The ongoing adventures of Florida Mage!

[fullthrottleammy]

Who: Amaterasu, Nana, Jolyne, Tobias, and Akechi
What: Making sure that Giant Alligators won't be a problem anymore
When: August 8th
Where: Florida

[Amaterasu leads the students to a swamp in the depths of Florida. Anyone who attended her Greensprout lessons should be able to create a Lilly-pad to avoid trudging through the muck, everyone else will get one provided by Ammy.

There are the occasional shapes moving through the murk, some of which don't resemble any actual aquatic animal. Amaterasu herself seems a little on edge, something about this just doesn't feel right.]

Comments

Preparations!

[fullthrottleammy]

[If anyone has questions, comments, or concerns, now's the time to speak up.]

[foolishjustice]

[Akechi has a question! Or maybe a comment or concern, considering he's leaning against the nearest source of shade and panting.]

How...do people survive here?

[fullthrottleammy]

I suppose they just get used to the heat. But if it's bothering you that much...

[Ammy pulls out a rosary, which seems to emit an aura of cold.]

[strings_theory]

[Akechi, please. She's side-eyeing him for a moment and shaking her head slowly.]

You learn to get used to it, is fuckin' how. [Oh, right, she's kind of from this area, that's... actually probably going to explain a lot.]

It's better beach side than swamp side, obviously.

Gators!

[fullthrottleammy]

[After a while of exploring, an Alligator about four times the size of a normal one bursts out of the water. Rather than Ammy or the students, it seems to be going after the Lilly-pads.]

[strings_theory]

[Excuse fucking you, gator. Jolyne's huffing to herself as she's quickly summoning Stone Free and using the damn thing to launch herself at the gator properly. Because she's an absolute heathen and thinks it's a great idea to go for the back of this thing to try to get some strings around its gaping maw. That's a way to stop it, right?

Let her be the Florida Woman she deserves to be, dammit. Or, you know, ruin her fun. One of the two. But Stone Free looks as perplexed as anyone else behind those weird sunglasses.]

[foolishjustice]

[Now that's just rude. Akechi, already in his princely outfit, summons his own familiar. But rather than lunging or launching a spell, the gray skinned woman conjures...a brightly colored boxing glove on a spring. It might look silly, but it's scarily precise...it has a high chance of sending the gator reeling from a direct hit to the snout.]

[hawkwardness]

[He's their eyes in the sky, the weather's great for soaring. Florida heat is actually his friend, the thermals are awesome.

Crazy people punching gators, not so awesome. Not awesome at all. Is everyone insane. Didn't anyone bring a gun??]

< Hey! Hey! What are you--I think they need some help over there! >

[playitagain]

[Nana is in her... well, it's not a princely outfit; it is a vaguely military-like coat, with a sash, skirt, and boots. She walks along with two katanas out, and then she slows to a stop. She opens her mouth, and closes it when Jolyne punches a Gator.

She looks at the direction that Tobias indicated.]

I'll go help.

[She leaps. HOORAY, BIRD FRIEND.]

Be careful, all of you!

[fullthrottleammy]

[The Miracle Punch does successfully stun the gator! However, being as large as four normal gators means being as heavy, so it promptly begins to sink. Unless Jolyne detaches her strings quick, it's going to drag her down with it.

Ammy, for her part, is about to attack the gator herself, but suddenly she tenses and jumps into the air just in time to avoid the jaws of another gator coming in from the waters below her lilly-pad. With a quick flick of her brush a bomb appears in it's open mouth, quickly exploding. As the wounded gator retreats, Ammy lands on the surface of the water, not sinking at all.]

This isn't right. Normally even predators would never attack a nature goddess. Well, I suppose normal went out the window with them being giant alligators anyway.

[strings_theory]

[Good for them that she's smart enough to carry a small knife on her at this point to cut the strings free and get the fuck out of the water and onto the nearest somewhat stable surface. Even if she's letting out an annoyed sigh and trying to shake a bit of water off of her. Please just ignore her fingers kinda being... gone... from the tip to the first knuckle. It's fine, she's fine.]

No fucking shit, last I remember of the Everglades, these bastards only attack when they have an opportunity to, they'd rather fuckin' run otherwise. So there's a lot wrong with these damn things.

[But god she fucking hates the swamps.]

I remember this being more fun as a kid.

[hawkwardness]

< It ate your fingers! Please tell me you noticed that! >

[Props to his ridiculous hawk vision, even from half a mile up. What is this, he cannot even. What is wrong with these people?? Does no one feel pain?!]

[strings_theory]

[Huh? She's blinking and looking at her hands, oh, that.]

Nah, didn't eat my fingers. That's kind of a draw back with the strings, it's pretty much unwinding my fuckin' body.

It'll heal. Probably.

[playitagain]

[Nana glances at Jolyne -- she grimaces -- and then she glances at Jolyne, as she walks up. Her eyes are on her fingers, for a second; then, she looks at Ammy.]

Are there more of those things...?

[foolishjustice]

You don't sound particularly confident...you should probably get that looked at, later.

[For now, though...it's a shame they're all in contact with the water, directly or otherwise. A Mazionga would be incredibly effective here.]

If everyone can get to something that doesn't conduct electricity, I can make sure I'll get all of them.

[fullthrottleammy]

I really doubt there are only two. For all we know, the swamp is full of them.

As for the electricity, the Lilly-pads should be enough.

[A quick circle, and a new one appears beneath Ammy.]

[strings_theory]

In my defense, I've only really had this power for a few months, still learning on how much I can get away with. [But it was either that or get dragged down into the water by a huge mutated gator, she'll take her chances.]

Oh come on, don't ruin the fun by killing them all like that. Let me have my fucking destiny as Florida Woman for two seconds, damn. [Is... she serious? Who knows, she's saying that with the straightest face.]

[playitagain]

It took me awhile to really learn how to use my Flame. I think you're doing very well, Jolyne. [She says that to Jolyne -- and then she hops onto a lilypad, staying put.

She glances at Akechi.]

I'm ready. Jolyne, maybe we can mop up the ones that aren't taken care of? And you can--

...what's a Florida Woman?

[hawkwardness]

[No sign of any ominous ripples in the water yet, he's been quiet for a few moments.]

< You know, if you can pin one down alive for about thirty seconds, I think I can add it to my morphs. >

[Can't stop won't stop.]

[foolishjustice]

I doubt this spell will kill them outright, especially not spread out like this. It might stun, though.

[And so, he calls on his Persona's power again to send a wave of electricity into the water. It's a mid-tier spell, so it should have enough oomph to it to at least hurt the gators, though he's right in that it's going to lose some power to being spread out through the water.]

[fullthrottleammy]

[Something strange happens when Akechi calls on his Persona. The gator that isn't still reeling jumps out of the water at the exact moment the lightning strikes, leaving it ineffective. The one that was stunned, however, seems to now be unconscious.

Ammy's too late to stop it from avoiding the lightning, but she is swift enough to Power Slash it out of the air before it's able to crush anyone.]

Uh. Anyone got any clue what just happened?

[strings_theory]

[Oh my god, Nana.]

Long story, explain it later. [And... honestly, that's kind of cool, what the fuck just happened there. Even if Jolyne's making an annoyed noise in the back of her throat once the gators seem to be mostly handled. That's rude, she wanted to do more shit to them. But fine, she guesses.]

I'm guessin' whatever magic mutated them also increased their intelligence, they usually aren't that smart. Something something as old as fucking dinosaurs something something, I don't know, I'm not a fucking biologist. [... Why is there such a bitter bite to that last part in her tone? Huh.]

[hawkwardness]

[Incoming!

Yep, he's going for the Frankengator that seems to be unconscious, but alive--the one that can't snatch him out of the air and probably swallow him whole. Thirty seconds, that's all it should take him to dive, latch on to it, acquire and get clear...]

< Geez. I hope we don't get where we're going just to find out they ate whoever made them. >

[playitagain]

I'd hope they're smarter than that, Tobias...

[She frowns at the two gators. There's a longer look at the one that Ammy struck down.

Just in case it gets back up.]

Mages!

[fullthrottleammy]

"I told you Jeremiah, the Gators shouldn't have been our only defense!"

"Eziekal, we've gone over this a hundred times! We don't have the resources for more chimeras right now, and the Piranha Poodles would have been too much!"

"Oh, just you wait until I tell Ma!"

[When the group arrives, two men, seemingly brothers, are shouting at each other at the top of their lungs. They don't seem to have noticed the group yet.]

MA!

[fullthrottleammy]

"So, you folks managed to get past my boys, huh? Well too bad for you, I taught them everything they know! Now get outta my swamp, or you won't be leaving at all."

[The woman known as "Mother Magnolia" cocks her shotgun, eyes leering from the cages behind her. It seems she's the leader of these swamp mages.]