simultaneously *not*; A flicker, a distortion - A faint *ripple*, at the far end of the chamber, barely perceptible, that might be motion-

And then the fleeting register of a contact, insistent on your sensors, there then gone. Even the dimensions of the jungle before you are uncertain; The Argus System tells you that it's spread across forty meters of floor, but your optics put the lie to them.

HP: 173.4%
COBALT BOOSTER: 146%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 55%
METER: 15%

YOU HAVE CONTROL
>>
>>33698832
Read the literal next line.

And what's going on hasn't changed: we've infiltrated the Diadem to assassinate the Hyades, claiming or destroying the Diadem (thus establishing tentative control over Arcadia) in the process if possible.
>>
>>33698893
Illusions? Nihl Sphere.
>>
>>33698893
It's Nara Dreamland again. Release the Nihl Sphere, let's see what this place looks like.
>>
>>33698893
Yeah, Nihl it.
Afterwards we check the door with the Nihl.

Also, it seems like our limiter hasn't re-engaged. That is interesting.
>>
>>33698848
>>33698895
So it makes sense to go to the teleporter anyway; might give us an idea on the layout of the building.

>>33698893
Nihil sphere.
>>
>>33698943
The teleporter options are all listed here >>33697111. That's our layout.

Come to think of it, we should hit the Simulation Nexus. If the Hyades are inside computers...
>>
Can someone explained what in the fuck happened last thread?

I don't even
>>
>>33698983
>we should hit the Simulation Nexus. If the Hyades are inside computers...
...Then the nexus could be the master control. I'll support that.
>>
>>33698986
We wait-zoned Mio.
>>
>>33698986
We tried to tell Mio about the Red World. Since she's traumatized by it, she refused. At the end we made clear that any serious relationship entailed accepting Anon's secret past, which she accepted. Along the way we found out she's potentially Hellebore's daughter, and thus could be Red Joker's as well.

tl;dr >>33699003
>>
>>33699003
>>33699033
Well... okay then
>>
>>33699054
What was your problem?
>>
>>33698925
>>33698931
>>33698939
>>33698943

The shutters of your Helix Gauntlet slide open, the Nihl Sphere's glow flooding the chamber. Around you, the jungle burns away; becoming glimmering scan patterns on a grey, arched ceiling, the space around you crawling with the bright ripples of scanning-matrix lasers-

The light-cast images don't fade, not really. But where the Nihl Sphere's light shines, they cease to exist: As if you're bringing a bubble of a colder, harsher reality with you, the cacophony muted by a dull, atonal hum...

And something *moves*. The holograms bulge, blurring around the figure; A cloak of shimmering images, gathering in a vaguely human silhouette. It's impossible to make out what it is - *Who* it is - but a hand swings into line with your chest, clutching an ugly, spiky device that erupts in a flash like fire-

Sharp cracks split the air. A visible distortion rips across the distance - A hard, sharp bullet of buzzing metal ricocheting off the wall with a loud, angry *crack*. A glittering line extends from the figure's other hand, as it sprints towards you in a blurring rush.

HP: 172.0%
COBALT BOOSTER: 146%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 52%
METER: 17%

YOU HAVE CONTROL
>>
>>33698986
It's kinda confusing, isn't it? Mio already realized that by refusing to accept the truth she lost her chance and yet she still asked us to wait for her, which kinda goes against what we were trying to tell her.
>>
>>33699033
>At the end we made clear that any serious relationship entailed accepting Anon's secret past, which she accepted.
That part is kinda iffy since Anon told her earlier that if she doesn't hear him listen now, he will likely never speak of it again.
>>
>>33699066

You forget that she loves us.
>>
>>33699062
>clutching an ugly, spiky device that erupts in a flash like fire-
Now I'm thinking of the Black Joker gun.

> A glittering line extends from the figure's other hand
A blade?
Vulcan at its feet to stop its progress.
Prepare to use Flashbang once it's closer. Then punch its arms with the Crisis arms. Aim for destruction of its offensive capabilities.
>>
>>33699089
I just find it jarring, since everyone in the tread already threw up their hands in the air and said: "Whelp, that train has sailed."
>>
>>33699062
Would HARROW help us here?
If we get it off, we can circumvent its cloaking.
>>
>>33699110

I don't think the ship's sailed, myself. I still like Mio a lot, it's just that a gentler hand is required. We're still taking her on a date tomorrow, aren't we?

I kind of feel sorry for her. She was clearly expecting a romantic night under the stars, and we ruined it.
>>
>>33699062
Huh, she missed. Tyrant Burst 1, sidestep around and disarm. By which I mean catch both of her arms in Crisis Arms and give the lightest squeeze.

Sorry Midas Arm, you're too useful not to use. Alas secrecy.

>>33699084
She asked for Anon to wait. I'm inclined to give her the chance, since someone actually admitting fault AND resolving to do better is so rare in this quest.
>>
>>33699110

So she's going to go with Naoya?
>>
>>33699145
You were never in love. This much is obvious.
>>
>>33699062
We're going to die here.
>>
>>33699110
>Whelp, that train has sailed.
I just realized that I mixed up the Russian and English versions of this expression.
>>
>>33699145
...I'm just going to throw out there that I think that's a bad idea for both of them, because I'm starting to suspect that Naoya is Old Joker's son.

>>33699164
Is the Russian version "the train has departed" or similar?

Also I was absolutely ready to let it go until Mio asked for more time.
>>
>>33699154
But we're so close to completing Operation: Waifu Genocide

The Red Joker can't die until then.
>>
>>33699125
>>33699134
I 'm just tired of how this keeps being drawn out even though the last thread was intended to make everything clear once and for all.
Would be easier if we could just drop the romance there and get back to the plot.
>>
>>33699184
>...I'm just going to throw out there that I think that's a bad idea for both of them, because I'm starting to suspect that Naoya is Old Joker's son.
Keep this from /a/.
Or it will end badly.

>>33699164
But the train thing is also in English.
>>
>>33699184
>Is the Russian version "the train has departed" or similar?
Basically.
>>
>>33699216
I'm not at all sure, but some of the coincidences and character bits make me wonder. The question to ask is whether Naoya's father typically wore a hat.

/a/ must never know.
>>
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>>33699134
>>33699104

Light - A brilliant flash, stunning, blinding in it's intensity - flares across the narrow distance. It interacts oddly with the jungle around you; Bleaching all colour to nothing, rendering them as translucent as phantasms, as ghosts...

-The figure doesn't even slow. You sidestep, the barrels of your left-arm Vulcan spinning up - Plasma bolts searing towards your target, a juddering chain of scorching blasts. It leaps; It has a long coat, a cape, and it unfurls around the lightning-quick figure, your shots punching ragged, burning holes in the swirling black fabric-

The blade whips through the air, carving through the curtain of illusion. When it enters the half-sphere of reality surrounding you, it abruptly loses all colour - A flat and lightless black, the infinitely-sharp edge humming in a lethal stroke. The motion is precise, blindingly fast...

-But you're quick, too.

The Hand of Midas drives forward, in a tank-busting punch; Acceleration rings cohering around the Crisis Arm, the *crack* of the blow splitting the air - The figure wrenches aside, the blade, the *sword* turning in it's hand. It readdresses, swings-

Your arm comes up to parry-

Black steel carves through your Assault Shroud, parting the reinforced, layered nanomaterial like silk - And then meets the solid oriachulum of your forearm. Brilliant orange sparks flare, the impact a doleful metal-on-metal chiming; It *reverberates* through you, the world juddering as the holograms recede, the light of the Nihl Sphere burning like a captured star.

The unlight illuminates the ivory gleam of a skull, glowing red eyes like pits to hell. The folds of a ragged black coat flutter around the tattered figure, as it stiffens - The peerless edge of the Fatal Abyss rasping against the Hand of Midas.

"Joker-"

The Thief's voice is a dry, toneless *hiss*, a curt exhalation.

"-What the hell are you doing here?"

JOKER QUEST

EPISODE 100

TO BE CONTINUED
>>
>>33699415
What the fuck? No, seriously, what the fucking fuck?
>>
>>33699415
AND THERE'S A TWIST.
>>
>>33699415
HOLY SHIT
>>
>>33699415

(Gentlemen; My apologies, but it's now extremely late on my end - And I have an early start tomorrow. I'd love to continue, but I'm entirely exhausted. However, this looks like a natural cliffhanger, and a good place to stop: I'm afraid the quality of writing will suffer if I continue.

As always, good night and God bless; You've been a wonderful audience, and I hope to see you again soon.)
>>
>>33699464
Well, that was basically a perfect cliffhanger.

Time to have a talk with Akira.
>>
>>33699415
AKIRAAAA
>>
Wait Joker just countered the Fatal Abyss with a hand. Get fucked ultimate sword.

>>33699464
Thanks for running OP! This was a lot of fun throughout. Any ETA for the next thread?
>>
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>>33699415
Well

I didn't see that coming, at all.

>Orichalcum > Fatal Abyss

Neat.
>>
>>33699464

Are you Iglesia
>>
>>33699494

(Most likely this weekend, but it may be earlier if I can get my schedule in order.)
>>
>>33699528
Best of luck in that. See you next time.
>>
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>>33699415
Well, that's one way to end the thread.
>>
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>>33699415
Woah
>>
Poor Fatal Abyss
>Couldn't beat Cardinal
>Got Shattered by Hellbore's strange magic shit
>Can't penetrate the ultimate armor

Poor dude got the shit-tier finalist weapon.
>>
>>33699415
I AM HERE

TO KILL ALL THE WAIFUS
>>
>>33699594
I thought the Cardinal took the Fatal Abyss to cut Phantom Edge like a turkey?

Also, was it Hellebore that shattered the sword?
>>
>>33699415
WHAT A TWEEST!

But wait I thought he got assimilated by the blade?
>>
>>33699649
That was never happening except in your head, as we repeated over and over.
>>
>>33699649

We actually spoke to him recently, right before we fucked Cybele, in fact. He admitted that something was chasing him, and it was gaining.

No sign of him being absorbed by the blade.
>>
>>33699700
Huh I don't know why I read that part as him losing himself thanks
>>
>>33699700
Then who the fuck was with Alura at the Hive?
>>
>>33699785

It's clear that something is very wrong here. The Thief is NOT Phantom Edge, but he clearly believes himself to be.
>>
Something to keep in mind for next thread: We can't tell if Cybele/another Hyade is listening. Tell him only that we're looking for the main control room, Relics, and potentially "the end of Megaera's leash".
>>
>>33699785
...Phantom Edge himself? The guy was trussed up in Holophusikon. Which fell to the Smilers. Who have a professional reanimator on staff.

>>33699804
He believes himself to be Phantom Edge's successor. So long as he holds Fatal Abyss, he's correct in that.
>>
>>33699804
What are you talking about? Akira is a chimera made out of the parts of the original finalists, but believes himself to be Phantom Edge's successor, since all the other Legends already have their own heirs.
>>
Can we steal Fatal Abyss to become a triple finalist?
Then nab the second Sphere and the Cardinal's ticket to become a quadruple finalist.
>>
>>33699856
Ah, no, we corrected that. He's JUST made from parts of Phantom Edge, which is why he's so certain he's the successor.
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>>33699880

Did we ever get an image of what Akira looks like? He's been described as having pale hair, being slender and otherwise unimposing.

So kind of like this guy?
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>>33699879
The spheres aren't a finalist ticket. So far as we know, the Cardinal did not possess the Crux.

And no, we'll pry that sword from Akira's cold dead hands.
>>
>>33699903
Pretty sure he's supposed to be like Akise Aru from Mirai Nikki.
>>
>>33694488

Do you plan to run any quests after this quest?
>>
>>33699954

(It depends. Work commitments might make it impossible, but I'd love to continue Youma Quest or Makai Quest at some point.)
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>>33699975
What about Digislut quest?
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>>33699975
>Makai Quest at some point.
>>
Huh my browser won't connect me to the pastebins.

Does anyone know what is the frequency that we're making shells and cores?
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>>33700017
Sometimes, I feel like I'm the only one who wants Youma Quest.
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>>33699415
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>>33700030
Cores and Cherubim are at medium as of the last thread. We probably won't gather any HS charge until the end of the raid.
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>>33700042

(I genuinely like both, to be honest. It's hard to decide.)

>>33699978

(I don't actually have anything to do with that one, unfortunately. I'm not very good at writing smut, I'll freely admit.)
>>
>>33700075
>It's not you.
Huh. The styles are so similar. I loved both Makai and Youma, so I'm happy with both. Good luck, OP!
>>
>>33700068
Are the Joker Corps still Glass Cannons or did they get Swole and have a greater operational time?
>>
>>33699823
Oh my god, that explains everything.

I've been kind of confused about the plot for a while now, but understanding that The Thief IS NOT Phantom Edge makes everything click into place.
>>
>>33700107
Well we tore through a Virtue like paper mache not too long ago, but they're lighter armored than the normal ones anyway. They still need defense and dodging, but they've got weapon buffs and operation time now. We're pretty close to having all the base upgrades. We could probably start them all at once when we finish here.
>>
>>33700189
This sounds entertaining, what did you think was going on?
>>
Hopefully the Thief isn't up to bullshit so we can recruit him to TEAM JOKER.
That means we've got TECHICOLOR JOKER, IT'S OGRE, PLAGUE BOY and SWORD DUDE. Maybe Natsumi, if she feels up to it. That's most of the dream-team right there. Just have to nab Reverse Batman and Bomberman.
>>
So, does Akira know that we aren't brainwashed?
He might be trying to end the Hyades tournament by killing all the girls and thinking that we are just another champion.
>>
>>33700288

Akira seems rather scornful of anything that isn't the fatal abyss. He's warmed up to us quite a bit, and we actually fought off Players with him.

He's a very, very good swordsman, and his sword is better than Bishamon's.
>>
>>33700275
Shrek, Ethnic Joker, Plague Boy, Batman Raiden, Chrome PMS and Smiling Bomberman sounds like the dream team.
>>
>>33700288
We mentioned it. And he ahouldn't care, he's not a champion himself. He's probably hiding here.

>>33700275
Natsumi probably won't work with Enfer fyi.
>>
>>33700340
Oh and I forgot Bishamon, the Spaghetti Cutter.
>>
>>33700288
>Yo Akira, what you doing here?
>Gonna kill all those mind-controlling women. Gotta save my mind controlled bro.
>Nah man, it's cool. I've got Essence Aspergers or something. I'm here to remove the connection between those women and everyone else. I don't really feel like having all these people die.
>Yeah that's a much better idea, need a hand?

Thief GET!
>>
>>33700386
Since when has the Thief cared about anyone other than himself or Hecate? He's kind of a dick.
>>
>>33700411
He's a swell dude. Just kinda focused.
But we really need to know what the fuck he's been doing and what his current goal is.
>>
>>33700411

He cares about Asuna, oddly enough.
>>
>>33700246
Phantom Edge coming back from the futurepast to go into the real world and kill people.
>>
>>33700411
Smilers want Thief's Sword
Thief is not willing to give up Thief's Sword
Kaiser>Pazuzu>>>>>>Planeman>Enfer>Zephyr>>>>>Calamari
Joker+Thief>Kaiser
Pazuzu>Thief
Kasier>Joker
Joker>Thief
Kasier>Thief
Joker+New Swag that he gets at a rapid pace+Thief+His Scrubs>>>>Smilers

Akira can do math.
>>
>>33700275
Yes, holy shit, this is the best thing about this plot twist. We might be able to recruit Dick-Ass Thief onto Team Joker.

>Bomberman

How do we persuade Enfer to join our side
>>
>>33700411
He's not a dick, he's just very goal-orientated.
>>
>>33700510
>How do we persuade Enfer to join our side
Equipment.
>>
>>33700510
"Hey Enfer I got these cool bomb things, a forge where I can make shit and a killsat, you want in? All you gotta do is help me kill your dickass old employers.I can also turn people you don't like or like way too much into hats for you. Oh, and we've got a Dental Plan."
>>
>>33700534
>>33700428
How quickly people forget his character establishing moment.
>>
>>33700584
Yes, he murdered that one girl. That couldn't be saved anyway.
It's a cliche.
>>
>>33700584
Murdering people in the red doesn't really count. I bet Ogre does worse shit than that all the time.
>>
>>33700499
>Planeman
>implying Enfer wouldn't blow him out of the sky with just a bit of preptime
>>
>>33700631
This might surprise you, but I think less of Ogre than I do Totenaz.
>>
>>33700495
Yeah okay that's pretty out there.
>>
>>33700776
Did you forget Ixion?
>>
>>33700789
I have no idea what was going on with him. I still think it was CHIM.
>>
>>33700809
KIIIIIRRRRRKKKKBRIIIIIIIDDDDDDEEEEE

Sorry force of habit
>>
Only one question remains:
Does Enfer have a job at Charmant?
>>
>>33700809
He probably started with bullet time.
He was also a shitty player.
>>
>>33700914
>He was also a shitty player.
What makes you say that?
>>
>>33700960
He got defeated by someone with worse equipment and no precognition.
>>
>>33700914
Are you fucking kidding me, he wrecked us three ways to Sunday. We were at just above 1 hp by the end, missing three limbs (in a tasty reference to how Old Joker died) and the only reason he lost is he caught a bad case of tunnel vision at the end.

The worst part is, we probably could have defeated him on our own, but certain participants in these threads cannot into subtlety and used the Tau Gun after we were shown what would happen to us if we used it.
>>
>>33700966

Yes, but he couldn't use his precognition on us once we figured out the trick. That means he could see what ANYONE else was doing.

Basically, Ixion was invincible if you aren't the Red Joker.
>>
>>33701009
How canon are the spoilers?
Are spoilers part of the "lolnope" ability that protects us from black goo and all other kind of admin access overrides, like a Hyades literally invading our system?
>>
>>33700966
>>33701009
Allow me to rephrase: The ONLY reason we even survived that fight is OP deciding to leave Joker's plot armor on. He could have bad ended the quest right there and he would have been entirely justified in doing so.
>>
>>33701055
Don't think so, I think the spoilers were OP deciding to have a bit of fun. He was reading them in the second thread of that fight.
>>
>>33701009
I was trying to prevent a time paradox.
>>
>>33701009
>missing three limbs
Her diagonally cut us in half starting from the shoulder to the hip. Half of our fucking torso was missing and we only survived because we had the Dick-Ass Thief waiting in ambush.
>>
>>33701111
>Joker meets himself
>Decides to get dual Nihl/Midas
>Dual emulator module
>Quad gatlings
>>
Guys. Observation.

The word 'Acid' is spoilered in >>33696500

Why?
>>
>>33701153
Didn't he also get our generator? Or did he barely miss it?

>>33701157
Because Black World?
>>
>>33701157

Joker is slowly going mad.
>>
>>33701193
Well, considering that he's apparently living in the world of Kamen Rider...
>>
>>33701157
I noticed it but couldn't pin-point the reason.
I think RJ is slowly going insane, considering he has been remembering the past more and more often. That, and hearing voices in the last thread.
>>
>>33701157
People thought of it as normal water and walked into it. So it's acid to those aware of it.
>>
>>33701211
>That, and hearing voices in the last thread.
What if it was Hecate?
Or Cybele, considering that we are on Hyades grounds?
Or maybe just a memory? I mean, I sometimes have those flashes of times gone by. It's natural if you lose someone you love.
>>
>>33701213
>People thought of it as normal water and walked into it.
No, they didn't.
The dude was completely bonkers. THAT is why he went into the acid water.
He couldn't deal with the fact that his armor doesn't have the same needs as a human body. He thought he was hungry and thirsty and tired, despite those terms not applying anymore.
He saw the sea and behaved like someone stranded in the desert.
>>
>>33701182
>Didn't he also get our generator? Or did he barely miss it?
I think he did. We were leaking a shitload of Essence.
>>
>>33701240
It's PTSD.
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>>33701240

Weirdly enough, I just realized that Kraken must be a complete fucking badass. He's been using one of those weak-ass girl armours, and he just grafted on shit to use it as a weapon.

If he's the White Joker, what happened to HIS armour? Why isn't he using it?
>>
>>33701240
He was hearing the call from the black sea we found in Nara Dreamland. The fucking all-knowing sea.
RJ dismissed it as a memory, but I think there may be something else since he was hearing it while Mio was reaching out for the Nihil Sphere.
>>
>>33701326
It's definitely something that we have to follow.
It could have been a desparate cry.

Maybe Hecate, maybe Kotone. We don't fucking know.
>>
>>33701323
>If he's the White Joker, what happened to HIS armour? Why isn't he using it?
We still have Wata's theory that Kraken was using Black Joker's blood to fool the system into believing him to be a Joker. With the way Trisago set up the White Jokern Kotone calling out to a mysterious ice-manipulating Joker and the system taking a long time to authorize him? I honestly doubt that Kraken is the real one.
>>
>>33701286
Let's get him a tiny frog statue that uses a lily as an umbrella!
>>
>>33701326
Different black sea. Anytime he hears that it's the one he was trapped by in the black world. We saw a copy of it in the Manor of Dusk.

And he heard it when he said he was done hiding who he was, the sphere came out after.
>>
>>33701323
Perhaps he was scared? Kraken could be a coward, afraid of death. So he cowered in the shadows until he created a powerful body for himself. The artificial additions are what's powering him. He's probably the Smiler's scientist. Teamed up with the successor to what was probably the Cult of the Black Joker. Together they plan to do mean things.
Which could mean he has pitiful essence if we ever kill him.
>>
>>33701364
It was neither, it was supposed to be creepy and unsettling, not a cry for help. The ghosts of those he's killed calling him out.
>>
What type of relics do we want to give our potential allies?
I'm thinking some kind of shield/survivability increase for Ogre, a movement enhancer (Wings or something) for Plagueboy. No idea as to what to give to the rest.
>>
So, when are we gonna start quoting the tin woodsman from Wizard of Oz about not having a heart?
>>
>>33701410

If he was a coward, he wouldn't fight at all. Remember, his armour still has a very weak body at the core. He's just strapping stuff onto himself, and he used it to wipe out an entire squad.

Obviously we tore through him like paper, because we're the genuine article. He's just a series of Corrector parts attached to a body.
>>
>>33701410
But Kraken has always shown to be gloating in the face of death and it's hinted that he also visited the world on the other side of the Fissure.
>>
>>33701442
That has some really fucking nasty implications for the entire fucking setting.
Suddenly it went from "rough" to "holy shit grimdark".
>>
>>33701480

I think he wanted to get the Daegal armour. He mentioned the sarcophagus Rust Kaiser retrieved, and was about to invade the Hollow Sun with a big army.
>>
>>33701111
It would have been from an alternate timeline ours? had you listened from the warning. Quantum mechanics, yeah?

>>33701157
Keep an eye on spoilers going forward, they've all been related to the black world. We might have woken a few of Joker's ghosts when we cracked open the Fissure.

Anyway, seeing as a fair number of players are still around, I wanted to float an idea. Recent Hollow Sun expenditures have been fairly business like. Very utilitarian, very necessary, very boring. They should be entertaining and fun to think about. So let's alternate between necessary long-term, and "Why the hell not" buys. For example, next thread we have charge I'll vote for universal Hellion upgrades and energy upgrades for the Comet, but the thread after that I'm going to vote for every weapon research on the list. Practical? Probably not, but fun.

Basically, every other thread we throw the floor open to stuff we wouldn't consider otherwise. Lucifer Bits, the vehicles, the Hollow Sun infrastructure researches, the works. Sound like something worth doing?

The sole exception to this is Shroud upgrades because those advocating for them are choosing not to read what they actually do.
>>
>>33701460
Let's see...
Bishamon gets a codpiece-mounted energy weapon.

But to be serious:
- Hisao gets a shield
- Ogre gets shoulder-mounted missiles
- Akira probably wants that Hellion launcher
Other than that, no idea.

Also, where the fuck are the Tristar right now?

P.S.
We are at the limit of Corrector augmentation.
Think about what that means.

Also, I had this weird idea of giving OP self-insert player designs and having him include them as encounters in the story.
>>
>Kraken is a weak dude at the core.
So we want to burn at his collector parts, then shoot at the weakened areas with our Railgun/Chaingun, or simply cast Fist.

>>33701549
I want the Joker bike for dynamic dramatic entrances. We get a ping that Plague boy is under attack on the other side of the city? Jump on our bike, ride sideways across a building, grab the kid in a princess carry and swap the bike out for a tank. Put the kid in the safe tank, beat the shit out of the dude trying to fight our trainee.
>>
>>33701549
Ophanim all day every day.
>>
>>33701645
>>33701664
Make sure you keep that thing safe, it costs more than the Hellion army by pure energy count. Meaning bolt armor and HP onto the thing before you do anything else or you're not getting it.
>>
>>33701549
>The sole exception to this is Shroud upgrades because those advocating for them are choosing not to read what they actually do.
Capote is the closest to camouflage we'll get.
And Capa is the taifun from Deus Ex.
And both require one of those additional upgrades, at 25% or so each.
We don't know if the other one requires a third investment, though.

Anyway, I want to get Transformation Servoes. I have a feeling that an Ardor Grip will allow a squad member to use Hellion equipment without charging elements.
Also, signal booster and/or dirge caster.
>>
>>33701738
Yeah, it will need time to incubate and be a major essence sink.
It will be viable once the other four VAs are planet.
>>
>>33701612

> We are at the limit of Corrector augmentation.

It's pretty obvious. Only those weak-ass simulation bodies can graft on corrector parts. Our frame doesn't need them.

All this time, Kraken has been using inferior equipment. That actually explains a lot: He's a pretty good fighter, but he just can't match our sheer force. Every time we clash directly, he takes the brunt of it.
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>>33701738
>Meaning bolt armor and HP onto the thing before you do anything else or you're not getting it.
Obviously. No way are we going out on a bike that'll break down after a few rough turns. We also need to include the "Fuck Gravity" modification.
>>
>>33701612
>Hisao
At least get his name right. It's Isao.

>Akira probably wants that Hellion launcher
He has a gun that serves the same purpose. Plus we agreed that other people got our guns when they took them from our cold dead hands.

>We are at the limit of Corrector augmentation. Think about what that means.
Absolutely nothing, we're not a valid Corrector upgrade target and we're stronger than those upgrades can manage.
>>
>>33701766

He could shoot FUCKING LIGHTNING at people, and use his bones as bullets. That's not inferior equipment at all.
>>
I definitely want the AI upgrades for our tank.
And the stuff that makes it regenerate. Thanatos infuser and that ammo regeneration thing.
>>
>>33701549
Advent Caster for use in Plan Fuck Rust Kaiser
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>>33701789
>Plus we agreed that other people got our guns when they took them from our cold dead hands.
Then we need a bunch of new light weapon slots.
>>
>>33701745
Not what I mean, people were saying we could fire blades that turned into capa balls. You cannot, though you can change Fortress Mode into one or the other, or retrieve part of the mass. And yeah, still not sure if the Binder needs one.

>>33701786
Ramming Shield, Inferno Module are more important than the Zero-Point upgrade I feel. The former is extra armor for one direction we're vulnerable to fire from (the front), the other discourages shots at the other (the back).

Know what I really want though? The Raptor. Fully upgraded we could probably down Bardiel's transformation without any trouble.

Also because I realized it's probably the Dendrobium Orbis, meaning it's our first non-Zeon Gundam reference.

>>33701854
On my list, just not at the top.
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>>33701949
The unique ones, not the mass produced ones.
>>
I wonder if the Joker brand vehicles can combine.
>>
>>33701854

Why? We can only say one word to him.

Y'know, if we'd romanced Megumi, we could probably flip Kaiser to our side. Hindsight, eh?

I'm still disappointed we're not going for the Mio route. I just want to see her as happy as possible.
>>
>>33701955
>On my list, just not at the top.

I would probably make it higher priority, given how Rust Kaiser has, in the past, literally popped out of fucking nowhere to start wrecking everything. We don't want to be caught with our pants down.
>>
>>33701984
I haven't seen any Transformation Servoes for them.
>>
>>33701612

> Also, I had this weird idea of giving OP self-insert player designs and having him include them as encounters in the story.

You had a good one in mind? C'mon, let's hear it.
>>
>>33701992
Yeah, but what's the point in beating him if we can't do it without style?

The idea was to use the Advent Caster to EXEC_DICTUM Kaiser with a command like 'BETRAY' or 'BERSERK', and then turn to look at the rest of his group and echo Kraken's 'Betray the others'. Just imagine the looks on their faces and you'll understand why it's worth it.
>>
>>33701992
Rust Kaiser Exec_Dictum: Berserk.

"Betray the others".

Regarding Mio, the prevading notion seems to be to give her some time like she asked. Thinking about it though, wouldn't she be happy just to have her mother back? Hellebore is the one Hyades we know absolutely for certain is loved by someone unconditionally without mind-control.

>>33701997
A fair point, which is why I'm hoping we get lots of charge. Also, noticed a line in the description: "Basic configuration".
>>
>>33701955
>Not what I mean, people were saying we could fire blades that turned into capa balls.
That might become an option at some point.
With the Mnemosis Binder it would make sense to be able to launch non-blade fragments that work as explosives. Or even explosive blades.
But that would be a major investment, considering that it's at least 75% charge.

>>33702015
Might turn up later.
The interesting part is that the current servoes are marked as 1. What are the higher levels?

>>33702038
Nope. I have a design, but this is basically self-insert fan wank. So not exactly something that /tg/ would appreciate.
>>
>>33702086

Go for it. I'm sure OP will have you horribly murdered in no time.
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>>33701992
>I'm still disappointed we're not going for the Mio route. I just want to see her as happy as possible.
You should remember that all of the girls here want to be happy and half of them are much worse off than Mio.
>>
>>33702078
>Regarding Mio, the prevading notion seems to be to give her some time like she asked. Thinking about it though, wouldn't she be happy just to have her mother back? Hellebore is the one Hyades we know absolutely for certain is loved by someone unconditionally without mind-control.
It's like Cybele. She would be happy living an ordinary life.
>>
>>33702086
Well, if there is a just god, OP will release the setting and mechanic notes when all is said and done. Then you can self-insert all you like.
>>
>>33701955
>Ramming Shield, Inferno Module are more important than the Zero-Point upgrade I feel.
Those are obviously the priority, but we need to Zero-Point and Retro-Thrusters for mobility, because the Ophanim is shit at anything other than going in a straight line.
>>
>>33702097
The idea was an avatar that has a blade stored in his left forearm and a gun in his right.
They are physically the appropriate size for their storage, but the blade expands with energy cutting fields at later levels to turn from a dagger into a sword.
The pistol would be basically a gatling weapon at higher levels and work with projectiles all the way.
The character design would be asymmetric, because the armor on each armor scales with the upgrades on either ranged or melee options. So more sword upgrades = more armor in the sword storage arm.
But that's already territory where I'm likely stretching the rules of the setting and it only deviates more, as I wrote it up on the assumption of an unrelated setting where a real person in the real world is trapped in player armor. At first even without much in terms of sensory input.
And then there's the fact that the entire thing runs off death, which is a bit harder to stomach when you aren't fighting for your life.

And yes, my description is very bare-bones. Most of the other aspects absolutely don't fit here.
>>
>>33702086
Don't think so, the mods are still one at a time, you just can switch them, according to the description.

>What are the higher levels?
Probably stronger versions of the gear, if not outright Relics.

>>33702159
Knew I forgot one, the Retro Thrusters are necessary for both vehicles. I think the Zero-Point Drive might not help much, unless it can flip its gravity within 15ft while going at 850kph, but damn if it isn't cool.

Huh, just noticed that OP mixed Imperial and metric units there.
>>
>>33702119
Half of the girls don't really "need" Anon to live happily. Actually, his presence is kinda detrimental to that.
>Natsumi just has an long-standing crush that will never develop
>Mio just needs someone who can appreciate her
>Yui should stay away from RJ if she wants to be happy
>Asuna is just a girl who is stuck in her dreams of meeting a Prince Charming
it's kinda ironic.
>>
>>33701997
We already have an "In case of Kaiser, press button" combo already. Assault Shroud Fortress Mode+Killsat. Advent Caster is useful, but not essential.

>>33702015
It might come as a set once we unlock all 3 vehicles. Argent might figure out a way to make them combine.
>>
>>33702319
>Don't think so, the mods are still one at a time, you just can switch them, according to the description.
The question is if the switch applies to already detached elements.
Like, you shoot the shrike blades and then switch modes and explode them due to Mnemosis Binder.

>>33702326
This is good for us.
It makes way for Hecate.
Also, Kotone just wants to live.
>>
>>33702326

> Yui should stay away from RJ if she wants to be happy.

I'm still amazed by how hot her out-of-nowhere sex scene is. Like, that's a very passionate encounter, the kind you'd get in a H-game right after the confession.
>>
>Ramming Shield with the Joker bike
>Have Bishamon and Totenaz holding onto the bike with maglocks or something with a single hand
>Or they could just cram onto the back
>They hold their swords out to the left and right of the bike respectively
>We drive really fast towards the enemies
I'm sorry Kaiser, I can't hear you OVER THE SOUND OF THE STRONGEST SWORDS CUTTING YOU AT OVER 850 KPH
>>
>>33702326
I'm near certain you're wrong about Natsumi. She's still in love with Anon despite him shattering her worldview twice, encouraging Kazuya to go out with her (and encouraging her to go out with Kazu by making the suggestion in the first place), living a life anathema to her sense of morality, and honest to god terrifying her as the Red Joker. Even knowing he dated another girl, all Natsumi thought about was him.

The only reason I'm not declaring her best girl and shipping her hard is that Mio asked for time, and it's entirely reasonable to give it to her, and because no girl should be anyone's second best.

>>33702375
Just the Shroud and Fortress mode, if I'm reading this right. No shrike bombs.

>>33702452
Dude no, have Chrome up there and joust Kraken on a motorcycle.
>>
>>33702444
I'm starting to wonder how many people here have never read a book in their life.
Which is weird, considering that /tg/ should have read plenty of fantasy. And fantasy tends to have a lot of well-done fuck scenes.
>>
>>33702348
Then why the hell didn't we killsat him last time he appeared?

Why the hell didn't we killsat Kraken back at the hive?

A weapon is not a weapon if we keep refusing to fire it.
>>
>>33702520

I meant more that it's the kind of thing you'd expect from Mio, instead of Yui. Can you imagine what sex with Mio would be like?
>>
>>33702513
>The only reason I'm not declaring her best girl and shipping her hard is that Mio asked for time, and it's entirely reasonable to give it to her, and because no girl should be anyone's second best.
Also, I'm uncomfortable at what Kazuya will feel.
He might accept not being together with Natsumi or her even getting another guy... But Anon? His bist buddy?
A relationship among a trio of friends is a shitty idea.

Also, we need open compartments on our tank. Let the ranged specialists fire from there. Bishamon shoots his head vulcan.
Then we install a cannon and fire the melee fighters out of it. They likely don't even need parachutes, considering that this is the Red.
>>
>>33702526
>At the hive
Underground and we were next to allies. Granted, we killed more allies than Kraken, but we can't just fire nukes at our friends.
>Last time.
We were in the middle of a threeway and Megumi was protecting him. Using it on him would make Megumi hate us, let the Smilers know about our killsat, and make Argent suddenly put Red Joker on the top of his dangerlist (Just nuked one of the strongest players without moving a muscle)
>>
>>33702550
>Can you imagine what sex with Mio would be like?
"Oh god. No. This can't fit.
Can we try again another time? When I'm more prepared? Maybe next month?"
>>
>>33702513
>Mio asked for time, and it's entirely reasonable to give it to her
True, but I'm kinda disappointed the whole romance drama thing didn't end after everything that happened.
>>
>>33702613

This is possibly the first quest I've seen where the protagonist is desperately trying to avoid having sex with a girl who loves him. Well, the second: There's Claire from DXQ, but Claire has ISSUES.
>>
>>33702550
>Can you imagine what sex with Mio would be like?
I don't even want to imagine it.
>>
>>33702613
Hahaha. Thing is, it's been circumstances that have prevented the sex scenes, not willingness. Both of them have been ready and willing only for Red World to intrude on three separate occasions.
>>
>>33702550

I imagine it involves cosplay.

I'm beginning to wonder if Mio's fetish for cosplay hides deep-seated insecurity. She wants to be anybody but herself, basically.
>>
>>33702668
>Both of them have been ready and willing only for Red World to intrude on three separate occasions.
Joker was mostly just playing around and working on fixing her confidence issues every time.
>>
>>33702668
And now there's so much emotional baggage that it's become far harder.
However, if it turns into a relationship, it will be a rock steady one.
>>
>>33702685
You'd be correct. Self-esteem issues like you wouldn't believe, which is surprising for our predecessor's daughter.

>>33702696
Maybe, but you can't say that about the tail petting scene.
>>
>>33702744
>surprising
Not really.
Successful parents cause a lot of emotional issues.
>>
>>33702452
>>33702513
>Red Joker, Bishamon, Totenaz, Distortion Haze, Chrome Cypher, Iron Ogre and Bomber Enfer
>All on motorcycles

Aren't there only supposed to be four horsemen of the apocalypse?
>>
>>33702526
Because Megumi was right there are we blocked her whip by chance, not intention.

About half of us voted for it, but we were outvoted by people panicking.

And while that's not strictly true, let's upgrade it to eliminate the various reasons we don't use it. Actually I think we're saving it for a perfect scenery chewing scene.

>>33702550
You realize Mio's from an eroge?

>>33702584
I think the fact that he tried and failed means Natsumi is fair game in a month or two. IF Kazuya is a best friend (and he is, if somewhat out of the loop) he will understand... after beating the shit out of Anon.
>>
>>33702744
>Maybe, but you can't say that about the tail petting scene.
Joker just has a thing for fluffy tails. He ended up molesting Mio's tail the very first time he met her.
He's obviously a closet monstergirlfag.
>>
>>33702767
We can convert four Hellions into horses.
The rest gets motorcycles.

We also recruit the Kamen Riders.
>>
>>33702772
>Actually I think we're saving it for a perfect scenery chewing scene.
Why am I imagining a channeling of Kane's spirit?

>>33702787
And Mio's tail has actual feeling.
I wonder where it's attached.
>>
>>33702764
She never knew her father. Hellebore was Old Joker's lover, not his wife, remember?

>>33702787
Mio has the softest and fluffiest tail though, and you know how she has to keep it on.
>>
>>33702772
Yeah, it's become one of the more hyped aspects of our arsenal, and I think that people are imagining that firing it is going to put us at the top of the shit list for basically everyone.
>>
>>33702772
I really don't want to go for Natsumi at this point. I don't want to start even more relationship drama at this point. Let's just concentrate on not fucking up any harder now.
>>
>>33702828
>Hellebore was Old Joker's lover, not his wife, remember?
I just realized what this means.
We aren't the first Red Joker to fuck a girl behind another girl's back.
>>
>>33702772
I'm waiting for a fight against Kraken. We ham it up to inspire him to ham it up. While he's hamming, we get ready to d-d-drop the death. He gets incinerated mid-speech.
Joker then laughs like a maniac.

>>33702789
Bishamon, Totenaz, Cypher and Joker get the Motorcycles. Haze gets a plane that shoots plague. Ogre gets a tank, because it fits. Enfer just rides around on a giant custom-rigged missile.
Together we fight crime.
>>
>>33702863
More like the Hyades don't care if you're already in a relationship when they pick you.
>>
>>33702813
>Why am I imagining a channeling of Kane's spirit?
"The balance of power shifts quickly in the Red World."

>>33702837
It's hard to think that it won't. But yes, I fully expect its first firing to underwhelm.

>>33702838
Hard to say how this will go, given the big dramatic reveal scene failed to fire. I am, however, seriously considering asking Natsumi to be Joker's Chalice Queen should we be allowed to pick who it is, no matter what happens.
>>
>>33702883
>I'm waiting for a fight against Kraken. We ham it up to inspire him to ham it up. While he's hamming, we get ready to d-d-drop the death. He gets incinerated mid-speech.Joker then laughs like a maniac.
We need more upgrades for that.
>>
>>33702952
> Chalice Queen
I'm kinda expecting Natsumi to become Argent's successor once he dies due to Armaros fucking up everything again.
Also, giving the Armor to Hellebore just so go deal with Mio instead of us seems more convenient.
>>
This must be one of the most popular threads in recent times.
>>
>>33703052
We have a lot to talk about, since the last one had all the players biting their toenails from the pure pressure.
>>
>>33703014
Joker is Argent's successor, if we go by typical inheritances. I think Argent made a critical error when he was looking for his on his own. Argent wasn't chosen as a finalist because he was an administrator or a visionary, he was chosen because he'd explored further in the Red World than anyone else. His successor would be someone who did the same, and Anon came back from yet a third world.

I think had Anon not fallen into the Red World under the circumstances he did, he'd have ended up wearing silver and actually succeeding Argent properly, if perhaps not with the Midas Armor.

And wow, cute mental image of a fully gold Joker and Natsumi dedicating their lives to fixing the problems of both worlds properly.

>>33703052
By far. Good feeling, isn't it?
>>
>>33702883
>I'm waiting for a fight against Kraken. We ham it up to inspire him to ham it up. While he's hamming, we get ready to d-d-drop the death. He gets incinerated mid-speech.
>Joker then laughs like a maniac.

That would be amazing
>>
>>33703193
I really wish we could actually hide the gold with spraypaint or something.
Just so we can Assault Shroud, hide inside, break out at the same time as we fire off a Tyrant Burst flash and reveal our glorious golden form. Shouting GOLD JOKER HENSHIN is optional.
>>
>>33703232
Positron Designator, Solaris Charging Matrix, Secondary Relay Station. 75 charge. Lowers the maximum number of turns for firing from six to maybe three or four. Get every level of the latter two and we presumably get a same turn firing sequence.

>>33703257
Who knows, maybe we'll get an actual Daegal transformation? Okay that would be silly. Cool, buy silly.

Besides, Fortress Mode+Red Comet is the way to go.
>>
>>33703321
I want to transfer Daegal to the Red Comet.
>>
>>33703321
Well, I know what I'm voting for.
>>
>>33703344
I don't.

I like how we go from Red Joker, to Blue Joker, and then soon to be finishing at Gold Joker.
>>
>>33703052
>>33703193
>Good feeling, isn't it?
Holy shit yes it is. This thread reminded me why Joker was the best quest on the internet last year, and I will do everything in my power to see it continue in this vein. Those of you still here help me with that, you were all great both in the thread and in the post-thread talk.
>>
>>33703396
>Blue
wat
>>
>>33703420
MAXIMUM JOKER gives off a blue flame.
>>
>>33703420
Blue plasma, I imagine the fusion shit is blue, all Cobalt booster abilities are also blue. When we prepare for shitstomping, we burn with blue flame. Some of our relics are sleek white as well.
We're currently rocking the AMERICAN JOKER look. Endgame is Gold Joker.
>>
>>33703499
We are basically Iron Man with Samus' equipment.
>>
>>33703344
Vote for more Comet upgrades, turn it into a weapon of mass destruction. With with the shield upgrade and the reinforcements I'd be surprised if it lost functionality ever again against anything short of the continent Corrector, and with all the weapon options there's very little it can't cut down.

>>33703409
I'm willing; this was great fun.

>>33703540
You're the one who rec'd the MPT, aren't you? You'll be pleased to know I ruined my productivity last month with Echoes.
>>
>>33703420
When we use the Carnifex Cobalt Boost mode, Red Joker bursts into blue fire.
>>
>>33703499
>>33703631
Isn't there a Comet upgrade that lets it use a Cobalt Booster?
>>
>>33703627
>You're the one who rec'd the MPT, aren't you? You'll be pleased to know I ruined my productivity last month with Echoes.
I don't even remember.
I only know that I generally advise people to play the Gamecube versions, because Echoes is harder there.

>>33703674
You are right.
We totally need to install that booster. It isn't our tank without a glowing blue energy source.
>>
>>33703627
I wonder if we can have a wrestling match with RK while in the Comet.
>>
>>33703674
>>33703699
I imagine it draws from the main reactor to achieve the same effect. That said an actual booster module would be awesome.

>>33703718
It'll be a shocking match. Galvanic Emitters, dohoho. I'd be worried about Kaiser going RULES OF NATURE on it though, he's maybe the one person who could.
>>
File: 1392193223366.gif (3.07 MB, 400x225)
3.07 MB
3.07 MB GIF
>>33703801
How horrifying
>>
>>33703801
>I imagine it draws from the main reactor to achieve the same effect. That said an actual booster module would be awesome.
You mean, like a capacitor?
Isn't that effectively the same? Regeneration while not in use.

>>33703841
>.gif
>not webm
>>
File: 1351623155088.png (131 KB, 300x300)
131 KB
131 KB PNG
>>33703801
I actually want to see that even if it'll end with us getting wrecked.
>>
>Motorcycle+Cypher = High speed thrusting
>Motorcycle+Sword dudes = Super Cutting/broken swords
>Flier+Haze=Breaking the rules of the Geneva convention.

What other weapons in our arsenal would work well with our allies?
>>
>>33703916
Cypher + Condemner
She will fucking love that relic.

By the way, don't we have way too fucking many CQC allies?
>>
>>33703884
Well, the Cobalt Booster is a secondary reactor for Joker, while this presumably draws power straight from the main reactor. A dedicated booster module would have its own reservoir.

Also, the Comet is special in that it actually is always regenerating energy, it's not limited like the Cobalt Booster is. That's why the Infuser and Generator are actually really good, though we'll probably want the Nova Reactor too...

>>33703916
>Red Comet+anyone=Red Comet

Oh wait, note that the description of the Ophanim says that lower level players can't keep control, and that it's specifically for Red Joker's use. They might have problems with it...

>>33703945
She actually has a sword already, she just prefers the spear.



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