File: Joker - Wireframe (Episod(...).pdf (212 KB, PDF)

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>>1098283

(Gentlemen, the wireframe schematic has been updated, in order to better reflect your current condition.)

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>>1098284

THE FIRST DAY

The fires follow you, across the desert of black sand - Flickering, bobbing specks against the wasteland, like grounded stars. Overhead, tempests of flame whirl against the smoke and cinders of the sky: sullen lightning flashing across the clouds, illuminating this vast, barren landscape.

There is no sun, not here. A wan, sickening glow issues from beyond the horizon - a glow that does nothing to the darkness except make it dirty.

A low wind rises in the east, shivering across the dunes. It picks up the dust as it goes, brushing the gritty black powder into eddying cones. The dust seethes, flicking like foam off rock outcrops or churning in lines across the flats. Like snakes, perhaps - Like waves breaking on a rocky shore.

You walk the path, between the ocean of black sand and the endless sea of acid - the low murmur and hiss of breakers a constant surrusation, your wavering shadow cast long and dark before you.

There is a howl in the voice of the wind.

Are you dreaming, Joker?

Perhaps all of your life was an illusion, a waking vision between your descent and the long, long mourning that followed. The moaning wind plucks at the tatters of your Assault Shroud, the ragged fabric billowing in your wake like a cloak - It drapes the ruin of your left flank, mechanisms shielded from the abrading sands that rasp and grind and erode.

There is an art to this, in the perpetual twilight. Head down, vision narrowed to a slit - One foot in front of the other.

Inching towards daylight, one step at a time.

The Joker's Memory beats time to the slow grind of your footfalls. Never alone, it whispers, shedding a faint crimson warmth - an ember, shielded against the winds, pulsing with a rhythm of its own.

Onward. Forward, and ever on.

(Continued)

>>1098285
>Beksinski
Good taste.

>>1098284
Jesus, we're fucked up.

I never thought we'd end up here again, but here we are.

How've you been, JQOP?

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>>1098287

(Significantly better.)

>>1098285

It is darker than you remember. Only the distant flames, the slow, patient lap of acid waves against the surf, parts land from sky.

Forward.

Within the cage of your armor, there is only your mind. You do not feel the sand crunch underfoot - You don't feel the acid winds scouring the red from your armor, a step at a time. There is an absence, a lack - a void. The process of advance is mechanical, almost trancelike: there is no guiding narrative, no *reason*.

There is only the promise of a destination.

It is more than you ever had, the first time.

There is a sound, a sound nearly lost in the desolation. It is a sound that issues from *within* you, from within your helm - a blurt of static, across the fading connection of the Dirac channel. Sense-memories, receding like echoes: the low whine of servoes, a grind of protesting mechanisms. A cursor, blink-tracking across your HUD-

An ally, wounded.

Daegal lies where he has fallen, stretched out across the black sand. His Assault Shroud whips in the scouring winds, a tattered black flag - the sullen hell-lit glow casting glittering highlights where it touches the edges of his armor.

Orichalcum. Imperishable.

"Ano-"

He scrabbles at the soft black sand, but struggling only makes his slip farther. The sand is hot enough that digging his gauntleted fingers into it gives rise to twisting strands of smoke, the nanomaterial of his Shroud smoldering where it touches the ground.

"...Anon..."

[ ] Help him up.
[ ] "Kazuya - What's wrong?"
[ ] "Can you stand?"
[ ] "Just a little further, Daegal. Just a little more."
[ ] "...Are you all right?"
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>1098288
Help him up.

"Come on, just put one foot in front of the other, friend."

(I'm glad you're feeling better, OP. I was worried there, for a while. Thanks for continuing today!)

>>1098288
SLAP HIS ASS AND TELL HIM TO GET THE F U C K INTO GEAR

>>1098288
>[ ] "Just a little further, Daegal. Just a little more."
"Forget that you were human a while ago. Right now you are just a mind piloting a machine. It's the first lesson that you have to learn in the Red."

>>1098291

Your hydraulics are dust-dry, your gyro spooling as you limp to Daegal's side.

When you extend your remaining hand, he stares at it - For a long, blank moment, as if he can't remember what it is. But then, shakily, he reaches out. Servoes whirr, as his hand closes on your own. Kazuya's boots slip in the sand, as he half-staggers, half-lurches to his feet - Almost toppling against you, before he finds his footing.

> "Come on, just put one foot in front of the other, friend."

There is a hairline crack across his lens, one that hasn't quite been repaired. The light beneath flickers, fitfully - kindled to uncertain life, fighting for cohesion.

"Yeah," Kazuya says. "Yeah."

The wind howls. The beach curves away, a stark and lonely crescent - Receding, away from the steady tug of the Joker's Memory, guiding your steps unerringly forward. It is all uphill, now, against the steep slopes of the blasted dunes - the wind at your front, making each foothold treacherous and unsteady. As you struggle upwards, sand rains down from above: the jagged fangs of the cliffs overhead, like teeth bared in a hollow grin, promising a collapse.

Up.

"Fuck-" Daegal stumbles. The wind plucks at him, like clawing fingers - it rips at his Assault Shroud, the black banner gusting in his wake.

"Anon, I'm *slipping*-"

>>1098294

You pause.

You look back, your remaining hand closing around a spur of upturned rock for a grip. The ruin of your cuirass is clear, your armored digits spasming fitfully - a reminder of Pazuzu's lightning. The power feeds are severed - the charging element blinking at uncertain intervals.

Kazuya's voice falters. He sinks his hands into the dune, clawing handholds for himself. He is cursing - A kind of exhausted, colorless cursing - as he pulls himself after you.

(Continued)

>>1098288
>The sand is hot enough that digging his gauntleted fingers into it gives rise to twisting strands of smoke, the nanomaterial of his Shroud smoldering where it touches the ground.
>>1098284
Right Torso:
>Cooling System [Array]
>DAM. [LIGHT]
Right leg:
>Cooling Vent [Array]
>DAM. [MOD.]

We are in fucking hell and our cooling is a bit damaged. Thank fuck that nothing is destroyed.

>>1098300

> "Forget that you were human, a while ago. Right now - You're a mind. A mind piloting a machine. It's the first lesson that you have to learn, in the Red."

One step at a time. Inexorable. Your servoes groan in complaint, red damage markers skittering across your HUD as you drag yourself upwards, over the lip of the cliff. The sharp points grind unmercifully against your armor - you feel your torso plating buckle, feel the ragged edges slice through the myomer musculature and cables below-

(HP: 46.37%)

> Help him up.

This time, when you reach over, Daegal grasps your hand as soon as it is offered. The weight makes your actuators whirr, as somehow - somehow - you stop yourself from overbalancing, auto-reactive talons gouging into the bleak rock underfoot-

Come on-

When you set your feet and pull, the screech of orichalcum against the stone is infinitely worse than the wind's droning hiss.

"Nnnnnn-" Kazuya slumps. Static-laden breath hisses through his helmet grille, uneven blurts of white noise.

"Easy-" he crackles, and there's a bitter edge to his voice.

"Easy for you to say-"

He lies there, stretched out across the stone. Temperature warnings play across your sensors - the heat is rendering you slow, sluggish. Not bad - but it will be worse, soon. Already, the bloom of radiation is a distant blurriness at the edge of your vision.

Something is coming.

You wait. The moments tick by, as Daegal levers himself to one knee - His mind is telling him that his shoulders, his legs, are screaming agony. That his muscles are torn within his rotator cuff, that he can feel every bruise beneath his armor.

You wait, and you feel nothing at all.

"Anon-"

He's on his feet, now. Hunched over, but standing.

"Hell of-"

"...hell of a day, isn't it."

The wind moans.

"I mean - After all that happened...God, it's crazy to believe that - It all happened today-"

[ ] "Yes. It's been a hell of a day."
[ ] "We have to keep moving. It's bad now, but it'd get worse."
[ ] "I know, Kazuya. I know."
[ ] "You're still in shock. It'll make sense once you get a chance to rest, I promise." (Lie.)
[ ] "Kazuya...We've been here for two months."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>1098308
> We've been here two months.
> No "lie" tag.

I have some concerns.

Also,
>"Yes, it's been a hell of a day. Come on, let's get moving."

Can we engage him in conversation to keep his mind off things? Start something up?

>>1098308
"Yeah, even by my standards this was too hectic of a day."
Grab his hand and lead him on.
"But we're still alive, somehow. We just need some time to get back home."

>>1098308
Make out with Kazuya and if he reacts like Kazuya would then he's not a fake Kazuya.

>>1098308
>[ ] "We have to keep moving. It's bad now, but it'd get worse."
(This is in relation to the day/night cycle of the place, right?)

Wait, what's up with that two months line? Doesn't the first post say it's the first day? Is it supposed to be a joke on our side?
Anyway, best to be vague about the time frame. It allows him to stay focused.
If he figures out how much time is passing, he will start to panic... But then again, telling him that time in the real world will barely pass would help just as much.
So the joke might actually be a good choice to breach that subject.

>[ ] "Kazuya...We've been here for two months."
"...Maybe. We can spend a hundred years here and no day will pass outside. I've been here before.
Just put one foot in front of the other.

Anyway, yes, it's been one hell of a day. And I'm glad that I managed to save you, at least."

>>1098315

>Wait, what's up with that two months line? Doesn't the first post say it's the first day? Is it supposed to be a joke on our side?

(By your best estimate, it took you two months to get off that beach. But it's still the same 'night' in the day/night cycle.)

>>1098315

This, but don't mention time to him. That will freak him out.

>>1098309
>>1098311

> "Yes, it's been a hell of a day. Come on, let's get moving."
> "Even by my standards this was too hectic of a day."

"Even by your-" Daegal begins - then bites the words off. He merely shakes his head, as he staggers after you. The ground is more solid, here - stone, instead of sand. It's less of a trudge, a dragging slog-

"...What's a bad day for you, then?"

> "But we're still alive, somehow. We just need some time to get back home."

"Home..."

That's a shaky note to Kazuya's voice, now - Something fragile, a kind of dim realization.

"...In all that was happening, I didn't even *think* about-"

A fragmented burst of white noise - the clunk of internal mechanisms, as Daegal swallows, hard.

"-Natsumi. The others. I'd forgotten. Maybe...Maybe they made it out, you think? In time, I mean. Before..."

He lets his voice trail off, as if acknowledging the hopelessness of that endeavour.

He doesn't know, and it's beginning to eat at him.

> [X] "We have to keep moving. It's bad now, but it'd get worse."

"...Worse? You mean - It can get *worse*?"

Daegal sounds appalled - appalled, but weary, as he takes in the blighted, blasted lands all around.

Perhaps he has a point.

But he's never seen the sun come up.

(Continued)

>>1098322
>>1098315

> "I've been here before. Just put one foot in front of the other."
> "And I'm glad that I managed to save you, at least."

"...Best advice I've heard all day." There's real warmth in Kazuya's voice, now, as he begins to struggle forward.

But only for a moment.

"Yeah, well - I'm glad you managed to save me, too." The humor, abruptly, leeches from his voice - And this time, you don't need to see his face to know what he's thinking.

"Akira. The...other two. Even Aoba-san...They never had a chance, did they? Any of them. Not against-"

"Against..."

Daegal shakes his head, again, as if to clear his mind.

"I can't - I can't believe they're dead. It's just...It's like - I know it happened, but it wasn't...real. Not like Yui-"

His voice catches. His hand - an instinctive gesture - comes to rest against his cuirass, forged from gleaming gold.

(Continued)

>>1098329

"I keep thinking - Any moment now, I'm going to *wake up*-"

"...Or I'm going to look down, and see my own guts."

A hollow chuckle, pained. "I mean - When I woke up...*Here*, I mean - I thought...I thought, that was it. That I was dead, and in Hell. Until I realized - If I was in Hell...I wouldn't be stuck here with *you*, would I?"

At any other time, he'd have landed a friendly punch on your shoulder. Today is perhaps not the time for that.

The cliffs level out. Sand - with aching slowness - gives way to blasted earth. The dull light picks out the facing edges of rocks and boulders with red sheen, their illumination dimmed further by the automatic glare-shields in your optics.

The dust cakes everything.

Looking ahead, the landscape is a broken tract of ridges and ancient basins - filled with shadows so black, they look like pools of ink. The mind plays tricks - your sensors forming ghost-images from the swirling dust, the grit. A tower - a hand - a wing...

You labor on. The plains of desolation swallow all sound.

For once, Kazuya is ahead of you. Perhaps he's found his second wind-

Or perhaps it's enough that you're moving again. That you're going *somewhere*.

And then - He stops, abruptly. Stiffens, as if he's been struck by a thunderbolt - As if he's realized the one thing that makes things infinitely worse.

"Oh. Oh *Jesus*."

"Anon, I'm so sorry-"

His hand comes up. He wipes his mouth-grille.

"-I'm so sorry about Mio."

[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>1098341
"Mio's not dead, Kazuya. I made sure of it. Though I have no idea whether that's for the best or not."
"And after what I did, I doubt she'll ever want to see me again."

>>1098341
"If there's anyone who should feel sorry, it's me.
I fucked it up. I tried to save everyone and just got a lot of people hurt and killed.
You haven't even seen a glimpse of the shit that has gone down. Or the kind of individuals involved in all of this.

Mio is still alive. But she probably wishes she wasn't. And she knows that I was responsible."

>>1098346
>>1098351

> "Mio's not dead, Kazuya. I made sure of it. Though I have no idea whether that's for the best or not."

"She's *alive*?"

> "And after what I did, I doubt she'll ever want to see me again."
> "If there's anyone who should feel sorry, it's me.
> "I fucked it up. I tried to save everyone and just got a lot of people hurt and killed."
> "You haven't even seen a glimpse of the shit that has gone down. Or the kind of individuals involved in all of this."

"After what y-" Daegal shakes his head. "Look - Ano...Jok-"

He sighs. White noise blossoms across the Dirac channel.

"-And *you're* supposed to be the smart one."

Kazuya's boots stomp against the ground. Dust funnels upwards.

"Anon, you have to *listen* to yourself. Everything - All of it that happened? That's not on *you*."

"I *know* you, Anon. I know you're still beating yourself up about..."

His voice trails off. The wound is still too fresh in his mind. For a long moment, he just stares ahead - You wonder what he sees, through the swirling dust borne on the wind.

"You're feeling guilty about this. So am I. But *you* came through for us. Without you, I'd be *dead*. Everyone else, too. Whatever you think you did - You did the right thing. If it was me-"

A pause.

"...I don't know if I could've done it. Made the choices you did. Do the right thing - the *heroic* thing."

"Don't kid yourself - You're the best of us, man."

"After all - You ended up *here* trying to bring me back."

He doesn't understand. Not truly.

(Continued)

>>1098351
This, with the added encouragement of "Daegal...Kazuya. The armor you wear, it was meant for someone of your caliber...a better man than I."

>>1098374
This reminds me that he doesn't know about the unique armors.

I wonder if Daegal can also be gained by killing its wearer.

>>1098367

> "Mio is still alive."

"Yeah. And once we're out of here, when she *sees* you-"

> "But she probably wishes she wasn't. And she knows that I was responsible."

He slows. The heat in his voice dies away.

"You...what?"

Daegal stares at you, his golden mask impassive.

"You don't mean-"

The beginnings of uncertainty creeps into his voice, now. A kind of...half-cohered realization.

Kazuya is many things. But he's never been stupid. Something in your voice, your words-

Unease, now.

"I thought," Daegal begins, slowly, painfully. "I thought - I thought you *found* her. That's what you mean, right? Anon - When you said she was still alive...You got her out of the city, didn't you? I mean - Before you came back for us, you made sure she was *all right*, didn't you?"

There's a kind of horror, to his words. Not suspicion - He is in uncharted territory, now, fumbling his way forward to the truth.

"Joker - Mio's *safe*, isn't she?"

"...Anon?"

>>1098374

"I - but, I'm not..."

"Joker...You haven't done - Shit, I don't *know*-"

The sky overhead is lightening. It is turning the colour of arterial blood.

You hear it before Kazuya sees it - the murmur. The slowly-turning clouds are staining pink, like blood in water. In the distance, what looks like a vast, slowly-creeping dust storm has shrouding the horizon, obscuring even the distant fires. It is a roiling haze of dust and broken light, sweeping over the land like an avalanche. There is movement in the filmy edges of the advancing dust storm, resolving into shapes, into figures...

"What-"

"...What is that? Anon, what the hell is that?"

The Repentance.

"The wha-?"

[ ] "Run. Run *now*."
[ ] "We have to find shelter. Now."
[ ] "I know a place. It's not far - *Hurry*."
[ ] "Fortress Mode. Now."
[ ] "Head for the ridge - We can't be caught in the open-!"

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>1098390
>[ ] "I know a place. It's not far - *Hurry*."
Reserve Fortress Mode for if we don't make it.

User Booster to give us extra speed. Tell Kazuya to do the same if he forgets to do it.

>>1098390
>[ ] "Run. Run *now*."
>[ ] "I know a place. It's not far - *Hurry*."
"Be ready to use Fortress Mode. No matter what, we can't stand up to that."

Use double DRAW_FORTH if we have to.

>>1098397
>Use double DRAW_FORTH if we have to.
What would that even do without a lachryma source?

We will have no problem, with our Athame speedboost and Abruption Jets, I would wager.
We only need to make sure that Kazuya can keep up.

>>1098401
Sorry, mistook Draw Forth for Over-Armor since they can be used in conjuction.

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>>1098394
>>1098397

You run. The mechanisms of your battered armor chug and clatter, as you force yourself forward - All thought fades, now. There is only flight. Daegal staggers after you, breaking into a lurching run; He can hear the noisome sounds, glimpse the twisted figures within the rising storm-

But he doesn't know what it *means*.

He cannot understand that the sounds he hears - the tormented lowing, from a vast distance away - are the birth-spasms of ocean-dwelling leviathans, awakening to find themselves burning alive. That the earth itself writhes with noisome corruption, or the foul things that stir beneath fused glass and black sand, disgorged from somewhere worse still-

Slate rattles, the slope flying past beneath you. Your Abruption Jets pulse to life - Enough to give you a very hard, very hot *push*, to carry you across the tumbling shale, to give your laboring reactor a few moments of life.

It has to be here. You know it. Your boots crack against the bared, uprisen rock, Kazuya's panicked breath coming in blurts of white noise across the channel-

"-We're not going to...!"

Behind you - You can hear it. All the horrors of the Pit.

You leap. Your damaged leg takes your weight, poorly - Sparks fly from the knee-joint. Kazuya leaps down, too - He tumbles, swearing, staggering upright with one frenetic glance back-

There.

Something vast rises before you, slowly and grandly. It is a great slab of pitted stone, ghostly in the wan light, at least a league across - a single vast cathedral, sprouting from the flat vista of the steppe.

You hear Kazuya blurt out a startled curse. He didn't see it, not until a moment ago-

...And neither did you.

You make for it.

(Continued)

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>>1098433

You sprint between columns of bleached and bare stone, like discarded ribs scattered through some giant's ossuary. In the distance, you can see the single entrance - Like doors, flung wide. Beckoning.

"There-? We're going in *there*-?"

Faster. *Faster*.

There is a distant rumble, a background tremor that rumbles through the stone at your feet. Overhead - With slow, ponderous grace - the cathedral's doors are closing.

Daegal is ahead of you. His lead grows. For one moment, he is silhouetted against the archway - One hand reaching out, as vast slabs of stone rumble downwards-

"Anon - Come *on*-"

One more time - Just more time-

Your Abruption Jets sputter. For one treacherous moment, they cycle, fighting for charge-

And then you are hurled forward, skidding across the ground, the edges of your armor drawing sparks, the thunderous boom of the doors closing blotting out all sound. For one moment, all is darkness.

Outside, there is a scream. A chorus of wails, keening shrieks. There is a sound like claws scrabbling, scrabbling-

Then quiet, at last, mercifully descends.

(Continued)

>>1098442

Black.

The snap-hiss of the Condemner being drawn...

The geography of circuitry, igniting along the blade's length. The crackle of electricity - then the dull *whoomph* as the sword's length erupts in flame. It is a flickering, guttering light - just enough to see the darkness by - as Daegal raises it overhead.

You hear the hushed hiss of his inhalation, as your sensors adjust to the sudden light - But you know what he's seeing.

The polished black floors, the gleam extinguished by eons of scouring winds. The endless rows of shelves - carved from the spire's living stone - intact except for where storm-tossed debris has pierced the hall like a hail of bullets, carving holes in those manuscripts caught in the path.

The walls pulse with threads of blood pink stone, moving and twisting as if trying to escape. There are staircases up, and down - not quite spirals, they turn and twist when the eye does not fall upon them, winding like coiled serpents. It is a vast place - Uncomfortably so, as if intended to accomodate proportions and aesthetics other than human.

There is paper everywhere. Scattered underfoot, like fallen leaves.

"This is..." Daegal begins, fumbling for the words.

"...This was a library - wasn't it?"

(Continued)

>>1098462

There are the silver outlines of objects in the hall: columns, ancient statuary, machines. Devices, standing like giant metal insects in the gloom, probe arms raised like mantis limbs, metal wingcases marked with arcane, abstruse symbols for settings and degrees.

They are spotless, unlike everything else.

Kazuya paces forward. There is a kind of wonder in that slow, careful motion - Doing his best not to step on the papers underfoot. A vast codex is set on a pedestal of knurled and twisted stone, the striations playing across the worn and weathered surface-

"I - Hey."

Every letter on every page has been scratched out, by hand, with an angry X.

He looks down. Every page is the same - the writing obliterated. Lost.

"...They're all like that," Daegal says - his voice is hushed, with something like reverence...And a growing dread. "Who could have done this...?"

[ ] "It was like this the last time, too."
[ ] "Not 'who'. What."
[ ] "We'll never know."
[ ] "Maybe some things are better off forgotten."
[ ] "It made no sense to me, either."
[ ] "Pile some books together in one of the pits. We'll need a fire."
[ ] "Time for that later. We need to secure the place, first."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>1098480
>[ ] "It was like this the last time, too."
>[ ] "Time for that later. We need to secure the place, first."

>>1098480
>[ ] "It made no sense to me, either."
"The Red is full of mysteries. There's libraries, space ships and the odd vitruvian device and no one to explain the meaning of any of it. Most of the time, someone will find something and make a doomsday weapon out of it. The place is also way too hostile to really explore."
>[ ] "Time for that later. We need to secure the place, first."

(Gentlemen - I'd love to continue, but it's extremely late for me and I'm exhausted. Happy Chinese New Year: I'll pick this up at the next opportunity, likely in a day or two.)

>>1098531
See you later, OP.

>>1098531
Thanks for running

>>1098531
Good luck and have fun, OP! So, is this a sort of dark epilogue or is the quest just straight up continuing? Either way, I love the turn this has taken!

>>1098548

(It's a continuation.)

>>1098548
Agreed, it makes for a great denouement. After all the crazy apocalyptic action it's just the two main characters stumbling through a desert and soul searching.

They make for such fascinating foils. Anon is very experienced and consequently cynical, in particular with regards to his critical attitude towards himself. He knows he's a fucked up person and hates himself for it. He strongly respects Kazuya for being the hero he always failed to be.

By contrast, Kaz is naive and inexperienced, and ironically similar to Anon he is full of self doubt because of it, feeling unworthy of the regard Anon seems to hold him in, and looks up to him for all he's accomplished.

And you know what? They're both right about each other but lack the perspective to understand why. Kaz may not see it in himself, but we all know that armour chose him for damn good reason.

But his unjaundiced eye gives him an unbiased view of Anon. For all the shitty things he's done on a personal scale and all the missteps he's made, on the whole and in the long run Anon always tried to do the right thing. To protect people and fight the good fight. The Red Joker armour is a wild card of such potency that he could have had the Red World for himself had he wanted. But he didn't. And while he could never live up to his predecessor, he also never stopped trying to, and Kaz can see that.

And so we return to again to where it began: with the Red Joker guiding an innocent through hell. You couldn't make this more perfectly appropriate if you tried.

>>1098859
Once again the curse of QM strikes, but this time to create a good story.

>>1098630
A few questions for you in case you have the time and inclination to answer when you're feeling better, JQOP.

Does the Red World also exist and do its thing in other cities, or just the one where the story is set? If the latter, disregard all remaining questions because they're no longer valid.
Are the controlling systems (e.g. the Hyades, The Finals, the existence of Jokers or Joker equivalents) also copied over to other cities? If no, do other cities have different systems, or are they systemless?
Is Hell / the black seeping through in other places?
Would new cities on previously unlived-in areas still have a bunch of ancient superweapons lying around?
Would it be acceptable if I cloned the basic setting structure to run a quest partway around the world in a different city?

>>1099167

It's a worldwide phenomena, wherever there is human consciousness and infrastructure. Systems vary by city, but the Jokers are unique. Yes, in places where the Shroud is thin. Yes. I have no issues.

>>1098507

> [X] "It was like this the last time, too."

"The last time...?" Daegal looks up, from the page. The papers flutter from his hand, as he releases them - joining the scattered leaves strewn underfoot. "-Right. You've been here before."

> [X] "It made no sense to me, either."
> [X] "The Red is full of mysteries. There's libraries, space ships and the odd Vitruvian device and no one to explain the meaning of any of it. Most of the time, someone will find something and make a doomsday weapon out of it. The place is also way too hostile to really explore."

Kazuya's silent, for a moment. The toe of his boot nudges at a fallen manuscript, the guttering light of the Condemner flickering across the defaced pages.

"...Aoba-san would've loved this," he says, at last. "Back in the Diadem - Remember when we found that...You know, that reservation?"

You don't think that's the right word for it.

"-Yeah, well, whatever. I'm just saying - A place like this...Even though everything's been destroyed - I wish he was here to see it."

Daegal lowers his head. The glow of his optic sensors dim, as if lost in thought.

"...I wish everyone else was here to see it."

> [X] "Time for that later. We need to secure the place, first."

"...yeah."

The light seems opaque, as if stained brown by smoke. You walk together, across black tiles worn dull by eons of age. Above, in bas relief, strange hieroglyphics spread spidery characters across the arching ceiling.

There are no doors. The immense hall is a black space - Every now and then, a sound breathes through it, a sound that is almost a gust of wind and almost the crush of breakers on an ocean coast.

Your footfalls clatter hollowly through the gloom - Daegal's sword catching strange surface mottling on the walls that isn't rust.

"-Look at this," Kazuya says - He stops, leaning in closer. The area of wall illuminating by his burning sword is covered in a curious, tight patterning that appears to have been etched. As the guttering flame wavers, you can see that the pattern covers everything. "What are those...?"

Fingerprints.

"You're joking."

No.

There are thousands upon thousands of them, packed in so close to each other that barely a scrape of wall remains unmarked.

"...Jesus, to chisel them in like this - It must've taken..."

Daegal falters. He falls silent - And you know he's noticed it, too.

Every single print is different.

(Continued)

>>1104906

The winding staircase leads up. It shifts and groans beneath your feet - the veins seeming to move, to bulge. A trick of light, perhaps - It must be.

Your remaining hand grasps the railing. Your acutators whirr, with each step - servoes grinding, as you ascend. The ancient stone columns soar away into the darkness, overhead - the floor tiled black and white. There are slabs of stone - desks? - that rise from the ground, baroque and ornate, with fluid curves and twists...As if they were grown, not carved, evoking branches, roots...

-And perhaps they were.

Overhead, rusted chains rustle. Dull, cracked orbs - lights, perhaps? - hang from the high ceiling like pendants. The unseen breeze ghosts through them, makes them fidget and rustle. The sound is scraping, discordant - but there is a strange harmony in the dissonance.

Rows of shelving fan out before you. They run off as far as you can see, each one at least thirty meters high: Sets of mechanisms - like spiders of black steel, with complex gears - are attached to each stack at intervals. All of them have the gleam with the same peerless light as the silver instruments below.

Then, light. A spiral of it, flaring out from the shelves - Casting strange, alien glyphs into the air. It is a hololithic pattern, a complex sigil sketched with achingly precise lines-

If only you knew what they meant.

"Shit-!" Daegal flinches back. He stumbles into the opposite shelf. More hololithic tags flare up, into brief life - points of light in the gloom.

[ ] "What is it?"
[ ] "Don't panic. They're harmless."
[ ] "*Quiet*."
[ ] "Don't touch anything, Kazuya."
[ ] "...This place still has power, then. Good."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>1104944
>[ ] "Don't touch anything, Kazuya."
>[ ] "...This place still has power, then. Good."

>>1104906
Oh shit, I almost missed this.

>>1104944
>[x] "Don't touch anything, Kazuya."
>[x] "What is it?"

>>1104944
Might want to notify people on twitter or on discord that you're running, OP.

>>1104944
>[ ] "Don't touch anything, Kazuya."
>[ ] "...This place still has power, then. Good."

I wish we had sensors and shit to scan for hidden tunnels and stuff.

>>1105008

(It should only be a post or two. I didn't want to leave the thread hanging without an update.)

>>1105016

(You would, but your Argus System has been destroyed. Also, you're still under TERRORSIGHT's effect.)

>>1104984
>>1105004

> [X] "...This place still has power, then. Good."

So there *is* still something left. Whatever power that remains here - it should have been exhausted a long time ago.

This might be more than just a place to wait out the Repentance.

> [X] "Don't touch anything, Kazuya."
> [X] "What is it?"

"No, it's not - I mean..."

Daegal turns. Somehow, his unmoving mask manages to communicate dread.

"-I thought I saw-"

"...Anon - I don't think we're *alone*."

Your Argus System is dead. Kazuya's isn't. The eerie blue light in his eyeslits flickers, the gem on his left gauntlet shedding a ghostly illumination of it's own.

You peer into the dark. No sign of movement. Nothing.

Except a couple of hololithic shelf tags slowly fading away again, as if a passing form had only recently brought them to life.

(Continued)

>>1105027

"Oh, *shit*-" Daegal's turning in one direction, then the other - The Condemner's flames shedding a circle of guttering illumination. "There's *really* something here-"

He's unnerved. His gauntlet shakes, minutely.

Outside, distantly, the moaning chorus of the Repentance - the bloom of feverish, corrupt life - continues. It reminds you of a nightmare, a long time ago - the church, as blood (not dust at all) runs down the walls.

[ ] "-This could be bad."
[ ] "It's just your imagination."
[ ] "Keep moving. There's a safe area ahead."
[ ] "...This, I don't remember."
[ ] "We're in full armor, Kazuya. There's nothing to be afraid of."
[ ] "If anything comes our way, I promise to kill it. Now go."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>1105042
>[x] "-This could be bad."
>[x] "Keep moving. There's a safe area ahead."

>>1105042
I wish we had access to Auspex.

[ ] "...This, I don't remember."
[ ] "Keep moving. There's a safe area ahead."
"If it's anything dangerous, we should be able to kill it. So don't worry too much, just be wary."

>>1105042
"I survived here with not even a quarter of my current abilities. Whatever it is, it can't be worse than what we faced back in the Diadem. Just stay wary."

>>1105053
>>1105058

> [X] "...This, I don't remember."

Yes, you're fairly certain this didn't happen the last time you were here.

> [X] "-This could be bad."

"*Now* you say that?" Kazuya sounds distinctly appalled - He hunches his shoulders, inching closer to you. He's peering into every shadow, his gaze darting back and forth - "...Bad? Bad *how*?"

> [X] "Keep moving. There's a safe area ahead."

"Yeah, but...Anon, how do you *know* it's safe?"

Good question.

> "If it's anything dangerous, we should be able to kill it. So don't worry too much, just be wary."
> "Whatever it is, it can't be worse than what we faced back in the Diadem. Just stay wary."

His autoloader cycles, as Daegal does his best to swallow, dryly. "Right," Kazuya says, thinly. "Be wary. Wary's good."

Maglocks unclamp, as he draws the Immolator - Golden filaments arching across the surface, the plain barrel becoming a lion's snarling maw. The pilot light flickers to life.

You're moving, now - Striding down the aisle. Not quite running, not yet. There is a surrusation that filters along the rows of shelves, as you pass by. Glowing tags light up, an astral pathway trailing in your wake. Kazuya brings up the rear, his weapons in his fists - You can feel the tension that radiates from him, the staticky crackle across the Dirac system...

Movement, at the corner of your optics-

And then you see it. There is a four-way junction in the stacks ahead, near the end of the great hall. Beyond - Directly ahead of you - looms great inner doors, framed panels of brushed steel, each one half a meter thick. They form twin halves of a vast, indecipherable symbol: something that is almost an abstract rendition of a heart captured mid-beat, none of the angles quite true.

At the crossroads-

There is a figure, standing by the inner stacks.

It is looking at you.

You cannot see the figure's face. It is clad in soft, shapeless robes - the hood raised like a monk's cowl, the pale off-white of bleached stone smeared with dust. The figure's arms are by its sides - the outline soft, almost hollow. In the uncertain light of Kazuya's sword, it looks like a ghost.

You hear Daegal make a sound, wordless. He's terrified.

He brings the Immolator up - the pilot light flickering to life.

"Joker, get out of the way-"

The figure does not move. It is staring right at you.

[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

We have Leech Module and Kazuya regenerates, right? Why don't we just keep punching him to regain HP?

>>1105110

(Not quite. It fixes his armor and systems, that's all. You need Essence for the Leech Module to work, i.e. HP damage.)

>>1105105
Tell Kazuya to wait.

"Are you an enemy?"

If it attacks, we fight. If it tries to flee, we capture it with Kura.

I just contemplated using Zalgo text, but that thing doesn't look corrupted enough to know that matter of speech.
It might work to intimidate, though.

>>1105105
tell Kazuya to maintain overwatch while we attempt communication.

>>1105105
"Lead us to what we seek."

I'm hoping the figure is just some kind of librarian.

>>1105105
We'll react first even if it attacks, so no rush. Signal Kazuya to scan the surroundings for anything else.

"Who or what are you?"

>>1105117
To add to my thoughts:
This is either something creepy or a moratorium or something. From the description, it seems roughly human-shaped, not mechanical.

Maybe someone else got dropped there when the Diadem awakened and spent years there before we appeared.

>>1105117
>>1105118
>>1105122
>>1105123

> Tell Kazuya to wait.

"But I have a shot-"

Not yet.

Your words echo in the vast space, as you take a step forward. The figure does not move - It remains where it is, staring at you. That weird, phantasmal form is almost formless in the gloom.

"Joker...?"

> Signal Kazuya to scan the surroundings for anything else.

"That thing...It has an Essence signature. But it's thin, fading - It's as if...It's like a candle going out."

Daegal shifts his weight, his fingers flexing against the grip of his sword. "Anon, I...I don't like this. I don't like this at all. Wait-"

The figure turns, and begins to walk away. Silent, ghostly - further into the inner stacks, towards the carved black steel screens.

East.

"-Where's it going?"

The hooded figure keeps walking. It passes under an archway, and disappears into the gloom.

[ ] Follow.
[ ] "Kazuya - Fire."
[ ] "Leave it. We're heading for the safe zone - It's right ahead."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>1105130

This whole sequence is really creepy, and I'm not sure I like where this is going. It's like we just walked into a horror movie.

>>1105130
>[ ] Follow.
It took the time to lead us somewhere while it's about to stop existing.
It's either a trap or a valuable help.

Shit, I want to follow it, but it might be really dangerous. We could go to the safe zone first, but there is no guarantee the safezone is actually SAFE.

>>1105130
>[x] Follow.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

>>1105147
Good point.
We should use prior knowledge as a guideline, but we shouldn't blindly trust it, now that there's obvious changes.

>>1105144
>>1105147
>>1105152

> [X] Follow.

"You're not *serious* - Anon, wait up!"

Daegal hurries after you - Lengthening his stride. He really doesn't want to be left behind. The dark is impenetrable: Even the Condemner's light seems to diminish, swallowed up by the gloom as you pass beneath the arch. You feel your reactor labor, as if the output has momentarily been cut-

...And then the momentary weakness is gone. You redouble your pace.

Hololithic light - a shifting mosaic of it - illuminates your way. You glimpse the figure again - just for a second - as it crosses a division between stacks, never too fast, the tags continuing to flare up then gradually fade.

"...It's playing games with us," Kazuya mutters - He stiffens, abruptly, as his Argus System feeds new data into his sensors-

"Joker, up ahead-"

You stop. So suddenly, Daegal almost runs into your back.

"...there's more of them," he says, belatedly.

The shelves end, without warning. A space has been cleared, a perfect circle within the rows. Up ahead - there are seven figures, arrayed in a vague half-circle. Hooded, robed - a silent communication seems to pass between them, moment by moment. The uncertain edges of their forms blur and swell.

The one you were following - It's right ahead of you. Facing you at last, silent and ghostly.

Slowly, it raises its hands up from its sides, raising them out straight like wings. There is something reverent, almost ritualistic, about the gesture.

Clasped in both hands, it holds a book. It holds it out, towards you.

[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>1105181
Take the book.

"Kazuya, if I go unconscious or something, drag me to the safe space. Don't attack these ghosts unless they actually attack first.
Take these guns. They can deal with pretty much anything at short range."
Give him Rubicante and Cagnazzo.

>>1105181
Have Daegal scan it before we take it. maybe give the figure a gesture of thanks. Wouldn't want to get game over'd because we were rude or some shit.

>>1105204
>>1105208

> "Kazuya, if I go unconscious or something, drag me to the safe space. Don't attack these ghosts unless they actually attack first.
> Take these guns. They can deal with pretty much anything at short range."
> Give him Rubicante and Cagnazzo.

"Wha-" Trying to juggle a sword and no less than three guns at once, Daegal almost fumbles it. But it keeps him occupied, as you close the distance-

"Anon, you don't know what they *want*-"

The hooded figure takes a step forward. It almost seems to glide.

The book is a tiny oblong. Ancient parchment encased in a sleeve of perfect steel, closed with a clasp. The clasp opens, as the figure turns the first antique pages.

The writing is spidery. It is alien. There is something almost beautiful about it, row after row on the impossibly fragile pages. You look down, but there is no great revelation - no surge of raw data. Your sensors hum, silently, but they cannot decipher the glyphs.

It is simply a book.

Realization dawns, slowly. The last book in the last library, undefaced. Whole.

The figure's hands fall away. The book fits perfectly into yours.

A ripple of response runs through the remaining figures. They begin to tremble, to shudder - Each soft, off-white suit beginning to judder from within. They swell, slightly, in ugly lumpen ways - and then they begin to writhe, stirred by motion from within. Their forms distort even more, distending and warping-

And then you hear it. A sound, a shrill, high-pitched note. It is like a siren, sounding for the first and last time, the noise reaching its peak-

Until it cuts off. The hoods of the shuddering figures slip back. They release vapor, swirling clouds of it, into the gloomy air. Tiny flecks of gold leaf dance on the breeze, vanishing as soon as they emerge - pale, almost colorless motes, billowing from the neck holes of the suits like smoke.

Empty and slack, seven stained body-robes fall slowly to the floor.

"What..." Kazuya lowers the Condemner, uncertainly. "...What was *that* about?"

[ ] "...I don't know. I don't think we ever will."
[ ] "They wanted to pass something on, that's all. Something that was precious to them."
[ ] "No-one wants to be forgotten. I guess they wanted something to remain."
[ ] "...All this time. All this time, they were waiting for someone..."
[ ] "-If only I could read it."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>1105288
>[x] "No-one wants to be forgotten. I guess they wanted something to remain."
>[x] "-If only I could read it."

>>1105288
>[ ] "...All this time. All this time, they were waiting for someone..."
>[ ] "-If only I could read it."

It's interesting that the book fits our hand.
Is this a coincidence, the book aligning with our hand or a property of the Joker armor?

I bet Hecate or Pazuzu could read it.

[X] "They wanted to pass something on, that's all. Something that was precious to them."
[X] "...All this time. All this time, they were waiting for someone..."
[X] "-If only I could read it."

You weren't kidding when you said this episode would be in strange places, OP.

>>1105305
>>1105320
>>1105326

> [x] "No-one wants to be forgotten. I guess they wanted something to remain."
> [X] "They wanted to pass something on, that's all. Something that was precious to them."

Perhaps that is all that remains, at the end of it all. To save something, anything, from the ruin - to know that not all is lost.

> [X] "-If only I could read it."

Hecate could have. Pazuzu, too. Argent-

The hypersphere of your Vector Trap expands. Arching crimson lines constrict around the book, and fold it into compressed space. In a way, it's part of you, now.

A tremor runs through the library. The ground begins to shake, as great mechanisms grind to life.

"...Oh, God - What now?"

Kazuya's already turning - He's still holding on to the Condemner, more for the light than anything else.

But the sound is not a herald of disaster, but it's opposite.

Because - With a glacial, ponderous slowness - the great steel doors to the sanctuary are beginning to open.

[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>1105412

(Gentlemen - I'd love to continue, but it's extremely late here. Rest assured that I'll pick up with this the next chance I get.

For now, good night and God bless. A happy New Year to you all.)

>>1105412

>[ ] Do the equivalent of "press F to pay respects" before we head into the Sanctuary. Something we haven't done in a long long time. Use our vulkan gun (if we have them) and draw out our calling card where the 7 figures stood.

>>1105412
"Remember, Kazuya: Curiosity killed the cat, but the cat wasn't wearing orichalcum armor and neutronium weapons.
With a bit of spelunking, you can find an intact tank or two or a machine to give you an upgrade. You just have to stay alive long enough.

Anyway, time for the shelter."

>>1105412
>[ ]"It seems even the Black World-no Hell itself is facing a crisis. like the Red World, and Our world. And it's putting it's hopes in the hands of a Joker."

>>1105417
Good night OP.

>>1105288
>"Wha-" Trying to juggle a sword and no less than three guns at once, Daegal almost fumbles it
Oh god, why is he so adorable?

>>1105511
At this point, I Really want to see an anime of Joker Quest.

>>1105541
The various animes it was inspired by were pretty ham fisted at first, but its really taken off on its own mechanical feet since then. I'm glad to have followed it from nearly the start.

>>1106136
>>1105541
I am currently talking with a drawfag about making an issue or two of JQ manga-style stuff. If it works out, maybe they would see light.

>>1105511
Reminder: the Condemner is basically a lightsaber, so Kazuya's juggling is even more impressive.

>>1107774
A lightsaber, a mini blackhole revolver and what were the others?

>>1108108
Rubicante shoots exploding entropic destruction, Cagnazzo shoots homing bullets... The last one was the Incinerator or whatever. It shot fire.

>>1106416
I think in order for Joker Quest to really take off and stand out on it's own, it needs to sell the setting fluff and the fantasy concept hard. The "human mechas", the Red world itself, the mecha combat... and especially how the myth of the Red Joker ties into how the Red world is connected to the Real World. But the Aesthetic styles and production value needs to be top notch in order for it to be a success since much of the drama will occur 70% in the Red world.
>>1106136
True, the ham was a bit raw, especially when it comes to the rampant waifu-ing whenever Anon wasn't doing shit in the Red, but the way JQQM handled it so the protag in suffers the long term consequences hard (city gets fucked, waifus are killed, the drama of having multiple nemesises like Rust Kaiser and Pazuzu) and the delicious violet prose in the fight scenes was worth diving into the danger zone.

>>1106416
Nice.
I'm working on transplating Joker combat into an FPS, as a small side project.

My main project is heavily inspired by the quest.

>>1109877
Show us a screenshot?

>>1109878
Not that far yet.
Still getting comfortable with my new engine.

I think I'll do the Joker thing in my old engine, actually. At least I know how to do most of it there and I don't need any of the things that pushed me to the new engine.

>>1105417
Wait is the Argus completely destroyed or just disabled until something repairs it? Even though we still couldn't use it thanks to terror sight.

>>1110412
What I wonder more about is that we lost our arm, but the Argus moved into our head when we got Athame'd, iirc.

I also wonder if we'll get that arm's equipment back if we regenerate or if it's lost for good.

>>1110536
It'll come back when we get to the real and back to red, but this is currently a non-issue.

>>1098283
So /qst/, next time we upgrade, what should we get? I'm thinking, seeing as its so close to the end game, we need something completely transformative to our fighting style.

We need something which provides a fuckton of options. With that in mind, my suggestions for the next lvl up are;
>Weapons Tier 3
>Chagan Lvl 2
>Oblivion's Husk; Terrible Swift Sword
>Athame

All of these will provide massive changes and options to our fighting style; Chagan and Weapons Tier 3 will massively increase the number of base options guns we have, make what we DO have better and make us less vulnerable to getting more gear broken; looking at the Chagan Flamethrower and Plasma Beam specifically there.

Terrible Swift Sword lets us staple an entirely new style of combat on to what we have. Between the Thief, Phantom Edge, Daegal, Aramaos, Bishamon and that bitch Setsuka/dogbitch, we've had the chance to absorb a lot of good fighting styles. Plus, this may let us access his own original skills as well.

Finally, Athame. it's a fun box option but here in the Black, we'll have more chances to use it than ever. Draw Forthe is already quite the useful ability and I'm curious to see what happens next and if there's synergy between the two upgrades.

>>1113229
>>Oblivion's Husk; Terrible Swift Sword
>>Athame
Nope.
Nope.
Nopenopenope.
NOOOOOOOOOOOPE.

Seriously, fuck you.

If you want more melee, get the new melee weapon that is under the FORCE tree.
If you want more guns, unlock more weapons under the FORCE tree.
If you want to multiply our firepower, get the emulator module.


What we need:
- Codeburst affinity. We are fighting fucking Pazuzu.
- Cobalt Booster. We need more energy to keep our barrier up for longer.
- Anti-energy defenses. Fucker loves his fire. IIRC our Inertia field has such an upgrade.

This was the last pastebin:
http://pastebin.com/SibjH6r1

I would suggest Leech Module synthesis against the White Asshole.
Any other suggestions for assfucking Naoya?

>>1113355
Oh, wait, this was the lastest pastebin:
http://pastebin.com/ZUTjunJ4

The only differences seem to be the Resupply option and Chagan.

Generally, the railgun has been very effective against Pazuzu.
So upgrades to the Argus Sensor or Meter Accelerator/Boost would be worthwhile to get our precision and fire rate up.
However, we do not know if we can re-log before we get back to the fight. I would hope so, but it isn't guaranteed.
If we can't, we won't have our sensors. Unless maybe Resupply does that for us.

>>1113355
>>1113367

The Pazuzu fight is done.are you stupid? More importantly, Pazuzu was a fucking joke. Joker was hammering the shit out of him with ease; it's only becuase Phantom Edge was there that he even had a chance. Seriously, read that fight again; he's helpless without PhantomEdge v Joker.

What the Joker's biggest problem in those fights is that he can't handle close combat for long and he can' recover quickly. Look at when we were fighting Phantom Edge, Rust Kaiser and Alura. We do fine at range, something happens, we're forced into melee and our SHIT gets pushed in.

Having a dedicated melee option, with all the swords we have now (at least three), would be extremely useful. Especially because the condemner synergises with us so much and KURA is so flexible with a style that good.

Codeburst affinity, anti-energy defenses or cobalt booster are minute changes. As is meter accelerator/boost; they wont' change how we fight, they'll just adjust it a little.

Right now, we do well because we have so many different options and ways to hurt enemies; an infinite bag of tricks. The four options I listed means we get to keep our bag, get a whole new bag AND increase our offense.

The only choice of yours I really like is leech module but even that seems incidental as long as we can make our damage higher.

>>1113367
Also, resupply is too big an unknown to risk things on right now. I'd consider it quite cheap if it does what we think it might and he doesn't tell us.

Has he ever actually defined it?

>>1113430
>The Pazuzu fight is done.are you stupid? More importantly, Pazuzu was a fucking joke. Joker was hammering the shit out of him with ease; it's only becuase Phantom Edge was there that he even had a chance. Seriously, read that fight again; he's helpless without PhantomEdge v Joker.
Nigger, he jobbed because we had the Crux and we will most likely encounter him again.

>he can' recover quickly
So you want to shove EVEN MORE HP-REDUCING EQUIPMENT our ass.
We need shit that doesn't cause us to constantly balance on the brink of total corruption.

Anyway, you want to spread us even thinner, even though one of our big weaknesses is already that we have too much superfluous equipment.

Shit, why do you even want to increase our melee capability?
Just increase our fucking ability for staying at range. Improve the Scrander, get the evasiveness ability, improve Booster and Abruption Jets.
Those are all things that we already have and which will help in other situations, as well.
You want to get an ability to escape melee?
Upgrade the Shroud. It's already a "get out of melee free" card, especially when combined with the abruption jets.

>>1113431
I really hope that resupply is more than the "replenish resources during long stays in the Red" option.

>>1113445
We still have the crucifix so it doesn't matter that that's why he jobbed.

Also, the thing is is that Joker right now has 3 ways of increasing his health. Leech, consume and athame. The three of these work fine if we're able to fight well in close but we really aren't; we have the fist which is great but really that's it. Terrible Swift Sword would fix that and it's also optional loss, unlike Forbode and fatalism which activate instantly in regards to the situation.

Also, given how much I've suggested we use chagan and how increasing to tier 3 weaponry will improveour meter guns and access the >100% gun, there's nothing superflourous about that. We'll already get an evasiveness boost when we get the Carnifex again anon. But right now? We don't just need more passive options, we need stronger combat options. Joker needs to punch at his weight class, he needs to be able to fight with the likes of Pazzy, White Joker, Alura and Phantom Edge by himself without tag team support.

Due to phrasing, I think it is that. I thik it just brings back the drones, the grips, other one shots.

>>1113430
No, you goddamn retard, a few more melee options are not going to make Joker any better at handling melee combat against people who are SPECIALIZED in melee combat. Joker can coast on his reflexes and experience to survive quick bouts, but any melee upgrades or new weapons are only going to be of use in case of hit-and-run tactics, for which the Crisis Arm is by far the best. THAT is what we ought to upgrade if we want to be able to survive close combat for long enough to break away and pull out the bigger guns.

Sure, Joker in many cases has been reliant on his versatile arsenal to strike enemy weaknesses, but spreading too thin has also resulted in Joker being fucked over a number of times or gaining abilities that are comparatively useless without a few upgrades. Terrible Swift Sword is paid in Meter and Encroach and will only give Joker the BASIC abilities every sword-specialized player already has. It's not going to help Joker much. As for the Kura, it has utterly disastrous synergy with Joker's fighting style and only makes sense as a last-ditch utility weapon. Neither of those are worth getting in favor of anything that actually enhances our current fighting style or the Crisis Arm, which meshes perfectly with Joker's moveset.

We should focus on improving our mobility, accuracy, available resources and the weapons/relics with highest potentials and utilities (R&C. CS, Leech, Chagan, Emulator).

>>1113537
>We still have the crucifix so it doesn't matter that that's why he jobbed.
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/979075/

>His free hand is curled in a claw. You feel Kotone's cross wrenched against it's chain, about to pull free-
So I guess he didn't steal it after all.

>Terrible Swift Sword would fix that and it's also optional loss, unlike Forbode and fatalism which activate instantly in regards to the situation.
Or we take a melee weapon that *doesn't* cost us health and meter to even activate.

>We'll already get an evasiveness boost when we get the Carnifex again anon.
Oh yes. The Carnifex that is currently being worn BY THE FUCKING BBEG. If we even manage to get it back, it will mean that we basically finished the quest.

>Joker needs to punch at his weight class, he needs to be able to fight with the likes of Pazzy, White Joker, Alura and Phantom Edge by himself without tag team support.
Just upgrade our current equipment.
Remember the TAU gun? Rubicante?

>>1113541
Exactly.
We need more force multipliers and less isolated dots on the network of power multiplication.

We definitely need to increase our resource pool, though Cobalt Booster is already at a level where, in some fights, we can bleed it everywhere with no concern.

Regeneration, damage resistance and agility have been massive problems, outside of the very few enemies that we couldn't hit - either because of their armor/regeneration, their power fuckery or their speed.
Speedsters can be overwhelmed via volume of fire, either the Vulcan way or the Fusion Annihilator way. Cagnazzo at a high level might also track enough to kill speedsters who don't parry bullets. People with armor can be defeated by Rubicante, Crisis Arm, the Fusion Annihilator and our Railgun.
People with weird metaphysical/codeburst/whatever bullshit need a good variety of counters to have something prepared for every type.
We get crippled/killed too quickly. Rarely do we have problems actually killing anyone. We even fucking duelled Bishamon, a rather impressive melee specialist.

>>1113431
Resupply could be a lot of things. Could be something useful, or it could not be, like giving us something we've already got plenty of.

Considering how often it's saved our asses, I feel like the Assault Shroud could be a decent enough upgrade, too.

Sidenote: can we contact the Hollow Sun again?

>>1113754
>Considering how often it's saved our asses, I feel like the Assault Shroud could be a decent enough upgrade, too.
I definitely have a soft spot for the Shroud.

>Sidenote: can we contact the Hollow Sun again?
I seriously hope we get the opportunity to enter it.
I want the Sun Crusher and another Shroud module, now that Muleta doesn't occupy the slot anymore.
It would also be kinda karmic if we killed White Joker by going back to basics, with an oversized fist like Frost Cestus.

>>1113762
Loving the irony of them being super prepared for the Red Joker bogeyman that their plans get turned on their heads when we fight like Frost Cestus again

>>1113762
I thought the White Joker was trapped in that Lachryma lake place we left him in.

>>1115750
Didn't stop us. Why should it stop him?
Worst case, it's like hell and he spent a thousand more years training there before coming back.

>>1115757
>>1115750
>>1114639
Why does everyone keep thinking White Joker or Pazuzu are the BBEGs? It's always been Black Joker.

Pazuzu's likely dead because his fucking plan exploded in his face and the whole thing went boom.

White Joker, if not dead or trapped with a hateful raging Mio, is fucked because his plan is ALSO ruined.

The only enemies left are Vertigo Triasagon and Black Joker. We're literally in the fucking Black.

Also, I think we're either going to meet up with the Hollow Sun or warp out to the Real before that last face off with Black Joker.

>>1115878
>Vertigo Triasagon
I completely forgot the existence of that fuck.

He taught us codebursts, so I assume he's another caster like Pazuzu. Probably even worse - I'd assume shenanigans such as REND.

But what would we do against Black Joker? The only thing I can think of is that encroachment is our enemy here. Athame will either make us weaker, as it already removed our purity attribute, or later allow us to control and burn encroachment, which would allow us to actively counteract it.

But I really want to get a basic upgrade again. We've already spent so much on Oblivion's Husk and Athame and our baseline is being left behind.

>>1115878
>Pazuzu's likely dead because his fucking plan exploded in his face and the whole thing went boom.
Why would he be? His plan is ruined, but he can ignore the suction of the hole in reality we made and Players who can fly basically have no reason to worry about surviving in space. and making it back to Earth.
>White Joker, if not dead or trapped with a hateful raging Mio, is fucked because his plan is ALSO ruined.
But it isn't? While Kotone is stuck in a three-way fight with Mio and Hellebore, she still has a body to posses and WJ doesn't really see Kotone as an individual anyway. Though that's exactly why I doubt he'll have a reason to ever bother fighting RJ again.
>The only enemies left are Vertigo Triasagon and Black Joker.
Whether VT is an enemy or not is questionable and nobody actually gets what the fuck the Black Joker is and whether it's an actual threat when somebody else isn't guiding it.

>>1115757
The only reason we got out was because of Cybele and the Nihl Sphere. I also don't think he'll be getting much training in a infinite and empty ocean of knee deep Lachryma.

>>1115885
Didn't he get eaten on the hive raid?

>>1115878
>Pazuzu's likely dead because his fucking plan exploded in his face and the whole thing went boom.
>White Joker, if not dead or trapped with a hateful raging Mio, is fucked because his plan is ALSO ruined.
The way I see it, they're more likely to try and avenge themselves. Unless they're confirmed dead by JQOP, out of character, I'll continue assuming that they're not dead and still gunning for us.

>>1116021
We never saw the body. It's questionable whether he's an enemy, though. He is also quite probably Akira-tier and not endgame-horror tier.

>>1115943
OP confirmed the quest only continued because we have the Joker's Memory. His plan is fucked and the entire Diadem likely became that massive black hole.

Even if Pazuzu is STILL alive, he's very badly damage, not in the Black, has a massive black hole behind him and all of the survivors of the Towers (who were doing a lot better than we were last we saw them) waiting for him. His dream is dead and he's fucked. Honestly though? He seems like the type who'd obsess over it so much that he'd stay behind to fix the problem and die in the attempt.

>>1116021
He did get eaten during the Raid according to his dog bitch boy but I wouldn't trust that fuck and also, they've a confirmed illusions man on their team.

>>1116128
I'd say this anon's right. He's a manipulator, facilitator and his question's game makes a lot of sense consider who he might be working for.

>>1115943
Just responding to you again anon because I'd like to say, I think it's fairly clear that Black Joker isn't just Kotone. Black Joker is all the dead people in the city, all those who died in the disaster. The Kotone we know is just a skinsuit for it, as was made increasingly clear; what I think WJ was trying to do was make Kotone the Chalice Queen to free her from Black Joker.

But there's no reason to think Black Joker's dead. The last time we looked at the Memory, it seemed like Black Joker was the entire Black. Also, Black Joker doesn't seem to be a natural part of the system just like Correctors aren't, so there's no reason to think he follows the rules or even really needs a host.

Sadly, we've no real idea how Black Joker fights. Right now, all we can really do is upgrade Emulator Module/Chagan/Weapons Tier 3/Leech Module I think.

All of those would be fucking fantastic. Personally, I'd like to see what Athame Lvl. 2 or Terrible Swift Sword do but the other anons were right about us currently relying on Encroachment/Health spending far too much. Maybe if there's another upgrade or JQOP FINALLY gives us hints of what things do.

>>1116252
>I'd say this anon's right. He's a manipulator, facilitator and his question's game makes a lot of sense consider who he might be working for.
Yeah, now that I remember it, I thought that he was faking it when he died. It would have suited his style.

>>1116252
>Just responding to you again anon because I'd like to say, I think it's fairly clear that Black Joker isn't just Kotone.
I never insinuated that. What I wrote was under the assumption that they are separate entities.

@JQOP: Long-time lurker here; big fan. Is there any chance you might --someday-- revisit the Frost Cestus sheet so we can view the rest of its arsenal, or would it be better to just ask about those LOCKED entries here in-thread?

>>1116484
I always wondered if OP had prepared a depowering event that would have transformed us back into Frost Cestus.

Personally I wish we'd be able to get the Cartridge system or the ice attribute, similar to how the Hollow Sun allowed us to recreate Frost Cestus' fist.

>inb4 that's actual an EVOL option

>>1116498
Ditto, though I always attributed such hypotheticals to tachyon shenanigans.

Back when Kazuya 1st became Daegal, some people made sentai jokes involving a Player trio with Natsumi/Chrome Cipher, but wouldn't it be neat if JQOP actually followed through with timey-whimey BS that let you "meet"(ie recruit) Frost Cestus while in the Black? Kazuya would be even more confused, though (and it'd still be hilarious).

>>1116556
That would be a rather depressing time loop.

Man, I wish we could recruit Natsumi and Bishamon for further combat.
But girls are unreliable and we kinda killed Bishamon's waifu.

Also, what happened to Volt Regios and Tyrian Edge? I know that we met up IRL with one of them. I just have this hazy thought that one of them might be dead.

Man, who is even left of the cast? Maybe we should finally eradicate that Mengele fuck and the peacock.

>>1116580
>But girls are unreliable
Natsumi is a hyper-professional. She's just kind of way out of her league, power-wise, in endgame fights that we fought.

>>1116580
>Also, what happened to Volt Regios and Tyrian Edge? I know that we met up IRL with one of them. I just have this hazy thought that one of them might be dead.
I think I recall Regios was killed when everything went crazy, but ended up being inadvertently un-killed by Joker fucking around with time.

>>1116580
We killed then unkilled Regios. Don't really remember what happened after that. Episode Guide doesn't say, either.

>>1116580
>>1116898
Volt and Tyrian both were alive up to the last battle. Most of our gang was as well. Edgy cunt still alive, IMAGO still alive (I still think killing him is a bad idea) and we also have...

Spiral Gigant. That fuck.

Also, anyway else wanna go on a consume binge, charge the eye and cybele's bracelet?

>>1116580
>Maybe we should finally eradicate that Mengele fuck and the peacock.
Dude, IMAGO has been so trustworthy that it's almost comical coming from someone as Mengele as he is. Let's not fuck with him unless he starts shit with us.

>>1117372
>Spiral Gigant. That fuck.
Who again?

>>1117404
Guy we were in the Black with. Left us to die.

>>1116729
We dont actually know this though. She had bew upgrades last time we saw her.

>>1117577
Was he the one who left us by the acid beach?

I have started rereading the quest and saw a bunch of interesting shit even in the first few threads.

For example, apparently EVOL upgraded our missiles in addition to granting us interceptors:
>You feel your form contort, the witchlight shimmer crawling over your armor, discharging in patient tics of lightning. You *feel* the change coming - Your Triskelion launcher retracting, migrating from your bulky arms to sleek missile pods on your back. But that's only the beginning of the alterations; The pauldrons of your armor fan out, growing wider, more baroque...Before they detach, hovering freely before you, orbiting your form.
My assumption? It's making us sleeker and more streamlined.

Also, there's this for level two:
> THRESHOLD SYSTEM UNLOCKED

> INITIALIZING: IMMERSION TIME EXTENDED.
I assume that it's a discarded piece of world building, though.

To confirm my suspicions about EVOL, I'll need to see if we got it more than once.

>>1120786
Ok, I found the second instance.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/21050398/

This one only gave us two more bits and a choice to change bit types.

So yeah, my assumption may or may not be true after all.

Also, I fucking wish we had Claymore bits.

>>1120786
>>1120798

EVOL was supposed to build off the Red Joker armor's inherent attributes.

Since the missile launchers were integrated to start with, the 1st instance of EVOL made them more efficient in terms of location, which freed up room for *yet more* integrated equipment (the Interceptors). Then the 2nd instance kicked in for those, later.

A 3rd instance might affect some other aspect of the armor for a change, but it'd likely still be an element defined as "an inherent functionality". Which miiight be complicated now, thanks to the Athame having made us more bionic.

>>1117577
Didn't we leave him to die instead?

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13 KB JPG

>>1121006
What if our ability unlock was paired with our purity attribute, which we lost from Athame?

Also, could we use the NIHL sphere to rip a *very* short hole into reality to give the Hollow Sun a split second to get a target lock to send the bike to us? I guess it would cost us a few seconds of real time by momentarily aligning the time flows, which would be years in hell, but we'd get our bike for travel.

>>1122578
Not worth is. We need the NIHIL sphere as charged as possible A. so we can use it later B. Lotsa Correctors to eat using it or C. So we can refill Cybele's charm thing

>>1122802
Nigger, the speed would allow us to hunt for correctors and be safe from shit like the repentance.

Your B point also doesn't make even a lick of fucking sense. If there's lots of correctors to eat, we DON'T need to save on NIHL charge.

Also, as an aside, there are currently two ways for us to heal:
- SWARM (If we cast it from HP, let it feed to increase its size and then recall it)
- CONSUME (Either by Scylla or the Helix gauntlet)
And if there's correctors, they'll likely have a weakness for swarm, as they have big surface areas and are organic.

Another tidbit from an early thread:
>The Cobalt Booster is a energy reservoir that begins at 100% - When activated, it boosts all capabilities, expending itself at a rapid rate of 20% per turn.

>It can also power the TYRANT BURST cannon - Usually, the TYRANT BURST system will gain charge as energy weapons are fired, independent of Meter. For rapid use, it can draws on the Cobalt Booster system for fuel, instead.

I really want to know if OP is still working according to those mechanics. I don't think we ever used the Tyrant Burst system in that fashion. It never had the appropriate charge indicator, after all.

>>1123610

Pretty sure we've used the Tyrant Burst's cannon mode at least twice; most of the time, it's been the disorienting flash, which would complicate tracking down those rare occasions otherwise.

Also, since you're probably the anon from
>>1120798
,two things:
1) Reflector Bits or bust,
&
2) seeing as how endgame!Chrome Cypher now has Interceptors, do you think those are like our original bladed ones, or one of the other upgraded versions?

>>1123610

(My apologies, that should have been amended. The Tyrant Burst system simply uses the Cobalt Booster as fuel, now - I don't think I've ever used the latter.)

>>1120786

(It's not. It's like how - in early threads - injuries caused significant pain and the loss of an arm could be crippling, while Joker was capable of shrugging them off later. He was initially out of practice.)

>>1124878
Since the topic of upgrades are on hand, will you remind us what was up with the mystery-meter-weapon option for things above the quantum singularity cannon?

>>1124878
Yeah, would you mind clarifying a few upgrades? I thought we already HAVE primary weapons?

>>1126414
Dude.
Vulcans: Speedy bullet hell
Tau Gun: Slow fire sledgehammer
The Vulcans are definitely a primary weapon and I wouldn't be surprised if the Tau was, too. If that's the case, I assume that the third weapon will form a trifecta with the other two.
Also, our only melee weapon requires a meter upkeep. A primary weapon would be free to use.

>>1125729
My guess?
We need to upgrade the meter weapons. Tier 2.5 is the next level.
The QSC was originally locked until we got our second force upgrade.

>>1125729

(Without spoilers, there are a lot more Meter weapons available. I'm actually surprised that - given the path that's been taken so far - relatively few have been unlocked.)

>>1126502
I read that as "we are playing with a tactically gimped Joker".

Sasuga.

>>1126502
So we invest everything in Meter from now on? Sounds good to me!

>>1126502
Was didn't the Tier 5 notification show up again? I remember it popping up at some point, I think it was the first time we used the QSC.

>>1126510
I'm at that thread right now and will report back with details.
However, I hit another interesting detail.
Apparently one of our first FORCE upgrades silently upgraded our Plasma Caster to lvl 2.
I assume the lvl 2 upgrade for the missiles was from our first EVOL upgrade, though.
Also, our Fusion Annihilator's upgrade is not considered a lvl increase.
My guess? T2.5 might improve all T2 weapons.
Which means the Chain Mines and the Fusion Annihilator.

>>1126515
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20068677/

>TIER FOUR WEAPONRY UNLOCKED
>> QUANTUM SINGULARITY CANNON (100%)
>> ???

>TIER FIVE
>> NO DATA AVAILABLE

That was the prompt when we first used it.
Also, we needed two FORCE upgrades to even gain the QSC. Before that, its name was jumbled in the "Tier Four" prompt.

Also, our theory back then was that we'd either need raise the limit to our Meter or get additional Meter weapons, as the QSC is built from our arsenal, to get to T5.

>>1126515
>>1126525
If the Quantum Singularity Cannon (which shoots fucking black holes) is tier four, I really fucking want to see what tier five and above is.

>>1126531
I hope it's a passive ability that engages by spending 150% Meter.

>>1105434

A faint whirr of servoes, as you engage your Plasma Vulcans - the barrels beginning to spin up...

Red telltales flare in your remaining arm. Power feeds severed - Autoloader damaged, a dull metal clunk echoing hollowly within you as it struggles to cycle charge. Tiny sparks leap from your wrist joint with a brittle *fizz*, your gauntleted fingers twitching minutely: the metal struts, plating and muscle-cabling from the elbows are worn by functional, but within...

"Anon-?"

Violet flames flicker at the claw-tips of your gauntlets. The flickering datachains of EXEC_HARROW play across your field of vision, your HUD blurring at the edges. For a moment, an eerie unlight illuminates the darkened library - a fitful, surreal glow, a contrast to the smokeless orange flame of the Condemner.

The floor ignites. Your symbol scrawls itself in lines of flame, etched across black-and-white tile. Swept up in the heat, a blizzard of defaced pages swirl around you, dead leaves in a storm. They ignite, in tiny puffs of flame - A million million words twice-lost, first by hand and once again by fire.

It doesn't last. The space is too vast - the fire too fierce - for the short-lived conflagration to spread. Like a brand, smoke wisps upwards from your mark, glowing faintly from within.

The light will linger, for as long as your Essence remains.

Or perhaps it will last a lot longer than that.

>>1105444

Daegal lowers his arm, where he'd been shielding his face from the flames - a needless, but instinctive gesture. There's something solemn about him, now: You're not sure he's understood what has just transpired, but he's aware that something of great import has happened.

"...Yeah," he says, without comment. "-Yeah."

>>1105451

"Out of the frying pan..." Kazuya shakes his head. There's a ghost of humor in that slight - In that very *human* motion, as he lowers the Condemner to his side. RUBICANTE and CAGNAZZO are cradled in the crook on his arm, and he returns them gratefully as you - one-handed - lock first one, then the next, back into their holsters.

"-You're going to have to tell me about it sometime, you know?" he says - "...It'd make for one hell of a story, that's for sure."

Softer, barely audible. "...At least *one* of us knows where he's going..."

(Continued)

>>1126678
o shit nigga

>>1126678

The hollow boom of the great doors opening is a brief, echoing sound - it seems to revebrate through the hall, veins squirming through the living stone of the shelves and walls.

The room beyond is different. Older, more alien - Finished in perfect steel. The walls are sleek, arching, adorned with pipes and flutes and tubes of silver and chromium; the floor underfoot chased with silver, inscribed with complex glyphs - a thousand to a square metre.

And then there are the machines. They are equal parts gibbet and throne, made of brass piping, peerless white ceramics, and more of that unbreakable black steel. Twelve of them, six on either side...

-Or at least, there should have been.

Eleven are destroyed. Some of them have been ripped free, twisted into new and shapeless alignments through some vast effort - Others bear the mark of furious blows by axe or by sword. At least two have been melted into slag, with the merest suggestion of struts and connectors rising from the wreckage - even the remnants have been defaced, a deliberate and focused effort to leave nothing behind.

Just as you remember it.

"...What is this place?" Daegal is saying. He's turning, slowly - Uneasy awe, incomprehension, in his voice. It's what he *doesn't* say that's revealing.

He knows.

He knows something terrible happened here.

"Those machines-"

But your gaze is drawn, inexorably, to the lower walls. Here, a layer of bluish-white gloss - like the skin of a glacier - had been painted over the curving steel. Claws, blades and sharp-edges have carefully - carefully scored away the varnish over the years, inscribing the walls with scraped frescos. Simple, elemental markings:

Here - the letters of the alphabet. There - tiny figures, so abstract as to be nearly indecipherable. A man. A woman. A child. Numbers, simple equations that are almost a parody of the algorithmic paradoxes etched across every inch of the floor.

A faint crunch, underfoot. Daegal recoils, drawing his boot back - then he kneels.

"...is this...?"

It is a figurine carved from metal. Too crude to be some ancient Relic - Some twisted chunk of scrap folded and hammered and painstakingly welded into shape, crimped at the edges. A horse, a bird, a-

Kazuya weighs the toy, in the palm of his hand. Other simple shapes are scattered underfoot, left where they have fallen - amid the ugly black weals that tell of Player weaponry being discharged, that tell of-

"I don't..." Daegal begins, slowly. "...Anon - I don't understand."

[ ] "...They're Vitruvian Devices, Kazuya. I didn't know their names before - But I do now."
[ ] "We're safe here, Kazuya. I'll secure the doors, then we can talk."
[ ] "Find something to start a fire with. We may be here a while."
[ ] "Better that you don't, Daegal. Let it be."
[ ] "...This is where we kept the children."
[ ] "-This is where they kept their children, Kazuya."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>1126710
>[ ] "...They're Vitruvian Devices, Kazuya. I didn't know their names before - But I do now."
>[ ] "-This is where they kept their children, Kazuya."

>>1126710
>[ ] "...They're Vitruvian Devices, Kazuya. I didn't know their names before - But I do now."
"They make you stronger. But each can only be used once."

>[ ] "We're safe here, Kazuya. I'll secure the doors, then we can talk."
>[ ] "Find something to start a fire with. We may be here a while."

>[ ] "...This is where we kept the children."

>>1126710
>[ ] "...They're Vitruvian Devices, Kazuya. I didn't know their names before - But I do now."
>[ ] "...This is where we kept the children."

>>1126716
>>1126720
>>1126726

> [X] "...They're Vitruvian Devices, Kazuya. I didn't know their names before - But I do now."

Hecate knew. It was the smallest thing, and yet it felt like a piece of the past had slid into place. That you were beginning to understand what had happened to you - what had been done to you. And in understanding, to find some form of peace.

All that time down in the dark. A lifetime - and you didn't know.

They had no name for the machines, of course. This place eats meaning, erodes at it the edges and wears it away. All that remained was the knowledge - barely-understood as it might be - of their function.

> "They make you stronger."

In a sense. You remember the one in the world above, in the Red - blinding pain, every synapse firing at once, then revelation. You remember the not-quite sensation of her pale hand against your cuirass-

In the Red, the Vitruvian Devices improve you.

Here, in the world of ruin, they have a different function entirely - they sustain you.

They let you dream.

> [X] "Find something to start a fire with. We may be here a while."

"I-"

Daegal hesitates. He casts around the ruin, as if looking for a clue. A faint glow flickers in his eyeslits, as his gaze turns to the central pit - once, it held a column of it's own. Now, all that remains is twisted slag, a skeleton of charred metal.

Parchment rustles. Loose pages flutter, spreading apart as Kazuya - carefully, mechanically - levels them by the fistful into the makeshift firepit.

"...It doesn't feel right, to do this," he says, almost to himself. "It doesn't feel right at all."

For a moment, he holds a defaced page in his hand - You can almost hear the gears in his mind turning. If he had the time, perhaps - he could begin to undo the damage, capture the words of a dead language. But then - there are countless books, and so much has already been lost.

His shoulders slump. He stands back, and touches the Condemner to the uneven pile-

There is a dull whoomph of flame. The pages catch fire. They do not burn fast, not like EXEC_HARROW - the fires that lick across the Condemner's golden blade are cleaner. More wholesome. Less consuming. Instead, the pages retain their shape, for the longest time - the very edges of them crisp, charring slightly, then begin to blacken.

In the light of the small fire, the darkness seems less absolute, somehow. Even the wavering shadows cast by the blaze are almost reassuring - more natural, somehow, than the gloom that preceded it.

(Continued)

>>1126741

Carefully - with awkward grace - Daegal eases himself to the ground. Even at rest, he is a gleaming knight - the gears and motors of his armour humming, the bulk of his plate master-crafted and finished with expansive golden wings, lions, eagles, celestial bodies.

Stars, and a black moon.

He exhales, a slow, shuddering sound. Though he can't feel it, he extends his gauntlets - palms out - towards the tiny fire.

"God," Kazuya says. Fatigue blooms in his voice, shades his every word. "-I'm tired. It feels like...I could lie down and never get up again. After all the shi - After everything that happened..."

His voice trails off.

He's not tired, not as he knows it. He cannot rest. He could wait here forever, and he would remain achingly, agonizingly awake.

Kazuya's been lucky, so far - He did not notice the passage of time, when he followed you across the sands. When he scaled the highest cliff. When you ran, for *days*, from the howling storm-front of the Repentance, the black wind churning the hellscape behind you-

He leans forward, cradling his helmet in his hands.

"...Can't get this thing off..."

You've seen Players do this before. You've seen some rip open their chests, to feel something, *anything* - air on their skin, perhaps. Anything.

-I'm thirsty-

A voice from long, long ago. A figure thrashing, as it sinks beneath the acid waters.

You remember laughter. But did it happen that way?

You have to take his mind off it.

(Continued)

>>1126753

> [X] "...This is where we kept the children."

"The *what*...?"

Daegal looks up. He stares at you, for a long, long moment. Then, slowly-

"Uh, Anon. I didn't know you had a-"

No. Not like that.

When the world itself devoured you. After the time of the long, long fall, and the awakening to the nightmare.

You were a child when you woke, here, for the first time.

Others were not so fortunate.

"Oh, *Jesus*." And Kazuya is no longer troubled by the phantom ache in his muscles, by the mask he cannot remove. There is a dawning realization in those two words - and then, a slow-spreading horror.

"-You're saying that-"

Yes. Those who couldn't walk. Those who couldn't speak - who couldn't *understand* what had been done to them. Ever. And why would they?

After all, it was far too soon. For anything.

This was a place of safety, for them. The others tried to protect them, to teach them, to help them grasp the enormity of their new world - the only world they would ever know.

And then-

[ ] "It was only a matter of time, really. We knew it couldn't last."
[ ] "They became corrupted in ways that are hard to understand, and harder to explain."
[ ] "I had to leave, you see? I couldn't stay here. Not forever."
[ ] "...The other Players - they thought we were hiding something precious, you see? And they wanted it for themselves."
[ ] "I don't know what happened here. I hope I never do." (Truth)
[ ] "I don't know what happened here. I hope I never do." (Lie)
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>1126788
>[ ] "It was only a matter of time, really. We knew it couldn't last."
>[ ] "...The other Players - they thought we were hiding something precious, you see? And they wanted it for themselves."

>>1126788
>[ ] "...The other Players - they thought we were hiding something precious, you see? And they wanted it for themselves."

>>1126788
>[ ] "It was only a matter of time, really. We knew it couldn't last."
>[ ] "...The other Players - they thought we were hiding something precious, you see? And they wanted it for themselves."

>>1126788
[ ] "...The other Players - they thought we were hiding something precious, you see? And they wanted it for themselves."
[ ] "They became corrupted in ways that are hard to understand, and harder to explain."

OP, do players feel something when they gather essence?

I could imagine a lot of additional tension if that was the case.

>>1126788
There's a reason I call this place Hell and truly mean it Kazuya.

>>1126437
But the upgrade guide suggests they aren't primary weapons.

>>1126808
Actually, the "primary weapons" category includes the Vulcans, Tau, Crisis Arm, R&C and Chagan.

Either that or the formatting is slightly broken.

>>1126788
So wait, are we retroactively deciding what happened to them?

>>1126833

(Yes.)

>>1126794
>>1126797
>>1126801
>>1126802

> [X] "It was only a matter of time, really. We knew it couldn't last."

A safe place. A sanctuary.

Safe from the Repentance. Safe from the storm.

A shelter - from everything except other Players.

> [X] "...The other Players - they thought we were hiding something precious, you see? And they wanted it for themselves."

Silence descends. Utter, complete.

For a long, damned moment, Daegal says nothing. His gaze takes in the chamber around you, the marks of violence that could have happened a hundred years ago - or yesterday.

There were so many of them. Too many. Craving aid and mercy and sanctuary - Driven by desperation, by fear, or simply because they weren't let in.

You remember. The bombs and stones and bullets that splintered off the shielded windows, the fists that pounded on the great doors. And then that final, terrible blast - what you can only call the absence of a flash, and then the low beginnings of a monstrous noise...

An ancient Relic. Something unearthed from beneath the sands.

Or something simpler, perhaps. Essence Cores, their charge harnessed as bombs.

And then they were amongst you. And then the storm came roaring in, with a sound like hollow, screaming laughter-

"And then?"

[ ] "And then everything was finished. Over."
[ ] "We couldn't stop them."
[ ] "We couldn't fight them *and* the storm."
[ ] "Some of us got away. Some."
[ ] "Before the children fell into their hands, the others decided to-"
[ ] "I tried. I did...everything I could."
[ ] "What do you think, Kazuya?"

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>1126833
That's how Joker's backstory has always been decided.

>>1126837
>[ ] "We couldn't stop them."
>[ ] "Some of us got away. Some."

>>1126837
>[ ] "Some of us got away. Some."
>[ ] "I tried. I did...everything I could."

>>1126837
>[X] "We couldn't fight them *and* the storm."
>[X] "I tried. I did...everything I could."
Since we probably have the time, should we tell Daegal just about everything about our stint as Red Joker? Like maybe leave out the details of Anons romance fuckups unless we feel particularly masochistic, but maybe a fresh set of optics or just someone else to hear us could be useful.

>>1126837
[ ] "I tried. I did...everything I could."
The overall backstory is getting too convoluted for me

>>1126846
Let's keep to our backstory first.
We should tell him how we became the Red Joker, though. How it all ended.

...Just reassure Kaz that we know how to get out, this time.

>>1126847
>The overall backstory is getting too convoluted for me
It's not hard. Anon was stuck in hell as one of the children in the shelter, then shitters tried to take the shelter in search of loot and he barely survived.

>>1126855
It's been a long time so I forget, why couldn't the last Red Joker leave with us?

>>1126861
It was never outright stated, but he was either too damaged or corrupted to move, so we mercy killed him.

>>1126870
I hope it wasn't because he used the Athame.

>>1126870
So it doesn't yet seem to be a rule that only the current Red Joker can leave the Black?

>>1126874
Never was. Naoya left the Black and so did Kraken.

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>>1126841
>>1126842
>>1126846
>>1126847

> [X] "I tried. I did...everything I could."

You remember.

The *crunch* of armor, giving way beneath your mauling fist - the brittle snap of mechanisms - the way a helmet deforms, slow then fast, beneath the hammer-on-anvil impact of a gravity sledge, again and again-

Your fingers twitch, as if on cue.

Then the impacts. The ragged edge ripping into, before your cestus smashed it into flinders. Running, headlong, into the fusillade - blasts chewing into your systems, flash-boiling coolant into choking smog-

Too many.

Too many, and not nearly enough.

> [X] "Some of us got away. Some."

One step ahead of annihilation. Fleeing, blind, into the waiting dark.

> [X] "We couldn't fight them *and* the storm."

The storm, descending. A dismal fog, rolling in to consume everything.

Struggling figures, lit by flashes of unnatural energies, as the foul buzzing, buzzing began...

You remember...flashes.

Figures, walking amongst the flames. Corospant, crackling and arching. Stone burning, veins riling as if in agony, a choking smog that moved with a hungry will. Metal erupting into swollen flesh, myomer flaking from limbs or swelling, tumorous.

And the laughter. The hollow, lightless laughter, that came from everywhere and nowhere at once.

Or perhaps you were merely imagining it. There was so much horror, you may have forgotten some.

>>1126846
>>1126855

Daegal stares. He just stares at you, as if he's never seen you before in his life.

Outside - dull, muffled - thunder booms.

"I think," he says - carefully, quietly - "...I think it's about time you told me what the *hell* is going on."

Yes. And soon.

(Continued)

>>1126911

"If...They killed everyone. They destroyed - everything. Why leave one-?"

You can't be sure - but you can guess.

The Vitruvian Devices were precious. Irreplacable.

But they have one flaw.

A Player linked to one cannot free himself, even as he recovers. Defenseless, dreaming, he needs another to disconnect him.

Which means-

"...They killed each other, didn't they? All of them."

You stand before the remaining Device. The black steel - lightless - does not reflect the glow of flame. It hums - ancient mechanisms stirring to life at your presence.

Daegal turns his head. You feel the pressure of his gaze on the ruin of his left arm.

"-Aren't you going to use it?"

[ ] "Yes. I need you to stand watch."
[ ] "No. You need to rest."
[ ] "No. You need it more."
[ ] "No. You're not good at waiting - It should be you."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>1126937
What could the Vitruvian Device even improve about Daegal? I thought its whole gimmick was being perfect from the get-go.

>>1126937
>[ ] "No. You need it more."
"I know my limit, but you are still getting used to this."

>>1126937

(Gentlemen - To give the conversation context, the Vitruvian Device allows a Player to 'rest' and to sustain repairs. It's uncertain how long the process will take.)

>>1126943
His gimmick was being perfect and perfecting everything. The Daegal gauntlet was named after Midas, after all.
His touch is gold.

>>1126945
>>1126948
If people want us to get the repairs, I will switch my vote around.
If we rest ourselves, we first need to tell Kazuya that he shouldn't try to take his armor off.
Maybe compare it to an astronaut in space or something. Take it off and you die.

>>1126948
So if we use it we get into perfect fighting shape.

>>1126937
>[ ] "No. You need it more."
"I've lost limbs more times than I can count. This isn't that big of an issue and I can fix myself in other ways."

>>1126955
Serious question. How are you going to do that?

>>1126953
>>1126951

If we do that, he'll have ripped his face off by the time we wake up. JQOP is hinting that Kazuya is going to go crazy without sleep.

>>1126948
Yeah, I'm going to agree to give it to Daegal. We're a lot more used to going around for a time without repairs and we know our shit about this place, while Kazuya doesn't have the luxury of either.

>>1126937
He needs it more. He'd crack without it, plus he's crippled as fuck. Doesn't seem to have any regain system either.

Hopefully, we can heal ourselves at some point but now...Now's probably a bad time. He's already struggling.

>>1126937
[ ] "Yes. I need you to stand watch."
We're pretty badly damaged guys

>>1126961
We have SWARM, CONSUME and the Leech module.
The latter only works on players, but the former two can sustain us if we find anything with essence.

>>1126968
So is Kazuya. His regen only restores his systems and restores his armor. He can't regen HP by himself while we can use Lachryma or CONSUME if necessary.

(Gentlemen - My sincerest apologies. It's extremely late for me, and I'm completely exhausted. I intended to run longer, but I'm afraid that I currently lack the stamina.

I'll continue with the thread at first opportunity. Alternatively, I'll use a new one if this falls off the board/is archived.

Good night, and God bless. Again, you have my apologies - Work commitments have severely curtailed my free time.)

>>1126978
Have a good night, OP.

>>1126978
Get some good rest, OP!

Also, I think Daegal should rest.

>>1126855

> It's not hard. Anon was stuck in hell as one of the children in the shelter, then shitters tried to take the shelter in search of loot and he barely survived.

(My apologies, to clarify: Most of the children were much younger.)

>>1127003
I did notice that, but I assumed that Joker also fit into the child bracket.

Well, at least he wasn't one of the toddlers.

There is literally nothing wrong with bits

>>1129019
This