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Tangling with a Tortoise II: Team-Up Technique Trouble

Scene details

Setting: In which Reize takes 9999 damage. He'll be fine.

Log


  The sun still rises, offering the bright blue sky and the heat. The scenery is different than the beach area that was prominent at the shore of the isle. As an isle of myriad biomes, the departure from the coastline provides a new scenery; products of the volcanic activity in the form of hot sand. Coconut trees and palm frond sway in the breeze. Small marmot appear and immediately duck away while little lizards scamper beneath the sun-warmed rocks. Replacing the sea breeze is the rising hot, dry air. Large cacti, saguaro, and agave and prickly pear, dot the landscape, yet offer some shade.

  What helps is the fact the group are taking it slow.

 Reize is leading the way, sipping on the Healing Coconut. He can feel every part of his body rejuvinate from the refreshing taste. "This tastes great, Ivo!" He gives a cheerful smile, looking around.

 Accompanying the group is a fairly large tortoise, only slightly shorter than Reize. However, that alone makes the surly tortoise huge on its own. It furrows its eyes while inspecting its surroundings. It is watching for its archnemesis.
 


 "Glad to hear it, chief," Ivo is saying to Reize as he trudges slowly through the hot sand, keeping to the shade of the largest cacti to avoid scalding his feet, though not so close that he risks piercing himself with needles. He had enough of that during their last megamarmot encounter. "We couldn't have done it without Laineth and Argent."
 He does not specify what exactly Argent's contribution was to the process, which may be for the best.
 "Those coconut hulls are quite sturdy. Without the heat or tools to blow aetherglass, there's only so much alchemy we can do -- even some basic reactions have strong acid or alkaline as a byproduct that would eat through most containers. But a basic healing potion can be concoted with coconut oil as a base within the coconut itself!"
 The Cosmopolitan sounds almost proud of this, but really, he's just delighted by the peculiar discovery. The dilettante's assorted scholarly trivia has come in handy already in their current survivalist circumstances, though also shown the limits of his knowledge as a non-specialist in fields like herbalism or metallurgy.
 "Coconuts, huh," Zuna says, the towering catgirl's tone indifferent, her tiger's eyes following the small marmots that dart amongst the sand. "Got any more of that marmot meat?"
 Wordlessly, Ivo extracts what appears to be some smoked marmot jerky from his pocket and hands it to the barbarian, who begins chomping on it contentedly. Considering that he has not thus far showed that he possessed this jerky, he may have brought it entirely for this purpose.
 "You know," Zuna says between chews, "if you need a hotter fire for forging, Flechette knows all about that."

> Zuna's Affinity Rank has increased to 2. In exchange for gifts, she may join the party occasionally as a guest recruit or offer information.

 "That's all it took?" Ivo murmurs to himself, incredulously. "I mean -- oh, really? You think she'll tell us?"
 "No."

> Flechette's Affinity Rank is 0. She will sometimes steal fish.

 "Right," Ivo mutters again. "That tracks."
 They chat on like this as they lumber along at a tortoise's pace, sticking to the shadows, enjoying what amounts to a pleasant stroll so long as no one steps awry. Only the tortoise seems to have a grim and fierce expression as they approach its alleged nemesis's alleged location -- but then, maybe that's just its face.

Ruidosa La Crima hates this island. Lady La Crima wants a summer cottage here! Tranquila just wants to also be home. A strange desereted island is no home for swamp dwelling vampires.

Still, she hates marmots. and cacti. and marmots. and '''cacti'''.

She follows along and doesn't need a coconut. She needs crabs. She ponders the rare desert crabs.

Maybe cacti hide them. Delicious... delicious...

> Ruidosa still hates the island.

"COME OUT PHANTOM GHOST SPIKY FIGURE THING." she calls out. "WE'RE HERE."


  Thoughtfully, as Ivo mentions about Laineth and Argent, "Glad that Argent has been helping us out!" He brightens, "She's a valuable member of the team!" He brings his arms over to the back of his head. "Oooi, Mr. Tortoise! How are you holding up?"

 Nnph. Shut up, runt. The tortoise ignores Reize as it keeps moving.

 Reize's head hangs low, antenna hair flopping while wilting. "I tried."

> Reize's Affinity Rank with the tortoise has increased to -200. At least Reize isn't getting rocks to the head.

 As Ruidosa calls out for the phantom ghost, she will find that there is no sort of response. There are many cacti about. Some smaller, others taller.

 While Reize starts to wander around, he furrows his eyebrow to see that there are a few large cacti that look interesting. "...I don't see any spikey ghost creature."

 However, there is further ahead that there is a fairly large cactus. This one appears to be unique due to a strange looking, circular fruit. The fruit itself appears to be a vibrant pink and white color, many of these are produced around the cactus arms.
 


 "My sensor has been acting up since we were shipwrecked," Ivo quietly observes to Reize as he raises Hauteclare's hilt as though it were a finger to test the breeze, "but for what it's worth, I'm not getting any aetheric readings. Rui," he then asks, raising his voice a little as he looks to the highly enthusiastic looking vampiress, "do you detect any undead or--"
 "Wait," Zuna interrupts. "Do you hear that?"
 "Hear what?"

> BGM Change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7gm_r8hXoU

 The surly tortoise steps forward. Its eyes gleam. It squares off with the large cactus with the vibrant fruits. The screen slowly zooms in on the tortoise's face. It slowly zooms in on the cactus. Then it slowly zooms in on the tortoise's face. Then it--

> The battle music gradually slows and warps.
> BGM Change back to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQHMy3J1ZsY

 "A... spiky figure..."
 Ivo reaches up to run a hand through his tousled dark hair and rub the back of his head, glancing to Reize and Rui in turn.
 "Seems that he tried to eat one of those fruits and was poked for his trouble," Zuna translates, her arms crossed. "At least chopping it down won't be much effort."
 "Eh? Wait." Ivo turns to her, spreading his arms as though in contrast. "This is just a misunderstanding, then, right? Why chop it down? I've never seen fruits like those. Wouldn't that be a waste?"
 Zuna tilts her head, as though unclear on why one would care about fruit when one could simply eat marmot jerky.
 "I mean, having a cactus for a nemesis," Ivo continues, "is like, I don't know, having an ongoing rivalry with treasure chests. It's absurd."

Ruidosa La Crima isn't hunting desert crabs right now. Right now she's trying to coax out a spooky ghost creature , maybe and frowns. "If we're fighting a spooky cactus, I'm flying off the island." she says as she eyes the strange cactus with the strange fruits and eyes them.

She sighs a little. "Which way was land again!?" she mutters.

"I'm not fighting a dumb cactus." she says. "We did that already!"

"IT HURT."

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20 >=18.
Comment: Avoiding Attracting Trouble
Roll(s): 10. Total result is 10. This is a failure (by 8).


  Everything starts to make sense. The boy is drawing his boomerangs out as the tortoise steps forward with a gleam. He takes a deep breath. "Well, this is it! Let's get ready!" He is definitely itching for a fight now. Considering the beating that he took from the tortoise, he wanted to exercise his speed and get into a fight!

 However, it just doesn't move.

 ...Ah?

 There is a large sweatbead appearing over Reize's head. "It's just a immobile object." He brings his boomerangs back to his sides and he shrugs. While the boy walks over towards the large cactus, he brightens while looking at Ivo and Zuna.

 "Ivo's right. There is no need to cut it down." He muses, "It'd be a waste to cut down the fruit." He looks at Ivo, offering a bright smile. "You're right! Rivalry with treasure chests would be absurd!"

> Flash back to various times that the treasure chests turned out to be a mimic. Flash back to the sword, the gem, the hookshot, and a few other objects in the LaCrima Manor turned out to be mimics.

 A nervous laugh follows suit, looking at Ruidosa with a grin.

 "Oh, Rui, calm down." He cracks a grin.

 As he nears the fruit, the boy nonchalantly reaches over for the fruit while stating, "There is no way that we're fighting----"

 There is a shadow looming over the boy. It's huge. And suddenly comes out of nowhere.

 "-aaa---"

 SUCKER PUNCH!

 "GAAAHH!" The boy is sent flying towards the path of Ivo, Zuna, and Ruidosa. Spines protruding out to his back.

 The group find themselves face-to-face with a large cactus creature. It flexes up. It flexes down. It just flexes and dances around.

  "...Ow... my back. My everything," whimpers Reize.
 

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20-3>=10.
Comment: Attempt to go mainstream Rogue: Steal Fruit!
Roll(s): 11. Total result is 8. This is a failure (by 2).

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20-3>=10.
Comment: Punch a cactus.
Roll(s): 11. Total result is 8. This is a failure (by 2).

Ruidosa La Crima blinks when the cactus pops to life.

She reflexively tries to punch it. She misses, entirely, which is a good thing. That's when she realizes she's fighting a plant and she scowls.

"Nope." she says. She turns into a bat and starts to fly off.

> Ruidosa is trying to flee this fight!?


 Ivo looks down at Reize's collapsed form, a veritable pincushion.
 "I stand corrected," he says, a little too calmly, as the combat cactus seems to dance before them. "Need another coconut, Reize?"
 "He says, 'I told you so,'" Zuna translates for the tortoise.
 "Thanks," Ivo replies, "that's very helpful."
 "You're welcome."
 "Well, fruits contain seeds," the Cosmopolitan says philosophically. "We just need to acquire one intact and then we can reproduce this rare species as needed."
 "Why," Zuna asks, "would you want to make more of these?"
 "For science."
 "Science," she observes, "sounds dumb."
 "Nevertheless!" Ivo exclaims, at last drawing Hauteclare fully. Even if the sensor he made for its pommel seems to be malfunctioning, the orbital blade performs as well as ever, extruding from its hilt and hovering in the air, suspended by its internal dynamo. "Here on this isle, we must all venture into the unknown and push our limits! Permit me a little swashbuckling--"
 With a stylish flourish of his wrist, Ivo sends Hauteclare's blade darting forth and slipping between dancing 'limbs' and fearful spines to clip a delectable fruit from the cactus, attempting to dextrously balance it on the flat of the blade and carry it away. Ivo makes it a meter or two before the fruit rolls off and lands on the sand quite close to the cactus.

> Ivo does not actually have the Steal skill.

 "A work in progress," he explains. "Zuna, be a dear and retrieve that for me, won't you?"
 "You're going to need more than jerky to get me to go close to that thing," Zuna says, eyeing the cactus. "I don't speak plant, either, before you ask."
 "Alright, Rui, then it's up to-- Rui!?"

> Ivo does not have the Flee skill, either.

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Speedily going for the fruit while avoiding cactus pain
Roll(s): 14. Total result is 14. This is a success (by 4).

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Spark an exciting new dual tech...??
Roll(s): 1. Total result is 1. This is a failure (by 9).


  "Ugh... wh--why..?" The boy grimaces as he looks at Ivo and Ruidosa, "Th--that would be a good idea. But..." He sucks in a breath, reaching to his back in search of the spines. Pluck. Ow. Pluck. Ow. Pluck. Ow.

 "...Maybe after we get to safety."

 The boy gets back up and he sees Ruidosa goes on the retreat. A large sweatbead appears over the back of his head. "... Oh. Right. Rui doesn't do well with plant creatures." He rubs the back of his head sheepishly.

 However, the thoughts are put away as Ivo attempts to swipe the fruit from the cactus. It hits the ground and rolls near the cactus. "....Ghhh.." He starts off his sprint and he calls out towards Zuna and Ivo, "Leave it to me! Just keep it distracted!"

 The boy is running straight towards the large cactus with a determined face. While in the mid-sprint, he is eyeballing the cacti around him. He can leverage their presence.

 "Ivo! Keep pressure on it with Hauteclare!" He draws both of his boomerangs out and then he twirls the weapons around before flinging it towards the other cacti surrounding the area. The boomerangs strike each separate cacti and bounce off of it.

 The boomerangs smack against the large cactus, each pelting gets it swinging around. As the boy nears the fruit, it attempts to bring its arms down to smash the boy with the mass of spines. However, as it pounds against the sand...

 ... The boy is gone!

 He managed to slide underneath it, in the confusion, and grabbed the fruit.

 "Oooi! I got the fruit!"

 Cheerfully, Reize is running back towards Ivo and Zuna. He reaches an arm out to toss the fruit towards Ivo and Zuna. His hands remain up in expectation of catching his boomerangs.
 


 "You don't seem very good at that sort of thing," Zuna is saying to Ivo after his failed Steal Fruit attempt as he watches Ruidosa bail out of this mess, a hand raised to shield his eyes from the sun.
 "Like I said, we push our limits," he replies, not especially concerned. "I'm more scholar than swashbuckler, but such a rogue would suit the setting, don't you think?"
 "Does 'setting' matter that much?"
 "Of course. With new outfits should come new abilities, even weapons," the Cosmopolitan pronounces with a strange sort of certainty. "Why, with Daiby's snake-taming and Rui's ability to speak to at least some animals, I think they could go full monster-trainer with a properly themed swimsuit and a whip or two. That'd be useful in a situation like this."
 "Useful, huh," Zuna murmurs, considering the relative usefulness of whips, not seeming to consider why swimsuits must be involved. "Rui's the one running away right now, right?"
 "...Right."

> Ivo and Zuna use the dual-tech: Banter.
> Ivo makes some progress on the Shadowcat Bikini Set Schematics... maybe.
> That's it.

 "Oh! Nice one, Reize!" Ivo is saying, at least paying enough attention to appreciate their fearless leader's impressive efforts to retrieve the intact fruit, even sending Hauteclare's blade spinning back to help create something of an opening. "Let's retreat and regroup for now while we--"
 The surly tortoise steps forward, directly into the path of Reize, the looming shelled reptile seeming to walk into the boy's outstretched arms as though to be embraced. The creature's jaws are opening wide, as though to spit another boulder. But nothing exits the tortoise's mouth. Instead, something enters.
 "NOM."
 That something is, of course, Reize.

> A Negative Affinity Dual-tech is unlocked: Sacrifice Art - Substitute Stone!

 "BLORGH."
 Such is the sound that emanates as the tortoise belches Reize out with all the force of one of its boulders, sending him spinning at a sonic speed like an eponymous hedgehog toward the dancing cactus. The rage of eons, or at least like a decade or so, is imbued into the tortoise's one strike at its nemesis, a full-power Reize spit right at its spiny base.
 Now that's a dual-tech, whether Reize likes it or not.


 Ivo stares, saucer-eyed, in silence.
 Zuna catches the fruit.


  "We are victorious! Now we can make our exit!" He knows that Ruidosa had already made her escape. He doesn't blame her, considering her negative affinity with plant creatures. He has grown quite sensitive to that since their first date.

 He cracks a grin towards Ivo and Zuna, "Now, let's get---- ah?" His voice drops as he sees the tortoise moving in front of him. "Oh! You came to see me off? We're friends! High-fi---"

 Before Reize finishes his sentence, he is suddenly in the tortoise's mouth.

 ...Wait, what just happ---...WHYISEVERYTHINGSOFASTANDBRIGHT?!

 He is belched out just as quick as he entered. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" His eyes widen as he is flying straight towards the cactus. As his body is spinning like a hedgehog.

 As he crashes through like a meteor....

 BOOOOM!

> 9999 damage
>>>>> 9999 damage

 There is an explosion of smoke and debris that kick off from the impact.

 Once it would clear off, Reize would be lying on his back, boomerangs landing on his chest. Spines all over him and one can even see a 'ghost' coming out of his mouth as his eyes are white.

> Reize is just done.


  But more importantly to the mission, all of the cacti bits are everywhere. Every bits of the plant-life creature had exploded and are scattered across the desert. On the other spectrum, all of the spines just attach to Reize to make him look like a pincushion.
 


 Ivo surveys the wreckage. The cactus is utterly pulped. All the fruits that remained upon it are spattered into goo and pulverized, most of the seeds likely unsalvageable. The fruit in Zuna's hands is now the only intact one remaining.

> Peerless Nopal acquired.

 He looks down at the tortoise, which is bobbing its head, a reptilian sign of good mood that uncannily resembles a nod of approval. The foe is vanquished. All is well in tortoise world. Now their venture to the desert can begin.

> The Surly Tortoise has joined the party as an animal companion.

 "That's all you wanted from me, right?" Zuna asks, handing the fruit to Ivo. Startled, he instinctively accepts it, glancing down as though having forgotten what it was, only to look up to see that she's already walking away. "Call me for the next feast," she says over her shoulder before the brawny catgirl trudges away. Ivo, now alone save for a pleased tortoise and a questionably alive Reize, watches her go.
 A breeze blows, taking a tumbleweed with it across his line of sight.

> Zuna has left the party.

 Slowly, he approaches Reize's spine-ridden and goo-caked form, looking down at his fallen friend, his expression inscrutable, or perhaps beyond recognizable emotion at this point. He reaches into his rough-sewn marmothide satchel.
 "Coconut?"
 We may be beyond the power of Healing Coconuts, Ivo.