Shaken finally from the fractured reverie, Vasilia snapped back to the battered pain and the maw of horror that was her immediate reality. Beneath her, the white mass clawed upwards from the bore that it had chewed into the network, reaching and hungry. Even as its many reaching mouths and teeth churned up the basement side and extended for just one more taste of her, however, the remnants of Ego's form within the mass pressed upwards, distinct and red amidst the churning white. With it came whispers, echoes – the sense of a mind driven by incalculable voices, desperate to share the words that mattered in that moment. A crack of red struck out, colliding with one of the nearest extensions of gnashing teeth and mouths and casting it back into the pit below before it could reach Vasilia.
The seconds stretched out from one faltering, stolen moment to the next; too many voices, and senses of thoughts; voices she recognised, voices she didn't; thoughts and feelings that she felt like she did, or should. Strength and breath returned as a pulse of energy was fed to her from her operator, then, even as she pushed herself and hurriedly activated her sigils, another pulse, form somewhere else, soothing and healing her further.
Below, the mass that was Hex clawed up the pit, a lash of substance designed to subdue its food splattered with a sickening crunch of disintegrating flesh and loose teeth against the wall by her head, missing Vasilia's now flickering, displaced form. As much as her body and her PET strained under the weight of corruption tearing her apart, each strain of aberrant data distorted her image more and more; this time it had been enough to save her.
Another pulse of energy came, buoying her up and chasing away the pain, and nearest her now, Vasilia could see the reformed shape of Ego, in control of herself again and strong, for these precious few seconds. It was the white itself that had been healing her; the realisation came at the same time as she heard Ego's words of denial, thrown back at the mass as she faced it on Vasilia's behalf.
Above them, the remnant shell of the building groaned and screeched. The Hex mass churned upward still, devouring everything in its path as it stretched and hungered; the foundations were gone, their support code destroyed, and the husk of the building began to fall inward in large, broken chunks all around them. Sections landed in Hex' mass and were absorbed, chewed into bytes by the sea of mouths and teeth. The white tendrils lunged again, seeking Vasilia's taste, but Ego filled the space, back to her ally as its reaching limbs crashed around her instead.
The puppet navi struck down at the monstrous mass, but the first assault scattered across its form without seeming to impact; grass grew at the edges of the building, but swiftly withered and degraded again into cracked panels than began to shatter one by one. The basement had become a sinkhole; a bore in the network with nothing beyond it but Hex, but Vasilia had enough time to try again as she found her footing on solid ground beyond the doorway of the ruins. The blast lanced down, charring and searing the fluid mass where it struck. It burned away mouths and teeth and tongues, searing parts of the white briefly black, but despite her best effort, the charred skin cracked and scarred, then burst open, spilling upward with more churning white flesh that began to form new shapes over the old.
Voices in her ears again; her operator, and the other voice, telling her to run. Her sigils had crumbled away long since and her other glitches and corruptions were only growing worse by the moment. Between her and the monstrous entity, Ego's defiance wavered; her strong voice more desperate now, sending Vasilia away; buying her time, as the White's ravenous reach found her inner bastion and assailed it.
Vasilia fled; a last brushing of minds and selves lingered with her as she turned and ran, Ego's words still travelling with her. Behind her, with a sickening lurch of sound, a fresh column of white mass blasted towards her; she raced out through the broken double doors of the ruined building, just as the crash of substance struck her in the back and bowled her over and over. Pain and corruption, but it didn't remain to grip or drag at her this time, and the puppet was able to get to her feet again and keep going.
Out in the plaza, what had once been a busy space filled with navigators was now deserted; the signs of sudden panic and flight were everywhere – dropped news slates, spilled coffee cups and other signs of the recent terror were everywhere. It was only now that Vasilia became aware of a low, oscillating siren sound; an electronic voice on repeat, telling all navigators to evacuate immediately.
At the edges of the plaza, all around, Vasilia could see a red and yellow barrier of light with warning emblems on it, creating an isolation field of some sort, but there were no other navis to be seen now. A protective barrier, or maybe a containment field? There was no time to think about it; the mass of hex was bubbling from the remains of the building, spilling upwards above ground level now as the remainder of the ruin collapsed into it and was devoured. Within the mass of bugs riddling her, the negation of her safety measures suffused her body completely now; there was surely a good reason why jacking out normally needed combat routines to be disengaged, and the emergency was last resort, but whatever those reasons were, they couldn't be worse that staying around near Hex.
As it continued to consume everything around it, consuming data and the concepts of data, devouring sensation and the internal idea of sensation, Hex, too, would become aware or the containment barrier that had englobed the nearby area. Such a thing wouldn't hold it for long... but it meant that more things were aware of its presence here...
-=The White=-Hex: 65Hp [Broken, building basement][Strengthen: 20][Glitch: Crumbling Touch (Tier 3) (1 Turn)][Glitch: Force Reroute (2 Turns)][Glitch: Neutral Plane (1 Turn)]
Egomorph.SP: 56Hp [With Hex][Glitch: Fissured Growth (Tier 5)(Restored: 55Hp)(Indefinite)][Glitch: Crimson Cascade (Indefinite)][Glitch: All Ears (Indefinite)][Glitch: To The Beach (Indefinite)][Glitch: Leaden Shadow (Indefinite)][Glitch: Ether-Step (1 Turn)][Glitch: Prescient Distraction (1 Turns)][Glitch: Warding Touch (2 Turns)]
-=The Witch=-Vasilia.Exe: 36Hp [Normal. Just beyond the shell of the building, in the clear.][A Hand Down: Only one wield slot available for remainder of fight][Glitch: Chip Limiter (1 Turn)][Glitch: Routine Override (Tier 5)(Indefinite)][Glitch: Lingering Numbness (Indefinite)][Glitch: Armour To Dust (Tier 4)(1 Turn)]
-=The Walk-Way=-20%
Metal- Cannot be Broken or Cracked except with Geddon/PanelShot, cannot be Burrowed into.
- Elec attacks: +100% Source Damage.
- 100 Damage Aqua attacks: Change terrain hit to Cracked.
- 100 Damage Fire attacks: Change terrain hit to Furnace.
- PanelShot: Imbue Elec + Break.
[Jagged ruins of the building]
80%
Broken- Not bottomless.
- Reverts to Normal after a time, if no one is inside.
- Doubles dodge penalties for bad RP.
- 1-4 Movements actions to climb back out depending on method.
[Destroyed basement level of the building]
Terrain is the ground and basement floor in the remains of a large square building. The walls mostly stand, but the building is gutted. North from the ruins led towards the public plaza, south leads back into the maze of other tall buildings.
New Glitches
None this round!
Existing Current Glitches
Crumbling Touch (Negative Glitch)(Mutable Glitch): The victim's terrain changes decay rapidly. any terrain change the victim makes degrades into cracked terrain after one round, unless the change was already to cracked or broken terrain. This glitch is highly mutable and is prone to increasing in severity. At second tier, the victim's terrain changes decay at the end of the round they are created. At third tier, the terrain collapses into broken terrain one turn after it decays. At tier four, all terrain changes the victim makes decay immediately, and collapse into broken at the end of the round. At fifth tier, as well as the tier four effects, the victim creates small areas of cracked terrain around themselves wherever they move, which also collapse at the end of the round. Glitch lasts two turns, or until removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
Force Reroute (Balance Glitch): The victim's body begins to reroute damage and power in reactive and cyclic ways. Any time the victim takes direct damage to their hit points, they gain strengthen equal to the damage that they took. Any time the victim gains Strengthen from a source other than this glitch, they take damage to their Hp equal to the Strengthen gained. This damage bypasses defences and cannot be mitigated, but is stopped by undershirt/second chance. Glitch lasts three turns, or until removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
Neutral Plane (Positive Glitch): The victim gains a naturalised form of planar adaptation. Any null elemental defence the victim gains acts much like a planar defence, as long as the victim is in contact with null elemental terrain. Specifically, null planar defences are not weak to break or impact. They have no elemental weakness, but do not halve damage from any source either. If the victim is not in contact null elemental terrain, null elemental defences remain and act as normal. Glitch lasts two turns, or until removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
Leaden Shadow (Negative Glitch)(Mutable Glitch): The victim's shadow, or similar aspect becomes heavy and clinging, clawing a them and weighing them down. The mobility and evasion bonus of all avoidances are downgraded by one category. That is: movements only grant as much mobility as a feint, and confer no evasion bonus, feints grant only as much mobility as a dodge, and confer only the evasion bonus of a movement, and dodges grant no mobility at all, while only conferring the evasion bonus of a feint. Glitch lasts until combat ends, or until removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or similar effect.
Ether-Step (Positive Glitch): The victim gains a lightness of step that functionally emulates the presence of Air Shoes, Float Shoes and Shadow Shoes. This also allows them to access the OmniShoes Custom Advance. Glitch lasts two turns, or until removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
Prescient Distraction (Balance Glitch): The victim gains a calmness that allows a mild prescience effect, a the cost of personal focus. The victim loses their first action each round to a distracted daze, however, all actions they take have their accuracy increased by 2 ranks. this effect stacks with taking aim, and can surpass A rank. Glitch lasts two turns, or until removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
Warding Touch (Positive Glitch): The victim gains a free allocation of processing capability that can be channelled into supporting effects. Once per turn as a free action, the victim may apply any one effect from the following list to a target of their choice: (15 Healing), (Status Cure), (1-Hit Shield), (20hp Barrier), (20hp Casing), (Damage Reduction 5, (1 Round)), (Strengthen 20), (NC Resistance (1 Round)), (Buster Resistance (1 Round)), (Folder Resistance (1 Round)), (Signature Resistance (1 Round)), (SP Resistance (1 Round)). Glitch lasts two turns, or until removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
Fissured Growth (Balance Glitch): The victim gains regeneration, recovering 5Hp per action through this glitch. The glitch records how much Hp it has restored. If this glitch is removed, it immediately deals direct damage to the victim equal to half the amount of Hp it has restored at the time of removal. This damage cannot be reduced or mitigated in any way, but will be blocked by Undershirt/Second Chance. This glitch is prone to increasing in severity, and can tier up to a maximum of five times. Each tier beyond the first restores an extra 5Hp per action. At fifth tier, damage caused by removal of the glitch ignores Undershirt/Second Chance. If this glitch resolves out of combat, it does not deal any damage. Glitch lasts until combat ends or removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
Crimson Cascade (Positive Glitch): The victim exudes erratic, crimson light which lashes out at enemies nearby. As a free action each turn, the energy attempts to strike any hostiles nearby, a number of times equal to double the victim's rapid stat. Each energy strike deals 10 null element damage, and the victim gains Strengthen equal to the amount of actual Hp the attacks deplete (Barriers etc., do not count). Glitch lasts until combat ends or removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
Chip Limiter (Negative Glitch)(Mutable Glitch): The victim suffers a glitch in their battlechip system, which becomes partially become corrupted. They cannot use more that two battlechips per turn. Glitch lasts three turns, or until removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
Routine Override (Positive Glitch): The victim suffers an effect that bypasses the normal safety protocols in their battle routines, allowing the free use of actions and abilities normally requiring battle routines to be disengaged. This glitch is prone to increasing in severity and can increase to a maximum of five tiers. At tier one, the victim can freely refresh one used chip each round (though they can't use the same chip multiple times in one round lit this). At tier two, they can also use one subchip each round, as an action. At tier three, the victim's chips refresh automatically at the end of each turn. At tier four the victim change their subtype choices and installed navicust parts at the beginning of each turn. At tier five, the victim can use any number of subchips as free actions on their turn, and can choose to jack their navi out without consequence or needing to escape the battle first. Glitch lasts until combat ends, or removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
Lingering Numbness (Negative Glitch): The victim suffers a creeping numbness of body, which makes it difficult for them to function in a coordinated manner. Melee and Slashing attacks are decreased in accuracy by 10%, and there is a 10% chance that any wielded gear will be automatically disarmed any time it is used or struck by an enemy. The victim's base evasion is also hampered by 10%. This glitch is prone to increasing in severity, and can increase to a maximum of five tiers. The penalties and negative chances increase by 5% for each tier beyond the first. Glitch lasts until combat ends, or removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
Armour To Dust (Negative Glitch): The victim's armour begins to degrade and lose function. At the end of each turn, the victim automatically loses any Layer 3 defences they might have active. A visual cosmetic effect accompanies this glitch, in whatever way is appropriate for the victim. This glitch is prone to increasing in severity, and can worsen up to a maximum of five tiers, and the effects are additive and cumulative. At second tier, the automatic layer 3 loss occurs both at the end of the turn, and also no more than two actions after any layer 3 defence is activated. Third tier causes all layer 3 defences to be destroyed automatically after taking one hit, though they still block overflow damage unless struck with the correct piercing type. Fourth tier causes all layer 3 defences to be vulnerable to take double damage and overspill from all attacks, as though weak to them. Fifth tier prevents any layer 3 defences from being applied to the victim at all. The cosmetic effect of this glitch progresses with each tier as well. Glitch lasts three turns, until combat ends or removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
At The Beach (Neutral Glitch): Are you feeling, feeling, feeling like I'm, feeling-like-I'm-floating, floating, up above that big blue ocean; sand beneath our feet, big blue sky above our heads. No need to keep the stressing from our everyday life on our minds; we have got to leave all that behind!
All Ears (Neutral Glitch): The victim's body sprouts and changes to be come covered in ears of all different shapes and sizes. The ears completely obscure their form to the point of ridiculousness, but strangely, they don't have any actual impact on the victim's ability to function or perceive the world around them.
Past Glitch Log
NC Flicker (Negative Glitch)(Mutable Glitch): The victim's Navi customiser suffers a glitch that causes their installed parts to randomly shut off for brief periods. Each turn, every NC install that the victim has will have a fifty percent chance to stop functioning for that turn. Any part that fails to function on one turn will be immune to this effect on the subsequent turn. This glitch has no effect on SPs, though they do act as carriers. This glitch is highly mutable and can interact with other glitches. Glitch lasts two turns, or until removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
Sensory Fall (Negative Glitch): The victim suffers an almost suffocating level of sensory loss. All of their senses will shut off completely, leaving nothing behind. Only one sense (randomly selected) will remain unaffected by this glitch. This glitch has no hard mechanical effect, but should be played out by the victim as appropriate. Your moderator my decide to enact appropriate debuffs as well, or simulate them in combat calculations (such as imposing blind while sight is lost). Lasts two turns, or until removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
Elemental Reflux (Negative Glitch): The victim suffers a backlash of elemental energy inside their body, which shifts wildly from element to element and grows stronger over time. On the first turn, the victim takes 10 elemental damage of their own element, or Fire if the victim is Null elemental. The damage increases by 10 each turn, and changes element at random. This damage is delivered on application, and then at the start of each turn, before any other actions occur (including passives). It cannot be reduced or mitigated in any way, but will be stopped by the Undershirt program. It is susceptible to being increased by the victim's elemental weakness if they have one. If the glitch ever deals 100 damage or more in one application, or if it triggers the victim's Undershirt, it is immediately burned out and removed. Otherwise, glitch lasts until combat ends, or removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
Reactive Form (Balance Glitch)(Mutable Glitch): The victim's body becomes extremely reactive to changes in its integrity. They take an additional 10 points of null damage that cannot be reduced any time they take damage from any other source, however they also gain double the value of any healing they receive. This glitch is highly mutable and can interact with other glitches. Glitch lasts three turn, until combat ends or removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
Target Catalyst (Positive Glitch)(Catalytic Glitch): The victim suffers a temporary offence-enhancing effect, randomly determined, and taking effect immediately upon application. This effect lasts only until the end of the turn. At the end of the turn, the Glitch checks for any Mutable Glitches in the victim's system. If none are present, the glitch is dispelled. If a Mutable Glitch is present this glitch interacts with that one, and creates a new, long-term glitch of a related nature to one or the other, or both. If the Mutable Glitch and the Catalytic Glitch are of different natures (Positive, Negative, Balance), the new form will be either Balance, or the nature of the Catalytic Glitch. If multiple Mutable Glitches exist, one is randomly selected. Glitch lasts only for the turn that it is applied.
Spectrum Wash (Positive Glitch)(Mutable Glitch): The victim is surrounded by a halo of energetic light. Once each turn, the energy strikes out to hit a random enemy with a bolt of random elemental energy. This glitch is highly mutable and can interact with other glitches. Glitch lasts three turns, until combat ends or removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
Damage Catalyst (Positive Glitch)(Catalytic Glitch): The victim suffers a temporary damage-enhancing effect, randomly determined, and taking effect immediately upon application. This effect lasts only until the end of the turn. At the end of the turn, the Glitch checks for any Mutable Glitches in the victim's system. If none are present, the glitch is dispelled. If a Mutable Glitch is present this glitch interacts with that one, and creates a new, long-term glitch of a related nature to one or the other, or both. If the Mutable Glitch and the Catalytic Glitch are of different natures (Positive, Negative, Balance), the new form will be either Balance, or the nature of the Catalytic Glitch. If multiple Mutable Glitches exist, one is randomly selected. Glitch lasts only for the turn that it is applied.
Overly Objective (Neutral Glitch): The victim suffers a perspective shift that causes their senses to relay information about their surroundings as though they were several metres removed from themselves, watching on. The glitch affects primarily the visual and aural senses; tactile experience is unaffected, creating a disorienting, but not debilitating experience.
Adaptive Mutation (Balance Glitch)(Mutable Glitch): The victim suffers a mutability of their body which grants it the ability to resist damage. The Final damage the victim takes from any attack is reduced by 10. The effect is uncomfortable, alien and unsettling, however, and it makes it hard to focus beyond the unnerving sensation: the victim's accuracy and evasion are both reduced by 10%. This glitch is highly mutable and can interact with other glitches. Glitch lasts two turns, or until removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
Cripple Catalyst (Negative Glitch)(Catalytic Glitch): The victim suffers a temporary debuffing effect, randomly determined, and taking effect immediately upon application. This effect lasts only until the end of the turn. At the end of the turn, the Glitch checks for any Mutable Glitches in the victim's system. If none are present, the glitch is dispelled. If a Mutable Glitch is present this glitch interacts with that one, and creates a new, long-term glitch of a related nature to one or the other, or both. If the Mutable Glitch and the Catalytic Glitch are of different natures (Positive, Negative, Balance), the new form will be either Balance, or the nature of the Catalytic Glitch. If multiple Mutable Glitches exist, one is randomly selected. Glitch lasts only for the turn that it is applied.
SAS Shortcut (Positive Glitch)(Mutable Glitch): The victim suffers a glitch in their signature Attack System which causes a more efficient and longer enduring function. Positive effects generated by signatures last for as long as this glitch does, unless their duration would already be longer. SPs and Navigators are treated as independent by this glitch; an SP whose navigator has allocated them personal signatures is unaffected if their navi has this glitch, and similarly an SP with this glitch finds only their personal signatures effected, without infecting their navi's. Glitch lasts three turns, until combat ends, or removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
Growth Catalyst (Positive Glitch)(Catalytic Glitch): The victim suffers a temporary protective or restorative effect, randomly determined, and taking effect immediately upon application. This effect lasts only until the end of the turn. At the end of the turn, the Glitch checks for any Mutable Glitches in the victim's system. If none are present, the glitch is dispelled. If a Mutable Glitch is present this glitch interacts with that one, and creates a new, long-term glitch of a related nature to one or the other, or both. If the Mutable Glitch and the Catalytic Glitch are of different natures (Positive, Negative, Balance), the new form will be either Balance, or the nature of the Catalytic Glitch. If multiple Mutable Glitches exist, one is randomly selected. Glitch lasts only for the turn that it is applied.
SAS Soul (Positive Glitch): The victim's Signature Attack System briefly defies all code logic. Signatures have no cooldown and can all be used once per turn. Positive effects generated by signatures endure indefinitely (or until destroyed as usual in the case of defences), instead of their listed duration, as long as this glitch remains. This includes enhancements, such as Haste, body defences, such as shadow and multi-turn/action benefits such as regeneration effects. Any time the victim uses a signature with a beneficial effect on themselves, they spontaneously regenerate 10Hp. Glitch lasts until combat ends, or removed with Status Cure, Glitch Eater or other similar effect.
