She really shouldn't have been able to do that, but... I don't want a TPK here, so I'm letting it pass.

Alas, we don't have a sane theurge at the moment to teleport us out of here...

Sorry...
I don't know how else to fix things...
A fire tornado to affect/destroy the missile, and a tornado to kill a few of the hellhounds...

(I HAVE mentioned before, not related to this RP but all the same -- You don't have to try to fix everything by yourself, especially if it's not your personal fault. No one's gonna hate you for not being able to overcome all the problems. Some things are too big for just one person to handle, and that's what friends are for.)

Mind if I set up a vote: Does Kadia lose her arm, her body, or her life?

From what I understand, the situation she has created would destroy her body in this world (and...hadn't thought about how the strain alone should have put her in stroke or cardiac arrest...again, sorry)

However, I am not sure how people would feel about mixing Rurik with Kadia into...a robotic human...dog...thing (admittedly weird in its own right) or if I should just let them be the casualties of war.

Kadia was injured at the end of my post, so control is at best faltered if not completely gone - wildfire and a tornado shredding itself apart sending rocks flying at random.

Were Kadia to lose her body or life, she would go out as a martyr and buy time/space from the threats to the party. She is sort of set up for this, as that was where I was leaning when I wrote the post in which she created the tornadoes (The situation at the time spurring it on). Also, in reality, this situation was not built to survive without loss of party members (and soldiers).

No one is under any obligation to kill their character if they don't want to (I'm hedging killing Diogenes at this point). I'd *personally* like something like having a Hound bite straight through her clavicle and tear most of her shoulder and arm off if you really want to grievously harm her without killing her but just a suggestion.

And there wouldn't be an ethical issue with her soul inhabiting Rurik's frame, soul-cyborgs are a thing after all. As before, Thomas only objected on the grounds of it being a "degrading" inhuman shape.

It's up to you completely, Lawtan. You're always welcome to start a new character if that's what you'd like, but it's perfectly okay to keep her going (in any fashion you might decide). But my vote is for dramatic injury but not death.

Also, I just wrote a whole lot of Diogenes doing nothing. :|

Uh, just to make it clear, Dante's making a mad dash for the Crown.

Umm...just as long as he dodges the destabilizing twins of destruction...and (7?) hellbeasts...
...
Kadia, mind if I break your back, tear off your arm, and puncture a few meaty bits?

*Gulps*

Also, those flame whirlwinds are probably about as bad as the bombs themselves. Just a note.

And not all of those hellhounds are going to be focused on him. Neither does he intend on wearing it unless he absolutely has to.

I know! Look what you did to Diogenes! :P

And I think we're well to the point of desperate measures, Espy.

I guess, considering that at this point, he's the least helpful one in terms of psychic ability.

So who is next?

Well, definitely not me XD

I'll write up Kadia again...in an hour or so...

wait wait, we should acutally figure out a course of action

Well, I'll be fore it after my eyes stop blurring.

...That's probably a good idea. (I'm not sure what you were trying to say.)

I'm up, but I'm having a hell of a time trying to get this post written out. I can summarize and post the real one later if people want to get things moving.

Okay, Suze, How long before missiles strike?

If soon:

Kadia's has her arm grabbed, and the beast starts tossing her about, severely damaging her back, filling her body with shards of ruin, and eventually tearing off her arm. Kadia's mind will be torn violently back into her body to experience this. Rurik will act, targeting the dog through Kadia, and severely injure the hellhound (strong Metal vs hide...metal wins, but is damaged). He will grab Kadia and leap out of the window, allowing both to escape. Kadia, with one last nod before passing out, will raise a barrier/saftey hole for the rest of the party. Meanwhile, Rurik will run/limp back to try to get the others to saftey. Finally, the two forces unleashed will become both weaker and more dangerous (Killing the wounded hellhound - for a party tally of six, I believe...and pouring about creating another force against the missiles...while tossing fire and rocks towards the party and Sin at random)

If that is too much, perhaps some help from another psychokinetic master/rest of the party could help?

I'd personally prefer to string these events out somewhat, allowing the party to pull off some finishing moves as hell meets chaos. (Dante grabbing the crown as someone (or Rurik) grabs him, Tarja creating the safe haven down below, or anything else really.

(And hell yes, I am open to different ideas - this is the best outline of events I can think of on my own)

Well, didn't really plan on doing this at 4am but it seemed to work well enough. I seriously need to go to bed now. Quick summary: Tarja is outside and on the ground, somewhat mangled; there is one less hound to deal with, and there's a big hole in the wall of the bedroom. One (or more if Suze decrees it) unfortunate red-shirt got savaged as well.

I had this stuff already planned out, it just took a while to write.

Lawtan, You might want to check with Sheol to see if Kadia can maintain any psychic effect after she goes unconscious. Any barrier she sets up might disappear if she's not mentally aware anymore.

Note to self: ask Quiet how to write a realistic action scene.

...And I have been unable to sleep all night, for some reason I don't understand.

That can happen. I have umpteen reasons why I might not be sleeping, up to and including insomnia, depression, medication side effects, or just plain not feeling tired. Some vitamin B's can help, or chamomile tea. I've tried a bunch of things with varying degrees of success, and a number of friends have their own remedies. One must endeavor to try though, as one might get stuck following a two year old around all day.

Rurik vs. hell-hound sounds like a fun idea. :)

On action scenes (and writing in general) I think what helps most is to think of an author who writes action scenes that you enjoy, and study those to find out what it is about them that you like. Things like what details they chose to add, how their pacing goes, how long their sentences are, how specific they get, etc.

Umm...Quiet, mind if I ask for help with some details when I get around to writing it all?

Perhaps I should have mention that I was chatting with Suze and he told me shit would go down if Dante ever managed to get the Crown off the priest.

As in, the priest would wake up. And bad things would happen.

Also....I might've mentioned earlier, but all this fire stuff in a relatively closed space? It's almost equivalent to the thermobaric going off anyways, besides the pressure wave.

Actually, despite the heat, I have never heard of an explosion around/because of a fire whirl...

Like I said, /besides the pressure wave/. I don't see how all this fire isn't just as damaging to the party as if the missile were to actually hit.

...
I don't bloody well know, though it is a bit late to change - it's been therefor a while. As to why we haven't burned up all oxygen and other things...this is hell.

Can we please focus on working with what is there to make the remainder of it as coherent as possible? I posted my strategy from what I could observe and do now. What could I do differently (now, not a few posts back) to make it more sensible, or what can everyone else do to make it out alive?

So one option is still the windowing thing. Another, which Suze mainly brought up as a joke, is for Dante to grab the Crown, which is what he's trying to do now. If he succeeds, he will wake up the priest from his immortality and dream-making slumber, aaaand I'm not sure what the priest is gonna do.

If someone puts on the Crown, they'll create another dreamworld, the believability of which depends on the wearer's psychic ability. It'll also render the wearer invincible but comatose.

*Offers crown to Tarja, as Kadia's (and mine) would resemble Grimm's fairy tales...in hell, and because Kadia is on her way to comatose-land.*

Oh, my pretty Diogenes, let big old Granny Celestine just fatten you right up, you big hero, you...

My plan sort of involved the window and Rurik grabbing the injured/reckless, his structure taking the impact much better than fleshlings.

Initiating glare towards Dante and Kadia

I'll respond to most of these points later, but right now just for Quiet if you see this before I get back, the soldiers wouldn't be outside the IFV firing rifles, they're using the emplaced machineguns on the vehicle, a la these. And there's only like 3 of them outside to begin with.

You could have the hound tear the vehicle apart if you wanted to get at them.

I actually don't think the actual thoughts of the wearer has any thing to do with it, just the psychic power. Not sure. Ask Suze >.>

...Suze? Thoughts?

Lawtan,

:P

Anyway. *reads back*

1. I am greatly unconvinced that Rurik could fight one of these hounds at any degree of parity. I feel they're being underestimated significantly. I might remind that they were quite capable of biting Thomas' titanium skeleton clean in half, I hate to imagine what one would do to Rurik. I mean, I know it's been kind of vague but their "hide" was sort of like... shrug off a blow from a battle-axe type resilient.

2. Missiles are either fired next post, or are not getting fired cause hound trashed the IFV.

3. Really, Kadia doesn't have to save everyone. She's already done more than everyone else. Also, the force of a full-on bite would pretty much instantly sever the arm, and if she gets tossed like a ragdoll like that, that will kill her. These hounds... I'm not sure what I can compared them to strength-wise, but they are far stronger than what that plan is implying. Notice when Quiet had it physically jump higher than the monastery tower? Think about the kind of forced it would take a propel a body that massive 50+ ft in the air.

4. Espy, I was quite serious about the crown. Though I need point out, Father Jeffro has been asleep since before the apocalypse. He doesn't know anything about anything or how to use his powers, and will likely be utterly horrified at the sight awaiting him.

5. The fire has severely damaged Diogenes for anyone keeping score. :P

6. As for the Crown, yes, even if Dante put it on, it was have the effect of at least stalling the fight and giving us a slight breather to regroup.

7. The Crown projects from the wearer's subconscious. Like a more consistent form of dream. The priest's was so nightmarish because Sin had invaded it.

8. This is not Hell. We're currently on the earthly plane, though thanks to the Crown and Sin the area of spiritually unstable and can shift back at any moment.

9. I will sometime soon do a post from Sin regarding Na'lsa, since that's really overdue at this point.

How exactly does the wearer's subconscious affect the dreamworld?

Also, haha, we seem to be underestimating a lot of things. I think that's how we've survived so far...

Aren't the Hounds also around fifteen feet tall? My point with having Dante go /under/ them to get the Crown is because with that height, that need to do a bit more maneuvering in order to get at a six-foot-tall man who's running between their feet.

The same way it affects normal dreams? It's generated from an amalgamation of memories that don't necessarily fit together logically.

And 15 ft. is in the ballpark, yeah. Perhaps slightly too high. That certainly feasible for Dante, though.

Umm...the hide thing is kind of difficult to imagine - no hide I know of is that strong in real life. I mean, perhaps deflecting once...but hide is not the toughest of materials. Were they metalloid robo-demon-hellhounds with regenerating metal, it would make more sense...
*Is now going to look up the species that could survive in space to use as reference to hellhounds.*
Umm...animals often fling things if there is weight attached to them *Looks at German Shepherd tugging and snapping at food*

I mean, if they're around fifteen feet high, then the space under their bellies should be around 7-8 feet. Will be a bit of ducking dodging, though. because they're not gonna just all stand there obediently.

I'm just trying to figure out how bad of an idea it'd be for Dante to wear it.

Law -- They're not of this world. It's not realistic, not the usual hide that we know. You know how iron is tempered into steel?

Imagine hide, leather hide, tempered into some hellishly tough protective skin.

EDIT: Oops. At least seven feet at the shoulder. Well...he'll just have to do rolls and slides and stuff.

Also, maybe something like this?

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs43/i/20...by_jrhyder.jpg

Oh, I did say 7 ft. at the shoulder, didn't I? I must have been feeling merciful. :P

And that might not be a bad way to imagine them.