vicedirector | (no subject)

[ It's easy to see that this explanation doesn't sit well with Break, and it's not hard to guess why. It's incredibly personal for him, and considering that she even brings Gilbert up, his expression immediately goes flat at that point. But whatever he's feeling about it, he doesn't bring it up. It doesn't matter as much, because he still feels like there's a goal to accomplish here, and that's his only priority. ]

Then what does that mean for us? For the dead? We can't accomplish anything without you, so if this is just a random gamble, then I don't approve, to be frank.

It's not random. Like Roxy guessed, she'll have to take over in my place.

[ She figured as much that he wouldn't be pleased, but she's honestly out of fucks to give at this point. ]

That'll leave her vulnerable. She'll have to be out in public as much as I am, especially if she's going to try to protect me. Which I know she will.

Whether she takes over your role or not isn't quite what I care about.

[ Since really, he barely even cares about stopping the game at all. If they let it continue to the terms of completion, that would be fine with him, but Break is also terrible. ]

If she's vulnerable, what then? You're the one that holds the cards here, so I hope you understand why I have reservations about you putting yourself in with us. As much as I'd like to take a gamble of my own and cut off her head myself, I have a feeling I'm going to have some difficulty with an approach that direct.

[ that and this would just be stress relief and wouldn't actually do anything else, he figures, but that's implied ]

Edited 2016-04-16 06:01 (UTC)

No, I get it. But I was planning on doing this from the beginning, you know, this just...prioritized it, I guess.

But I'll explain more clearly: I don't plan on letting it come down to only seven people left. I wouldn't say I'm as skilled as Katerina is in magic at this point, it's just a matter of time and impossibility, but I think I've got the resurrection ritual down pat. I tried it on a few animals, at first, and one of the nights I was gone, I tried it on a soldier near the border. He was fine. So we're solid in that area.

The thing is, though, Katerina's only got the edge on us as long as she has her book. It's a grimoire, a tome of magic spells, and she needs it to cast magic. I've been using an old notebook, so I guess anything similar is good, but it's an old black book with a buckle on it. If she's not carrying it, she'll keep it somewhere on her person. If you can take that book from her she'll be defenseless.

And if I get that book, I can use some of her custom spells. Not a lot, but it's good enough for what's going to eventually happen. Like Leviathan said, the other demons will need to be taken down. I'm hoping we can do the resurrections first, to have extra help against them, but it'll happen anyway. Leviathan giving us her help will come to light eventually.

[ she pauses to take a breath, then continues. She may as well just explain the entire plan while she's at it. ]

You can't kill them, but you can injure them so badly they have to go back to hell. And I doubt any of them are actually loyal to Katerina, so they most likely won't defend her once it's clear she can't finish the ritual. At that point, we need to only worry about them. Leviathan gave me some of their stats, but I can ask her to do a full report, later. Because they won't be fully summoned, they'll be partially weakened, like Satan was when she fought Undyne. Though, Leviathan will have a slight advantage because she has all of you giving her energy.

...and that kind of trailed off, I guess, but you get the gist. Point is, I'm not doing this blindly or without reason.

[ did someone say take, roxy likes to take things let her steal the thing for you sweet miats

i mean, she listens to this whole plan but book stealing gets her roguish attention ]

I suppose just tackling her and grabbing the book would be a no, yeah?

No. She'll probably have her shields up most of the time. Unlike me, she's pretty scrawny and physically weak, so someone like Clover could probably kick her ass in about ten seconds, provided she was sans book.

I'm still thinking up a plan for snatching it from her. I'm hoping it doesn't have to come down to "challenge her to a magic fight and then take it when she's injured or unconscious," but it might.

Oh yeah? Well, at least she ain't no Undyne 2.0.

[ DEAR, SWEET MUSCLED UNDYNE ]

You are the mistress of plans. If you went to Hajime's shitty school, that'd be your talent. Plans. [ ... ] Thanks for existing, Miats. We'd be fucked without you, I think.

[ A snort of amusement ]

Everyone's gotta be decent at something, I guess. Thanks. I try my best.

Out of curiosity... do you know what her custom spells entail?

[ This is important to her. She's using this whole plan as a distraction from what happened today. ]

There's a few different ones. A healing spell, in case she or I ever got hurt, one that lets her summon magic daggers to fight with in case someone gets too close, another one that lets her use dead bodies as liches for a short period of time...

[ GRIMACES AT THE WHOLE LICHES THING ]

Summoning magic daggers. That's some Unlimited Blade Works shit. Except they're real. [ And not like, copies. ]

Unlimi...what?

[ this is too anime for her ]

It's from a visual novel. [ She's not repeating herself. ]

The protagonist creates a world from his mind that's full of fake swords.

[ ................... ]

O...kay. Moving on...

[ inaba she's painfully 90s european, why this ]

[ THAT DOES NOT MEAN SHE CANNOT ENJOY ANIME. . . or visual novels. Note to self: make Miata watch some at some point. ]

[ This is better, at least, so it gets Break to at least chill, but it's still not something he's wholly happy with. He probably never would be, though. There are enough unknowns and uncertainties here that he's worried, because now it's not only Gilbert that he's wanting to save. He's never held burdens on his shoulders as well as he'd like to think, but all that shows is a slight twist of his frown as he turns his gaze slightly to the side. He's considering it, thinking over the possibilities, and it takes longer before he nods lightly. ]

...Then the demons. Do you think that the people remaining and Leviathan would be able to do enough damage to take care of them? Assuming that she couldn't take them all on her own, at least.

[ Miata's expression softens. Okay, maybe she was a little worried. Losing even one of her allies wasn't a good prospect. ]

I think so. The demons can all lock and unlock powers, so Leviathan trying to do that herself would be a back-and-forth kinda thing, but as long as we get every available fighter, and take them on in groups, our chances are pretty good. Asmodeus is an archer, for example, so put a bunch of close-range fighters against him to counter that.

[ He nods, since that makes more sense, but he's still concerned about numbers here. Granted, he's definitely comparing these demons to something he knows, but as such, he concerned about people like Rhys and Inaba. They don't stand a chance, so far as he's concerned. Yet if they all need to fight, especially if their ranks get thinned down, it's a problem. Granted, if they die, it might not matter with their plans to revive people, but he would still rather avoid that if at all necessary.

Break crosses his arms, and he shifts his attention back to Miata. He does at least have one idea for himself that he doesn't even know if it's possible or it would work... But there's enough of a chance that he thinks it's worth asking. ]

Then may I ask? Were you the one to give us a second item?

[ But he doesn't actually give her time to answer that, since he goes right into explaining why he's asking at all. ]

If so, then I might be able to assist more if I have my Carcere. If I can summon the Mad Hatter, I wouldn't have long to use it, but that's a Chain made to destroy other Chains. From what I know of these demons, they're similar enough that I think the Hatter could hurt them with more bite than my sword alone.

That was me, yeah.

[ .... ]

I don't think I can do that, though. Leviathan was the one who took away Gilbert's...cart...thing away in the first place, since it was screwing with her connection to him. Something about contracts voiding other contracts? So it'll probably be the same thing with you, sorry.

[ He nods, since that's roughly what he had guessed once he became more aware of what was going on here. Still, considering the subject he dips into, his tone turns more serious. ]

You don't need to apologize. I'm asking because what you're asking is likely to kill me regardless. My body won't be able to handle that kind of fight, with or without the Mad Hatter. So if that's the obstacle ahead, then I want to be certain that I'm using my life to push to the better outcome.

[ He shrugs ]

It's not something I understand very well considering these contracts are different from the ones I know, but if I'm better served in a contract with Leviathan, then I'll trust your judgement. Well, I have to, really, but I wanted to offer it as an option. It's the same to me either way.

[Unlocking powers...] There's nothing anyone here could do to me if I had my proper abilities. Not even those demons. Would that be of any use?