• Nobles of Null is a forum based roleplay site where sci-fi and magic collide. Here, Earth remains fractured and divided despite humanity reaching out to the stars. Worse still, the trans-human slaves of one major power have escaped, only to establish their own Empire, seething with resentment at abuses of the past. Even the discovery of aliens, though medieval in development, has failed to rally these squabbling children of Earth together with its far darker implications. Worse still, is the discovery of the impossible - magic. Practiced by the alien locals, nearly depleted and therefore rare, its reality warping abilities remains abstract and distant to the general populace. All the while, unseen in the darkness of space, forces from without threaten to press in. For those with eyes opened by insight, it is clear that an era is about to end, and that a new age will dawn.

Day in the Life: Escape from the Heavenly State

Wen feigned pain externally, his eyes closed, one hand on his forehead as if he was about to faint, "I'm so deeply hurt by your negative assumptions of my manhood," He exclaimed, then opened one eye slyly. "But... the offer is still on the table for any of you ladies, an in person chance to change your mind. I promise it'll be worthwhile."

"I'd rather try and sabotage their off-world infrastructure, Lady Hoshiko, if we don't attempt to fleet in the crowd. We don't have our augmentations to give us the leg up in personnel combat, and based what I've seen the planetary security is quite tight."
 
Jun was amazed at the frequency of cat-puns Hoshiko could churn out when she wanted to. If only she'd put that effort towards other things she might be able to get out of the rut she was stuck in!

"Can we sabotage the planet?" Jun asked over text, starting to get a little bit worried that Hoshiko was over-estimating her expertise, "Like... the WHOLE planet? Or are we just going to blow up a power-plant or something? I think we should just slip out of here with the others... I came here to check out the Human-Culture, I didn't mean to come out here and end up Wuxia Jun, hero of the empire." Jun was a Xeno-geologist, meant to figure out what asteroids were worth mining, and what areas were worth digging out for bases. Her combat experience was limited to basic weapons and strategy training.

"That's why it is so popular!" Jun replied, "Tastes like a Saturday morning! You can..." Jun's attention was taken up by another bar partron ordering a drink which would draw her away from the current group once again so that other patrons could drink their fill.
 
Koyama nibbled at the pepper's flesh having gone quiet as the cat puns continued to roll forth. She'd begun keeping a tally. 'Fake W.A.P, virii, trojans. Malware. A DDoS, bait, and switch.' again she cleared her throat at the little bit of pepper. Her cheeks flushing just a little more deeply.

'If humans are like rats fleeing a sinking ship from this. Take advantage of the chaos! There could be transactions on their networks going off like a mad human tossing Gao Bi in the air at an army of homeless. Lay a foundation to work from now or later. You just need the one opening. There is no perfect system. Lay trap. Let spring. Deliver destruction.' was her suggestion. Granted such a thing was a risk in and of itself. 'Or, we leave now with whatever intelligence we individually gathered.'

"Breakfast of Champions! Or so my brother used to say," was her demure response to the exclamation in the physical realm. Then muttered, "He sucks though. Grotty little bastard..."
 
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"Those are all good options, but the issue is honestly picking what to do. There's nothing but targets here. Even a terror attack would scare the humans enough that even more openings would become available," she pointed out over their text, a finger-gun emoji stuck onto the end.

"That's a paw-sibility," she began to reply to the guy's cringe. "Only if you help stuff my outfit with some more m - " Before Hoshi-nya could finish however, their super-human senses could feel the faintest of tremors underfoot, and just as quickly, the lights went out. A cacophony of screams assaulted their ears before the emergency generators came back on, red lights flooding the club. "This is a cat-astrophy!!!" she cried. "Come on, let's get out of here!"

"And of course, there's the other Daqinren cells that are likely running about doing their own thing," she noted. Though people were shouting and crying, the two police officers from earlier were shouting for order as well, with the younger man doing most of the louder parts. "They're not panicking enough, given their dumb Daqin Attack Drills, so help me stir up a panic! We'll meet up at these coordinates if we get separated!" she quickly sent them the location.

"Paw-don me! Out of my way!" Hoshi-nya roughly began pushing and shoving her way to the entrance. However, the two police officers quickly got in her way.

"Stop! We're Civil Protection!" The younger of the two Chinese officers stepped forward, hand raised as though he could make her. "You know the dr - "

"Con-Cat-ulations! Now shaddap!" Hoshi-nya yelled over him. Pulling more bills out of her bra, the pole dancer grabbed him by the scruff and stuffed them into his mouth as they began to struggle. The older man, seeing his partner give a muffled scream, began to reach out for her!
 
"Brother! Brother!" Wen quickly dashed between Hoshiko and the older police officer. It was difficult to tell the officer's age specifically; he could be anywhere between 40 and a hundred years depending on the medical care, but if he was stuck watching over a small time stripper club, most likely on the younger side. The Daqinren-in-disguise threw his hands up with an apologetic smile. "The lady's just panicked. She just had to go through a whole dance routine, took a few shots, all the while entertaining an asshole like me."

Carefully, he reached out to the younger officer's mouth, pulling the cash out and placing it back in Hoshiko's bra all in one smooth motion, raising an electronic coin to the two instead. "Consider this an apology on my end for being rowdy to this establishment. We'll get going now."

"And we WILL get going now, Lady Hoshiko. You can't POSSIBLY expect us to do much while being practically naked, with no plan and the bare minimum of contingencies. I'd like to have a stern talking to whoever orchestrated this. If they had the time to plan and plant a bomb, they would've had the time to come and talk to us first about it. The invasion's likely still a couple months away. Causing a power outage now only hampers our own ability to move around."
 
Koyama jostled her way forward as she followed the tiger-print clad 'stripper'. All the while wondering if somehow she could get cat puns outlawed. Punishable even. Seeing the situation develop with bra-bills being stuffed down a human's throat. Then wondering if it'd be resolved, the princess wobbled, cheeks still flushed and eyes glassy toward the exit. The damned shoes were at least serving a purpose by helping with the effect. How did people wear these things? Her patience with them quickly ran out and she took them off, stumbling into another of the people as she did so.

"Y-Yeah!~" slurring the words in agreement, "We gotta get the hell out of this place!" Now shoeless, waving them in the air with her feet slapping on the ground. Just another drunk as all sin party-goer fleeing for her life.
 
"Hey! He's grabbing one of the girls!" Jun called out, notifying one of the bouncers only to turn around and see that the civil protection officer that had grabbed Hoshiko was now being pushed aside and an asshole patron with a lot of tattoos who was also a secret Daqin in disguise had his hands down Hoshiko's bra to stuff it with cash. "Oh fu-"

The Bouncer was already making his way through the crowd, this particular human towering over the other patrons as he made his way towards the scuffle by aggressively shoving the patrons heading towards the exit towards the sides of the room. "HEY, No grabbing!" He shouted, now reaching for the back of Koyama's head.

Jun quickly followed, grabbing a rifle from under the bar and holding it cradled in one arm as she vaulted over the top to go help out. Of course on close inspection it wasn't so much a rifle as it was a bottle of Tequila shaped like a rifle. And on inspection-by-drinking anyone with tastebuds would discover that the only reason anyone ever put tequila in a fancy bottle like that was because it was basically paint-stripper. And maybe she was hoping no one was really looking all that closely in the chaos.

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"These are just Humans, we could totally beat them naked... and also I think the bouncer is coming after you Koyama!"
 
"You're a lot more boring than I thought Wen (ಠ_ಠ)," Hoshiko texted. Flicking her eyes, she looked past the growing scuffle and spotted exactly what she needed to light a fire.

"GUUUUUN!" Hanyako shouted, only roughly pointing in Jun's direction. Grabbing one of Koyama's shoes, she chucked it at the bar! Glass smashed and shattered, and in an instant, screams rang out as people panicked every-which way. A girl with a dragon tattoo grabbed a bottle and smashed it, jabbing and slashing at Jun while the bouncer bore down on Wen. Meaty hands reached through the crowd, threatening to clobber him, vomit leaping out of a man's nose and nostrils at Koyama!

"Wait, isn't there an exit behind the bar?" Hoshiko suddenly realized. As the younger officer coughed up bills, she began smacking the older officer across the face with a stack of bills like it was a blackjack.

"I'M NOT CHEAP DAMNIT!" she yelled at him.
 
"I'm always up for a good time, princess, but now's hardly the time. I struggle to understand how scaring this small crowd of people helps us towards our goal. I still think we should regroup with the others and actually plan out attacks that are useful and minimize the risk of capture."

Wen easily slid to the side of the third-rate bouncer, his hands still thrown up innocently. "Sorry, you're not my type, but you might get along with this handsome lad!" He gave a firm slap to the man's back, pushing him into the younger officer, still reeling from Hoshiko's attack. As Wen did so, he glanced over to an emergency evacuation map mounted to next to one of the doors, blinking hard once to take a picture, then sending it into the group chat. "Got one. There's another way out, if we need it."
 
"HEY!" Jun shouted, jumping back from the slashing attacker once before taking a swing at them with her own bottle. The end of the bottle colliding with a heavy 'THUNK' which sent the attacker to the floor and also caused Jun to yelp out in surprise. She hadn't expected the bottle to stay intact or for the sickly wet crunch of the bottle to send the person right to the floor like a dead weight. This also resulted in a very surprised Jun letting go of the bottle completely which sent it flying into the crowd where it slammed into even more people who also were less than happy to be hit with a bottle of Tequila that looked like a rifle.

There was now one less person coming at Jun, but also about 6 more coming at her.

"So we're leaving then?" She asked wirelessly. Jun would sorta duck down and start pushing her way through the crowd to try and get back behind the bar as a fight started to break out at the front of the club. The mass of people suddenly surging towards the exit making a dangerously crushing wave.
 
Koyama let forth a shrill yell of protest. The damned stripper had taken one of her shoes just as the warning from Jun had arrived. But what seemed to grab her attention the most, beyond someone being physically abused by a stack of Gao Bi bills was the rancid, gut-wrenching stench that splattered on her dress! That yell went to a shriek of anger, the cow had her tequila rifle. Hoshiko had her money-smacking attack. What did she have?

A nasty disposition and the strength to suddenly turn this poor drunk bastard sterile. In a fit of anger, the princess pulled a leg back, allowing it to curl, and then launched it forward. There was no killing force. But a good strong kick that left no sympathy in her on the man's up-and-coming need for surgery.

'Before I kill, Every. Single. Human in this damned bar!' was the texted response to the two women while Wen went about his business. She had her hand tangled in some party-goer's hair, the other woman yelling in protest at the soon-to-be, but not going to happen brawl between them. A sharp yank was all that she needed to hear the cursing break off into a wail of pain. Strands of hair and the poor dye job falling from her hand while stumbling back from the press of brewing chaos.
 
It was all too easy for Wen to deftly dodge the big bouncer, but the sheer quantity of humans making their way to the entrance was difficult to evade. The same went for Koyama as well, the strands of hair snapping in her grasp as she pulled. Felling the humans was quick and brutal, but the challenge? It was making it look like she was a drunk, spoiled heiress or other. Meanwhile, Jun was not faring well - as her gun tumbled away, the crowd all fighting to grab it like it were real, others tried to stop her from getting away. Fingers and hands reached out, but the snap of fabric sang the quality of sheer quantity as her top was torn away.

"Of course we're leaving!" Hoshiko replied to them all. As Wen's view-cap came over though, its size suitable for ants, she quickly noted the exits that were available to them. Shoving the officers into the currents of humanity to be spirited away, she backed off from the front entrance, the crush of stinking people growing far too below someone like her. The entrance hidden behind Jun in the alcohol storing backroom was practically uncontested, but the fire escape in the back of the first floor was a no-go like the front was. However, there were other options too. The second and third floors had fire escapes that she could see the upper-level dancers and patrons already starting to crowd and flee through.

"What's happening? Why's the power out?!" someone yelled in the fracas.

"It's the Daqin! They're attacking amongus!" Hanyako yelled, screams of panic replying as people began to panic even more. "And of course we're going to make the humans panic! They'll eat each other alive like Christians do!" she quickly pointed out, vaulting over the bar. Mid-leap, she found her momentum slowing down as something pulled her back. In the miliseconds that she looked back, she saw the crowd grasping onto her fake tail and the panties they were attached to in horror!
 
Jun would feel the pressure being applied to her cowprint top, and immediately move one arm to hold the front of it against her body. She had used a safety pin to keep the knot on her top tied behind her back, but she wasn't going to wait until she felt the sensation of fabric ripping before acting. This was a rather large crowd and she wouldn't be able to stop the inevitable.

This was why she had considered wearing a cowprint bra instead, something more heavy-duty with clasps. It was a common trick for cosplayers that would be around people who would often try and get their top to fall off while in a crowd. Unfortunately they didn't make a cowprint bras and she had thought that being behind the bar would give her enough protection.

Jun would do her best to keep her own momentum towards the bar, leaving her weapon-bottle behind and trying to mantle over the countertop to get to saftey, flying past Hanyako in the process and then sorta just slamming into the counter on the other side as her free hand was still holding her top against her chest rather than reaching out to slow her down.

"Ow."

Jun would quickly jump back up to her feet and grab ahold of Hanyako's shoulder, "HEY! DON'T TOUCH THE GIRLS!" She shouted, giving a tug to try and get her friend back behind the bar.
 
"Ahh, fuck, my wallet!" Wen yelled with a panic, almost throwing people over his shoulder and into the air as he shoved them aside, swimming against the human current. Too quick the recognize, he made sweeps of his surroundings, storing 3D files into a digital bin implanted into his brain, He took special note of the security sensors mounted in the corners, sending their locations to the other Daqin.

"Be advised, we may have to change our appearances and voices later. I'll have to look into the specs of the security."

"Oh, shiiiiiii-----" The bullish man slammed into a panicked patron, sending himself losing balance, flying straight into Hanyako, not-so-inconspicuously wrapping an arm around her buttox, rolling them both over the bar, landing behind it with a loud "thump", quickly drowned out by the crowd.

"Hey." Wen took a breath, smiling slyly at his companions, "Ladies, you cannot keep your clothes on. Is it because of me? I'm flattered."

Quickly examining the possible routes, he commented voiceless, "Well, we have an easy route out that will isolate us later on on the security feed, or we try for the upper exits. If we do go through the cellar we might as well start a fire."
 
Koyama spun drunkenly around, the effluvia of humanity swarming around her like a tide. A few times she had to petulantly smack a man or woman who thought they could get a covert squeeze in. Or try to yank her along in their direction. It was never hard enough to kill but enough to get the point across. As flushed as her face was, eyes glassy still, she didn't look so much angry as appearing overexerted in her inebriation. With a petulant twist to her lips, her lower back slammed into the bar. It was a study in patience that she hadn't ripped her current suitor's throat out while guiding them toward her destination.

Instead with a slurred shout of protest, "Get offa me!" she yelled, stomping down with a bare foot on the offender's boot and punctuating it with a sharp smack across their cheek. Baring her hands as if they were claws, Koyama made to scratch at them until being viciously shoved backward.


"Basta-!" the curse began and then abruptly ended with a squeak of surprise and thud of sprawled limbs at a rather unflattering angle.

'Fire he says!' a small fuming ヽ(｀⌒´メ)ノ emoji accompanying the beginning of the text, 'Preferably with these... animals locked inside!' the princess had scrambled to her knees, hair a mess eyeing a bottle all while entertaining the notion of using it as an improvised weapon. Instead, the Daqin held a lime in hand ready to start lobbing the citrusy delight like an ordinance launcher.

"Re-R-Reaaaaalllly?" her words coming out in disbelief with a quick glance to Wen and the two women, "Trying to pick up girls?!" instead lobbing the fruit at the Duìzhǎng in another twist of petulant fury.

"With those things attacking tiny railgun man?!"
 
Scampering across the bar and landing hard on the other side, bottles toppled and fell, landing on heads below as blood wept.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

The sharp, loud sound boomed through the club, quickly followed by falling bodies and screams. Wen's whole world spun as pain flashed and burned, but even as he fell, there was one question that stood above all else. Was it worth touching Hoshiko's Hanyako's royal princess booty? Was it worth getting slapped by her highness not once, not twice, but thrice? Was it worth taking blows that would have snapped the neck of an inferior human, but be 'mere' slaps upon one like him? Down and on the ground, he looked up at the tiger-costume clad woman as she stared down at him. The mixture of rage and confusion

"RAILGUN! RAILGUUUUUUN!!!!" someone overheard Koyama panicked.

"IT'S THE DAQIN!"

"THEY'RE AMONGUS! RUUUUUN!"

What was once drunken, strip-club perfume scented panic instantly turned into there's-non-humans-hiding-among-us-and-we're-being-killed terror. And...several of the other strippers were right in the middle of it. Greedy, lecherous hands turned into fists that pummeled or were narrowly dodged. Even so, her co-workers were surrounded on all sides by the practically stampeding human-beasts.

"We have to help them!" Hanyako yelled out, pointing at the woman. "Quick, get over here, there's an exit behind the bar! I'm sure the humans I hired are good for something!" Picking up a pair of bottles, Hanyako threw it at one person harassing one of the dancers, but stopped short of tossing the second. it was high-quality liquor, she realized, eyes going wide at the label. Like a madwoman, she began stuffing a rag into it!
 
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Wen nursed his reddened cheek, feeling down his pained neck. The bio-augmentations he kept, the maximum that wouldn't be tracked by security in the system, was just enough to resist Hoshiko not completely snapping his neck. Still, it hurt like hell, adrenaline rushing from the glands above his kidneys to soothe the pain. He grinned at the princess, "Ta ma de, crazy woman, you must be even better in bed. Forget about a threesome, you alone will suffice." Wen remarked, crawling behind the bar, peering out from behind it. It wasn't clear if he was referring to the slaps, or that she was genuinely set on lighting the entire establishment on fire.

He found what he was looking for soon enough. A lighter, the ancient tool still enjoyed by hippies, skirting regulations on fire starters, now carelessly left on the ground. The local police is going to be pissed. Crouching up, snorting like an angry bull, he rushed over, keeping his form at waist height, crashing through two innocent bystanders as he ducked and slid along the floor, bodies tripping over him. One arm protecting his beautiful face, the other arm swung, sliding the lighter to the back wall, ricocheting it to Hoshiko's feet. "Fire at your feet, Lady Hoshiko. Do what you must." He transmitted, as a foot squarely landed on his chest, prompting a light "Oof" from him verbally.
 
A glass would shatter over Jun's head, sending glass showering down ontop of those still hiding behind the bar. There was an exit that led further back into the club nearby but it would require leaving the current small island of safety...

"Maybe we shouldn't set the building on fire while we're in it?" Jun said, wondering if she should be stopping these people from setting the bar she was working at on fire?

Well... this place wasn't paying her well enough to stop that.

She did grab the tip jar though...
 
Koyama could only feel some small sense of satisfaction. She hadn't intended to stir the pot with her talk of 'tiny railguns' but the brief, oh so genuinely humorous thought crossed her mind and what it could imply. Although the man would find a bit of relief, if not the kind he may have wanted. The text-ranting, fuming dress-clad woman had snapped a leg out into a sweep, right behind the person's knee. Whether they'd introduce themselves to the display of liquor in front of them face first would be a matter of debate.

Though there was the sound of a fist meeting flesh as she scrambled toward the exit. The bar made adequate enough cover for her as she hunched low, all the while dreading what the place would reek of if fire took to it.

'The Ox is right! I would rather not smell roasting human if I can afford it.' shooting a text back. Soon inching behind and past the woman that could only be readying a molotov. Along the way, Koyama had reached up and groped at the bar. And having found what she'd been looking for, the glass that had held her drink. Still unmolested, the princess gulped it down like water almost unawares of the whipped cream mustache on her upper lip. Hadn't lasted long before soon disappearing with a swipe of the back of her hand.
 
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"That's just claw-ful!" Hanyako shot back at the sleezy man, hand deftly catching the lighter. Flicking it open the flame temptingly danced, but she knew that the other Daqin were right. As Jun snatched up the overflowing tip jar, the 'Faux-Tigress' let out a "T'ch!" as she clicked her tongue. "There's nothing I can do for the other girls!" Koyama however, did manage to lend them a helping foot, her drunken-fu sending one of the club-goers through the air. "Fine, it's time to leave. We should get to this location here," Hoshiko marked for them. Right then, the man that the dragon-princess had sent flying smashed through the staff-only backroom door, clearing the way for them. "Let's get out of this cat-astrophe!" Fleeing through one of the few exits not clogged by the masses of humanity, they all managed to get into the dark, emergency-red-lighting flooded streets. "Come on girls, I know a place!" All around them, people were panicking in their cars as road blocks meant to stop tanks prematurely deployed, and a gout of flame burped its way out of the club behind them.

*****

Shen Zhou System,
Planet Wu Zetian
City of Ri Li (Planetary Capitol)
Teahouse 168,
Business Level Motel Chain

"Uuuuuuuuugh....." Hanyako moaned out loud. Sprawled out in one of the rooms' beds, she didn't even bother to get out of her costume. "Please tell me the tips were nice at least. Don't know if it was worth coming from Earth to dance for these uptight fuckers," she sighed to Jun. Though both she and Jun were together, the princess had made sure Koyama and Wen had gone to find their own lodging. After all, they were all strangers except for the two of them. But more importantly? This place was a 'known quantity' - the networks were encrypted for the businessmen and women that favored the place, and was owned by someone in the Empire's pocket. Whether they knew it or not.

"Okay, everyone here?" Hanako called out. Lounging in a Hotel's Penthouse couch, she laid on her side and chewed on some chocolate coated cookie sticks as she deliberated a map of the city. Or, what they knew of the city. "The second-class here have no chill," the Tigress noted, her feline tail twitching at what she saw. "It's kinda impressive, in its own messy, dirty way."
 
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