You Factoring Hectopascals!

You Factoring Hectopascals!
Date of Scene:	30 October 2012
Location:	Luca - Harbor
Synopsis:	Sho trolls the people of Luca, but the arrival of the Unsent causes him to decide to play a little game with them. With their lives as the prize!
Cast of Characters:	Auron, Synestria, Sho Minamimoto

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Sho Minamimoto has posed:
Luca is a thriving, vibrant city, full of people who hate Sin, enjoy Blitzball, and engage in fishing and trade.

And then there's that guy.

"BORING!"

"STUPID RADIAN!"

"ZETTA ANNOYING!"

"YOU LOOK LIKE A HIPPIE, YOU SON OF A DIGIT!"

A teenager with a bullhorn is sitting on top of a heap of trash, yelling into a bullhorn at people who pass by. He's getting a lot of weird looks at the moment, but at least nothing... violent is happening yet?

Anyone who knows Sho can consider this a small blessing.

Auron has posed:
...Well, this is something to look at, isn't it?

Auron is good at keeping himself hidden when he doesn't want to be seen.As such, he's kept himself hidden while this spectacle was going on. Besides that, with the young man atop that trash heap and shouting through a megaphone, it's likely if he made himself known to the strange fellow, that he would draw attention to his presence.

Sadly, Auron does not know Sho Minamimoto, so he is unaware that no violence is a good thing for him. However, the loud young man may want to be aware of his surroundings, since Auron's ended up behind Sho. For the time being, he's just watching, silently.

Synestria has posed:
Synestria could certainly agree with Auron, if she could read his mind.

However, she can't and she was mostly there for more potions, despite the loud teen on the megaphone, whom she mostly ignores, she gets the potions without too much of a hassle, and even stands there to talk to the shopkeeper for a little bit. However, the conversation ends up going towards the brat with the megaphone eventually.....and why he's there.

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
Auron thinks he's stealthy.

There's one small problem. Sho is a Reaper. He can /tell/ when the dead are around. Sometimes, being Unsent has its downsides (besides the whole 'eventually going insane and becoming a horrible monster' thing).

Sho, mid-insult, pauses, and turns around, lookign directly at Auron's position, taking precedence even over the woman over there. Yeah, that woman. Buying the potions. Yeah, he sees that action.

"AND YOU!" Sho yells in Auron's direction. "WHAT THE FACTORIAL ARE YOU DOING OUT HERE? ONE LITTLE EXPLOSION AND THE PLAYERS JUST GO WHERE THEY WANT, I SEE! WELL, DO THE MATH!"

Sho leaps down from the pile, and walks over towards the ronin. He continues to yell into the megaphone point-blank at him, "SO, ARE YOU READY TO PLAY A GAME, OLD MAN?"

Auron has posed:
Sadly, while being Unsent offers Auron many benefits -- he doesn't suffer from the same basic needs as human beings do (food, sleep, etc.), and he can go between this world and Dream Zanarkand -- it offers him no senses apart from the normal ones he had when he was alive. After all, just being able to use one's five senses /at all/ when dead is a priviledge.

And Auron's probably about to regret that.

Synestria did draw a glance from him (Auron likes to be aware of his surroundings as much as possible, so he make sure he has a mental picture of the area) long enough to memorize her features. However, shout at him is noticed, and Auron turns back to look at the shouting man.

He raises the brow of his remaining eye at the shout aimed at him. The point-blank megaphone shout draws Auron to tilt his head back the other way, away from Sho. For a moment, he just regards the megaphone-wielding man with an unreadable expression save the raised brow.

"...You've mistaken me for someone else," he states flatly. Because that's so easy to do, since /everyone/ has similar scars, and wears similar clothes, and carries similar weapons, and -- okay, maybe it isn't. But what other explanation can there be? "...I'm not here to play."

What might be notable is that the ronin carries no badges, pins, or anything else from Sho's world. No phone or radio, either. He just looks like everyone else here. The only thing that isn't like everyone else in Luca isn't even obvious to the eye -- but Sho can see.

Synestria has posed:
Not able to help herself at Sho's continued yelling at Auron, Synestria shakes her head and watches from a distance. She lets out a soft sigh at this little whelp just insulting everyone in a world that was beset by troubles already. She didn't say much, figuring the old man could handle himself, especially wearing a scar on his right eye. However, she does rub her face quietly when the boy yells into the device that maginified his voice, at him. This would be one of those times you wished you had a silence spell.

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
Sho sees this.

He doesn't seem to give a damn. "Player or not, you're going to play anyway." Sho leaps into the air, backflipping as he lands upon the trash heap. "THIS WORLD IS GARBAGE! IT'S TIME TO DIVIDE IT BY ZERO!"

Sho snaps his fingers, and there is a roar as hissing static forms into a swarm of large black graffiti-shapes. These sweep down, transforming into monsters using that graffiti for body parts as they begin to menace and rampage through the area. "WHERE'S YOUR BEAUTY NOW?" Sho asks, yelling through that megaphone.

The Noise builds up, and crashes forward, the beasts attacking in a wave of claws, beaks, and quills.

Synestria has posed:
As the noise turns into beasts and start to rampage through the area, the woman at the potion gives a much louder than normal hiss at the enemies, and physically interposes herself to protect the shopkeeper. Once the attack has died down a little, the Shopkeeper finds the woman is a LOT bigger than before, and has a snake tail. "Find Shelter. I'll protect you sssssomehow." The Shopkeeper doesn't need much prompting since she's not running from Synestria, the Lamia.

Synestria's attention turns towards the one with the Megaphone......and hisses at him, with electric results.

Auron has posed:
Auron's got his own idea -- protect the innocent people. So while the snake-fiend-woman deals with the one who started all this, Auron will deal with the fiends and keep them off her back. But he's going to be keeping an eye on her, because... well. Fiend and all.

As the wave of Noise appears, the ronin stands against it. Because if he blocks even a little, it will give the people in the area enough time to get out of here and find a place to hide. Claws, beaks, and quills scratch and pierce his arms as he pulls into a defensive stance.

Once the worst of it has been dealt with, he'll ready for battle. Auron pulls his sword from the scabbard on his back, and slides a foot back to steady and lower his stance. Then he shrugs his left arm out of his coat and takes a moment to center himself. Time to get serious.

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
The lightning crashes down among the black monsters, several of them crackling with energy and reeling from the elementary magical attack. Sho looks over his shoulder at the intruder. "What, you want to play too? Stupid zeroes!" He throws out a hand towards Synestria, a manic grin on his face. "You're too zetta weak!"

Auron goes on the defensive, which will probably serve him well here. The Noise seems to prefer Auron to the fleeing civilians, at least. Black wolves rush through the area, snapping at people's legs and putting them off guard, while huge grizzly bears stomp forward, clawing at anything they can get close to. There's even several lithe minks, streaming through the air as they surround and unleash disruptive blasts of slashing graffiti!

Synestria has posed:
The grizzly bears are hissed at, at a much louder frequency than the teen can muster. The graffiti never really makes it to Synestria as she smacks her hand on the ground, pushing them all away. She then looks at Sho, and smirks a bit. "Weak? I'm not the one who'sssssss yelling through a bullhorn." She then hisses at him again, and combination of lightning and ice based attacks are now thrown at Sho

Auron has posed:
That's right. Come after Auron. Leave the civilians alone. They're living. He's dead. And he's the one that's somehow broken some kind of rule by still being here after his death. So come after him. The biting and clawing -- and whatever that wave of graffiti is -- of the fiends is definitely painful, evidenced by the wince on his features. Though to note... there's no blood from him.

But now that stronger fiends are around... he needs to try to decrease the threat these things represent to the others. He concentrates a moment, channeling his energy into his blade. And as he darts into a group of the fiends, a red gleam slides down the edge of his blade as he swings at the large bear-type fiends.

He's not going to leave it at that, though. Auron plans to take out as many of these things as he can before they finally bring him down. It wasn't the way he wanted to go out, but sometimes the best laid-plans go awry....

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
"YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR VECTOR!" Sho yells back at Synestria through the bullhorn. The magical attacks come flying for Sho, but he gestures, using the Noise to intercept the magical attacks as sactifice plays. The Noise struck explodes into static, the powerful magics apparently capable of striking down the creatures.

Auron's blade cleaves outwards as well, slashing repeatedly into the dark beasts. A Grizzly gets cut into, vanishing in a hiss, as well as a few Choirfrogs. Sho launches himself backwards, keeping his distance from the battlers as the Noise thickens. "IS THAT YOUR LIMIT? YOU FACTORING HECTOPASCALS ARE BEGINNING TO BORE ME! DIE!" He throws his hands forward...

And the Noise hammers forward like a wave, a huge black Neoclassical Drake stomping forward, the draconic graffiti-form crashing for the defending pair, spearheading the overwhelming tide of creatures as they crash down upon the pair. Can they withstand the Noise?

Synestria has posed:
Grunting as she takes that much damage from the loudmouth runt, Synestria hisses loudly at the teen, even as she considers her escape. She had a feeling her luck was going to go south after the battle she had a few nights ago.....

Auron has posed:
Oh, Auron sees it coming. But there's something more important here. These fiends. And that wave. He tries to counter, to go forward through the wave, but it hits hard, and throws Auron back. Literally. He lands on his side, and doens't get back up immediately. For a moment it looks like that's it from him. But slowly, he struggles to his feet again.

He can feel the strength leaving him. It's all he can do to keep himself together, keep himself from dissolving again. But then... suddenly, something occurs to him. He's about to fail. Again. He knows it. Is he to fail all of Spira like he failed Braska and Jecht ten years ago?

('No. Not again.')

If he's going to fail, it's going to be after there's nothing left of him to go on. His eye narrows, his teeth clench, and his hands tighten around the handle of his sword. And then?

He darts into the Noise. Possibly for the last time.

He stops a moment, to retrieve his jug of 'Nog' and put it to his mouth. But instead of drinking it, he spits the mouthful onto his sword. Runes activate around his sword, and he flings them towards the worst of the Noise with a mighty swing.

He has to pause then, to clear some space, with a swing at a fiend that comes too close. But then he lowers his stance, calling all of his remaining energy. A wind kicks up around him, spinning around him, and he flings that at the fiends with a spin and a swing of his sword. Then he tosses his jug into the whirling windstorm.

This is how Auron says he's not happy.

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
Sho hears a whistling noise, and he blinks a magic erupts around him, There is a flash of light as he vanishes into shadow, along with a large amount of the Noise.

The smoke clears, and only Sho is left of those engulfed, his body smouldering and smoking. "That was almost significant, you irrational factoring radian." He hisses, twitching.

Auron slams into the mass of Noise like a demon, scattering them with a massive wave of his blade, sending many of them launching into the air. the sweeping blade comes out, blasting towards Sho himself...

And there is the sound of steel ringing against metal as sparks fly, a pitch-black wing of skeletal spiked steel manifesting for a moment, pushing the weapon away with a considerable effort. "Not quite there, would-be Player." He says. "You'll have to graph a better curve to solve that!"

He launches into the air, letting the Noise spread out below him and sending the remnants of the Noise straight after the pair. "It's time to end this! Fight, or be Erased!" He chuckles. "The odds say Erasure."

Synestria has posed:
Synestria hisses in pain as the noise hits her once again. Of course, this little twerp just made one massive enemy in scale. She's now putting this little snot nose in the same category as the shadow lord she met up with. However, she wasn't going down without a fight, even if it meant killing this little......

Auron has posed:
Auron trying to dodge is generally like an elephant trying to tap-dance. And it follows true as he attempts and fails to avoid the attacks of the Noise. He goes stumbling ass-over-teakettle, though he manages to recover before he falls completely on his back. Being on his back here and now is probably a bad thing.

He's hurting. Bad. His body shows no traces of injury, but from he look on his face -- the twitch under his remaining eye, he clenched teeth -- he's in pain. Besides that, he seems to be having trouble lifting his sword. And standing up straight.

Synestria's attack should /hopefully/ keep the Noise-maker off balance long enough for Auron to tend to his own 'injuries'. He searches in his coat for something -- ah-ha. Healing item. That should fix him up, at least a little....

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
Fire explodes around Sho, intense and annihilating force wielded by the powerful woman. Sho actually catches on fire for a moment, before he extinguishes it with a small explosion of power. His black clothing smoulders now, looking scorched, and he appears to have faint, smoking burns over his body at this point. "You just don't get it, do you. You're out of your vector! You can't balance with me. Why do you even keep fighting? Just DIE! Or disappear, I don't even care what happens to you zeroes anymore!"

There is a screeching noise as a massive bat flies down, smashing towards the pair with a rushing assault. The remaining Choirfrogs bounce forwards, trying to rebound off of the defending heroes with powerful graffitilegs.

And just when you thought it was safe... THE POPGUINS. They come rushing out, sliding on their bellies to go for the legs!

Synestria has posed:
Letting out another hiss at the brat causing so much mayhem, the Lamia is blasted back into the shop she was trying to protect. And it's more dramatic that the popguins explode to knock a massive 30 foot lamia into a shop. Of course, the shop collapses upon the massive snake lady, even after the lamia produces one more flare to blast the teen-aged punk in a major act of defiance, and to give Auron an opening to bring down the youth from the massive fireball.

Auron has posed:
More Noise. More fiends. And more attacks slam into him. He stumbles and falls, but still he gets back up. He's not out of the fight yet. It shouldn't be long... but he still a has /little/ left in him.

But nothing he's doing seems to be doing any good. There are just more and more of these fiends, more and more are appearing. But what else can he do but just keep fighting? So that's what he does. He's going to try to cut some defense first -- a yellow gleam slides down the edge of his blade as he attacks -- hitting the Noise with whatever he can manage. A stab here, a swing here, a whack with the flat of his sword here....

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
The flareblast is intercepted by Noise, though Sho is running low on them now. The weakened Taboo Noise are proving to not quite be enough. Not quite. Auron rallies, heroically cleaving the bat in half as he smashes into the waves of Noise, blasts of static roaring around him as he reduced it to the last few.

Sho doesn't even say anything. He narrows his eyes, and points with focused, dire malignance.

That's when the Drake descends, slamming down upon Auron with a terrible screaming howl.

Auron has posed:
The screaming howl of the drake is pure pain. And again Auron is introduced to the ground. Quite violently. The force of the attack knocks the air out of him, and it exits him with a muffled grunt of pain. Down he goes. Face-down. And down he stays.

For a moment.

It's just long enough for Sho to start congratulating himself on a job well done. But then? The fingers of his left hand twitch. It could possibly go ignored. Except in the next moment, he starts to move again.

Slowly, he gets his hands under him... pushing himself up... so that he can lean his weight on his blade and get to his feet. Oh, make no mistake. He's clearly running on fumes, so to speak -- his face is pinched in a wince, that remaining eye of his seems to be wanting really badly to close, and his legs shake badly. He got back up out of sheer determination alone. He /has/ nothing left in him.

Except this.

Last shot, he knows he has to make it count. He managed somehow to locate the jug of Nog that he'd thrown, and there was enough to try that last shot one more time. So he does. Another whirling firestorm.

All the while, he prays to the Fayth that this will be enough....

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
There is an explosion of flame, and the Neoclassical Drake is exploded into so much noise. Sho is driven back, grimacing as the remains of the Taboo Noise are consumed by the massive cyclone, powered by rage and duty. "You're falling outside my calculations. I'll adjust for it later. Congratulations, however. You've survived today's Game. I'll balanced /your/ equation later!" With a yell, he dives into a pool of Darkness, swiftly exiting Luca for environs unknown, leaving the people safe.

Except for the big pile of trash.

Synestria has posed:
Synestria crawls out from underneath of the shop remains and shakes her head. "Ouch." She says simply as she moves her way slowly off the sand, and it becomes obvious why shortly. She's not only bleeding from her shoulder, but part of her tail has been split open. At least she can twist around to get to it. "It'sssss obvioussssss that little loudmouthed brat issssssn't concerned with helping thesssssse people." She then uses one of those recently bought potions upon her tail.....and it closes quite quickly.

Auron has posed:
Auron isn't a math genius. But he can recognize the terms -- he did spend ten years in a slightly postmodern world, after all. He knows basically what's being said. He doesn't offer anything in return as the young man disappears into a pool of darkness.

As soon as the area is quiet again, the ronin relaxes, leaning heavily on his sword. Ow. That hurt. Yet he doesn't seem to be breathing heavily from all the exertion. He sports no bruises. And there's no blood anywhere. His clothes aren't even cut, despite the pointy nature of many of those attacks.

Still, he has something important left to do. That shop. The woman who was helping him ended up being thrown into it. He sheathes his sword and jogs over to the remains of the building. Just as she's dragging herself out of it. After she speaks, he looks to her consideringly. "...Are you all right?" There is the slightest note of tension in his voice, but he masks it well.

Synestria has posed:
Synestria smiles quietly to Auron. "I am fine. Thank you." She says before giving Auron a potion. "Whether or not your woundssssss show, you are sssstill hurting." She doesn't question why he's not sporting any bruises though. She drinks another potion herself and curls up on the spot. "Ugh. Should've known I was going to knocked out, after defeating the fiend of fire on my own."

Auron has posed:
It's good that Synestria didn't ask why he wasn't showing his injuries. Auron wouldn't have told her anyway. Regardless there's another concern he has. As he shifts to tuck his left arm back into his coat, he says quietly, "...The people of Luca are wary of non-humans. They would think you a fiend youself if anyone saw you. Can you take the form you wore earlier?" he inquires. He has nothing against her current form. But he doesn't know how much exposure to non-Spirans Luca has had since it became part of this larger, broken world.

Synestria has posed:
"It'sssss probably bessssst if they remain wary." Synestria says before rubbing her shoulder. "I can't. I have to fully heal before I can shapeshift again." She winces a bit. "I'll be able to travel before long, but shapeshifting isssssss a different ssssstory." She says before she takes another drink of a potion. "I wassssss here before, but I'll make sure to not go near any sssspirans while I'm in thisssssss form." She then smiles. "and I can hide assssss well."

Auron has posed:
"...I see." Too bad this wasn't Bevelle. He would know of a place she could go to recover. Then again, if this had been Bevelle, the priests probably would have been out in force to capture them /both/. So maybe it's a good thing this isn't Bevelle. Still.

A nod. "...Take care, then." A pause. "...And thank you. For helping me defend this place." It may not be much, but it's his world, after all. Well. What's left of it, anyway....