2017-07-09: Sneaking Seraphim Will Shock Your Souls

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  • Log: Sneaking Seraphim Will Shock Your Souls
  • Cast: Loren Voss, Elhaym van Houten, Seraph Ragnell
  • Where: Lacour - Market District
  • Date: July 9th 2017
  • Summary: An attempt to talk shop regarding recent investigations goes hideously awry.

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

You ever get that feeling that even though technically nothing has gone completely pear-shaped yet that it's about to?

That just about sums up Loren's current mental state. While technically the survey of Old Petra was a success and he obtained some valuable intelligence regarding an unknown enemy's potential future plans within it, certain events that unspooled there...

Things didn't go as planned.

Which is why he'd sent a message to the only person he thought was likely to be available and still in the Lacour area -- there's other things to look into and he'll be damned if he's going to just allow the potential for things to not go as planned this time.

Of course, the only other person he's sure is available in and the Lacour area is... Elhaym van Houten.

Which just returns him to his first sense of his current situation all over again.

But at least she's from Solaris.

Over here, towards the outskirts of Lacour and away from the weapons shops -- and also importantly the coliseum and that nonsense -- he's propped against a wall, taking advantage of the relative quiet while he waits to close his eyes for just one damn moment.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly approaches Loren, as summoned.

Elly has slightly changed her outfit - hair still wrapped up Bayonetta-high, but in a different pattern. No sticks. She has her bag with her. She is about 60% less intensely perfumed, but that's still probably the first thing Loren picks up on.

She is carrying a small paper cup with a wooden spoon-sticky thing in it. No, she's eating out of it. It's ice cream.

Elly eats ice cream in front of Loren for about three seconds before she says, "Sorry - I got your notice. Are you alright, Loren?"

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

Ragnell is, technically, in between Lacour Tournament rounds. What? No, not fighting them, watching them. She'd just finished watching Hiro beat Thethelle, and decided to stretch her legs and take a break before heading back to watch Lemina's match--Alisha looks to be up later on, too, and she wants to catch that one as well--but for right now... well, she likes her long walks, what can she say?

So although it's out of the way, she finds herself on the less-crowded side of town, passing through the outskirts of the city. She would normally not give Loren a second look--he's just another human, as far as she's concerned--*but* he's with someone Ragnell recognizes: a certain redhead named Elly. And if she recalls correctly, Elly could see her... Watching her eat ice cream as she approaches some uptight-looking dude, Ragnell decides that there's no harm in sticking around and nosing around in other people's business. These things can be even more entertaining than mere combat matches, after all.

And so she retreats to a nearby corner, out of easy spotting range but not impossible to see. If Elly calls her out, that, too, might be interesting. For now, she'll pretend to just be hanging out. ...but she's, yes, *totally* listening in. And, well, if it's boring? She'll just leave. Simple!

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

He smells the perfume first.

Which, really, leads to him pretending that he's not really here for about three or so seconds -- he knew this was a bad idea, and already, he's regretting making another decision in his life.

Loren eventually, regretfully, opens his eyes. "You're here." And even though he should be more careful with a teammate, he can't help but toss in a, "Finally."

He glances sidelong, then takes in the whole surrounding area, looking for anyone suspicious hanging too close.

Unfortunately for him, he can't sense Malevolence. And for related reasons, that means he can't see Seraphs. Such as Ragnell. There's a problem to having a blinded third eye, and this is one of them.

Loren pushes his glasses up his nose. "...I'm fine. Did you read the reports? ...I might need your help after all with future sites."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"I didn't think you'd want me to run to you," Elly answers Loren. "If you're trying to be discreet, you shouldn't be obvious. I know that sounds trite, but a lot of people forget that." Also she eats more ice cream.

Elly glances to the side. Then to the other side as Loren speaks. After he asks that question, Elly raises her wooden spoon up as if for silence, and then points it towards an alleyway, meaningfully.

Nobody is in the alleyway.

Elly points with the spoon.

Points to Loren.

Points to the alleyway with the spoon.

Elly then starts to approach the alleyway but it's at a casual sort of walk. As she does, she says, with a sort of casualness which speaks of someone who took exactly one term of acting class, "I've been way too tied up with everything around the tournament to go touring with sites, but if you want to travel together that could be fun... What sites are you thinking of visiting next?"

Then Elly does one of her occasional things that is legitimately clever. She mouths 'make up something' to Loren, but she mouths it in solarian, and makes no sound as she does it.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

Hmmm... Ragnell spots Loren looking around, including in her direction, and then completely ignoring her. That doesn't seem like the kind of thing one would do if one could actually see a shady individual such as herself, so she smiles slightly. Elly, on the other hand... Elly has her ice cream spoon pointer leading the way as she suggests to Loren that these 'reports' and 'sites' are actually for tourist sites. Hmmm... She can't at all read Elly's lips, Solarian being a language she knows not a word of, but it's clear that she's trying to signal him.

Well, that's fine, too. Ragnell has other ways of causing trouble and finding things out. And so, she'll wait until the two of them approach the alleyway in their casual little walk, hanging out against the wall as if she's here because she has nothing better to do (which is technically true). She'll stand against the wall, seemingly minding her own business, until the two start to pass...

And then she'll jam a foot out in front of Loren. Seraphim not being *quite* solid to those who can't sense them, he may or may not trip--but he'll definitely feel the *jolt* of electricity that she sends through her limb as he passes, whether it's through her foot or stumbling upon it.

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

There are times when he can almost forget that she's fully capable of -- and possibly likely to -- invoke vast murderous powers with barely a bit of will. This might count among them, as briefly, he vents some half-buried frustration her way: "I know that. I'm not an idiot."

Which is of course followed by him taking a breath and urging himself to calm down. Not just murderous intent -- there's no telling what her long-term aims are insofar as personal glory is concerned. He has to be more careful.

Loren glances to one side, trying to look as casually as he can manage towards the alleyway. No one's there. Almost, almost, he's tempted to write this one off, but...

Paranoia has its perks. Just because he can't see anything amiss doesn't mean there isn't anything amiss.

And even if he'd picked his phrasing carefully enough to be able to be misunderstood by someone just happening by, well--

He pulls away from the wall, a little too easily to be completely casual, treading alongside Elly as if they were just looking for a more private place to chat.

She mouths something, something only he would process properly. Oh, damn it.

Improv is not Loren's strong point. He's silent a moment or two too long, mind racing as he tries to think--

"I... was thinking about Gounon. There are supposed to be good, er, apple wines---"

And the last part of his sentence hangs perilously there in the air as he trips over what looks like air but feels like he just stuck his finger in an electrical outlet. The 'medical student' does an entirely embarrassing flail and ultimate plant towards the ground.

...Is this how he broke his old tablet? Does this happen often?

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly keeps walking forwards as she says, "I don't think I've ever had apple wine, so that does sound like a great place to head." She spoons up some more ice cream, eyes going momentarily into the cup when--

Loren falls.

BGM INTERRUPT: IMOGEN HEAP - HIDE AND SEEK (you know the part)

Elly throws herself forwards to try to hook an arm underneath him. This is at least probably hard to read as an assassination attempt, especially when Elly ends up falling too, mostly managing to stretch out the impact point and the resulting force to the point where nobody is harmed.

Instead they just BOTH end up sprawling in the dusty and probably-filthy street, Elly groaning for a moment.

Her head snaps up to GLARE down the alleyway. To Loren, she says, now abandoning pretense, "Something's in there. I think it attacked you...!"

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

Apple wine, huh... That actually sounds pretty good to Ragnell, too. Gounon, eh? She'll have to keep that place in mind--drop by for a few free samples, as it were. For now, though, she's tripping nerds and making them bust their faces on the street, or more accurately making redheads dive to keep them from busting their heads in the streets.

"Wow, hey, you two sure are clumsy!" she drawls when they both eat dirt anyway, just maybe a little less hard than they otherwise would have. Sadly, the ice cream goes further than Ragnell is willing to go; whatever happens to it, the Seraph does not catch it. Possibly it lands on Elly's head. Or maybe Loren's. Or maybe it just spills all over the street. RIP ice cream. For now, Ragnell saunters over to Loren and Elly, squats down next to them, and prods Elly in the head. "You call that an attack, though? How paranoid *are* you?"

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

She reaches for Loren as he tumbles forwards, all attempts to regain his balance hopelessly and hideously failing. Her arm hooks underneath him and he doesn't exactly make things any easier by tensing up as he plummets. Is this where she shows her true colors?!

"Wha--"

Expected: he hits the ground and sprawls out with a groan.

Unexpected: Elly hadn't been trying to kill him, her sprawled form next to his in the dirt and dust of the alleyway evidence of that. He groans as he halfway rises, one eye half-shut as he readjusts his glasses. "An... attack? Are you sure?!" He's already pushing himself up, on high alert for any incoming threats.

Technically speaking, there is a threat here. He just can't see it. Or hear it.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly turns her head to look straight at Ragnell (dead air) with an intense and perhaps furious expression. Honestly her face cannot really do furious, it just is not in her bone structure. She opens her mouth to answer and the ice cream splats down onto the front of her blouse, decorating the home-dyed cloth with a merry streak of sugared and flavored milk.

She picks up the paper cup and pushes herself upright even as Ragnell comes over to press her head. "Gh!" she says, swatting at her arm - trying in fact to grab at her wrist, if she can. To Loren this looks like she's having a fit.

"You! Stop what you're doing--! I don't know why or who you're doing this for, but I'm not going to put up with it," Elly says to Ragnell (thin air). Pointing a finger up at her face (also dead air) she says, "If you want to have a civil conversation this isn't any way to go about it!"

At least she's making peace with the delusional vision.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

Ragnell snorts as Loren adjusts his glasses, looking around for an attack he can neither see nor hear nor, generally speaking, sense at all. "Guess it's true what they say about guys with glasses, eh?" she cracks, winking at Elly. Elly doesn't take very kindly to her joke, or her mannerisms in general, though, shouting at her and swatting at her arm and yelling at her. She manages to twist her wrist away in time to avoid Elly grabbing hold of it, at least.

Too bad about the ice cream. Too bad about her blouse. Ragnell clucks her tongue, looking down at the mess she's made, before half-smiling up at the infuriated redhead. "In all fairness to me, I wasn't tryin' to trip *you*, I was tryin' to trip *him*," she says, pointing at Loren. "An' I wasn't tryin' to attack y'all or even start up a civil conversation, either! I was just looking to mess with him." She grins and winks. "Is he your boyfriend? Is that why you're so mad?" RAGNELL ELLY IS FACE-DOWN IN THE DIRT WITH ICE CREAM ON HER SHIRT, MAYBE THERE ARE OTHER THINGS SHE COULD BE MAD ABOUT.

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

The ice cream, sent heavenwards, finally makes its descent.

But as Elly struggles against the hand of something he can't actually see, Loren's got much larger worries.

To be honest, the only things completely keeping him from making the perhaps reasonable assumption that Elly has been having some sort of fit or hallucination from the beginning of this whole mess is the sensation that had sent him earthwards... and his basic essential paranoia as a person.

But as theories go, the one earmarked 'Van Houten is having a potentially dangerous episode, which might end in a violent discharge of ether, which would completely scrap any pretense of this mission remaining secret and also importantly, definitely kill him' is gaining a couple hundred chunks of evidence to support it.

"Are you-- coherent?!" He's up on one knee, frozen above Elly as if uncertain about what to do. Obviously, the entire exchange between her and Ragnell passes unseen and unheard -- and it only adds to the paralyzing tension within him. Should he estrain her? Would it have any effect or would he just be the first to die? He reaches one hand towards her, only to hesitate and pull away. He doesn't feel any hint of bundling ether, but--

The second is a tense one, seeming to stretch out into eternity, no certainty of what could come after.

And his hand snakes out to grab her wrist. The die has been cast.

His grip isn't very gentle. "Get ahold of yourself!"

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"What? What are they saying about men with glasses! It's not his fault!" Elly protests to Ragnell, now apparently piqued by the prospect of defending Loren. (From Loren's perspective she is shouting at thin air.)

Then she gasps. It's a real honest to Cain gasp as if she was just affronted. Her eyes widen. Her cheeks flush. And a moment later Loren is grasping her wrist and shaking her for a moment, even if the shaking is probably Elly's reflex thrash more than any hostility.

Loren may wait for the Ether blast that is going to fry him like a Kislevi breakfast but it doesn't come.

"You - You don't understand - that entity's right there! She's making cruel insinuations! You didn't just trip on a cobblestone, she did it to you, Loren!" Elly says, giving him a look that manages barely to avoid getting near the arena of tears. "She's laughing at us right now!!"

~*professionalism*~

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

Isn't that the worst? Having to defend someone you don't even like. Mm, mm, mm, isn't that just the way. Still, for all that was a joke--Ragnell gives Elly a searching look that the redhead may not like. She also eyeballs Loren when he grabs Elly by the wrist, and in none too gentle a manner, as Elly gasps as if her lineage had been insulted, which, in a roundabout way, it may well have been.

She stands up then, slipping her hands into her pockets, eyebrows raised as Elly insists that there is an Entity in front of them making Cruel Insinuations and--well, in all fairness, it's damn hard to not just bust out into laughter right this instant. What keeps her from doing so is the way Loren's gripping Elly's wrist, and the way Elly's nearly in tears.

Funny thing, though: Loren seems afraid too. Afraid of *Elly*.

"So sayin' he's your boyfriend is a cruel insinuation, eh? You really think that'd get him more on your side if he could hear that part of the conversation?" she points out, perhaps infuriatingly calm. "He's not gonna believe you either way, though. He already doesn't believe you. The only thing that might change his mind is if I decided to goose his butt and give 'im a little charge." A beat. She grins. "Well? Should I~? It's your chance, you know... If you don't like this guy, I don't mind beatin' him up a little for you." She winks. "Call it an apology for gettin' your cute blouse dirty. I was only tryin' to mess with *him*, honest."

This is a blatant lie, but Elly doesn't need to know that. There's more than enough entertainment potential for having a person who *can* see Seraphim sic one on someone who *can't*.

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

"...What about glasses?"

Great. Not only is she freaking out -- too many things are bearing toward towards a particular conclusion for him to consider the few pieces that seem to refute it -- and is he at all certain what he felt anymore? -- but she's having some sort of hallucination about someone making comments on his glasses. This is precisely how he expected the day that he died to go down.

He tenses there, as if in anticipation of some horrible etheric surge to tear him apart and smear whatever's left against the far wall, but it doesn't come. Instead, as Ragnell -- lurking in the background and continuing to speak to only van Houten, the only one here able to see and hear her -- continues to speak to his teammate, Elly seems to be on the verge of a different sort of emotional breakdown.

It's probably just as well that he's not hearing this, honestly.

"What... what entity? And I didn't trip!" Loren blurts out, brow crinkling as he stares down at her. He looks to be at no less than a loss. His grip on her wrist hasn't slackened, though. "Just-- stop crying!"

Technically, she isn't. Yet.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly's expression of indignation doesn't change when Seraph Ragnell just straight up comes out and offers to poke Loren in the butt-ox for her amusement. "No!" she says, eyes widening, wiping off her blouse and just managing to spread the stain out further. "Who are you - do you think I'm going to, to participate in -"

In WHAT

Loren talks to her and Elly says to her with hot huffiness in her voice, "I am NOT crying!" Though now her eyes are getting puffy too. "Can't you just - just cooperate?! I didn't ask to see these things!" Technically she did enroll in those classes and also join Jugend instead of just being rich and comfortable forever but BE THAT AS IT MAY she did not SPECIFICALLY request to see Ragnell picking fun of them.

"And as for you," Elly says to Ragnell, voice still hot, "He may not be my favorite person in the world but he's someone I care about!"

Well that's awkward.

"If you're trying to exploit any tension between us... I won't let you!!"

That's probably funny to Ragnell and PROFOUNDLY TERRIFYING to Loren.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

"In what?" Ragnell prompts, helpfully, when Elly fails to actually finish that statement. "What, d'you want him all to yourself? Is that it? Didn't you just get done sayin' you and him bein' an item was a cruel insinuation? So, you know, which is it?" Ragnell you can not want to date someone but not want them to get goosed either!! She eyes Loren regardless when he tells her to stop crying, even though she *isn't* crying, then adds, "He doesn't seem to like *you* too much, anyway."

Eyebrows raise as the two of them shout at each other, Elly yelling that she didn't ask to see these things. Huhh. Does Loren... even believe that she *is* seeing anything? Ragnell doesn't get the sense that he does. (Not that she knows either person's name. She recognizes Elly from sight, but if she ever introduced herself, Ragnell doesn't remember her name. She ought to keep better track of these humans, but, *humans*.)

"Though, what, you don't remember me?" Ragnell adds belatedly to the question of *who* she is, tone dubious. "Well, I guess it *was* a little while ago--we went on a Dig into Lolithia's Tomb together. Remember? Cyre, the Shaman with the cat ears, asked a bunch of us to help out. You were there and so was I. Can you, like, chill out for two seconds? You're literally making it worse. If I were really in a mood to cause trouble--"

'He's someone I care about! If you're trying to exploit any tension between us... I won't let you!!'

Okay, that does it. Ragnell can't help herself. She busts up laughing, first hoarse, then a full guffaw, whereupon she clutches her belly and almost doubles over. REALLY, Elly? REALLY?? And Loren's reaction is only going to make this moment even more priceless, she's sure!!

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

In what indeed. While it helps in some regard that Loren is not hearing the other side of this conversation, it also... doesn't help that he's not hearing the other side of this conversation. He just looks at Elly somewhat blankly, the obvious question here hanging mutely in the air.

Technically, she's still not crying, but the line's probably getting blurrier and blurrier by the second. His grip on her wrist tightens, if slightly.

See these things?

It's telling that he does glance around, his gaze still turning up all of nothing, even when he looks right in the spot Ragnell currently occupies. Van Houten and the LtC were engaged in some extrasensory perception studies, and he knows she has extra sensitivity to things like Malevolence, but...

Even if it were some spy from Shevat using cloaking technology, wouldn't there be some tell? All he has is that brief perception of an electric shock, a perception that he's rapidly doubting ever took place.

And yet. "...If someone else is there..." He reaches out with his left hand suddenly, swiping it through the air as if to search for someone close at hand.

He's definitely going to freeze that way in the next half-second, though.

When Elly says 'he's someone she cares about'.

His eyes widen.

In horror.

And accuses the mystery hallucinationpersonwhatever of attempting to exploit the tension between them.

Loren sputters. "Wh--what-- what are you talking about!?"

He's not a person who tends to overly emote. Certainly not as wildly and openly as this.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"I - You -"

Loren may be thrown when Elly says, brow furrowing as if to recoil, "I do remember! That was you, I couldn't make you out yet... If you remember me so well, why are you picking on me?!" Her face stays heated. Then she laughs.

Elly's face scrunches up. Oh here it comes.

Her attention turns to Loren again and that face - what he says - he's baffled, horrified, disgusted. Even he, Elly thinks as her face heats further. After everything. She feels momentarily hideous, as if she was drenched in red paint, not merely bearing it on her head.

"Y - you don't - I'm - I'm trying t, to -" She's going to cry, Elly can feel it coming, a hot messy set of sobs. She could try to tell Loren off, at least try to avert it, but...

She can't yell at him at all, and express her feelings, IN FRONT OF THE HANDSOME LADY OR POSSIBLY LOVELY MAN in the poncho over there! Elly knows nearly nothing about Ragnell beyond that she seems to be impossible for Loren to see. For all she knows she is an agent of K.K. - a Shevat agent using some kind of advanced phase cloak - it could be anything.

And so she is skewered on several psychic hooks, and makes the only choice she can.

To ditch. Elly turns abruptly and breaks into a run down the alleyway from which Ragnell had lingered and given Loren that tripping. She does not, to her credit, let out an actual "SOB" but the sentiment is no doubt there; there are several loud CRUNCHES intermingled with the receding footfalls, although they don't slow down.

Where does Elly run to?

'Not Lacour,' probably.

And her blouse still has ice cream all over it. She feels like a child, and perhaps, in a sense, she still is.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

"Wow--you don't listen at all, do you?" Ragnell says to Elly. She told her--twice? Thrice? That she was picking on Loren, not her. And why does she care about someone who clearly doesn't feel the same way back? Loren even gives her a look of abject *horror* over her statement, one so intense that Ragnell actually has to feel a little sorry for Elly.

Clearly it's not Ragnell's fault though. If Elly had just *listened* to her, things wouldn't have gotten as bad as all this.

All the same, she's left in the dust when Elly up and runs away, not quite sobbing as she goes but she may as well be at this point. Ragnell rests a hand on her hip, raising an eyebrow at her back. "Well," she drawls, "that sure went swimmingly." She pauses, giving Loren a considering look. He did at least *try* to check to see if Elly was telling the truth... So as much as Ragnell is left going 'well that sure was a thing,' she decides to do Elly a solid.

By electrocuting Loren.

It'll be good for her in the long run, *really*. This way he'll know she really was telling the truth, and she really was trying to protect him! Ragnell's not completely heartless. She is, however, perhaps out of touch with how humans feel... So as the Seraphic arte charges around her, she remarks, knowing she won't be heard, "Try an' be a little nicer to your lady next time, would ya? *Lightning*!" And a thunderbolt will drop down from out of nowhere, down towards Loren. It's not a powerful spell, so it's not going to kill him, but if he doesn't evade it somehow, it *will* hurt. After all, it's a for-real attack, in the way her tripping him earlier hadn't been.

Hey, at least this way they can complain together about the spooky lightning ghost or whatever. Sheesh, these humans. They can never take a joke!

(ragnell plz)

GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Loren Voss with Bolt!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss takes a solid hit from Seraph Ragnell's Bolt for 59 hit points!
GS: Cripple! Statuses applied to Loren Voss!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

In full honesty, here? Loren's not entirely sure what to believe. But there's a saying somewhere about the simplest answer being the most likely, and even if he's essentially paranoid and even if there could be someone hiding invisibly and unheard to him alone, right here, that's bordering on the absurd.

He still does make that attempt to check, though.

Oh Emperor she really is going to cry right here. In a semi-public place. "Don't--" Loren starts, tugging her wrist towards him. If it weren't for the look on his face -- that completely baffled, disgusted expression hasn't faded yet, he still holds himself as if he's not sure to recoil from her or what -- it might even look like a tender moment.

Well, assuming someone were watching from quite a long distance away.

"Stop it!"

Telling someone not to cry, as Loren is very rapidly learning, is pretty much a fool's errand. It's just not happening.

Particularly when Elly lurches to her feet, ripping her wrist from his grasp, and leaving him, now completely and utterly stunned as he crouches there in the dust of the alleyway. "What are-- don't be ridiculous--"

Also not working: appeals to reason.

He stays there a half-second or two more as her footsteps fade into the distance, making no immediate attempt to chase after her. Then and only then, he slowly rises to his feet.

He can't see Ragnell. He can't hear Ragnell. In fact, as he starts to brush off his coat, not sure precisely how he's going to handle this -- because he's going to have to, eventually -- his only warning is a vague scrape against his sorcerously-oriented senses. The magical equivalent, perhaps, of the scent of ozone in the air. He glances up, far too late.

It's not ether.

It's not ether at all.

For the second time this afternoon, Loren kisses the dirt of the alleyway, sent sprawling as an apparent bolt from the blue knocks him right onto his ass. He spasms there, staring dazedly up at a cloudless sky. That shouldn't... be possible...

Someone will probably notice him in a few moments. He'll get asked if he's been drinking.

(also his tablet has once again met the Grim Reaper, as he'll find out much later)