Alternative Tactics, First Period, Wednesday, October 3

[the_merriest]

Peter	Peter waited until the rest of the class was gathered in the Danger Shop before he got up before them. "Professor Kerrigan was called away today so she won't be with us. I have a few notes though for what we should go over and hopefully the Danger Shop will cooperate." He turned to try to fiddle with the controls to pull up a scenario.
Rikku	Rikku raised her hand. "Where is she?"
Peter	"Not here," Peter answered shortly.
Rikku	"I know that," Rikku said, rolling her eyes. "But I was just in her office yesterday and she totally didn't say she'd be gone and I wanted to kill stuff."
Peter	Peter eyed her, not in the mood. "Sorry to disappoint. When a commanding officer tells me something, I don't generally bother with the requests for more information."
Rikku	"It's not your fault," Rikku said with a sigh. She nodded to the controls. "Just kinda feeling all bleh. So what are we fighting?"
Peter	He looked at his note then down at the controls of the Danger Shop again. "No idea. It's not working anyway so we'll have to do something different."
Rikku	"I know something we can do!" Rikku said, bouncing up and clapping her hands. "Something she just put in there! I do! Can I pull it up? Pleeeease?"
Peter	"Perhaps you could just try to pull up the one she programmed?" Peter asked.
Rikku	"Totally!" Rikku said, running up to the display. She entered a series of number into the console, then started playing with the switches. "Come on, come on," she muttered. "A-ha!" The room flickered, and they were standing on a platform in what appeared to be space. A pale woman wearing a bikini and decorative jewelry faded into view, long blue hair curling to the ground. "I knew it was in here," Rikku said. "Just had to find it."
Peter	Peter glared at her. "Why do I doubt that's what Professor Kerrigan had in mind? Doesn't seem her style somehow."
Yunalesca	The woman stepped forward, one arm out. "It is better for you to die in hope, than to live in despair," she said, her voice chilling and yet soothing. "Let me be your liberator."
Rikku	"Shut up, you!" Rikku yelled, stamping her foot. "No, it isn't, and you're evil and crazy and we already killed you once!" She cleared her throat and turned to Peter and the rest of the class. "This is Yunalesca. She's evil and crazy and we killed her once. Uh. Which I just said. And now you have to! For class. 'Cause ... I didn't know how to find anything else."
Peter	He pulled Rikku to the side, less politely than he normally would deal with a girl. "What is this?" he whispered scoldingly. "Put it back to Kerrigan's program, Rikku. This is a class, not time to fool around."
Yunalesca	The woman was still speaking, sweeping an arm around to the students. "Without hope, you will drown in your sorrow."
Rikku	"I didn't know you were going to talk!" Rikku yelled again, glaring at the tall figure. She turned back to Peter and lowered her voice. "I'm not fooling around, honest! This is the only thing I know how to find. She's this evil undead high priestess of a crazy religion and we had to kill her 'cause she was the reason the world was all wrong for a thousand years. Part of the reason. She lies and she's evil and she ... she killed a friend of mine. I almost didn't make it, either."
Peter	He glanced down at the ground then back up to meet Rikku's eyes, feeling ashamed of himself. "I'm sorry. I was dreadfully rude. What do we need to do?
Rikku	Rikku swallowed. "No, it's ... you're right, maybe this is too much. This is kinda ... I wanted to fight her again 'cause ... I don't know how this one ended. I failed, you know? I woke up later and it was over." She shivered. "It's ... there's a trick to it. All of it. We can ... go in groups, there are counters to everything she does. But ... maybe we shouldn't. If you think we shouldn't, we can turn it off."
Yunalesca	"You poor fools," she cooed, "you would throw away hope."
Rikku	Rikku narrowed her eyes. "But first I gotta kick her teeth in for trying to get Yunie to kill herself. Uh. Then we can turn her off."
Peter	He eyed the evil undead high priestess thing then looked back at Rikku. "Very well then. Forget about turning her off. Let's kill her."
Rikku	"You mean it?" Rikku grinned. "Awesome." She stepped in front of the class again. "Okay, so, Peter's really cool and all that and ... uh ... he's gonna let us take her on. But you have to be careful, okay? She's evil and vicious and most importantly, don't listen to her talk because she's trying to tell you that you should give up. You came here to save the world. She's saying you can't, and you should throw away some of your friends on a stupid PR stunt that'll make people feel like it's saved, but it won't be. Don't believe her. There's always a way. You can find one. And that's almost as important as whatever the heck you're gonna learn from fighting her. All right?" She looked over at Peter uncertainly. "You, uh, you fight with a sword, right?"
Peter	"I do," he agreed, giving her a half-bow. He glanced at the class. "The Lady's in charge."
Rikku	Rikku flushed, not sure she'd ever been called a Lady. "Okay. I, uh, I need to show them something that's gonna happen, if they attack her. Could you ... will you run up to her and just ... lay into her? One good slash? Something weird's gonna happen right afterwards but it won't hurt, and more importantly, I can undo it. I promise."
Peter	"I can try," Peter said, glancing around and settling on the rack of weapons that had materialised with the program. He stepped forward to take a sword, hefting it carefully to get a feel for its weight. He kept an eye on the witch-queen and, moving quickly, feinted high before slashing low across her abdomen.
Yunalesca	Yunalesca made no move to block him. Instead, once he had finished swinging, she raised her hand and dropped it again. A black mist swirled around Peter's head.
Peter	Peter jerked back, training returning his sword automatically to a guard position even as he shook his head, trying to get rid of the black mist blocking his vision.
Rikku	Rikku had grabbed a bottle from the Danger Shop setup as he was running up. She uncorked it and tossed it contents towards Peter, dissipating the mist. "She counters physical attacks with Darkness," Rikku said. "It blinds you until someone takes it off again. Magic, she counters with Silence - you won't be able to cast until you get it cleared. And anything that's not either of those, like the bombs I'm gonna toss?" She crouched and was mixing two items from her leg-pouch as she talked. "She's gonna counter with Sleep. Kick me or something to wake me up, okay?" Without waiting for a reaction, Rikku tossed her concoction at Yunalesca.
Yunalesca	Once again, Yunalesca made no move to prevent the massive explosion. When it finished, she dropped her hand.
Rikku	And Rikku fell over.
Peter	Rather pleased with the being able to see again thing, Peter watched Rikku's throw and the reaction. And then rushed towards Rikku, sword back at his side, to kneel down to shake her back awake. "You sure this is a good idea?" he murmured.
Rikku	Rikku sat up quickly. "Very sure," she muttered, shivering a little. "It's not so hard, when you've got a team. But you need a team. You can't ... do this fight alone. And she takes forever standing there talking so you can usually fix things before she starts hitting back." She stretched a little and bounced up. "Okay. What you need to fight her: Remedies, for anybody that's been hit with something. It'll fix Sleep, Silence, and Darkness. Healing Potions, because she's gonna take a chunk out of you before you get anywhere. But be careful with those. She can turn things inside out, so Healing poisons you. If you're glowing green, you've been Zombied. Don't heal. And last, Holy Water. It can undo the green glow and all that badness. Take it if you need to, 'cause you're hurt bad and you need to heal? But you don't want to. The green glow is the only thing that's gonna save you." She took a deep breath. "This fight is hard but not if you watch each other's back, okay? Pair up and let her outsmart herself. She always does. You can do this. Don't listen to her. Go ahead and save the world. Any questions?"

(OOC: Co-written with the way-awesome once_a_king. Video of Yunalesca's intro is here. More info in the OCD threads. Wait for them! GAME ON.)

(ETA: Two very important things, sorry I didn't make this clear earlier! (1) some of Yunalesca's attacks are not dodgeable, such as the Healing spells and the Hellbiter move, which is why they're stated as "X hits you" and not "X moves towards you." (2) If you're a Zombie, and someone Heals you, you stay a Zombie, and the Healing spell actually injures you. This is why she heals so much; it works fast on Zombie enemies.)

Comments

Sign In

[the_merriest]

With your butt-kicking-est icon.

Re: Sign In

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

Lee Adama

Pair Up and Get Supplies

[the_merriest]

Find a fight-buddy. Get a weapon from the immense stash - there are swords, guns, claws, everything up to and including blitzballs here. There are even wands and dolls for Magic casters. If you can use it to lay some hurt down, it's here.

You also want to grab some Remedies and Healing Potions. Possibly some Phoenix Downs, in case either of you black out.

Re: Pair Up and Get Supplies

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

Lee went immediately for the guns. He was most comfortable with those and had the most skill with them. Once he'd picked out one big one and one smaller one, he looked around for a partner.

Re: Pair Up and Get Supplies

[im-afrog.livejournal.com]

Adam moved for the staff. He also grabbed a small sword, just in case. He wasn't exactly planning on using it if he didn't have to.

He also picked up a few remedies, healing potions and phoenix downs. You know, just in case. Adam then glanced around, looking for a partner.

Re: Pair Up and Get Supplies

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

Sokka immediately grabbed a boomerang. And a club. And a submachine gun. And a machete, for good measure.

Then he stood blinking at the remedies and potions and things with his hands full. "Can I get, like, a bag or something?"

Re: Pair Up and Get Supplies

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

The claws reminded Anemone of TheEND's talons, and she sat down to sort through all the different options as she glanced about for a partner. This was going to be awesome.

Re: Pair Up and Get Supplies

[multiplez]

Z collected a gun and a few healing thingies, then looked around for a partner.

Talk to Yunalesca, Pre-Fight

[the_merriest]

Hey, if you want to chat with the insane evil witch-queen high priestess, go to town.

But she's crazy.

(Video evidence of that would be here.)

Re: Talk to Yunalesca, Pre-Fight

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

"YOU'RE GOING DOWN, LADY!!!"

The Fight: Round 1

[the_merriest]

Yunalesca cross her arms over her chest, focuses, and then springs up into the air, trailing these strange tongue-shaped appendages. Two of them form a lovely footrest for her. The rest are jammed into the ground.

"Watch out for Hellbiter!" Rikku calls out. "The tongues will hop out of the ground and smack you. If you get hit, you're glowing bright green and that means you're a zombie. And if you are a zombie, no healing, remember?"

(Videos: transformation into second form, and Hellbiter.)

Re: The Fight: Round 1

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

"We ready?" Sokka asked, with a grin. "Molly, you get in close, and Sam and I'll float back a bit. This lady can't be all THAT tough if Orangey took her out. Let's DO THIS!!!"

Re: The Fight: Round 1

[im-afrog.livejournal.com]

"You ready?" Adam asked Billy, making sure his weapons were in hand and the potions and other objects were ready to use, should they need it.

Re: The Fight: Round 1

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"This..." Luke said, staring at the tongues, then at Z, "could be a really terrible idea."

The Fight: Round 2

[the_merriest]

Yunalesca's tongue appendages slide back down into the ground. She pushes off with her feet, this time rocketing backwards as an immense freakish head pops out of the ground. It settles itself, the eyes glowing red at you. The appendages now have skulls on the end.

"I hate this stupid head," Rikku mutters. "Okay, listen! Make sure at least one of you two is still a zombie, because sooner or later she's gonna cast Megadeath at you. If you see a little purple dude in a cloak and some floating urns? It's already too late. Whoever isn't a zombie is dead. There's no counter for it, there's no defense against it. That's it. And if she casts Mind Blast on you, you've got a 50/50 chance of going crazy and attacking each other, so keep those Remedies handy, okay? Luckily, if you get hit again, you'll snap out of it. So, uh, it shouldn't be too bad, right? Right!"

(Videos: transformation into third form, and Megadeath.)

Re: The Fight: Round 2

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

Sokka took one look at the head and screamed shrilly.

And then winced, because ow, he'd taken a beating.

Re: The Fight: Round 2

[multiplez]

Once Z could see again, she said, "Shouldn't she be skyscraper sized by now? That's what'd be happening back home! I mean," she added quickly, "not that I'm complaining or anything."

Yunalesca Dies

[the_merriest]

The freakish head screams, turns black, and falls back to the ground. All of the appendages flop uselessly.

"We did it!" Rikku declares, bouncing excitedly. "That psycho b- ... priestess lady is gone!"

Awwww yeah. Celebrate here.

(Videos: ding dong, she's dead.)

Talk to Peter

[the_merriest]

Because he's a king with a badass sword, and you aren't, yo.

Re: Talk to Peter

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter was there, looking in a better mood than he'd been in at the start of the class.

Talk to Rikku

[the_merriest]

Ask what the hell's wrong with her world that she had to fight an insane undead head-thing.

OOC

[the_merriest]

This is the second-hardest boss in Final Fantasy X. (Not counting the hidden optional bosses that you need to go level up an insane amount just to try - the normal storyline ones.) It's also damn near impossible if you don't know that "megadeath doesn't kill zombies" trick. You get to round 3 of the boss fight and boom! Everyone's instakilled, game over. Fun times.

For any FFX afficionados wondering about the crazy stats of the fighters from these clips - I ripped the videos from a storyline-only file that happens to include boss fights. It's apparently a hacked game, because everyone has high stats and barely takes any damage and they have all their overdrives at the start of the game WTF.

Thanks to on_her_korhal and once_a_king for letting me play. Hope this works out.

Re: OOC

[dark_slippy_thing]

Bloody awesome class, dude.

It's a shame that Mikey is on hiatus with his bros. He'd be all over this. :D

Re: OOC

[the_merriest]

Crashing out for sleep, will pick up pings when I wake!

Re: OOC

[oncourtandstage.livejournal.com]

... Sure I can't just audit this class for the day? ^^;; Seriously. So frakking awesome.