2017-11-14 - A Doll's House 3
| A Doll's House 3 | |
|---|---|
| Summary: The magical girls discover that the kidnapped doll princess is the fairy Chiffon, and that the forest they ventured through to find her is a full-sized Sorewatase. Can they escape Northa's trap and return joy to the hinamatsuri, and girls everywhere? | |
| Who: Takeo Akamizu, Setsuna Higashi, Fuu Hououji, Makoto Kino, Nori Ankou, Steven Universe, Lera Camry, Niramo Umokeshi GM: Hotaru Tomoe | |
| Where: Tokyo | |
| OOC - IC Date: 11-14-2017 - 03-03-2015 | |
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
It's a desperate race up the tree, away from the life-draining roots and towards... the baby, hopefully.
The wailing -- and there's nothing worse than the sound of an infant in distress who one cannot immediately help -- acts as a soundtrack to the desperate fight-and-flight that plays out.
Although it seems to be answered, in duet, by a basso so low and slow that it's practically unintelligible.
"SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..."
Lera slams back a root with an axe kick that sends her soaring upwards; Steven struggles to find purchase with his shield, but is supported by both Cure Passion and the Magic Knight of Wind. Standing together, the three of them are also able to find a path.
"...REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE..."
As the situation becomes more desperate -- the fighting more thick, literally, because the vines are becoming more dense the higher they go -- the gloves come off. Lancelot slashes away, thunder booming in his wake; a different kind of sonic boom follows Sourisi's tonfa as they soar across the space to lay the smackdown on a root that would have taken him from behind. But the wailing is still distant... this was probably safe...
"...WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA..."
Sailor Jupiter starts winding up with a tremendous floral power, but roots are closing in around her on all sides. She needs time to wreak her miracle, and it's time bought by La Sirene, who tries to flood the encroaching roots with seawater-flavored unlight. This enjoys only mixed success -- they don't seem as put off by salt as one might hope -- but it takes them time to burst through the immense quantity of it. Time in which a great mass of petals build... and explode.
"...TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA..."
Everyone rockets upwards on the wake of a finely-perfumed shockwave. Petals pour behind them, while above, they burst through a layer of vines, then are able to spot a gap in the main trunk--
--one just large enough for Steven to squeeze through. The others are able to follow a heartbeat later, through some higher forks in the branches.
They land in something like a chamber. The heart of the wood, perhaps. The darkness is strongest here. It pulses. It roils. And at its heart is crying, terrible crying...
...which is becoming... a giggle?
"Puri pi! Puri kyua!!"
The baby is apparently a lamb. With fluffy pink ears and tail, and a supernova star on its brow. And big, liquid brown eyes...
Chiffon lifts her arms, a clear request to be picked up.
But before anyone can quite reach her--
"...SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"
The darkness pulses once more, then expands to fill this space, pushing everyone, infant fairy included, out with such force that it sends them clear of the forest entirely!
And out in open space, at a height sufficient to see the whole tree, it is possible to know it for what it is. That cavity they were just in? That was its eye socket. Which is now full of a baleful red eye.
It clenches its vines into terrible clawed fists. It raies a rooted foot for a massive stomp.
"SOREWATASE!!" it repeats.
But why is it so large? --oh.
It's just that everyone is very, very small...
TO BE CONTINUED...
...NOW! The urgency of needing to rescue the baby princess doll aka Chiffon has spurred you to a second wind! Please +heal/full as part of your action{,} and you can attack as well!)]
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe transforms into Sorewatase!
<Pose Tracker> Lancelot [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Lancelot gasps. "Baby pig bacon!"
<Pose Tracker> Cure Passion [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
There are things Cure Passion is new to, even after over a year around the world in which these dolls are placed so lovingly. ...But there are some things she knows already, and the sound of a baby in distress is one of them. She knows that kind of cry, for reasons. So of course she moves faster towards it, worried further. But...
There are sounds other than that, that move deeper in her history, indelibly placed, and that is that low, low basso that she can't understand but that shifts into her bones. SHe eeps climbing, working with the others, the shockwve moves her up--a gap. A chamber. The pulse--
But in shock she reaches the chamber and there's someone familiar, suddenly happier. Her eyes widen. "Chiffon?" she asks, and starts immediately closer, to pick her up as requesed--
The darkness pulses. Passion is sent out, too-pale hand knocked away as her long, wide sleeves billow with the force of her movement, the wing patterns on her clothes doing little to arrest her movement.
Sorewastase. Her breath catches. It's huge--
She doesn't stop to think about its size any further. Shifting mid-air, Passion works her legs to kick against nothing, forcing herself in Chiffon's direction.
She puts out her arms to catch the little baby fairy, setting her teeth. "Chiffon!"
The resolution is clear in her voice, the worry, the care; as far as she knew Chiffon was safe at home, but...
She'll have to be safe out here instead. Passion when she reaches her will hug her close an use her body to shield Chiffon while she lands.
Sourisi walks over from Juuban Public School.
COMBAT: Cure Passion has used I'll Protect You! on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Cure Passion's I'll Protect You!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cure Passion is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Cure Passion has used I'll Protect You! on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Cure Passion's I'll Protect You!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cure Passion is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Lera Camry's Inferno Slasher, taking 31 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry is Psyched!
<Pose Tracker> Lancelot [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
As Sourisi throws her Tonfa, calls a warning and clears out Root like Tentacles from behind him. He spins and flashes a charming grin her way, "Hey! Thanks!" Shen she points what way to go, he leaps to it, ascending further up the tree as his blades and lightning flash. Which is when the rather large (or perhaps average sized) Sorewastase appears with it's frightening bass rumble.
Lancelot turns and looks at the thing. From the foot, slowly up to the waist, to the chest, and then the eyes. "Whoa. That... That is a really big youma..." He suddenly gets a rather big malicious grin. "This is gonna be so cool ... " With great speed Lancelot runs out on a limb, his Daisho trailing sparking motes of lightning that crackle and whip with tiny cracks of thunder. As he closes to the end of the limb he leaps into the air toward the face of the giant Sorewastase and calls out "LIGHTNING IMPACT!" He slashes with the blades as that collected power comes to the blade's edges and unleashes them on the Sorewastase.
It isn't until his blades are mid swing that he remembers another time he charged something MUCH larger than him and how that went down. As he remembers it he says softly, "Oh snap crackers... "
COMBAT: Lancelot has used Lightning Impact on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Well, they've found the kidnapped infant princess, thinks the Wind Knight as they reach that cavern -
And then, abruptly, they're all being hurled OUT of the cavern ... or rather, the eye socket. Of a monster.
Of a Sorewatase.
The Magic Samurai of Wind does her best to conjure a braking headwind to soften the upcoming impact, sticking her own landing reasonably well, then looks up at the Sorewatase. Then over at Cure Passion, as she catches Chiffon. "I didn't know you were acquainted with the Princess of all Dolldom, Passion-san!" she calls out cheerily, even as her bow and quiver materialize and she nocks an arrow to the string. Attired as she is, she looks even more the part of the traditional archer than normal .... but she's not thinking about how she looks right now. She's thinking about the correct stance ... and the correct form ...
She holds her stance, adjusting her aim upwards as the wind starts to swirl around her. Her heart is pounding, adrenaline rushing through her; while she's helped fight some truly fearsome monsters, some of which were at least of a scale with this twisted tree, the desperate climb through what was taken at first for a foresty tower isn't entirely behind her - and the consciousness of her current size lends its own spice of fear to the situation.
She breathes in; the wind around her grows stronger, tousling her hair and sleeves and hakama.
She breathes out; the turbulence subsides but the breeze does not fall.
She breathes in once again -
"Gale Arrow!" she calls out, her voice nearly calm in its certainty, and she releases her arrow to fly at the target, the conjured and gathered wind wrapping around her shaft to hurl it faster forward, and to steady it against turbulence at the same time, speeding it up and ahead towards the Sorewatase's eye socket.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Jupiter [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
"Thanks, Sirene!" Jupiter calls to Diamant--it's thanks to her magical blast that she had the time to complete her technique, sending a platform (or plantform, if you will) of petals rocketing up the tree. The higher they go, the more clearly they can hear a baby, until: 'Puri pu, puri kyua!!'
Jupiter, as one of the taller girls, comes through probably last of everyone, but she can hear that giggle clear enough. However, the scream of a SOREWATASE!!! overpowers it, and as the group breaks through into open space, they can see the truth: this tree is beyond banyan huge. It's just... HUGE huge. (Jupiter is not a very literary or poetic person).
Cure Passion goes for the baby. "Lera! Passion! I've got your backs! Protect the baby!" she calls, taking up a fighting pose as Passion goes for Chiffon and Lera backs her up. Jupiter follows up, running up a branch thicker than she is that nonetheless is probably no more than a twig to this thing. The rod on her tiara emerges, and she crosses her arms in front of her chest, pinky and index fingers extended. "SUPREME... THUNDER!!" she calls, drawing down a powerful bolt from the blue that she then rechannels towards the massive Sorewatase's eye.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Gale Arrow on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Supreme Thunder! on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Lancelot's Lightning Impact, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Lancelot is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Fuu Hououji's Gale Arrow, taking 24 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Psyched! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Sailor Jupiter's Supreme Thunder!, taking 21 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
The Siren rises on a perfumed column of wind, bursting free of the underbrush, the light that never warms buoying her now that she's got momentum at her back -- only to see this mighty revelation.
"Oh... my... goodness..." says Batiste, who is revealed now to be the proportional size of a Vienna sausage compared to the massive looming form of the Sorewatase.
The Siren goggles for a sheer stunning moment - but others move, and quicker than her. Inwardly she is faintly shamed, and she sweeps the fan up to veil her entire face for a moment as she pirouettes. She remains levitated by her dark inverse light, and she says, "Don't mention it," to Sailor Jupiter, before... well: she has to collect herself.
And then she raises her left hand.
Aerial like this, the aura that the charm gathers can stand out, clear and bright as silver ink poured glowingly onto a black velvet page. The faint limning of a ring behind her and the evolution of the complicated cross-hatchings can be viewed, though perhaps it will only delight the baby, if she is looking that way.
"Les Mysteres," the Siren says, left eye bracketed by upraised index and pinky fingers. "COME"
The unlight pours out of her fingertips and swirls forwards, deepening to a vantablack swirl that soon enough sprouts coruscant silver thread, marked with a thousand subtle sparkles at the interface between the two. Then it erupts forwards, a rebuke from a world far away, right square at the titan monster!
"So," she says then, "Er," a moment after, and "You've seen creatures like this before, everyone... anyone...?"
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Les Mysteres on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges La Sirene de Diamant's Les Mysteres, taking 28 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Last time~
Steven was not having an easy time. His size and ability to race away from the evil roots was lackluster, and catching him was easy. In a weakened state, he was having a hard time making it toward the crying sound heard amongst the fighting. But thanks to the help of Cure Passion and the WInd Knight, their support helps him pull through.
The group made it to an indentation in the massive tree-like surface with thanks to Jupiter's powerful blast wave that smells quite nice! It was surely an improvement of the odor around.
A deep rumbling is heard as Steven dusts himself off and tries to take a breather. Perhaps just the sound of the attacking vines. Hopefully. "Oh my god, what is that!" Steven replies with toward tthis small little infant lamb fairy, siddint in the indentation. Stars fill the boys eyes in wonderment. "It is so adorable..."
Now~
A powerful umbral force takes the boy by surprise as he seems to be so enamored with Chiffon. The wave of energy propels him clear out of the hole in the tree, and back outside the forest.
The boy lands and takes a moment to right himself from such an ejection. "Oof... what was... oh my." Steven looks up, and just stares at the creature beginning to move. "What is that?!" he asks. It looks familiar, though much, much bigger. Where has he seen something like it before? Regardless, it looks mean, green, and ready to fight! The boy knows it was time to stop messing around. It was time to be Serious.
"Come on, ya big jerk! You don't steal royalty! And now you gotta pay the price for breaking the law at our hands!" Steven readies his shield to strike at the creature after it tries to drop that foot.
COMBAT: Steven Universe transforms into Steven Quartz Universe! COMBAT: Steven Universe has used AND STEVEN! on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Sourisi [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
When the shockwave of petals rose up underneath her and launched her canopy-ward, Sourisi thought at first it was a new attack from the Tower of Dark Growth at first. But the perfume that was carried up these powerful winds cleaved through the bitter musk of the Tower, like 'Mister Samurai's' massive blade through its' vines. Grasping her tonfa on their return pass, Sourisi would follow after the others, and silently thankful for her smaller size to help her squeeze through with little trouble.
When they reached the core of the Tower and the source of the crying, Sourisi tilts her head in confusion as she looks at the very adorable, yet outlandish-looking, lamb. Chiffon certainly didn't look like a doll, or somehow related to the doll empress, but a magical animal of some kind. "She's adorable! But, she can't be the princess...right?" Cure Passion certainly seems to think so, as she moved forward to pick up the beautiful baby, but then-
Sourisi gasped, raising her tonfa up in front of her in defense of the dark pulse of energy, and is sent flying outwards at a great speed. At this height, it's certainly clear to her what the Tower actually was, and the answer is simply dumbfounding to her. "Wait...we were climbing a plant monster?!"
With Cure Passion reaching out to take hold of Chiffon while they were in free fall, the mouse-themed ninja girl could feel herself more at ease now. With the innocent they were looking for apparently in safe hands, Sourisi's first concern was taken care of. Quickly noting that the dark energy pulse had also managed to blast those wiggling vines away from her, Sourisi flinged her darken tonfa over her head and outwards towards the monster, this 'Sorewatase'. While nowhere near as flashy as the other attacks in this magical barrage, the twin sonic boom as the flying weaponry were were clear that these were weapons not to be trifled with. She was already making plans to stay near Cure Passion and the princess, for the safety of the innocents come first!
COMBAT: Sourisi has used Crashing Tooth on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Without the Barrier flag, only a ranged attack can counter a ranged attack. Please counter with the correct range of attack, or with an attack with the Barrier flag. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters Steven Universe's AND STEVEN!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Steven Universe is Psyched! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, The Abyss Stares Back, partially gets through, doing 10 Fatigue damage to Steven Universe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Sourisi's Crashing Tooth, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
There may be a lot of sky, but there's even more Sorewatase. That's always been true. In no time at all the air is again too full of branches to fly through safely -- though Chiffon's safety, at least, is no longer a concern. Not when she's clasped so closely to Cure Passion's heart.
"Purikyuapi!!" she repeats, now gleeful, and as warm to the touch as her bubbling, sparkling voice.
Just before a spiderweb of branches threaten to skewer her from all directions and certainly make flight a no-no, Lera sends a gout of fire into the Sorewatase, which does some good scorching but doesn't set it on fire; it seems to be too tough and damp for that. Not all plants are prone to burn quickly and easily.
It's also true that the area she blackened, while normally impressive, looks like a patch the size of a quarter on the Sorewatase's side.
Size matters.
Lancelot discovers the same; he runs down an arm, and injects a great deal of lightning into one of the viney hands, only to discover that there's just too much monster to expect to shock. Damage? Yes. Enough to send it staggering? Alas, no. And in response, the vines split, and split again, eagerly rising to wrap around him and pin him in place.
Fuu's arrow strikes true but is like a dust speck in that huge red eye; Jupiter's Supreme Thunder and La Sirene's Les Mysteres give it some pink-eye (does that really work, when the whole eye is already red?) but it narrows, then shoots a huge beam at both of them, a beam which is composed of pollen in such quantity and velocity that it's painful as well as an incredible allergen. And, after all, the little bits of pollen are more like baseballs, at this scale.
The massive foot descends towards Steven, and there's really nowhere for him to go. Scarily, he isn't met by the flat of the foot, but by dozens of those life-draining roots, which explode out the bottom of the limb to rush at him from all directions! And Sourisi, near Passion, sees her tonfa strike true but do little more than knock some dust off the monster's huge surface -- before vines from the creature's other hand close in all around her, hoping to trap her as thoroughly as Lancelot!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Massive Threat on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Venus Girl-Trap! on Lancelot. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Blossom With Despair on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Blossom With Despair on Sailor Jupiter. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Blossom With Despair on La Sirene de Diamant. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Roots of Darkness! on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Venus Girl-Trap! on Sourisi. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Venus Girl-Trap! on Cure Passion. COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Blossom With Despair, taking 23 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Sailor Jupiter's Block ability activates! Sailor Jupiter's Parry ability activates! Diversion and Stun applied to Sailor Jupiter! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Blossom With Despair, taking 44 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Blind and Diversion applied to Fuu Hououji! COMBAT: Cure Passion narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Venus Girl-Trap!, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Cure Passion's Fade ability activates! Stun applied to Cure Passion! COMBAT: Lera Camry narrowly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Massive Threat, taking 27 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry's Reverse ability activates! Lera Camry's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Lera Camry's counterattack, Sentinel Flash, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Sourisi narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Venus Girl-Trap!, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Sourisi's Fade ability activates! Sourisi's Flash ability activates! Stun and Trap applied to Sourisi! COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Blossom With Despair, taking 25 Fatigue damage! Diversion, Exhausted, and Stun applied to La Sirene de Diamant! COMBAT: Lancelot perfectly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Venus Girl-Trap!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! COMBAT: Steven Universe narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Roots of Darkness!, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Steven Universe's Block ability activates! Steven Universe's Parry ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe drains 2 fatigue from Steven Universe!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Passion [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Lera's immediate words follow Passion on her leap to catch Chiffon, and once she catches up to the little fairy they hit her back, touch on a level of fear that she's cut herself off from for the moment, gathered herself around to focus on more important things than her own comfort. She holds Chiffon close, feels a little warmer herself just being close to her. "It's okay," she starts to say quietly--and then the branches crash in around them.
Passion twirls on her heel, her skirt swirling out about her as she takes the vines on her shoulders, at her back, instead of letting it touch Chiffon. "Nn," she vocalizes, taking a knee; she's evaded being pinned in place, but the pain and the memory stagger her. "It's... Okay," she repeats, turning over her shoulder to look for the giant Sorewatase that threatens to gather despair just by her looking at it.
Passion narrows her eyes. "...Haah...!"
She won't leave Chiffon be; instead she whirls in place, giving a great arcing kick left to right as she moves to crash away at the limbs close to her, to push them back with that kick and another and leap back to find somewhere safe for the apparent princess.
"I didn't know either!" she admits to Fuu, sets her eyes on Lera. Then to La Sirene, "They're called..." Huff, "Sorewatase! They aren't usually this large!" ...But what can she say? She... doesn't have a lot reassuring to say about Sorewatase. "Be careful!"
COMBAT: Cure Passion has used Irrepressible Devotion on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Lera glances over her shoulder, a moment before she flies in, and nods fiercely to Jupiter. And then, a moment later, she leaves a blackened patch on the Sorewatese's side that is much too small. She stares up at it for a moment.
She turns, the last of the plasma on her sword dispersing after the strike, and glances down. The numerous branches come soaring in from each side, before she has time to appreciate or be concerned at her handiwork.
<Sentinel Flash!>
A cross-shaped beam of red-orange light appears off Soaring Sky, then a second, and then a third, and they rotate. The cloud of brambles is just narrowly shoved backward, before Lera bursts through a hole cut into them. She soars through, before she comes crashing down onto the ground below. Her feet kick against the ground for a moment, before she looks straight up. "Passion," she says. "How did Chiffon get here?"
She swings Soaring Sky up. A Belkan triangle spins into existence, with a flash, and then a trio of energy arcs go flying up at the branches, trying to slash through a few before they get close.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Crescent Fangs on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Cure Passion's Irrepressible Devotion, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Bind Break! All of Cure Passion's debuffs are cleared! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Lera Camry's Crescent Fangs, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates! Stun and Trap applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Lancelot [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
The gian creature of botanical nightmares strikes at Lancelot from all sides. However Lancelot anticipated this and leaps and sprints through the incoming vines attempting to capture, entangle and otherwise crush and or suck the life out of him. He performes a sommersalt and comes up in a crouch, drawing energy into his blases as he watches the vines swirl and surge. His eyes track each viney appendage and he grits his teeth. Then his eyes spot Sourisi and he calls out, "Ninja-Mouse-Tonfa-Girl!" He has no idea who she is ... "Hit the vines when I do! Maybe if we combine our attacks we can hurt thisn over grown toothpick!"
He then surges forward crying out, "BLADEFURY!" Launching back into those vines and slahsing with both blades over and over again, unleashing lightning and thunder wiht ever stroke of the blade.
COMBAT: Lancelot has started a combo targeting Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
The Magic Samurai of Wind would reply to Cure Passion, if not for getting interrupted by Sorewatase Optic Pollen Beam Cannon. She's actually grateful for the difference in scale; if the pollen were normal-size she'd be deeply regretting life as the super pollen storm hammers down and engulfs her; the pollen is actually big enough to be a lot harder to inhale, but it still makes her nose run and her eyes water. On top of, you know ... smashing her flat against the ground.
"Whad *iz* id," she protests as she's getting back to her feet, "aboud modsderz weabonizin' bollen dis yeah?!" And that is pretty much enough to give away how upset she is - the Wind Knight rarely grouses that vocally about the myriad and diverse opponents which magical girls are called upon to fight. She can't stop to blow her nose or dry her eyes, though - she just has to power through.
"LIBERADING GALE!!"
And she does so to the best of her ability - starting with a modified healing spell, swirling it around herself, and trying to 'detonate' it with the force of how badly the Sorewatase has her suffering right now. If it works, it should not only clear her sinuses, but wad up what's left of the pollen in her vicinity and blow it right back up the monster's .... does it even have a nose? Probably not. Eye-socket, probably.
If it doesn't work? Well, technically she won't be any worse off. Probably.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Liberating Gale on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Fuu Hououji's Liberating Gale, taking 30 Fatigue damage! Bind Break! All of Fuu Hououji's debuffs are cleared!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Jupiter [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Jupiter unleashes that thunderbolt into the Sorewatase's eye; it responds by shooting an eyebeam of pollen at her, with pollenbits the size of baseballs. WHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMWHAM. Jupiter is tough, and she does her best to cross her arms in front of her to shield herself from the worst, but the beam is so huge that it's literally all-encompassing, covering her in its entirety and slamming her into another branch. She's left hacking and coughing and sneezing and struggling to get back up to her feet as her head feels like it's been overloaded with cotton balls. This is probably not just a metaphor.
How do you even *fight* an enemy this big? Jupiter sincerely doesn't know, but she's not about to give up. She opts to take a page out of Sailor "Eye for an Eye, Fire for Fire" Mars's book, and revs up another colossal storm of flower petals. "FLOWER... HURRICANE!!" she calls, and sends the petals dancing their razor flight towards the Sorewatase's face. Perhaps this time she could blind it?!
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Flower Hurricane on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
The massive Sorewatase comes down with an appropriately sized foot after Steven's declaration, and the boy raises his shield, though never recieves a direct impact. Instead, a mass of those roots and vines from earlier surround him. "Not again!" he cries out, as the vicious tendrils lash out and drain his energy. The boy is wise to it's effects however, and does his best to avoid them rather than direct confrontation, lessening their effect. But only slightly. They are too fast to avoid them all.
Should they try to find something else to fight it with? It seems impossibly big to harm. Though others seem ready to lash out at it. Maybe they have a plan. He has to try at least! As long as the princess is kept safe. THat little lamb is the princess, right?
Had to be.
"We have to beat it! For the princess!" He has always wanted to say that. He even feels good about the remark as he tries to plunge his shield into the roots to sever them, giving less to harass the party.
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Shield Slam on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Sailor Jupiter's Flower Hurricane, taking 24 Fatigue damage! Sailor Jupiter is Psyched! Blind applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Steven Universe's Shield Slam, taking 24 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Steven Universe is Psyched!
<Pose Tracker> Sourisi [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
A frown appears underneath the ninja hood that Sourisi was sporting as she sees just how effective her tonfa was against the Sorewatase. It didn't even need to shrug off the blow her whirling tonfa just dealt it. She honestly doubted the monster even noticed the strike, that was until it lowered a massive hand to lash out with more vines lancing downwards, and before her tonfa could return to her hands.
Praying that Cure Passion could protect the princess, Sourisi focused to dodging inbetween the nearly countless vines reaching out for her. Twirling, twisting and desperately leaping aside at the last second, Sourisi is only grazed by a few vines, but the gray spots on her tan costume shows just how near she was to getting hit. Sliding under yet another vine, she manages to pull free from the vines, just in time to catch her tonfa on their return.
Turning her head as the samurai call out for the 'Ninja-Mouse-Tonfa-Girl', and honestly who else could be around that fitted that description currently, she rushes to his aid. Striking from the other side, she follows the path where the blades are about to cut before jabbing with her tonfa, a breeze picking up from just how rabid and numerous her blows were upon these roots. But, seeing how just how effective her attacks, and likely the rest of their royal band, were before, she yells to be heard over the din of battle. "There has to be a weakpoint to this thing! Maybe the talismans we received earlier are the key here?!"
COMBAT: Sourisi has joined the combo started by Lancelot! COMBAT: COMBO! Lancelot and Sourisi have used Bladefury and Mouse Flurry on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Lancelot and Sourisi's Combo: Bladefury, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Lancelot and Sourisi are Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Pollen washes over la Sirene, the bow shock of her aura making some of it ripple around her as her eyes narrow, squinting into the hellish effusion of planty horror. Some of it, not deflected but merely slowed, descends forwards, blasting her face and making her -- well; she coughs, yes, but because she got hit in the throat, rocked backwards even as the Sorewatase stomps down towards Steven!
She can see Passion down there, so tiny, so precious. That brutal kick adn that leap, and then Cure Passion answers her... And she says, as she waves her fan to try and dissipate the tingling sense on her skin, "Is it truly that it is so large...!?"
Her hand goes up on reflex to rest on Batiste's back, since he, at least, is coughing and miserable. She floats there like a very vulnerable fairy.
Then her outline shimmers and seems to expand. Now she is a fairy with a somewhat broader outline, at least; something it would be harder to follow. The light pours down, forming fat droplets as it descends over the arc of space towards Lera and Cure Passion, aiming to embrace them in a similar cool veil -- enough, perhaps, to let Passion get the child free.
While the rest of them get stepped on, the Siren thinks - but does not say!
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Vision Displace on La Sirene de Diamant. COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Vision Displace on Lera Camry. COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Vision Displace on Cure Passion. COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant accepts La Sirene de Diamant's Vision Displace, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Accelerate applied to La Sirene de Diamant! COMBAT: Cure Passion accepts La Sirene de Diamant's Vision Displace, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Accelerate applied to Cure Passion! COMBAT: Lera Camry accepts La Sirene de Diamant's Vision Displace, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Accelerate applied to Lera Camry!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
The battle shifts into a simple struggle for survival -- for the need to create space to move in, to breathe in, to not get choked or bound or pierced in. And the magical girls manage it... barely.
It seems as though all the huge, arcing kicks from Cure Passion -- and Lera's different sort of arcs, pure energy -- even at full speed they are, at best, keeping up with the encroachment of flora. Sourisi and Lancelot feel rather like they're fighting a hydra; for every branch they slice and batter to bits, two more sprout in its place. At least it's harder for the branches to find purchase with La Sirene weaving illusion all around them, but it's much too close for comfort.
Down below, Steven lays about with his shield to great effect -- in that he cuts lots of roots off of the edge of the foot of the Sorewatase. But they don't stop wriggling, and soon he's faced with a massive foot and a bunch of all-root smaller Sorewatases who are closing in on all sides!
Fuu and Sailor Jupiter, meanwhile, engage with the pollen problem. And between them they come up with a compelling solution: Jupiter brings the petals, Fuu the wind to propel them faster than they could help to by themselves, and in short order -- well, they can't wholly blanket the Sorewatase, it's just too big, and immune to the effects of its own pollen in any event. But they limit its vision, and the worst they have to contend with, after that, is its other foot stomping around. (Which is, to be fair, pretty bad. But it's stomping blindly!)
It's so huge. Unfairly huge. And as it shakes off the latest round of attacks, all hope seems lost...
...which is around the time that the talismans begin to glow. To glow, with much the same light as the precious, perfect dolls on a well-cared-for display.
OOC: You are advised to wield your talisman, and make up an appropriate free attack that involves or invokes it in some way! Put Psych on it! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Venus Girl-Trap! on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Venus Girl-Trap! on Cure Passion. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Venus Girl-Trap! on Sourisi. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Venus Girl-Trap! on Lancelot. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Venus Girl-Trap! on La Sirene de Diamant. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Massive Threat on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Massive Threat on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Massive Threat on Sailor Jupiter. COMBAT: Lera Camry narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Venus Girl-Trap!, taking 30 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry's Fade ability activates! Lera Camry's Flash ability activates! Stun and Trap applied to Lera Camry! COMBAT: Lancelot narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Venus Girl-Trap!, taking 20 Fatigue damage! Stun and Trap applied to Lancelot! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Massive Threat, taking 53 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji's counterattack, Spinning Slash, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Cure Passion narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Venus Girl-Trap!, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Cure Passion's Block ability activates! Cure Passion's Parry ability activates! Stun and Trap applied to Cure Passion! COMBAT: Sourisi narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Venus Girl-Trap!, taking 45 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Sourisi's Fade ability activates! Sourisi's Flash ability activates! Trap applied to Sourisi! COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Venus Girl-Trap!, taking 11 Fatigue damage! La Sirene de Diamant's Block ability activates! La Sirene de Diamant's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Massive Threat, taking 21 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Steven Universe narrowly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Massive Threat, taking 69 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Steven Universe's counterattack, Repelling Shield, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Passion [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
How did Chiffon get here? Still holding her, Passion fnds that it's sort of a difficult question. "I don't know!" she answers, that little bit of uncertainty showing in her voice. "Chiffon tends to... get places!"
You try caring for a baby that can float and move things with her mind.
Pollen aside, Passion tries to make her own space and is occupied with just that, protecting her ward rather than having the time to try to push further with any of the others. But she can at least hear Steven, "We will!" She can't hear everything in the midst of all this though; she is instead noticed, by La Sirene, and the question she asks--well, Passion doesn't know. Why wouldn't it be? Regardless, the light passes over her, cool against this awful thing, and she feels... faster. Maybe she can at least get Chiffon somewhere safe--
But as she weaves, as she moves, the white pendant--half of another--glows about her neck, against beautiful layers of cloth. Immediately she thinks of Lera--holding the other. She doesn't have to fully understand...
The vines crashing down around her spear through, and Passion focuses on defense; again, she shields Chiffon with her body, moving into the blows to try to work with them, to roll with them, through lash and spear and tear of her attire. While she does, she moves, using La Sirene's power to help her get through, to help her evade, with Chiffon bouncing along in her arms.
"Lera!" she says, as she rushes towards her... and reaches out one hand. Her pendant glows; holding the princess, Cure Passion takes Lera's hand, and...!
<Pose Tracker> Lancelot [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Expecting though he is, Lancleot barely manages to keep out of vine reach of the incoming vines that threaten to entangle and possibly murder him ina violent and most uncomfortable fashion. At least he thinks it'll be uncomfortable, becuase having your life sucked out of you can't feel good. At the last second one thwaps him and he hisses as he puts a hand to his shoulder, feeling the coldness creep in on him there. As hsi hand goes for the shoulder he touches the Mon there and he smiles faintly.
The Mon. It had been gifted him to display it proudly in battle. To display the Empress's colors before this, her enemy, so that they would know the honor of her house. He nods once. And then draws lightning to him.
He sheathes the wakasashi of the two blades he wields in a practiced movement. For several seconds after, Lancelot stands there with his eyes closed, gathering power, lightning swirling around him. His eyes snap open and he rushes forward, "FOR THE EMPRESS!!", a blazing comet of elecctrical energy that stems not from the lightning he summoned, but from the Mon. The power crackles and radiates from that ancient sigil, highlightning it, making it seen by anybody in the area, bringing attention to that symbol and all that it stands for. Lancelot rushes forward, that symbol on display and leaps toward where the arm meets the trunk of the body, spinning the single Katana as he does, and with a wordless cry of defiance brings the s=impossibly sharp edge of Arondight the Katana, the White Blade of Demon's Bane down in an attempt to sever the limb from the body.
COMBAT: Lancelot has used Charge! on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Cure Passion has started a combo targeting Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
The rain of drops of light washes over Lera, infusing her, and she blinks -- before she looks at la Sirene de Diamant. "Thank you!" she calls out. That helps, too, as the branches come flashing in -- and strike through some of la Sirene's light instead of Lera. One, however, manages to slash through regardless -- and scores a hit, drawing blood in a line on her cheek. She grits her teeth, and stumbles backward.
"She can do that!?" Lera calls out to Passion--or where she thought she was. She turns to stare at a mass of thorns and branches, and not where she was. Her breath catches, and she spins, looking around, desperately. Steven's words ring true, but she can't even find Chiffon. She feels the pendant glowing, though, against her. A black half, alight slightly. She looks down at it.
Then, she hears a voice cry out, and sees Passion rushing for her. "Passion!" she calls out. She clutches the outstretched hand, pulling the Cure close, and stares. The two talismans touch -- and then, a ring of red and orange light erupts from the two of them, blasting towards the branches and brambles, as the pendants glow brighter together.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has joined the combo started by Cure Passion! COMBAT: COMBO! Cure Passion and Lera Camry have used Combo: Yin and Yang, composed of Yang and Yin, on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
The foot comes down; the Wind Knight's sword materializes on its way up.
The foot *wins*, and the green-clad Magic Knight is smashed against the ground with a cry of pain, her sword twisted out of her grasp for the second time in a day. She's not sure the edge of the blade *didn't* bite into her this time, but she can't inspect herself to find out - the foot that's bearing down on her won't let her look, or probe at herself. And despite her determination, despair wells up in her heart - not the grim spark of determination, but the bitter chill of real despair, of hope crushed and fading.
They can't win. They're too small, or the Sorewatase is too big, or some combination of the two.
Yet still she struggles. Pinned as the Wind Knight is, she can't swing her sword, can't draw her bow; the best she can call upon is her magic, but with despair clawing at her, the belief which fuels her magic is little more than a fading flicker, a whisper lost in the howling storm ...
'... to bring happiness.'
She hesitates. And she remembers, managing to reach into her armor where she tucked the pan-pipes away. She can't move much, but she *can* breathe, and if she can get the pipes to her lips without dropping them -
o/~
Feeble and faint it is, but still audible, a single clear note. She's not familiar with the instrument, but she lets instinct guide her, trusting magic to give shape and direction to those instincts.
o/ o/~ o/~o/ o/ o/ o/~~
An ancient style of instrument, playing a timeless tune. The Wind Knight channels her will through the pipes, and maybe her magic fuels her breath as it passes through them as well, transformed along the way into a simple yet pure melody. Certainly it's more than random notes which issue forth from the instrument - no doubt there are those who could fit words to the tune, and as she keeps playing, the Magic Knight of Wind feels a meaning behind the notes. Just what that meaning is, she might never be able to convey in words ...
But here and now, in this moment of darkness, words barely matter - only to reach out and nurture that faintest spark of light and hope. That's all it needs in order to blossom forth, for happiness to triumph over despair and sorrow.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Language Without Words on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
"Yeah, take that, stpid vines!" he says. It is actually working! Trimming the vines is giving everyone some room to maneuver. He never really understood how the edge of his shield could cut things. It didn't feel sharp. Is he just swinging it hard enough to do so? Or maybe it was something special with the shield...
Well, whatever the case, the boy doesn't have enough time to ponder the curious thought. The foot comes fully down this time, complete with cut vines! The boy tries to repel it with a wall of force, but it is just too much, and Steven gets put under boot. "Ahhh!" he lets out. the weight is painful.
The boy manages to free the arm with his shield, and tries his best to cut a way out from under its foot, before he gets crushed! His scarf flutters around him, the colors reminding him that he has to be brave in dire moments...!
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Shield Bash on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Cure Passion and Lera Camry's Combo: Yin and Yang, taking 39 Fatigue damage! Cure Passion and Lera Camry are Psyched! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Lancelot's Charge!, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Lancelot is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly dodges Fuu Hououji's Language Without Words, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Dodge! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Steven Universe's Shield Bash, taking 2 Fatigue damage! Steven Universe is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Sourisi [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
It seemed to be a neverending battle for Sourisi. For each vine she pierced through with her tonfa, yet another appeared to take its place! Along with the fact that she had to concentrate solely on attacking to keep up with Mister Samurai's powerful strikes, she found herself unable to avoid the lancing vines as well as she did before, with multiple gray spots and streaks visibly appearing on her once fine costume. Finally, the ninja girl had to break off the attack and leap back as a massive vine pierced the earth where she was only a moment before and causing a tear along her right arm. Even Sourisi's fine braid was showing signs of unraveling! She was starting to pant with the effort, and the Sorewatase showed no signs of slowing down at all. "I'm Sourisi, Mister Samurai, but...I think we're going about this the wrong way. Should we try climbing back up there?"
That is when the ninja girl finally took notice of the light streaming from inside her costume. A small smile, fueled by the hope that the light was bringing her, appeared on her face. It appears that her assumption was correct, and that the doll court of the Empress had indeed gifted them with powerful talismans, to give aid in their moment of need!
Sliding her sleek hardwood tonfa into her sash, she reached inside the cloth vest and pulled out the calligraphy brush, gifted to her by the wonderful samurai that she crafted several years ago. Its' bronze gilding gleamed with an inner light, and the tip of the brush, where once was stained with the blackest of inks, now shown brightest of all. Staring upwards and skywards, she focuses upon the eye, the crevice that they were sent flying out of only moments before. "To pierce the darkness...I understand, samurai-san!" This brush was gifted to her to do just that, and where was the darkness of this creature the most visible?
Amonst the sound of crashing thunder, the melody of pipes, the beacon of hope and the most determined will, Sourisi raised her decorated brush up above her, to where the tip would be poised over the eye of the Sorewatase if it was a canvas.
And strokes with her brush.
A blinding beam of light streamed out from the tip of the brush, to fill in the void where Sourisi 'painted', and to show the way through the darkness!
COMBAT: Sourisi has used Filling the Canvas on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Jupiter [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Use the talismans...? Jupiter looks over at Sourisi as she shouts out that suggestion. That's right! Against an enemy this huge, there's practically no hope of victory... but 'practically' and 'actually' are two totally different things! "Let's give it a try!" she calls, pulling out that embroidered bag and opening it up. It's full of seeds, as Hinayo had promised--and each one, as Jupiter opens up the bag wide enough for them to spill out, sprouts a dandelion puff-like fluff on which they float. Jupiter looks at them, and again as Hinayo had promised, she knows what to do.
Spilling the entire bag out over one hand, she cups the other together with it, then blows over the fluff-seeds. Though her breath is gentle, they fly as if on a fierce gale, spreading out to the ends of the galaxy, riding on storm winds to guide them to new lands.
As they fly, Sailor Jupiter raises up a hand. "HaaaaAAAAA!!" she shouts, filling her voice with her spirit in a kiai yell. Where the puff-seeds have scattered, to great distances all over the Sorewatase in a moment, they come to a spinning halt, dancing in midair. Jupiter then slams her hand *down*, and the seeds mirror it, planting themselves into the wicked tree.
But where there is malevolent growth that covers all in darkness, there can still grow light. Sailor Jupiter has already planted the seeds of hope. And soon, they'll sprout and grow, and then...!
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Seed of Hope on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Sourisi's Filling the Canvas, taking 25 Fatigue damage! Sourisi is Psyched! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Sailor Jupiter's Seed of Hope, taking 2 Fatigue damage! Sailor Jupiter is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
The thing's so enormous, la Sirene thinks as her attention returns to the Sorewatase. It's unfair: it's vast enough to be a place, and a place doesn't fight, not directly; a place is something else, even if it may live in its strange way.
Yet here it is. "Batiste, I need your help," she breathes, even as the otter finishes a chain of sneezes, blinks reddishly, and looks up. "I don't know what to do here - it's so immense...!!"
Batiste doesn't answer right away. He has few answers, but does not want to speak his fear, lest he turn 'no immediate hope' into 'despair.' The Siren throws herself to the side, dipping near to the ground and actually skidding momentarily along it before rebounding up into the air, ending up near the ground, cast in shadow.
And the shadow of the Sorewatase's huge foot means that Batiste speaks it first. "Ah! The fans -"
He reaches for his, and la Sirene looks at hers, which has been largely sitting, folded in her hands. She snaps it fully open as she does, and her eyes widen at the sight of the radiant scene on it. The face towards the world and the Sorewatase is a purple scene of night-time in autumn, rich and splendid and traditional; the opposing side, though, shows her something which brings a surge of focus and resolve to her.
What was it? She does not say, nor cry out, though Batiste makes an exclamatory squeak, perhaps having found the same discovery.
"And above it all," she says: "A sky of silver, to guard against the star."
She dives, then, trailing that light behind her; a streak of silver with jeweled embroidery as she twists suddenly, hurling herself through the sky on an undulating pillar of the pressure of the deepest depths of tears. She twists round, aiming to bring the fan around in a perfect swirling slash - Batiste even dares to strike a blow for the first time in forever, grasping one paw firmly on the robe of her current costume and grasping his fan in the other, a thinner secondary peel aimed to circumnavigate around the immense thing--
"Because a place," la Sirene breathes, "is a location where you can move..."
"It's all," Batiste concurs, "in how you look at it--!"
Their fans, on the side that opened towards them, bear a frieze of eight people, with the checkerboard-haired woman in the center holding aloft a black stone. Six of the others are men in red suits, one a woman in a blue dress.
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used It Was No Stone on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace La Sirene de Diamant's It Was No Stone, taking 23 Fatigue damage! La Sirene de Diamant is Psyched!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
A lot of things happen all at once.
Lancelot quickly discovers that the flag doesn't make him impossibly powerful -- he simply cannot sever the Sorewatase's entire arm at his current size. The katana gets stuck long before it can get through the joint. But, as he puts his weight behind it, he can feel the perspective changing...
To the song of Fuu's flute, he can feel it, and so does La Sirene with her fans, and Steven, his rainbow scarf swirling everywhere, can too. With every bash the Steven-sized Sorewatase become smaller and smaller, until they're no bigger, well, than dolls.
When the burst of light from Cure Passion and Lera clears, when the eye-searing shot from the tip of Sourisi's brush fades -- when the flowers grow, all up and down the Sorewatase, tiny and white and pink and perfect -- when, above it all, Chiffon's giggling reaches fever pitch -- everyone discovers that they have regained their original size.
Which is to say that now the Sorewatase, which is, oh, two or three stories tall as the Tokyo skyline flies, is still massive compared to them, but it's no longer ludicrously massive compared to the heroic opposition.
This isn't over, though. Sorewatases don't quite roar per se, but their name is a battlecry. Its eye is a wounded slit, after all the light that's gone in, all the plants that are growing around it, but it still burns with malice.
Malice which takes physical form as it explodes outwards, engulfing the ground between itself and the magical girls in an instant, then threatening to engulf them as well. Where this red light touches, despair follows -- the earlier threat of the life-draining roots is nothing in comparison to this. It's like a direct conduit to the long dark teatime of the soul, and one that the Sorewatase drinks from gleefully, growing larger -- truly larger, not just large-in-comparison as it was before -- with every passing moment of draining.
But it isn't a burden anyone will have to face alone.
BGM Swap! Lovely Fighter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VKdQy48bqI
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Grow Strong With Sorrow on La Sirene de Diamant. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Grow Strong With Sorrow on Sailor Jupiter. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Grow Strong With Sorrow on Sourisi. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Grow Strong With Sorrow on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Grow Strong With Sorrow on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Grow Strong With Sorrow on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Grow Strong With Sorrow on Lancelot. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Grow Strong With Sorrow on Cure Passion. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji perfectly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Grow Strong With Sorrow, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Fuu Hououji's Fade ability activates! Fuu Hououji's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Lera Camry narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Grow Strong With Sorrow, taking 41 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Lera Camry's Fade ability activates! Lera Camry's Flash ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe drains 16 fatigue from Lera Camry! COMBAT: Cure Passion perfectly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Grow Strong With Sorrow, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Dodge! Cure Passion's Fade ability activates! COMBAT: Lancelot narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Grow Strong With Sorrow, taking 32 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Lancelot's Block ability activates! Lancelot's Parry ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe drains 13 fatigue from Lancelot! COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Grow Strong With Sorrow, taking 27 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe drains 11 fatigue from La Sirene de Diamant! COMBAT: Sourisi narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Grow Strong With Sorrow, taking 21 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe drains 8 fatigue from Sourisi! COMBAT: Steven Universe perfectly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Grow Strong With Sorrow, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! COMBAT: Steven Universe's counterattack, Bubble Shield, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Lera turns to look at the Sorewatese, in the wake of the talismans' work. Her eyes turn back towards Cure Passion -- and she keeps her hand in hers, fingers squeezing hers. The Midchildan girl's other hand has a grip on Soaring Sky, though, and she lifts the Device up. Light crackles up and down the length of the weapon, as she directs it towards the Sorewatese, and the rolling wave of red light. It comes near her, and the feeling of despair sets in.
The muscles in her neck tense. Lera's fingers tense, too, until she remembers whose fingers she is holding. She doesn't leap as smoothly as her partner does, nor does she land as smoothly. She winces, when she does, but her eyes meet those red ones. She nods to Passion.
"Let's finish this," she says. "Before it can do anything more."
Soaring Sky splits down the middle. The blade divides into two pieces, as arcs of plasma crackle and leap between the two halves of the sword, and a bright glow begins to gather in it -- capped off by motes of light, drawn down inside of it.
<Aurora Burst...>
And then, it explodes out into a massive beam of light. The beam curves just slightly, before it goes rushing for the center of the Sorewatese.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!"
COMBAT: FINISHER! Lera Camry has used Aurora Burst Ray on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Cure Passion [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
"Yes," Passion confirms to Lera, almost strangely, incongruously that she just gives a simple answer to the question. ...But it comes after the magic of the pendant and the two of them moves forth, and it says more than just that. She sees the blood at Lera's cheek; she watches t.
...She hears the music, everyone else. ...The poetry, that La Sirene mentions, that she doesn't understan. Bu she does understand something else; when the light clears, they are larger, all of them, because i's not only the Sorewatase being smaller.
"...Found," she murmurs. They are where they are. The massive Sorewatase is no longer completely titanic to her, and she is not paralyzed by it. She is here, with others. ...She sees its eye, and she is not a girl alone; she is Cure Passion. ...And Chiffon is counting on her along with the others.
The light crashes forward, brilliant and red, and Cure Passion swirls into motion in an instant. She takes a step back, turns her other ankle, and leaps upward as if almost dancing, as if some of the moves she watches her friends perform over and over have left their impression on her. She twirls about Lera, around her.
The light moves around her, but giggling Chiffon in her arm is untouched by it; her movement makes it impossible for the despair to take hold of her now... Though it's not only the movement. She lands again, and clasps the loosened grip she'd had on the other girl's hand.
She remembers that feeling, but there is something she can look to now. ...And with the way it hurts the others...
She looks to Lera with concern, and then sets her red eyes. "...Let's. Chiffon!" She lets Chiffon float with her as she calls, "Sing, rhapsody of happiness!" A little friend of Chiffon's bursts onto the scene, Akarun whirling about her. "...Passion Harp!" She holds it up, tucks it under her arm beside Lera, and Akarun whirls to bring about its top, which she brings forth an plays a few notes of, music right beside the little fairies.
The notes chime forward; her pendant is still glowing. "...Roar! Storm of Happiness!" Around her--around her, and Lera, and Chiffon, because they're all together--feathers start to swirl, hearts bursting out of nothing. "Pretty Cure!"
The red glow intensifies, "Happiness! Hurricane!" Hearts burst about where the Sorewatase is, erupting from the ground to swirl around in the attack's namesake, red and pink both. Passion holds out her harp, Chiffon still about her arm, and focuses.
"Haaaah....!"
COMBAT: FINISHER! Cure Passion has used Pretty Cure Happiness Hurricane on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Lancelot [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Leaping back, Lancelot barely manages to smack the incoming attack from the Sorewatase aside. The force of the parry however sends Lancelot sprawling to the ground and rolling severla feet before he slams to a stop. Rolling over, he pushes himself to his feet and grits hsi teeth as he stares at the monster before him. He maybe didn't get that he had been made teeny tin, but he understood that sizes had changed now. "The bigger they are..." He says and once mroe beginst o draw lighting to him.
This time the lightning comes in crashing waves to him. Bolts slamming and swirling around him. He draws the second blade in a smooth and practiced motion, as if the single balde he now wields is simply not enough to contain the raw power he summons. Around him the leaves and small rocks are picked up the maelstrom fo teh power that surrounds him. "Animaaaaaaa - " he draws the word out, as if the action itself can draw more power to him. His eyes begin to flash First a flicker of light then a constant stream of energy that literally drips lightning form Lancelot's eyes. The power surrounding him builds until he is a swirling storm of lightning and wind. Crackling arms of lightning whip and lash, scoring the ground around him. His blade vibrate form there energy stored there.
He points the blades at the Sorewatase and cries out in a loud and triumphant voice "TEMPESTAS!!!" The twin baldes funneling all that power into one massive blast of lightning. It fires off toward the Sorewatase, the ground seering in it's wake. The air burns as it sizzles past, and the consussive force is enough that windows nearby might shatter or crack from the sheer backlash of the unleashed energy. lancelot braces himself, setitng his feet, but evne that isn't enough as the sheer energy released slides him back three or four feet. His feet digging furrows in the ground. The Mon on his back whips and cracks in the storm. Still flying proudly despite the maelstrom that Lancelot unleashes.
When the blast is over, the enrgy is spent, Lancelot stands up straight, his body and blades steaming in the air. He pants from the exertion of unleashing that much power. "The harder they fall." He pants between breaths. The words barely above a whisper.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Lancelot has used Anima Tempestas on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Jupiter [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
The flowers grow--and so too does Sailor Jupiter, along with the other magical girls. She staggers, nearly losing balance due to the surprise of it, but then rights herself as she realizes that this Sorewatase was only gargantuan compared to herself as the size of a doll. As a normal human being, it's still big, but only 'decently large building' big--in other words, not too much worse than many other monsters she and the others have fought. Which means hope has triumphed; they can take it out!
"All right! Time to bring this to a finish!" she calls. "Let's give it everything we've got!" Jupiter claps her hands together, roaring another kiai shout, and then pulls her hands apart as lightning crackles between her fingers, forming an orb between them.
"SPARKLING!" she calls, squeezing it like an onigiri and pulling her right hand back. "WIDE--" Then she HURLS the compact, football-shaped lightning ball forward towards the heart of the Sorewatase... "PRESSURE!!" ...where, if it impacts correctly, it will EXPLODE with electricity, sending those blooming flowers of hope to scatter their petals to the great blue skies above.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Grow Strong With Sorrow, taking 26 Fatigue damage! Sailor Jupiter's Block ability activates! Sailor Jupiter's Parry ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe drains 10 fatigue from Sailor Jupiter!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Jupiter [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
The flowers grow--and so too does Sailor Jupiter, along with the other magical girls. She staggers, nearly losing balance due to the surprise of it, but then rights herself as she realizes that this Sorewatase was only gargantuan compared to herself as the size of a doll. As a normal human being, it's still big, but only 'decently large building' big--in other words, not too much worse than many other monsters she and the others have fought. Which means hope has triumphed; they can take it out!
But it won't be easy. Even as Jupiter thinks that, the Sorewatase roars, spreading its despairful malaise out in an explosion of red light. It overtakes Jupiter, too, and she staggers to one knee, feeling that keen scrape at her soul. It's powerful, and agonizing, and it nearly rips her heart in two... but she swore to the Empress Doll that she would help rescue her baby. It's that thought that bolsters her, grounds her, gives her the strength to get back up to her feet with a stubborn shout.
"We can't let it have its way any longer...!" she growls. "Time to bring this to a finish! Let's give it everything we've got!" Jupiter claps her hands together, roaring another kiai shout, and then pulls her hands apart as lightning crackles between her fingers, forming an orb between them.
"SPARKLING!" she calls, squeezing it like an onigiri and pulling her right hand back. "WIDE--" Then she HURLS the compact, football-shaped lightning ball forward towards the heart of the Sorewatase... "PRESSURE!!" ...where, if it impacts correctly, it will EXPLODE with electricity, sending those blooming flowers of hope to scatter their petals to the great blue skies above.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Sailor Jupiter has used Sparkling Wide Pressure on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
"Well," la Sirene says as their spiralling dance of fans and blades ends, "at least we cut it down to size..."
Batiste, flush with the thrill of violence, pants for breath. But then another root comes - "Cousin!!" Batiste squeals in dismay, as the red light washes over the Siren of Diamonds.
Despair settles onto her. A feeling of futility. A feeling of sorrow. Despair, gloom, despond. Her muscles grow slack. Her eyes dim slightly, close partway. She sinks down, her feet, eventually, touching the ground; she stands, head slouched, as the sensation draws from her, drains out of her, pours into the Sorewatase.
But...
Her eyes lift upwards. She slowly folds her fan closed, and she says in a low and rough voice, "This feeling... It's meant to defeat me, isn't it?"
Then her eyes close.
She had noticed, before, that she made that sea-touched airiness of her magical power draw out and touch and repel those vines, the merest outer reaches of the grasp of the Sorewatase. Now, the creature is seeking to draw from the deepmost well of her heart, but that well, like it or not, has the salt of tears within it. It is not good to drink.
The Brazen Pharos twinkles...
And what pours out of her suddenly is cast into stark relief, like ink poured into a glass of pure water, billowing outwards and following the trail of ethereal feeling that the Sorewatase is drawing from her. La Sirene leans her head back and she does not defy the creature; she floats along.
The fan is raised to her lips as she smiles. "At least," she murmurs, "the child is safe... What did Cure Passion call her? Saffron, I think...? That's a good name for a princess..." It's a slightly forced, monotone voice.
But, la Sirene tells herself: However bad this is... it will pass.
Probably, she thinks a moment later.
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Weavery of the Abyss on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Sourisi [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Sourisi thought at first that perhaps she was seeing things at first, as she feels like this plant fiend wasn't as tall as it was just a moment ago. Maybe it was just the encouraging feelings that was coming from the flute. But, as the light show faded and the final flower blossoms, she couldn't ignore the truth any longer. She and the others that stood beside her in this were no longer smaller than ants, and while the Sorewatase was still gigantic in size and scope, the battle was no longer a hopeless one. They can win-no, they will win!
Placing the brush back inside her top, with its job now complete, Sourisi takes hold of her tonfa once more, to do battle once more. As the engulfing explosion of Malice reaches her, Sourisi raises her tonfa into a guarding position, holding her ground and weathering the attack. She slides back several feet, troughs in the earth from her passage, and more gray showing on her clothing than it's original tan color, but Sourisi's eyes were forward, and gleamed with an inner light.
The will to see this through to the very end.
A glance to her allies shows that while they were exhausted from the battle as well, they too had the will to carry on, despite the power and new growth that the Sorewatase shows. "You try many times to keep us down in the dirt, yet here we stand, ready to pluck you from this earth and put an end to your chaos. You kidnapped an innocent child and drove an entire court of royalty to despair before we arrived. But no longer! You...are DONE!" She didn't care that she just gave a small speach to what was likely a mindless monster. It was for her comrads to hear, and to spur them onwards to greather heights.
Sprinting forward, her body protesting with aches making themselves known but promptly ignored, Sourisi leaps upwards onto the fiend's arm, flinging a single tonfa skyward before launching upwards after it. Twisting at the apex of her leap, both feet touching the twirling weapon, she uses it to launch herself downwards with another sonic boom. With both feet leading, and glowing with a crimson light, she was determined to help give the final blow! "Primal Crazy Rodent!"
COMBAT: FINISHER! Sourisi has used Primal Crazy Rodent on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Steven fights his best against being crushed under foot, and it seems like he is actually making progress! Though it becomes obvious that it isn't his doing alone that he is able to escape. The Sorewatase is... smaller. It is still massive, but not nearly as much as it was. It is now several stories tall, rather than immeasurably so. The boy isn't sure how that happened, but that baby lamg was laughing as it happened. Did they... help somehow?
The creature is not done attacking yet! Vines strike from all sides, and the boy readies a Bubble Shield to repel them. The surface holds, and Steven readies a shield in his hand, gripping it tight. He has one shot. The vines will surely beset him if he drops the bubble. But the scarf around him reminds him of the innocent at stake, and he and his friends are the only ones who can help. He had to take the risk.
The boy repels the clashing vines to grant a bit of room, and drops the bubble, but not before winding up with his handheld shield. As the barrier drops, the boy throws it with all his might at the Sorewatase, specifically, that malicious eye it has! Hopefully it will do the trink, as the vines will be upon him soon now.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Steven Universe has used Throw Shield on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
That looks like a relatively more to-scale unit, the Wind Knight thinks to herself as the magical girls (and boys) regain their accustomed size. This does not seem like it'll make the monster's attacks hurt any less - and with that thought, the green-clad Magic Knight hurls herself out of the way of the wave of red light, barely managing to scramble out of harm's path but succeeding with what's left of her skin intact.
Comparatively speaking, anyway.
Her head is spinning, her whole body seems to be woven from threads spun out of 'ouch,' and she's not sure how much of a punch her magic can still deliver - but she's going to give it as much as she has left. And with that decision, the air about her stirs to life once more, gathered by her magic and set in motion by her will.
"Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi - !!"
Chiffon is safely out of the monster's grasp; the Sorewatase has no prisoner. She can afford to cut loose ... and once she's sure her allies are out of the way, she does so, summoning the tempest upon the group's foe. Not aiming for the eye, but for the whole mass of foliage, trying to rip it apart like a typhoon tearing through a forest.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Fuu Hououji's Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces La Sirene de Diamant's Weavery of the Abyss, taking 15 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates! Tangle applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Lera Camry's Finisher, Aurora Burst Ray, taking 104 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Steven Universe's Finisher, Throw Shield, taking 69 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Lancelot's Finisher, Anima Tempestas, taking 149 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Sailor Jupiter's Finisher, Sparkling Wide Pressure, taking 169 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Sourisi's Finisher, Primal Crazy Rodent, taking 66 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Cure Passion's Finisher, Pretty Cure Happiness Hurricane, taking 47 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe is unable to keep fighting! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
The Sorewatase is massive and mighty, grown strong on the sorrow of many a Labyrinth torture for the citizens of Tokyo. But it cannot hope to stand against the combined hearts, and hopes, of the defenders of Girls' Day.
Beams of light, storms of hearts, blasts of lightning, clouds of darkness, mighty kicks, roseate shields, torrents of wind...
Any one would not have been enough. Any three, even! Anything less than what was there...
But together, and all at once, at that, they merge into a coruscating, prismatic column that explodes outwards, filling this strange and lovely place with rainbows in much the same way it had, previously, been occupied by giant monster plant. They saturate the space. It is impossible to go untouched by them, and they feel like the warmth of a perfect hug.
But what about the empress' baby? Clearly they can't return Chiffon to her...
Yet, as they look over at the now-doll-sized palace, they see all the dolls coming out to the tops of the walls to wave at them, and the empress is holding a tiny bundle of joy. Maybe it makes sense. She wasn't any single empress doll, after all; she was the essence of all of them. It isn't so hard to imagine Chiffon as the essence of baby dolls.
As the group of familiar faces waves upwards, another storm of peach blossoms arise. They tickle, petals softer even than clouds, and block everyone and everything from view, all while filling the air with a beautiful, delicate perfume...
When they fade, everyone is alone again, in front of their own, most precious display. Only they're not really alone -- because it's a display filled with the wonderful hinamatsuri dolls dearest to their hearts.
And every empress has a tiny baby doll in her arms.
