live gradivus reaction
somewhat mild anachronism just because it's funny. i really did almost do it first try. twice (which is not first try !). some random drill stomp idk dude. actually i guess this would be the cost of killing it. it kills me faster
Dinosaurs. Trilobites. Tyrannosaurus teeth and tusks on trunks on elephants.
Seren tries, at Seer's cheerful entreaty, to be better about their appreciation of some of the funkier wildlife on Mira. It's probably indicative of their overall aesthetic preference, that their preference in appearance is a simple hoodie, light and basic, over knee-cresting boots and shorts.
Why so scared of the big bad busted boundless bracer, brax or bangle? One could also try on brogs and a breaker or a bulwark. Even some bodywear, for the simple-minded and plain-tasted.
Seren likes blattas, but that just might be the creepiest they'll get. The pending up-or-down discussion with Seer will certainly include some choice words about bearded coronids and those awful, awful millepods.
Gradivus, though? Gradivus, Seren can handle. Even if it is one of those famous wars of attrition they kinda just can't bear. Regardless, it's slow-moving, and all its parts seem to be in the right place, right?
That is, until they so triumphantly pop the cartilage connecting neck to head, and the "brain" of the beast just...slides right off.
Seren screams so hard Seer actually thinks they've been launched, this time. Could be they tripped on the laces of their little shoesies, courtesy of Grenada Skell Valor, unused to the differing weight distribution?
Melia also peers over, but she's mostly unamused, cool-headed in the face of this current threat. Razor, too, keeps focus. Gotta just keep on mowing it down.
There's slow-going time for wasting, though, and plenty of it, so Seer does taunt, "Why didja think he's called headless, huh?" Seren, recovering, shoots back, "It could have been metaphorical! I don't know!"
And then there are the Gerrids that endlessly enjoy emerging, as fickle as frogs and as happy as horses; as sure as spiders in the dark. They die in one hit, as parasites should, but still...yeesh. How many centuries you been packing those away, huh? Did they eat your head off?
Actually, Seer thinks they're cruising, because they really seem to be. Melia's doing a great deal with her longsword, while photon sabers blithely bounce, and of course ether resistance already being...not particularly high nor particularly low, Seren is keeping a respectable face. They evade some. They blink some. They take a knee and get back up.
It's when Gradivus dips below half that the trouble really starts. Seren figures, sure, it can function without a head, but given that it is slow-moving and that it was just chilling on the beach, waiting for a partner to take its long HP on a long, long walk, it's not gonna erupt into anything egregious, is it?
It doesn't. It really doesn't. Energy Drains are no sweat, when your TP is already poppin'.
They could almost have hit it first try. One and done, no more dino sun. But then G-rady starts drilling, and Seren's gravity resistance bends in kind.
Seer sees it happen, of course, and xer mouth drops open just the slightest as they throw a distracted Astral Horizon somebody's way. Something about this is different; more unexpected, more fraught. Suddenly the mimeosome life in them all is just that much more fragile.
Seren had been hanging out under the tail the whole time - as good a target for core crushing as any, considering the relative uselessness of the tail swing attacks that Gradivus tended to, every now and then. The terrible stomp shouldn't even have been able to reach them. But that was why it was a gravity-based attack, then, one supposes.
Razor watches them fall, momentarily horrified at the out-of-body feeling caused by Seren being clad in the same colorway of C&C Light, and then his firm-lined set of thin lips takes another scale of hardness, his eyes darkening and hooding over with mascara.
Did it really just become about revenge? Nah. They had Gradivus on their list anyway. Taking a trip back to NLA for convalescence won't really be that big of a deal. Stock up, reset, et cetera.
A nod from Seer gets Melia primed to stream up some TP, swoop in to revive Seren (tactics're easier when you're not handling literal dead weight), and withdraw them back to a safe location, behind the obelisks. It goes without saying that she avoids the creeping thalluses lurking just above.
Nothing looks all too out of place, though Razor notes that comfort isn't the only reason to prefer simple armor: you start to forget which body parts are yours, and which are just artificial contusions.
While they wait, Seer turns to glare at Gradivus round the side of the pillar, pushing thumbs beneath the trademark cat ears to make the traditional handwave of ridicule. Melia, for her part, just wants another look at that impossible headless neck.
Groggily, Seren stirs, and starts to question the current time, squinting up at the sun for good measure. "Wha...how long?"
Not long at all. It was just a sunny a minute ago. But Seren is as Seren does. Cautious faces ring around to block the beating rays.
"Long enough," replies Razor. He gives their halo a light experimental tug (secretly, he's righting it). "We're gonna go get you checked up. Maybe have some lunch, okay?"
It just doesn't feel like the lucky day it once did, y'know? And it's easy to be the careful one when you've got que-sera Seren on the loose, here.
Melia tuts. Seer frowns. Razor sighs, tired of the serious mood.
"Hey, hey, wait just a second!" Then Seren's affect switches from harried to hopeful, scurried to smug. "Lemme get my thyroid slayer on."
Yeah, right, thinks Melia - and she's not being mean-spirited or mocking the sincere effort when she does. If Seren didn't want to try, then they'd have had to scout someone else anyway, and Seren uses an ether build to begin with. There's no reason to exclude them, and they obviously get along great with Seer, and Razor as well. That's all fine. She's happy to fight alongside her friend for a rare outing here on the shore.
But another half-again dosage of damage? Yeah freaking right. Like that's gonna help.
Poor Seren, the goofball, just doesn't know how to get into it for the long haul...