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>>956529

It’s been four days since you’ve joined her team. It’s normal for all of a team’s members to live and sleep at the same place, but your team’s manager ended up arranging for you to have a small place to yourself in the same building.

You’re a floor up from the other three members making for about two minutes of walking distance, and this kind of thing is routine - Alexis makes you join them for breakfast, which she puts together for the others anyway, and you usually end up spending most of your day with them.

Your second mission with your team was two days ago, which ended up thankfully far less exciting than the first. While walking down the stairs to the lower floor Alexis explains that they’ve been assigned to another mission.

“We’re going to work with another trainee team to protect cargo going to the North Barrier,” your leader says. “But lets leave the details until later.”

>>956533

It only takes a minute to reach their room. Alexis takes out her key and opens the door.

The living room isn’t very big considering that it’s an apartment meant for four, but much of one wall is taken up by glass sliding doors that open into a small veranda, showing the cityscape outside and letting in the sunlight. There’s a couch, a widescreen television against another wall, and a game console with controllers strewn across the floor.

Immediately in front of the door is the kitchen, which is partially separated from the living room by the kitchen counter.

The always-excitable, chestnut-haired Mika stands in front of you about two metres away, taking a carton of orange juice out of a refrigerator. She’s wearing a loose t-shirt with the picture of a certain yellow cartoon mouse on its front, and orange and white striped panties.

And that’s it.

She looks up at you and smiles. “Morning, Chris!”


>

[ ] Spaghetti
[ ] Staunch nosebleed: 1d20, DC 19
[ ] Fail to staunch nosebleed
[ ] Collapse

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http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=LQAMG

Previously:

"I wanna punch it in the face," Mika says while looking at the giant floating whale-shaped death fortress.

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>956545
>[ ] Staunch nosebleed: 1d20, DC 19
We can conquer our baser urges!

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>956545
>[ ] Staunch nosebleed: 1d20, DC 19

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>956545
>[ ] Staunch nosebleed: 1d20, DC 19

>>956635
Wooh, success!

>>956635

(Umm.)

>>956650
;)

You stagger, lightheaded, face feeling way hotter than two seconds ago. You raise your hand, holding the bridge of your nose.

Success! No more collapsing with a nosebleed, you think to yourself with a hint of triumph shining through your clouded state of mind. That kind of stuff is for cartoons!

“You okay, Chris?”

You look up and see Mika leaning forward to look at you. The collar of her loose shirt hangs down a few centimetres below her collarbone.

>>956706

Face to floor. Blood everywhere.

At least the floor tiles are kinda cold against your cheek.

You vaguely register Alexis pushing Mika down the hall to your right, presumably to acquire pants. Suzu crouches next to you and offers you a box of tissues, which you thank her for before she scurries away.

For these past few days you feel like Suzu’s been acting shyer around you compared to when you first met. Or maybe you’re just imagining things due to excessive blood loss.

>>956711

Your recovery takes a few minutes, but eventually you make your way to the dining table on your own two feet with the rest of your team looking on in either concern or happy ignorance.

Breakfast is standard: toast, sausages, and scrambled eggs with a side of orange juice, and afterwards Alexis gives her mission briefing.

You’re told that the northern section of the city, the North Barrier, was attacked in the past few days and need help recovering from the damage, which your section of the city, the East Barrier, is sending in the form of a bunch of large magic battery cells. You’re guessing they’re having difficulty keeping their Mist at full strength while also powering other important stuff, like hospitals and food related infrastructure, but details concerning what the cells will be used for aren’t included because it’s not important to you.

The battery cells are being transported by train, and that’s what you and another trainee team are being asked to protect.

“Have you been on a train before, Chris?”

You shake your head at Mika, who brings her feet together onto her chair and sways side to side happily.

“I haven’t even seen one! Same for Aly and Suzy too, right?” The other two nod in response.

There aren’t many routes using the railway that go across the city, and the ones that go between the outer sections are rarely ever used. The city safe zones only cover part of the way so it’s not easy to keep the tracks in usable condition, but they’re maintained in case of emergency situations like these.

Likewise, there aren’t many usable trains either. You’ve seen one in the Central Barrier years ago and remember it being super cool, so you can understand the excitement.

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>>956723

Afterwards Mika insists on challenging everyone to a few games of Mega Mash Mages Brawl which as always ends in Suzu somehow wiping the floor with the rest of you, but otherwise morning passes without incident.

You leave before noon, everyone having changed into casual attire, heading down two flights of stairs and out into the city streets busy with cars driving by left and right and people going through their daily grind. The four of you move with a calm pace through the city (though for one of you the word ‘calm’ is almost never applicable) chattering about everything and nothing in particular.

The sleek skyscrapers are replaced by less stylish-looking factories and warehouse buildings when you reach the station, and all of you equip your Gears with flashes of light before heading inside.

The train station is smaller than it would have been a century ago. The overhead tunnels for foot traffic have been taken down, and much of the station has been closed off - across the tracks you can see lonely benches left to gather dust on abandoned platforms

The platform you’ve entered is far less empty.

The vehicle is comprised of three carriages, including the leading conductor’s carriage. The one in the middle is windowless and obviously reinforced, darker in colour and blockier in shape, with the back-most carriage evidently being for passengers.

It's a patchwork thing, sections of plating clearly newer than others, yet despite that the great machine gives off a sense of nobility. A big metal workhorse, once carrying the lifeblood of cities and industries. You can’t help but admire it.


> Name it, however one names a train!

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(I'm sorry guys. Success just meant a deadlier onslaught.)

>>956729
>The Gestalt Line
Fuck man, I suck at naming shit.

>>956743
No worries, OP, as long as it was for the sake of comedic effect.

>>956729
>The Rex Express

(Oh, and if you're reading and can't think of a name, then reply to someone's suggestion as a vote.)

>>956764
>>956765
Shall we just mash these together and call it the Gestalt Express?

>>956815

(Yes, we can do that.

The Gestalt Rex Line Express.

... I'll go with your less dumb version.)

Suzu and Mika seem to mirror your reaction, slowing down to take in the sight, but Alexis continues to walk towards a group of people further down the station platform.

A pair of older girls, maybe twenty years of age if you had to guess, are talking to a trio of magician trainees. The adults start to wave you over, and you all half-jog to catch up with your team’s leader.

The two adults are the Magician Apprentices who will be conducting the train, which they call The Gestalt Express. They’re in the standard uniform for professional mages, a clean and somewhat military-looking outfit, though one of them has altered theirs to have short sleeves and wears their blazer unbuttoned.

You notice Suzu looking at the latter and whispering to herself “two cups of milk, every day” in a determined tone for some reason.

“Did you guys all get the briefing?”

They’re mainly speaking to your leaders, Alexis and a girl in a light blue coat, but all of you nod anyway.

The apprentices don’t spend long going over your task, but they do emphasise the risk in transporting magic battery cells - Fog-Creatures are instinctively attracted to them and can grow much stronger when exposed to a damaged one.

For that reason the other half of their team, a pair of Magician Adepts, was sent out earlier to help clear the way, though they tell you there’s still a near certainty that the transport will be attacked.

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>>956929

With the formalities done the conductors climb onto the first carriage to get the train started, saying they’ll call the seven of you when it’s ready.

When they’re out of sight the other trainee captain turns to yours, frowning.

“Alexis.”

“Josephine?”

“Why are you here? We can handle this without help.”

She looks stylish, wearing a hooded wide-hemmed long coat coloured in faded and dark shades of blue over a lighter frilled juniper dress. Her long hair is tied back in a curled ponytail and her bangs are brushed to the side, held neatly by a button hairpin. Strapped to her back over a big blue ribbon is a bigger set of decorated sewing scissors, and hanging from her belt is a thin silver sword in its sheath.

You doubt she’s more than a year older than you, but she has a serious expression with sharp eyes and sounds more mature than she should be. A lot like your leader, actually.

>>956937

Alexis looks nonplussed.

“We were assigned. And you’re not going to get less ranking points with more teams on the mission anyway.”

“It’s the principle of it. The principle!”

Are they arguing? The girl in light blue is raising her voice, but Alexis looks calm. Maybe this is just how they communicate?

That doesn’t make sense. Though at least Mika looks entertained.

Further down the platform another girl in what is unmistakably a ninja outfit skips up to Suzu, the two joining their palms together in greeting and chatting happily.

There’s also a bench closer to you, where a younger girl now sits. She’s in a puff-sleeved blouse and full skirt with an apron starting just above her waist, and wears a red-brown muffler over her shoulders with the hood down, displaying light golden-blonde hair in thick pigtail braids. She also has a pair of large hand puppets - two identical wolves, except one is a faded white and the other is black-gray - and looks somewhere between bored and sleepy.


>

[ ] Attempt to commune with the strange puppet girl. Or back away slowly. No sudden moves.
[ ] Head to Suzu and her ninja friend. Maybe ask them about the other team.
[ ] Introduce yourself to the other team leader, before their talk gets more heated.

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>>956948
>[ ] Introduce yourself to the other team leader, before their talk gets more heated.
It begins.

>>956948
>[ ] Introduce yourself to the other team leader, before their talk gets more heated.

>>956948
[ ] Attempt to commune with the strange puppet girl. Or back away slowly. No sudden moves.

>>956948
> introduce yourself to the other team lead
Ask if mistakes in assignments are common

It looks like Mika has joined the conversation between captains.

“Ah come on, Josie. Better sorry than safe, right?”

“Do you think before you talk? And don’t call me Josie.”

“Phinie?”

“Use my name properly!”

Pressing her forehead into her palm for a moment, the girl in light blue turns back to Alexis.

“And speaking of ranking, how did your team jump up earlier this week? We were completing missions as well!”

“Oh, that,” Alexis replies. “One of our missions turned out much harder than expected. I guess we got a lot more points for that.”

“That’s not-”

“Chris just joined up with us as well,” Mika interrupts, laughing, “our first job wasn’t even close to that fun.”

“Chris?”

Mika darts forward and ignores your resistance as she pushes you up to the other team’s captain.

“Chris!” The energetic girl says.

>>957241

“Um, hi?”

The girl in light blue sighs, and you detect a hint of sympathy in her tone.

She tells you her name is Josephine Jacquard, along with the names of her other team members; the ninja who’s talking with Suzu is called Yuna, and the one in the hooded muffler is Ciel. She also tells you Ciel’s black and white wolf puppets are Teethy and Howly respectively, and tells you not to be too shocked when you talk with her.

You aren’t sure what to make of that.

You don’t get much more before one of the Apprentice ladies calls out from the front of The Gestalt Express. “Trainees, we’re set to go. Come on, all aboard!”

Mika spins around. “It’s time!!”

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>>957248

Twenty minutes later.

“I’m bored,” the girl in yellow drones in dismay.

You’re seated inside the third carriage of the Gestalt with the other members of your team, with yourself and Alexis closer to the aisle and facing each other and Mika and Suzu next to the two of you taking the window seats. You’re at the back end of the carriage, and Josephine’s team is seated at the front end across the aisle with the girl in light blue facing the back of the train and her other two team members facing the front.

There’s a small table in front of you where Alexis has laid down her shotgun and Suzu her bell hoop, and where Mika is currently pressing her cheek against.

“Nothing’s happening!”

“Isn’t that a good thing? It’s better if the trip is safe.” She turns to pout angrily at you, and you change the subject.


>

[ ] Ask about Josephine’s team and their capabilities and combat styles.
[ ] Ask if they’ve worked together often.
[ ] Ask about Josephine’s history with Alexis.
[ ] Other?

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(Next update will take a bit longer because I need lunch.)

>>957182
(Not a mistake in assignment. Josephine took the mission and Alexis was assigned by your team manager.

Though the former would rather work without another team, what's frustrating her is not entirely because help was sent her way.)

>>957256
>[ ] Ask about Josephine’s team and their capabilities and combat styles.
Priority goes to this, so we're prepared as early as possible for any possible attacks. Afterwards, we ask about how familiar Alexis seems with Josephine.

>>957256
> Ask about their team and combat styles
And if there is time
> Ask if they have worked together often

>>957272
I know, I was making to act like we didn't know what was going on but draw the argument back to protocol to emphasise the point that we are supposed to be here and aren't just going to walk away because she wants us to

“So what kind of magic does their team use?”

“Umm,” Suzu starts, looking up from Mika becoming progressively more blob-like against the table. “Yuna’s a bit like Alexis, but she doesn’t have anything for closer range. She carries a bunch of paper talismans and sticks them to throwing knives so they explode, and she can breath fire through them.”

“Ciel can fight with her fists, like Mika does,” Alexis says, gesturing to the blob, “but she has medium range magic as well. Her puppets are her specialty though; Teethy can eat all sorts of things, and Howly can spit them out.”

“Ah, what?”

“If she’s close enough she can interrupt and redirect magic. There’s limitations, but it’s really powerful,” Alexis explains before continuing on. “Josephine is a duelist like you, but the way she fights is different. She attaches threads to her opponent and whatever’s around her to set up bindings, and has a handful of support spells as well.”

You think you see Josephine glancing in your team’s direction, though she’s facing the window when you look. You do see Ciel and Howly trying to bite Yuna on the nose; the ninja girl is cornered against the window, hiding most of her face behind her hands and scarf with her eyes squeezed shut against her ally’s assault.

“Uh, have you guys worked with Josephine’s team before?”

“Mhmm,” Suzu answers. “But she’s never really happy about it. Alexis and Josephine have known each other since they were really young, and we’ve always been really close in rank as trainee teams.”

You haven’t been thinking about the ranking thing at all. Maybe you’ll check it out some other time.

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>>957675

Soon enough your attention is again drawn to the girl in yellow sitting at your side.

“They said we’ll definitely get attacked, right? What’s taking so long?”

You all bolt up to the screeching of metal being rent and the sound of rushing wind. Alexis immediately grabs and aims her shotgun; you press your hands against your ears when she pulls the trigger, sending a magical blast towards the back of the train.

You get up off your seat and turn around to see the back door ripped off and two Fogglings, previously three judging from the rapidly dissipating smoke, crawling inside the carriage. They’re lined up in the limited spacing so you flip your staff and fire a lance of violet energy, spearing the two remaining creatures in your shot.

Alexis glances back, meeting Josephine’s eyes, before turning to speak to the three of you.

“We’ll head out up there,” she says, pointing at the emergency exit set into the ceiling of the carriage.

The four of you climb out while the other team leaves through the front exit connecting to the second carriage. A magician’s Gear enhances their physical ability to varying extents, and none of you have any trouble jumping up to the roof.

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>>957692

The wind up here plays merry hell with your hair. The Gestalt passed the safe zone a while back, and looking around you see the broken cityscape flying by on either side. The railway tracks are held a fair bit above the ground, crossing over empty roads and highways beneath.

You all both hear and feel another loud crashing thump, and at the left side of the center carriage you see a large dent made in the reinforced metal and the trailing smoke of the large monster that rammed into it.

Crawkers. Fog-Creatures, winged flyers, cruel mimicries of birds of prey, as insubstantial and alien as their four legged cousins but significantly larger. Where Fogglings are typically under metre tall Crawkers are almost twice their size.

Another one makes a low pass with talons outstretched at Ciel, who flattens herself on the roof of the train to dodge. There’s a flash of steel, and Josephine seems to pull at the air with her left hand. The offending creature is yanked out of the sky before it escapes, disintegrating when it smashes into a nearby steel pole at the speed of train.

There’s two lanes of tracks, and you can see groups of Fogglings crawling across the empty railway lines to train’s right leap up and embed their claws into each of the three carriages, making the metal shriek as they tear away trying to climb up the vehicle.

There’s a freakin’ lot of them.

Flashes of light can be seen coming from the conductor’s carriage far up front. The two Apprentices obviously have their hands full, and ultimately it’s your mission to defend the battery cells being transported.


>

[ ] Kick the Fogglings off your train!
[ ] Reposition closer to the middle carriage, shoot down some Crawkers!
[ ] Stay flexible! Whatever gets in range eats beam to the face!

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(I'm going to pause the thread for now and pick it up tomorrow about 19? hours from now, starting at the same time!

If nobody minds me asking, by the way, what time is it for you guys now? I'm still figuring out whether I'm running at a decent time of day, and whether I should adjust anything.)

>>957711
> stay flexible, pew pew
Kicking them off sounds good if they can't catch up again but it would take longer because we would have to get to them

>>957711
[ ] Reposition closer to the middle carriage, shoot down some Crawkers!

I'd say taking out the aerial attackers should probably be prioritized.
>>957731
The time here as of this post is 12:17 AM

>>957711
>[ ] Reposition closer to the middle carriage, shoot down some Crawkers!
>[ ] Stay flexible! Whatever gets in range eats beam to the face!
If it's possible to compromise between these two, we ought to move closer to the other team so that we're in a position to support either if needed, while staying flexible and relying primarily on ranged attacks. Given the fact that both teams already have some degree of pre-existing cohesion even without us, and our ability to basically teleport instantly in a pinch, we're best suited to provide long-ranged support while maintaining overall awareness of the battlefield, so that we can act as a stopgap measure when needed.

If it isn't, prioritize staying flexible. The battle's just started, and we don't want to commit too heavily into something only to find out we're needed elsewhere.

>>957731
It's 2 pm where I am right now. Where I was 2 days ago, it would be 6 am.

The point being, don't feel overly obliged to go out of your way to accommodate us, because you won't be able to suit everyone.

>>957711
>[ ] Stay flexible! Whatever gets in range eats beam to the face!

>>957711
>[x] Shoot the Fogglings off your train!

They can breach the storage carriage without climbing atop it. If the batteries get damaged, we're gonna have a bad time.

('Kay, some similar ideas and priorities. This should work.

Update ETA ~1 hour.)

Mika stands her ground facing the back of the train, landing her punches on Fogglings that come into striking range while Alexis, at the moment not bothering with her less mobile gatling, pushes shells into her shotgun and blasts any flyers trying to take her friend off-guard.

You run with Suzu closer to the front, pointing your staff forward and sending a lance into a Foggling climbing up the middle carriage when you get into range. The carriage is reinforced, but their claws will get through the metal eventually if you leave them alone.

“Alexis, Mika, pull back a little bit!”

They listen, and you place yourself in a position where your blasting spells can help intercept threats both flying and climbing to the cargo, while staying close enough to your vanguard to prevent them from being surrounded.

You don’t need your spear blade right now. You keep your field of view wide, identifying priority threats, snapping your staff to movement and sending violet lances to enemies in range.

The problem lies in the number, and the fact that they just keep coming.

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>>959114

A group - Three? Four? They’re like quick-moving clouds of smoke - of Crawkers fly over your head. You spin around and loose a lance at one on instinct, piercing a wing and sending it veering off and away. The others speed past to where Suzu has just leapt across the gap between carriages, their warbling cries echoing louder.

Like little jets they aim straight for the girl in green and their beaks pierce something seemingly invisible; the image tears away, and their target isn’t there.

An illusion woven in cloth: [Thousand-Word Tapestry]

“Your turn, Yuna!” Josephine shouts and the ninja girl dashes in front of her leader, placing a paper talisman in the air which hangs perfectly still despite the rushing wind.

Yuna places her right hand behind it with index and middle fingers held up and pressed together. She leans forward, puffing up her cheeks behind her navy blue scarf, then squeezes her eyes shut and blows, and the paper talisman blazes with orange light. A continuous gout of flame streams forth, engulfing the remaining Crawkers in a huge fireball and returning them to formless Fog.

>>959131

With Ciel at her back, her wolf puppets constantly changing size as she adjusts her reach to suit her enemy, the girl in green is free to cast her spells. There’s fewer coming from the front of The Gestalt Express due to the two Apprentices, so Suzu faces the back of the train and rings her bell to start stemming the endless tide of Fogglings hounding Mika and Alexis, and the two adjust to fight more aggressively against their weakened enemies.

You all hear a shout coming from the conductor’s carriage, very much magically enhanced in volume.

“Tunnel!”

You give yourself some room by blasting the nearest Foggling then flatten yourself on the roof of the train as it plunges into darkness, wind above you whipping by as metal girders speed past too close for comfort. Alexis and Suzu both have dropped back down to the third carriage - you hear Suzu’s bell ring, quickly followed by the characteristic cracks of your captain’s shotgun.

With another loud wooshing of wind the Gestalt exits the tunnel rumbling and shaking in tune with loud thumps coming from the front, wisps of dissipating purple smoke trailing off to either side.

You push yourself up, thankful for the space and much, much improved visibility, then immediately point your weapon skyward when a chorus of unnerving cries ring out come from above, preparing for the fresh assault.

Still atop the middle carriage, Yuna flings her throwing knives off to the side at an advancing group of Fogglings, blowing away half a dozen of them and rending apart the metal tracks of the right lane, and Ciel is on her feet and sending blasts out of her white wolf’s mouth, but despite everyone’s efforts you’re once again besieged on all sides. Then you hear a sound, a long, reverberating, high-pitched whistle, and the situation gets worse.

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>>959137

Far from the left side of The Gestalt Express is another vehicle, similar in size but made of gleaming crystalline black metal reminiscent of the stuff that covers demons. It travels on a path that will soon join in parallel to the one your transport is on, and as it gets closer the air darkens with a hazy mauve tint.

You’ve never heard of Fog controlling a vehicle, but what’s approaching is quite distinctly a Fog-corrupted train.

It jumps and shakes erratically, interrupting its rhythmic chugging as its obsidian wheels clang loudly against the tracks underneath, and you can see Fogglings all over the unnatural machine and Crawkers following it from the air.

Or following the Shards within it. Like how Fog-Barriers, nests, and sometimes demons have Shards at their heart. You think something that size should either have a really big Shard or multiple of them - weak points, but with so many enemies and with undoubtedly more being brought into existence, well...

“At least it doesn’t have lasers.” Mika says over the wind.

A short cylindrical protrusion pops out from the roof of the corrupted train and immediately belches out a bolt of roiling dark-crimson energy, missing Alexis’ head by less than half a metre while she climbs back out of the carriage’s roof exit.

“You’re banned from saying stuff like that from now on.”

“But it’s not even a laser!”

“I don’t care!”


>

[ ] Stay on the Gestalt, throw some blasts at the black train!
[ ] Board the black train’s roof and take the fight to the Fog-Creatures!
[ ] Board the black train, try to get inside and find a Shard to break!
[ ] Defend The Gestalt Express!

You can also choose anyone/everyone else’s actions - their choices are the same as Chris’.

>>959144
>[ ] Board the black train, try to get inside and find a Shard to break!

>>959144
I'd like to blow the tracks ahead of the Fog-train and derail it. Whose abilities would be most suited to doing that?

Apart from that, everyone else should
>[ ] Stay on the Gestalt, throw some blasts at the black train!
and
>[ ] Defend The Gestalt Express!

>>959155

(Crap, there's meant to be an explanation somewhere that's disappeared.

There's meant to be a line that says it seems to be staying on track supernaturally. The tracks that its traveling on aren't actually maintained like the ones the Gestalt is on, which is why the black train's jumping and shaking but not derailing.

If you do mess with the terrain in front of it though, it'll definitely slow down and do some damage. Yuna's probably best for that, or Alexis if you can cover her for her gatling.)

>>959182

Would Suzu's rings affect the train and slow it down at all? Or is it too big?

>>959194

(Her spell will affect it, but not as much as it'd affect regular Fog-Creatures. If she just focuses on slowing the train it'll start to be noticeable.

Something about Suzu's abilities that she's had literally no chance to show yet - her shield spell is the strongest out of the trainees, but also takes a few seconds to cast properly. The others have far quicker, more reactive shield spells.)

>>959182
In that case, I suppose we can assume that the train is sustained by its Shards, and we won't be able to get fully rid of it without destroying them, which means we'll have to commit some people to board the train.

Given that the Fog-train is stated to be still some distance away, we'll either have to have us or Suzu or both to transport the designated force across the distance, depending on how many people we can each carry.

Then, we'll want the other members of the boarding party to be close-range specialists. I honestly can't quite recall the specifics of our own team's abilities, but I imagine that Ciel and Josephine should be able to handle themselves well enough, especially given their familiarity with each other's fighting styles.

As a bonus, we can probably just have Teethy eat the Shards and cut short the process of destroying them.

I'm hoping the others have a decent balance of close and long-range powers to defend the Gestalt Express (and possibly give us artillery support on the black train if needed).

In summary:
>Boarding Party (Us and/or Suzu + Josephine and Ciel)
>Blitz through the train and destroy as many Shards as possible!

>Everyone Else
>Defend the Gestalt Express!

>>959246
supporting

>>959246
Supporting this.

The Fog machine is fast, and it won’t take long for its tracks to join up next to the Gestalt’s. Any of you could jump over the gap pretty easily then, but doing some damage before it gets close would be best. Maybe it’s time to start using your [Void Step], but how much of your magic can you afford to spend?

Another two cylindrical turret things pop out of the roof of the black train, gathering magic and firing a pair of missiles directed at the Gestalt’s cargo carriage. Ciel runs forward to the edge of the carriage roof, brandishing her black wolf puppet.

“KAHAHAH SHIT YEAH THE SPOTLIGHT IS MINE!”

… Okay...

Teethy stretches and grows, keeping the same knitted button-eyed appearance, and opens its mouth to reveal cute white cloth fangs. The black wolf puppet chomps down on the crimson bolts, then Ciel lifts Howly and the white puppet barfs the shots straight back where they came, causing two loud explosions atop the black train.

>>959497

The golden-blonde girl is facing the demonic vehicle, but her black wolf puppet on her right hand is turned towards Suzu.

“Hey green chick! Give us a hand will ya?!”

Suzu blinks.

Ciel reaches back with her left hand, showing the white wolf puppet next to his brother.

“Fly, little lady. It is getting closer, and with a some extra momentum we can make the distance!”

“R- Right!”

Suzu jumps up and takes flight. She can’t quite keep up in speed, but she doesn’t need to stay up there for very long. Ciel leaps after her, Howly growing in size and reaching Suzu’s outstretched hands. The wolf puppet squeezes and crumples a little under the girl in green’s fingers and Suzu flies forward and swings her passenger like a pendulum, letting go at the end of the arc.

A ball of crimson fire sings through the air towards the aerial mage, but Ciel intercepts it with Teethy as she’s thrown through the air, the black wolf puppet laughing and shouting a battle cry: “COME AT ME YA LITTLE TWATS!”

>>959505

Josephine is looking up, eyeing the buildings speeding past while Suzu lands onto the back carriage of the Gestalt.

“I’m backing her up. You better not let anything near the carriage while I’m gone.”

Yuna nods twice and Mika responds with a cheerful “aye aye,” the liquid metal orbs in her gauntlets taking the shape of round shields.

Josephine runs closer to the front of the Gestalt and waits a moment, then sprints and jumps off. She tosses her rapier mid-air and it stabs into the stone of a crumbling overpass, and the seamstress uses the thread trailing from it to swing across the distance to the black train.

“You too, Chris,” Alexis says, swapping her gun into gatling form. You nod, and an instant in the Void later you appear on the demonic machine’s obsidian roof, startling the seamstress as she lands next to you.


>

[ ] Close-range, Foggling slaughter.
[ ] Mid-range, lance the flyers and any turrets that pop up.
[ ] Shard hunting, open a hole in the roof and start looking inside.

(Sorry, I keep forgetting to explain stuff properly.
Chris' Void Step is personal, and can't take others or objects other than his Gear with him.)

>>959510
>[ ] Mid-range, lance the flyers and any turrets that pop up.

>>959510

(Oh, to be clear. At least one of the boarders will go look for a Shard to break, if Chris doesn't do it.)

>>959510
>>[ ] Mid-range, lance the flyers and any turrets that pop up.

>>959510
>[ ] Mid-range, lance the flyers and any turrets that pop up.

“Can you two hold?” Josephine asks, her rapier back in her hand and glowing with magic.

Teethy overpowers your attempt at a response: “BITCH WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?!”

The seamstress doesn’t bother replying, turning her blade on the crystalline material beneath her feet and slicing a perfectly square entrance into the Fog-train carriage.

The Fog here is frustratingly dense, and it doesn’t help that what you’re fighting is made of the stuff. Four-legged creepers and flying nightmares appear out of the oppressive gloom from all around, forcing you to change position constantly while throwing violet blasts at the Fog-Creatures looking for your blood.

You stay close to Ciel, her wolf puppets chomping at the enemies around. More of those cylindrical turrets pop up, but any that you don’t immediately blast have their shots intercepted by the black wolf and sharply returned to sender.

>>959705

The two of you fight back the horde. You can hear the roar of Alexis’ gatling and Yuna’s flames now as well, the front of the obsidian machine now meeting the Gestalt’s middle carriage and still gaining.

You’re tiring quickly, and there’s feel no shortage of relief when Josephine’s voice comes out from her makeshift entrance. An object of deep black-purple is thrown out, a sliver of crystal small enough to hold in one hand, pulsing with power and surrounded by a bright shield of energy.

Ciel turns and Teethy snaps at the Shard, tearing its shield off with incredible ease, and Howly immediately follows with a beam of magic that shatters the object. The carriage shakes violently under your feet at its destruction, and you see Josephine popping out of the carriage and making a running jump back onto the Gestalt, intent on lightening the load on the battery cell transport while you and Ciel continue down to the next carriage of the black train.

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>>959726

With its Shard gone the frontmost carriage begins to fade away exactly as a demon would, turning into fragments of solid dark purple. You brace yourself and it slows and crashes against the tracks below, sparks flying as the rest of the corrupted thing slams into the destroyed carriage with a terrible screeching wail.

It’s only slowing down, but the distance gained gives you all precious reprieve. Yet the Fogglings keep coming, climbing up onto the tracks from every direction, and Crawkers soar the skies hounding the Gestalt and looking for an angle of attack. You aren’t imagining things; you can definitely hear yet another set of wheels rumbling along the railway.

The dense Fog obscures your view and you have little leeway to focus elsewhere right now. Still you stand up and look around, scanning the cityscape for its source, and just as you dreaded you see another demonic contraption of twisting black crystal speeding along the track on the other side towards The Gestalt Express. It’s some distance away but catching up, and you don’t have high hopes for what will happen when it does with how much difficulty this first one alone is causing.

You might not be able to deal with this.

A stillness, a silence, a brilliant flash of light, and from far ahead of the Gestalt a huge beam of magical energy screams through the air and slams straight into the second incoming train, demolishing its unnatural armour, blasting the Shards it holds to smithereens, shredding the machine into pieces before it even has a chance to evaporate.

… The new threat appeared for all of two seconds, then disappeared just as quickly. Huh.

>>959751

You’re given about two seconds to de-widen your eyes before a young man in a flowing gray coat drops onto the roof of the Gestalt, holding a greatsword in his right hand. He looks utterly drained, but still the Magician Adept waves his free hand forward and conjures large blades of translucent blue light behind him, preparing to assist with his remaining magic.

“Trainees, any of you!” He shouts in a frazzled voice, gesturing close to where you and Ciel stand on the black train. “Throw your most destructive spell!”

Alexis starts, a flash of inspiration in her eyes. She runs off, grabbing Mika by the arm just as she finishes punting a Foggling off the carriage roof, and drags the girl in yellow along and pushes her into Josephine.

“Throw her!”

“What?!” The seamstress responds, but Alexis has already turned away.

“Ciel, Chris, Suzu! Slow that thing down!”


>

[ ] Hold it, pin it down!
[ ] Slice it up! Midnight Harvester!

>>959768
>[ ] Hold it, pin it down!
We can't afford to drain ourselves overly when the end is nowhere in sight. And our leader looks to have a plan.

>>959768
>[ ] Hold it, pin it down!

Its first carriage has disappeared completely now, and the obsidian monster chases down The Gestalt Express with renewed vigor. Soon there’s again hardly any distance between the two vehicles, and Fogglings are starting to jump across the gap without trouble. Yuna prepares another talisman and incinerates them with a stream of flame, while Alexis switches her weapon back into a shotgun and starts blasting.

Next to you a very-much-enlarged button-eyed Teethy swallows a diving Crawker whole. Suzu’s bell sounds out, ringing over and over. Her spells weaken the Fog-Creatures around you and Ciel, though the effect is less noticeable on the black train itself.

Which is fine. You can help with that.

You head to the right, the side closer to The Gestalt Express, while the golden-blonde girl follows and prepares to jump back onto the transport. You brandish your free hand down, conjuring and throwing large spikes of colourless nothing into the ground next to the black train’s tracks. The vehicle speeds far past them immediately, of course, but that doesn’t matter. You run forward throwing your spikes along the way, and when you get close to the end of your obsidian flooring you turn, sprint, and jump off ahead and to the left of the machine.

A flourish in mid-air, and your spikes of null space dot the ground on the other side of the tracks. A swing of your staff, and one strikes the center of the front side of the demonic machine.

[Twilight Binding Nails]

>>959949

The Fog-train’s wheels wail horribly against the tracks as your spell tries to yank the entire thing back. Sparks fly and the hellish contraption slows, moreso with Suzu casting her suppression spell over and over, but not enough to stop it from being on a direct collision course with you.

So you cast another [Void Step] to vanish from the air, feeling your reserves of magic fading, landing on your knees on The Gestalt Express next to Suzu. The Adept has run further to the back, sending forth his spectral blades into the pitch metal sides of the nightmarish machine where they jut out glowing with power.

Alexis calling out, warning everyone to prepare barrier spells. You hear Suzu’s bell ring when she brandishes her hoop, calling into existence a huge shimmering green shield that spreads into the shape of a blooming flower, defending your transport as much as yourselves.

You stand to cast your own, but the noise makes you look up.

Mika is sailing through the air, her torso having been bound over and over in Josephine’s light blue thread before the seamstress flung the girl forward with all her might, the excitable girl in yellow sounding like she’s having far more fun than the situation should allow for.

She hits the ground in a forward roll, quickly pushing herself into a flip and landing in a readied stance. You estimate Mika has only got a hundred and fifty metres of distance between her and the black train, your efforts having bought her maybe a few extra seconds.

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>>959961

Mika’s twin gunmetal orbs stream out from her gauntlets and swirl through the air. The material gathers around her right hand as she clenches it into a fist, twisting her torso and drawing her arm back in a motion not unlike the winding of a spring.

With a wall of obsidian bearing down on her, the churning liquid metal becomes a veritable maelstrom, growing and spreading, taking the shape of a gigantic gauntlet bigger than the girl who wields it. Under the shell of metal a tempest rages, electricity arcing out and across the titanic fist.

The terrible colossus of black crystal is right in front of her, barrelling forward. Her lightning intensifies in fury, and Mika swings her fist and strikes.

“[ MJOLNIR ] !!”

Magical and demonic metal meet in a deafening clash. A storm condensed, unleashed, sent surging through the black machine, bolts of crackling lightning rending the crystalline metal apart. Her spell crosses the Adept’s spectral blades lodged into the machine and they add to the rampaging arcane violence, exploding with fierce flashes of light.

With devastating force the black train is torn asunder, its Shards obliterated by overwhelming magic, its unnatural metal folding and crumpling, its carriages derailing and piling onto each other in a noisy din of crashes and clangs.

>>959979

Josephine yanks Mika through the air again like a fisherman hauling in a catch. Ciel scrambles up and runs forward, holding out an enlarged Teethy which chomps over the girl in yellow and lets Howly spit her out onto the carriage roof, spread-eagled flat on her back.

“Mika!”

The rest of you crowd around her prone form, mirroring each other’s worry, but that clears when Mika raises her hand into the air, reaching up into the clearing sky, her exhausted, silly smile stretched with triumph.

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END EPISODE!

That's it! I mean, we didn't end on them actually reaching their destination, but Balls I'm tired!

And surely the rest of their trip isn't as exciting or dangerous. You'd hope.

Thanks everyone for sticking around and reading this far! I hope this episode was easier to read than it was to write, because crap why did I decide to write seven characters in one battle what

The comments and explanations that come with votes help a lot, by the way! Getting a better idea of intent and reason makes things way easier on my part, so thank you!

Do throw feedback/questions/comments my way if you have any. What you liked/disliked, what could've been done better. For some reason /qst/ threads stay up forever. I keep an eye on mine, so whenever's fine

I want to try running episode 3 on the 27th, same time, as a tentative plan. I mean, there's christmas and whatever, so I dunno.

Happy holidays, and thanks again for participating!

>>960057
Was pretty good. I don't see any issues with the writing, and you seem to have had a good idea of what you wanted to achieve and where you wanted to go with the narrative.

Perhaps you might want to refrain from having us coordinate multiple characters, unless we have a good idea of what they're capable of, though. Not that large-scale battles are a bad thing to include, but I'm imagining that you could have made it easier on yourself, since you seem to have found it difficult to write.

Especially given that you've written us as a character that's pretty flexible, combat-wise, perhaps you could have had it such there were several discrete engagements going on at once, and we had the option of which we wanted to support at any one time, influencing the overall flow of the battle in that way.

also,
>giant gauntlets
>Mjölnir
>not Járngreipr
but why

i mean, fastball special is always awesome as fuck, but why

>>960123

Originally her regular gauntlets were named Járngreipr.

Now they're called Brokkr and Eitri. Or maybe just the two morphing orbs are called that? I don't know.

This does not answer your question.

>>960057
This episode was cool! But I do have some negative feedback, unfortunately

>You need to condense your clothing descriptions. Three sentences is too much

>This ties into the synonyms you choose for your characters. I remember that 'yellow girl' is Mika, but who is the golden blond one? You need to choose something more distinct than hair color. For example, the rival team works well with 'seamstress, ninja, and wolf girl'

>Some info on our capabilities would be really good. Both episodes so far had Chris doing cool things the players didn't know he could do, which stymies tactical decision making.

>>961836
From another point of view, I don't personally see anything wrong with being a little more detailed than usual when describing someone for the first time. The length of the clothing descriptions really only stands out due to how brief the surrounding sentences are. If OP's general writing style was a little more long-winded, I doubt anyone would notice.

Fair points on the latter two, though.

>>961836
>>961902

Feedback is never unfortunate!

I didn't notice that about my clothing descriptions, but going back to reread I see what you mean. That's really helpful to think about, thanks.

Leaving information out is a weird decision on my part. The first thread in particular is essentially Chris' introduction thread, so I wanted his ability reveals to be dramatic. That hurts player decision making and agency and isn't very suited for quests - I approach writing this much more as a story than a game, and a lot of the stuff I do hurts the latter for the sake of the former.

In a way I can say it's just my 'style', but it does result in something that sometimes can hardly be called a quest. Which feels weird.

I probably will have to just dump information at some point though - I was meant to show more of Mika's spells this episode, but totally forgot.

Ha ha.

>>961836
>>961902

Agreed with both of these- not that I have much room to talk. I'm liking what you're doing so far. Do you have a Twitter or any other way to keep contact with you or the sort?

>>962533

I do have a twitter that I haven't used in ages. Planned on just posting in /qtg/, but if it's more convenient then you can follow @boxofmithril and I'll announce there.

>>962621
Right, then. Was just wondering. It can be a good way to keep people in the loop- I don't go in /qtg/ often, so.