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>>28502302

HOLLOW SUN: 35.7%

http://pastebin.com/eWiyHevy

RED COMET GUIDE:

http://pastebin.com/7vzY4Zp2

Do we still have a Void Anchor? It's in the equipment guide.

>>28502433

(My apologies: I failed to notice that in the update. You don't have one at present, unfortunately - You used it in the battle for the Holophusikon.)

At this early hour, the air is cold - bitingly cold, the sun colourless and pallid in a grey sky. Night has given way to dawn, and - from the looks of things - the new day doesn't look like a promising one. Your breath fumes, each time you exhale; The puff of white cloud dissipating as soon as it forms, to coil away in the vehicle's slipstream.

The van - The white paint peeling, spotted with rust - bears the abstract mark of a florist: The colours emblazoned on the side fading to an indecipharable smear. The frame shudders slightly with each turn Akira makes, slow and cumbersome: There aren't many cars on the road at this time, however, and - Even with the windows half-open - no-one gives the passing van a second glance.

Akira drives like he's done this all his life: Both hands on the wheel, his brow lightly furrowed in concentration. The gloved fingers of his right hand drum lightly against the molded plastic, his eyes locked solely on the road.

The lights change, and the van rumbles on.

You're on the way to the Civic Memorial: A marker to the two hundred thousand who perished - At once, or by inches - six years ago. History, now - A history that you were there for. There, you'll find both the elusive Cocytus...And the last fragment of the Fatal Abyss.

Or so the Thief says, anyway.

(Continued)

>>28502594

From the way he's said it, though - You're inclined to believe him.

The radio's off. Akira has been silent, throughout the entire drive - His thoughts a thousand miles away, clearly. He hasn't even glanced at you, not once; The silence oddly oppressive, hanging in the air like a shroud.

[ ] "-I didn't know you could drive."
[ ] "Where have you been, Akira?"
[ ] "Did you hear about the Holophusikon?"
[ ] "What can you tell me about the Hyades?"
[ ] "Do you know about the Manifold Towers?"
[ ] "Does the name 'Armaros' mean anything to you?"
[ ] "Have you noticed...anything strange about Mio?"
[ ] "What you're trying to do...Argent Prominence thinks it's a bad idea."
[ ] "Palladium Rook's recruiting for a push into the Old City."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>28502610

> [ ] "Did you hear about the Holophusikon?"
> [ ] "What you're trying to do...Argent Prominence thinks it's a bad idea."

Both of these seem like a good start.

>>28502610

> "Have you noticed...anything strange about Mio?"

Because there's something seriously unnatural about that girl. If anyone might know something about it, it'd be tthe thief.

>>28502610
>[ ] "Where have you been, Akira?"
>[ ] "Did you hear about the Holophusikon?"
>[ ] "Do you know about the Manifold Towers?"
I'll go with these.

>>28502610
"How have you been Akira? Feels like months since we met at the museum. Found the other guy who got away. And Kraken. Pity Alura was there, could have ended him.

"Speaking of, what do you know about the Hyades? The name's been everywhere since that day."

>>28502610

JokerOP,

regarding the Hollow Sun upgrades, how long will they take to finish?

And is the equipment already present but inactivated or will it only be produced after research is done?

For my fellow anons, this is the plan to get the virtue shell communication suite in order to provide comms for the assault teams.

>>28502610

Turn on the radio if it even works. Look for something classy.

"You know, I've never been the silent brooding type, well, silent sure, but brooding? Not so much. What I'm getting at is you're starting to creep me out here with this obsession over your sword. I'm banking on a 60/40 chance the pig sticker, once it's fully reforged, turns you into a mindless meat puppet that I'll haft to put down. Or eat. One or the other..."

"You're smart, Akira. Too smart. But sometimes being cocky at that intelligence blinds you. Call me paranoid, but I have an incredibly, incredibly bad feeling about this. Not the killing the guy who has the shard, but what the sword will do to *you.* It's already... done things to you, man. Can you really say... shit is going to be fine?"

>>28502610

"I'm signing on as a merc for a raid against a Smiler base of operations. You know anything about those subway tunnels? Know someone who could get me info about them? I know they're Bug Central, but beyond that, not so much. Enfer hinted that's where the weird, world fucking crystals come from, that's all I have."

>>28502911

(Anywhere between one to four days. However, you can have multiple projects 'on the go', as long as you expend the required amount of energy. Equipment will be immediately available for use or production once the research has been concluded.)

> [X] "Where have you been, Akira?"
>>28502841

"Around."

Akira's tight-lipped. He doesn't seem to be inclined to say anything else on that front.

> [X] "Did you hear about the Holophusikon?"

"It was hard not to." The van makes a slow, sluggish turn. "It's the largest Hive manifestation, so far...And the intervals are getting shorter." He takes his eyes off the road, just for a moment, to glance over at you.

"The site's been quarantined by Argent Prominence's Players. Doesn't stop Correctors from slipping through the net, however: They should be moving to cap it soon enough."

"There's word going around that the Red Joker was sighted there...And I've learnt to take rumours like that seriously."

> [X] "Do you know about the Manifold Towers?"

"Very little." It's a rather blunt admission, that says: He's not interested. "Old things are unearthed from below all the time. It's hell down there, Anon - Messy, and mad. Stay above-ground, if you want to be safe."

>>28502920

Red light. The van trundles to a stop.

You turn on the radio, turn the knob. Classical music - An orchestral piece, slow and stately - comes over the speakers. Akira doesn't seem to care.

"It's going to be fine."

His hands grip the wheel.

"Anon - What you're afraid of - It *will not happen*. It is *not a possibility*." His jaw locks. "Listen - It's not about what might be. Some things have to be seen through to the end - For closure, if nothing else."

Akira hesitates, searching for the words.

"It's...just that way things are. That's all."

(Continued)

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>>28503128

>1-4 days for research, then production commences

JokerOP, if say we wanted to produce enough sets for each member on the assault team, how many days would be required at each virtue shell production setting?

Guys, that 15% has the potential to help solve one of the biggest problems we've had, the lack of real time comms during the attack.

I say we spend it and begin work to retrofit them for use by players.

>>28502911
Would that work? The comm suites are integrated into the Virtues, we have no way of dismantling them or mounting the comms onto a Player.

A better use of resources would be picking up an Arsenal Beacon and new Void Anchor. We're going to want to equip the assault team, but we don't want Argent's people near the Hollow Sun. We want the Void Anchor to destroy the Old City Hive and start the energy generation process.

>>28503223

My thought was to throw a bunch of the heavy ordinance into the personnel bay of the Comet and bring it to the designated rendezvous. Easier. Plus then we can have a second Anchor.

>>28503260

Samefagging; speaking of the Comet, we still have yet to paint it a trendy red. Unless it was already red.

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>>28503223

We wont know until we try.

THe Virtues are still mechanical constructs so i've been considering having the Tri-Star's tech expert dismantle a few shells to try and begin tinkering with them to if they'll work.

In and case, C&C capabilities is something we will need so its not like it'll be wasted.

Also, we still dont know if the Beacon will be stationary. It might be better to use the Red Comet as a transport truck. Load the passenger compartment with guns and unload them for the players following us.

>>28503295
>>28503223

You know, we can do that right now. We know where the Hive is, relatively. We can go back into those tunnels and set the Anchor up preemptively right this instant and get a head start on it.

>>28503222

(To clarify: Each completed research unlocks items in the Foundry for production, and for use. Assuming you researched the Virtue upgrade, you'd be able to immediately produce the refitted items, as long as you had enough Hollow Sun Energy - Though the Player-analogues of the Virtue's communication devices are likely to be slightly less sophisticated than the ones used by the Hellions.)

>>28502998

Akira makes a low, scornful sound. "With Palladium Rook, right?" he says - It's not really a question. "...He's an idiot. The others, too; They're like him. Blind or stupid or greedy. Amateurs, all round - They don't know what they're in for. Or they do, but they think they know better."

> You know anything about those subway tunnels? Know someone who could get me info about them?

He shakes his head.

"-I know that whoever's down there...They've been down there for six *years*, Anon. You know as well as I do that things don't stay *constant* - Who knows how it might've changed?"

Akira looks you squarely in the eyes, and it's been a while since he's done that.

"It's going to end badly, Anon. But I think you already know that."

> "Speaking of, what do you know about the Hyades? The name's been everywhere since that day."

He smiles. It's a flash of the old Akira - the sardonic lip-curl, just on this side of mocking, where you can never tell if he's serious or not.

The light changes to yellow, and he shifts gears.

"You've met one, haven't you? Yes - Yes, you have." Green, and the van moves off again. Akira cants his head, to regard you sidelong. "So, how does it feel? How's unconditional and unquestioning love working out for you?"

[ ] "...What do you mean?"
[ ] "I don't follow. How's it 'supposed' to work out?"
[ ] "-But what *are* they?"
[ ] "Mind your own business."
[ ] "I don't feel that way, actually."
[ ] "To be frank, I thought she was insane."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>28503356

Wait, so we can't literally dismantle virtue hardshells to get at their arrays themselves and we'll need to spend energy to produce them?

>>28503393

(That's the purpose of the Foundry: Refitting Hellion equipment for Player use. The weaponry - Most of the weaponry - is simple enough to be directly activated, but the rest needs to be modified/altered before it's compatible.

In addition, a slight modification to the previous post. The last sentence is:

"So, how *does* it feel to be unconditionally and unquestioningly in love?"

>>28503356
"Felt like I met my own daughter from the future," sigh "And she has a pretty strong electra complex. That and also a few more "quirks" that most people aside from me would consider signs of insanity or sociopathy,"
"What are they, really?"

>>28503356

"Laugh it up, Akira. Laugh it up. It's been a mostly long distance relationship, thankfully. I don't need my life to turn into anymore of a soap opera. Plus I think she's going to kill me after she realizes what happened to her Emblem."

"Did you get yourself a crazy moon girlfriend as well or forever a bachelor?"

>>28503356

>[ ] "I don't feel that way, actually. But shes still a lead in finding or reviving Hecate and I'll take whatever I can find, no matter how faint."

>>28503431

(Can you at least give us a ballpark figure for the production of a set? Even one per squad leader might be useful.)

>>28503356

"So, uh, this is completely theoretical of course. Is it possible for another Hyades to Joker Jack I mean compromise another Hyades champion? Theoretical of course."

>>28503260
I don't think we'd be able to take the Comet into the tunnels. We'd have to leave it outside (bad idea) or take it back to base and fly to the rendezvous point (conspicuous).

>>28503287
There's a research option that'll let us change its color.

>>28503295
Check the Hollow Sun Guide, it's smaller than briefcase sized and clamps to Joker's back.

>>28503339
It'll be most effective at the Hive's center. We also don't want to mine our approach vector.

>>28503356
[X]"I don't follow. How's it 'supposed' to work out?"
[X] "-But what *are* they?"
"She's a child. How is their imprinting supposed to work? She seemed to think it would be reciprocated."

>>28503356

He hid his hand last thread. What the hell is up with his hand? If he's being a good little student, then he'll have his hands on 10 and 2. Check his hand that he hid in his pocket. Is that hand he lobbed off starting to show signs in the real now?

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>>28503506

What I meant is when the arsenal is activated.

Does it stay stationary like a portal? Or is there a perpetual portal at Red Joker's back?

Wait, is that going to be our instant ticket out?

Jump through the portal back into Hollow Sun to escape?

>>28503557

(It's basically a teleport homer, for items only. It can receive, but it can't send.)

>>28503473

(10% for a Command Module - With the ability to transmit/receive - 3% for a Slave Node, which is only capable of receiving, not transmitting.)

>>28503517

(He's taken his hand out to drive, but his right hand is gloved.)

>>28503440
>>28503466

> [X] "I don't feel that way, actually. But shes still a lead in finding or reviving Hecate and I'll take whatever I can find, no matter how faint."

"...So you *don't* love her, then. Interesting."

Something in his tone - The odd, thoughtful note - makes you look up.

"Every other Player I've met...They adore them. Unconditionally." Akira's eyes flick sideways. "-Strange, that you would be the exception."

His lips draw taut, in a lipless smile. "But then, you've always been different. Isn't that right, Joker?"

> "What are they, really?"
> [X]"I don't follow. How's it 'supposed' to work out?"
> "Did you get yourself a crazy moon girlfriend as well or forever a bachelor?"

A pause.

"...I wouldn't know," Akira says - With a casual shrug, as if it doesn't matter. "I've never met one." The concrete walls of an underpass blur by: You're now in the home stretch. It's not too much further.

"The little I've heard? Secondhand knowledge. 'The maidens of the Black Moon', they say - Isoldes, to doomed Tristans. A wonderful story." The faint, almost imperceptible sneer to his voice tells you exactly what he thinks about that.

"But like I've said - I've been busy."

(Continued)

>>28503557

Wait, scratch that, its matter transferal.

That won't work.

>>28503491
Veto. Tell no one that Hellebore is active. We're ging to need a few more aces if we want to have a winning hand at the end.

>>28503557
You reach in to pull stuff out. It's also one way, can't send anything back.

>>28503557

OP already thought of that and said it's one-way in the pastebin. I had the exact same thought too when I first read it.

>>28503588

>hand is gloved
>right hand
>same hand on his avatar

Oh shit. Don't tell me the Fatal Abyss is a relic that can cross into the Real.

>>28503593

Aces? Nah man. Jokers. JOKERS.

> "She's a child. How is their imprinting supposed to work? She seemed to think it would be reciprocated."

"If you're asking that...I suppose that it didn't take."

"A word of advice, Anon - Joker. Whichever you're supposed to be." A half-smile lingers on his face. "-Children can be cruel, too."

The van pulls out of the tunnel, the wan light of the day sweeping across the sharp divide like a terminus. The dense cluster of the city has thinned out, here: The Civic Memorial is set in the uncomfortable no-man's land between the old city and the new. You can see the fence that circles the area - More of a nod to security than anything else, because the planners clearly couldn't imagine anyone *wanting* to break in.

It's a simple area, but a remarkably ugly one; Beyond the perpetually-open gates (The paint flaking away with rust) lies a wide-open space with slanting steel walls sunk into the earth. There's supposed to be a memorial garden, leading to the great spike of the Cenotaph in the middle of the two-hectare wide raw space...But the grass grows poorly here, weak and colourless.

You suppose that it's a place that needs to exist, but - The reminder has been starkly unpleasant, somehow. Perhaps the wounds are still too raw: Or perhaps the place is too haunted to be entirely restful.

"-We're here," Akira says, the van grinding to a stop at the shoulder of the road. He shrugs off his seatbelt, shoving at the door as if he has a grudge; The stark, taut lines of focus define his figure, once more, as if all his attention has been drawn to a single, acute point. "Come on."

[ ] "-What about the van?"
[ ] "...We're just going to walk right in?"
[ ] "I have a bad feeling about this place."
[ ] "-I'd really rather not be here."
[ ] "Let's get this over with, then."
[ ] "Are you sure this is the place?"
[ ] "-Akira, I think we should get the hell out of here."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>28503833
"It's always gotta be the creepy places, huh?"

>>28503833

> [X] "I have a bad feeling about this place."
> [X] "...We're just going to walk right in?"

>>28503833

"I'm game. What do you want me to break?"

>>28503864

This.


So with researching and production, for 4 sets of command headsets for the team leaders including Anon, thats 55% charge.

Do you think its worth the cost?

>>28503700
Jokers are wild. A hand of them wins or loses based on the rules of the game, but at best it can only match all Aces. The last Red Joker won every one of his fights, including the last one, but it wasn't enough. The aces might not be enough on their own, but if they're not in our hand they're in someone else's.

>>28503833
"What used to be here? I came for the opening but I couldn't place it. Didn't like it then, either. It's worse now, I think."

>>28503983
No. We won't have time to build the rest of what we need.

>>28503833

I'll say it again. I really have a bad feeling about this, Akira. I know you say it's going to work out, but I just can't shake that niggling feeling something is off, y'know? You're smart, alright? Let's scout this place out here before we jump over. See if we can shed some light on this place that will give us some clues what we'll face on the other side."

Now's the time to put the Nihl to work. It makes doors or finds doors. Let's see if it can uncover an illusory door in the real before transitioning to the red

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>>28503983

Bit too expensive then.

I think realistically, the only ones with a good chance of getting out alive will be in anon's team. Anyone else getting out alive will be gravy.

> "It's always gotta be the creepy places, huh?"
> [X] "I have a bad feeling about this place."

"-I suppose it is." Akira, despite his external calm, seems slightly uneasy.

>>28504040

"This place - It used to be part of the industrial district. Heavy metals, in the air; On the bad days, you could actually *taste* the lead. And asbestos, in everything...It's something you can't get rid off, once it's there."

"...The land's blighted, you know?" he says, abruptly - A non-sequiter. "Too many pollutants - Too many people, when the place fell in."

His shoes scuff against a metal tile, embossed onto the white flagstones.

"-Too many ghosts."

> It's worse now, I think.

It is. Immeasureably worse.

"They covered it up - All of it. But the foundation's sinking, all the time...One more quake, and this whole place will be underground."

"Hence the Memorial, you see? It's something they can afford to lose. No-one's going to miss it when it's gone."

His right hand comes, to shade his eyes - Your coat flaps in the cold wind that picks up.

"...But still. For a wound in the world - It could be worse."

> [X] "...We're just going to walk right in?"

"Why not?" Akira's smile is lightless. "-We should pay our respects."

> "I'm game. What do you want me to break?"

The grey sky is swept away, as fingers of red stretch across the horizon - A rippling wave carried on the wind, swirling around both of you in crimson streamers. It's like a shadow has fallen over the sun; The curtain of reality wrenched away, by the moaning winds.

(Continued)

>>28504086
Rook is toast. Haze will make it out. The opposite is also possible, depending on group composition. The entire raid would probably be safer as a Red Joker solo-op.

Well, not safer, the collateral damage is going to be horrific. But fewer people we know would get caught in it.

>>28504055

(My sincerest apologies, I missed that. Including it in this post, then.)

This place - It isn't a stage, not really. It's just desolation: Here, the iron buildings of Dis and the black towers of Pandomenium dot the landscape, sparsely...Black sand on the howling wind, abrading and scouring.

Struts of twisted, rust-streaked metal jag from the the dense-packed earth; Flagstones pushing from the ruin at unsightly intervals. Then there are the fires, belching upwards from the crevasses in the earth - Ghostly flames that flare and boil skywards, wavering infernos that ping ghost-readings on your sensors.

Your Helix Gauntlet irises open, and the light of the Nihl Sphere bathes the ruin around you with a surreal violet glow. It's hard to concentrate - The wind is muttering things on the very edge of perception, and you're afraid that the voices are beginning to make sense.

The crimson sky above your head is thickly dark, but firelights, distant, flashing, reflect across the earth. Flames underlight the horizon, and the sea of black sand and bitter earth seems to *roll*, nauseatingly, with a keening that fills the polluted air...

A hand clamps on your shoulder. The Thief's skull-faced helm is limned in ghostlight, his eyes smoking with red fires. "There," he crackles - You have to strain to hear him, as he gestures ahead of you.

(Continued)

>>28504205

We'll haft to pound it into the other leaders skulls to actually listen if we get proper communications established. It'd be fantastic if we can get some WW1 tech rolling with dedicated lines for communication. Have 1 player spooling out the line/running comms for each team.

Plus you can't listen in on a line unless you splice directly into it.

>>28504254

Before you-

Before you, there's a zone of calm - Barely perceptible, through the scouring winds. It's like the heat-mirage of an oasis, the air itself shimmering with a realness, a *significance*, that throws everything else into stark relief...

Wait.

Through the translucent glow, you make out - If you strain to see - tiered steps, leading up to a raised arch. Beyond, you can make out...Buildings. Roads. Only dimly, as if through a fog, as you struggle forward; The Thief curses, as he nearly sinks up to his knees, forging ahead grimly until his boots clank against solid ground.

The curve of the arch - Like skeletal ribs - gives you a momentary respite from the constant storm; The shimmering field beckoning temptingly, almost tauntingly, to you.

"-You see that?" The Thief rasps, nodding towards the ethereal glow. "That's solidified space-time, Joker. We can't get any closer." His eyes burn with the feverish flame-light. "You need to breach it."

[ ] "What have you tried?"
[ ] "-Can't you use the Fatal Abyss?"
[ ] "What's beyond that?"
[ ] "This isn't an ordinary storm!"
[ ] "We can't stay out here!"
[ ] Free

HP: 145.3%
COBALT BOOSTER: 150%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 141%
METER: 9%

YOU HAVE CONTROL

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>>28504205
>>28504260

I wonder if we can still cancel the op.

Natsumi is not going to like this.

>>28504337

[x] "What have you tried?"

I'm thinking a cobalt boosted Crisis Arm might work. Gravity warps time after all.

>>28504129
>>28504254
>>28504337

Wow. This is pretty goddamn dark.

>>28504337

"We can't stay in this sandstorm for long! It'll scour us straight to the bone!"

Also, shouldn't we have 195% or did us coming into contact with this things field damage us that much?

Let's go down the checklist.

"How big is this place!? Is it like this all the way around?"

Play the Nihl around while we walk and yell at each other to be heard. Flash Cybele's/Hellebore's Emblem. Send an Interceptor to determine the absolute limit at how close we can get. Look for other possible ruins, buried specifically with the Nihl. Play the Argus system to probe the sand for ruins and to probe the barrier. I wonder if this is like the Wave from that Birmingham book.

If shit gets too bad, deploy the Fortress to give us cover against the sandstorm.

>>28504489

(You're right - My apologies. It's:

HP: 195.3%
COBALT BOOSTER: 150%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 141%
METER: 9%

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>28504260
You can tell someone as much as you like that when the shit hits the fan they have to do EXACTLY what you say. Problem is, when people are frightened for personal survival they stop listening. With enough time you can retrain the fight or flight response, but we're not going to meet them until the day it happens.

As for those comms, why bother splicing in? Cut the cable and let panic break them. If we're deep enough and they can move the wires to herd us into ambushes or send the party even deeper down.

>>28504337
"The sword can't do it? I thought cutting space-time was its... Oh. It needs to be whole to do the big stuff. Fine. Back off."

Then walk forward. I wonder if Frost Cestus has unfinished business. Even if I'm off, the Sphere or Joker's access authority might be able to open the way.

>>28504382
Might be too late. I've got words for them that should provoke interesting reactions.

>>28504337

Use our SysAdmin status to part the barrier?
Look for an Off switch?
Shout "Open Sesame!"?
Try to seduce it?

I don't know

>>28504489

> "We can't stay in this sandstorm for long! It'll scour us straight to the bone!"
> "How big is this place!? Is it like this all the way around?"

The Thief shouts something back, but you see him nod. A step takes you to the half-shelter of the arch: As close as you can manage, until the wind's shrieking howl is merely deafening.

"All the way around!" he snarls, to make himself heard: "...can't cover the entire distance!"

> [x] "What have you tried?"

A flick of his wrist, and he draws his Furstenburg carbine from beneath the folds of his black coat. Gunfire flares, lipping from the muzzle as he fires at burst at the swirling, shimmering space beyond the arch: Each shot slams into the barrier, and-

...And hits nothing. It's hard to tell exactly what happens - The shells don't burst against the barrier, or deflect off it. As far as you can see, they simply cease to exist upon contact.

"It's the same for everything," the Thief growls. Smoke coils from the barrel of his weapon, for a heartbeat. He crouches down, presenting a lower profile. "-Nothing works."

> "The sword can't do it? I thought cutting space-time was its... Oh. It needs to be whole to do the big stuff. Fine. Back off."

His skull mask is expressionless, but he's starting at you like you're an idiot.

"And risk *losing* it?"

He's all heart.

You take a step forward. Then another, and another, towards the shimmering curtain.

And then you stop. You can't proceed a step further - There's a wall in the way. Your gauntlets encounter the unyielding surface; A surface that feels *cold*, somehow, that sends a fractious buzz whining through your fingers...

(continued)

>>28504627

The surface quivers. You can see motes abrading away from the surface of your gauntlets - As if you've touched your fingertips to a belt sander, a not-quite-noise whining in your ears. You're not sure what it's trying to do, but the sensation is deeply, deeply unpleasant - The Red Joker's armour, however, seems resistant to the effect-

...But it's not getting you through.

>>28504489

The Argus System detects...Well, you're not *sure* what it detects, actually. The radar pulse simply doesn't return, as if the effective range has shortened - That, and the charged sand is playing merry hell with your sensors.

Your Interceptor uncouples from your shoulder binder, wobbling as the vector thrust jets flare: It corrects, straining against the wind, sweeping towards the sharp divide where the barrier of solid time begins-

When it makes contact, the connection cuts. The drone simply ceases to be.

Cybele's Emblem glows dimly, in the gloom, as you raise the Helix Gauntlet - Trying to ignore the fingernails-on-chalkboard squeal of the scouring winds. As you sweep the violet light over the field's surface, it seems...

-It reminds you of a crystal, of an insect trapped within amber. The shimmering surface is...It's not *solid*. It's like a construct, a glass prism - Flaws spiderwebbing their way across the field, twisting and melting into themselves, reproduced and repaired in new and uncertain configurations. Even the arch directly before you isn't immune; In the Sphere's half-light, cracks skitter across the surface in slow proliferation, before they're wiped away, at irregular intervals.

HP: 189.8%
COBALT BOOSTER: 150%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 136%
METER: 7%

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>28504686
>Cobalt Boosted Crisis Arm

Are you a bad enough dude to punch space time so hard it shatters?

>>28504686

It has Death Lines? Do we have a blade on us? Disposable preferably? Jam something into one of the lines and push.

>>28504725

This. Wait for a flaw to appear in front of us, and Cobalt Booster Punch through it.

>>28504686
Cobalt boosted Sinistral. Ram it into the cracks, tear open the barrier.

>>28504686

Hm, it doesn't react to Hyades emblem.
The Argus isn't returning jack, which I figured.

We might as well put Cybele's emblem to work and regen some HP while we have downtime.

Curious. Most curious...

>>28504771

No, no. We have one of the Hellion blades on us. Don't risk losing our shield. use the blade.

>>28504686

CHO GINGA SPACE-TIME PUNCH DESU

>>28504780
The Sinistral cuts energy fields when boosted. Using a Hellion blade will cost 15 booster and inevitably fail. Also the cutting edge is a projection, the Relic is a bracer.

>>28504835

Well, it won't technically destroy the shield if we pull it out before the barrier fully noms it. Alright. I didn't want to risk losing a defensive item before we even got to the BBEG here.

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>>28504725
>>28504750
>>28504790

With a thought, you summon the Crisis Arm. Over the tooth-grinding whine of the wind, schematics sketch themselves into being - A gathering, dense weight, ponderous and tectonic, gravimetric suspensors humming as the field generators pulse to life. The Crisis Arm is the match of your right hand, but monstrously expanded: The heavy fingers flexing experimentally, as you turn the open palm into a ball.

Into a fist.

In your chest, the Cobalt Booster flickers to azure life. Cold blue fire sizzles along the lines of circuitry - Flooding into the microfilament channels, feeding power to the wrecking, piston-driven fist. You draw your arm back, hydraulics and servoes whirring as they take the superdense weight: Shaped into a battering ram, tipped with matter from the heat-death of suns.

You exhale. The Cobalt Booster's charge gathers.

You wait for your moment, as the barrier cycles - As flaws perpetuate, then vanish, the fragment and fray again. And then - When thought and intention merges into one, when the surface of the tachyon barrier is starred by the cracks of fractured space-time...

-You punch.

(Continued)

>>28504908

This does bring up an interesting question. If the field eats a relic, can we regen it?

If we remove a relic that is bound to us, can we duplicate it?

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As your fist clears the narrow distance - As acceleration rings accrue - the pulverizing swing vents explosive blue flame, a horizontal flare that spits seething will o'wisp light in every direction at once.

When the Crisis Arm meets the barrier, everything happens at once.

If the force slammed out in all directions, the recoil would've hurled you into the flaying storm. But instead - Instead, when it hits the fundamental barrier - there's a sound. What you can only call the *absence* of a flash, and then the low beginnings of a monstrous noise...

The field *ripples*. Like a stone flung into a pond, a visible distortion spreads across the surface, in expanding rings: Faster, *faster*, the bow-wave of the shock perpetuating itself, until the shimmering, impenetratable surface begins to hum with its own rising harmonic frequency-

Reality shatters outwards, in a multicoloured blizzard of fragments. The shock pressure slams into you, hard - Then *over* you, plucking at the edges of your armour, needle-filaments of the collapsing field dragging against itself in a swirling cloak of energies: You *hear* it rather than feel it, a confused melange of sounds and sensations - And then the final triumphant thunderclap, as air rushes in with a *crack* that sounds like tectonic plates shifting.

(Continued)

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>>28505012

Huh.

I was abit scared it might have eaten the relic.

>>28505012

And then-

And then, it *unhappens*. The shattered chips of field energy seem to quiver, in mid-flight: Drawing back on themselves, a jigsaw puzzle in reverse - A fundamental remaking, coalescing and forming...With it, the dizzying sensation of vertigo, of seeing the same event *twice* now - Forward, *and* backward-

You hear the Thief's snarl-laugh - A sound of furious joy, or joyful fury. You can't tell. He sprints forward, in great, pounding steps - Hurling himself headlong, as the membrane of the barrier swirls around him. He plunges through the splinter-sharp gap, his boots scuffing up dust with each step, as he surges into the clear space beyond - A place sealed away for god-knows-how-long.

"Come on!" the Thief shouts - Even as the echoes of that titanic impact die away - "Come on, Joker!" The barrier is dragging itself back into shape, heedless of the black wind gusting in through the rips; It'd have healed itself within moments, cataclysmic impact or no.

HP: 183.5%
COBALT BOOSTER: 131%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 129%
METER: 11%

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>28505093
Might as well follow him in. Tempest Scrander to make sure we clear the gap in time.

>>28505093

Run after him. Boost our speed if we have to.

>>28505093

Go on through. Times a ticking.

Once we're through see if the Argus can get a better read since there's no space-bending magic and a sandstorm to fuck up the sensors.

Knock the sand out of our joints as best we can. That'll fuck us as badly as Rust Kaiser did.

>>28505093
Why is he ahead of us? Actually, why is he coming along?

Catch up I guess.

>>28505093
Follow behind, deploy any offense or defense that doesn't cost Meter ot Booster. F.E..The Tau Gun

>>28505108
>>28505120
>>28505140
>>28505154

You sprint forward. Your heavy boots pulverize the steps beneath you; There's a kind of reverse pressure, as the black sand blasts back outwards - Scraping your armour, abrading it, as you make for the narrowing passage...

-And the Tempest Scrander flares to life. The charge gathers, coheres into twin drive rings - Red particles fuming in it's wake - and it *hurls* you forward, as you turn yourself into a speeding bullet. You hit the afterburners, as the great shield-wall slams back into the place; The shuddering concussion rippling through the vast space, trailing streamers of gritty matter in your wake as you brake, hard - Burning retros, killing your velocity.

You touch down, turning just in time to see the Thief stumble through; His skull-helmet scoured by the howling wind, the flames in his eyesockets momentarily dimmed.

He's not looking at you - He's looking *past* you.

"This is..." The Thief says, and there's a shaky note to his voice that sounds uncomfortably like dread.

STAGE: COCYTUS

The first thing that impresses itself upon you - The first thing that you notice - is the startling mundanity of the area. The Red World's alien architecture doesn't exist, here: You stand on a road, an *ordinary* road, the long stripe of the lane divider beneath your feet.

(Continued)

And the buildings-

The buildings are *from the real world*. Apartment blocks, shophouses, the great smokestacks of factories - Now stilled and silent - with the support buildings clustering uneasily around the behemoths of industry. It's a surreal sight, in the crimson light of the red world...A light that seems to be - filtered - somehow by the barrier...

When you glance over your shoulder, behind you, all you see is the black of the constant storm.

Somewhere in front of you - There's cars. Trucks, some of them canted slightly to the side, as if abandoned by their drivers. The air is perfectly still; It feels surreal, post-apocalyptic, like the bleak images you've seen of post-accident Chernobyl.

The landscape's broken, however, by the crystalline structures - Like great chunks of quartz - that push through the cracks like teeth. They're clear formations, like stalagmites, like ice, clustering at the edges of buildings like barnacles, free-standing...

From the distance, you hear an odd, filtered sound - A groaning collapse, like a building succumbing to gravity at last. In the distance, around one building, there's a puff of dust; A great chunk of masonry crashing to the ground, vanishing from sight. The sound repeats itself, at irregular intervals...As if the city is on the verge of collapse.

>>28505140

You trigger the Argus System. The readings are reliable, something you can focus on. In the distance - Towards the center of the space - there's a high-energy output signature...A signature that's oddly distorted, as if you're picking up echoes of it again and again, like minor traces that are closer by - Existing for mere heartbeats, before they fade.

The Tau Gun shimmers into existence, as you grip the heavy weapon with your free hand - The green telltales winking to life.

(continued)

>>28505353

Then, close by...The Argus System pings, sharply, detecting a contact - Or part of a contact, really. Your sensors are picking up no other signs of life, but - The strange, irregular destruction of the city - the occasional chunks of debris tumbling from the skies - continues.

"What is it?" the Thief says - He's turning, warily, his Furstenburg carbine gripped in both fists. You can sense his uneasiness, from here.

"This place...I've never seen anything like it."

[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>28505371

"I got... something just now. Less than a return but more than nothing... Lets keep moving, we best not tarry here too long."

>>28505371
"You said a while ago that if people had the chance they'd all be Players. Here's a preview of that world, Akira. Is it everything you hoped for?"

Time to meet Ixion. Dismiss the Tau Gun and go meet this place's king.

>>28505371

"You and me both, brother. You and me both. I'm going to get a higher vantage and see what I can see. Look for street signs. Maybe we can find our bearings that way."

Keep the Argus running. Be weary. Be paranoid. Waiting for something to happen.

>>28505501
I say turn off the Argus. We'll want the meter for the fight. The chance of surprise encounter is low.

>>28505549

It doesn't take much to keep it running. Plus we regen at a constant rate.

>>28505577
Cobalt charge regenerates when it's not in use, doesn't it?

>>28505433

He gives you a sharp Look - But a distinctly uneasy one. This place is making his hackles rise: It's hard not to feel uneasy, in this silent, crumbling city - Transposed from one reality to the next.

>>28505429
>>28505501

The Thief nods, silently. He turns his hand over, consulting a matte-black compass stitched to his gauntlet; "...There's a high-energy reaction in that direction," he observes - The compass needle quivering, pointing in the same direction as the Argus System's sweep.

It's impossible to miss it - The power that's radiating forth is as palpable as the sun.

You dismiss the Tau Gun - Triggering your Tempest Scrander. It's easier to fly here, red particles trailing in your wake as you loft skywards; You settle on the corrugated roof of a nearby building, consulting your sensors...

And then you see it.

At the heart of this stolen space, there's a strange formation - A ring, that brings to mind a stadium - that seems to made of a haphazard jumble of buildings fused together. This high up, the Argus System has better reception; The energy spike is coming from somewhere within, even muted by layers of twisted rebar and concrete.

That seems to be your destinat-

The Argus System pings with a new reading, close by. You hear the Thief swear, aloud, as you glance back down - He's taken a step back, levelling his weapon with one hand: The one on the sword sheathed at his side.

"I've found something," he crackles, his voice echoing across the distance.

"Joker - I think it's..."

A pause.

"-I think it's your arm."

[ ] "What?"
[ ] "That doesn't make sense."
[ ] "Hang on, I'm coming over."
[ ] "Forget it, we need to keep moving."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>28505641
>[ ] "Hang on, I'm coming over."

Say what?

>>28505641
>[ ] "What?"
..is it the upgraded emblem? Do take a close look at it.

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>>28505641
Oh this is going to be good.

>>28505641

Three words.

"What the fuck?"

>>28505641
"That's a funny way of asking if I need a hand."

Time manipulation is fun, isn't it? Or is this Old Joker's arm?

>>28505694

If it's the Old Joker's arm, have the Thief pull out the memory of our predocessor and see if it has an effect. God only knows what will happen in this distorted time. Hell, if we look we might even find his summoning sign.

Fucking Sun Bros.

>>28505656
>>28505661
>>28505677
>>28505679
>>28505694

You drop down from your perch - Retros burning, a circle of dust swirling around your feet as you land. The Thief is standing stock-still, his stance betraying his unease: Staring forward, as if at a venomous scorpion.

In front of him-

In front of him, there's an arm. Sparks flicker at the trunctuated end - Where it should meet a shoulder - the molten edges of the armoured limb bleeding Essence, as it loses cohesion.

The fingers are curled in a fist, around the grip of what is - unmistakeably - the Tau Gun.

As you approach, the severed limb begins to lose colour, particles rising from the surface like a swarm of flies: It's disintegrating, before your gaze.

You glance at yourself, by reflex - Your arms are both right where they should be, but it doesn't stop the Thief from staring. "Do you think," he begins, slowly, as if the germ of an idea is cohering in mind-

Then you hear the dull *crunch* as a sheet of metal falls from the sky. It slices down, sharply triangular, punching through the thin roof of a storage shed; As it topples, it bisects a car, shearing down sharply with a shriek of rending metal.

You can't be sure, but - It looks like a wing. A wing from a jet plane.

[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>28505750
Watch our for the rest of the plane.

Fuck this place. Go search for Ixion before the environment kills us.

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>>28505750
...I am concerned.

>>28505750

"Well, that's disturbing. Let's keep moving. No point sticking around."

Keep an eye to the sky for more falling Airbuses and an ear to the ground for structural weakness. Don't want to fall through a floor now. Stick to the streets. Keep the Argus going. We'll want to investigate anomalies as they crop up.

>>28505750
"What do you think the eye at the center of a temporal storm would look like? This place is the city's personal Bermuda Triangle; anything goes. Now the real question is, if the present me comes into contact with the remnants of future me will the universe implode?"

Grab the arm. Free Essence, and a great ice breaker if it lasts long enough.

>>28505750


Does that look like our scrander wing?

"Lets get going. Its obviously not from me and we shouldn't tarry."

>>28505816

"Joker, wait-"

As you reach down for your arm, it begins to vibrate, violently - The fractal disintegration spreading, up and across the surface. Gray cracks filter across the limb, as it crumbles to dust, ash swirling in the air. Your proximity seems to have accelerated the rate of decomposition - Or is that the universe correcting itself?

>>28505824
>>28505813
>>28505786

"...You're right," the Thief crackles - His glance sweeps skywards, as if wary for any more falling object. "You're saying - It might have been from the *future*?"

He leaves the rest unspoken, but - It doesn't bode well.

As you make your way down the roads, towards the great structure at the city's heart, the same bizarre phenomena doesn't limit itself to a solitary occurence. Sparks rain from the sky - And with it, a hail of fist-sized chunks of masonry, clanging off your armour.

And then there's the noise - An echoing, muffled din, as if monumental, cataclysmic history is happening just around the corner, just out of sight.

More than once, debris blossoms from a nearby building, in a spontaneous explosion: But once the noise and the wild spray of sharpnel has died away, the structure is left unmarred - Except for a few opportunistic pockmarks.

(Continued)

It's 7am. Bed. Tired as shit. Don't get us completely fucked.

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>>28506004
>dont get us completely fucked

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Now and again, you pass crystalline structures - Warped by the pressure of their emergence into shapes that are alien and beautiful at once. Most of them are translucent, others reflecting your visage in a kaledioscopic swirl; All of them are clear, like quartz, or merely touched by the faintest hint of colour.

At last, you reach the great structure - The coliseum - at the city's heart.

There's no door. There are countless entrances: Crumbling doorways, windows and the seams where the jumbled parts of the buildings don't quite meet - They seem to have been fused in place, melted together.

A set of terraced steps rise into a cylindrical chamber, open to the air - The crackling dome of the tachyon barrier miles overhead. There's a low, subliminal hum; The floor is a jumbled mix of brickwork and flagstones and tiles, fused into a continuous whole. Crystals glitter as they push from the walls like twining ivy, like clumps of moss...

And before you - A shape, blocky, irregular, crude and makeshift...

It's a throne. A throne of stone and brick and rebar, forced into alignment with immense effort. Melted in place, into a single glassy mass; A mass that captures and refracts the golden radiance zig-zagging off the shining veins where the segments meet, with the heady colour of lava.

A sharp sense of deja vu cuts into you, as sharp as a knife.

You've seen this before.

In the gloom, the pellucid blue flames of glowing eyes, like will o'wisps-

I KNOW YOU'RE THERE, JOKER.

The voice, vastly amplified, booms in the space.

I KNOW YOU'RE LISTENING.

I HAVE BEEN DESIGNED TO WITHSTAND TIME

I HAVE BEEN DESIGNED TO WITHSTAND YOU.

HP: 180.8%
COBALT BOOSTER: 150%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 129%
METER: 11%

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>28505813
>Don't want to fall through a floor now.
Idea:
Activate the Scrander and hover across the floor.

>>28506099

Well, this is a bad start.

> "I don't suppose you could just GIVE me the piece you're holding? That's all I want!"

>>28506099
>I HAVE BEEN DESIGNED TO WITHSTAND TIME
>designed
Not a Player or just someone insane? Anyway, fuck this guy.

[x] Open up with your vulcans.

>>28506099

> withstand you

Impervious to our usual bullwts then?

> withstand time

Well then.

Looks like we should go atypical this time. Crisis Arm time.

>>28506099
>I HAVE BEEN DESIGNED TO WITHSTAND TIME
>I HAVE BEEN DESIGNED TO WITHSTAND YOU.
"Does that mean that you know why I'm hear?
Do you have the artifact or don't you? Any important messages about possible corruption effects and comments along the line of "you fools"?"

Also, this seems like a male Hyades-like thingy.

>>28506168

Arguably, a guy who can see through time and space would go insane.

>>28506188
>Crisis Arm time.
Also, we should aim for 100% meter.
It pains me to waste the level up opportunity, but our gun would be perfect for atemporal enemies.

>>28506204
You...want to send the last shard to a black hole? Also, he could be just bullshitting.

>>28506218
It would be like one of those videogames where you are forever branded an enemy of everyone if you kill a single dude.
In this case, only one dude would try to kill us. And he'd have the skill to do so.


What else can we use? Can the Sinistral take on the elemental property of time?

Sinistra + Crisis Arm dual wield

>>28506227
I have officially no idea what the hell you're talking about.

>>28506099
"Joy. What's this about then? I've never heard of you, and I'm pretty sure that if you were half as awesome as you're suggesting you'd have come after me outside this place. How'd you know that I would be looking for the Fatal Abyss? I'm no sword user and I think the damn thing should be obliterated."

This has the makings of a fight where Exec_Barrier will come in handy. As soon as shots start being fired, turn it on.

>>28506227
What.

>>28506237
>I have officially no idea what the hell you're talking about.
It would be a "Akira instantly becomes our mortal enemy" scenario.

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>>28506168

> Not a Player or just someone insane?

I AM NOT INSANE

I AM WITHOUT SANITY

SANITY IS FOR SOCIETIES, AND I WOULD NOT SUFFER ONE TO LIVE IN MY PRESENCE

"Who is he *talking* to?" The Thief's voice is low, taut - Despite the filtered rasp of his voice. You're both out of sight, at the foot of the steps leading up to the throne room; And yet-

>>28506189
>>28506241

I CAN HEAR YOU, JOKER.

I CAN HEAR YOU TALKING IN FUTURE TIME.

TACTICAL CONSCIOUSNESS IS BETTER THAN SANITY.

>>28506204
>>28506188

The Crisis Arm sketches itself into existence - The burning line of the schematics gathering into a superdense fist-

AND NOW I BEGIN, BECAUSE ALL TIMELINES TWIST TOWARDS AN ENDING.

The ground rumbles. Even through the stone, the flare of Ixion's tachyon generators makes the air bleed. There is a deep, seismic rumble - The bitter prickle of ozone, as shafts of light stab through the gloom-

The Thief takes a step forward, his head swinging towards you. He says:

"-"

(Continued)

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>>28506262
This dude.

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>>28506262
Oh.
OH.
Wonder if he can hear spoilers.

>>28506262
Clever. You've achieved CHIM haven't you?

>>28506259
So you were agreeing that using the black hole was a stupid idea and the last two sentences were unrelated, just asking for else we can use. Right.

Let's start by using everything other than the black hole gun and see where it gets us.

>>28506262
Also this nigger has cracked.

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>>28506280
>So you were agreeing that using the black hole was a stupid idea and the last two sentences were unrelated, just asking for else we can use. Right.
Yes.

>Let's start by using everything other than the black hole gun and see where it gets us.
Let's avoid projectiles. I'd be in favor of beam weaponry.
But beam weaponry does damage over time...

Well, we definitely need Exec_Barrier and maybe disrupt.

>>28506279
Takeoff into meta land!

>>28506262
>dat Ixion pic
>the origin is an alien capable of disintegrating all and any matter. Implied to be a potential planet-buster
>now it's a sanity-less time-distorting madman capable of breaking the 4th wall
Every incarnation of this guy is horribly broken.

The coliseum rumbles. Stone disintegrates, beneath the great spears of tachyon light. The Thief throws a glance up, as dust filters from the ceiling-

>>28506272
>>28506279

IT IS SAID THAT HUMANITY SANITY IS THE BEST SET OF REACTIONS TO THE STRUCTURE OF THE PERCEIVED WORLD.

IT IS SAID THAT THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY, BUT - IF CORRECT - HAS A SIMILAR ENOUGH STRUCTURE TO BE USEFUL.

I LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE THE TERRITORY IS NOT THE SAME, FROM ONE MOMENT TO THE NEXT.

>>28506262

The wall to your side - The wall you've sheltered against - goes outwards.

Ixion comes through it, like a speeding bullet. You register a black-and-gold blur, as the Crisis Arm forms-

The impact is shattering, all-consuming. Air. Stone, smashing into you, battering your crimson plate, denting and scarring it. Rebar - Air again. The wind howls, as you tumble into the red sky - Overhead, the great tachyon field seethes, crackling with flawed sparks...

-You're falling.

(Continued)

>>28506323
>IT IS SAID THAT HUMANITY SANITY IS THE BEST SET OF REACTIONS TO THE STRUCTURE OF THE PERCEIVED WORLD.
>IT IS SAID THAT THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY, BUT - IF CORRECT - HAS A SIMILAR ENOUGH STRUCTURE TO BE USEFUL.
>I LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE THE TERRITORY IS NOT THE SAME, FROM ONE MOMENT TO THE NEXT.
So...
Is this an encounter of the voices in RJ's head against atemporal CHIM being?
Do we even need to fight?

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>>28506323

The Tempest Scrander at your back flares to life - Turbines whirring, as you power out of your descent; Hovering on wings of jetair and flame. Beneath you, the city expands eternally - It's an optical illusion, silent buildings set against the wall of night beyond.

In the red skies, Ixion burns furious and golden, with the eerie radiance of the light beyond time-

Both fists clench. His burning tachyon wings furl.

He turns himself into a bullet, both fists extended, and comes at you again.

HP: 158.2%
COBALT BOOSTER: 150%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 105%
METER: 19%

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>28506341
Joker only has to hold out until we mindbreak Ixion.

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>>28506369
Too bad that we are restricted to a blue board.

>>28506323
Yeah, continued existence in a non-Euclidian temporal distortion for about six years would warp your understanding of reality. And that's before you factor in time experienced by the individual, which tends to be much greater than time actually lived by the physical body.

How many times have you fought Red Joker?

>>28506351
Fire Tyrant Eye, cut Scrander, open up with the Vulcans.

>>28506351
[x] Get out of his way
Sinistral out just in case
Open up with your vulcans
Unleash 2 bits for giggles to see what he does with them

>>28506351
Hey, dude, is there something that you want?

>>28506390
I'd suggest using Exec_Disrupt.

>>28506377

Guys, post in spoilers

It's like the psycho mantis fight. He can't hear you if you post in spoilers.

>>28506401
But we want for him to hear us.

>>28506401
>OP is actually Kojima
It would explain the timezone, at least.

So we have to select something that hasn't been already posted without spoilers?
Here's my take: Fist him in the face with the Crisis Arm while flying at him full charge.

>>28506401
Let's test that.

>>28506351
Tyrant Burst 1, maneuver to the right and fire the Plasma Caster after he passes.

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>>28506417
We don't want him to predict our moves.

>>28506429
Initially we want to give him the idea that he can do it. We allow him to predict a move or two and then start posting in spoilers while feeding him bullshit without spoilers. He lets down his guard, we fuck him.

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>>28506453
This is really going places.

>>28506453
But first we need proof of concept.
Otherwise we put ourselves in a vulnerable position.

Also, didn't >>28506401 already spoil the spoiler thing?

I suggest using Fortress Mode to bind him. Then put the Crisis Arm into his ass.

Man if he can hear spoilers anyway we're all gonna look pretty bloody silly.

>>28506468
We do need proof, 's why we start the fight with unspoilered moves. At the very beginning none of us have the meter for the more damaging moves so it should be fine. Well, we'll see how it goes.

File: 1385470121563.pdf-(154 KB, PDF, DeltaWorksOfBrettNortje.pdf)

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Wait, Ixion has been here for six years...
Does that mean he missed smartphones and the internet?

Maybe we should introduce him to a certain African dude. He might make a good friend and they could track down the Timecube guy.

>>28506390
>>28506397

I CAN SEE TIME.

I CAN SEE IT ALL AROUND ME, RUSHING OFF AHEAD, AND BRANCHING OFF INTO A TANGLE OF FUTURES.

>>28506393

Ixion's words are wrenched away by the wind, as the focusing lens of the Tyrant Burst system gather charge; Your forearms sheaths retracting, your Plasma Vulcans whirring to life-

A desperate jet of thrust hurls you to the right, the wind howling in your audio pickups-

Light, blinding light, explodes across your sensors. The tachyon flare bleaches all colour to white - If you had eyes, you'd be blinded in an instant. But the sheer intensity of it sends pain flaring through your scorched brain, as two Interceptors detach from your wing binders, opening fire-

You actually *feel* the slipstream, as Ixion whips past to your left - Your sensors fighting to recohere, as you flick through the different view modes, static fizzing across your visual field-

Just as your vision returns, twin rays of annhilating radiance - Shafts of furious azure - stab from Ixion's eyes. You get the Sinistral up, and the rays splinter as they connect with your shield - Beams reflecting in every direction at once from the hard-light construct, carving molten furrows across the buildings on both sides.

(Continued)

>>28506513
"Hey, Akira, do you still want that last piece?
It doesn't seem like it did this guy any good."

>>28506539

Its quite clear he wants it and wont budge.

If we keep asking him, he'll get irritated.

>>28506513

He's still *talking* - Still rambling, to his unseen audience - the monotone of the insane, as the Plasma Caster forms on your arm...

You fire. The weapon's blast is an expanding halo of plasma scattershot, the cohered blast a roiling thunderclap that sears across the distance towards Ixion - The wave buffets him, scorching that gold and onyx armour as his arms cross over his chest; The perceptual current of a tachyon field flickering, rent with holes as the sheer force flings him back-

You trigger your Vulcans, and hammer with his long, rattling bursts of fire - But Ixion's barrier is up, your shots freezing and dissipating as they near him. The Tempest Scrander's particles fume at your back, the crimson wake trailing behind you...

The death-blast of Ixion's eye-beams shear forth again. The twin shafts sear along your shoulder pauldron - You wrench away, and they scour above your head -

(Continued)

>>28506641

yea, projectiles aren't working. Lets switch to the crisis arm. If we break the barrier with a cobolt booster punxh, we might be able to get in a point blank shotgun blast.

We can use out missiles to box him in, letting us close in.

>>28506397

HUMANS CANNOT PERCEIVE TIME. THEY SIMPLY MOVE THROUGH IT.

I CAN SEE TIME, ALL AROUND ME.

I AM PERCEPTUALLY AWARE OF EXISTING IN ITS CURRENT

IN A FEW OF THOSE FUTURES, MY CONSCIOUSNESS PERSISTS IN AN ENVIRONMENT RICH ENOUGH FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF BACKCHANNEL REMOTE VIEWING.

WHAT I DO NOW, I DO IN TRUE SELF-DEFENSE.

>>28506641

There's a groan.

With glacial slowness, the support column sheared through, a great shadow slopes across the time-lost city as dust blossoms along the missing join...

As the building begins to topple forward.

HP: 150.4%
COBALT BOOSTER: 150%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 105%
METER: 14%
INTERCEPTORS: 2/5

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>28506688
>IN A FEW OF THOSE FUTURES, MY CONSCIOUSNESS PERSISTS IN AN ENVIRONMENT RICH ENOUGH FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF BACKCHANNEL REMOTE VIEWING.
>WHAT I DO NOW, I DO IN TRUE SELF-DEFENSE.
Wait, is he talking about hyper-advanced science or something mundane that I can't parse from his comment?

>>28506667
So basically we need to keep shooting our vulcans and keep distance.

>>28506688
[x] Send off 3 missiles in his face, use the resulting smoke screen to get close and punch with the crisis arm,

>>28506688

This:>>28506667

We are fisting a Time Lord!

>>28506713

Oh shit, I think I got it.

It's like Steins;Gate. He's looking BACK from the timelines in which he survives. He's fighting us because he KNOWS we kill him.

>>28506688

Hmm, might as well get info while we can:
"Do you know what happens to hecate? Where is she?"

>>28506667
No, he's blocking them with a personal version of the temporal storm sealing this place. He can also see the future/read what we write. Come up with two sets of plans, one fake and visible, and one real and spoilered. The fake plans should make an opening for the real one.

And now a building's falling down. Have work, so I'm off. Try and survive Anons; Ixion try to be memorable, since tragically you're probably not going to survive to become a recurring character. You will be missed, Golden Deadpool.

>>28506752
>"Do you know what happens to hecate? Where is she?"
I don't think he cares.

Asking about Hellebore makes more sense, though.


Now I wonder:
Can we speak THROUGH Joker?
That would be the weirdest thing ever. A bit like AC2, with Altair/Ezio/Desmond temporal memory chains.

>>28506761
>Golden Deadpool.
Reminds me of that Zero no Tsukaima crossover one-shot where Deadpool is summoned, knows that he's in a fanfiction and then sees Guiche (feminine dude) and instantly deduces that he's in a yaoi fanfiction.
So he tries to kill everyone and murder the author.

Anyway, Scrander crash into the ground. Use the shockwave to throw him back and allow us to fire ALL THE MISSILES. With cobalt boost.

Do >>28506714

>>28506798
>>28506714

As the building topples forward, your Triskelion Launchers spin up - A trio of missiles barreling towards Ixion, on twisting streamers of exhaust. The cold blue light of his eye-beams disintegrate the first one; A shaft of tachyon light stabbing forth from his right hand, grazing the second...

The third one right slams into him, and erupts into a ball of flame. The blast is an expanding fireball, smoke coiling up from the shockwave as you surge towards him; The Crisis Arm drawn back for a pulverizing blow-

You burst through the smoke, and hurl a massive punch at where Ixion-

...should be.

Somehow, dazzlingly, he manages to dodge - Instead of smashing his helm, your gravimetric fist shatters one of his six tachyon generators; The blazing pinion flickering fitfully, as the charge shorts out...

And then he catches you with a left hook, that slams every breath you have ever taken from your chest. Your cuirass dents beneath the impact - The world spins, sickeningly, head-over-heels as you're *hurled* back, the blow somehow contriving to impart an enormous force-

(Continued)

The fuck is Thief doing and why isn't he helping.

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>>28506837

As your field of vision flips end-over-end, as your Tempest Scrander flares in a desperate attempt to arrest your whirling tumble, you burn retros as your lethal spin terminates in a stabilizing hover...

-The building falls on Ixion.

It's like a glacier slowly calving, as floor after floor accordioning upon itself; The whole structure coming down with a thunderous crash, the spontaneous demolition kicking up a massive cloud of black smoke-

...As twin beams of azure light blast a hole through the ruin, and he ploughs through the churning damnation cloud. His golden armour is dented, but the enemy Player flies with singleminded path of a bullet - The beams annihilating everything in their path, even as he's pelted by the hailing destruction, slammed to either side as his tachyon shield judders beneath the constant impacts...

You hear the roar of a powerful engine, as a darting shape - Matte-black, with orange highlights - loops upwards from the coliseum, turning furiously to stay in the air.

The Thief's voice crackles across the distance, almost smothered by the cacophony of ruin:

"We'll flank him. Climb."

His jet - It's a tiny thing, barely twice the size of a man - seems to have tremendous vertical thrust; The quad guns in the nose turret spit tracer streams, the engine flaring blue-hot, ribbons of superheated air bleeding from the thrusters.

HP: 139.6%
COBALT BOOSTER: 150%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 91%
METER: 20%
INTERCEPTORS: 2/5

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>28506908
EXEC_SWARM to soften him up, then slice with the shield when he gets in range.

Time to add some concentrated fire to the bike.
TAU GO!
Aim for the Tachyon generators.

>>28506955
Forgot to add:
Repair. We are floating Booster.

>>28506908

Holy shit, this is insane. This is an actual aerial battle, you realize?

AKIRA HAS A LIGHTJET

>>28506908
Flank him from the other side and open up with your vulcans and plasma caster.

[x] I'm think of letting Thief get his attention, then rushing in with Crisis arm and lvl2 Sinistral to butcher the guy. Use the falling debris to obscure our movement while dispensing afterimages. His shields seemed to be shit against melee.

>>28506969
>AKIRA HAS A LIGHTJET
Thank you for warning our enemy.

I guess we could play Pimp my Ride with Akira. He has his jet, we got our tank.

>>28506955
>>28506968

When Ixion surges through the ruins of the building - As it completes it's destructive fall, the ground trembling beneath the titanic impact - he's hammered by the Thief's charge cannon rounds; Sparks fly from his armour, forcing him to pull into a slow, torturous climb - But you have the altitude advantage, as the Tau Gun shimmers into existence in your right fist...

The Cobalt Booster makes the Nova Cannon's accumulator hum with seething blue light. As if forewarned, Ixion thrusts an open hand in your direction, the beginnings of a low-gauge shield shimmering into existence - The motes of a tachyon field gathering-

The death-blast of his eyebeams stab forth, searing through the smoke. The Thief banks, desperately - His jet wobbling in the air, on vector thrust - dodging between the blasts that stab at him...

-Buying you enough time to fire.

The antimatter round streaks across the distance, and Ixion's shield explodes like a short-fused grenade. The violent interaction of the colliding field erupts forth in a swelling sphere of anti-light; Trailing smoke, Ixion's blasted downwards, left hand reduced to a smoking stump-

(Continued)

>>28507050

Your second shot goes wide. The cutting beam slices across the curving wall of a smokestack, as Ixion dives - A violent barrel roll wrenching him away as the Nova Cannon explodes the structure's outer wall, instead in a hail of flying tiles.

"We've got him," the Thief snarls, gunning the engine as he sweeps around the other side, looping towards Ixion-

They pass, the Thief's charge cannon hammering away, as you burn towards them. Your Sinistral flares to life, burning the cold, brittle blue of a tachyon field - You hear the clatter of his jet's ammunition hoppers unloading, and then the sudden *crump* of metal giving way...

You dive through the momentary visual barrier of smoke, to see a great shape tumbling through the air towards you - Propelled by impossible force, rotating end-over-end, trailing fragments of itself as it's shredding by it's own velocity-

As Ixion hurls the Thief's fighter at you.

HP: 149.6%
COBALT BOOSTER: 106%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 91%
METER: 28%
INTERCEPTORS: 2/5

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>28507111
Cobalt boosted Crisis Arm through the fighter, proceed to Scrander crash into the fucker and crush his skull.

Use the Scrander boost to avoid the fighter.
Did we unlock lvl 2 weaponry?

>>28507111
Dodge to the side, unleash 3 rockets.

[x] Go above it, unload our Ion Blaster in his face since it seems to fuck with energy barriers. Well, if we have it.

>>28507133
>>28507164
...Maybe we should stop doing contradictory instructions. My spoiler is in your plaintext, for example.

>>28507177
Imagine how confused Ixion must be. Even Joker is baffled. But yeah, we should. i just want to see what Ion blaster does to this guy.

>>28507198
Seems like we do have the ion blaster equipped.

I say we do the following:
Boost downwards, then open fire with both Tau and ion blaster. If that isn't possible, just use the ion gun.

>>28507236
[x] I do love the sound of that. Let's do that if OP hasn't already started writing.

Oh and I love how Ixion has already lost one of his arms. Good start.

>>28507164
>>28507133
>>28507236
>>28507255

You spin and turn, powering away from the collision - The thruster pack spews blue flame and hissing sparks, as you soar through the air: Wrenching the Ion Blaster from your left holster, a flicker of neon light sizzling down your arm as the charging element of your gauntlet links with the weapon...

Explosive bolts fire, as the Thief hits the emergency ejector. He blasts away on a parabolic arc, his form dwindling into the distance as he tumbles away - The rocket thrust of his release mechanism flinging him aside from the doomed ruins of his attack jet. The great spinning mass nearly clips you - You tip your head, just barely clearing the fragmenting wreckage-

And spear Ixion in your sights.

The targeting chime echoes across your HUD, as you fire with both weapons at once: The Ion Blaster spits it's crackling white-cored blast, as Ixion's wings furl - Losing altitude, your shots searing the air all around him, forming a desperate shield against the hail of disruption bolts raining down from above: The tachyon field eroding beneath your fizzing round, as you swing the Tau Gun in line with his chest-

When you fire, waste heat boils out from the vents on either side - The stabilizers keep the weapon in line, as your antimatter shot slams into his disintegrating barrier: You hit him head-on, right in the abstract, angular emblem on his chest - Ixion's plating explodes in a bounding hail of gold sharpnel, annhilating his insignia in a single shot. The shockfront of the resulting detonation is a painful, plosive *bang*; Another one of his generators goes dead, the wing fragmenting into sizzling motes of light.

(Continued)

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I'm having a hard time just deciding on what theme to use for this crazy fight.
Currently going with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuzWwcqU86E

>>28507387
Maybe I should continue watching that show.

But it's a lot like a boss fight.
Maybe something from an FPS might work.
Maybe a slightly crazy song for a slightly crazy character.

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>>28507345

You hit him with another crackling bolt from your Ion Blaster - Cising sparks leaping across his scorched, juddering form -

Ixion's eyes flare. His remaining hand stabs towards you, as lethal as a spear.

The light of annhilation sears forth. It's not a blast - For one terrible instant, the substance of his being *becomes* light. The wrist-thick beam slashes through the air, a sword of tachyon radiance as you wrench yourself to the side...

-From the forearm down, your right arm ceases to exist.

It doesn't even hurt. The ray slashes through your arm, and cleaves across your hip - Your Nova Cannon, and the hand holding it, ceases to exist. A fist-sized hole opens in the side of your torso, the terrible radiance slicing *into you*...

But you still have your Ion Blaster, and your next white-cored shot takes Ixion in the head. The left lens of his helmet explodes, blowing out from within: He convulses, the blade of his wrath carving across the road below, shearing through cars and buses and signs, erasing them in a cleaving, careless stroke-

His roar - That terrible, wounded roar, a monotone howl of fury - splits the air; And far, far above, the city responds. Overhead, the tachyon barrier begins to shimmer, great rents appearing in the surface - The black winds howling across the city, with the singleminded force of a cyclone.

The roiling blackness sweeps in, as - within the frozen city - time begins to move once more. Poisonous and fierce, the damnation clouds gather, churning the tranquil sky into twisted darkness. Sour flashes of light flicker within their depths, like baleful eyes peering through the smoke and fog.

(Continued)

>>28507521
What a sore loser.

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>>28507521

Windows crack, roof tiles rippling away in the rising wake - Slates wrenched away in the churning winds, cars overturning as the bow-wave of the oncoming apocalypse sweeps through the streets.

And as you pull out from your death-dive...

And as Ixion closes on you like a murder-star, blazing through the heavens...

-The storm breaks.

HP: 111.2%
COBALT BOOSTER: 74%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 73%
METER: 41%
INTERCEPTORS: 2/5

TIER TWO WEAPONRY UNLOCKED

JOKER QUEST

EPISODE 70

TO BE CONTINUED

>>28507584
Well, we still got the Fortress.
No biggie.

>>28507584

(Gentleman: My apologies, but it's extremely late on my end. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to keep up the same quality of responses if we continue - And this looks like a natural breakpoint for the fight.

I'll admit that this is meant to be an extremely challenging encounter, and I'm - as always - pleasantly surprised by the responses to it thus far.

Good night and God bless - You've been a wonderful audience, and I hope to catch you again soon.)

>>28507606
Thanks for running OP. I'm kinda surprised Ixion can still fight while missing his arm, eye and most/all of his shield generators.

Tenacious son of a bitch.

>>28507606
>I'll admit that this is meant to be an extremely challenging encounter, and I'm - as always - pleasantly surprised by the responses to it thus far.
If this quest ever ends, I'll *really* want to know how the things we derailed were supposed to go.

Also, you are awesome. I have no clue why the Quest doesn't seem to get much resonance.

>>28507623

I think he has SIX generators. Six wings = Six reactors.

>>28507688
We will manage. Stand strong anon.

>>28507629

(I'll say this: Things began taking an unexpected turn from as early as Episode 7.)

>>28507723
Was that when we seduced Hecate?

>>28507708
He has four generators, one hand and can see through time.
I guess we are at an advantage. We didn't even get out our heavy stuff yet.

>>28507737
That makes sense, seeing as she wasn't actually even supposed to be a love interest.

>>28507745
I'll remind this here just in case.

We can regen our arm with the emblem. I'd rather have both arms to blast this fuck with.

>>28507832
>We can regen our arm with the emblem. I'd rather have both arms to blast this fuck with.
Only when we have a downtime.
We need at least one round without damage to heal ourselves.

And I'm not sure if Fortress will defend against his pure energy modes.

>>28507846
We can try to shoot him out of the sky, pass it up to Thief for a moment while we deploy Fortress mode and regen our arm. Pretty sure we could kill him faster this way than bumbling around without one arm. The weather is getting annoying here, don't want to linger.

Now the question is..consume or kill the old fashioned way? I'm digging his powerful blasts and shields..

>>28507888
>Now the question is..consume or kill the old fashioned way? I'm digging his powerful blasts and shields..
Last thread, Akira commented that everything is ending.
I'm seeing this as meta-information.
Which means that it's finally time to level up. The question is what kind of level up we want to do.
Upgrading Carnifex would be the best idea, in my opinion. Because it would be likely to become much safer than thus much more useful.

>>28507888
>consume the bastard
>ends up with us consuming the shard
Oh boy.

>>28507936
We can lop off his generators and let Thief loot the corpse before eating him.

Imagine those generators in our armor frame.. Hnngh.

>>28507936
>>28507948
>Joker absorbs Shard
>Joker becomes Deadpool
>Starts gaining self-awareness and tells Mio everything because fuck random anons
>RJ revives Hecate and takes over the world with his harem
>Goes crazy from meta-awareness

Anyway, I'd say he should give us insane amounts of essence. He doesn't deserve to be a hat and I'm judging that he'll give at least two levels.

>28502302

Shit, I can't believe I missed the thread.

>>28507830

How could she not be a love interest? She was hands-down the hottest girl to be introduced, and she actually still is.

Seriously, for the sexiness factor, she beats out everyone else. Mio is too innocent to really be a vamp and Megumi is too low-class.

These fights are getting hideously destructive.

>>28508496
She was supposed to be the evil seductress, working for the evil guys.
I guess that she betrayed Pazuzu because we managed to seduce her, if I remember the timeline correctly.

And hotness is seriously subjective.

>>28507345

The Tau is a REALLY GOOD weapon. It fucks up anyone we manage a direct hit on.

>>28508601
You're remembering wrong.

>>28508606
It is, but but I can't believe people pulled it out after seeing the premonition of our severed arm holding the gun.

>>28508748

It actually shows what Ixions powers are. His heat vision is time vision, in that it sends stuff back in time.

So the arm we found is actually our own arm that we later lost in the battle. The wing must have come from thief's fighter jet when Ixion threw it at us.

>>28509284
Well yeah, he's got tachyon weaponry. Tachyons move faster than light, which breaks (special) relativity, meaning time travel. And he turned part of his own body into tachyons. That's probably where the real weirdness comes from.

Also, it's interesting that Ixion's main desire, should he survive, is to watch other people fight. Wonder how far back he's been seeing his death?

Has anyone taken a look at the new Hollow Sun guide? Seems there's a a lot more stuff than last I checked.

>>28514577

I'm surprised that no-one's researching anything, actually. This would be a great time to do it.

But holy shit, this chapter was off the fucking chain. Are all the fights usually this insane?

>>28517466

We're looking at it slightly longer term with the need to produce more void anchors to speed up energy gathering.

>>28509721

I thought his desire is to survive. From his weird spiel, it seems pretty clear that he's trying to avoid his own death.

So he attacks us because he knows there are many timelines where we kill him. If I'm reading this right.

>>28517466
>Are all the fights usually this insane?
Just about, yeah.

Research takes energy, and we want better energy generation as soon as possible.

Speaking of research: We might want to get the Essence Accumulators, if they have a chance of unlocking other resource gathering options.

>>28517587
That's why I said SHOULD he survive. Though now that I look at it again, he might be saying he wants to watch livestreams...

Also, pastebin's been updated up to episode 70. http://pastebin.com/DNGtTt04

>>28517843

The pastebin is really very helpful. The numbering is all over the place, but the swap to normal digits has helped a lot.

>>28517466
>Are all the fights usually this insane?
You should have seen Bardiel.

>>28520863
>The numbering is all over the place
He's been asking for suggestions on how to improve the guide. What do you mean here?

Hey, guys, we almost killed the dude before he could use his time beam.

This means that we almost created a paradox.

>>28522500
If we hadn't used the Tau Gun at all, we would have caused a paradox.

>>28522584
Yes, but that would have been slightly different from "break the cutscene by being too good".

>>28522584

But what if that particular future was a dismembered Red Joker?

>>28522649
In this case, it would have been "break the cutscene by being too smart".

>>28522701
Absolutely nothing. The only thing suggested by the severed arm is that if the Tau Gun came out, Red Joker would lose his right arm. Doesn't mean Red Joker will lose or die, just that it gets interesting if it comes out.

>>28522823

Then why bring out the Tau Gun in the first place.

Ixiom could view multiple futures. Nothing said that that future was OUR future.

>>28522854
Someone wanted to use it is all. Didn't recognize the warning for what is was. Wound up being pretty niffty.

>>28522894
We are basically a multi-stage boss in this fight.
We lose an arm and change attack pattern.

And this attack pattern consists of one-time full heal.

>>28522405

I'm saying that the numbering on sup/tg/ is a bit hard to read, because it uses Roman numerals at the start. I'm not good at roman numerals.

>>28522854

That's where all the debris was coming from. The stuff is from our future, at that point in time, which is currently happening now. All the stuff falling from the air is because of the fight that was GOING to happen.

So basically ixion's time-vision blast disintegrates things by moving them back in time. It's like if you teleport someone's arm away, which is the equivalent of simply severing the limb.

But in time, not space.

Time travel gives me a headache.

>>28523095
>I'm saying that the numbering on sup/tg/ is a bit hard to read, because it uses Roman numerals at the start. I'm not good at roman numerals.
Tough shit.
I hate whoever is responsible for using arabic numerals.
Not that I care about sup/tg/ anymore. Fuck that site.

>>28523058

This fight also illustrates something very interesting. We are actually really goddamn powerful. Totenaz just couldn't keep up. He had a fighter jet, but his fighter jet lasted for all of one turn before ixion turned it into a missile.

In terms of raw firepower, we might be the most powerful player out there. We don't have the abilities that are useful on a big scale, like Argent's 'build anything' or kraken's 'command monsters and cause earthquakes', but the RJ armour is made to kill things.

I'm still wondering with that black joker is like. Or what a PC white joker/black joker would have been like.

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>>28523095

He mentions timelines here: >>28506262

Which means that it may not be from our future but that of another path.

Your assertion that way implies that time in immutable. That everything follows a straight line. It's not confirmed wrong but I personally suscribe to the river analogy. The future you up the stream, the more branches that are possible. Since frankly the former means you can't change your fate and that is very depressing.

>>28523289

oh fuck i can't believe i mised this

>>28523332

The river analogy probably is more applicable in this instance. Only one past exists, but there are multiple futures. So when you send stuff back, you send it back into the 'only' iteration of the past that exists.

So technically, the damage to the city is from every possible version of the fight. No wonder ixion is batshit, it's impossible to be sane if you could see everything that might happen.

>>28523289
You have to consider that we are buffed to the whazzo on upgrades.
Imagine a Red Joker without Cobalt Booster (Including all of the Cobalt Boost attacks), Scrander, Sinistral, Crisis Arm (Well, I guess this one could count as being part of our upgrade system and not an external addition), Argus system, Tau gun, Mines, Assault Shroud, Cybele Emblem, Codebursts, Carnifex, Hollow Sun equipment, Nihl Sphere and some other things that I probably forgot.

What if the endlessly upgrading nature of our armor is unique?

>>28523422

I think it is. Our armour seems to be immune to a lot things other players are afflicted by. For example, we are not in love with our hyades, while Thief says that every other player with the Mark is.

>>28523444
>For example, we are not in love with our hyades, while Thief says that every other player with the Mark is.
That might be because most players seem to be our age and might not be in love already, in contrast to us.
Or our harem hijinks made us immune to charming attempts.

I wonder if there are female Hyades champions.

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>>28523444

That information would have been really useful before hand.

We might have been able to warn off Bishamon

>>28523289

> We don't have the abilities that are useful on a big scale, like Argent's 'build anything' or kraken's 'command monsters and cause earthquakes', but the RJ armour is made to kill things.

That's the point. The Red Joker is a weapon. All our Player Powers create weapons. It's only the stuff we picked up later that gives us more utility. Bishamon had to spend several upgrades to get his stupid head vulcans.

>>28523484
>All our Player Powers create weapons. It's only the stuff we picked up later that gives us more utility.
I think you missed something.
We put almost all upgrade points into FORCE.

GUARD or MOBILITY might have led to less violent abilities.

So, who's up for a Carnifex affinity upgrade?
Having higher Carnifex affinity could make it a permanent part of our avatar.

>>28523540
I fancy more FORCE or METER..

>>28523540

We really don't use that one enough.

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>>28523540

Meter.

We still have trouble accessing our higher level abilities.

Though actually I would like to spend another point to reduce the amount of essence required to level up further but I am hesitant due to how things are going. It would not do to spend that upgrade and find out we're at the door to the final boss.

>>28523559
That's because it has significant drawbacks.
Remember the lvl 1 Scrander?
That fucker was hilariously pointless at that stage. We needed an affinity upgrade to make it useful and it only became a permanent movement solution when we upgraded it a second time.

>>28523557
But FORCE and METER are now atomic options.
With METER, we'd either go for higher starting meter or faster meter gain. WIth FORCE we have about half a dozen options.
And we don't know how much EXP we will be getting. We seem to be getting closer to the endgame.

Carnifex affinity seems like the best investment, because it serves as a force multiplier in contrast to all the other options.
It would upgrade ALL of our options.

And I really wish we could try out GUARD. One of the two options sounds like a way to reduce knockback.

>>28523592
Which would you choose? Faster gain or higher starting amount?
The latter would unlock lvl 2 weapons from the get-go.

>>28523592

I think we still have a ways to go, actually. There's the hyades stuff to resolve. But the shit will probably really hit the fan after the play, because that has all the set-up of a big, world-changing disaster.

It's next week, in-game time, right?

Watashi, I have a suggestion for the episode guide:
Mark the upgrade points and all instances of collecting Essence.
I would like to know how many people are killed per level, on average.

>>28523461

We're not actually in love with anyone. (Well, maybe Hecate, which is odd because she only appeared in the first third of the game.) Mio is the runner-up.

Yui has really grown on me, even if she hasn't appeared much. She's cute when she's embarrassed.

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Pasting our last upgrade list:

[ ] FORCE
- [ ] WEAPON TIER UNLOCK (2.5)
- [ ] PRIMARY WEAPON UNLOCK - RANGED
- [ ] PRIMARY WEAPON UNLOCK - MELEE
- [ ] CODEBURST UNLOCK
- [ ] WEAPON UPGRADE - PLASMA VULCAN
- [ ] WEAPON UPGRADE - NOVA CANNON

[ ] METER (FASTER METER GAIN)
- [ ] METER ACCELERATOR
- [ ] METER BOOST

[ ] GUARD (DEFENSIVE UPGRADE)
- [ ] IMPACT REINFORCEMENT
- [ ] ABILITY UNLOCK

[ ] SURVIVE (VITALITY UP)

[ ] EVOL
- [ ] ABILITY UNLOCK
- [ ] INTERCEPTOR SYSTEM UPGRADE

[ ] ROULETTE (RANDOM RELIC)
- [ ] WEAPON
- [ ] DEF.
- [ ] UTILITY

[ ] LIMITER ATTUNEMENT

[ ] RELIC UPGRADE - ASSAULT SHROUD
[ ] RELIC UPGRADE - TEMPEST SCRANDER
[ ] RELIC UPGRADE - CARNIFEX


>>28523663
>which is odd because she only appeared in the first third of the game
...You haven't been in love, have you?

>>28523675
>- [ ] IMPACT REINFORCEMENT
Judging by how often our cuirass gets dented, this actually sounds like a nice option.

>>28523675

I'm late to the party. I joined in the thread where we fought bardiel.

>>28523675
So many options, so little essence. We need to go farming collectors or smilers.

>>28523728
I'm all for that.

Can't we do a farming montage where we take a day off of randomly destroying universes and gain some essence afterwards?

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>>28523607

Gain really. Higher starting amount only works at the very start or in short matches. Which I doubt our big battles will be. It'll prove its worth in the long dragged out fights.

>>28523675

So many options, so little essence. All of them delicious.

>>28523675
This is what seems most useful for me:
- [ ] WEAPON UPGRADE - PLASMA VULCAN
- [ ] WEAPON UPGRADE - NOVA CANNON
-> We use them all the time. Might as well upgrade them.

[ ] METER (FASTER METER GAIN)
- [ ] METER ACCELERATOR
Meter boost is only higher starting meter - Gaining meter faster is better, due to the fact that an earlier upgrade allowed meter-using weapons to grant additional meter. This would make it easier to offset their costs.

[ ] GUARD (DEFENSIVE UPGRADE)
- [ ] IMPACT REINFORCEMENT
Because, hey, we are constantly getting limbs chopped off and our body broken in all kinds of ways.

[ ] RELIC UPGRADE - CARNIFEX
Would likely make it less harmful to us and thus much more useful.
Upgrading Scrander and Shroud would be nice but is far less essential.
And Shroud and Argus have Hollow Sun upgrades, anyway.

>>28523741

It's crazy how we are always, always short of time. There are so many side-quests, we can never ever finish them.

Does anyone else think that we should back out on the Palladium rook mission? We have had multiple people say that it is a very bad idea, and the whole thing seems so poorly planned I doubt it'd be effective.

>>28523799
>Does anyone else think that we should back out on the Palladium rook mission? We have had multiple people say that it is a very bad idea, and the whole thing seems so poorly planned I doubt it'd be effective.
Actually, to me it sounds like the perfect way to collect essence.
We can mercy kill damaged players. (Well, at least the once that seem to be assholes. When no one is looking)

>>28523799
We will have to take the fight to them sooner or later. Better do it with some 30 meat shields in front of us. Let's be honest, they will die regardless of whether or not we're there. But with us there we can accomplish the mission better than if we were to do it solo.

>>28523789

We should use more Hollow Sun weapons and stuff. I really want the Arsenal Beacon and the Emulator module, both of which seem rather useful.

The Shroud upgrades are pretty solid, too.

>>28523675

>...You haven't been in love, have you?

Even if we rescue her, she's still basically a brain in a jar. No chance of a happy ending, there. Kotone's route would likely be even more tragic, but hecate's romance is pretty fucking dark when you consider the logistics of it.

My general attitude is that we need to work with what we know.
Our arsenal already fills all niches. Now we need to focus more, instead of thinking about getting any random upgrades that may or may not be useful.

That's why I'm against earning us a Time Lord hat. I'd rather pump that essence into Nova cannon/Vulcans/Carnifex/Meter.

>>28523853

Arsenal beacon really works for outfitting an army since the standard weapons are weak.

>>28523894

Those tachyon generators are incredible. I wonder if we can get at least one of them for later use.

>>28523909
I think we should get one for the raid.
Do the perma-activation thingy and summon weapons for everyone.

>>28523944

Thing is, we could easily load the Red Comet's bay with weapons and ferry it to the meeting ground or before the gathering for dissemination to them. Then set an autopilot to get the Armour back home.

We don't really need to get the arsenal.

>>28523888
RJ becomes the World's creepiest cripplefucker.
This shouldn't really be strange at this point. RJ is basically yandere for Hecate so even a thought about giving up at this point would be actually strange.

>>28523997
Imagine what Mio will feel like.
Or how Hecate will feel about Mio if she does revive.

>>28524049

We're destined to break Mio's heart at this point.

>>28523972
>Thing is, we could easily load the Red Comet's bay with weapons and ferry it to the meeting ground or before the gathering for dissemination to them. Then set an autopilot to get the Armour back home.

I already see it:
>"Hey, what is an Armory Guardian doing here?"
>"Ah, that's just Joker's car. Seems like we'll get some serious firepower. I already feel safer."
>Everyone cheers.
>Tank unloads weapons and drives away.
>Blank expressions

>>28524049
Well, seeing as girls in JQ don't exactly get along unlike, say, in MSQ, I'm expecting a School Days END