Civility Within the Primal (Open, Party of 3)

[Tristan Carter]

Tristan wasn't sure what to expect. Since his initial encounter with the Dark World (he wasn't sure why, but the name seemed to fit), he had tried to avoid dealing with anything relating to the awful experience. Still, he found himself drawn to find out what was going on. He needed to know why he, of all people, could manage to have such a strange power, strong enough to tear through the monster that swatted him around like a fly.

He had come out here in his typical clothes, mostly because he didn't own anything sturdier. He did decide to go with slightly more form-fitting clothing so as to not get caught up by them. As he walked, he thought about his choice of attire. A black tee could help with avoiding detection, he supposed. His jeans, however, he simply wore only because he had no other pants besides pajamas.

As he walked around in the overgrown park (he wasn't paying much mind to his surroundings, which likely wasn't smart), he started mindlessly swinging the sword around. He still wasn't entirely used to the weight of it, but he knew that he would need protection in case his ability failed him.

Still, where were the things that he was supposed to need protection from?

[Lucretia Odovacar]

Day 4: leaving the house for the first time

Before now, Lucretia had limited her investigation of this supernatural phenomenon to her backyard.  It was...relatively safe there, which made it a reasonable place to start at least.  However, it was becoming clear that she had reached the limit of what she would be able to figure out from searching around there.  Sadly, that was next to nothing; just some observations that allowed her to figure out a few rules of this place.

First, the phenomenon lasted exactly one hour according to some sand dials she left out.  Based on her clocks, it would also occur at the same time every night: 12:00 midnight.

Second, no electronic device would work.  It did not appear like they lost power, as they would run just fine as though they were never shut off once the phenomenon ended.

Third, there was some force with in her that gave her greater strength, fortitude and clarity.  She was physically much stronger and faster than before, was less prone to pain, and felt like she able to understand things and make new observations than before.  She was unsure if this was just a placebo effect, and was still under investigation.

Fourth, the world changed somehow.  Her house did not look the same, and the floorplan was not the same either.  The yard had unknown plants growing in it, and the tree her base was in was much larger than normal.  Logic suggests that this should apply to the rest of the world as well, though is unconfirmed and under investigation.

Fifth, the world is infested with blobs.  'Blobs' is perhaps an inaccurate word now based on further investigation.  The blobs come in many shapes and sizes, many of which aren't blobby at all.  They also seemed to be capable of feats of strength that she is simply dubbing 'magic' right now as there is no other way to describe much of it.  

Sixth, she appeared to be able to do this 'magic' as well, though her abilities were different than anything she saw the blobs do.  She appeared to have to 'spells'; the first would tell her their 'weakness', likely what kind of magic would hurt them most, and would also make it very easy to find them later.  It was very useful for keeping track of test subjects.  The second made her feel less sleepy and nervous.  Very useful considering how late she had to stay up to investigate.  It gave her more than enough energy to make up for the lack of sleep.

That was the extent of her conclusions for the time being.  Right now, she was investigating the easiest thing that she could at the moment: whether or not the effects on the terrain and construction in her home carried over to the rest of the world, and if it did in what ways.  Just a quick walk around revealed that yes, the effects were everywhere.  This quick walk also made it clear that there were different 'levels' of blobs; some were very clearly stronger than the others.  For now, she would stick to the places with the weaker blobs.  Doing anything else would just put her at more risk than necessary for such a basic investigation.

This brought her to the park.  Much to her displeasure, the nature of its change thanks to this supernatural phenomenon made it very difficult to see and maneuver.  Perhaps this was a poor choice after all.  Fortunately, she didn't exactly have to see with her eyes to know where everything was, or so she thought.

She heard a noise coming from the grass, however as far as she could tell there was nothing over there.  The wind was not nearly strong enough to cause such a noise either.  Lucretia slunk down and worked her way over to the area the noise came from.  She considered leaving it alone for now, but determined that it would be very important to figure out the limit of her senses.  As quietly as she could, she crept up and noticed that it was another human.  She nodded silently to herself.  It was only natural that there were other humans that could experience this phenomenon; it would be arrogant to assume otherwise.  After a moment of thought she wondered whether or not her weakness scanning skill would work on humans.  Did they have the same properties as blobs?  Well, there was only one way to find out.  Sadly, summoning was loud, but some sacrifices had to be made.  More importantly, he was about to walk right into a group of blobs and didn't appear to notice, so she was just doing him a service by stopping him from continuing further.

With a flash of blue light, Coeus appeared once again.  This thing was basically her own blob; a formless mass of light and shadow with two red eyes stacked vertically, that she could summon at will apparently.  This appeared to be what gave her her 'magic.'  The eyes focused on the human and returned the result...'weak light.'  So this skill did work on humans.  Very interesting.

"Oh," she called out to the human.  "You do realize you are walking into a group of many..." she wasn't quite sure what to call them for a moment, blobs just sounded too stupid to stay out loud, "creatures, yes?"

She spoke in Japanese, so it was difficult to pick out the right words.  Her accent was also very thick much to her displeasure.  Hopefully he'd be able to understand.

[Luka Kurokawa]

Luka's nightly hunt was continuing without much issue. The various youkai she was fighting posed little difficulty to her. Well, she would say that. In reality, they were quite fearsome at times. Ranging from all sorts of sizes and different powers, she was at a disadvantage. She had also learned recently that she was certainly not alone in this world when it appeared. Whether these people were natives to this world or simply spirited away like her remained a mystery. She had a feeling it was the latter based on her last encounter with other humans. But the one thing that seemed to bother her was that those people had access to special powers via their persona, much like the youkai. Did she simply not have any? Or maybe she didn't know how to use them.

Hearing something up ahead as she walked through the park which she dubbed, 'the killing grounds,' Luka silently moved up ahead while listening intently. There seemed to be someone talking. There was mention of creatures nearby by a girl. That's all Luka needed to hear, of course. She decided to approach cautiously as to not surprise the other two. The last thing they needed was someone getting surprised and firing off an attack they shouldn't have. Moving ahead even more, Luka proceeded through some brush. You guys aren't youkai too I hope, right? She called out to them quietly while approaching. She was ready to draw the sword out of her sheathe at any moment. For now though, she was at ease.

There was talk of creatures just now, so it wasn't wrong of Luka to be expecting them at any moment. I hope you two are ready for combat. If they're near, we may need to fight. Luke didn't really know what to make of these two individuals. The last two were at least clearly armed. The one boy had a sword but, what of the girl? Could she defend herself? Only the girl had her persona out, but Luka could assume that the boy probably had one as well. Hopefully nobody was going to jump right in and try to fight everything at once like that last kid.

[Satanick]

Oh look. Another Spriggan.

Napaea
Resist: Wind
Weak: Ice
Skills: Dia, Garu

Pixie
Resist: Lightning
Weakness: Fire
Skills: Zio, Garu

Goblin
Resist: Light
Weak: Lightning
Skills: Cleave, Agi, Tarukaja

Spriggan
Resist: Physical
Weak: Light, Dark
Skills: Fatal End, Viper Smash, Agi

[Lucretia Odovacar]

The second person took her by surprise.  Lucretia was so accustomed to just 'knowing' where everything was, that people getting close startled her more than she thought it should.  She jumped a little, then tried to step back as though it was completely intentional rather than being because she was taken by surprise.  

"Hmph, they are faster than I thought."

There was no time to hear if the boy was intentionally walking into a group of them, so she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that it was unintentional.  It would be foolish to fight this many blobs by herself, and she would rather be working with an ignorant man than a stupid one.  Ignorance was easier to cure.

There was also no time to  think about what the girl was saying.  Lucretia wasn't sure what a youkai was.  Was it the blobs' true name?  She would have to remember that if that were the case.  It certainly sounded better than 'blobs' so there was no reason to discard the word.

Lucretia took several steps back to put some distance between her and the blobs.  She was not a fighter, so there was no need for her to stay on the front lines.  Hopefully this would mean that the blobs would not attack her.  She was not interested in learning what getting hit with one of those large fireballs felt like.  However, her retreat didn't mean she couldn't support them.  If they were foolish enough to walk right into this group, then hopefully they could fight.  If they couldn't they would probably not last long in this world, and the girl at least seemed to know what these creatures were.

Lucretia began scanning the enemies, starting from right to left.  Once her scan finished she pointed at each enemy and shouted their weaknesses.

"Ice.  Fire.  Lightning.  Light and darkness.  Hit them with those magics if you can."

If it became necessary she could help more than this, but for the time being, she was content to see what they did while she looked around for something more suitable than a stapler and a hard bagel to fight with, as sadly that was all she had in her pockets this evening.

[Luka Kurokawa]

Finally, Luka noticed that the youkai had come upon their location. Four of them; mostly unfamiliar. But there was one she was certainly familiar with. The large hulking mass was something she had taken down herself not too long ago. It was quite a pain, being resistant to all her physical attacks. but the other three seemed like things she could handle. Before she could jump into the fight, the girl had went and listed off what seemed to be the weaknesses of the enemies. How did she know that? Was this another one of those powers other people had? Why did she still have nothing herself though? This was honestly starting to bother her a bit. Regardless, it was time to fight. Looking over that boy with the sword, she decided to take a gamble. He probably had some non-physical attacks. If not, he was just as well off fighting the big guy.

Hey, boy. The big guy resists physical attacks. I can't use any skills or anything so I'll leave him to you. I can handle the three small fries! She was at least better off than the kid who ran in without a word's notice hat last time. She wasn't sure what to ask of the girl though, since she didn't seem armed at all. Not that it mattered. These small fries didn't seem like they'd pose much of a threat. Unsheathing her sword, the girl charged into the fray with great speed and thrust at one of the fairies. From behind, a goblin slashed at her back leaving a little more than some discomfort. She guessed slashes didn't hurt that much anymore thanks to her persona. Leaving the sword in the fairy, Luka turned and socked the goblin in the face for a solid hit and proceeded to go on for a combo. Naturally, she ended the combo with an uppercut. Those were always fun. While she did that, she turned to see the one fairy healing the other. Pulling the sword out of the fairy, Luka sliced it in two preventing any healing from being effective.

Slicing at the second fairy, Luka left several lacerations before finishing it with a punch to the face. Before she could hold it down and deliver a finishing blow though, she felt a searing pain in her back. The goblin had lobbed some fire at her. With speed and no hesitation, she turned and ran at the goblin, slashing its head clean off. She wasn't sure what was more unbelievable. The fact that she took a fireball to the back or that she cut off a goblin's head with a wooden sword. Turning back around, She saw the fairy desperately trying to heal itself. With a running leap, Luka impaled the fairy in the head and waited for it to stop moving. Afterwards, she pulled it out and flicked the blade to clean off any excess blood.

[Tristan Carter]

Tristan found himself approached by a being who, it seemed, possessed a form of the power that he had somehow acquired. The first thing he noticed was a flash of light, which was surprising at worst. However, when he saw the creature that appeared from the flash, Tristan was instantly reminded of the creature that attacked him when he first discovered his ability. The boy took a few steps back to distance himself before a girl appeared, speaking Japanese with an extremely thick Italian accent. He could barely manage to get the basic message. A group of creatures, hm? he thought to himself. If I'm being warned, I suppose it's safe to assume that this girl is friendly. 

Before he could respond, another girl appeared from the corner of his vision. She spoke of "youkai" and warning of combat, so Tristan assumed she was probably able to use a similar power as the first girl. Again, before he could say anything, more newcomers appeared. They were extremely different, however; Tristan got a feeling of dread from them, and they clearly weren't human. 

The Italian girl quickly distanced herself and started saying something about magic. The only thing Tristan picked up on was dark magic. For some reason, that seemed to click with him. The other girl said something about leaving the big monster to him, then she started to dispatch the other things. Well, I wanted some training, but not by going against that big thing! he thought to himself, likely letting his nervousness show. And physical attacks don't work? What the hell am I supposed to do?

He took a deep breath to calm himself. The boy put a smirk on his face, then finally said something. "The big one? Oh, yeah, I'm sure I can handle it," he said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Stand back now, my first fight and I have no idea what I'm doing." With another deep breath, Tristan took up a battle stance. Something was strange in his head, but he couldn't let that distract him. He needed to come up with a plan of attack, in order to convince the two girls that he could handle himself.

The bigger monster, apparently taking note of who its opponent was, cut down at Tristan. Right before the attack connected, Tristan said a prayer, sure his life was already over. Game over, I guess, he thought to himself. But the attack barely stung. The only real effect it had on him was slicing through his shirt.

"Holy hell, I'm not dead." He couldn't believe it. Suddenly, as if the thought of death had fueled it, the strangeness in his mind overtook him. The only discernible thing in his mind was a single word: "Persona," he said, not sure what it meant. As he said it, he felt drained, but something extremely unusual happened. A spectral image of a man, donned in Greek armor, appeared in a flash of light. The man looked to the creature who had attacked Tristan and raised a hand. From his hand, a small ball of pure darkness materialized before shooting off at the beast. Tristan looked on, dumbfounded, as the creature was visibly hurt by it. Dark magic, huh?

With a smile, the boy said the word again. He almost felt on the verge of collapse, but that wasn't important. Adrenaline fueled him, spurring him to call upon the man again. The Greek reappeared, casting shadows at the monster, but this time the thing died.

"What the hell..."