2019-08-15: Grant Us Peace

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<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.

The best-laid plans of Seraphs and Assassins, as they say, often go awry.

Such was what happened here, where the Shadow Dragons clearly moved in the gaps between what the Seraphs and Ivan were able to do; when Ragnell was away on inquiry and other business, when Ammy, Ivan and Talia's guard was at their lowest.

As Ammy and Ivan limp back towards the Festina Lente, Ragnell and Lydia can also see it --

See the Festina Lente for what it is, without the magic, without the glamour.

It's still burning, and the illusion's wicked away from it; it looks something of a simple box of a house, replete with beams and frames and panels which glow with a soft magic to them.

It's probably not hard to imagine that Ammy uses these enchanted panels to shift the house around using misdirection and glamour, to create many of the cheerful and larger than life appearance of the Festina Lente.

There's a lot that has been burnt away -- the furniture (which looks simpler without their glamours), some of the walls, the floors...

It takes a while for them to put all the fires out.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

They *are* professionals, those Shadow Dragons--and have been for over a thousand years. It's not surprising that they struck precisely when the group was least ready for them. That doesn't make it any less vexing for Ragnell, though, who'd promised her sister she'd help her. If she hadn't gotten caught up investigating the Macalania Woods, maybe she would've gotten back sooner.

Still, what's done is done. When Ragnell returns, she stares at the burning Festina Lente; then she gets to helping Amaranth and Ivan put out the fires. As they do, she wonders at the logic of kidnapping Talia. Amaranth had been right there, too; if she's the one they want, why didn't they snag her? Something about this feels off.

Once the fires are out, she hunkers down with the others. Maybe at a table, if any survive; probably whatever remains of the floors. "So," she says briskly, looking between her adoptive sister and her weird disciple boy whatever thing. "Tell me exactly what happened, so we can figure out what to do next."

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia never really wanted to see Festina Lente without the illusions. It's a bit like seeing the backstage of Disneyworld.

She sees the trouble and rushes over, fearful for the safety of, well, honestly, a lot of her best pals here. She doesn't really have any magic for putting out fires but she tries her best to stomp out stray flames.

She has a few ideas as to why they took Talia instead of Katherine chief of which is that it's probably a lot harder to capture a master of illusion than Talia but it's also, like, Talia is also a ninja? Maybe they figure she can be a consolation prize if it doesn't work out.

But honestly from what she's seen? She's pretty sure it's just that they figure it will cause the most distress since she's pretty sure that's what the Shadow Dragon is all about: Not making people strong, just making people unhappy. Strength is a secondary concern whether they know it or not.

"Uggggh there's plenty of people who WANNA hurt people, why don't they just recruit those assholes already??" Lydia is complaining loudly, trying to hide her distress over Talia's endangerment through whining.

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

With the fires out, and the mood turned toward planning, Ivan is sitting near the others with the note in his hands, staring bleakly down at it like he's going to set the place back on fire again with his gaze.

He hasn't spoken in... a bit. Ragnell's question doesn't change that. Charitably, he assumes she's asking her sister.

Lydia's comment doesn't seem to change it either. Maybe he assumes Lydia is talking to... the universe.

It's not that he's given up, but he's sitting with a lot of complicated emotions right now and among other things, he feels like opening his mouth might reveal them.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.

When Ragnell arrived, Amaranth was... well.

It's been a long while since Ragnell saw her sister like this. While they were putting the fires out, she works with an almost clinical, clockwork consistency -- it's all a front, to keep doing something, to put the fires (literally) out lest she stop and fall apart right now. Her words feel trembling and clipped. She can't finish her sentences right now.

But she does give her sister a quick, but very vulnerable hug -- she gives Lydia one too. Some things can't wait, even with a fire in the way.

Ragnell asks what happened. She looks to Ivan. When he doesn't start... she sucks in a breath and begins:

"We were having dinner. Talia went upstairs to change. A Guado knocked on our door... I think he was coerced. He said... 'if I do this, they'll give her back'."

A pause, a frown.

"Very typical Shadow Dragon tactics. Coerce people through kidnapping and blackmail."

She's starting to wearily reach down towards one pane in particular -- she takes out the tatami-like mat, and down towards a compartment inside.

"The Guado summoned a Fiend... a Bomb. Ivan and I had our hands full trying to stop it from burning everything down. Then we heard the scream from upstairs."

She shivers further and says, "I gave chase... they came in through the roof, took her, left a note, then went out the window."

There's a large-ish wooden box wrapped in an old cloth underneath, which she drags out with no small amount of effort. There's a glowing magic seal on it - one red, the other blue, both sigils Ragnell can recognise as familiar...

She looks to the young man with her grey eyes.

"... Ivan... could you read the note out? I can't... right now."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

Ragnell returns that hug of Amaranth's, stroking her hair for good measure. Even if the Dark Seraph can manage to keep it together for long enough to put out the immediate fires, Ragnell can tell how upset she is. She's seen many examples of Amaranth while extremely upset.

"Good question! Who knows," Ragnell tells Lydia briskly. She frowns at Ivan, who hasn't said anything yet, then focuses on Amaranth as she explains. "I see," she says simply, but her frown suggests there's still something about this story that bothers her. Surely it was pure coincidence that Talia was the one who went upstairs. Yet they chose that moment to strike? What would they have done if Ivan had gone up instead, or if Talia had forgotten something and come back down early? She looks around the wrecked building. She has a hunch a Shadow Dragon slipped... *something* inside here, something that would allow them to monitor the insides so they wouldn't leave anything to chance. That Bomb probably didn't just serve as a distraction but also as a way to destroy that something so it couldn't be traced back to them; after all, even if they coerced that Guado, they didn't HAVE to summon such a destructive fiend, right?

As she considers this, Amaranth pulls out a wooden box. Ragnell's eyes widen as she sees the sigils upon it; then she turns a grim frown on her sister. "Katherine..."

She looks over at Ivan when Amaranth bids him read the note in question. Her gaze is stern, but expectant. Time to step up, Ivan.

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia is known well by Ivan. She was asking the universe actually. The universe is super rude though and doesn't actually answer back. What a jerk.

She looks over to Ivan when he's asked to read something and she says, "Hey. I can uh. I can read it if you'd prefer. If you're not, uh, feeling like chatting."

Man all that worrying about Lubov and it wasn't even him who ended up kidnapping her! Ugh! Why is the world so dangerous??

An the worst part is, she feels responsible in a way. Like feeling like living a happy peaceful life is some sort of naive joke that she believes in like a dumbass.

She looks back towards Katherine before back to Ivan and then sheepshly brings her arms behind her back.

"Well we're going to get her back obviously. Wouldn't be the first time even we busted up their op." Though uh she wasn't actually at the one last time.

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

"I can read it," Ivan says. He couldn't protect Talia, but he can at least contribute enough to read a damned note out loud. No doubt he's memorized it by now, but he reads it off the page regardless, in a flat and measured voice, as if to try to defuse the words, or at least stifle his own reaction to them:

"You have evaded me long enough. Come to Luca. Come to the space underneath the stadium. Or say your goodbyes now."

He's silent again for a while after, not looking up. But he must have snuck a glance at what everyone else was doing, because he eventually adds: "What's the box?"

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.

Amaranth turns her head towards Ivan, keeping quiet as he explains the contents of the note. Then he asks what's in the box...

"... I haven't-- dealt with all the confused, muddled, terrified feelings yet. I feel I don't have time. I just... know right now, I'll need a weapon."

As for the box... it's a box that... probably predates Ragnell, given the timeframes in which they came as a family -- but perhaps not one that's unknown to her, all told. And knowing their parents, the way they've laid this mark upon it...

It's because they have the foresight to know if it came down to it, Amaranth would be confused and lost and would need reassurance like this.

"... our parents, Leanne and Agniss are with us. And you too, sister..." Amaranth whispers as Ragnell calls her name -- or rather, by Katherine. Because perhaps, it's as much "Katherine" that is at risk here, as the very name and identity of the life which is at stake right now.

She looks to Lydia again, feeling a bit bolstered by her words. "If you have any advice, having done this before... I'm all ears, Lydia."

But right now, she has her box to deal with. She reaches out and focuses... and quietly, the seals dissolve one at a time. She opens it.

As she mentions, there are weapons inside. All weathered and worn, despite the storage they've lived in.

A sheathed kodachi, katana-like in appearance and shape, but shorter than its full-length cousin.

Shuriken and caltrops of varying sizes and shapes, no doubt for various purposes, missions and levels of lethality.

Bomb-like balls that perhaps contain powders for various tricks. Perhaps they've gone inert now.

And a few scrolls too. Perhaps containing magic or instructions similar in vein.

They're all really old, but perhaps it's the best she can muster in the immediate time they don't have.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

"Don't coddle him," Ragnell tells Lydia when she offers to read the note for him. Just as well that Ivan refuses too. She listens as he reads the note. Simple and to the point. Her eyebrows furrow. 'You've evaded me long enough'...? Sure, a thousand years is a long time, but no human who was around back then could possibly be around now. Who the hell among the human race would care what happened so long ago?

...unless...

She folds her hands and looks over at Amaranth and the box. She calls her by Katherine since that's the name Ivan knows, and Ragnell tries to address her sister by her secret identity as long as it's being upheld. She nods at her, looking again at the seals. "...Yeah. Though that part o' history is before my time..."

The box opens. Amaranth reveals the weapons within. Ragnell looks over them with a frown, then looks around at the group.

"If they want you, then it won't do you much good to go in covertly. An' I'm bettin' they know about Ivan, too," she says. "Were you plannin' on sneakin' in anyway? At the least, I can provide a plenty flashy distraction for you."

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia is quiet for a bit. She looks down at her hands. She curls her fingeres inward. She doesn't look at the box. She doesn't comment any further. She is asked for for advice and she knows what was done to rescue those kids. It was pretty simple, really.

She closes her eyes. Is that the sort of solution Amaranth is willing to use? Ragnell is probably the sort to, she figures, glancing over to her for a moment, reopening her eyes. She huffs briefly and then crosses her arms.

"Well," She says. "I dunno if you're going to like it too much. But um." She rubs at her neck. "I think the solution here is to uh... Do as the letter says?"

She shrugs. "Go to the underground place. Kick their asses. I know my way around the stadium at least, so iff we can figure out a way to use the stadium against them--I mean, that could be good? But otherwise uh.... I think we should... beat the shit out of them?"

She swings her hands behind her. "I mean, they're probably expecting Ivan too, sure, but the letter doesn't say we can't um. It doesn't say to come alone. So it's probably okay if we all go. And uh. Beat the shit out of them and rescue Talia. After beating the shit out of them."

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

Ivan emerges enough from his own head to give Ragnell a somewhat bitter flash of a look when she mentions 'coddling' him.

Katherine unpacks her old weapons, and Lydia proposes a simple solution.

"I want to beat the shit out of them," he admits. But is that even on the menu?

"Will they kill her if we do something they don't like? Bring too many people? Fight back? Do anything except..."

Surrendering. Specifically, Katherine surrendering.

He doesn't know what to do with a complicated situation like this. He just wants to be a weapon. Somebody else do the plan, somebody else make the decisions, he doesn't want to screw it up. Just aim him at somebody he can kill.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.

"... the priority ... of course, is Talia," Amaranth finds herself able to provide what she feels is their rallying point. "The Coliseum, from what I recall, is big and has many rooms -- changing rooms, locker rooms, storage equipment..."

A pause.

"It seems likely that they'll probably hold Talia in one of those rooms, while they make their demands," Katherine murmurs.

But the demands themselves...

"As for the demands... the Shadow Dragon does not let go of its members. Lifelong loyalty or death. They would seek to eliminate any deserters. So when they call me out, it is likely they mean to make me pay that price."

She leaves out that she wasn't even part of the /same/ cult, since that seems unimportant right now... and one led to the other, anyway. A despicable rot that's lasted a thousand years.

"But this is all just... conjecture. Talia could be there. They may demand differently. Perhaps Lubov is involved. I... know very little of what they actually plan to do."

There's a very weak smile to Lydia as she says, "So in the end, maybe it would come down to a straight fight. Which... which is why I have to prepare myself for that eventuality too."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

Ragnell catches the bitter look Ivan flashes him. "What? Did you *want* to be coddled?" she asks archly.

Beat the shit out of them. Ragnell snorts and chuckles. "I'm sure not /against/ that." Then between Lydia, Ivan, and her, if Amaranth agrees to it... She looks over at her, nodding when Amaranth states the priority is Talia. There wouldn't be any point in going if the priority weren't Talia. "Goddess, they're stupid," she murmurs, rubbing her temple. "You already died once. Isn't that good enough for them? Who the hell is doin' their bookkeepin', anyway?"

Though she guesses it doesn't really matter what happened a thousand years ago, if Amaranth still has those techniques /now/, it occurs to her. Probably the main point is to keep those techniques in the family, so to speak, especially if it's not even the same now as it was back then. "When're we leavin', then?"

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"Well I've never really seen them use hostages like that. They didn't use the kids like that. I mean like... They're all about 'durrp durrp strength durrrp. I'm an asshole.'. I figure if they're gonna kill someone they're just gonna kill someone." Lydia shrugs. "And Talia is a really cool assassin so I don't think they'd hurt her too much like immediately? They'd probably want to do their whole 'strength is hurting people because durrp durrrpdeedurp we're run by some fucking real edge--real piece of shit."

"If they hurt her too much I'd probably, um... I'd probably bring the stadium down on them or something because I can survive pretty much anything and I am walking artillery. That's probably easier than beating them up actually, but I wouldn't do that if Talia was okay so I probably shouldn't think too much about it 'cause she's fine."

Pause. "Because she has to be fine."

Man... DID they stuff Talia in a locker??

"Talia's pretty smart. I bet if we cause enough of a commotion she'll use that to break out on her own too if she can."

She crosses her arms thoughtfully, thinking about this more before she adds, "Hey Ivan, did you uh... Did you pass my message on to Leo?" She tilts her head at him. "He...'should' help right? I mean it's the Cult. Infiltrating the Guard. And uh... I get that the Guard is kinda 'uhhh' right now, I can't really imagine Leo leading around a bunch of ninja assassin kids and parading around in a mask."

The idea of Leo in a mask is frankly unimaginable to Lydia.

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

Ivan's bitter look toward Ragnell returns, but bitterer. He continues to not explain the look, though, leaving her to make whatever assumptions she wants about what it means.

/When're we leavin', then?/

"If we're going to just go there and fight, then we can go whenever, we can go now," he says.

Lydia's talk of worst case scenarios where there is no saving Talia so she brings the whole stadium down on her own head gets a different kind of look from Ivan, one that looks more like distress trying to hang on to an angry front.

It sounds like Talia could be anywhere and anything could happen when they rush in to fight, from Talia being killed outright to Talia using it as a handy distraction to escape. And they won't know until they get there and can't take it back.

Why is this happening!

Lydia suggests... bringing Leo into it all.

"I did give him your message but... ... is this... something he could help with?" He's genuinely asking. The thought hadn't ocurred to him.

Ivan's rather dark history with authority figures has led him to not really being able to imagine one swooping in to save the day, even if Leo literally did swoop in and save his life on at least one occasion. Still, it /can't/ be safe to lead a strident warrior of justice with an army at his back into a tangle of their own secrets.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.

Amaranth does sense something between Ragnell and Ivan, but she doesn't quite know what it is. It doesn't surprise her to see her sister has taken an interest in Ivan, though. She seemed the sort whose buttons could be pushed in the way she finds amusing...

Ragnell comments about what their bookkeeping is like. That isn't a death enough for them? She lowers her head.

"Perhaps if I'd left it well and truly buried... but that's all spoilt milk by now," expresses Katherine.

A pause. "Let me get dressed and equipped, then we go. But I was also thinking of something you said, Lydia..."

A furrowed brow. "You mentioned Jean, last time you dealt with them? As in the dancer Jean? I know her, but... is she someone we can contact to help?"

She leaves the topic of Leo aside. Much like Ivan, she... doesn't really want to involve the greater brunt of the Guard right now, given they're literally walking into their territory. She'll defer to her on that matter.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

Ragnell's eyes lid at Amaranth as she speaks of spoilt milk. "Mmm." Ivan, meanwhile, gets the hairy eyeball. So he DID want to be coddled--or that's how she takes that second look of his. "Takin' the easy way out is boring," she says bluntly. "But whatever. You *did* read the note, an' you're not running away." Though, she muses, doing as 'Katherine' had asked was going along with what he was told... But one thing at a time.

Leo? Ragnell raises an eyebrow as she scratches her cheek. "Don't think he'd be too happy to see me, all considered," she remarks. "Jean's more laidback in a lot o' ways, but..." But Ragnell hasn't seen her in ages, not since the battle at the Sanctuary. For all she knows, she might still be on Filgaia. As such, she gives Lydia a curious look. Does *she* know where she's at...?

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia isn't really paying attention to eyeballs right now. She is kind of in her own headspace right now. The matter of Leo is questioned and Lydia has to admit she's not actually sure it's a good idea or not to herself though at this point she has to admit to herself that playing it safe isn't really an option. Playing it safe is just handing Kathy over and that's unacceptable. And Kathy can't handle it on her own either.

But even so, she can't anticipate what Leo would do next so it's dangerous.

"Yeah we probably shouldn't bring him along." She admits. "He might be mad at me anyway cause of the Caravan stuff. Plus, I guess--even if he did help us, he's kind of a big name andn might scare 'em off."

As for Jean...

"Oh yeah Jean could def. help. If we could find her. My guess is: In a bar somewhere. I mean, she may be a secret ninja but she tends to attract eyes."

Pause. "Because she's super hot."

Pause. "Though I'm saying that like objectively speaking like not a secret crush sort of way."

She seems agitated as she starts to pace about. She wants to punch a wall but this house is now a person to her even without the illusions and she doesn't want to be mean.

But even so, what she really wants to do is just eradicate the whole damn cult once and for all. She wants to do this even though she knows most of them were just kidnapped kids like their targets. Just to be done with it all. She wonders if she will ever be able to be as naturally kind as her own family.

"Maybe we could also like use Kathy's illusions to sneak us in. Or maybe even make them think someone else is Kathy and they'll pretend to be her while she searches for talia or something. I mean...um... illusions are her specialty so I figure...some sort of... illusion stuff would be a good idea. I mean most of us are probably just beating em up but still."

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

"I'm willing to do that, if that's a thing," Ivan says, of impersonating Katherine to create some kind of opening. He sounds almost too hasty about the offer. Perhaps he's trying to redeem himself from the mental betrayal he still can't let himself forget he made.

"I'm willing to do anything. Whatever plan you want. Just... ... I need to clear my head, I think. Can you get me when you're ready to go?"

Unless the plan is really turning into going to fetch acquaintances who might be in random bars anywhere on the continent. He's probably not willing to wait if that's the plan.

Without really waiting for anyone to weigh in on whether it's a good team player kind of move for him to wander off mid-plan or not, Ivan heads outside.

But at least he doesn't wander too far from the house...

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