Cloudsea - The Chronicle of Alice Van Vaugen

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To be the one in control... almost dead, gone and forgotten... walk my own path... your very identify... you do what i say now... find the true purpose you forgot.

"Heh... Are they always this... cryptic? Hard to read?"

( It really depends on the voices. They are myriad. Almost beautiful, like little stars of individuality. Still, they got quite close, didn't they? )

"Maybe. But they were off on one point. Listen up, voices. Even if I could, I would never make this thing do my bidding. I've been on the other end of the 'master/slave' relationship. Never again. You hear me? Any ideas like that again, and I'll just shut my ears and... try to ignore invisible voices that I can hear in my head, I guess. You'll find I have one hell of a stubborn streak. . . . That said, I like you guys, I guess. I hope we can have a fun and profitable relationship. Now, give me your power, I just want to be -"

The golem was getting even closer. Qhen and Empty had simply vanished into thin air. Viss was extremely displeased with this, especially since they hissed something about Qhen having 'that look' on their face. But that wasn't really a problem. The problem was that the golem was looking for them. Or rather, it knew where they were, because it emitted a high pitched squeal from the choir-pipes coming out of it's shoulders, and caused Alice to shriek in pain.

Viss looked at Alice. Alice was breathing heavily, and was curled up into a ball. She did not look good at all, and Viss was starting to worry about their chances for survival. Viss could probably run away and leave Alice here, if only to save their own skin- But Qhen probably wouldn't like that. No, Qhen would DEFINITELY not like it. Not that Qhen would know why. Viss has known Qhen for a while. Viss is very good at detecting moods. Alice and Qhen are both stubborn fools. That is all Viss will say on the matter.

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"Viss hopes you really know what you are talking about, Aliss, because in a couple minutes, that golem is going to be on top of us, and then we'll be well and truly-"

"-FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!-"

There was a sound like fabric ripping as Qhen's voice returned to the world... but it was loud. So loud, and it echoed... and it sounded so... powerful. Crashing sounds. Cracking sounds. The sound of tearing metal, and a discordant cacophony of screaming voices that made Viss dizzy, before with another -crunch-, were instantly and permanently silenced.

Footsteps. Much lighter than the footfalls of the golem, but again- so much more powerful. Viss shifted over to block Alice, while bringing up her knife and-

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"Tempest tossed, Qhen- what...-"

". . . Hey Qhen... Empty- Empty told me you found what you were looking for... How is it?"

Qhen's eyes were now just black pools set into their skull- A skull, which Alice and Viss quickly noted, had no skin on it. Or muscle. The same could be said of their body, which their clothes now loosely hung on. Alice's eyes drifted over Qhen's bone structure. It was... interesting. Fascinating. It was like they had a suit of bone armor under their skin. A cloak seemingly made of liquid blood wraped around their shoulders and head, and dripped down their back and onto the ground.

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"Heh. You're just unfazed sometimes, aren't you, Alice? I didn't find what I was looking for- ... I just found what it was I wanted."

"... H-h-heheheehee..."

"Uh."

"You have so many teeth! You're like a SHARK- ngh- Ow- ... I wish my arm wasn't hurting... and that we were at the house. And that I had a pencil and paper in hand..."

"... Viss? What's wrong with Alice?"

"Choirbeast made a terrible sound. Aliss has been... dazed, ever since. Not sure what to do. Viss did not want to hit her."

". . . *sigh* Here. I got this. Get up and check the choirbeast's corpse. I think there are more coming, I need the two of you up and awake and aware. Hey. Alice. Hey. Look at me."

"Hi Qhen. You're pretty like this, but I like you with skin and those eyes of yours."

"... oh my god are you having some sort of weird breakdown again now is not the TIME Alice."

"I just... I just wanted to apologize for how I've been acting. I'm really messed up in the head, you know? Never knew my parents, spent my entire childhood being raised by people who claimed they knew or otherwise owed my parents everything."

". . .Alice. . ."

"I'm not good with people. But I like you, you know? It's not immediately terrible to talk to you. Or Viss. You're both good. But I-"

Qhen leaned down and grabbed Alice's cheeks, and Alice stared into Qhen's eyes.

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"Alice. I do not have time for this. You do not have time for this. WE do not have time for this. I do not care right now. When we are all safe and sound, we can talk about your past, and what you think of me and all that, but I NEED YOU. HERE. Now. Do you understand?"

". . . Y-Yes. Sorry. You're right- I just. Give me a minute."

"If you're not up and with me and Viss in ten seconds, I am going to come back and get you."

"Yes'r."

Qhen stood up and walked over to where the... corpse? of the choirbeast was. It was mobile. It displayed some form of intelligence. Even if it was a mechanical thing, it was still alive, and thus left a corpse. Which made it all the weirder that Viss has climbed inside it and was hacking away with a knife. A few moments later- exactly 8 seconds, Qhen would like to note- Alice wandered over, holding her gun in her offhand still.

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"Do I want to know, Viss?"

"Viss is dissecting the body, Qhen. You know that. Viss is looking for weaknesses. Viss has found a lot, but none of those. Or rather, Viss has found a lot of pieces of things. Whatever you hit this with... Qhen shredded it's insides. It's full of wires and tubes and various liquids that all smell biological and non-poisonous in nature, but Viss cannot be sure without checking. Also is not acid. Viss is not itchy."

"Alright... That means...?"

"If it's internals are in any way a weak spot, you must first hit it with a powerful, armor-rending attack."

"I- I can manage that. I'll reload with a piercing shell. Looking at the thickness of it's shell, It will probably go in one side and out the other without doing much other damage, but it should help give the two of you something to aim for."

"Good. I can... Feel the next one coming. It's bigger, but I think it's the last one. Last actively moving one anyway... We need to finish this up fast. Losing all your blood has a- diminishing effect on your strength, over time."

"Right. Viss will need to hear more about this. Later."

"... Later... Right. Okay. I'm loaded. So where is this... Oh."

The ground began to shake, and the sound of something metal dragging itself through a tight corridor began to emit from the ruins, until a single large leg burst forth, puncturing the ground and tearing up a chunk of the ruin, before the rest of it's body ruptured forth, creating a large hole in the ground.

The large, mis-shapen blob, halfway between worm, spider and... birthing chamber heaved on the ground. a glass bubble on the outside of it's half-buried body exploded, and a choirbug flopped out, shaking itself clean and testing it's wings by making a high pitched tone.

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"aaa."

"Viss- Viss, tell Alice everything you can do right now."

"...wwhhhhyyy?"

"Because- Because there is a large number of voices in her head, unique, individual, ghost-like personalities, that can hear things that we're saying, and they offer advice, which makes Alice our commander by right of a Legion-like mentality."

". . . OH. OKAY???"

"And be fast. We don't have long before we need to act."

Things just get better and better.

COMBAT vs STRANGE PRECURSOR, MECHANICAL, BIRTHING-POD/QUEEN INSECTOID
(And currently One Choirbug)

RUNDOWN OF THINGS ALICE NOW KNOWS:
She is tired.
She may have said some more stupid things.
She is injured, and thus probably can not even take one hit.
Unless you really think it's a good idea, she's going to just burn all her Ammo Pool on AP shells until she's out. That will be... 5 shots in total, counting this round.

Qhen is LITERALLY BLEEDING OUT TO FIGHT. No real explanation as to why yet, but at Qhen's current power level, that's apparently all they can really do. Their blood is used to summon weapons to attack with. On the upside? They MIGHT be indestructible. All orders to Qhen can be summed up as 'Summon (Weapon Type)' This might be a problem if Qhen didn't know much about weapons, but Qhen assures Alice... they have seen a LOT of weapons in their short life.

Viss has a knife. It can be used to kill the Choirbugs, but anything bigger than that... She also has a grenade! Just one. It's essentially a firework cannon ball with a hole drilled in it and a fuse stabbed into it. So it's a bomb. But she's pretty strong for her size and can chuck it pretty well.
She can throw together some alchemical concoctions- or rather, she could, but she didn't bring her kit with her. She really didn't expect to get into a fight in the morning, the first day she was here.
Viss also has a- uh- a 'breath weapon'. Which is to say, Viss has a number of alchemical formulae that they inhale into their craw, and then she expels it from her mouth while secreting some form of natural chemical oxidizer in her mouth glands, allowing her to breathe all sorts of things.
She currently has 2 Frost Bottles, 2 Poison Bottles, 1 Fire Bottle, 4 Electricity Bottles and 1 Web Bottle.

The weird mechanical monstrosity. It has a head, attached to a thorax, with 4 legs, and a massive abdomen, covered in glass blisters. The blister which exploded earlier has gotten a new shield on it, and it is slowly filling up with a glowing green ooze, which is, for the record, apparently something like blood for these things.

Alice is trusting you to give her some ideas.

ALICE> 5/10 Health - 5/15 Morale - 20/20 Ammo
QHEN> 70/100 Blood
VISS> 15/30 Health - 10/30 Morale - 30/30 Create (Creativity)