[Touhou]Full broadside to the fourth wall: A combat playtest

[ninja_penguin]

Shijuni Kondoraki

Today started out like any other ordinary day, with Shijuni patrolling through the bamboo forest of the lost. Motionlessly, she stood still while an unusual fog creeped in, her senses finely honed on some point in the distance. Or maybe she was sleeping, you could never really be sure.

Izanagi Zenoxen

Near the misty lake, the sounds of a swordsman at practice could be heard in the stillness of the oncoming night. Anybody who would have approached the half-phantom would see him cutting gashes in the thickening fog coming off of the lake. He continued his practice, physically cutting the rolling fog, which continued to become so thick he could no longer accurately see his surroundings.

Tsubaki Kōkyōkyoku

A night sparrow, Tsubaki was just waking up as the strange fog came rolling in around her. Very odd, it didn't seem like the kind of weather that one would see fog in the forest tonight...

Roll Casket

Hard at work in her workshop, Roll continued her tireless work into the night. So focused on her task was she that the fog seeping in through the cracks barely moved her until the fog had finally obscured her vision of what she was working on.


Everyone

At first the mist overwhelms your ability to see anything, you probably couldn't see your hand in front of your face, or the hat on top of your head. slowly at first you can hear noise of metal clanging, and steam hissing. The sounds increase, and the fog starts to dissipate, and you can see others standing next to you. The noise continues to get louder, and a sudden blast and hissing of steam blows the fog away, revealing your surroundings.

Your group is standing in the middle of what looks like a large forge or foundry, with large flames and glowing forges lining the walls. You can see various fairies all working on metal projects, some of them wearing welder's masks and smithy aprons, others wearing servant clothing and pushing carts between work stations.

Suddenly one of the servant fairies catches sight of all of you, pointing and gawking silently. This causes the fairy behind her to collide with her, look at what could have caused the distraction, and gawk as well. This scene repeats itself a dozen times until a full line of fairies is gawking at the four of you. Suddenly they all cup their hands to their mouths.

"INTRUDERS!"

"Alert engineering! Inform the officers, load the main guns!" They all yell, bumping about and flying and zipping about every which way. Some of them fly into message tubes, squirming while stuck at the entrance for a moment before a soft thoonk noise and a weeeeeeeeeee can be heard.

The remaining fairies have grabbed various tools, or are zipping about in a decidedly hostile manner above the four of you. "Prepare to repel boarders!" one of them shouts.


Enemy compositions:
-5 Fairies
-2 Large faeries

[Rolaran]

Shijuni's field observation required her not to draw attention to herself. She had been almost totally motionless for the better part of twenty minutes, making a note of the fog, but not allowing it to interfere with her concentration. Which worked right up until it filled her field of vision, ruining the view. No point in wearing myself out trying to look through this mess. Hmph. Well, no matter, it should clear up soon. I'll take a short nap, and resume my duties afterwards...

A sudden whoosh of steam causes Shijuni to come back to herself with a start. Looking around, she is momentarily startled to find herself apparently surrounded, but once she realizes that most of the people next to her seem as confused as she is, she redirects her attention to the people who seem most comfortable in this unfamiliar environment.

"You! Fairies! You will explain who is in charge here. You have thirty seconds to comply."

[Kenji]

Izanagi continued his practice despite aware of the mist that's been gathering and lingering around as a sign of respect to his katana that's been with him all this while. Then, he heard a faint sound; that of metals clanking and wings fluttering all over him. It grew louder and nearer overtime, so loud that it disrupt his concentration.

Suddenly, a gentle breeze swept by and he could see clearly now what had been causing all the sound; fairies, and they are not in small quantity. Glancing around, he could also see three unfamiliar faces; the fact that they are not fairies did little to make him felt better.

Soon, the alarm went off; signifying that their presence were noticed. Realizing the fairies had taken battle mode, Izanagi prepared himself in the proper stance as well, awaiting attacks from the fairies. It was not his style to act before his enemies, even if they clearly outnumbered him. Furthermore, this allowed him to observe the other three unknown person; to determine whether they are allies or enemies, though the Lunarian seemed to be good so far.

'Nevertheless, real battle is better than training,' whispered Izanagi softly to himself.

[ninja_penguin]

"I'm in charge!" one of the smaller fairies in the cloud of them above shouts in response to Shijuni's demand. "No, I am!" another one shouts, bapping it on the head. "You're both wrong, the captain is in charge!" The entire cloud of skyborne fairies devolves into a skyborne brawl.

The other two fairies on the ground with the blacksmith garb look at each other, shrug, and lob a large collect of gears, widgets, and wrenches at the party.

OOC:

The following attacks are inbound!
Izanagi Zeoxen: An 8, a 6, and an 8
Tsubaki Kōkyōkyoku: A 6
Roll Casket: A 6
Shijuni Kondoraki: A 7

[Drizvolta]

Tsubaki was still recovering from her sudden displacement when a bunch of tools were flung her way, only to disapear when the strange swordsman invoked a spell card. "Hey swordsman! I'll help you defeat these fairies!" Tsubaki drew her pistol, and readied a shot.

[Rolaran]

Upon seeing the barrage of incoming tools, Shijuni drops into a low crouch, hoping the tools will fly harmlessly over her head. However, crouching only gives her a better view of the pipe wrench whistling in at what would be ankle-level, but is now coming straight for her head.

She begins to mutter something, before reaching down and slapping something onto the ground in front of her. A sudden flash of energy and a loud bang signal the activation of a spellcard. The tools are blown away as Shijuni stands up again.

"You are nothing next to the cosmos! Insignificance Sign: "Total Perspective Vortex"!"

A burst of danmaku spirals in all directions, trailing persistent danmaku like the lines of a coordinates map.

Shijuni's spellcard continues with another burst running perpendicular to the first, making a grid. Star-like danmaku streaks across this grid, forming shining patterns before either winking out, or striking inattentive fairies.

Shijuni Kondoraki
Lives: 3
Bombs: 2
Stance: Assault
Status: Invulnerable 1 Stopped when the second phase of the card kicked in

[ninja_penguin]

The bullets spray about, clipping one of the mechanic faeries and throwing her to the floor. The other manages to avoid to worst of it, and the moving brawl above somehow manages to avoid being struck by any of it as they haphazardly move about.

As Shijuni's spellcard moves into its next phase, the spray of bullets everywhere strikes the same mechanic fairy again, tossing her to the ground, although the other manages to dodge between the densely packed streams.

Far above, the faeries start dodging into the previous phase's attacks in their tussle. Both fire faeries wink out in puffs of flame as they collide with some bullets. The water fairy, gawking, doesn't notice another wave behind her and puffs away into a bit of steam. One of the nature faeries spots an opportunity and shoves her rival into the oncoming bullets, and manages to sneak between them. "Ta-da! This settles it! I'm in charge!" she says rather proudly.

[Leahn Novash]

Roll Casket rolls under the fire, while morphing her right hand into a Tantutu, "Hey, what do you mean we're intruders? What is everyone doing on MY workshop?" Then a lot of danmaku appears, everything goes to chaos, and she decides that the best option is to assert the situation calmly.

[Drizvolta]

Seeing the fairies drop to the ground gave a boost to Tsubaki's confidence. With her pistol in hand, she shouted: Follow me everyone! I'll get us out of this! and with the end of that, she fired a shot.

[Tsubaki Kōkyōkyoku]
Lives: 2
Bombs: 6
Stance: Assault
Status: A-ok

[Leahn Novash]

Roll yells, "Why is everyone shooting inside my workshop? You are gonna break everything!"

[ninja_penguin]

The confident night sparrow's shot actually strikes home, the mechanic fairy unable to fully get out of the way due to all of the persistant shots laying strewn about the air, but an impressive limbo bend leaves her hair and apron ruffled, but otherwise unscatched.


OOC:(It is now Roll Casket's official turn.)

[Leahn Novash]

Roll yells, "I won't let you break again everything I just fixed! Roll Buster!" And three pellets go out of her pistol arm, aiming once at each fairie that is still alive.

[ninja_penguin]

Roll's three shots are dead on target, but all three fairies manage to graze them aside, taking no real damage. "Haha, I told you I was in charge!" the nature fairy above says, before returning fire. Her shot, however, is wild and easily evaded by Roll.


OOC: And now we're back to Izanagi Zenoxen

[Kenji]

Dashing forward, Izanagi unsheathed his katana, Burning Spirit, and with an elegant flick of his hand, a vacuum wave was formed, swiftly heading toward the self-boasting Nature Fairy.

Technically, it's never my turn to begin with :smallbiggrin:

[ninja_penguin]

Izanagi's strike hits true and cleanly, puffing the fairy into another burst of non-motivation.

The two mechanic fairies, even the one that's looking rather haggard, renew their efforts with another round of widget flinging.


OOC:

3 attacks on Shijuni; a 4, 5, 6
2 attacks on Izanagi: a 4 and a 6
1 attack on Tsubaki: an 11

[Rolaran]

Shijuni swings her satchel out in front of her, knocking away the first object flying toward her. However, she can't get the satchel in front of a whirling screwdriver that clubs her on the hand, causing her to wince in pain.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing? When all this is over, I'll make you realize you should have cooperated!" Shijuni says, her facial expression completely unchanged despite the fact that her hand is clearly quite sore.

Shijuni
Lives: 2
Bombs: 2
Stance: Focused
Status: Supernatural Border (When does this end?)

[ninja_penguin]

Shijuni's attacks manage to clock the haggard looking big fairy, and there's a large flash of light and the sound of a flower pot falling to the floor, giving an apparent noise of disapproval. Unfortunately, staggered from her hit, Shijuni's beam and other attacks fail to connect with the other fairy.

[Drizvolta]

A well thrown tool flies toward Tsubaki, and acting on reflex, she manages to activate her spell card, causing the projectile to disapear in mid-air.
Tch, you'll have to do better than that to get me! Take this! Spell Card: Overature of the Night!
The card flashed, and suddenly bullets began to appear in the air, flying out in every direction, and remaining in place.
If you have trouble dodging this, it's only going to get harder from here on out!

[Tsubaki]
Lives: 2
Bombs: 6 - 1 = 5
Stance: Attacking
Status: Supernatural Border (1 turn)

[ninja_penguin]

The remaining mechanic fairy shrugs, pirouetting about and avoiding the bulletstorm.



OOC: Because the small fairies are all done with, Roll Casket is up to go again.

[Leahn Novash]

Roll Casket exclaims, "Wow! So many bullets! You do know what they say about using cannons to kill mosquitoes, don't you?" Sliding to the side with a cartwheel to dodge the incoming bullets and get a better angle, she points her tantutu arm again, "Let's finish this! Roll Buster!"

[ninja_penguin]

Continuing it's ballet display, the big fairy manages to continue to pirouette through the attacks, ending with a slip dip and a bow.

[Kenji]

Izanagi flinched as one of the attack managed to strike him. Quickly recovering his composure, he deflected the following attack and swiftly launched another vacuum wave directly toward the assailant.

[Izanagi Zenoxen]
Lives: 3 [4]
Bombs: 4
Stance: Attacking
Status: Normal

[ninja_penguin]

From up above, a few clonking noises can be heard reverberating through out the pipes and vents up on the ceiling. Suddenly with a loud crash one of them opens, and a large sack of potatoes falls out from above and drops the remaining mechanic fairy like, well, a big sack of potatoes. The big fairy twitches once or twice, and quickly vanishes from sight as a second and third sack of potatoes lands on it as well. The clanging continues for a while, with a few "oof!"s and "ow!"s coming from above, before a bright sparkling fairy comes hurtling down onto the pile as well.

"Ah hah! Stuck the landing!" She says, striking a triumphant pose. "There's only one fairy around here that gets to menace the Players!"


A new challenger has appeared!

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r238/shallorwain/Touhou%20faces/choupose.png


Chou Minoru, shining fairy of light


"Is that somebody I hear shirking peeling duty?~" A voice trails down from above.

"That's not true!" Chou says, sounding abashed. "I'm just taking care of the players! Come on!" Chou says, pulling out a wand and brandishing it at the group. "Let's roll initiative!"

"Sounds like somebody forgot it's called reactions here, and not initiative~"

"S-shut up!"

[Kenji]

'Annoying' was the only word coming out from Izanagi before he once again execute his trademark attack to the newly arrived fairy. Dashing toward the side of the fairy, he flicked his wrist gently and in an instant, a vacuum wave could be seen hovering toward the unwary foe, gaining speed throughout the approach.

[Izanagi Zenoxen]
Lives: 3
Bombs: 4
Stance: Attacking
Status: Normal

[Rolaran]

Still rubbing her sore hand, Shijuni barely seems to notice the newcomer. However, the second the fairy raises a wand, Shijuni shoots a neural bolt from the hip. "You're going to explain what's going on! Or do we need to force you to comply?"

[ninja_penguin]

Chou spun in the air, shrugging. "I guess I could really explain, you know. But it'd be kinda meta, and we haven't finished the set with that really nice background scenery view that makes for exposition. But I guess the reason why you're all here is-"

At this point Izanagi's impacts Chou squarely between the eyes. "OW! HEY!" she said, spinning backwards in the air from the impact. "Fine, if that's how we want to play this!" She said angrily, twirling her wand and sending a pair of shots at the two players beneath her.


Crunch:

Chou has lost one life!
Chou attacks Izanagi (8) and Shijuni (7)

[Kenji]

Izanagi readied his katana as the attack flew nearer toward him. When the attack was within range, he tried to parry it and was barely successful. Knowing better of his trusted katana's ability, he held out a peculiar card with intricate linings across it's surface, which appeared out of nowhere in front of him. With the sudden appearance of the card, a voice could be heard within him, instructing him of the way for the awakening of it.

Whispering the words heard, 'Wanderer Sign, Uncertain Future', the card gleamed lightly before light engulfed the surrounding area briefly, blinding those that dared to witness it. As the light subside, Izanagi could no longer be seen, but the sound of footsteps echoed throughout the area. While Chou was on the lookout for him, Izanagi reappeared behind her, unleashing waves of attack instantly without the slightest hint of mercy.

[Izanagi Zenoxen]
Lives: 3
Bombs: 3
Stance: Attacking
Status: Normal

[Rolaran]

Shijuni declares a spellcard. Reality seems to warp around her, and the wand blast has reversed direction. Also, it is now a gold brick. Also also, Shijuni's position appears to be fluctuating, making any attempt to target her rather pointless.

You can still tell us what's going on, you know. Trying to kill us and giving us advice aren't mutually exclusive.

Shijuni
Lives: 2
Bombs: 2 (forgot that they recharge after you lose a life)
Stance: Assault
Status: Supernatural Border

[ninja_penguin]

Chou manages to dodge Shijuni's attack, but it leaves her wide open for Izanagi's beam attack. Spinning around at the last minute, she parries it with a now glowing star tipped wand. "But it's so much more fun when it is!" She says to Shijuni. "Like this! Look out, these lasers might sting a little bit!" she says as her wand erupts with color and light beams. "Sparkling sign: Constellation barrage!"


However, the end result is nothing more than an effective light show.

Crunch:

Chou has bombed!
Everybody has supernatural border activated, so nothing happens!

Player turn!

[Kenji]

'Nearly...' Izanagi whispered to himself and launched another attack as soon as Chou unleashed her spell card. He smirked slightly as his attack got nearer to Chou, hoping that it delivered a clean hit on her this time.

[Izanagi Zenoxen]
Lives: 3
Bombs: 3
Stance: Attacking
Status: Normal

[Rolaran]

The attacks fray and fizzle when they reach Shijuni's position. Shijuni, however, does not attack, but holds one hand to her temple. "This one looks tough, and she's not going to hold back. Activating emergency mental reserves!" Her glasses flash, and she suddenly seems more confident- or maybe just more bullheaded.

Shijuni
Action: Boost Resolve
Lives: 2
Bombs: 2
Stance: Flirt with Death
Status: Hitbox is now 5, due to Flirting with Death and Resolve boost (6 turns)

[ninja_penguin]

Chou advances her spellcard, managing to dodge Izanagi's attack, waving her wand about, sending star shaped danmaku everywhere, some of them holding positions in the skies, others flying past and disappearing. "You guys know how constellations are made, right? First you find the stars..."

Crunch:

Chou's Supernatural border has ended!
Chou dodges the attack.
Chou advances her spellcard!
Two attack waves, so two attacks at 9 headed to both of you.
Persistant waves will not affect the players until next round.

[Kenji]

'Let's hope the same trick works twice' Izanagi said silently, but loud enough for Chou to barely hear it. 'Initiating: Wanderer Sign, Uncertain Future.' Izanagi whispered again, though instead of the card gleaming, it shattered into tiny pieces, gradually forming a protective layer surrounding Izanagi. As the star-shaped danmaku approached the barrier, it vaporized instantly, leaving no trace of it's existence. 'Now, it's my turn!' Once he had finished the sentence, various size of danmaku appeared as he swings his katana in a random but graceful manner. When all the danmaku was readied, it flew in top speed toward Chou, aiming her vitals.

[Izanagi Zenoxen]
Lives: 3
Bombs: 2
Stance: Attacking
Status: Normal

[Rolaran]

Shijuni watches the bullets approach without even a hint of reaction. Then, at the last possible moment, she leans left, causing the bullets to streak by harmlessly. She returns fire with a neural bolt, deliberately launching it straight through one of Chou's more complex patterns.

"Constellations are nothing more than some lowly humans trying to impose patterns on a mysterious universe. I'll pay them no heed."

Shijuni
Lives: 2
Bombs: 2
Stance: Assault
Status: Hitbox 4 (Resolve up for 5 turns)

[ninja_penguin]

Chou manages to dodge the first couple of Izanagi's attacks, but the final assault of giant danmaku connect solidly. "Oof!"she said, flipping about in the air again. "So, you don't like constellations then eh? Why don't you try this one on for size! W-" At this instant Shijuni's mind bolt connects solidly with the tip of Chou's wand. A distinct, loud cracking noise can be heard.



Warning Sign: Wand Malfunction


"What? It's not supposed to be doing that at all!" Chou says, diving behind a workbench for cover. Above in the air the wand begins spraying lasers about uncontrollably.

Crunch:

Chou loses one life!
Chou uses a bomb!
Two attacks at Izanagi: 7 and an 8
One attack at Shijuni: 2
You are at -1 to evade.