A few days? Geeze. You've spent more of your time as a breaker asleep than awake.

Assuming you can walk, and you're not ravenously hungry, we got things to do. We should collect that info before we think about leaving town. It's looking like you probably need to have a talk with Jager, seems like there's air to clear there. And then all of you are going to need to get together and figure out what you're doing (why are we running, exactly?).

...What's this LR place you're talking about Jager?
And yea, get the info, but remind bro that however he interacts with the girl, don't forget the plan is to move outta the area soon-we might not be able to retain that relationship with D7 no-doubt gunning for answers as to what just happened.

>What's this LR place you're talking about Jager?
It's the Latin Republic. Alternate universe geography. See:

>>/questdis/61193

"Alright. Alright. I think I'm good. Need a little food first thou-"

Your brother unreservedly shoves a sandwich into your open mouth, forcing you to both chomp down ravenously and almost gag at the same time. It's very confusing all in all. Still, as you try to get up and get moving, it's Rise who blocks your path, surprising you a little bit.

"You are in no condition to be moving around."

You stare at her a moment as you finish your sandwich, choosing to fill your stomach first before doing anything, then finally get to the talking bit, interested to find out what she's so concerned about.

"Why are we stopping me from leaving again?"

"You just woke up from doing something extremely dangerous, and which probably has not ever been tried before."

"Yeah. So?"

"And you are are still ALIVE."

"That's a good thing I thought."

"I am not contesting whether it is a good thing or not. I am contesting the fact that you are alive and seemingly completely unharmed by the experience."

"I still don't see why I should be questioning that. At least not right now."

"The sewer rats tried the same thing the day after the attack. Three times. All three are now either dead or insane beyond all hopes of recovery. And that was with small groups of them, not the couple of hundred you tried it with. And this is not mentioning the people who participated in your attempt. Seven literally up and evaporated in the middle of it. Gone, just like that."

"Oh..."

Well... that was... that was new. You didn't get it at all. Still, you push the thoughts from you head, letting some other piece of you consider that while you got on with your day. Now was neither the time nor the place to consider this. You had things to do.

"Rise. I understand your concern. Really, I do. But now really isn't the time for this. We have to get ready to move. I'll talk with you as much as you want when we have more time. But not now, alright?"

"... I understand."

Rise lets you through, and you're quickly swamped with breakers as you step out of your unofficial hospital room. Most just want to shake your hand or thank you for helping them. A few women try to come on to you, but fortunately or unfortunately, Rise's presence seems to dissuade them fairly quickly. Odd, given that she isn't exactly trying to get them to go away. Regardless, getting out of the Warren isn't easy, and you waste a good half hour just getting back to the entrance. After that, however, it's a quick stroll over to the market, with Jager splitting off from you halfway to go hook up with Lira. The trip is thankfully uneventful, and the market seems largely unchanged since your last visit. Upon arriving at Daniel's stall, you find the owner and Kim in heated discussion, although they cease as soon as they notice your presence slipping through the crowd.

"Ah! Uh... Guy, right? Heard you came by to pick up Sidhe there. How she working out for you? What can I help you wi-"

"MOVE! I gotta give him this info!"

"HEY! Watch it!"

"Yeah yeah. Hey! Listen to this! Apparently, out west, there's a group of breakers that got together, kinda like the Rats, only their bigger! Like the whole west coast bigger! They control all of it! It's amazing. The entire west coast of the UNA!"

"Uh... that's... good I guess?"

"Damn straight it is! Apparently, they actually choose to protect their members and any breakers in their territory. And try to keep the normals out of it to. Pretty impressive, given it only really came about within the last few weeks."

"Wait. Hold on. Stop the press."

Your brother suddenly breaks into the conversation, looking confused and a little concerned.

"You're telling me that a breaker gang set itself up, expanded, took control of, and solidified said control over the west coast, in the space of a few weeks?"

"Well, yeah. It helped they practically demolished every single fixer base there was. Almost literally raised a few of them to the ground. Killed someone important to the group to. Trevor something or other. Oh! And before I forget. That lady you were looking for, Makoto or whatever it was? Yeah, apparently she's hanging around with them now."

"What was that?"

Rise practically strangles the poor girl, but her eyes are filled with both interest and hope. Kim just lets herself get practically thrown around, even while trying to clarify her statement.

"Well. Maybe not. I mean, that's where I tracked her to, but the lady that's with this new group doesn't call herself Makoto. Her name is Chris instead. Chris uh... Wayneright I think. She looks kinda like you though, here, I even got a pic-"

"That's her! THAT'S HER!"

Rise is practically ecstatic with joy, snatching the picture from the younger woman and clutching it tightly in her hands. Almost too tightly. You let her have her moment though, and thank the pair of them. You're business concluded, with your brother managing to extricate himself from any promises with Kim, you all head back home, very pleased with the outcome, as well as a little intrigued about this new group that's sprung up. Apparently, other breakers from various regions have had a hard time deciding what to do about the organization, especially because the group, for whatever reason, has yet to call itself anything. No names for it have been adopted by the general breaker population either, even if a few have been thrown around here and there. Regardless, you return home to more arguing, this time between Lira and Jager, and both don't stop as you arrive.

"-ee the point of going through with this! If we're leaving we should just leave!"

"But we need to know! If we don't, we could have worse things happen later! And dragging something like that around isn't good for anyone!"

"Uh... what's going on here? I thought we were discussing leaving?"

"Lira wants to do a smash and grab on a fucking D7 base. I think it's a terrible idea."

"There's no one even in the damn things! We break in, take what we want from the data vaults, then immediately head elsewhere!"

"I'm still convinced the LR is the place to go!"

"But getting into the LR is going to be hell! Besides, we have no idea how to deal with the LR breakers. They could do anything!"

"And this new group out west is any better?"

"At least they are trying to protect people!"

... Well... this doesn't seem like it's going to end anytime soon. Not, at least, without some sort of intervention...

>>>Input Command

Experience Gained: 9

Jager Experience Gained: 3

Rise Experience Gained: 3

>3 other people who attempted collaborate breaks are dead or insane
>7 of the hundred(s) who participated in our attempt up and evaporated
>Guy, a brand new and not particularly strong breaker, is magically all right
...jeeze. Wasn't expecting that.

I mean, I could see death or insanity resulting from trying to lead too big a collaborative break. But small groups should be fine, unless the leader is very weak, right? And we've never seen the donor participants affected negatively, before.

I suppose we don't know how small these test groups were. A three man gal team of average breakers summoned godzilla. And a... six(?) man team with some power boosts broke time. It could be the safe group sizes are relatively low. If they were working with say, ten or a dozen people, that might be too far.

It might also be what they tried? We've been very careful with our breaks, trying to pick things we had reason to think would work, or that fit with themes, powers, etc. If the sewer rats experimenting tried something that couldn't work, I could see a failing roll from a collaborative break having more serious consequences than a regular free form break.

It might also be the people involved, not the number. Maybe only certain breakers can safely lead collaborative breaks? Something that sets Linda and Elizabeth and Guy apart from those who couldn't.

Tl;dr- we need more information on what the rats actually did (how many people, how strong, what the break was, etc) to evaluate (maybe Rise can specify when we talk more later?). Possibly we need more experimentation too, but that's not exactly safe.

>thanks / hitting on
Huh. I would have expected a more muted reaction, considering the people who died participating, or trying to recreate it. I guess your almost dying yourself absolved you somewhat? Or the cost was so low compared to what could have been...

>loss of Trevor important
Huh. But no mention of Maria? Thought she outranked him. Or maybe the wolf-monster was just more memorable to non-fixers than the gun user.

>no name causing unease
Pff, our laziness has actual plot relevance.

...kind of makes we wonder if we should make a PR effort, though. Have Linda put some of the more entertain-y types in a room, dump some money on it, and figure out some kind of outreach to breakers outside our area of influence?

>XP
9? Wowzers, that's a lot. Gotta think on that a bit.

>What do
...I think Lira's right about D7, at least. It's not like you're going to be able to do what you did before again. We've got an opportunity, here. And remember- that attack was familiar to you. There was the mention in those other files. You did something crazy and didn't die. These guys brainwash people and mess with memories. Maybe you're missing something. It's worth getting to the bottom of.

We can worry about where to run after that.

I think we shouldn't do it. Frankly, we only heard D7 was getting more active and agressive, chose a job AWAY from messing with them, and basically got government army swarmed. I'd rather not piss them off again, especially since we had JUST came from hitting D7 when we went to the Rats.
And besides, we were lucky to -have- a small army of breakers there for a mass break. And on top of that, we were -allowed- to escape, not actually being completely sucessful.
I think D7's playing a long game here with us, and if we do the obvious, which is go for the data while they're 'scattered' so to speak, we'll play right into their hands.
No, we run to LR or the Grand Breaker Army in the West, no more risk-taking.

>>541583
Ignoring our obvious problems (the dreams, the data, some of our borther's comments, etc) that connect to D7 is taking a risk, though.

Point out that you remember one member of D7 not getting affected by your massive break and that it's likely they'd be protecting the base. Given what they survived, trying to tackle them is probably suicidal.

>>541792
Except Guy doesn't remember that. It's out of character information from an omniscient perspective swap while he was unconscious.

And I highly doubt McCarthy or anyone like him would be willing to sit around guarding an empty base. There's too much ego involved.

And even if we run into a tear, there's only so much just one person can do. He can't guard every location (they had more than one), or every door. And even if he doesn't die right, and even if breaks don't work, bullets do, and there's nothing stopping us from running.

>why we should do this
We are literally never going to have a better opportunity to find out what D7 is all about. We pulled off a break that should have killed Guy, and several other people did die for. The data is all but undefended, and we don't have to worry about anyone trying to kill the data before we get to it- the base is unmanned. And we have a person ideally suited for data mining. Even Linda and co couldn't deliberately pull that off this neatly with the resources they have to hand.

It's worth the risk, and the risk is manageable. (If we play our XP right, say, we could use our avatar to cover our retreat running for our lives, and then recall him to safety with sudden appearance, say?).

(Possession of the data might also naturally steer us towards the west rather than the LR, once they realize the data might be valuable to them).

>>541797
It was? Huh, that's annoying. Think I'd rather not know in that case.

>>541799
Well, the update in question did specifically note that "To you, it was just a blackout" and that "no one noticed the presence" of the man being described. To me that says Guy didn't see.

OOC information is part of the situation, anyways. We have a much better understanding of breaking and his capability that Guy did, we have information from Linda's perspective, Elizabeth's perspective, the dis thread, etc.

I mean, we can use it to influence our decisions (you can argue we don't want our people going near D7 because of the Tear). It just can't be an argument Guy makes himself.

So after bouncing it around in dis, I vote we spend our XP this way:

2XP Sudden appearance upgrade for our brother
3XP Guy to spirit 4
2XP Increase Guy's BP twice
1XP Brother str +1
1XP Brother fin +1

You sigh and rub your forehead a little. You think it's funny that you're getting used to playing the mediator somewhat. And a little odd these two would be together like this, when all they seem to do is disagree about things all the time. Still, both sides have merit to them.

"Alright. So, D7 isn't going to restore itself that quickly, is it?"

"Honestly? I don't know. D7 is strong, very strong. I wouldn't be surprised if guards are already being replaced. If we go, it's gotta be now. It's the best chance we have."

"But there still might be one of those things Rise was talking about wandering around. What if we meet one of them?"

"There is little chance of that. There is, to my knowledge, only one currently in Central, and that one tends to keep to the southern sections of the city. The likely hood of encountering it are minimal."

"... You're not helping."

"I apologize, Jager. Still, it is not as dangerous as it could be. If they haven't purged the system yet, I could even get as past the automated defenses easily enough."

"St-"

"We aren't going."

Your brother suddenly butts into the conversation, looking extremely unhappy. If anything, he looks agitated, uncomfortable and irritable, things you aren't used to your brother being. Usually he's all happy smiles and cheer and such. This new him is... confusing. Very confusing. Still, at the same time, it seems like oddly nostalgic behavior. Or maybe it's just your head throbbing even harder. Hard to tell. You feel a splash of blues and greens invade your thoughts, and glance at the small fairy hovering gently next to you, looking somehow angrily concerned. It makes you smile a little, which just makes Sidhe frown even harder, but you wave it away and try your best to ignore the painful headache that just won't seem to go away.

"Brother, as much as I hold your opinion in high regard, it's not just you that get's to make them. For now... let's just take a vote or something. It'll make it easier on everybody."

Almost instantly, the sides are made clear. Lira and Rise support raiding a D7 base, Lira giving a specific one(which is located in the northern part of the city, and is identified as a research lab), and Rise suggesting that it might yield information useful for later use a bargaining chip with another group. Jager and your Brother, on the other hand, are voting to skip town as quickly as possible, your Brother not caring where, while Jager hopes to head south into the LR and put everything that's happened so far in the past and out of mind. Sidhe, for her part, seems to not care, as long as she's awake and taken care of, although you still feel those hues of blue and green splash across your mind, the feeling of concern strong whenever you give her even a moment's attention.

It looks like, in the end, it's up to you to decide.

>>>Input Command

dang it...
Long game-sleeper agent Guy is hard to plan for, because I don't KNOW what we're going to become here. It's like...If we go to any breakers, we'll get sleeper popped. If we go back to D7, we get wiped and sent back out again...
D7 it is. We need to figure out what the deal is with mass-produced Guys.

Hey, Jager and your brother agree on something. The men of inaction. (No, don't taunt them, that's a bad idea).

I still think we should go. There are risks, but we sort of know what to expect. Lira's right we'll almost certainly right we'll not get this chance again (even Linda's group isn't so well positioned to hit D7, and hasn't shifted from recovering and consolidating after the Fixers, yet). Rise is the person here most familiar with the threat D7 poses, and she's willing to risk it.

And your Brother is against it. Note he doesn't say it's too dangerous, or he wants to keep you out to protect you, as would be in character. Instead he seems to be hiding something. Again. That alone is reason enough to go. You can't afford to ignore whatever hidden connection there is between you, your brother, and Division 7.

>guards already being replaced
If they're moving in new personnel, and in a rush to get set up again, that means things will be hectic and disorganized, with a lot of new faces. Should make normalizing and bluffing our way around considerably easier, if we have to.

(Well, unless we run into someone a normalize won't work on- a captive breaker who sees us for what we are, or a Tear).

>where go afterwards?
Keep our options open. Head south and west, and as we get closer to the LR border and this west coast breaker group, see if we can get better information. Something that will allow a more informed decision as to whether we keep going west, or try to cross the border to the south.

Rise will want to go west, anyways.

Experience Allocated
Guy
Spirit 4: Choose Aggressive or Defensive
BP: 20

Brother
Strength: 5
Finesse: 5
Sudden Appearance 1

"... I say we go in. We have the chance, especially if they're weakened. We hit fast, we hit hard."

Both Jager and your Brother don't look too happy. Jager drops the issue however, instead turning to Lira and getting her to bring up what she can on this base you were going to be assaulting. If he was going to do it, he was going to do it right, and with as much information as he could get. Your brother, on the other hand, is not exactly so compromising.

"Guy! We are not going in there! We can't!"

"Brother, if you can't give me more of a reason then you don't want to, then I'm going. You can stay behind if you like, but I want to know what we have to do with D7."

The headache you'd had for awhile now suddenly spikes, and you feel yourself get dizzy before almost collapsing. Your brother is the one to catch hold of you, steadying your body, even as you feel more splashes of green and blue invade your thoughts. Everyone stops what they're doing, looks of concern crossing their faces. Still, after a moment, the pain subsides, and you get back on your own feet.

"I'm fine. Just... just a headache."

"Guy, if this is something to do with that break you did-"

"We don't have time to worry about it right now. Besides, I don't think it has anything to do with that. I had it awhile before that. I think it's just... adjusting to all of this. I haven't really had any down time."

"... I hope so."

"Look, let's get this plan in motion alright? Do we know what we're going to do?"

"Yeah. This is the northernmost base. As far from that guy Rise was talking about. It's got a data vault stored inside, give me a half-hour, tops, and I should be able to download anything of importance. Rise can get us through most of the automated defenses on the way in, but the guards..."

"I can handle them. I've got this trick I can do."

"Alright. More than likely, even with this base inactive, we'll have to fight our way out anyway. There's another reason I picked this base though. This one has something to do with you, at least it might. There's a room labeled 'Guy Preparation', whatever that means. I figure you and Rise can head for that once we're inside, while me and Jager deal with this data."

"Works for me."

"Alright then. The plans set. Or as much as it can be. Let's get this over with."

It takes an hour to ready the few things everybody needs. After you do this raid, there is no coming back. You'll be hightailing it on the road. Thankfully, you'd been prepped from the road for awhile. No reason for you not to be ready now. Within that hour, you find yourself drifting off to sleep while the others ready themselves, and once again living another dream...

-----------------------

"Is the plan set?"

"As set as it's going to get."

"Are you sure you want to do this? She's not very happy about this."

"She never is when it comes to me leaving her alone. But we have no time. Whatever reality is doing, we need to figure out something. Particularly when it comes to that one."

"Yes. Her. Linda McCallahan. She's important. More so in that she's simply gone from all our data. Even the broken pets we keep can't remember a thing about her. McCarthy says he has it handled though."

"All the more reason to do this. McCarthy has never been... trustworthy... when it comes to his playing."

"True enough. All that remains is... are you sure we should be trying this. Artificial breaking? The tests on the Muramasa children were hardly-"

"Enough! Just flip the damn switch and be done with it!"

"But to try it on-"

"DO IT!"

---------------------------

You awake screaming, bursts of pain and light flooding your senses. You feel hands grasp yours, and something rings like bells next to your ears, before you quiet yourself and find everybody staring at you. You vaguely remember getting into the car, but the trip after was... was...

"You alright?"

"I... I... think... so."

"This is a bad idea, we should call it off."

"NO! No... we... I need to do this. Something... Something happened. I want to know what."

"... Alright. Rise, you're up first."

"Follow closely. We will need to move quickly."

The group follows the woman, keeping as close together as possible. Rise arrives at a door with a keypad and quickly taps a few keys before the lock disengages and lets you in. The room behind it is covered in cameras, but there seems to be little issue as you make your way inside and downstairs, where more keypads wait. Rise makes her way to each one, tapping a code into it, before gesturing everyone inside a door you almost wouldn't notice. Then you're in a corridor with stark, steel walls, and the sound of footsteps ringing against it is the only sound you hear as you make your way to a door on the opposite end. Rise halts you there, listening intently for a moment, then motions you forward.

"There... should be two guards on the other side. This is the end of my usefulness, at least for now, so from here on, it's your show. Be careful, the agents here are more than likely going to be highly suspicious. Anything other than a believable story is going to set them off."

>>>Input Command

>Spirit 4: Choose Aggressive or Defensive
Hmm. I think the only will-based spirit 4 powers we've seen have been fear itself and unbroken will. Although we might always get something else.

I guess I'd lean aggressive? We've got Sidhe now, and we've been sort of working on building a defense. Guy could use some aggressive options in a real fight.

>dream / memory
Interesting they can remember that they don't remember. How many meta-layers to you need to buffer yourself with to be aware of the effects of nonexistence? Even the fixer leader kept forgetting her name and had to rely on Jacob.

Also interesting that at least some people in D7 realize McCarthy is crazy and have qualms about trusting him.

...and I might be wrong here, but that dialog looks like Guy was an agent who when and artificially induced breaking in himself.

>it's your show
All right. Time to make ourselves fit in. Normalize the group so we look like we belong, and we seem to have whatever paperwork the checkpoint will want, and we show up on the schedule, etc. Act confident and unconcerned.

The story is we're bring in more personnel, escorting little miss scientist to the data center (we can even allude to, or them them suggest it's part of a countermeasure after what happened when breakers got ahold of the other one). If they protest there's already someone here working on it or something, play to the divide between combat grunts and technical specialists. If the nerds want to squabble over their toys, it's not your problem. You've got your orders.

We've also got warped minds on most the party for additional wiggle room. You and Rise don't, but so long as she doesn't draw her sword and you keep Sidhe out of sight, I don't think you'll break the illusion.

Hrrm...Offensive=Brother Break?
Defensive=Sidhe Break?
...Offensive I think. Guy seems too much like he's got a 'bubble' around him shielding him from his current reality, but part of me wants to see how that 'Defensive' Spirit Break would manifest, ESPECIALLY with how Breakers seem to effectively be 'Glass Cannons'-stronger Breakers just have more BP/Lives to burn through, instead of being able to take hits from each other.

Confidence. You belong here. There's nothing wrong at all with you entering. Or everyone with you. You're just here to check the data stores. Upload new security systems or something. No, you ARE here to upload some new security systems. That simple. You will be fine. Alright. Let's do this.

You push the door open and enter the room, normalizing as you enter and projecting an aura of confidence that you don't really feel. You can only hope this works, cause if it doesn't you have the feeling very bad things are going to happen. Still, as always, the things you do come naturally, and acting has always been one of them. This skill comes in handy once again, as one of the two guards on duty steps forward, hand raised to stop you, other hand reaching for his gun.

"Hey! What are you-"

"Of course they didn't! They never do! Amy, didn't I tell you they'd forget to let them know!?"

You round on Rise, who's look of shock and confusion is clearly not going to be of any use in backing up your story. Thankfully, your brother is a bit more familiar with you, and has seen you act numerous times before. Ad libbing had always been a strength of yours. Or rather, "creative story making".

"As always, you're right. Please, calm yourself sir, I'll get this straightened out right away. YOU!"

Your brother rounds on the guard, immediately launching into rant about the lackluster treatment of a master technician(you). While he grabs their attention, you clue in the others, hoping their acting skills are up to the task, or that they can at least keep their mouths shut and go with it. All of them still look a little confused, but get the idea. Just run with it.

"- and another thing-"

"Please, Jimmy. We don't have all day. Just ask them the way to the server room and we can get this over with and be on our way. We DO have other clients to see."

"Right away sir! Well?! You heard the man!"

"Uh... um... down that corridor, first door on your left!"

"THANK GODS! Someone has some semblance of intelligence. We'll just be passing through now."

The group moves along, the guards on duty already returning to the dull boredom of their task, and gossiping about the "asshole and his posse". You could care less though, as you're through. Good enough. Minutes later, you've made it into the server room, and set up Lira and Jager. Lira says she only needs a half- hour to get things done, which means you had better make your own side trip fast. Rise opts to stay behind and help guard Lira, partly out of concern for them, and partly to let you confront whatever is going on by yourself. Thankfully, Lira found the base schematics for you, and ten minutes later, you've found what you're looking for. Your brother hangs back oddly as you stare at the door, and you glance back at him questioningly.

"Brother? What's up with you?"

"We... You shouldn't go in there..."

"What? Why?"

"I... You... shouldn't go in there. It'll... change everything."

"I think everything's been changed quite a bit already. A little more can't hurt."

"... You... don't understand. And... I can't explain... I... can't... remember... everything... but... don't... just... don't..."

Your brother seems to be in obvious pain, but nothing seems wrong with him on the outside. Similarly, now that you're so close to this place, pain lances through your head with every beat of your own heart. Sidhe hovers next to you, wringing her hands, blues and greens washing over your thoughts, somehow helping you stay grounded. How, you aren't sure... but... the decision needs to be made. Turn your back on this door and everything to do with it... or push forward and find out what's going on.

>>>Input Command

Okay, slow down. We have time. Most of a half hour left.

Kneel down, see to your brother. He's in pain.

Then let's think about this. Going into the room will have consequences. But what about seeing in? Or... not even seeing, directly. Just knowing about the things in there. You're a breaker. You might be able to cheat here- skirt around the edges instead of falling down the rabbit hole.

Like... we could active break part of the wall or door into transparency, a window to see into the room. Or if even seeing is too much, Sidhe looks through the peephole (who point of an avatar, really. To act in your stead). That way, whatever's in there comes filtered through a perspective that's not tied to your past, and though her odd form of communication.

(Yeah, trying to find out some of what's going on without triggering what are likely horrible memory failures. Havingitbothways, suggestor wanted Linda approved).

Hrrm..I like the Sidhe peeping idea, and it does seem rather like it will avoid the dangerous consequences that could result-namely, Guy finding himself torn between being a normal breaker, or going back to being an agent...
Part of me thinks that this is basically going to turn into a question of fighting Mcarthy now or later...The problem is, There's no way to tell if he works like a Breaker or if we need 'reality' powers like the Angel Avatar to deal with him.

Oh, and to avoid the obvious pitfall here:

If we active break a viewport or something into the room, it should be one-way.

You crouch down next to your brother, trying to gauge how much pain he's actually in. It's hard to tell, though, given that your brother isn't natural. Wait... what? Your brother is... unnatural? Why would you think that? What... No! That's wrong. That... that's wrong. Your brother is your brother. There's nothing else that matters. Still, you can't tell how bad he is, especially not when you yourself are in so much pain.

Even with the pain, though, you manage to scrounge an idea up from your head. If your brother doesn't want you going in there, then...

"Sidhe? Could you... could you take a look inside for me? Please? The peephole there should work fine."

The little fairy huffs in annoyance, but flits over to the keyhole and gazes inside. For a moment, there's nothing, then the little fairy darts away, alarm, fear and uncertainty coming across your mental link. You brace yourself, prepared for anything, only to have the door flung open and find that one breaker from the D7 base raid... uh... Emily?

"Geez. Took you long enough. What are you waiting around out here for? Come on!"

The woman practically drags you in, only briefly considering your brother and completely ignoring Sidhe. For a moment, you're confused, until, out of the corner of your eye, you catch a glimpse of an older man, looking vacant of emotion and completely disinterested. You start to turn towards him, only to have your attention grabbed by Emily again.

"I've been waiting for DAYS. Damn, you'd think you'd never felt curiosity before or anything. Not that it matters. Anyway, let's get you all hooked up and ready so we can get your memories back."

"Uh... Emily, right?"

"Huh? Oh! Yeah, sure, whatever makes you happy. Just hurry it up, people are going to start noticing soon, and we don't want that. Too many questions. Hurry, hurry."

Emily ushers you towards the center of the room, which you notice has what appears to be a chair with a glowing ring hanging above it. Nothing really seems overly odd, in fact, it seems rather nostalgic, but at the same time...

"Guy! Guy! No! NO! NONONONONONONO!"

Your brother is practically freaking the hell out, but he can't seem to move his body at all. It's like he's frozen up. Sidhe hovers uncertainly next to you, tinkling softly in your ear. Emily starts humming in impatience rocking on her feet as you seem to stumble towards the chair, only to stop in your tracks.

"Brother?"

"No time! Hurry up!"

"But my brother-"

"He'll be fine. Good as new once we clear up that head of yours. Now come on!"

"But..."

"For the love of- Can we just get this over with already?!"

The man in the corner suddenly seems to grow more interested in what's going on, eyes flicking upwards to lock on to you. For a moment, you feel like there's a breeze flowing through the room, even though you know there's no way for that to occur naturally. At the same time, Emily continues to look more and more irritated the more you hesitate. Still, the nostalgia you feel from that chair is almost overwhelming, yet you can't name why.

>>>Input Command

Geeze, why did the others leave you alone for this.

Okay, look- you're getting all trapped in emotions and uncertainty. That won't fly. Detach for a moment- force yourself to fall back on an analytical math problem mindset. Step one: list everything we know. Step two: see what solutions you can derive from that.

So review what just happened: what do we know?

>older man in the corner
>you feel like there's a breeze flowing through the room
Ah. We've found breezy, from before. A man with wind manipulation powers. A form type, or just an unusual weapon type? If he's a form type, that means he'll be hard to hurt. Sidhe's shield might be able to protect you from strangulation this time, though.

If he's got the wind powers, that means you have no idea what 'Emily' is capable of, unfortunately. You don't even know her name, even. The way she responded before revealed it as a lie.

>memories / nostalgia
Look, you came here to try and find out what was going on. Obviously there was something wrong. But that does not mean you do so by throwing yourself headfirst down the rabbit hole.

Emily was expecting you to show up here. She makes it sound like you were programed or conditioned to do so at one point. That's not a good thing- that means you're playing into someone else's game here. And we don't know if that's someone you can trust or a game you want to play into.

Emily's talking about restoring your memories. Cleaning up your head. You know D7 has some kind of mind control or brainwashing tech.

...so why the heck would you walk yourself right into it? You can't trust that!

Case (1)- you've already had your head messed with. But you can't trust messing with it again. Maybe this will bring back memories- but that could be good or bad (do you accept death of self to unlock a previous self?). Maybe it'll place you deeper under someone else's control, or cost you more.
Case (2)- you haven't had your head messed with- so no outcome of getting it messed with now is a good thing.

To say nothing of the fact you know this girl has lied to you before, is trying to rush you before anyone (your allies) notice, the implied threat breezy is making to get you to comply, and the one person who wants nothing more to protect you is crying out against this.

You can't trust running headlong into this.

>what do
Stop, shields up.

I came here to try and find out what was going on, not to blindly go along with it.

I barely know you, you've lied to me, and hidden things, he attacked me, and you're talking about editing my memory and cleaning my head in a place that brainwashes and enslaves people.

You're asking for a hell of a lot of trust here. You're not getting it without a lot better an explanation.

...then we see if that gets her talking, or if they try and force you.

Stop, and break free of Emily's grip if she has one on you.
Guy: Emily, Old man Wind, can we talk about this for a second? I think I've pieced it all together. We set this up. I'd go and become a Breaker for D7, and then the three of us would hunt the Breakers. But it went wrong. I lost my memory instead, and got no foci out of it, either. So I was let go, to live an ordinary life. But then Bro here showed up, and when I started fighting, you found out, and you came for me, to bring the old me back.
But there's one thing wrong though. I don't need to look out for myself, because Brother's there to look out for me. If I'd be fine at the end of this? Then he wouldn't be freaking out.
I DO remember there being someone desperate for me to not go through with the plan originally. I also remember a 'She' that I was close too. That's you, Emily, right? Now, I know I'm not the Guy you once knew, and I won't be if I don't get in that chair. But if Brother is scared of what will happen, I'm not going to do it.

Sidhe reacts immediately as you pull away from the woman violently, practically shoving her back even as you start to back away towards your brother. A glowing circular field erects itself around you, and you notice the breeze suddenly stop as if cut off. Still, as you begin to speak you don't even try to hide the anger you feel.

"I came here to try and find out what was going on, not to blindly go along with it. I barely know you, you've lied to me, and hidden things, he attacked me, and you're talking about editing my memory and cleaning my head in a place that brainwashes and enslaves people. You're asking for a hell of a lot of trust here. You're not getting it without a lot better an explanation."

"Emily" blinks in surprise, then a pretense of civility seems to vanish. Instead of going off on some crazy rant to you, however, she turns her attention to your brother, clearly not pleased.

"This is your fault you useless scrap of reality. Can't even stay quiet long enough to let me do what I need to do. Hell, you aren't even real. Never were. Some broken thing my friend dreamed up in his head for the soul purpose of protecting and sheltering his newly shattered mind. But I don't have time for this right now. Those breakers are gonna notice something's up soon, and it'll be easier if you aren't around."

The woman starts to stride towards the prone avatar, and you react instantly, Sidhe zipping forward to erect a barrier even as you start to fly into a blind rage, aiming to tackle the woman and keep her away. But as you draw close, you suddenly get this feeling from her, like everything is... is... is gonna be alright. Something is going to fix EVERYTHING.

Then you find yourself spinning through the air, "Emily" having just roundhouse kicked you in the head, displaying a remarkable amount of strength. Way more than a normal human should have...

"Lay down and stay quiet, Jean. Once I get rid of that annoyance, we'll get you all settled in and ready to go. Then you'll be back to normal again, and everything will be fine."

"Emily" strides towards the barrier, looking determined. You can't help but find it slightly funny, and cheer a little, as the woman slams headfirst into Sidhe's barrier, an expression of astonishment on her face. She places her hand on the barrier, glaring at nothing in particular for a moment, then leans her weight forward, a smile slowly spreading across her face as you watch the barrier simply rip open like paper, allowing her through. Sidhe freaks, the barrier dropping as she loses concentration, but by that time, "Emily" has already moved on, crouching next to you brother and ignoring the small fairy entirely.

"So annoying. So pointless. This thing was a bad idea in the end after all. This whole thing was pointless too. Who cares what a breaker thinks or feels? We'll just fix the problem in our own way. First thing first, though. What to do with you?"

"Emily" pokes the prone avatar, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth as her finger seems to sink into your brother's cheek, causing the material to start unraveling like threads. Your brother screams, and you feel the backlash come across a link you can't hope to describe, pain wracking your body. Pain and... familiarity.

If you can... this is the only chance you'll have to do anything. Maybe save your brother. Maybe kill this... whatever she is. And whatever you do, it better be done fast.

>>>Input Command

...damnit, I think Emily is the tear. She hasn't manifested anything, and the way she broke through Sidhe's barrier reads more as negating breaking than overpowering it. That, and she's literally unraveling our brother.

>what do
We're ready for a hail Mary, here, I think. Otherwise brother dies, and Guy as good as does after she messes with his head.

We still have our gun. And we never used our grenade. Just the flash-bang.

Draw and shoot her. That won't stop her, but it should distract her momentarily from the process of killing your brother. Then throw the grenade- or active break it right to her (or into her), to make sure it counts. (Or active break to counter her from stoping the grenade, on the off chance she trys to stop it). Sidhe throws up a bubble shield around her to contain the concussive force- hopefully protecting you (although, if not, saving your brother is certainly something worth spending your first death on), and redirecting all that energy that would have escaped outwards back into pulping Emily. That won't kill her, but there will be a delay while she has to reform an entire body blown to a fine red mist.

Then Sidhe blocks Windy's attacks while you grab your brother and gtfo. If possible, have him use sudden appearance to get to your side and out the door faster. Active break to close off the passage behind you- make the door part of the wall, collapse the ceiling, anything.

Ideally, we really want to warn your allies shit is going down and you're being attacked. I doubt you really have time to text all that on your phone, so burn another BP active breaking to do that.

...Everything's going to be alright? It's all going to be fixed?
Sonnova-We've NEVER gotten a BP readout from Guy EVER! Or a manifest cost or anything!
This isn't a Breaker! It never was a breaker! GUY WAS A CAKE ALL ALONG! A LIE!!! HE'S A FREAKING TEAR!!!!
Tell Sidhe to get out of here. Run. We're not a breaker! We're one of Them. We're a tear. D7 is producing tears in reality, and our brother was there to try and get us away from our true fate.
Tell Sidhe to run, fly away. Warn Jager, Warn Lira and Rise, tell them to contact everyone we've met and get out of dodge while they still can, as a final gift from the young breaker they took in. Because the next time they see Guy?
The hunt will be on for them.

Actually, let's take this to dis. See if we can run through the conflicting theories of what's really going on, and use that to try and plan some intelligent action.

Flailing around and either attacking or running blind likely results in Guy's death (or loss of self at least) as well as our brother's.

Are we on the lowest floor of this place? If not, active break the floor out from under her. Hell, even if so, break s pit under he. But not under Brother. At the very least, that should buy us a few seconds. Then... I wonder if we could break the air in the room to mostly be some sort of combustible gas, like propane, then Sidhe could use a prank to make a spark after putting a shield back up on Guy and Bro. That should alert everyone else that shits going down, screw with air guy, and maybe buy us some more time.

Thinking it over, there are a lot of things that could go wrong with this >>545159 (it won't work right if Emily isn't a tear, or if I'm wrong about the respawn time, or if we get caught in the blast too, etc).

Alternate plan: maybe we should opt to target the chair (and the ring above it), instead. If Emily needs it to mess with your memories, destroying it should ruin what she's planning. And attacking it should at least draw her attention away from your brother.

Hey! You want me in that chair? *lob grenade*

Use a shield around it to block the wind guy from knocking it away, and counter any attempted active breaks with your own. If Emily lunges for the grenade, shoot her in the back. >>545195 Active breaking the floor under the chair and/or Emily is a good idea too, a collapse, fall, or getting buried on a lower floor will probably take longer to recover from than a mere death. Sidhe might be able to stack a prank on the grenade too- make the blast worse, or shaped, or go off on impact instead of waiting out the timer.

(Best case we could actually stack this with my original plan- bomb the chair, Emily goes for it, and blow them both to hell).

After the immediate distraction (and destruction) you need to grab your brother and get the hell out of there. Again, any active break that covers your retreat or makes you harder to follow is a good one, and warning your allies ASAP is also a good idea.

>I wonder if we could break the air in the room to mostly be some sort of combustible gas
We've never had anyone try anything like that- we don't know what kind of spirit level would be needed for a reasonable success rate.

But I'm inclined to think something that massively changes the enviroment and is that dangerous in combat is beyond what spirit 4 can do. Especially if the person with an affinity for wind tries to block it.

>realizing way too late it's the chair from the first post
...huh.

You feel utterly worthless at the moment, and especially bad because your brother is both in danger, and completely right about coming here being a bad idea. Still, if you have any hope of getting out of this alive and not... whatever the hell the crazy chick wants to do with you, then its time for some desperate measures. Very desperate measures. Lets hope this goes well.

The first step is to distract the crazy bitch away from your brother. Thankfully, you have this convenient grenade you never used. Good thing you remembered to bring it. Would have been bad if you hadn't. It's only a flash-bang, but that's better than nothing, and all you need is a distraction anyway. You prep the thing, then smirk as you toss it at the thing that seems to be most precious to the woman.

"Hey! You want me in that chair, right?"

"Emily" turns, eyes flicking for a moment to you before catching sight of the grenade. With only seconds to react, she does something you'd never have thought of doing if you weren't sure she wasn't normal. She dives for the grenade, even as the other man, let's call him Breezy for now, does almost the same thing, lunging towards the chair in a bid to protect it. You take the opportunity to basically throw yourself at your brother, grabbing hold of him and covering your eyes and ears in hopes of foregoing some of the damage. Still, as seems to be the frequent case lately, someone else comes in to help save you unexpectedly. Sidhe, still attached to your shoulder, throws up another barrier, and you barely hear a soft thump as the grenade goes off right in "Emily's" face. You pick yourself up to the muffled sound of the woman screaming curses at nothing in particularly, and you manage to drag your brother out of the room as she's flailing about on the floor, along with her partner, who seems to be utterly confused about what just happened.

As you exit the room, your brother, while still obviously in pain, seems to pull himself back together somewhat and get himself on his feet. He shakes his head to rid himself of... something, then turns to you.

"NOW can we leave?"

"Yes! Sorry about not believing you!"

"Not exactly the time for a heart to heart, little bro!"

Just as you finish your conversation and start taking off down the corridor you'd come from, the wall behind you literally seems to disintegrate, and you feel that feeling of... nostalgia... hit you again like a sledgehammer. You'd seen something like this before...

"WHAT! THE! FUCK! THAT HURT, JEAN! THAT FUCKING HURT! YOU GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW, SO I CAN FIX YOU AND WE CAN GO BACK TO THE WAY WE WERE BEFORE!"

No one else seems to react at all to what she just said, but for some reason, you know it's not something meant to be heard in the traditional sense. It's something to be... felt. And understood. How you know, you have no clue, but you can't really bring yourself to care at the moment. Got to go, got to go, got to go!

As you reach an intersection, your brother skids to a halt glancing behind you in fear.

"So... we got some options brother of mine. We can head back to our gang and then bug out as quickly as possible, not suggested, by the way. We could head for the exit ourselves, and hightail it, which I think would be the better course of action, personally, I mean, live to fight another day and all that. Or... or we could try fighting her or something. Not sure what we'd do other than... that... but... I don't really want to do that. That isn't very fun, and that could have very bad consequences. Of course, I suppose that wouldn't really matter anymore in the end if she does whatever that chair does, but at the same time, that couldn't be much bet-"

"Brother! What the hell are you talking about?"

"Uh... That... you know... That... I... uh... can't really talk about it. Unless we do that... course, then, you'll know, and I won't really have to talk about it... Might want to hurry up on the decision making. Just my vote, if it counts, but I say we bug out. Hightail it. Be not here. The others can fend for themselves."

The walls around you are starting to... unravel... if they can be described that way. It's like they seem to be woven threads, and are just coming apart... This lady must be pissed...

>>>Input Command

....we have our cell phone, right? And even if it turns out there's no tower coverage here, or whatever Emily's doing creates interference, you're a breaker. We can active break around that. And Lira's thing is tech. We don't need to get to our allies- we just need to force a message through to them (or rather, her).

"Found something bad. REALLY bad. Take what you have and get out NOW. Meet outside, or on the way out."

Reroll and commit more than one BP if you have to. Whatever's going on can't block all breaks, and the time saved getting them to start moving on their own rather than having to get to them is well worth it.

...and if your brother brings up the fact your odds are better just running rather than worrying about them- it was your vote that got them here. And does he really think you're going to do well, alone? We need friends. You're not even sure you can trust yourself anymore. ...and maybe Lira got information we can use without going crazy.

Plan everyone bugs out.

>fight her
Not sure we even have a way to do that. (Although we do have a spirit 4 ability we haven't seen yet). She's not normal, and I don't think she's a breaker, either.

The unraveling would be consistent with a tear, I think. Although the shouting in Guy's head might support her being Jean's avy? But then again, I don't think an avatar would have been stunned by a flashbang.

Text the gang to get out of dodge while running for the hills. Tell them to just go-pack up and leave NOW. We'll figure out a plan to meet up later- for now we run- run to that breaker gang out west-a faction that large HAS to be powerful right?

Fated Decisions Guy 2013/11/04(Mon)04:54 No. 546606 ID: d77784
File 138356968398.jpg - (181.25KB , 1024x640 , demon_woman_by_anderson17-d62o6s1.jpg )

You quickly pull out your phone and tap out a text, probably the fastest text you'll ever make. You make it as small and direct as possible, then combo the text with a break, hoping it'll get through. For a moment, you feel the flicker of something, reality warping to meet your demands, only to have that feeling seemingly unravel in your hands. The text is saved, thankfully, and you take off towards the exit, even as you try texting again, hoping to see it work. This time, not only does the text not work again, but your phone almost literally unravels in your hands, like something else just ate it. You curse under your breath, and adjust your path, heading for the server room. Hopefully you can make it in time to get everyone.

As you race down the corridors, the odd feeling and the disappearing walls seem to fall behind you, although your brother seems very afraid regardless. By the time you make to your companions, you're out of breath and everyone simply stares at you confused. It's Rise who finally breaks the silence, moving forward slowly while giving you what you think is meant to be a comforting smile.

"Um, are you alri-"

"NO TIME!... Son of a- Didn't think I'd be able to run that long... We need to move.... NOW!"

"What? Wh-"

"EVIL PSYCHO CRAZY BITCH IS AFTER GUY! NOW LET'S GO!"

Your brother interjects quickly, you being out of breath making it difficult to communicate quickly, but regardless, everyone starts packing up quickly, and within moments you're already racing down the corridors to the exits. It's strangely quiet, all things considered, as you expected to find guards in your path at least, but instead all you get is a slight bree-

"Ah... Fuck."

"Wha-"

Jager is suddenly hurled through a wall an into another room, a form coalescing in front of him. You can vaguely make out some sort of body made of wind, and you get the distinct impression that this might be Mister Breezy from before, or at the very least, his doing. Regardless, as you skid to a halt to help, Sidhe suddenly throws up a barrier around the remainder of your group, and something explodes against the barrier. You watch it shatter, even as it takes all the force, and the little fairy on your shoulder shudders and lets out a horrible screeching sound that seems to stab into your very being. You get the distinct impression that she barely managed to block whatever it was, and it had hurt to do it. As you catch the little thing before she can slide from your shoulder, "Emily" steps from the shadows in front of you, looking distinctly different from before. More like her skin was literally cracking and flaking off, revealing some sort of glowing red substance. Perhaps more disturbing to you, was that you could actually feel reality dying around her, like it was simply unraveling itself. In fact, for some reason, you knew that was exactly what it was doing. Why would you know tha-

"STOP TRYING TO TAKE HIM FROM ME! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, YOU STUPID DOLL!"

The crazy psychotic bitch throws her will out, targeting your brother, and instinctively, you throw something right back, a little ball of reality. Surprisingly, when the two collide in the middle, your will pulls through, the reality you hurled out reaserrting itself and dispersing her attack. Even more surprising, it continues on and hits her square in the face, which sends her reeling in surprise, although it didn't seem to do too much to her otherwise. Still, you can't hope to win. Not with just that.

"Oh gods above..."

"Rise?"

"That's... she's one of those... things..."

"NO! NO NO NO! WE ARE NOT BROKEN! WE ARE NOT BROKEN! YOU'RE ALL THE ONES THAT ARE BROKEN! AND WE WERE SUPPOSED TO FIX YOU! JEAN WAS SUPPOSED TO FIX YOU!"

"Emily" pushes forward, undeterred by whatever you did, and as she draws closer, you see Rise and Lira suddenly collapse, looking almost like they're being strangled by something. Your brother seems unaffected, and moves to try to defend you, almost instantly locking himself into open combat with the woman, even as it looks like he's already outmatched. As you try to move to help, however, you find yourself pinned to the floor by a sudden increase in pressure around you. You glance up to find the windy figure standing over you, simply waiting. You can't leave it like this though. You've got to be able to do something. Anything.

And you feel it. In your gut. There, as always, is the power to break reality. Familiar now. Present now. It could help. If you are strong enough to break yourself more. To destroy your own mind in an attempt at freedom. A promise of strength without control.

Or... there is something else. Something new, or old, or nostalgic, or familiar, or foreign. You can't tell. Can't touch it without using it. But you can feel it, pounding away in your skull. Demanding your attention. You could use it. You could use it and save your friends. But at what cost?

"DON'T! BROTHER, NO MATTER WHAT! DO NOW TOUCH THAT!"

>>>Input Command

...Destroy your mind-unleash the Giga-Breaker form. If we need a final-one liner from Guy, something like this:
This is for you, bro.

She truly is a Tear, but this is fascinating- her 'shell' of humanity seems to be cracking as her emotions drive her further into crazy-ville. At the same time, she's more and increasingly overt about her destruction of Reality. I'm HOPING that the Tears are more 'working in the shadows' then 'outright warring with reality defenders' type. The former makes a hot-head like Emily bad news for them-her going nova will make the tears quite obvious, and better yet, could cause D7 to kick em out, as well as giving dudes like The Angel, and that Skull Slugger guy from before a BIG target to hit.
'warring basically means we just went 'FINAL DESTINATION! FOX ONLY!' early, and we can only hope we're not about to get our butts kicked.

>phone breaking blocked
Proof that tears can directly counter or negate breaking (although, hard to know if she was doing that deliberately, or if it was a side effect of being in cross proximity to an unraveling reality. Can't break what isn't there, after all).

Down 2 more BP. Puts us at 17 with the normalize from earlier, I think. (Not that our score really matters in these circumstances).

>reality ball
Okay, I have no idea what that was. Breaking to reassert reality where she unwove it? Countering a tear with raw reality? (If so though, where did he get it from? Stolen from his own thread?) Some weird thing that only works because Guy's apparently a breaker built on top of a memory-wiped tear?

(We still haven't died. I'm starting to wonder what would happen if we did- would Guy use death avoidance or regenerate? Might explain the D7 normalize we pulled off- it should have killed him, but he just endured).

...does confirm though that tears can have active powers. She's got some kind of ranged disruption attack.

>most the party locked down by windy
Dang it, he's pinning or strangling almost everyone, and they don't have weapons that will work against him. Sidhe might, but she's down after taking the tear's attack. I kind of doubt a quick dismiss or remainifestion will fix that, though. She's going to need time to recover.

Jager has active break, but he would have to think to use it. What would be nice is if, say, someone broke the ventilation system into overdrive and sucked breezy out of here. Give us a window of opportunity to act before he can counter it, or find a way back.

>break or... other
Break.

You don't know who Jean is, or why he chose to act the role of Guy. But this isn't acting for you anymore, it's real. You are the role. You're not interested in going back- in giving Emily what she wants. Breaking isn't about being broken- about needing to be fixed. It's about giving broken people the power to break the world back, give them what they need.

Maybe all your world's a play, but you'd rather break the rules than see the whole thing torn down.

Your decision is made before you even begin to think on it. You feel the break within your soul, the core of your being, the reality that makes you you, and you feel like you can grasp hold of it. And break yourself even more. Doing so comes with the promise of never coming back, of being as broken as one can get, but maybe, just maybe, you'll have the strength to fight this crazy bitch off. In the end, that is all you can hope for. Still, you take a moment to give one final thought to your brother, in hopes that he'll understand.

"This is for you, bro."

"Wha- NO! STO-"

The resulting explosion of reality seem to restore the environment around you, even as you feel your mind begin to warp and shift, ripping apart predefined notions of what breaking is. You see, perhaps for the only time, what you had been meant to do, both as a tear and as your new breaker form. And you also see that you'll never get to accomplish either of those tasks. Perhaps though, you can help that forgotten woman so far away by removing one of the most dangerous of her enemies, even if she'll never know of it.

Even as you find your mind begins to slip away, you focus on the task at hand. You only have a few minutes to set things right, and you know, even with everything that's happening, you'll have to sacrifice quite a bit to do it. For now though, that can come later. Now, the beast awakens, and you have a fight to get to.

"Guy? What the hell just-"

"No time, brother. We have maybe ten minutes, at most. We need to make this quick."

"... Alright. I'll believe in you. I don't know what you did, but... I feel flooded with power. And for once, I don't feel afraid of the crazy bitch."

Said crazy bitch is picking herself up from her spot on the floor, more cracks forming in her skin, and she growls in pain and rage. She's lost all semblance of humanity by this point. You can feel it. She thinks you are wrong. Knows you are wrong. If she can't fix you, then she'll erase you, like she's done to so many more.

Thankfully, you don't have a lack of power anymore.

>>>Input Command

Special Rules for this Combat:

Guy has temporarily and fatally gained the ability to utilize all three breaking manifestation types. These manifestations are not restricted to what he has on hand, instead, he may manifest at will what he desires. He may also survive Unraveling, and may break at whim. However, all uses of any of these abilities tears away at his own thread of reality, which can only be measured by feelings given in the narrative.

>manifest all
>burning ourselves for it.
..Let's keep this as mundane as we can.
Brother engages, we hold him solid.
For windy, IF he insists on being a pain, we manifest...Hrrm. I want to say something like 'anti-break' weapon, but that might use up reality fast to make. Then again, if Winds is tied up holding our friends down, then we can focus down Emily first, then deal with Breezy.

...I'm thinking we manifest some sort of shockwave generating power gauntlets for our Bro, so he can keep his distance to avoid being unmade(less burning of ourselves to prevent that), he can disrupt windy with shockwaves, and hit much harder.

Does this flooding with energy and restoration include Sidhe? If she's active again, her shield would be the quickest and cheapest way to free your allies from being strangled by Windy.

If she's not been revitalized, using some power or a break to help fix her is a good idea.

>fatally
...ouch. I was expecting breaking our mind to leave you a vegetable, not dead. A vegetable might still have had active avatars (just no ability to give them orders), and we might have had ways to fix a vegetable (George or the Nightmare focus, which might ave been encountered if Guy's surviving allies kept him around and continued west towards Rise's sister). Dead is not so fixable.

(Actually, I wonder if the avatars will remain active anyways? The situation is certainly fucked up enough to break normal rules, and it would kind of be fitting that Guy's last act might be to make his brother 'real').

>all three weapon types
>not limited by what's on hand
Which means, in addition to being able to manifest anything we could possibly think of, we could manifest anything we've seen any other character ever use. Which is possibly the more potent application- since we can draw on powers we already understand without the need for experimentation.

Ideally, we want to pick powers intelligently- so we get the most result using the fewest powers. Be nice if Guy's thread survived this, even if he does not.

>help her, even if she'll never know of it.
Your friends will, if they survive, and anything of your thread remains for them to remember. And Elizabeth will know. That's... something.

>possible min/maxing options
(brainstorming. Obviously, doing everything is a bad idea).

The Doctor. His power is the ability to manipulate foci / manifestations. If we tap into that we can get a cheap force multiplication- bolster or enhance our allies' weapons in such a way that they will be effective against an insubstantial foe like Windy and/or against the tear. We have spare foci (and our allies have looted spares too) that could be consumed to power this. (Dunno if such enhancements should be temporary, or toggle-able, the way manifesting an alternate ammo is? There's also the slight problem that by the normal rule of Doc modifications, upgrades are rest / lost, which might be a problem with Rise's weapon. Unless we can just burn more foci to circumvent).

The nightmare. One tactic I had actually planned for Linda if and when it came to a fight with McCarthy. If the tears are human enough to feel emotion- they're human enough to know fear. And that's a potential weakness to be exploited. (And windy is obviously not immune, either). Potentially the only way we actually know to hurt one of these things.

Twin ring? I'm not so sure about this one, but it duplicates manifestations along with wearer. Theoretically, could be used as a means to double our avatars. Although if the duped avies end up Twinda-dumb, they're not much use in combat. Not the most reliable plan.

If we really want an anti-breaking weapon, there's Linda's shotgun. Which... could probably be used to shut down Windy, but probably be useless against the tear. The blue potion might give us a little more power to burn, staving off eating through Guy's thread.

As cool as trying to game precog might be, the oracle eye probably isn't workable. Sudden use of it would be too overwhelming, and I'm not sure it would work right in close proximity to so much damage to the weave. (Hard to read the future in the threads as Emily shreds them).

If we really wanted to try and meta-game, we could try manifesting Angelica. Force the warden to help us maintain reality. She has knowledge and an understanding of the weave and reality that could make this fight easier. And if we're burning through Guy's thread, she could be forced to provide us with an alternate source of raw reality- something else to feed the fire or bolster ourself (eat Windy, maybe? Or whatever shell 'Emily' was hiding behind?). Downside is pulling her back into reality may not be possible, or might be really expensive to pull off.

>our biggest problem
We can think of all kinds of fancy ways to protect ourselves, or attack, but we don't actually know what kills a tear. I'm not sure just pumping damage will do the trick. Any insight from your new awakened perspective, Guy? How does one close or patch tear?

Thinking literally, she's a tear. How do you mend a tear in reality? Sew it up. One very specific but complex break: Wrap a new reality around here. Give her a past, a life. Repair the tear by making her human.

Whether that's even possible depends on how tear effect everyone else. We've performed at least one wide-area context sensitive break, but that was harnessing a whole mass of breakers to do the fine work while we just pointed them together. This time we'd need to finesse everything.

>>546745
Yeah, that's probably how one undoes or depowers or destroys a tear (if the being is the absence or damage in the weave, it's hard to say what patching it does. Turns them normal, kills them, makes them cease to exist, or erases them from the timeline the same way destroying a person's thread does). I think the problem is we need to subdue her first. It's a lot harder to sew up a moving tear, or one that can unravel the thread you're trying to use, as it were.

>>546757
Probably can't erase her entirely. She's been around for a while, so has torn through a lot of reality. Fixing that perfectly is going to be nigh impossible, but just trying to sew it up it leaves an obvious patch. So that patch itself needs to fill in for the history that the tear created.

In the short term; revitalise and soup up Sidhe to allow her to contain the Tear with an inverted shield. We can then focus for a bit on helping our allies with Windy before tackling the Tear herself.

Your head throbs as you tear a piece of yourself clean from your threads, wrapping the small fairy in your hands in them and "breathing" life back into the small frame. For a moment, there's no sign of activity at all, but you can feel it. She's alive. And not just the fake life that your brother has, or that she had before, she has her own thread, constructed from threads torn from your own, and it pulses with the weight of reality. She'll last even without a wielder now, and perhaps more importantly, her own powers have amplified considerably. You hear the tinkling of bells as she awakens, and an explosion of rainbows in your mind, then the wind that seems to whip around you is suddenly cut off, and out of nowhere, there's an unnatural giggling sound, like a child possessed. There's a sudden crack, and Mr. Breezy suddenly finds himself captured inside a collapsed shield created by Sidhe. Perhaps even more helpful, is that Sidhe doesn't seem to need to centralize her shield around herself anymore.

That issue taken care of, your companions are freed from being suffocated to death, but left in no real condition to fight. Not that you would want them to in the first place. Your brother, on the other hand, seems to draw on your increased power, and as "Emily" moves forward to, preparing to hurl another ball of... whatever... your brother suddenly appears in front of her and, smiling like a maniac, smashes his fist into her face, hurling her into a backwards flip that ends with her on the ground. Almost instantly, your brother is on top of her, and his fist continually smashes into her skull, sending flakes of human "bits" hurtling off of her form and revealing more of that reddish color under her body. "Emily" can do little but take it for a few precious seconds, allowing you time to move your friends to a safer location via breaking. The burst of light that enveloped your companions seems to surprise them, but Rise seems to be the only one who reacts in time, shooting forwards to try to grab hold of you and do... something. You smile a little, happy that even now she's trying to look out for you, but you've set your course. There's little she or anyone else can do for you now.

"What is going on, Guy?"

"I'm keeping you all safe. Make your way west, Rise. You'll find your sister. I'm sure of it. Oh... take Sidhe and Mr. Breezy with you, why don't you? They'll be safe in your hands, I'm sure."

A splash of reds and greens flood your thoughts, and you get the idea that Sidhe is not happy with the proposed plan. Too bad it isn't a democracy. The light widens, encompassing the small fairy, and you find your smile widen as you let go of your connection to your second avatar. She'll be fine. You know it. You feel a sharp pain shoot through your body suddenly, you seem to be taxing yourself heavily just to keep them safe, but... it would be worth it. You hoped. Then they were gone, disappearing much farther west, safely out of the hands of this particular demon of reality.

In your lack of attention, however, your brother has been literally half-disintegrated, and yet is still smashing his free hand into the enemy. You let more of your power out of repair the damage, feeling more pain shoot through you, but for the moment, your brother can keep the enemy pinned. Now all that remains is a final plan. A final desperate attempt.

And a decision as to how you plan to attempt to "kill" your opponent.

>>>Input Command

Do we still have our gun? Shoot her in the face. Counter it if she tries to unravel her, but just shoot her in the face.

So Guy breaks his allies the hell out of there even when not ordered to. Hmm. Good on you, I suppose. Sticking to those values even when we don't remind you of them.

...there's also an opportunity to cheat, and given them a better explanation, if you want. You could leave a break message a la Aria or Elizabeth on one of them. When they eventually notice it and activate / break it, 'you' can tell them what happened. (Assuming Lira didn't get enough of the story from the computer).

>time to finish this
Draw your gun. You took it up and practiced with it as a way to defend yourself- so you could contribute directly to a fight. Seems fitting that you use it to finish this.

Break or manifest it into something different (or so it fires something different), if that's what you need to finish the job. (Ie, change it so it actually hurts her).

...looks like our first death is gonna be our last.

You slide the pistol from it's holster, eyeing your target. She's screaming incoherently at this point, the occasional understandable word making it seem like gibberish at this point, but as you stride forward, she seems to suddenly realize you're still there, and her attention sharpens again, in a way, looking almost pleading.

"JEAN! JeAn! You're still here! Help me! Save me! There's still time. Time to fix this! Time to make everything better! Everything can be like it used to be! You and me! Together..."

"... No. We... I'm not who I used to be. And in the end, that's all that matters. I don't know who or what I was. But I am what I am... I'm sorry. But this needs to end."

You aim and fire a round right into her forehead, and she drops, surprise written on her face. Then anger. She starts to do her regeneration trick, but you put another round into her skull. Again, she starts to regenerate, but your brother smashes his fist into her face, forcing her head to the floor again. You focus a moment, ripping threads of your own reality out in order to form the pistol in your hands into a more appropriate weapon, the pistol practically humming with power, and the dull heartbeat of reality seeming to come from the weapon. For a moment before you take aim and fire again, you see an odd mix of emotions form on the woman's face. Fear. Anger. Sorrow... Relief. In that moment, you feel calm, and that throbbing in your head subsides completely, as if something inside of you is ready for what comes next. A name floats into your thoughts, and memories of a different, happier time...

"Goodbye... Isabelle. Sleep well. I'll be joining you soon enough."

You fire the weapon, and Isabelle, the round penetrating into the red material of her skull, collapses backwards, staring at nothing. For a moment, nothing seems to happen, then her body simply dissolves, and all the threads she's destroyed and consumed escape once again into the fabric of the Weave. You collapse yourself, back against the wall, and your brother joins you, sitting next to you, looking as tired as you feel.

"So, Guy... this is it, huh?"

"Yeah... this is it."

"Heh... I'm sorry."

"What do you mean?"

"I knew. I mean, I kinda knew. What you were, what you are, what you were supposed to do."

"... That's fine. I remember now, but it really doesn't matter anymore. I had a new purpose, and... that didn't work out too well either. All I've really left behind it three friends and an avatar that doesn't need a wielder anymore. I'd do that for you too, but..."

"I understand, little brother. Time to head into oblivion, huh?"

"Just about... one last thing to do, though. This gun... it'll be important, I think. Very important. So... last thing to do with what's left of my threads."

You reach out towards the weapon in your hands and condense it, wrapping it in reality and forcing it to compact into a smaller form, the bullet that clatters to the floor after that still has that heartbeat sensation, but you're too weak to pick it up. So... weak...

"Brother?"

"Yeah?"

"Were you ever... real?"

"... I'm as real as you want me to be, little brother."

"... Then... I think I'll keep on believing in this dream of mine... it was... warmer... than my reality."

"Hush, little brother. It's alright now. Time to sleep."

"... Alright... Goodnight... Brother..."

The disappearance of a single strand is barely noticed by reality or its observers. At least, by most of them. Far to the west, in the City of the Sun, a 17 year old girl jolts awake from her musing of the future to stare eastward, eyes watching intently. For a moment, there is something, a powerful influence, a changer of stories, a Weaver of Threads. Then, mere minutes later, those threads burn away, lost forever. The Weave, as always, works in mysterious ways, and with no one around, the knowing smile of the girl goes unnoticed by all.

Another piece of the puzzle has been born into reality.

-----------------------

Westward of the Capital City, in the plains of the middle states, a group of breakers appears, dazed and incredibly confused. A sound like tinkling bells catches the attention of one of them, and as the woman stands, a fairy lands on her shoulder.

"What... what happened? Where's... Who am I looking for?"

For a moment, the woman seems lost in thought, but the two with her orient themselves and interrupt her thoughts.

"Rise? Rise, we gotta go."

"Yes, you are... you are right."

"Me and Lira are headed south, towards the LR. You're free to join us..."

"No... No, I have to find my sister. She's in the west. I'll head that way."

"Alright. Maybe we'll see you again someday. Lira made a copy of the data she stole for you. You can take that with you to give to this breaker group out there. Maybe that'll convince them to help you."

"Maybe... Sidhe, where are you going to go now?"

The fairy makes no outward comment, but seems to settle more solidly on Rise's shoulder. The woman nods her acceptance, and turns east one last time, as if expecting... something... before turning away and starting her journey west. Hopefully, it would not take too long.

-----------------------

The last strands burned away as Jean sat there, staring at the remains of his original body. Guy. Huh. He felt... unhappy. Sorrow. What an odd feeling. Tears streamed down his face and he didn't know why. Regardless, this experiment had gone... unexpectedly. The death of his "sister" had been a pleasant, if unwanted, surprise. To think such a thing would happen. Regardless, to unknowingly cause so many problems... How unexpected. He'd almost been pulled back into the fake a couple of times as well. That would have ended... badly.

Still, his brothers remained unaware of his experiments, and furthermore, he was certain that this new focus laying at his feet would prove useful in the continued development of the unmaker rounds. With that, perhaps he'd be able to help her-

Jean shook his head, looking surprised. Mental contamination couldn't have... could it? This was a problem. A very large problem. If he wasn't careful, he might cause her har-

"Damn it all! All that effort and yet-"

Jean paused and took a calming breath. Perhaps... in the end, this might not be such a bad thing after all. As a tear, Jean had no purpose. No driving force behind him, at least, none that he was allowed to know. He was the youngest, after all, and was not as trusted among the others as he would like. This new, unpleasant desire in his heart, the almost physical need to help HER... it was a purpose. Something to strive for. And something to throw in the face of his siblings.

Perhaps... perhaps... perhaps...

Only time would tell in the end, after all. Jean picked himself up, brushed himself off, and bent down, picking up the focus and tossing it up into the air before catching it again and pocketing it. He might have to rip through time now. What a pleasant thought. He'd never done it before. He couldn't let Lira and Jager get to the LR with such valuable information. That was for HER and HER alone. Killing them would be pointless and painful... heh odd feeling again... but making them harmless... yes, good decision.

"So much to do. So little time."

Good god did we convert a tear to our side?