2026-01-17: One's Artistic Vision

• Log: One's Artistic Vision
• Cast: Self-Criticism, Remi Ryuuja, Yua Ijuuin, Moriko Kumamoto, Fuuka Yamagishi, Shiryuu Ryouhara, Umie Akabane, Aigis, Hyousuke Suzuki
• Where: Tartarus, Sumaru
• OOC Date: 2026-01-17
• IC Date: Sep 12 2012
• Summary: A new shadowy beast has been spotted roaming the tower of Tartarus. It is truly a threat for any that may cross its path. It also has a resonance that feels a tad like the Joker Killer's....

---

<Pose Tracker> Self-Criticism has posed.

        The tower has felt weird for the last week or so, a resonance echoes through the floors of the tower and has been located on floor 19 of the tower, and workings it way lower by the moment. The resonance echoes the feeling of a recent visitor to the SEES dorm room, it feels like the resonance of the Joker Killer. Other shadows have been fleeing from this presence, and the ecology of the tower is truly disrupted.

        Upon locating the presence though, one would know this is not the Joker Killer. Instead what stands (?) before them is a large squid-like monster that fills the hall of this floor. On the back of the creature is a portrait of the Joker Killer, he even appears to be giving a wave, and his eyes follow you wherever you move to. Not just an artistic trick, they actually move. The rest of the squid creature's body is marked in intricate tattoos, ones that look like 'The Mark' . At the top of the shadow is a see-through dome with a person in it.

        The man has long hair, an uncouth beard, an artist smock covered in splotches of black ink, and bags deep enough under their eyes it is impossible to say when they last slept. The man is mumbling to himself and likely isn't concerned about anything happening outside the dome as he is making brush strokes in thin air as if he is painting something in his dome.

        The creature itself when analyzed comes up with a name, 'Self-Criticism.'


<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.

        The Bride, Yumi, is dressed in a grey wedding gown with a /bulletproof vest/ slung over it, complete with pouches at its belt... and a half-dozen veils and fascinators, shrouding her face.

        Of course, the New World Order is aware of these strange readings. But why is Yumi here...?

        ... it's because her Groom has particular interests in keeping tabs on this man's work.

        She and Tsurugi seem to appear from nowhere, on this low floor of Tartarus, as they approach the beast. "We have come to observe his works," Yumi announces, "and to test them hence... today we do not climb this accursed tower to assault you. Test us not."

        Taking her heavy, revolver-esque Evoker, she presses it to her eye, beneath those veils. "Gretchen," she invokes, as she fires, and her left eye erupts in red flame as a massive white woman appears behind her, jail bars driven through her arms like wings.

        "Tell me the truth," she says, to the maddening creature, though taking /this/ beast into herself and experiencing the way it operates is surely perilous...

        ... at which point, alongside her statistical analysis, she reports to heroes and nemeses alike: "This creature is dubbed 'Self-Criticism.'"

AS: Persona! Yua Ijuuin has used the Almighty skill Possession on Self-Criticism!
AS: Yua Ijuuin takes 45 damage from Stress!
AS: Ruin: Yua Ijuuin gains 1 Limit!
AS: Yua Ijuuin's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Self-Criticism takes 0 Almighty damage from Yua Ijuuin's Possession.
AS: Yua Ijuuin's Strength Scan! Self-Criticism resists Dark!
AS: Yua Ijuuin's Weakness Scan! Self-Criticism is weak against Light!
AS: Yua Ijuuin's Support Scan! Self-Criticism has passive skills Avoid Water, Dark Amp, Dark Boost, Firm Stance, and Heavy Weapon!


<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.

        Looking up at the TV as she finishes painting her newest mask, Umie's eyebrows raise.

        Umie sees you, Suspicious Incident At Port Island.

        Setting her mask up on a dangling hook above her to dry, the blonde rubs her nose, accidentally leaving a small smear of ultramarine blue on the tip.

        "Well, I suppose I owe SEES a little..."

        ----NOW----

        "How about you come on out of that bubble? I won't bite." The blue mask, speckled with white paint to be reminiscent of stars, is playing the role of supporting Umie's cognitive identity shield tonight, standing out against the light grey of the short girl's hooded jacket. Black half gloves cover the lower half of her own arms, covering the existence of a similar such Mark on Umie's own skin.

        "I admit, I was expecting someone different. How about I lead you out?" Umie gestures back behind her with the blade of her kyoketsu shoge. "I'm not talking no for an answer."

        Shoot first, ask questions later. It took a lot to even *get* this far; Umie likely depended on the fellow SEES members here to even be present.

        She can figure out how the Joker Killer is involved later; for now--

        "Stay out of this," Umie growls at the arriving Bride and Tsurugi, not realizing the true identity of either. "_This is being taken care of_."

        WIth Umie's anger comes the Badb, the clothed dark grey of her shawl spreading out like the flapping of feathered wings in smoke. Red lips smile at a coy angle towards the artist, attempting to lure him in.

AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Almighty skill Hooded Smile on Self-Criticism!
AS: Ruin: Umie Akabane gains 1 Limit!
AS: Umie Akabane regains 3 SP from Invigorate!
AS: Umie Akabane's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Self-Criticism takes 0 Almighty damage from Umie Akabane's Hooded Smile.


<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.

The reason why Tsurugi here is fairly simple--she is here because Yumi is here. Dressed in an all-black fencing suit (including a black fencing mask), with a rapier on one him and a dark gray revolver-style on the opposite leg.

She appears as Yumi does, protected by her concealment. She offers no additional words to her claim that they were nly here to observe. But she has her Evoker and her rapier close at hand, regardless.

She glannces at Umie as she tells them to back off. In that low, toneless stoic way of hers, she says, "... we have our own interest in this matter. We have no quarrel with you this night."

She draws her own Evoker but doesn't fire it yet. She's eying the creating, and her turns her head ever so slightly to indicate she's lookingat Yumi. "Yumi, the man within--is he real or artifice?" In other words: do they need to worry about killing an actual human tonight?

She lifts her Evoker and fires. "Persona!" La Maupin rises beside her, wrapped in a red leather straightjacket with the sleeves dangling loose and clutching achipped rapier through one sleeve.

Wordlessly she lifts her rapier up to touch it to La Maupin's, and magical flames surge up the length of one rapier and then down the other. Then, in perfect unison, they both surge forward to take alternating flame-empowered strikes at the lumbering creation.

AS: Tandem! Remi Ryuuja has used the Fire skill Firebrand on Self-Criticism! 3 Hits!
AS: Remi Ryuuja's turn has ended.
AS: Block Neutral! Self-Criticism takes 27 Fire damage from Remi Ryuuja's Firebrand. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Neutral! Self-Criticism takes 27 Fire damage from Remi Ryuuja's Firebrand. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Best! Self-Criticism takes 8 Fire damage from Remi Ryuuja's Firebrand.


<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.

Fuuka Yamagishi has been having trouble sleeping. How do you get comfortable, after your residence has been directly attacked...? The message has been received loud and clear... but that doesn't mean she'll /stop/.

She's thankful to have things to focus her mind on - helping Aigis with her repairs, for one, and tonight, investigating the strange presence that she sensed inside Tartarus.

She is, somehow, even /more/ on edge than usual as she directs her party through the halls - though she is grateful for help from familiar faces like Umie.

And then they find it, at the 19th Floor. It /feels/ like the Joker Killer - but when they finally find their target... it isn't him.

No - it's a monster, with a portrait of him, the squid's body lined with tattoos...

...And then there is a dome, with a person inside. Fuuka gasps.

"Sir! Sir, can you hear us? Please, you have to stop this!" Fuuka calls out to the man. She can't see his face just yet, but she gets a vague feeling of recognition...

...And she recognizes other faces here, too. ...Well, 'faces' - it's a familiar veil, and a familiar Persona.

"It's you...!" Fuuka gasps, and then looks toward Umie as she tells them to stay out of this. She looks back at Yumi. "...We're... not here to fight you."

She's... not ready to fight another person again so soon. There's a man on the creature - but at least she focus on the monstrous body. Speaking of...

Fuuka draws her Evoker and Lucia is summoned, encasing her in her protective globe.

"I'll analyze its defenses... get ready to take action." Fuuka announces to her party, and those others gathered. She scans the target - "'Self-Criticism'... Yes, that's right." Fuuka echoes Yumi, to provide confirmation in case anyone doubted her words - studying its defenses and relaying that information to everyone so they can decide their best route of attack.

AS: Persona! Fuuka Yamagishi has used the Almighty skill Perception on Self-Criticism!
AS: Insight: Fuuka Yamagishi gains 1 Limit!
AS: Fuuka Yamagishi's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Self-Criticism takes 0 Almighty damage from Fuuka Yamagishi's Perception.
AS: Def_Dn added!
AS: Fuuka Yamagishi's Strength Scan! Self-Criticism resists Dark!


<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.

        A critical brown eye focuses on the speared woman, Gretchen, as she materializes into view behind her owner.

        Ryouhara had developed intel about the disturbance in Tartarus and had thus far elected to supervise the new shadow's descent through the floors of Tartarus personally. It's actually not supremely difficult for him to not disturb the creature -- or really, anyone else at all, existing just as a flicker on the periphery, a figure high up in the hall in an inky haze just on the wrong side of the artist.

        He had ordered Kouhei and Shuuhei to stand down, in recognition of their bereavement. It had not been received well. But it was also only part of the equation..

        He's not earing a disguise, but he arguably doesn't need to. The shinobi is crouched in the inky, indistinct mist on an old rope bridge, separated from the Order and SEES groupings. An old mechanical kami is floating with him impassively in the haze. He's split off by the rolling mass of abominable tentacles piloted by... who is it, in the dome? It's not the Joker Killer, despite the concerns. That honor belongs to a weird portrait on the thing's back -- that's currently eyeing him, or at the very least the haze surrounding him.

        Shiryuu grimaces. He's been being subjected to that baghead's ugly painted and papered mug staring at him for awhile and it's starting to get weird. Especially with the tinny sounds of a familiar person making a theatrical declaration -- and the voice of another, even more familiar person immediately starting a fight with that first person.

        "Oh god." Shiryuu's grimace. It got worse. He hates being right.
        He's not going to be able to figure out where he left his juice at this point.

        The onmitsu assembles and nocks an arrow to a paper bow that didn't exist a few seconds prior, balancing the flat of his sword on a thigh. A long, deep sigh threads through the shinobi's lips. A visualizer sprays out radially from the arrowhead as he draws the line taut, aiming. A muted beat surges through the arrowshaft, pure rhythm focused all the way down to a razor point, as the stabs of pure Hz slowly focus. This is going to break his stealth. He really just wanted to supervise today...

        "I suppose it's a good thing I like it loud."

        He aims to put an arrow in the eye of that damn portrait.

AS: Weapon! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Pierce skill Hishinmeisen on Self-Criticism!
AS: Aggression: Shiryuu Ryouhara gains 1 Limit!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara's turn has ended.
AS: Block Best! Self-Criticism takes 27 Pierce damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Hishinmeisen. Critical Hit!


<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.

Despite Shinjiro's and Tamaki's warnings, Hyousuke showed up to Tartarus by himself. Working under the impression that it was just another mission, he seemed to think nothing of the fact that he had elected to wander into the proverbial lion's den with no backup - or he knew the risks, and simply did not care. It mattered little, in the end. His mind was set on hunting down that creature and scoring another payday. Would it be a more difficult one than the others he'd faced? Most likely. Would it be worth it? If stronger enemies meant better rewards, as they had so often before, almost certainly.

He stepped in, disguise on and guard up. Behind that mirrored, golden visor strapped against his face, his keen eyes darted from detail to detail, scanning every patch of darkness in the hopes of finding the one thing he wanted to hunt down. He stepped quietly, not wanting to alert the 'locals' - much as he spoiled for a fight, Hyousuke at least had the restraint to save his strength for the main target. Anything he had left by the end of the excursion could be spent cleaning up any small fry, and eking out whatever other rewards he could find.

Then, he stopped.

His stomach lurched, and his blood ran cold, chilling his veins and seizing his muscles as an all too familiar sensation gripped his mind. Like shards of ice, they sank into him, causing him to seize on the spot and swivel his head around in some maddened attempt at finding the source. But, above the shudder that wracked his spine, above the knots in his stomach, even above the adrenaline that began to creep into his veins, Hyousuke felt one thing - he felt that everything was *wrong.* He could not say why, and he could not begin to articulate just what that 'wrongness' felt like, but he knew just who it stemmed from.

"No... No, no, no, he's not... How is he...?"
Hyousuke's voice was caught halfway between mounting panic and visceral rage. *He* was here. The man that had set the exhibition ablaze. The man that had hurt one friend, almost killed another, and murdered a slew of strangers. The Joker Killer was there, and Hyousuke could feel his presence like a sledgehammer to his gut. Whatever notions he had about a payday or a mission were forgotten - swept away by a crashing wave of anger born of a need for vengeance.

What Hyousuke saw was not the Joker Killer. It bore his presence, but not his form. Not even the man trapped within that dome was familiar. But this did not calm Hyousuke. It only angered him further, confusion stoking the fires that fuelled him, driving him into the fray like a beast on the hunt.
"Who the fuck're you?!" He bellowed, stamping forward a step to make his presence known. He made no attempt to hide his rage - he only restrained it in an attempt to make his speech coherent. "Are you working with that piece of shi-"

Hyousuke's eyes caught on someone else. He only vaguely recognized Tsurugi - they'd been there at the accursed warehouse, but his focus then had been elsewhere. The Bride, however? He had met her only once, but once had been enough to engrave the sight of her into his mind. He turned his gaze to her, and though the mask shrouded his features, the shifting of it hinted at his expression changing. It would take sharp eyes indeed to notice that it was only his snarl deepening, however, or his jaw shifting as his clenched teeth ground against each other.

"And you!" Hyousuke called out, his focus momentarily on the Bride. "If you and your friend've got anything to do with him, I'm coming for you next!"
He knew exceedingly little of the New World Order and the Joker Killer, and Strega was a name wholly unfamiliar to him. Whatever relationship any of the organisations and individuals had - or, rather, did not have - he was ignorant of it. All that mattered to him was the hunt. He was as a hound, eyes locked onto the prey, his voice lending a growl to every word that fell from his lips. But unlike a hound, he had no master. The only orders he needed to obey that night were his own.

"Achilles!" Hyousuke roared, and in an instant, the air was thick with the sound of grinding bronze. A great figure clad in armour rose from behind him, shield raised to defend, spear poised to savage his enemies. "Tear 'em apart!" His Persona needed no further invitation. Achilles stampeded forward, a soldier charging into the fray, shield up as he closed the distance between himself and the ghastly thing. But, rather than strike with his spear, he heaved a razor-keen blade struck into the beast instead, and aimed to rend the beast's flesh from its very body.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed others. He didn't know their names, nor their affiliations, but they were fighting the same target as him. For now, that had to be good enough.
"You two!" He called out, not looking to Fuuka or Umie, but addressing them nonetheless. His voice carried no authority, and he gave no orders. But there was no mistaking the determination laden in every word, or the anger with which he spat them. "Any idea what the hell that thing is?!" He'd felt Shadows before, and fought demons enough times in pursuit of their bounty. This... thing? It felt, to him, like neither.

AS: Persona! Hyousuke Suzuki has used the Slash skill Savage Rend on Self-Criticism!
AS: Pressure: Hyousuke Suzuki gains 1 Limit!
AS: Hyousuke Suzuki regains 15 HP from Regenerate!
AS: Hyousuke Suzuki's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Worst! Self-Criticism takes 151 Slash damage from Hyousuke Suzuki's Savage Rend. Critical Hit!
AS: Crt_Dn added!


<Pose Tracker> Moriko Kumamoto has posed.

Moriko had admittedly not been around when the attack happened. If you've ever had to bleed the air from a brakeline you'd know why. However, with things being the way they are, she's on the back foot with trying to catch up. Arriving with a couple of other SEES members.
 
 Repairs and the like can come after. The other kind of repairs. She can help with both really.
 
 Besides, this was sort of an important thing to chase down, so she's doing just that.
 
 A glance back at Fuuka's comment shows pure confusion. "You know the takoyaki?" Which was a pretty obvious attempt to keep her own mind off the whole giant monster thing.
 
 She clamps her mouth shut in a hurry after. There's not much useful to be said when you're out of the loop. Turning to face the problem like she usually does. You know. Head on.
 
 Still, the evoker is drawn and after she adjusts her gloves. Barrel held under her jaw, "Otohime Gitsune" head jerking to the side with the shattered glass sound associated with the trigger pull. The fox manifesting behind her in regal robes. Watching the figure in almost the same manner as Moriko herself. Watching it's angles of attack. The picture on the back. The guy in the dome. Mouthing the words similar to 'Damn' and 'Who's that.' but trying to maintain the quiet for Fuuka to focus.

AS: Persona! Moriko Kumamoto has used the Almighty skill Tarunda on Self-Criticism!
AS: Moriko Kumamoto's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Self-Criticism takes 0 Almighty damage from Moriko Kumamoto's Tarunda.
AS: Atk_Dn added!


<Pose Tracker> Aigis has posed.

        The thing with machines is that they're not flesh and blood. They don't need time for bones to mend or wounds to heal, they just need replacement parts and the expertise to patch them up. (Granted, that still takes time -- just not as /much/ time.) Thankfully, Fuuka has been an immense help in getting Aigis back to working order.

        > Initialization complete. Condition Green: all systems nominal! System activation in 3, 2, 1 ...

        Not a moment too soon, either, it seems. Fuuka has sensed an abnormal presence in Tartarus. "Thank you, Yamagishi-san, for making me fit for duty once more." Confidence and resolve shine through Aigis' eyes. "And this ... is my duty."

        There are a good number of SEES members still shaken up from the recent incursion into the dorms, but Moriko seems available to help as well. Aigis gives her a firm nod as she makes her best attempt at inspiring courage and confidence. "Let us both go serve as the 'muscle' together!"

        ... her 'best' attempt may not necessarily be a good one just yet.

        ---

        After a relatively short ascent up the stairs of Tartarus, Aigis pauses to take stock of all those present.

        Shadow, in plain sight. Designation: imminent threat. She immediately extends one arm towards it, pointing four firearm-like fingers at its center of mass. The particulars of its features -- its tendrils, its tattoos, the portrait which rides it, its strange Resonance -- they escape her notice. All that matters is that it is her designated adversary. Aigis nods at Fuuka. "I comprehend. Assessing otpimal course of action."

        Others are present aside from SEES. That is unexpected, and given the events of the other day, Aigis cannot immediately discern their intentions.

        Umie tagged along, likely to repay them for their earlier assistance. That's a welcome enough sight, though she is obligated to caution Umie, "Please take care while within Tartarus."

        Shiryuu makes his presence known with that arrow. Curious, he had evaded even Aigis' sensors.

        Hyousuke shouts in their direction, as well. Aigis nods to Fuuka. "I only know that it is a Shadow which apparently has the designation of 'Self-Criticism'. She may be able to tell you more." An unfamiliar face, but he seems to be a friendly one. (How he'll react to her nature as a robot remains to be seen.)

        Before she can tentatively raise her other arm to dissuade hostilities, Yumi tells them that she and Tsurugi do not oppose them tonight. "... Understood," Aigis cautiously responds, and she moves her other arm so that both point in the Self-Criticism's direction. She'll have to ask Fuuka where she recognizes them from, but later.

        ... Sensors indicate another human, the one within that dome. That ... complicates things. That gives her pause. This is a new conundrum for her, surely -- no. No? She has an answer already, even though she has not encountered a situation like this before. Nothing in her memory archives suggests this.

        Regardless of her confusion about its source, she /has an answer/ already: attempt to ensure the man's safety, but the higher priority is to eliminate the Shadow before her. If push comes to shove ...

        A click, a whirr, a flash of blue, and an invocation: "Persona, actualize!" The statuesque form of Palladion manifests and lands with a slightly audible 'thud.'

        Painting, meet sculpture.

        Alternating waves of red and blue emanate from its form and imbue the SEES members and Umie with strength and protection both.

AS: Persona! Aigis has used the Recovery skill Spear and Shield on Aigis, Fuuka Yamagishi, Moriko Kumamoto, and Umie Akabane!
AS: Pressure: Aigis gains 1 Limit!
AS: Aigis regains 3 SP from Invigorate!
AS: Aigis's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Aigis takes 0 Recovery healing from Aigis's Spear and Shield.
AS: Atk_Up and Def_Up added!
AS: Take! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 0 Recovery healing from Aigis's Spear and Shield.
AS: Atk_Up and Def_Up added!
AS: Take! Umie Akabane takes 0 Recovery healing from Aigis's Spear and Shield.
AS: Atk_Up and Def_Up added!



<Pose Tracker> Self-Criticism has posed.

        The creature looks at those who would come forth and stand before it and let it a roar of monstrous anger. How it is roaring without any form of mouth is a question for the scientist, this creature is one of art. One would find that this beast is many things if they tried to understand it's inner depths, created of one's shadow that has become twisted by looking into a void that shouldn't be stared into. Take those twisted features and dip it in an artist's own criticism of one self and that is how the creature came into existence. Glimpses into the psyche of the beast reveal as well that the person the shadow comes from is the man in the dome on top of the creature.

         The giant tattoo of the mark pulses in response to the magic of Badb and it does at least attract the attention of the man in the dome. He headtilts at Umie for a moment and at the Bride before he begins to shout at nothing(though muffled by the dome), " You, you've already shown me you, but I need more of you. Show me more, show me all of it. Come out of the shadows and show me everything!" Rapidly he begins to frantically try to paint nothing but does nothing more.

        Arrows and fire slashes attack the creature and definitely get it's attention as a tentacle of the creature whips out toward the source of that arrow. Trying to find wherever it came from. The flames also get a tentacle struck towards the source, this time with icy ink flowing from the tip. The ink freezes over as it splatters towards it's target. Any artist or friend of artist in the room, would note that the ink smells awfully like paint.

        For those that are looking too deep into the very essence of the monster begins to creep back along the magic. Inflicting doubt upon those that peer into him.

        As the creature realizes it is under attack it begins to try to move away from the group, quickly as it's lumberous body can manage. However it is big and slow and should have braced instead as the sword draws the creature's blood, a heavy black blood. The pain causes the beast to let out a cry of pain and begin to swing the tentacles wildly at those around him.

        The man inside shouts to them all, "Go, go away. It's not ready yet but soon you shall see it. Soon you shall see something truly divine!" The man then breaks down into a hysterical fit.

AS: Weapon! Self-Criticism has used the Strike skill Tentacle Whip on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Persona! Self-Criticism has used the Water skill Cyan Paint on Remi Ryuuja!
AS: Ruin: Self-Criticism gains 1 Limit!
AS: Persona! Self-Criticism has used the Almighty skill Doubt on Yua Ijuuin and Fuuka Yamagishi!
AS: Persona! Self-Criticism has used the Strike skill Tentatcle Tantrum! on Hyousuke Suzuki, Umie Akabane, and Aigis!
AS: Self-Criticism's turn has ended.
AS: Block Worst! Aigis takes 46 Strike damage from Self-Criticism's Tentatcle Tantrum!.
AS: Sick added!
AS: Avoid Worst! Umie Akabane takes 121 Strike damage from Self-Criticism's Tentatcle Tantrum!. Critical Hit!
AS: Sick added!
AS: Take! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 0 Almighty damage from Self-Criticism's Doubt.
AS: Haze and Worry added! Def_Up removed!
AS: Nerve Up! Yua Ijuuin's SP +8!
AS: Mind Up! Yua Ijuuin's SP +8!
AS: Take! Yua Ijuuin takes 0 Almighty damage from Self-Criticism's Doubt.
AS: Haze, Worry, and Spd_Dn added!
AS: Block Neutral! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 19 Strike damage from Self-Criticism's Tentatcle Tantrum!. Critical Hit! Resist!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 69 Strike damage from Self-Criticism's Tentacle Whip. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Worst! Remi Ryuuja takes 75 Water damage from Self-Criticism's Cyan Paint.
AS: Bind added!


<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.

        "Take care as you will," the Bride assures Umie, in turn. "I would see what effort you must exert." To Fuuka, she offers thin assurance: "We do not demand your blood this night." And to Hyousuke and his demands, it's difficult to say what expression she's wearing -- though her lips draw down. "If you spoke true," she asks, "would I not strike you down in defence of this wretched thing?"

        Technically, she hasn't offered him a firm reply -- only conjecture.

        The creature, though -- she draws a pained breath in, "aahhhh--", as she experiences the truth of it inside herself, made neighbour to things no mortal should see. She grasps Tsurugi's arm, her breath coming heavily, before she lifts her voice to tell everyone present: "This creature -- fears the light of heaven -- and welcomes the darkest depths -- with such strength and ferocity to its shadows! Claws that catch, jaws that bite, they are more grievous still... and its capacity to endure, to blockade, a peerless thing! It flees the water aptly, it... oh... the man, the beast, one feeds the other! Turn your face, turn your face..."

        Tsurugi's question grits her teeth, though it's impossible to see what her brow's doing. (Furrowing, for the record.) "Blood tracks through the highways of his soul," she assures her, "wound around the branches of his bones. Heaven fills him, and as he exhales is his character brought to the ears of all God's attendants. Pierce him, and his soul escapes through the hole as all that blood diverts to broken dam."

        Which is to say: he's human? He can die?

        That's probably what she said.

        ... maybe it's an answer that will help Moriko, too.

        She looks up, though, at the arrow -- and steps forward, to place a hand on Tsurugi's arm. "That man," she points, to the shadows, where she's sensed him. "He has sworn to protect me and mine. Pray, do him no harm."

        And yet... there is a robot, here...? Perhaps Aigis will feel Yumi's literally-burning stare on her, though her face is still very veiled.

        "Gretchen," Yumi cries, as she straightens, "grant them endurance of the psyche!" Thusly will Shiryuu, Hyousuke, Tsurugi and Yumi enjoy something people see from her /less/...

        ... /enhancements/ rather than her endless stream of ailments.

AS: Persona! Yua Ijuuin has used the Recovery skill Rousing Wave on Shiryuu Ryouhara, Remi Ryuuja, Yua Ijuuin, and Hyousuke Suzuki!
AS: Yua Ijuuin's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Yua Ijuuin takes 0 Recovery healing from Yua Ijuuin's Rousing Wave.
AS: Atk_Up added!
AS: Take! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 0 Recovery healing from Yua Ijuuin's Rousing Wave.
AS: Atk_Up added!
AS: Take! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 0 Recovery healing from Yua Ijuuin's Rousing Wave.
AS: Def_Up added!


<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.

Tsurugi spares a glance for Hyousuke as he recognizes Yumi. "Choose your priorities carefully. You can ill afford a battle on two fronts."

But her arm is gripped, and Tsurugi allows this from her and surely not many others--as she listens to the warnings. Strengths and weaknesses... And the answer to /her/ question is given, as well. Cryptic though it may be, Tsurugi listens to it all... and then gives a nod and simple, "Acknowledged. I will only target the body."

She's had three and a half years to learn how to speak Yumi, after all.

But the last warning... There is the barest hint of a scowl in her voice but then she nods. "Understood." She will accept the gift of an enhancement, as well, feeling the stgrenght flow through her. Yumi gets a short nod as she takes off.

But soon the battle is engaged, and Tsurugi and La Maupin work effectively--but the beast is a strange, unique thing that Tsurugi hasn't fought before, and she is struck by frigid cyan paint and momentarily stuck. She shivers, once, barely perceptible underneath the black suit. She smashes her rapier at the ice to free herself, but her movements are still stiff.

But given Yumi's warning, she pauses, removing something from a small pouch on her hip. "Loading Makouha skill cartridge," she announces, slipping something into one of the chambers of her Evoker. She raises it to her head and fires.

La Maupin surges in intensity, and as they raise their rapier, arrows of light are summoned to spear into the body of Self-Criticism, avoiding the man as best as possible.

AS: Persona! Remi Ryuuja has used the Light skill Makouha on Self-Criticism!
AS: Remi Ryuuja's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Worst! Self-Criticism takes 101 Light damage from Remi Ryuuja's Makouha. Weak!
AS: Haze added!



<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.

"You're welcome, Aigis-san." Fuuka had replied. Seeing that confidence and resolve in her eyes helps, at least... She'll have to borrow some of that for herself, when right now she feels like jumping at every shadow. (But not every Shadow - /those/, at least, she feels she can handle.)

---

Yumi assures her that they don't demand her blood this night. Fuuka nods.

The wording is... worrying, but she feels as if she can trust the /spirit/ behind the words, at least for now. One thing at a time.

...One giant, monstrous thing.

Hyousuke and Moriko ask her what it is, and Aigis defers to her.

"...I don't know. It feels like a Shadow, but... something else, too. Like so many things mixed together into a roiling mass, I..." Fuuka starts and trails off, unsure. She /should/ be able to get a better reading of it... but is it that doubt that creeps into her heart as she peers deeper, that prevents her from claiming anything definitively? She finds herself second-guessing herself...

She draws in a deep breath, shutting her eyes again. It's at this that Aigis calls upon her Persona. Fuuka feels Palladion's strength and protection wash over her. It helps, at least a little.

"Thank you, Aigis-san." Fuuka replies. She turns her attention to the man, then, as he turns his attention onto them. Now that he's addressing them directly... Fuuka's eyes open wide, and she gasps in recognition.

"Wait... aren't you... Dimitri Tachovsky-san? We heard you went missing - we talked about it in Art Club..." Fuuka asks. "You have to stop this!"

...They might have to stop it themselves, though. Yumi says that the creature fears the light - and so, Lucia forms a dagger of light in mid-air in front of her.

"Aigis-san, I'll try to create an opening!" Fuuka calls - and then Lucia hurls the Kouha dagger toward the creature known as Self-Criticism.

AS: Persona! Fuuka Yamagishi has used the Light skill Kouha on Self-Criticism!
AS: Fuuka Yamagishi's turn has ended.
AS: Fuuka Yamagishi spends Limit on Shift! Aigis can use another Weak skill this round! They both receive 8 SP and 30 HP!
AS: Avoid Worst! Self-Criticism takes 183 Light damage from Fuuka Yamagishi's Kouha. Critical Hit! Weak!


<Pose Tracker> Aigis has posed.

        For a time, Aigis stares back at Yumi, only able to comprehend her auspices at the literal level, and nothing more past that. For once, she is at a loss for words, herself. "Uhhh ..." The words only escape her by rote, this time, and not by truth. "I -- do not have blood, myself, neither tonight nor any other time."

        The fact that Tsurugi has an Evoker doesn't escape the notice of Aigis. It isn't just Strega, then.

        Aigis regards Fuuka curiously as she describes it more plainly. "Is the 'something else' the human within the dome?" (No, Aigis, it is not.) "You are welcome."

        For her inattentiveness, Aigis is soon met with a hard strike from one of the Shadow's tendrils. She tries to bring up her wrists to block it, but she is too slow -- she staggers back as she is struck in the torso, already undoing some of the repairs she had undergone just that morning. What's worse is the erosion which seems to be degrading her systems even further.

        She must plan her actions carefully. She has no desire to harm the domed human.

        "Acknowledged!" Fuuka's opening gives Aigis enough precious seconds to will Palladion's cannon to point an array of lasers which search and probe for vulnerable spots on the Shadow. Red dots first scatter, then converge.

        "Target painted," she calmly announces. "-- Again, that is." (The Chairman would likely be proud of her joke.)

        Then, Aigis steadies her wrist with a hand and points her index finger in the direction of Self-Criticism. She takes aim at the base of one of its tentacles, then fires a single shot where Palladion's sights have determined it will inflict maximum damage.

AS: Persona! Aigis has used the Almighty skill Pierce Break on Self-Criticism!
AS: Pressure: Aigis gains 1 Limit!
AS: Weapon! Aigis has used the Pierce skill Precision Shot on Self-Criticism!
AS: Aigis: Loses 8 SP and TP from Sick! Fast Heal! Sick removed!
AS: Aigis regains 3 SP from Invigorate!
AS: Aigis's turn has ended.


<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.

        While some of Umie's senses are more developed, people like Fuuka (and Yua, though Umie doesn't realize it) are grades above hers. While her persona's masking abilities can be easily pierced with the right knowledge, previous experience, familiarity, or Navigator ability, Umie hoists the whole of it off with a simple sentence for Aigis: ".... thank you for your help, the other day." After that, it's just a mask, should Aigis put two and two together.

        But now is the time for Umie to put her weight behind her promise to be careful. Even if something inside her wants to scramble away and <hide> in fear the longer she stares at it, she leans on her anger as a shield instead.

        However, if there's ever an easier way to get Umie to calm down, though, it's the presense of someone much more angry that Umie perceives as being younger than her.

        She can't turn that instinct off. "First off: breathe, will you?" Umie says to Hyousuke, with a more gentle tone, over her shoulder. "Second, did you just run up all those steps by your lonesome?" Her eyebrows rise, almost cresting above the top of her mask. "Holy cow, that's impressive." Pointing to Tsurugi and Yumi, Umie continues, "Third: I don't like those two either, but Bride-san's correct. I'll go one step further and say they're not in league with the Old Maid. Or, well, Joker Killer. Lastly: we'll figure it out."

        Well, she will, but she's keeping her observations to herself, for now.

        The disturbing taint that infects the artist(?) is undoubtedly the Mark, or something meant to resemble it at the very least. Perhaps a cognitive 'tell' of the Persona's reflection of the person, or however Sudou factors into this. That look to her and Yumi, also, is not missed: he can sense it on them.

        This is bad.... but in what way? "Yamagishi-san, don't look too far into it." Concern coats her words briefly; she lets her hand show just a little more, if not literally. "That's not a normal Persona; protect your senses."

        The release of an arrow draws Umie's attention back towards Shiryuu. Brown eyes briefly widen behind the starry mask, but she's not given much time to react.

        Aigis's defense comes in handy, as the creature (Persona?) attacks. Something in the black splatter of blood and the lashing of those tentacles twists something like a knife in Umie's belly.

        Fear, like an ephemeral spring blossom, blooms on the lower half of Umie's face just before the tentacle hits, tossing her back like a cloth doll.

        Her body rolling to a stop, Umie slowly hefts herself onto the palms of her hands, taking a breath before lifting herself the rest of the way. Yumi's well-meaning words make the sting that much more; she may be the only other person in this room who could understand, possibly, and Umie _hates_ it.

        ".... Keep your wishes to yourself. ... I'm just getting *started*..."

        She'll burn a hole in that *thing* and then it'll *feel* what she has to give it. "Badb!" Umie yells, summoning the crow goddess again, and directing it towards the creature. "_Break it open_."

        The first part, if it hits, will not produce anything but a dark crack over the being, while the second, if it hits, will insert what's to come: a dark shard that will tick down to an inevitable fate.
 
AS: Umie Akabane spends Limit on Exploit! Umie Akabane can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Almighty skill Dark Break on Self-Criticism!
AS: Ruin: Umie Akabane gains 1 Limit!
AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Dark skill Bad Moon Rising on Self-Criticism!
AS: Umie Akabane takes 45 damage from Stress!
AS: Umie Akabane: Loses 8 SP and TP from Sick!
AS: Umie Akabane regains 3 SP from Invigorate!
AS: Umie Akabane's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Self-Criticism takes 0 Almighty damage from Aigis's Pierce Break.
AS: Pierce_Break added!
AS: Block Worst! Self-Criticism takes 89 Pierce damage from Aigis's Precision Shot.
AS: Take! Self-Criticism takes 0 Almighty damage from Umie Akabane's Dark Break.
AS: Dark_Break added!
AS: Take! Self-Criticism takes 0 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Bad Moon Rising. Resist!
AS: Omen added!


<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
 
        "Ugh.." He dusts himself off.

        A second earlier, Shiryuu landed on the ground. Hard. It turns out shooting Shadows from the cover of darkness is a great way to hit your mark, but a poor way to avoid notice. He draws attention to himself as he stands, as he takes up the black-bladed sword in hand, as the domed beast rolls in search of ... retreat?

        Moments earlier than that, Shiryuu from his crow's nest spied a _very_ loud student threatening the Bride, right before running a soldier-class Persona right into the beast to put a sword into it. He knows something personal when he hears it. This, plus the landing of familiar Palladion earns a more severe expression from the onmitsu. He makes a sound with his mouth, sucking the back of his teeth in annoyance. "Come on..."

        Things are already bad enough, with the grody stench of annoyingly polite Kirijo technology all over the place. Don't let some dumb kid throw his life away trying to fight someone underneath his protective order...

        She gets his attention for one split second, the onmitsu's eyes snapping up, his focus sharpened past the artist and his lashing beast to the brutal wash of ink and hydrostatic squirming muscle it unleashed. Akabane disappears beneath a wall of flesh. For a moment, Shiryuu was legitimately distracted.

        That was exactly when a tentacle slammed into the space between the boards of his bridge, and scattered it to splinters before smashing him into the ground.

        "Guh..." a hand slides over to the hilt of his sword, using the guard as a brace to put a sneaker under him, to stand up and right himself, as the beast puts some distance between them.

        "Wh..where's..." He's vaguely aware of the artist's chatter up in that dome, muffled by the ring in his ears, along with the Bride explaining exactly what's going on in words he absolutely cannot decipher after taking what must have been a hundred pounds of cold wet flesh to the head. In fact, all he can focus on is the throbbing beat of rhythm in his ears. Somewhere in the monster, a part of his arrow is still in there.

        He's really only aware of the peace that stills his sword, calms his breathing, focuses him. He may not in fact be aware of its real source. He can hear Akabane in the distance. Hear the Bride. He can't hear what they say, not this far, not with a raving artist between them. It's going to be..

        Focus, Shiryuu. The tentacles right now are the problem. Right?

        The boy tests his ball of his shoes against the ground for traction. How many are there? One tap of the toe. Two. His eye begins to shine blue. Then he lifts his sword, and splits the beat.

        Shiryuu moves like the wind, aiming a path between the black, between the curtains of fire, against the waves of paint. He's only visible for split seconds, for the ink flash of steel, moving in dead silence. The onmitsu is aiming to slash every one of those tentacles. In the same breath.

        One way or another, he's going to hit the ground running, somewhere between the SEES group and the Order group, kicking up twin plumes of dust off of his sneakers in a -much- louder landing.

AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara spends Limit on Psych!
AS: Weapon! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Slash skill Mugen Setsuna: Lightning Reaper War on Self-Criticism! 3 Hits!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 45 damage from Stress!
AS: Aggression: Shiryuu Ryouhara gains 1 Limit!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara: Psych removed!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara's turn has ended.
AS: Block Neutral! Self-Criticism takes 81 Slash damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Mugen Setsuna: Lightning Reaper War. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Neutral! Self-Criticism takes 66 Slash damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Mugen Setsuna: Lightning Reaper War.
AS: Block Worst! Self-Criticism takes 94 Slash damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Mugen Setsuna: Lightning Reaper War.


<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.

The flailing appendage struck down against Hyousuke, but to little avail. Achilles caught the thing upon his shield, and though Hyousuke took a glancing blow from it, the damage was hardly worth remarking on. The bronze-wreathed general threw the tentacle aside and stood guard once more, giving Hyousuke some scant few moments to address the people fighting with him. It was a dangerous thing, to chat in the middle of a battle, but there were faces familiar, helpful, and both surrounding him - to let them go unaddressed would likely cause more problems than it solved.

The Bride was the first to be addressed, as was her companion. Scorn was writ on his face, and though it was obscured, bile singed his tongue whenever he spoke to them. It was not hard to gauge his feelings on the pair.
"...I'm gonna get answers from *both of you.*" He spoke no threat, but his tone was the furthest from cordial as one could possibly get. He'd only held back his rage against the both of them because of the *thing* that threatened to tear apart all gathered in Tartarus. "But we've got bigger problems right now." He felt the Bride's fortifying magic sink into his skin, but the most he offered by way of gratitude was a cut nod of acknowledgement. He did not trust her - he only trusted that they were both targets of that flailing monstrosity.

Umie's - another person he did not recognize - mix of admonishment and praise (what he believed to be praise, at least) had Hyousuke wondering what exactly he was supposed to offer for a response, but eventually, he settled upon a dissatisfied grunt. He had no love for the Bride, and less so for Remi. But Umie made a good point, and he didn't have time to mull over the finer points of it.
"One, I'm breathing plenty fine! Let's just focus on making sure that thing *don't!" It was less of a rebuttal, more of an affirmation. They were both there to kick squid ass (tentacle?), regardless of their present company. "Two, it ain't that far!" He had Muto-sensei as his martial arts instructor. Stairs were *far* from the worst thing he'd had to build cardio and leg strength on. "Three... fine. But I don't like it. We'll figure out what *they're* doing here later."

As if his dislike of them had not been immediately obvious.

Then his attention turned to Moriko, and his manner grew markedly less hostile. Instead, it turned back to alert and on edge, dialed up just a little more than it had been before. The obvious causes were that something still wanted to kill them, and he did not trust that the Bride nor Remi were there purely to put the thing out of everyone's collective misery. But he'd never seen Moriko on the field of battle before. Her presence alone had been a shock, and her Persona even more so. The Evoker, not so much - that, at the very least, he knew was not a real firearm.

Hyousuke shook off his shock and pushed it aside. Like so many other things in his life, he resolved to address it later - though that time, he actually meant it. For the time being, however, the betentacled beast had to take priority.
"Kit-san! Good to have you!" The greeting was a little strained, but no less genuine for it. The fact that he'd used his nickname for her went ignored as his focus shifted to other matters, though. "These your friends?" Dense though he was, Hyousuke at least managed to gather that much. At the very least, they seemed to be allies.

He spared a moment to look over Aigis, entirely unsure of what to make of her. She was a robot. Humanoid, of that there could be no doubt. If the more obvious signs were covered up - by, say, a school uniform - he supposed there'd be no way of knowing without studying her mannerisms. But her nature as an artificial being was immediately obvious, and he could do nothing but stare from behind that visor. He was glad of it, for even he was unsure of what kind of expression he'd made upon realizing what she was, and had no intention of cluing her in on it.
"Understood!" Hyousuke barked, his head snapping towards Fuuka after acknowledging Aigis' deference.

Hyousuke listened intently to her explanation. His eyes honed in on the dome and the Shadow - or what appeared to be one, at least - but his ears were very much on her.
"Doesn't matter what that thing is..." He growled, while willing Achilles to ready for another attack. "...It's bleeding. That means we can cut it open, and get that guy out of there." He didn't bother to try and pronounce the man's full name. Even part of it seemed quite daunting for someone that barely managed to speak their mother tongue. "And maybe they we can get some goddamn answers about why it feels like the fucking Joker Killer's here!"

A loud, guttural, cry ripped itself from Hyousuke's throat.
"Achilles! Now!" He shouted, and bronze streaked forward in response. He lunged in with his spear, striking forward as precise as a surgeon's scalpel, yet with strength befitting a legendary warrior.

AS: Persona! Hyousuke Suzuki has used the Pierce skill Pelian Spear Strike on Self-Criticism!
AS: Pressure: Hyousuke Suzuki gains 1 Limit!
AS: Hyousuke Suzuki regains 15 HP from Regenerate!
AS: Hyousuke Suzuki's turn has ended.
AS: Block Best! Self-Criticism takes 33 Pierce damage from Hyousuke Suzuki's Pelian Spear Strike. Critical Hit!


<Pose Tracker> Moriko Kumamoto has posed.

Moriko's got a serious look on her face! Deep in thought as she listens to Yua, focused away briefly from the monster. It's interrupted though, turning her head to Hyousuke.
 
 "The hell are you doing here?" Completely baffled for a moment.
 
 Fuuka is trying to explain things too though, the same vein as Yua. "An amalgam? Or is it something else?" Maybe a facade? She's not sure, the descriptions make sense. And you know, don't. She did get the hint from Yua though.
 
 Aigis's maybe joke is given a look. "Not you too."
 
 Back to Hyousuke though, and you know. The others. Briefly. Then back again, "I've missed a step." She mutters. Then shakes her head and hefts the Evoker again, "Yeah." Gesturing back with her free hand, "They are." A hint of a smile there. Even if it probably isn't the friendliest of them. "Introductions later?" She's not sure if they've all met or not. She glances back at that, like she's seeing if they agree before her brain catches up and she calls out, "Persona!" The fox appearing long enough to appear behind her before lunging forward and fading away while trailing motes of light that jitter and streak towards the creature.
 
 "Even here?" She asks after, regarding the nickname. She doesn't sound upset though! "Just- stay safe." That's to everyone. She's definitely trying to mentally catch up!

AS: Persona! Moriko Kumamoto has used the Light skill Kouha on Self-Criticism!
AS: Moriko Kumamoto's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Best! Self-Criticism takes 63 Light damage from Moriko Kumamoto's Kouha. Weak!


<Pose Tracker> Self-Criticism has posed.

        The creature's weakness is revealed and the light shines in. Whether that is a dagger of light, or arrows of light, or even motes summoned by a fox. Either way the creature tries to run from the light. It is an animalistic representation after all and tries to move away from that which it hates. Still that doesn't mean he runs from it all. Swords and spears take the pound of flesh, bullets dig deeper than intended. Then of course there is an omen of what to come but what does a tentacle monster have to say about an omen.

        Dimitri shouts, "Go, the paper man says he will mark all. Go get your mark , lay your eyes upon my art and get your mark. Coming soon to an art show near you!" Another moment of hysterical laughter as the artist goes back to what he is doing before twitching and laughing. "Need more colors, need more colors that clash. " This is said as he stomps his foot

        The creature seems to respond to the request for the paint as more tentacles come from it's body. A tentacle for each person, dripping with the paint like eat and then in a flurry of tentacles they lash out, paint like ink flying of variety for color.

         Black ink, with the very darkness decaying what it touches trying to stain Umie. A white paint whipped toward Shiryuu shining brightly. Hyousuke has bright red paint slashed at him as it burst into flames. Fuuka gets a dark blue, that has consistently water, and perhaps that is all it really that paint is highly pressurized and can easily hurt.

        The tentacles don't stop either, a lighter blue towards Aigis freezing whatever it touches on impact. To the brides companion the green ink carries with it a strong wind. The Bride herself would find the yellow ink, shocking to say the least. As for Moriko the brown ink is thick and hard, as if a rock itself.
 
AS: Persona! Self-Criticism has used the Dark skill Black Paint on Umie Akabane!
AS: Ruin: Self-Criticism gains 1 Limit!
AS: Persona! Self-Criticism has used the Light skill White Paint on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Persona! Self-Criticism has used the Fire skill Red Paint on Hyousuke Suzuki!
AS: Persona! Self-Criticism has used the Water skill Blue Paint on Fuuka Yamagishi!
AS: Persona! Self-Criticism has used the Water skill Cyan Paint on Aigis!
AS: Persona! Self-Criticism has used the Wind skill Green Paint on Remi Ryuuja!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Umie Akabane takes 38 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Black Paint. Resist!
AS: Blast added!
AS: Persona! Self-Criticism has used the Elec skill Yellow Paint on Yua Ijuuin!
AS: Block Best! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 22 Water damage from Self-Criticism's Blue Paint.
AS: Paralyze added!
AS: Persona! Self-Criticism has used the Earth skill Brown Paint on Moriko Kumamoto!
AS: Self-Criticism's turn has ended.
AS: Block Worst! Aigis takes 77 Water damage from Self-Criticism's Cyan Paint. Critical Hit!
AS: Bind added!
AS: Avoid Best! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 18 Light damage from Self-Criticism's White Paint. Critical Hit!
AS: Nerve Up! Yua Ijuuin's SP +8!
AS: Block Worst! Yua Ijuuin takes 73 Elec damage from Self-Criticism's Yellow Paint. Critical Hit!
AS: Paralyze added!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 70 Fire damage from Self-Criticism's Red Paint. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Remi Ryuuja takes 85 Wind damage from Self-Criticism's Green Paint. Critical Hit!
AS: Haze added! Bind removed! Explosion! 75 damage!


<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.

        It's best when Yumi has a translator on hand. She can get quite... difficult to understand, on her own. And /particularly/ now -- after the attacks of this beast. She's worse than she could be.

        She should warn Fuuka against taking this thing into herself, shouldn't she...? And yet -- the Joker Killer has crafted it to a purpose, and how is she to /observe/ that purpose if she does not let it run its course? She does not call out; she does not ward her away. Neither, though, does she speak against Umie when /she/ warns Fuuka away instead; rather, this, too, she notes inside herself.

        They can tell...

        (Neither does she speak against Umie when she speaks in /support/ of them.)

        Aigis insists she does not have blood, though, and Yumi turns to her again. "You," she says, "are a mechanical girl, are you not? Be this as it may, the man thus encircled is not, and his blood lies at issue."

        But Umie denies her, and the Bride lifts her free palm, in a vague gesture. "As you will." She will not aid her; she can offer her this much succour.

        She is... concerned, for Shiryuu, as she sees him. "The wyrd takes you as surely," is how she puts it; perhaps her /tone/ will have to carry her concern. "Pray, find the centre of the spiral and seek its balance!"

        Is she in any fit state to /give/ answers to Hyousuke, right now...? Perhaps her strangeness is its own honesty; he is right to mistrust her, even if she isn't hurting him right /now./ "The feeling, the feeling -- how strong the feeling! To spread, to embrace? What heresy this?" This, too, she speaks with curiosity.

        But introductions! Introductions! She recognises this wish of Moriko's, at least. "I am called Yumi, the Doomed Bride, and to you I am no ally. Yet to this beast I lay curiosity at its feet, and where it steps finds itself a carpet of sorrows. To its ends I will see, and so much do I see..."

        More tentacles emerge, and the Bride cries: "Beware!", as she takes a graceful step back, another -- back against Gretchen's voluminous skirts. Her Persona closes her arms around her, locking her in the jail of her arms, just in time for that tentacle to lash yellow ink towards her. They splatter against Gretchen's cell bars; her dress flutters, behind her, with the force of it, and Yumi stumbles backwards.

        "L--... loading Kouha cartridge," she takes a breath, as she takes her revolver-type Evoker and draws something /like/ a bullet from the pouch on her combat vest, loading it into the Evoker and snapping it shut. She takes aim at her eye, again, and fires.

        Holy light reflects in Gretchen's jewels, as a ray of light shines down onto the tentacles of the beast.

        "Tsurugi," she calls, "let us see how it handles a ferocious assault!"

        Yumi's believing in her... there's power in that, too.

AS: Persona! Yua Ijuuin has used the Light skill Kouha on Self-Criticism!
AS: Ruin: Yua Ijuuin gains 1 Limit!
AS: Yua Ijuuin: Haze removed!
AS: Yua Ijuuin's turn has ended.
AS: Yua Ijuuin spends Limit on Shift! Remi Ryuuja can use another Weak skill this round!


<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.

"No, it's... Hard to describe." Fuuka replies to Aigis, with a shake of her head. She wants to peer deeper, to try and see it, to /understand/ it... but Umie warns her not to look too far into it. Fuuka hesitates - but nods. She can hear the concern in her words - does she know something about this...? Seeing and understanding is her specialty... but there are some things that shouldn't be seen. "...Alright."

Aigis acknowledges her, and announces - wait, did she make a joke?? That was actually a good one... Fuuka has to try and suppress a small laugh.

"I'm not sure..." Fuuka admits to Moriko.

Her attention turns back to Self-Criticism - and Dimitri, within it. An art show...? Does he want to unleash this on people, or... is he just in his own world right now?

"Tachovsky-san, you can't... People will get hurt." Fuuka warns.

The creature unleashes a spray of highly-pressurized blue paint. Fuuka braces herself as it sprays across Lucia's barrier, feeling the impact through it.

"This creature is dangerous... it seems like it can use its paint to attack with a wide variety of elements. Be careful, everyone!" Fuuka warns.

She assesses everyone, then, taking inventory of how everyone is faring.

"Lucia, ease our wounds..." Fuuka requests. With a gesture, Lucia emits healing light, a rejuvenating wave washing over the others to undo harm.

"Kumamoto-san, I think that was effective. There's an opening - see if you can take advantage of it!" Fuuka advises to Moriko.

AS: Persona! Fuuka Yamagishi has used the Recovery skill Healing Wave on Remi Ryuuja, Aigis, Umie Akabane, and Hyousuke Suzuki!
AS: Insight: Fuuka Yamagishi gains 1 Limit!
AS: Fuuka Yamagishi: Haze removed!
AS: Fuuka Yamagishi's turn has ended.
AS: Fuuka Yamagishi spends Limit on Shift! Moriko Kumamoto can use another Weak skill this round! They both receive 8 SP and 30 HP!
AS: Take! Aigis takes 0 Recovery healing from Fuuka Yamagishi's Healing Wave.
AS: Regen added!
AS: Avoid Best! Self-Criticism takes 93 Light damage from Yua Ijuuin's Kouha. Critical Hit! Weak!
AS: Take! Remi Ryuuja takes 0 Recovery healing from Fuuka Yamagishi's Healing Wave.
AS: Regen added!
AS: Take! Umie Akabane takes 0 Recovery healing from Fuuka Yamagishi's Healing Wave.
AS: Regen added!
AS: Take! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 0 Recovery healing from Fuuka Yamagishi's Healing Wave.
AS: Regen added!


<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.

As Aigis notices Tsurugi's Evoker... so too does Tsurugi notice Aigis' fingergun. Curious... but not a matter she can worry about at this moment.

Umie takes that step further, and Tsurugi lets that matter stand--Yumi already made the point, after all: if they were in league with the Joker Killer, they would be defending this monstrosity.

Hyousuke says he will demands answers from Yumi. There is a sharp glance in his direction. Yumi doesn't speak, but Tsurugi does. "You will not receive them," she says sharply.

If Tsurugi has any reaction to the trapped artist calling for people to get their marks, she does not speak it aloud. She sends a private thought her way: /We cannot permit this thing to spread./

But the tentacle comes, and with it paint and wind--Tsurugi brings her blade up to slice through the paint, but the magic of the wind interacts with the lingering ice, and she is blasted back to slam against the wall. She lets out a quiet grunt but then sumps forward, catching herself with a foot.

She breathes hard for a moment, but it doesn't seem like that really /hurt/ all that much. It doesn't take her long to straighten up.

Yua sees fit to offer an introduction, at Moriko's request. Moriko and Tsurugi fought in that accursed warehouse, but whether Tsurugi gave her name or not... but for the benefit of the others she says, "I am Tsurugi." There is no title given.

She is a sword--a weapon. There is nothing else to be said.

Yumi believes in her though, and Tsurugi nods to her.

Fuuka offers support with a healing wave, and Tsurugi nods to her as well. "Thank you, Navigator."

Tsurugi just holds an open hand out, a silent signal to La Maupin, who gestures with her swrood to bring a fierce, cutting gale of wind forth for the creature. A moment later winds erupt from Tsurugi's feet and wrap up around her, and her movemetns seem to quicken.

AS: Persona! Remi Ryuuja has used the Wind skill Garula on Self-Criticism!
AS: Persona! Remi Ryuuja has used the Almighty skill Sukukaja on Remi Ryuuja!
AS: Remi Ryuuja: Gains 67 HP from Regen!
AS: Remi Ryuuja's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Remi Ryuuja takes 0 Almighty damage from Remi Ryuuja's Sukukaja.
AS: Spd_Up added!
AS: Block Neutral! Self-Criticism takes 80 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Garula.
AS: Haze added!


<Pose Tracker> Aigis has posed.

        In reply to Umie's expressed thanks, Aigis briefly tilts her head in confusion, but nods at her, not wanting to seem impolite. "If you are the same person from before merely under a different mask today, you are welcome." Her expression falls slightly. "Your assailant on that night was among those who attacked the dormitory."

        "That is correct," Aigis replies to Yumi. She briefly flits her gaze to the Shadow before returning it to the bride, then adds, "Thank you for the clarification." She has enough trouble understanding everyday people, let alone this unusual manner of speech.

        The commentary between various people about this Shadow not being a 'normal Persona' does not seem to cause any reaction in Aigis. In her perception, there is no contradiction: eliminating the creature is an action which aligns with her mission.

        Aigis tilts her head curiously at Moriko, as if she's unaware that what she had said was a joke. "I had simply meant to disambiguate ... 'painting' has multiple relevant definitions." And yet, why does her behavioral programming reward such diction?

        Just as soon as her self-repair systems halt the advance of the corrosion eating away at her circuitry, light-blue paint hits the ground near her and saps the area of heat. Frost crawls up her legs, limiting her mobility. "Maneuvering is hindered. Still operating within acceptable parameters."

        "Thank you, Yamagishi-san," Aigis says as Lucia fulfills Fuuka's request.

        Babd cracks open the Shadow. Aigis spots an opportunity, a time to strike when it's most vulnerable.

        Just as Remi is a weapon, so too is Aigis, implements wielded by others. This, they have in common. Soon, that nature is put into harsh focus, and the sheer destructive purpose of the craftsmanship which shaped Aigis is made clearly apparent: Two more extended rods emerge from hidden compartments installed in Palladion, and two more sizable guns spring out of Aigis' elbow and the back of her shoulder.

        Aigis calmly announces, "Removing limiters. Output set to maximum." Soon after, a high-pitched keening sound fills the air as Aigis and Palladion charge their shots. "All weapons -- fire!"

        With an array of weaponry just as colorful and varied as the swatches on Dimitri's palette, Aigis and Palladion unload all they've got at the Shadow.

AS: Aigis spends Limit on Exploit! Aigis can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Aigis spends Limit on Psych!
AS: Persona! Aigis has used the Almighty skill Rebellion on Aigis!
AS: Pressure: Aigis gains 1 Limit!
AS: Take! Aigis takes 0 Almighty damage from Aigis's Rebellion.
AS: Crt_Up added!
AS: Tandem! Aigis has used the Pierce skill Six Shot on Self-Criticism! 3 Hits!
AS: Aigis: Gains 72 HP from Regen! Fast Heal! Psych removed!
AS: Aigis regains 3 SP from Invigorate!
AS: Aigis's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Self-Criticism takes 93 Pierce damage from Aigis's Six Shot.
AS: Avoid Worst! Self-Criticism takes 175 Pierce damage from Aigis's Six Shot. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Self-Criticism takes 93 Pierce damage from Aigis's Six Shot.


<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.

        'And maybe they we can get some goddamn answers about why it feels like the fucking Joker Killer's here!'
        
        Umie's face betrays nothing, but it's that blankness that may offer an answer to those who wonder what her connection is: that strict neutrality, like a wall thrust up to hide whatever may be going beyond it.

        Inside, she's grimacing. It's true: there's something inside her that would activate the anger of people like Hyousuke, and rightfully so. The sins of the Joker Killer are his own, but whatever flavor of chaos lurks within the Mark is in all of those who bear the same curse. Perhaps, people like Sudou and this man are one possibility of those who embrace the potential power it brings.

        She embraced another part of it, again and again, with her loneliness, breaking and then coming back.

        Darkness comes, black like the black paint she used this morning, in order to punch up the subtle vivid blue of the ultramarine blue. Black cannot be used to truly darken a color without sacrificing saturation in turn. Just as red will overwhelm another color with itself.

        They are both tools to use, and the different dark in Umie's soul resists the like of the dark in the Creature's attack, leaving only the burn of something extra wicked within the allegorical pigment being used.

        Her eyes narrow slightly, keeping her emotions held back as she feels Fuuka's healing. ".... Thank you," she murmurs, under her breath.

        They'll all resolve this, and she'll take her answers with her, working towards the cause of solving the question of the Mark.

        In fact, if there's a way to do it, she'll handle it all herself. She doesn't *need* anyone to come help her. It's easier to do things this way.

        She sprints past Shiryuu, the back of her jacket brushing by him, the blade of her weapon ready to slash.

        (... but is it really.... something she wants to do alone...?)

        There's a brief glance back towards the shinobi, as the metaphorical mask drops for just a moment.

        WIth her eyes alone, she asks a question.

        'Can you help me?'

AS: Umie Akabane has initiated a fusion spell! The spell still requires 1 Strong attacks, -1 Limit, and Slash! Anyone can join!


<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.

        His momentum bleeds off through the soles of his shoes, warming them from the exertion of punching through the void, but also putting him on the same side as the others here.

        A red tear trails from his eye. It's rubbed away quickly, a breath halted in his chest as some part of him flinches.

        The shihaisha straightens, at first keeping his eyes locked on the tentacled beast. Based on what he can hear from the group around, that silhouette is a person... There's a part of him, clinical, detached, that wonders exactly how hard it would be to pierce that dome and dispatch the person inside.

        His head tilts, as the Doomed Bride calls out to his attention with ... "...iih?" the boy looks briefly flummoxed and disconcerted, his eyebrows lowering as he reads into her tone. His blue eye twitches, spraying a circuit of surging red lines through white sclera before he clamps the eye shut. Ignoring the hot knife of pain in his skull, he fixes her with a wary, weathered glance, giving her a once-over with his one good eye for any obvious injuries.

        "....Please take care of your body," the shihaisha tells her in no uncertain terms, before -- "!!"

        In the next instant, Shiryuu is cut in half by a beam of pure shimmering white paint, the stream arcing through him. For an instant, that appears to be it for him, before the afterimage flickers out of existence, the boy skidding back further down the hall from the creature as it recovers more tentacles to replace the ones he cut. Instead of cutting him in half, the monster seems intent on turning the entire area into a wet, sticky kaleidoscope of oily pigment.

        His shoes drip, doused in brightly shining titanium white, as he lifts one gingerly. "..." He sighs.

        There is a moment that the bride might notice that Shiryuu is actually paying attention to something else. There is something twisted up tight in him, a knot that can't quite be untied, something that simply wasn't there in prior fights. It's something barely detectable with the long, corvid tilt of the boy's head, off to his opposite side, as his one eyed glance tracks across the battlefield.

        A woman flies past him, snapping his haori about his body, with an uneasy breath sliding from the shinobi. He flips his sword false in his hand.

        "...yeah," he finally agrees.

        He won't be able to use his ninkou for another few minutes. And by then.. it'll be too late. Instead, the onmitsu flips his blade end over end. A low, distinct twirl, churning the mechanical kami behind him to life.

        "...make it history, Sarutahiko Okami."

        While the boy twirls his blade, the puddles of paint on the floor stick to falling motes of black. The battlefield around the tentacled monster flows sharply with a sudden, brisk wind filling the undersides of Akabane's charge. Like a darting breeze, black petals cut from shadow collude to hide the old, ancient wood stabbing beneath her feet. She disappears ... entirely from view, in an uncoming blast of a sheer wall of black sakura.

        Ryouhara's hand raises, his face dispassionate, despite the tiny tremor.
        He will aim her on a path right through, trailed by a hundred cuts.
 
AS: Bid acceptable!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara has joined Umie Akabane's fusion spell! The spell is ready!
AS: Persona! Umie Akabane and Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Slash skill Blade of Legend on Self-Criticism! 2 Hits!
AS: Umie Akabane: Loses 8 SP and TP from Sick! Gains 66 HP from Regen! Sick removed!
AS: Umie Akabane regains 3 SP from Invigorate!
AS: Umie Akabane's turn has ended.
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara: Loses 8 SP and TP from Sick!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara's turn has ended.
AS: Block Worst! Self-Criticism takes 79 Slash damage from Umie Akabane's Blade of Legend.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Self-Criticism takes 108 Slash damage from Umie Akabane's Blade of Legend. Critical Hit!


<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.

The paint surged towards him, a torrent of liquid crimson seeking to splatter him upon the floor. Achilles was too far forward to be recalled and made to guard in time, and Hyousuke himself was too far away to parry or counter in any meaningful way. All he could think to do, in that moment, was dodge. But he was a moment too late, or perhaps a hair too slow. The jet of paint roared into a gout of flame, and Hyousuke cried out in both pain and surprise as it engulfed him in his entirety.

The flames died out quickly, smothered or patted or allowed to peter away. But the damage had been done. Skin and costume both had been singed black in spots, standing as evidence of the attack once the fire had left him. He could feel the pain demanding his attention, but he did not give it that dignity. He had more important matters to attend to. Yet, before he could issue the order to attack, and once more have the general carve his way towards the beast's heart, he noticed his allies out of the corner of his eye.

Moriko got his attention first. Besides her being the only one amongst his allies he actually knew, she'd addressed him directly.
"I'm here for the same reason as you! Probably!" He canted his head towards the writhing mass of paint and tentacles that threatened to lay waste to them all. "To kick squid ass!" Again, he wondered if tentacles would be a more appropriate thing to kick. Did squids even have asses? It was a question for another time. "You can introduce me to 'em later, Kit-san, we've got work to do!"

Yes, even there. He'd expended all one of his brain cells on thinking that nickname, and he refused to let it go.

The bride was not a friend, but she was - for the moment - an ally. Just the thought of it was enough to wrap his stomach in a knot, but the beast had proved to be a stubborn opponent, and having some extra bodies to throw at it didn't seem like a bad idea. For the time being, he could at least give her the courtesy of a vaguely polite response.

"...Got no idea what the hell any of that means." He confessed. It was something to ruminate on later, though he was fairly certain it could be nothing good. If the 'feeling' was anything to do with that ominous presence he sensed from certain individuals, there was no way it could be *good* news. "Save the riddles for someone that's got the patience to figure 'em out." His ire was then levelled at Remi, intensifying just from the memory of the warehouse. It took him a moment to speak, and half of that was him trying to pry his lips and teeth apart while they were stuck in that jaw-clenched snarl. "And you... I *am* gonna have them. Even if I don't get to wring them out of you."

What little politeness he'd managed to scrounge together for them both seemed to have vanished before long. At least he'd tried.

Fuuka's healing wave drew his attention to her after that outburst, and he gave her a firm nod of appreciation before he took time to speak.
"Thanks. Let me return the favour!" Achilles manifested again, but not to strike out, or shield his user. Instead, he called upon the general's leadership - upon his ability to inspire. A rallying cry rang out through the room, suffused with the courage and honour and inspiration to stand against the enemy before them. With the cleansing done, Hyousuke and Achilles both turned to face the monstrous mass that stood against them, and clenched his fists tight.

"As for you..." Hyousuke shot a furious glare to the monster. "I don't know what the hell kind of 'show' you got planned, but I'm cutting it short!" He hadn't the smarts to figure out what it was that the man inside the thing was talking about, nor what any of this had to do with that feeling that choked his very senses, and gnawed at the corners of his mind. But what he had in abundance was aggression, and the unshakable need to claim vengeance. The Joker Killer was not there, however, so his pet Shadow would have to do.

The bronze titan rose, held its shield before him, leveled his spear beside it, and manifested Hyousuke's snarling aggression into empowering energy.

AS: Hyousuke Suzuki spends Limit on Exploit! Hyousuke Suzuki can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Persona! Hyousuke Suzuki has used the Recovery skill Rallying Cry on Fuuka Yamagishi!
AS: Pressure: Hyousuke Suzuki gains 1 Limit!
AS: Take! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 0 Recovery healing from Hyousuke Suzuki's Rallying Cry.
AS: Paralyze removed!
AS: Persona! Hyousuke Suzuki has used the Recovery skill Phalanx on Hyousuke Suzuki, Moriko Kumamoto, and Aigis!
AS: Hyousuke Suzuki: Gains 70 HP from Regen!
AS: Hyousuke Suzuki regains 15 HP from Regenerate!
AS: Hyousuke Suzuki's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 0 Recovery healing from Hyousuke Suzuki's Phalanx.
AS: Atk_Up and Crt_Up added!
AS: Take! Aigis takes 0 Recovery healing from Hyousuke Suzuki's Phalanx.
AS: Atk_Up and Crt_Up added! Bind, Crt_Up, Def_Up, and Regen removed!
AS: Take! Moriko Kumamoto takes 0 Recovery healing from Hyousuke Suzuki's Phalanx.
AS: Atk_Up and Crt_Up added! Def_Up and Paralyze removed!


<Pose Tracker> Moriko Kumamoto has posed.

Moriko looks.. briefly confused when the others react to her comment to Hyousuke and she admits, "I meant uh-" She gestures to the other SEES members. "The people I live with?" She pauses. "I am willing to talk after." That came out a bit awkwardly.
 
 "Except you-" she nods to Yua, "Since you said you're not an ally and all." It's said somewhat jokingly? She's not sure how serious to take it and it's a bit unsettling, all told.
 
 She wants to be nice!
 
 As for the warnings, they went right on past her, mostly. Sort of? She's not looking too far into the critter anyway. That's for later. She tightens her grip on the evoker. "Fear." She suggests. Maybe? Looking back to Fuuka again. "Especially if it was an art show?"
 
 She's getting distracted. She focuses like she's about to start a ride. Shifting her stance, the lash of brown ink streaks out towards her and as she leans away, the fox briefly appears. Protecting her from the worst of it. Streaking past, almost entirely evaded. The ephemeral creature disappears briefly. "Maybe a color wheel would help?" Not, really. In this case. It was a neutral color anyway.
 
 "Got it." She calls back to Fuuka, "Getting a better look." That joke is equally terrible. It's fine.
 
 A hint of a grimace at the memory with Tsurugi. That's also a later problem.
 
 "It's fine it's fine." She waves her hand to Aigis, "I just was reminded of- later. Later later. Humor's a good angle though."
 
 "Do they have one? I thought it was more of an octopus." Hence the joke earlier. It's fine. "Yeah, later." She hooks her thumb back. "Thanks!" She tells him, a little more animated from the help! Probably in more ways than one at least.
 
 Still, this thing's flailing around and being a threat and all and that's a much more important manner. "Otohime!" She calls out, trigger pulled again, eyes watching for movement rather than the creature itself. Ready to try and dodge again.
 
 Her resident fuzzy persona lets out a silent bark, twisting around her briefly before, those lights drifting around both the fox and the squidopus painter flare up, bringing more light to the situation.
 
 "I uh, don't have a tone of tricks." She admits, though she's at least ramping things up!

AS: Persona! Moriko Kumamoto has used the Light skill Hama on Self-Criticism!
AS: Persona! Moriko Kumamoto has used the Light skill Kouha on Self-Criticism!
AS: Moriko Kumamoto's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Best! Self-Criticism takes 129 Light damage from Moriko Kumamoto's Hama. Critical Hit! Weak!
AS: Exhaust added!
AS: Avoid Worst! Self-Criticism takes 167 Light damage from Moriko Kumamoto's Kouha. Critical Hit! Weak!
AS: Haze added!


<Pose Tracker> Self-Criticism has posed.

        The light continues to drive the creature back, trying to back away from the attackers. The light of the Bride burns across it's skin, which puts it in the way of the wind of Tsurugi that chops away a tentacle.

        Moriko's light rains down and burns and scars, the tattoo'd marking running from the light across the body of the squid, reforming in other spots. Briefly though the tattoos had ran just in the right direction to form a bullseye and Aigis hits the mark. The bullets drive deep and the creature cries in pain.

        The black sakura's cut across the body of the creature, carving a large slash across the portrait of The Joker Killer, and just like that as the picture is damaged the presence of the Joker Killer is gone. All that remains is the evil twisted distortion of the shadow creature in front of them. It would appear that somehow that picture had been so powerful, it echo'd the very essence of that which had been captured by the art.

        Dimitri looks and cries at the destruction of one of his portraits, "NO! My art!" With a cry of anger he lashes at the dome beating on it before shaking his head. "Fine, fine, just practice. Not the real one. The real client. The real client will be pleased when people see it. Truly a divine experience. That was a failure, a horrible failure, best destroyed, deserved it." The creature cries out echoing Dimitri's sentiment.

        The creature that represents the monster that all artists must face, the worst art critique they will ever face. The creature's tentacles turn to a dark shadow as they lash out, one set of tentacles chasing down those that felt doubt and those that shot light and wind. What does self-criticism blame one for, for failure of course. As the other tentacles lash out imparting just what it means to experience failure and the pain that goes with it, failure for those that carved across his skin and stabbed him with spears and bullets.

AS: Tandem! Self-Criticism has used the Dark skill Blame! on Moriko Kumamoto, Yua Ijuuin, Fuuka Yamagishi, and Remi Ryuuja!
AS: Self-Criticism takes 90 damage from Exhaust!
AS: Persona! Self-Criticism has used the Almighty skill Failure! on Aigis, Umie Akabane, Shiryuu Ryouhara, and Hyousuke Suzuki!
AS: Self-Criticism: Exhaust, Atk_Dn, Crt_Dn, Def_Dn, Haze, and Omen removed! Omen: 120 damage!
AS: Self-Criticism's turn has ended.
AS: Block Neutral! Aigis takes 83 Almighty damage from Self-Criticism's Failure!.
AS: Block Worst! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 233 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Blame!. Critical Hit! Weak!
AS: Block Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 170 Almighty damage from Self-Criticism's Failure!.
AS: Avoid Best! Umie Akabane takes 56 Almighty damage from Self-Criticism's Failure!.
AS: Block Neutral! Yua Ijuuin takes 86 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Blame!.
AS: Block Best! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 51 Almighty damage from Self-Criticism's Failure!.
AS: Avoid Best! Remi Ryuuja takes 28 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Blame!. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Worst! Moriko Kumamoto takes 223 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Blame!. Critical Hit!


<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.

Tsurugi glances sidelong to Hyousuke. "Take care you do not seek answers you are not yet ready for." She's more riddle-lite than Yumi, at least.

Tsurugi is used to deciphering Yumi's speech, but less so this artist. Still, when the tentacles lash out again, Tsurugi, empowered by her Persona, moves with fleeting motions as she ducks and weves through the lashing strikes.

But she doesn't avoid all of the strikes, and she tenses up as the pain of failure gives her momentary pause.

There is one great failure that consumes her. Four years ago she set out to find a missing friend and help rescue her.

She didn't succeed.

And what's worse, she herself became ensnared as well. And even though Yua and Remi are free to walk the streets... they are not free to live their lives.

Behind her mask, Remi closes her eyes, for just a moment. There is nothing this creature can inflict on her that she hasn't inflicted on herself.

Her eyes snap open. The power of this thing is... concerning. Tsurugi is not /afraid/, because fear is a luxury no longer afforded her. But she does not need fear to act--only to know the consequences, and the certainty with which she takes action. She stands, reaching her blade to the side. Silently, La Maupin reaches their own blade out, and the two of them cross.

"Yumi, I require the power of the firmament," she declares.
 
AS: Remi Ryuuja has initiated a fusion spell! The spell still requires 1 Strong attacks and Earth! Anyone can join!


<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.

        "Sense is an unknown unknown to him, held in madness' embrace," Yumi advises Fuuka, though she's making little sense /herself./ "Yet is it our task to describe the indescribable, for what lies at the heart of Man but the maze which traps his desires? Where a thing is misshaped, describe then the silhouette of it, the character of its occupation in space, the demands it makes of existence." And there's actually good /advice/ for a Navigator, in there, buried beneath the overly-referential, rambling, loose speech: when at a loss for words, an approximate word will do just fine.

        She admires Tsurugi's violence, though. Sword she may be; but she is /sharp./ And she sees the way the passages rhyme, between Tsurugi and Aigis, though her own commonality may well be shrouded beneath her veils and her obsfuscating speech.

        The Mark, the Mark -- a question redoubled and doubled over again. Yumi is as silent as Umie on the why and the wherefor; she has not invoked hers, and sees the energy from the /creature,/ regardless.

        Yumi is well-armoured, and seems physically well -- if mentally /distressed/ -- shadowed by her Persona, as Gretchen stands behind her, ready to shield her at a moment's notice. "Gretchen will ensure I come to no harm," she assures him, "and Tsurugi will ensure I am safe, as well. The fighting, only, it is difficult to me... above us, a floor swarms with strong Shadows, as below do they seep back into the holes the boy left in the halls. The walls seethe, and churn, and shift... are you not driven to distraction, even to think of the shadow stalking the briefcase at the end of this next hall, the way it hides three foes in its amorphous mass?" Fuuka, at least, might recognise something in her rambling: that's a /lot/ of information for someone to get all at once.

        "Forgive me," she says, to Hyousuke, and her tone at least is sincere. "For here I hold the universe in my heart, and this creature's universe is a thing which cannot be seen, an anathema to existence. I am... trying to be heard. Of your answers, in other voices, seek them."

        She nods, to Moriko. "This is so," she confirms, of not being an ally. "Later, we will not speak. We will leave this place, and you will not follow. ... for this your tricks of Light are well, to strike where it fears to be struck."

        But the portrait is slashed by Shiryuu's expert petals -- a thing that woman who hates her so beseeches -- and so the feeling fades. "Ceci n'est pas une pipe!" She exclaims, and her French pronunciation is quite /good,/ actually. "Yet the image of the thing becomes the thing, a copy in a copy in a copy, and this--? For this purpose, the artist was chosen? In his crucible is the thing recreated, but it is not a pipe..."

        She is caught in her fascination -- Shiryuu and Tsurugi may note the way it's /Gretchen/ who closes her arms around her, again, as that tentacle lashes out. "Oh--!!" She exclaims, as she covers her face with her hands; she is a dancer, and knows well the sting of critique.

        "Oh, but he is right... how can I stand here?! My duty to guard! Only -- only, I wished to aid her -- but I cannot do as I please so heedlessly! What if Gretchen grew too angry with me?! What if I poison his blood?! More the fool, I--!"

        She grieves, and grieves, and grieves; and perhaps the only thing that could call her from it was Tsurugi's need, at this Hour.

        "Ah... yes, chthonic force! Gretchen, aid her...!!" Yua calls, as Gretchen sways, the power of the Earth itself gathering around Tsurugi.

        Its strength is crushing.

AS: Yua Ijuuin has joined Remi Ryuuja's fusion spell! The spell is ready!
AS: Yua Ijuuin spends Limit on Shift! Shiryuu Ryouhara can use another Weak skill this round!


<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.

Tsurugi will forever be there to protect Yumi. What is a weapon--or a knight--to do otherwise? (She /does/ note how Gretchen protects Yumi--she is always on her vigil, especially now that her vigil is for /two/...)

Both blades thrum with gravitic energy as the power is lent. They let out a faint, teasing hum as the air around them both seems to ripple gently with the borrowed power. As one, La Maupin and Tsurugi raise both of their blades and then draw them back into a striking position. In tandem they charge forward, spitting apart and then converging.

And it is /here/ she breaks her silence. While their movements are swift and well-practiced, Tsurugi lets out an angry yell as she slams her blade home, the two blades slamming down hard to invoke the weight of the earth's mantle.
AS: Persona! Yua Ijuuin and Remi Ryuuja has used the Earth skill Gravitic Fury on Self-Criticism! 2 Hits!
AS: Yua Ijuuin: Paralyze, Spd_Dn, and Worry removed!
AS: Yua Ijuuin's turn has ended.
AS: Remi Ryuuja: Gains 72 HP from Regen! Atk_Up and Haze removed!
AS: Remi Ryuuja's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Best! Self-Criticism takes 25 Earth damage from Remi Ryuuja's Gravitic Fury.
AS: Avoid Worst! Self-Criticism takes 148 Earth damage from Remi Ryuuja's Gravitic Fury. Critical Hit!
AS: Remi Ryuuja spends Limit on Shift! Hyousuke Suzuki can use another Weak skill this round!


<Pose Tracker> Aigis has posed.

        /Reminded of what?/ Aigis almost asks Moriko, but given that she says 'later,' she acquiesces. "I will bear this in mind for the future."

        Just as she felt Palladion's boons begin to wane, Hyousuke renews them via Achilles. "Thank you, um ... I do not believe I have your name." Oddly, Palladion briefly dips its cannon lower as if to nod to express its own appreciation.

        Shiryuu's shoes have fallen. Shoeryuu ... past that, Aigis beholds the cooperation between the pair of Shiryuu and Umie. She did recently speak about how she felt that while she is accustomed to solo missions, Palladion was truly meant to aid others, and new possibilities begin to form in her mind. Likewise, for Yumi and Tsurugi.

        Aigis' eyes widen with concern when she sees Fuuka badly hurt by one of the tentacles. "Yamagishi-san!" She rushes in to try and intercede against further attacks aimed in Fuuka's direction, which another tendril is all too happy to oblige.

        Mission failure.

        The two words which Aigis most dreads. It's a stinging sensation which she knows all too well. If it hadn't been for her failure, then ... maybe none of them would be in this mess.

        She had the opportunity to avert /so much/ devastation, and she blew it. Everything. /Everything!/ The sheer magnitude of the consequences is /unthinkable/, and it falls squarely on her shoulders! And here, she is made keenly aware of it once more as this Shadow has brought it back to the forefront of her consciousness.

        It isn't the physical strike which brings Aigis to her knees, but the bitter aftertaste left by it. She reels and holds one hand to her temple.

        One eye of hers snaps open. Her past mistake makes it all the more vital that she succeeds /this/ time around. It goes this far, but no further. She will push through -- she must.

        It is her only way to atone.

        Through one eye still shut with pain and through grit teeth, she tries to aim her hand towards the Self-Criticism. More feebly this time, she and Palladion open fire.
 
AS: Tandem! Aigis has used the Pierce skill Dual Thrust on Self-Criticism! 2 Hits!
AS: Pressure: Aigis gains 1 Limit!
AS: Aigis: Gains 70 HP from Regen!
AS: Aigis regains 3 SP from Invigorate!
AS: Aigis's turn has ended.
AS: Block Best! Self-Criticism takes 32 Pierce damage from Aigis's Dual Thrust.
AS: Avoid Best! Self-Criticism takes 52 Pierce damage from Aigis's Dual Thrust. Critical Hit!


<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.

"It's alright. Anything you can offer is helpful." Fuuka assures, as Moriko admits that she doesn't have a ton of tricks. "We appreciate that you're here, Kumamoto-san."

Her help is appreciated and Fuuka nods at the thanks that comes in - and Hyousuke returns the favor. A rallying cry sounds - and with it, Fuuka feels just a little more steady on her feet.

"Thank you..." She replies earnestly.

Yumi has advice. It takes Fuuka a moment to sort through her words... but ultimately, the advice is quite helpful - if she's up against something that shouldn't be looked at, look around it and use that information to determine what it can do.

"Thank you, Yumi-san... I'll keep that in mind." Fuuka replies with a polite nod. She's giving her advice, even though they'll just as likely be enemies again the next time they meet... She did that the first time they encountered each other, too.

She doesn't mean to eavesdrop, but her senses allow her to perceive so much. She hears how Yumi describes everything she perceives.

"That's... so much to see..." Fuuka murmurs. She can sympathise. The sheer amount of information... it must be overwhelming.

The foe is struck, and the portrait of the Joker Killer is damaged - and with that, the presence disappears, as well.

"That resonance is gone...! Was it the portrait?" Fuuka gasps, surprised. Dimitri doesn't take it well, however. The creature's tentacles turn dark - and the shadow it represents crashes against Lucia's globe with enough force to send Fuuka toppling back against the other side of it.

She hears Aigis calling out for her in concern, sees her moving in to defend her, as she picks herself back up with some effort.

"I-I'm alright." She assures. "It's... lashing out. Be careful, everyone..."

She takes a moment to steady herself. Is it embodying Dimitri's feelings, now, as it lashes out...?

...Maybe the kindest thing they can do right now is wash it away.

Between her hands, Lucia begins to form an Aqua spell, water swirling and converging. She casts it forward, where it erupts in a great splash the moment it makes contact.

AS: Persona! Fuuka Yamagishi has used the Water skill Aqua on Self-Criticism!
AS: Fuuka Yamagishi: Atk_Up and Worry removed!
AS: Fuuka Yamagishi's turn has ended.
AS: Block Best! Self-Criticism takes 33 Water damage from Fuuka Yamagishi's Aqua.


<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.

Neither Remi nor the Bride gave Hyousuke much to work with, but at the very least, Remi's vague warnings - ones he was inclined to believe were thinly-veiled threats - were clear enough to interpret with a bit of thinking. The Bride's, however? He would unfortunately need to find someone smarter than him to help untangle them. Quite who that someone was supposed to be, he could not say, but he was sure that there was at least *one* Persona user he was friendly with that could decipher the Bride's ridiculous riddles.

"Hyousuke Suzuki!" He called back to Aigis, before snapping his head back around to Moriko. He was more than happy to echo Fuuka's sentiments - and glad to see that the target of Achilles' warcry was back on her feet. "And don't sweat it! Just keep putting the hurt on it!" His grin deepened at the destruction of the portrait, once he saw it reduced to tattered shreds. He shouldn't have felt joy at an artist's work being torn to ribbons - Hyousuke knew that. To feel that kind of satisfaction at someone's hard and honest work being rendered into worthless scraps should have been heartbreaking. But the man inside the beast was not in his right mind - at least, Hyousuke hoped he wasn't - and the painting was not a treasured piece that should have been treated with love, care, and respect. Nothing cemented that idea in his head more than the feeling lifting from his mind as the canvas was obliterated. He breathed once it was destroyed, and far more easily than he ever had throughout the rest of the battle. The presence of that man - that sick and twisted man that had sought to kill the people he cared about - vanished like smoke in the wind.

The threats yet remained, however. Lashing tentacles, a raving man, two individuals that seemed intent on speaking in riddles of dubious veracity... There was a lot to handle. Before he could so much as think about tackling them, something slammed into him, hitting like a freight train against him. Achilles took the brunt of the attack, but even his shield faltered under the sheer force that the creature exerted. He staggered, pushed away, and the appendage sank into Hyousuke. It was a hammer blow to his chest, sending him staggering back as well, barely able to stay upright - keeping on one knee was the most he could manage.

It was not the physical pain that wounded him so deeply. Adrenaline and willpower were a potent cocktail, and strong enough to keep him from succumbing to that level of pain. It was the wounds in his mind that ached, their scars pried open so that the memories could drown his mind. They surged over him, each memory begging that he pay them attention. The begging became demanding, and the demanding again shifted into a maelstrom of shouting and screaming. They pounded at his mind, at his skull, at the core of his very being, until all he could do was freeze and wait.

The memories spoke of his parents, and the admonishments they levelled at him for an ideal he could never live up to. They spoke of a different general in a different life, whose blade marked him for the failure of being consumed by anger. They spoke of a punishment he had been too slow to escape, and how he was spared from it only by the grace of another. They forced upon him the recollection of villains he'd failed to ensnare. They brought before him the visages of the friends he'd failed to protect - the friends he swore he would sacrifice body and soul to keep safe - and mocked him for his inadequacy. Then, they whispered in his ear, their murmurs conjuring the image of sanguine red and scattered fragments of bone white, staining a pillar reaching high above.

Failure. It forced him to relive every failure he had suffered through.

The grin fell back into a bare-toothed snarl, savage as any slavering warhound's. His body, frozen by pain and fear and shock, creaked into life once more. His fingers curled into white-knuckled fists, the fabric creaking beneath his vice-like grip and threatening to fray beneath the sheer force of it. The creature's assault did not paralyse him beneath the weight of his failures. The shock of it all, the sadness that threatened to tie him down like iron shackles, they were both burnt away by the emotion Hyousuke wielded as his blazing sword.

RAGE.

"NO MORE!" Hyousuke bellowed, his voice a bestial roar. "I'M ENDING THIS NOW!" Achilles appeared by his side, the red beneath his helm no longer a mere glow, but a glaring sun of sanguine red amidst a black, yawning, void. "AND I'M ENDING *YOU!*" Achilles held his spear aloft, the end pointing skyward as energy flowed into it as though he bore a lightning rod in his palm. The weapon strengthened with every mote of divine magic that gathered to it, tinged a bloody crimson by the searing, blazing, rage that flowed through user and Persona both. Anger, grief, hatred... all of it coalesced into the spear, until it threatened to shake apart in his hand.

Hyousuke said nothing as he sent Achilles surging forth like bloody lightning. When his jaw hung open, all that emerged was a base, animalistic, ROAR. With force born of unchained rage, that ancient warrior struck at his enemy's heart, and a great burst of scarlet filled the air.

AS: Hyousuke Suzuki spends Limit on Psych!
AS: Persona! Theurgy! Hyousuke Suzuki has used the Pierce skill Princeslayer on Self-Criticism!
AS: Pressure: Hyousuke Suzuki gains 1 Limit!
AS: Hyousuke Suzuki: Gains 74 HP from Regen! Def_Up and Psych removed!
AS: Hyousuke Suzuki regains 15 HP from Regenerate!
AS: Hyousuke Suzuki's turn has ended.
AS: Block Best! Self-Criticism takes 114 Pierce damage from Hyousuke Suzuki's Princeslayer.


<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.

        It'd be easier if Shiryuu didn't answer, or be distracted by that lapse of weakness from Umie; he's done enough as it is, entering a battle for the sake of two people present.

        Those little moments of closeness she spends with people are like jewels in her mind; reaffirming her humanity in spite of whatever whispers she catches from the Mark, her own heart, or her own regrets. Instead of being the person pretending to be the same as everyone else, she is just able to be a person who also has a Persona, and sometimes, someone with the Mark, who is Umie. A wealth of information, a person who won't shut up, someone who can be selfish and cruel and rude, but also, full of kindness to a hypocritical degree.

        Yumi (and Tsurugi, to a certain extent), trying to reach out to Umie in good faith, is rebuffed, clad as she is in the uniform of the NWO, obscuring the identity she has as the civilian Yua. Yet, Umie will look to Shiryuu, someone who has actively tried to kill her, and ask for his help.

        Like he did with Yua, Shiryuu answers.

        The red trailing from Shiryuu's eye is finally noticed by Umie in that moment of connection.

        Ah, Umie, she thinks. You better make this count.

        ----

        Red sneakers land on the magenta flooring; Umie turns, her hood now down, her blonde side bangs now free to swing with the movement of her head. A length of rope is stretched between two tensed fists, the left holding the remainder of the length of rope as well as the ring, while the handle of the bifurcated blade is gripped in the other.

        The artist cries at the destruction of one of his portraits, proclaiming he'll paint another.

        Truly, artistic passion is truly a terror to behold.

        Doubt and failure fuel the tenacles that come towards them all; Umie's light on her feet.

        She rejects it, because she has no choice. She chose the Mark, she allowed it into her heart. She chose to open that coffin that night, and a family never saw that smiling father again. She chose to hide afterwards, never pushing herself, cloaking herself in shadows away from prying eyes, even from the very people that may have understood her, if she had allowed herself to trust another person.

         It was not a mistake to walk out of that cage, into shadows of a different kind.

        _Failure is not an option for her_.

        "Yamagishi-san! Kumamoto-san!" Umie hisses, eyes flying wide as Fuuka and Moriko takes those painful hits, but the rage in her eyes spark in a furious frenzy when her eyes focus in on Shiryuu.

        "....!" She never says his name; she focuses on DImitri instead.

        ".... I'm ending this now." One could see, if glancing in a space beyond the physical, the blood red that soaks Umie's words, carrying with them a weight beyond time and knowing, each word painful and contorted like a mirror that nods vaguely towards Yua's own, if set on a different, frozen trajectory.

        "Ash falls through the sky from the frozen shrine,
        A mournful cry cut short."

        Cognitive barbed rope crosses the field of view, constricting with the sharp cries of blackbirds and sinking like mud underneath tired, battleworn feet.

        She raises her fingers in the same sequence as Badb above her, a lavender-nailed finger pointed towards the tormented artist that matches the red lace of the Badb's claws.

        And Umie lets go, tension making those wires slice through with inevitable efficacy.

AS: Umie Akabane spends Limit on Exploit! Umie Akabane can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Tandem! Theurgy! Umie Akabane has used the Dark skill Garden of the Crow on Self-Criticism! 3 Hits!
AS: Umie Akabane takes 60 damage from Stress!
AS: Ruin: Umie Akabane gains 1 Limit!
AS: Umie Akabane: Gains 75 HP from Regen! Atk_Up, Blast, and Def_Up removed!
AS: Umie Akabane regains 3 SP from Invigorate!
AS: Umie Akabane's turn has ended.
AS: Block Best! Self-Criticism takes 32 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Garden of the Crow.
AS: Avoid Worst! Self-Criticism takes 121 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Garden of the Crow. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Best! Self-Criticism takes 43 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Garden of the Crow. Critical Hit!


<Pose Tracker> Moriko Kumamoto has posed.

"Least I could do right?" Moriko admits to Fuuka, though she is having some.. decent success with pointing a bunch of divine spotlights at the squid critter.
 
 "Yeah we'll talk about it later!" She adds, quickly to Aigis. "Nothing bad though, promise."
 
 "Had no intentions of following you." There's that look of confusion again, paired with her usual grim look.
 
 "Divine?" She calls out, "It's hidden away. You're not even showing it off." She gestures around. Though she's kind of preaching a bit at this point. She gets it, on some level.
 
 She's slow on getting out of the way of the strike though, letting out a surprised sound as she's knocked from her feet and takes a tumble. Leaving her laying there for a moment with a groan.
 
 A hand goes up and she slowly twists it into a thumbs up for Umie and the others, "I'm. Fine." She doesn't sound like it. That had hurt and knocked the wind out of her. Wheezing, she forces herself to her feet, grabbing the evoker from nearby and stiffly rejoins the others. Once more putting herself out front. "I've crashed worse." She lies. Probably only a little. Crashes suck regardless.
 
 Hyousuke's outburst gets a moment of concern, she's not used to that kind of yelling! She does raise that hand in support though, wry and supportive smile or not.
 
 Getting her breath back, sort of. She straightens up with barely a wince.
 
 There's a look of possible realization on her face. Then she glances back, "He did that creepy thing for a client. He's got t-" She trails off with a grimace, holding the evoker up again. "You guys probably got it." She'd yell it out, but you know. Whacked. "Any work is progress, destroying it before it can be shared and used to improve's a waste." Then she pulls the trigger. Relying on the fox to bring more light forward. "You shouldn't hide it away!" The fox continues it's onslaught, bringing more dancing lights to the party.

AS: Persona! Moriko Kumamoto has used the Light skill Hama on Self-Criticism!
AS: Moriko Kumamoto's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Best! Self-Criticism takes 93 Light damage from Moriko Kumamoto's Hama. Weak!


<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.

        "Hai, Yumi-san." He is soothed by her assertion, though it takes him a full moment to actually comprehend it while shredding the cephalopod-like Shadow underneath a tyranny of black sakura. Directing Akabane's blade across the squirming mass without inadvertently killing her or consigning her to an artist's hell draws the lion's share of his focus, and for once he seems to lock onto something.

        Almost. Between blinks, the boy gives Aigis a sharp look. It may just be because she's a product of a terrible clan. Surely he can't hear her pun. Surely. Right?

        The tentacle surges through as Ryouhara approaches slowly in the aftermath of that black wind, his hands locking into place, trying to force the bridge to fly to the side, to bend to his will. It's not something he normally does, and as the beast rears up, it takes literally everything the boy has to find her landfall.

        He can't move, he can't use Setsuna. The boy grits his teeth, and runs his sword's flat across his arm, dropping to a knee at the last second before --

        'Do you even think she would realize it's you?' 'He would never had tried something so cowardly.' 'Better off as Setsuya's empty headed pet.'

        '...I wasn't strong enough.'

        The wall of flesh is unkind, and Shiryuu disappears beneath its weight. The insane whisper fades from Shiryuu's ears, and the grey-headed boy recovers, the sick feeling in his stomach thick and heavy like a stone weight. The illness was vertigo lacking a physical source, he forces himself to recognize, as ichor spatters the ground at the foot of his blade, used as a cane to keep himself on his feet.

        Ijuuin is distressed, he realizes, bloodily. He realizes it, watching Akabane quietly in the distance.

        "...it's okay," he tells the bride, trying to calm his aching, jangled, knotted-up nerves as he stands, one eye still closed, now bleeding openly. He's only dimly aware of that noxious resonance's absence, aware enough to have -seen- the portrait and make the connection to the raving Dimitri. What a furious artistic power, that even this...

        "You have something to protect.."

        His head tilts downward. "... so, my Sarutahiko Okami will open the path." The notion is accompanied by his Persona, a great sweep of shide through the air seeming like a flutter of leaves around him, as he forces his hand up anew.

        And takes a step forward, as it begins to rain.

        The rainfall is not at all discriminate, and it spatters the ground in his wake, displacing the colorful pigments and oil of a moment before, soaking into his shoes as he goes.

        No, the onmitsu is not steeled at all in the wake of that nagging, harsh, vicious feeling. The rain does not soothe him. There is no release for the boy against that miserable sensation. When he raises his hand flat to the ground, and the winds begin to stir, the storm rising, he doesn't think of anything brave at all.

        Instead, he watches quietly, as they rage, as the others flit about the passionate beast, wanting to repeat the mistakes he's made over again. What about us, the boy thinks absently, watching the blood curdling red from her.

        And then he wills his Persona to shift that wild wind, a gale force to push that black shadow forward. To compel it and the creature-made-man inside into his blade, a long, curving flash of black ink cutting across the way. Push him forward. Into theirs. Wires and swords and the sounds of cannon ...

        The onmitsu is dispassionate, truthfully. Unreadably quiet.
        It's agonizing, watching nascent doom.

AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara spends Limit on Psych!
AS: Tandem! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Wind skill The Winds and Rain of Akita on Self-Criticism!
AS: Aggression: Shiryuu Ryouhara gains 1 Limit!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara spends Limit on Shock Noise! Crt_Dn applied to Self-Criticism!
AS: Avoid Worst! Self-Criticism takes 284 Wind damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's The Winds and Rain of Akita. Critical Hit!
AS: Tandem! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Wind skill Blastbrand on Self-Criticism! 2 Hits!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara: Atk_Up and Psych removed!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Self-Criticism takes 67 Wind damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Blastbrand.
AS: Avoid Best! Self-Criticism takes 54 Wind damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Blastbrand. Critical Hit!


<Pose Tracker> Self-Criticism has posed.

        The water from Lucia tries to cleanse the ink from the creatures body but instead only leaves the skin bruised and tendered. Tenderized to the point that the creature tries to turn and minimize the damage received from Aigis's bullets for the first time, crying in pain and bleeding more black blood onto the ground.

        Achilles' spear stabs the creature, and it digs deep. The pound flesh that was once sought is easily retrieved as a large chunk comes from the creature as it sinks against the floor. It is obvious the creature is on its last leg. Wires come and the creature struggles and tries to flee, but Badb has other plans as it rends away the last few remaining tentacles. The creature has been de-tentacled.

        The blade of the protector is used to carve more away, the creature is now all but a mass of flesh and dome on top. It can't run anymore, it can barely make noise.

        The swords come from the duo of Tsurugi and Gretchen, the creature raises it's tentacles and tries to protect itself, losing tentacles that can simply be regrown. However a single sword gets through and stabs the dome...

        The dome shatters and Dimitri stands there exposed. Exposed to the tower, exposed to the people around, exposed to everything. He stares at the others as if seeing them for the first time. "What have I? Oh...Oh god!" The artist drops to his knees as his hands go into his hair grabbing and pulling at it in panic. "NO!" Tears begin to stream down his face and he sobs and screams as if everything is crashing down on him.

        The creature reacts as it to begins to wail. The creature rears up before the final attack of self-criticism comes, lashing out at all. It is the thing that comes to all who are consumed and defeated by such a thing, endless despair. Black ink bleeds from the creatures body and spreads out, thick as tar, trying to engulf and consume all in its path. The creature is dying but it plans to take everyone with it in its endless despair.

AS: Self-Criticism spends Limit on Exploit! Self-Criticism can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Self-Criticism spends Limit on Exploit! Self-Criticism can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Self-Criticism spends Limit on Broad!
AS: Persona! Theurgy! Self-Criticism has used the Dark skill Endless Despair on Yua Ijuuin, Remi Ryuuja, Aigis, and Fuuka Yamagishi! 3 Hits!
AS: Block Neutral! Aigis takes 64 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Worst! Aigis takes 68 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair.
AS: Block Best! Aigis takes 23 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair.
AS: Persona! Theurgy! Self-Criticism has used the Dark skill Endless Despair on Hyousuke Suzuki, Umie Akabane, Moriko Kumamoto, and Shiryuu Ryouhara! 3 Hits!
AS: Self-Criticism: Broad, Dark_Break, and Pierce_Break removed!
AS: Self-Criticism's turn has ended.
AS: Fuuka Yamagishi spends Limit on Brace!
AS: Avoid Worst! Umie Akabane takes 100 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair.
AS: Avoid Worst! Umie Akabane takes 100 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair.
AS: Avoid Worst! Moriko Kumamoto takes 110 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair.
AS: Block Neutral! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 96 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair. Critical Hit! Weak!
AS: Block Worst! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 93 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair. Weak!
AS: Block Neutral! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 70 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair. Weak!
AS: Avoid Best! Umie Akabane takes 41 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Worst! Moriko Kumamoto takes 110 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair.
AS: Avoid Worst! Moriko Kumamoto takes 110 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair.
AS: Moriko Kumamoto is unable to continue fighting!
AS: Block Neutral! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 94 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Neutral! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 94 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Neutral! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 69 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair.
AS: Block Neutral! Yua Ijuuin takes 62 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair.
AS: Block Best! Yua Ijuuin takes 54 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Worst! Yua Ijuuin takes 115 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Best! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 31 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair.
AS: Avoid Best! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 42 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 130 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair. Critical Hit!
AS: Remi Ryuuja spends Limit on Brace!
AS: Avoid Best! Remi Ryuuja takes 15 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Worst! Remi Ryuuja takes 86 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Worst! Remi Ryuuja takes 62 Dark damage from Self-Criticism's Endless Despair.


<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.

Remi doesn't know what has happened to this artist but she can see the shift. Maybe if she can use her speed to snatch the man from this beast--

But no, the monster is threasing, and as a tentacle lashes down, which she avoids by a very narrow margin as her speed carries her--but the thing is too unpredictable and she is smacked, sent flying to crash into a wall before she slides down.

And then the ink washes over her, and her body sags.

Endless despair... Tsurugi is no stranger to it. She has seen what the horizon of despair looks like... and been forcedo to travel past it without relief. To wallow is not a luxury she has, anymore.

Not with how she was remade in that lab. Muscles that do not ache tense as she pushes herself up. She should be in pain but she is not. She should be overwhelemd as she rises to her feet but she is not. She should be unsteady on her feet, and yet she is not.

There are many things she /should/ be. Very few of them are aollowed her now.

Her grip tightens on her rapier. From behind she pulls out another dagger. Her breathing is strained, but she clearly says one word: "Ouragan."

"Raaagh...!" Persona and User fling themselves forward in tandem, kicking up a storm of wind as they circle the monster, hacking at it to try and cut off more and more of those tentacles.
 
AS: Tandem! Remi Ryuuja has used the Wind skill Ouragan on Self-Criticism! 3 Hits!
AS: Remi Ryuuja: Gains 69 HP from Regen! Regen removed!
AS: Remi Ryuuja's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Worst! Self-Criticism takes 71 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Ouragan.
AS: Avoid Worst! Self-Criticism takes 71 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Ouragan.
AS: Self-Criticism is unable to continue fighting!
AS: Avoid Best! Self-Criticism takes 12 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Ouragan.
AS: Self-Criticism is unable to continue fighting!


<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.

        And Yumi is reassured, hearing Shiryuu, seeing everyone's might. But the man is carved free -- and when the creature falls, she reaches out, to Tsurugi...

        ... and the mysterious ninja so concerned with her.

        "Come to me," she invites them, "and to other places, go."

        She's offering to get them out of here before the heroes start asking too many questions.

        She takes a moment, at least, to turn to Fuuka, to suggest: "Turn your gaze to the first sinister turn when next you ascend. There will you find peace." ... a teleporter, she means.

        With that advice, Gretchen closes her jailed embrace around all who elect to come back with her -- all who were invited, that is -- and they disappear, from Tartarus's halls.


<Pose Tracker> Moriko Kumamoto has posed.

Moriko's trying to put on a strong face, she's insistent on it. That's just who she is. She's also wheezing audibly and when the dome shatters, she straightens up for a moment. Thinking it might be over and wanting to try and avoid spoiling it.
 
 The flailing begins though, and she's slow to get away from the worst of the waves of darkness manage to overwhelm her.
 
 A nagging voice in the back of her head tells her she should have tried to put up defenses after all.
 
 Flipping head over heels and landing roughly with a pained groan, tumbling along with the wave before sprawling out on the ground. Definitely down for the count.
 
 Anything else she had intended to say will probably be blurted out some time later, if her brain catches up to the scene of the crash.


<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.
 
Hyousuke introduces himself to Aigis, at her request - and Fuuka realises she hasn't introduced /herself/.

"Oh... and I'm Fuuka Yamagishi. It's nice to meet you, Suzuki-san." Fuuka greets.

Any further niceties will have to wait. The tentacles are cleaved from Self-Criticism, and the dome atop it shattered... Dimitri is exposed.

"Tachovsky-san!" Fuuka calls to him. "It's alright. It'll be alright... Please try to breathe - ah!"

She gasps as Self-Criticism lashes out at once more - black ink erupting from its body, like a wave of tar threatening to consume everything. It crashes against Lucia's globe, engulfing it - engulfing /her/, for a moment. Fuuka's eyes open wide, her breath quickens. Fear creeps in. She shuts her eyes and tries to take her own advice. Breathe in, and out. It's alright.

The tar is finally repulsed... but Fuuka's feeling worse for wear. She's not sure how much more she can take. But... Moriko has it worse.

"Kumamoto-san!" Fuuka gasps. She's worried - and then, Fuuka meets Yumi's veiled gaze. The first sinister turn... Fuuka closes her eyes - and perhaps only another Navigator will recognize that her sight has turned to the next floor, following her advice. Sure enough...

"...I see it. Thank you, Yumi-san." Fuuka replies. She didn't have to do that... and yet, she did. That'll be helpful in getting Moriko out safely in that condition, at least.

...But there's still the foe ahead of them.

"Lucia... Guide us!" Fuuka murmurs. With the baleful influence of the Joker Killer gone, she turns her eyes onto Self-Criticism once more - to indentify its weaknesses and relay them to the others so that they can finish this properly.


<Pose Tracker> Aigis has posed.

        It may have taken her longer than she would have liked to rally, but Aigis stands fully upright again.

        "Suzuki-san. I am Aigis," she offers Hyousuke.

        Surely he can't hear her, Shiryuu. Shoerely he can't. Still, that's twice now she and him have met, and twice that they've been on the same side. She looks his way with a disappointed expression. "I do not believe I have caught your name either ... nor hers." She inclines her head towards Umie's direction. (Forgive her, she is following her installed protocols for politeness.)

        Umie's 'prophecy' causes Aigis to narrow her eyes at her.

        The Shadow's waves of despair emanate towards them all, and while it is no small task for her to do so, having once more found her resolve, Aigis weathers this storm. Shiryuu and Tsurugi's harsh winds finish it off soon after.

        Her teammates aren't so lucky. Moriko has collapsed, though Fuuka barely holds on. "Kumamoto-san!" Aigis stoops down to pick her up and carry her. "Escorting fallen teammate to safety."

        While the others have treated Yumi and Tsurugi with apprehension, Aigis still rightly has no idea why such is the case. "Thank you for your assistance." At hearing the teleporter's location, she bows, and promptly heads that way to lead the way for SEES' escape.

        ... If she needs to, she'll double back for Dimitri, too.
 
 
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.

Rage consumed him like a wildfire. Even after that mighty blow, and even after he had helped to tear that beast apart and free the man trapped within the dome, rage still ate away at whatever it could reach. He wanted more - he wanted to hurt that thing MORE. He wanted to take the man by the neck and demand answers about what had transpired. He wanted to march up to the murdering piece of shit that had no doubt had a hand to play in everything, and beat the answers out of his wretched skull.

His vengeance would have to wait, as would the answers he sought. Ink of stygian black reached out across the floor, consuming all in its path. Neither person nor object was safe - the Shadow's encroaching ink threatened to drown all within its reach. He did not run, for he had not the chance to try. Even if he had, he would not have been fast enough, or have found a space in which the tide would not engulf him. All he could do was brace for impact, and weather the storm as best he could.

As the reaching waters engulfed the room, so too did it threaten to drown Hyousuke in the fathomless, churning, waves of despair. It threatened to drag him under - to swallow all that he was, and to leave nothing but an empty husk behind. But he was no stranger to despair. He had felt its icy grip on his heart. He had felt its cold talons pierce his skin and rend his flesh, and he had fought back against it with that most potent weapon he could bring to bear. His unfaltering, unceasing, rage.

The fire that had once threatened to consume him instead stood as a torch against the dark. It burnt away the despair, sweeping through him as a cleansing flame, letting him stand against the creature's death throes. But, more than that, it was a cauterising heat, searing shut whatever wounds the despair threatened to tear open once more. It was the numbing agent, distracting him from being mired in despair with a single-minded focus on vengeance. Rage was his fuel, and in that battle, it had served him well.

The sight of Moriko collapsing unconscious to the floor succeeded in an instant where the Shadow had failed time and again. Realisation hit like the cold crash of an arctic wave, and for a heartbeat, he stood stock-still with eyes wide. He did not think to move - his legs carried him on instinct. Whether they collapsed beneath him on that same instinct, or simply could not support him from the shock of seeing his friend injured, was harder to say. What *was* patently clear was his panic upon taking in the scope of the situation.

"Hey, no, stay with me..." Hyousuke murmured. Whatever discomfort he had with touch was, in that moment, cast from his mind. He held his arm beneath her, propping her desperately up as he spoke, hoping with every fibre of his being that she could hear him. "Don't- don't you fucking dare, not like this... No, don't- DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE DO THIS TO ME!" The shout was as raw as it was pained. His chest heaved against the confines of his costume, no matter how frantically he tried to steady his breathing. Each drawing in of breath was a ragged and panicked gasp, and every exhale a rattling burst of air - he could barely bring his hand to her neck to feel out a pulse.

But feel her pulse he did. She was injured, yes. How severely, he could not tell, but she was alive. She'd be alright. They just had to get out. But how? He wasn't a navigator. He wasn't smart enough to figure it out on his own. He wasn't strong enough to brute force it. He'd *fail.* Once more, ice crept into his veins and pried his flesh open, quickening his breathing and quietening his voice, until someone cut through it all. Aigis spoke, and in a blink, he was shocked back into a coherent state.

"You have to- you have to get her out of here. Please." Hyousuke said, rising shakily to his feet. He did what he could to at least present the illusion of strength, but there was no denying that he had panicked. "I'll watch your backs. Just get her out of here. GO!" Head on a swivel, and hands curled into white-knuckled fists, he forced himself to keep pace with the others. He had to push it down. He had to suppress his fear. There would be time to process it later - for now, they needed someone strong, and someone capable.

Not the scared hound howling for someone to help.


<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.

        Looking to Aigis, Umie hesitates for a moment, then acknowledges her with a nod. "Umie Akabane," she allows, even if she knows it'll break whatever cognitive spell her powers may have otherwise, if anyone else overhears.

        Umie Akabane is a young woman with secrets, as well as pearls of wisdom.

        Consider: selfishness has its uses. Focus can mean the difference between survival and death. No one can help or save you if you're dead, after all, and heroism can be overrated when the field is littered with heroic acts that go nowhere and save no one.

        On the other hand: selflessness can have its disadvantages; give away too much of yourself, and you'll never get it back again. Do it for the wrong reasons, and you'll be filled instead with resentment.

        Umie has seen people she's grown attached to be in dire situations. She has been tempted to step in at least once to help Joker (the *real* one, in Umie's mind; _take that Sudou_). However, Joker is a leader; it's been the way he's risen to the challenge that's forced her to consider doing the same.

        Tonight may be her moment to see if she's actually the person she wants to be-- what is her experience for, if not to withstand something like this?

        She knows despair, failure, and loneliness. She knows isolation, and chaos. She knows separation, and hopelessness.

        She's survived them all, and claws back those gems of wisdom back with her.

        A snake can't fall to its own poison. The Badb did not come to her and claim her; she *is* the Badb, and darkness *is* her.

        Consider this wisdom, never spoken: black is as valid a tool to use as any.

        Umie weathers each blast, the newly painted mask barely hanging on her face, one bun coming undone, the other loosened.

        "The chaos ends with me," she yells. "_I am your problem_." Schools, teachers, parents, officials, jobs, friends, society: she was considered a problem for one reason or another, never aiming high enough, or perfect enough.

        Tonight she owes it.

        Dark comes from her name, as if it were a joke; truth is, she's nearly out of powers.

        And her focus, as she glances around for a certain person, comes back to a selfish pinpoint.
        
        "_Shiryuu_!" she yells, running around, nearly stumbling across the silver-haired young man.
        
        She's kneeling down besides him, grasping onto a hand in her half-gloved right.

        If he doesn't respond, she use her left, clasping him into an awkward, huddled heart-felt embrace.

AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Dark skill Final Warning on Self-Criticism!
AS: Ruin: Umie Akabane gains 1 Limit!
AS: Umie Akabane: Gains 67 HP from Regen! Regen removed!
AS: Umie Akabane regains 3 SP from Invigorate!
AS: Umie Akabane's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Best! Self-Criticism takes 12 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Final Warning. Critical Hit! Resist!
AS: Self-Criticism is unable to continue fighting!


<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.

        One cut. Two cuts. Three. The rainfall pounds about him as the onmitsu notices the curling, encroaching wave of black ink power. He watches it for more time than could be considered strictly healthy, one brown eye locked on the wave until the very last.

        When he moves, he moves like lightning -- his ninkou, the black-bladed sword Bankasoujin sends waves of black to contend that empty tide, waves of scribe's ink clashing with paint as the creature's awful throes seek to drag him down. One cut, two, Shiryuu successfully, arguably effortlessly evades, as if not even paying attention --

        But the drag of hopelessness and self-recrimination strikes a far deeper chord than the onmitsu would care to admit.

        The third valley in the black surrounds him, clinging to every edge of him like a funeral shroud, and sends the boy skidding into a nearby gate.

        He is on one knee, his sword in a hand. He's still standing, in his own mind. He won't fall. The task is done, he can sense that man's throes of despair now. Even if he weren't as he is -- that acidic doubt and defeat is in every nerve now. But Remi's glare is damning, and the boy is too far in his own mind, black and crimson scattered freely on the ground beneath him, staining the hem of his pristine haori.

        He forces it. "...I'm invincible," he tells the bride, for her protection. He forces steel into his voice. "Don't worry... I'll make my own way..."

        "...I'm faster than all of you put together."
        He never looks up from the ground, even when Akabane skids into view.

        It is a moment he's less than prepared for, and he freezes.
        Is it that he does squeeze her hand, for just one heartbeat?
        "....A.." he sighs, long, sharp, empty.
        "...Take care of the rest of them." He can hear the loud one still. "You're ... just getting blood on my haori."

        The rain does eventually stop.


<Pose Tracker> Self-Criticism has posed.

        The storm of wind mixes with the darkness of Akabane's final warning destroys the creatures , ripping the last bit of the flesh of the creature to pieces and the body dissolves away. Those who have fought tonight have done something that many in the world never manage to do, they have defeated self-criticism. May they remember this feeling next time it rears its ugly head.

        The artist Dimitri is thrown through the air and rolls along the ground after the attack, just laying there, on the ground and he begins to sob trying to shift the blame in between sobs, "He made me do it. He made me paint , that..." More sobbing , before Dimitri adds, "He kept talking about his mommy. How the portrait had to be better than his mommy. I didn't understand but the thing ...the thing I painted...I hope he fails to display it. " Dimitri rolls over and throws up bile before he passes out. Whatever painting he is talking about it was more than the Joker Killer portrait that was destroyed, but what could possibly be worse than that. Eventually this man would be retrieved by SEES with the help of Fuuka and Aigis.