[he just gives isabel a wry smile back but since shoma had some degree of success meaning that they aren't completely screwed yet, he will do a roll......... gets 15]
[ small blessings! yay. he's going to carefully take this paper and tuck it away in his pocket after looking at it. ]
Wishpower. Cool. [ he watches charles spin the wheel. ] Sticking it to ourselves will give us the luck we need. So...we should try to keep playing and see if we can earn more of these stickers somehow. Higher blessings, higher luck.
[ Charles rolls and... wow! Even jauntier music plays! The machine lights up in some mild colours. Looks like your forecast for the day is 吉! Blessed. The machine spits out a piece of paper with a design that is marginally more complicated than the one Shoma got.
Charles will gain a +2 to whichever dice roll he applies this effect to.
CHARLES
ISABEL
SHOMA
Anyway I love how this sounds like Shoma is suggesting doing some lvl-grinding at the casino. You got your talismans! If you really want to pursue this as an option, I will say that the rest of the place doesn't regularly offer luck trades, but maybe you can convince some people to bet their own wishpower stickers. That's only if you pursue this option though, which is just hilarious.
but i'm still hung up on the e.g.o. present thing so lovelace is going to wander off to find a restroom? because presumably using your e.g.o. looks suspicious as hell if you just do it out in the open.
give me a present! i hope the Bad Thing happens because of all my negative energy. look it's worth a shot. right. ]
[ Isabel sneaks off to the restroom to test her other options! I guess it is gendered :/. Charles and Shoma can wait to see what happens.
And her option is that she activates her Holiday E.G.O. in there and uhh. Well, the unlucky stuff and their current predicament possibly weighed on you a bit more than you realised. Suddenly, you're overtaken by frustration and anger, bubbling up and welling up from within, burning like fire.
The spirit of wrathful holidays consumes you! And with this infinite hatred, you will gift the world the present they deserve.
...
...
...
The bathroom explodes! Rather violently. And the explosion is actually blood and terrible viscera. Sooo, how close were Charles and Shoma standing to that door again?
If you can even get a glance in through the door, you'll see a green present box and a festive, yet horribly distorted body emerging from it that vaguely resembles Isabel (link cw: body horror). Isabel's mind will be struggling greatly, filled with thoughts that can no longer be considered her own, but rather, of the Abnormality and a desire to harm and maim and in general, harsh everyone's Christmas vibes.
Meanwhile, the casino first floor is immediately on alert with multiple security guards dashing over to deal with the threat. ]
Casino Security
Distortion located! Calling request for back-up to suppress this thing!
[DAMN WHY COULDN'T HE HAVE FULL POSITIVE ENERGY FOR THIS. i guess he and shoma are now covered in blood and whatnot. bad. but not as bad as what comes next!!!]
—Isabel!? [UHHHHH TAKING OUT HIS SWORD? MA'AM WHAT DID YOU DO? he will try and intervene between her and these security guards though. please no murder (on both sides).] Shoma, get back.
[he does recall rodya talking about abnormalities in trial as he furiously wracks his brain to remember if she said there was a cure—wait, she did say something about a "whole process" to undo a distortion, but that was about it. WELL, FUCK. MAYBE SHOMA KNOWS MORE!!]
OF COURSE HE DOESN'T KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS, RODYA THINKS HE'S TWELVE.
so anyway they're covered in blood and security's swarming, and shoma has enough sense to grab his dagger and be on guard. are they really letting isabel just try to kill these guards actually, this seems ill-advised. ]
What the hell is that? [ wait okay. thinkthinkthink. ] Rodya said distortions only happy when somebody's emotions get to be too much, right? We have to get her to calm down!
[ Well, Isabel can definitely just straight up present-smash one of these guards because he rolled a 7, just getting knocked back into a slot machine which jingles merrily at the expense of his pain. The other one though rolls a nat20, which I'm not really sure what to do about, but I guess he dodges her murder rampage and stabs her right in the approximation of a neck with his sword.
Does this stop Isabel? Not really. She might register the pain, but it's all distorted and probably only makes her angrier. It's also kind of hard to tell whether you're bleeding when your entire body kinda looks like it. The pain on its own certainly does not stop Isabel though the sword at least stops her physically from moving for a moment.
From the other side, Effie apparently decided he didn't want to get involved with this directly, but maybe he's doing his staff job by guiding some civilians out. Saude on the other hand will rush over, looking panicked. ]
Saude
I-isn't that Ms. Lovelace? What's going on here!
[ This is the right opposite of subterfuge!!!
More casino security are joining the fray. If Charles looks like he's defending this Distortion for whatever reason, they're going to go after him too. What's it gonna be. ]
[HE'S TRYING TO DEFEND THE SECURITY GUARDS TOO EVEN IF THAT IS CLEARLY NOT GOING WELL]
Got any ideas for calming her down? Monster taming isn't my specialty here!
[this is fine. he has lowkey issues about people he likes turning into monsters between home and his closest friend on the ship dying four days ago as of this cyoa, but that's not relevant right now.]
... If worse comes to worst, we might have to incapacitating her and try using the watch.
[but in the meantime, he's going to try and slash at isabel's legs. anyway despite this seemingly very hostile action, he will also call out to her.]
Like it's mine!? [ listen, fuck, just because aini is what it is doesn't mean he isn't literally just some guy. but ah, there's saude! hi saude. ] It's a really long story? Or, well, no, the Captain went into the bathroom and ragequit I guess. That wasn't as long as I thought.
[ it's fine, he's just kind of panicking a little because this is out of his depth but it's fine! charles is slashing at isabel's--does she even have legs anymore, really, but he's busy turning to check how close those guards are and preparing to defend against them if they try to get in between charles and isabel. ]
We know the watch works, but...last resort? [ help. ]
[ Not entirely. Your mentality is struggling to not be consumed by the Abnormality, but in it, you can somewhat tear away a sense of self, just enough that you recognise Charles in front of you isn't someone you want to hit (11, success). So you veer off-course with your next attack, spewing a torrent of blood from an unknown source on the security guard that's got their sword stuck in you. It's gnarly. Somehow your blood briefly takes on a quality almost like it's acid, burning the man. Lucky the earlier explosion didn't have this effect yet huh? ]
Saude
Wh-while in the case of true Distortions, you'll need to figure out the root cause of their emotional upset to solve the issue -- it's a little bit different with Corrosions.
Either let her exhaust it, or beat it out of her -- those are your choices!
[ She is in distress. She's got a baton out, ready to defend Shoma at least -- she's still from the LCC Before Team, and very well-versed in combat and defense.
Isabel doesn't exactly have legs but you could see about detaching her from her present box I guess? ]
she's trying to focus on murdering any and all security guards, but charles is kind of in the way and she wishes he would stop? and who needs legs. whatever. ow. ]
Okay, exhaust her or beat her up. Guess I can work with that! —And someone get medical attention for this guy!
[aka poor blood-acided security guard.
he is not going to try and outright SEVER anything because he does not trust that course of action just yet, but he will try and slash at like. a part that does not seem immediately fatal. what is anything on this body.]
[ uh. okay he has zero idea what to do about medical attention and also, i'm sorry to say, he does not particularly care about this security guard as much as he does the two people currently in front of him.
someone else can help that guy, right? the focus is on exhausting isabel or beating her up, and shoma's on defense while gauging a few things. 1.) he's going to see how well charles does with slashing at her. and 2.) he's going to look around and see how close they are to like slot machines or other game boards, extremely heavy objects they can use.
and 3.) i guess he is also pulling out one of his bombs while calculating if he can throw one and blow shit up to knock isabel out if push comes to shove. ]
[ You really can't tell what from what on this body no, but you can in fact just give her a couple stabs and see if she slows down?
Which, yeah, between getting so brutally nat20 stabbed in the neck and further slices and dices from Charles, Holiday!Isabel will be slowing down, not that this edition of Corrosion was very fast to begin with. 'Are there more editions' find out.
Isabel, your mind-space truly is going through it. Thoughts ring in tune with Christmas carols, feeling cold and lonely as the vast expanse of space.
The colorful lights were as bright as Christmas, and as dark as every child’s nightmare and grimace. Christmas, oh the hideous carnival. ████’s young daughter would spend Christmas time alone because she would make a living by herself.
'That guy' cannot be helped. He falls down melting, unable to hold onto that sword any longer. It's just stuck in her now. I will give you one more tag round just to let Ty decide whether Shoma really will commit to this, because yes, while some things are bolted, other things are not and I'm sure you can try to see about throwing something heavy at her. Plus if you Screwloose Wallop it, the bolting probably doesn't even matter anymore anyway. ]
[ ... oh... ████’s daughter, alone on christmas... and doesn't that mean ████ alone on christmas too? because she couldn't keep ████ alive. ████ and ████ and ████ and ████ and
it's a different man. but he's in the same place. hearing the same joke. with the same virus working its way through his system. variations on a theme.
but does he know how it ends? what happens when he gets to—
[slowing down is a good sign but there's still room for something to go horribly wrong, which is a thought that both jan and charles are having.
but if they're making progress, he will switch from slashing at her to trying to use the blunt edge of his blade to whack......... whatever he assumes her head is, really.]
[ unfortunately, slowing down is enough for him not to use screwloose wallop yet even though he is also blatantly aware there's room for error. i'm sorry that this is my tag the slowing down really made him reconsider--
well. no. actually. is there any way he can pull that other sword out of her and also smack at whatever part of her he can reach? that's the next course of action. ]
[ Cool! So Holiday!Isabel finally stops, and Charles can use the blunt edge of his sword to smack the strange body -- and Shoma can yoink that blade out of her neck to smack at it too. The body will split open like a pinata, revealing Isabel inside.
She's bruised, she definitely got stabbed by that sword that went through Holiday's neck because it was a nat20, right through her abdomen. Shoma pulled it out though so she might be free-bleeding a bit. She is breathing though, and conscious, though she might have to pick herself out of feeling like she just woke up from an awful nightmare. Oh yeah, and also all her injuries.
Unfortunately this does not exonerate you from casino security, who is still piling in to try to detain all three of you. ]
unfortunately the first thing lovelace will do, after just. shuddering on the ground for a second. is pull out her gun to aim it at the approaching security. ]
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Wishpower. Cool. [ he watches charles spin the wheel. ] Sticking it to ourselves will give us the luck we need. So...we should try to keep playing and see if we can earn more of these stickers somehow. Higher blessings, higher luck.
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Charles will gain a +2 to whichever dice roll he applies this effect to.
Anyway I love how this sounds like Shoma is suggesting doing some lvl-grinding at the casino. You got your talismans! If you really want to pursue this as an option, I will say that the rest of the place doesn't regularly offer luck trades, but maybe you can convince some people to bet their own wishpower stickers. That's only if you pursue this option though, which is just hilarious.
What now? ]
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[ a little pat on the back for charles.
but i'm still hung up on the e.g.o. present thing so lovelace is going to wander off to find a restroom? because presumably using your e.g.o. looks suspicious as hell if you just do it out in the open.
give me a present! i hope the Bad Thing happens because of all my negative energy. look it's worth a shot. right. ]
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[PRESUMABLY CHARLES AND SHOMA CANNOT FOLLOW ISABEL INTO THE BATHROOM UNLESS IT'S GENDERLESS. WAITS OUTSIDE THE DOOR IG.]
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...are we sure keeping Captain as the boss is a good idea? [ he just follows after charles to also wait? he guesses? ]
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And her option is that she activates her Holiday E.G.O. in there and uhh. Well, the unlucky stuff and their current predicament possibly weighed on you a bit more than you realised. Suddenly, you're overtaken by frustration and anger, bubbling up and welling up from within, burning like fire.
The spirit of wrathful holidays consumes you! And with this infinite hatred, you will gift the world the present they deserve.
...
...
...
The bathroom explodes! Rather violently. And the explosion is actually blood and terrible viscera. Sooo, how close were Charles and Shoma standing to that door again?
If you can even get a glance in through the door, you'll see a green present box and a festive, yet horribly distorted body emerging from it that vaguely resembles Isabel (link cw: body horror). Isabel's mind will be struggling greatly, filled with thoughts that can no longer be considered her own, but rather, of the Abnormality and a desire to harm and maim and in general, harsh everyone's Christmas vibes.
Meanwhile, the casino first floor is immediately on alert with multiple security guards dashing over to deal with the threat. ]
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okay well time to murder rampage, i guess! she will try to kill these security guards!!!! ]
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—Isabel!? [UHHHHH TAKING OUT HIS SWORD? MA'AM WHAT DID YOU DO? he will try and intervene between her and these security guards though. please no murder (on both sides).] Shoma, get back.
[he does recall rodya talking about abnormalities in trial as he furiously wracks his brain to remember if she said there was a cure—wait, she did say something about a "whole process" to undo a distortion, but that was about it. WELL, FUCK. MAYBE SHOMA KNOWS MORE!!]
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OF COURSE HE DOESN'T KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS, RODYA THINKS HE'S TWELVE.
so anyway they're covered in blood and security's swarming, and shoma has enough sense to grab his dagger and be on guard. are they really letting isabel just try to kill these guards actually, this seems ill-advised. ]
What the hell is that? [ wait okay. thinkthinkthink. ] Rodya said distortions only happy when somebody's emotions get to be too much, right? We have to get her to calm down!
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Does this stop Isabel? Not really. She might register the pain, but it's all distorted and probably only makes her angrier. It's also kind of hard to tell whether you're bleeding when your entire body kinda looks like it. The pain on its own certainly does not stop Isabel though the sword at least stops her physically from moving for a moment.
From the other side, Effie apparently decided he didn't want to get involved with this directly, but maybe he's doing his staff job by guiding some civilians out. Saude on the other hand will rush over, looking panicked. ]
[ This is the right opposite of subterfuge!!!
More casino security are joining the fray. If Charles looks like he's defending this Distortion for whatever reason, they're going to go after him too. What's it gonna be. ]
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be a big girl. don't die.
anyway is lovelace in the right mind to at least try not to murder her crewmates...? like she's 100 trying to murder anyone else but? ]
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Got any ideas for calming her down? Monster taming isn't my specialty here!
[this is fine. he has lowkey issues about people he likes turning into monsters between home and his closest friend on the ship dying four days ago as of this cyoa, but that's not relevant right now.]
... If worse comes to worst, we might have to incapacitating her and try using the watch.
[but in the meantime, he's going to try and slash at isabel's legs. anyway despite this seemingly very hostile action, he will also call out to her.]
C'mon, Captain, it's us!
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[ it's fine, he's just kind of panicking a little because this is out of his depth but it's fine! charles is slashing at isabel's--does she even have legs anymore, really, but he's busy turning to check how close those guards are and preparing to defend against them if they try to get in between charles and isabel. ]
We know the watch works, but...last resort? [ help. ]
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Either let her exhaust it, or beat it out of her -- those are your choices!
[ She is in distress. She's got a baton out, ready to defend Shoma at least -- she's still from the LCC Before Team, and very well-versed in combat and defense.
Isabel doesn't exactly have legs but you could see about detaching her from her present box I guess? ]
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... sequel's never as good as the first movie.
she's trying to focus on murdering any and all security guards, but charles is kind of in the way and she wishes he would stop? and who needs legs. whatever. ow. ]
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[aka poor blood-acided security guard.
he is not going to try and outright SEVER anything because he does not trust that course of action just yet, but he will try and slash at like. a part that does not seem immediately fatal. what is anything on this body.]
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someone else can help that guy, right? the focus is on exhausting isabel or beating her up, and shoma's on defense while gauging a few things. 1.) he's going to see how well charles does with slashing at her. and 2.) he's going to look around and see how close they are to like slot machines or other game boards, extremely heavy objects they can use.
and 3.) i guess he is also pulling out one of his bombs while calculating if he can throw one and blow shit up to knock isabel out if push comes to shove. ]
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Which, yeah, between getting so brutally nat20 stabbed in the neck and further slices and dices from Charles, Holiday!Isabel will be slowing down, not that this edition of Corrosion was very fast to begin with. 'Are there more editions' find out.
Isabel, your mind-space truly is going through it. Thoughts ring in tune with Christmas carols, feeling cold and lonely as the vast expanse of space.
The colorful lights were as bright as Christmas, and as dark as every child’s nightmare and grimace.
Christmas, oh the hideous carnival.
████’s young daughter would spend Christmas time alone because she would make a living by herself.
'That guy' cannot be helped. He falls down melting, unable to hold onto that sword any longer. It's just stuck in her now. I will give you one more tag round just to let Ty decide whether Shoma really will commit to this, because yes, while some things are bolted, other things are not and I'm sure you can try to see about throwing something heavy at her. Plus if you Screwloose Wallop it, the bolting probably doesn't even matter anymore anyway. ]
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it's a different man. but he's in the same place. hearing the same joke. with the same virus working its way through his system. variations on a theme.
but does he know how it ends? what happens when he gets to—
stop. focus.
slowing down... ]
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but if they're making progress, he will switch from slashing at her to trying to use the blunt edge of his blade to whack......... whatever he assumes her head is, really.]
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well. no. actually. is there any way he can pull that other sword out of her and also smack at whatever part of her he can reach? that's the next course of action. ]
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She's bruised, she definitely got stabbed by that sword that went through Holiday's neck because it was a nat20, right through her abdomen. Shoma pulled it out though so she might be free-bleeding a bit. She is breathing though, and conscious, though she might have to pick herself out of feeling like she just woke up from an awful nightmare. Oh yeah, and also all her injuries.
Unfortunately this does not exonerate you from casino security, who is still piling in to try to detain all three of you. ]
[ Oh, shucks. ]
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...
unfortunately the first thing lovelace will do, after just. shuddering on the ground for a second. is pull out her gun to aim it at the approaching security. ]
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[JUMPING IN BETWEEN ISABEL AND SECURITY. BUT ALSO TURNING TO GLARE AT SECURITY STILL HOLDING A SWORD AND COVERED IN BLOOD]
Can you not? We're busy here!
[go away security!!! >:/]
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