2021-02-26: Der Langrisser
- Log: 2021-02-26: Der Langrisser
- Cast: Red Priestess Mauri, Talise Gianfair, Magilou, Seraph Clarine, Marivel Armitage, Hiro, Eleanor Klein, Seraph Ragnell, Seraph Boudicca
- Where: Bevelle - Temple District
- Date: February 26, 2021
- Summary: After Sin overturned the Guard's attempt to overwhelm Bevelle with the might of their Gear-scale weapons, the stalemate begins to turn in favor of the forces of Yevon. Under the guise of a diplomatic mission, one of the Four Heroes gives an offer that anyone with a conscience can't /not/ refuse.
========================<* Bevelle - Temple District *>========================= The center of Bevelle is the Temple of Yevon. This towering structure is at the heart of the city. The holiest place in all of Yevon, where its founder came to create the religion, is barred from entry to all but Summoners. Even here, the Fayth are the place of the Summoners alone. However, there are numerous smaller lower case T temples here. Places of worship, to venerate Yevon and different religious figures in the Yevonite faith, are spread throughout this region. Additionally, Bevelle holds numerous offices, shops, and other administrative facilities that keep the dogmatic and bureaucratic engines of Yevon running. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShBAcibfk-s&ab_channel=Ultimatefighter343
DC: Talise Gianfair switches forms to Bladesinger Talise! DC: Hiro switches forms to Evil Lieutenant Hiro! DC: Magilou switches forms to Lil Miss Witch Who Smiles Around You But Stabs You In The Back When You Are Not Looking! DC: Seraph Ragnell switches forms to The Free! DC: Marivel Armitage switches forms to Crimson Noble Marivel!
<Pose Tracker> Red Priestess Mauri has posed.
Bevelle reels.
Sin's intervention in the Calm Lands was not providence on behalf of Spira's endless cycle of ill fate. It is, as it always has been, a stay of execution. Had a number of Yevon's leadership stayed put since the walls of Bevelle fell, had they stayed to rally the faithful even in their darkest hours... they might have been able to take some ground back in this stalemate.
It has taken everything, and then some, for the Yevonite devout Baralai to keep everything together out of pure charisma. The Ronso have come to bolster the ranks that have been left by the total withdrawal of the Guado and some of their conspirators.
Soon enough - too soon - the drums of war follow a solemn, silent beat as armed escorts of the Red Priestess Mauri come astride. Word has come out that there is an interest in parley. An offer Baralai takes because he sees no other choice. The battered Yevon forces stand aside and allow the Hero and their company entry to the city.
The Red Priestess is all quiet, tranquil smiles. The very picture of serenity and devotion, fitting of her title. A stand-out among the wave of unease shared by all who seem powerless by word of honor to do anything about her entrance.
If what happened at Luca were to be believed, they would be powerless by force.
Baralai stands in the center of the Temple District, where the Red Priestess is to be received. He only has a nominal set of escorted guards, because so many are too wounded for the task. (One of them is only there for show, as he can't even use his best arm any more.) He greets her accordingly with the Yevon bow.
"How very kind of you to take me up on the invitation to sue for peace," Mauri pleasantly says as she steps forward. Even within their seat of power, even with more people around them... the forces of Yevon feel outnumbered. "Surely, you understand your position."
Baralai stands wordless.
"You've seen it with the Calm Lands, not so long ago. Your little borrowed slice of Her world is entrapped within a losing battle no matter the outcome of our... disputes." Mauri smiles a little more.
"I have seen the winds of change blow," Baralai states plainly, "as have all."
"And yet all of you cling so dearly to this... dreadful, endless cycle of despair." She looks out to the suffering, the weariness, eyes fluttered low. "Does it not speak of the futility of continuing this conflict? Why... even your most... 'devout,' those who should have led you through what should have been just another... long, trying day... in this endless life of suffering... have all but fled to their rancid, cowardly swamp." The venom sticks between smiling teeth.
<Pose Tracker> Red Priestess Mauri has posed.
Baralai does not speak. His face is unflinching.
"My proposal it thus. Turn your back on this... endless sorrow. Allow yourselves to accept Her light." She holds her hands out, as if wanting to give the world a nice, warm, caring hug. "She will forgive. You are all Her children, led astray. Confess your sins and repent, and this... shall no longer be heresy! No, just a misunderstanding by misguided children, raised by generations of... ignorance, and weakness. All of you within Bevelle stand alone, now, huddled together in the warmth of a hollow lie that offers no salvation."
Baralai, poker face extraordinaire, does not flinch.
Mauri brings her hands closer into prayer. "...You have attachments. I understand. Things that tether you so, because you know no else. Hm, hm, hm." Soft laughter, that grows a little darker.
And then, there is fire.
It erupts everywhere, without much more than a single thought. Panic rises among all, save for Mauri and her faithful. She even reaches out to let her hand caress one such flame.
"Cast it all into the pyre. Every last desire. Every last thought of resisting Her will," she does not break the calm stride at all, even as flames lick at said hand, "and be cleansed. The faithful shall come out unscathed... reborn. The wicked... well." A smile grows wider, but somehow also warmer. "Yevon stands alone, now," she intones as she sends a wall of flame to surround Baralai. "No matter your choice... Spira will return to Her fold, and repent for that... well-named 'Sin' of yours."
Baralai stands resolute before the mounting flames. "Red Priestess," he speaks, "there is one mistake in your candor I would wish to address."
It's the Red Priestess' turn to be quiet.
"The people who found refuge within Bevelle..."
He holds up a machina flare gun, and fires a round into the air. It is the signal he has given to those who have come to fight! It explodes in a colorful, shiny cloud of pyreflies that flit off and do whatever it is they're going to do before they decide to become a Fiend down the line.
"...Do not stand alone this day against those who would speak in ill faith towards a new calm, Red Priestess!"
"Ill faith?" Mauri seems taken aback, even hurt. "Well, I never...!"
Come forth! Do heroic stuff through flames, knock out her escorting guard, do as you see fit! You're here to be heroes, or... be very rude to someone who is also being rude. Maybe even both!
DC: Eleanor Klein switches forms to Crest Sorceress Eleanor!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
It isn't the first time Talise has wondered why the Guard is going to these lengths for the sake of Spira - why Althena is doing so. It's beyond anything she'd heard in the stories of the Goddess's character.
With Bevelle in chaos around her, the swordswoman finds herself with only one companion: Benedict Greygust, ace courier and Fox Company quartermaster, followed her into the depths of the city, insistent that they get some information on what the Guard is up to here. The pair stand in the mouth of an alleyway, out of sight and not there officially for any particular reason - they acknowledged no Yevon invite, coming mainly to protect the innocent somewhat freelance.
It gives them a vantage point. Talise watches with her jaw set, the edges of the Red Priestess's words reaching her ears. That one of the Four Heroes is still here does not shock her. That it's Mauri does, somewhat - she'd thought much of this had lain in the hands of White Knight Leo.
They are hands she trusts to at least be extended in a spirit of honour. She's not sure what Mauri's hands bring.
In short order, the Red Priestess shows them.
"She's out of her mind," hisses Benedict as he loads his crossbow hastily. "All of them are!"
The signal goes off, but Talise is already moving. She can't find words. She recognizes the signal, even if it's not for her - but indignation and horror make it hers. The thoughts write themselves.
Why would Althena allow this?
To one side of the engagement, the flames suddenly divide - and a shape hurtles into the ranks of Mauri's escorting guard.
Talise, in her sleek plate armour and with Rastaban in hand, is a hard person to stop at the best of moods. She is not in the best of moods right now, and she expresses it with an arcing pair of slashes from her blade. Rastaban sings with the vibration of slung steel, the sword's edge so unnaturally sharp that even fire divides before it. With it go a couple of Guard soldiers, riven to the ground with bloody wounds before the big swordswoman pivots and points her blade towards the Red Priestess. She sets her jaw with a scowl, all too aware that she's staring into the face of one of the Four Heroes - but she's too angry to care.
"Oi oi oi oi!" she shouts through the flames, tossing her hair back in a blonde flicker to bring bright, angry blue eyes to bear on Mauri. "For a so-called HERO you sure do get off on messing with innocent people who can't hurt you. That's gonna stop right now, you hear me?"
Talise takes a step forward, one spurred heel hitting the ground with a jingle and a kicking-up of a puff of ash. For just a moment, she slips a hand off her sword, sliding one gauntlet off. "Let's see how you like it when someone fights back," she spits.
It is tradition in some medieval circles to throw down a gauntlet when challenging an opponent. Talise somehow manages to miss the ground when she throws her gauntlet.
This is largely because she threw it at Mauri's chin.
GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Come At Me Bruh! GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action. GS: Red Priestess Mauri takes a solid hit from Talise Gianfair's Come At Me Bruh for 138 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
> Press /\ to view skits!
"We're not in Meribus any more, Bienfu."
"But this sure isn't Glenwood!"
"And by the way they've been gawking at you, they're no cowboys, either."
"All these islands... you don't think this is really..?!"
"That 'third continent'... the name they use matches up. 'Spira', the mysterious archipelago... how nostalgic..."
"Oh, no... when you get a scary expression like that, it isn't good for anyone!"
"... what's the matter? Afraid I'll gobble you up like a whale?"
"Bieeeeen!"
~*~*~
There's a path people take, through Spira. From the outer islands, through the coast-city Luca, striding along the path to Guadosalam, through a crystal forest and a frozen lake. This is the path of their pilgrimage; that is their story.
THIS story cut a few corners. Running from soldiers and skedaddling out of war zones, making oneself scarce from encampments suspicious of outsiders.
It has been A Time.
Our brave villain has had A Time getting to Bevelle, from where she fell bottom-atop through who-knows-how-many-ruins.
And so it happens that when a woman in a striking hat sees those pyreflies flare into the sky, her response is laced with sardony: "Oh, shiny."
~*~*~
OST: Magilou's Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWD_sScdetc
"Hope this works...!"
A ring of water forms, in the fire, splashing outwards horizontally, very rudely making things less hot (and more steamy) in one section of the entryway.
"... Aqua Split!"
Springing into the place where that fire used to be is -- for all intents and purposes -- a jester. From her two-toned suit and leggings up to her very fine four-pointed hat, this woman has all the appearance of a joke.
Right down to the books around her hips, like a biblical-themed skirt.
"Gosh!" Magilou exclaims, spinning on one of her heels, the ankles above with their very own four-cornered jester boots. "And here I was beginning to think the home front was just getting too hard for you people! You could have told me you'd found an entire new continent to break in!"
She skips forward, leaning in. "Oooh! Is it purity through fire again? I love purity through fire! You gonna make 'em scream? Did you tell them about the screaming? Oh, tell me you told them about the screaming. Aaah!" The woman reaches one anguished hand for the ceiling, fingers curling as they can't quite grip. "My flesh, it burns! The agony! The horrorrrrr!"
A flame defeats her Aqua Circle, and leaps up to lick at the stockings of her leg. A beat passes, and she YELPS, leaping up into the air. "... yow, that's hot!!"
But by the time she's landed, she turns again, grinning to Mauri with a split across her face which could have been carved with a knife. "... I mean, this is the part you really like about your job, right?"
As if it was plain as day that one of Althena's heroes would be so cruel.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
There is word of the potential for parley between Althena's Guard and the remaining defenders of Bevelle. It seems... too good to be true, almost. Could there truly be an end to the fighting?
Clarine is... hesitant to believe it. She would like to think the best of those who follow Althena's will, would like to believe the best of the Goddess Herself, but... from their actions in Spira thus far, did they really want peace...?
She is suspicious, so she waits, and she watches. And the talks...
...go as well as she thought they would. Her metaphorical heart sinks. Some part of her had hoped this would turn out differently. But what she says is not a request for peace - it is a threat, an attempt to intimidate them into submission.
From above, a light descends in front of the Yevonite gathered, gradually taking a humanoid form. Clarine arrives, and she casts her arms out wide. Protective light spreads out from her form, settling over Baralai and his guards. She looks up at Mauri, then, with a sorrowful expression.
"Red Priestess Mauri... these people have suffered enough. Please, leave them be." Clarine requests. She is, somewhat, afraid. She'd stood against the Goddess's faithful before, yes... but now, she stands against one of the Four Heroes - one of those closest to Her.
It was tantamount to standing against the Goddess Herself, and the thought pains her. But... this entire campaign feels like one big mistake to her. It must be stopped.
GS: Magilou has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Cinematic Aqua Split! GS: Magilou has completed her action. GS: Red Priestess Mauri guards a hit from Magilou's Cinematic Aqua Split for 0 hit points! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Once the doors opened, Bevelle's ability to resist teleport magics weren't nearly as effective as they used to be. And so, Marivel is just there, leaning on a staff that looks like it's made of red soaked wood. She starts approaching Mauri, with purpose, grim determination in her eyes when--
OST: Magilou's Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWD_sScdetc
Marivel blinks slowly. "Wait..." She says. "Didn't I use that one before--"
YOU ADOPTED THE MAGILOU THEME, MARIVEL, BUT MAGILOU WAS BORN IN IT. Marivel's attention is immediately drawn to Magilou, quirking her head to the side as she looks at the book...dress? Well, Marivel always appreciates someone who is well read. Then her gaze slants up towards towards that familiar split grin. The crafty well-executed and piercing zinger at the end. Marivel can slip the thunder for whatever she was going to do slip right out from between her fingers.
"Well," Marivel says. "I couldn't have said it better myself."
She then darts forward, intending to use Magilou as a distraction as she lashes out with her hand and draws a blue pulse of energy out from Mauri and towards herself. At least that's the plan! She's gonna have a little nip, that's all. Just a little nip. There's something she wants to test.
"Are you going to burn me to ash again, Mauri, for your dear forgiving Goddess?"
Oh no there might be trickster sass overload today. It could be real bad. Real bad. "Will you show us her mercy and murder us all?"
No if you're not careful you're going to break the system but she does look to Magilou and, because she appreciates game, asks despite knowing the RISK she opens herself up in doing so.
"What's your name, darling?"
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Skill Drain! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Red Priestess Mauri guards a hit from Marivel Armitage's Skill Drain for 46 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage drains Red Priestess Mauri! Marivel Armitage gains 23 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"There she is..."
"S-Scary as usual. It's still hard to believe she's his sister."
Hiro's pressed hard against the wall of an alleyway of the Temple District. The too smooth wall feeling strange against his back despite its curves. Ruby's perched up on top of one of the roofs, wearing a pair of goggles.
"You think there's any chance this parley could go well enough that he won't call on us?"
Hiro looks towards the fire erupt, face becoming grim as he hears the end of Mauri's speech.
"Signs point towards 'no'." Says Hiro, who temporarily acts like a human magic eight ball in the moment.
Hiro then glances towards Ragnell, "Can we count on you for this one? Last time we fought her... it got pretty dicey. Even if she's by herself... there's something unsettling about-"
And then the flare gun goes off.
"-well no time now. I'm going to see if I can't keep things from getting worse! Back me up?"
Suddenly dashing out onto the field, he takes a leap of faith towards the opaque wall of flames, holding a shield which looks distinctly like a pot lid at the fore. "Oh - hey Eleanor! Spot a guy a protection spell?"
Just before he hits the flames. Surprisingly he comes out the other side looking rather intact. And smashes the ground with a burst of wind which seeks to surprise the Priestess' retinue by simply knocking a cluster of them off their feet and into a wall.
Before he then draws his sword. He sees Talise's challenge. And has a moment of emotional whiplash as he gets exposed to Magilou for the first time, "Um... she's... a lot." Hiro sweatdrops, not from the fire. Uncertain if she's even on their side.
Before he then clears his throat. It's less of a challenge at that point and more like an appeal, "Mauri! You have to call this off! Whatever you believe the Goddess wants - the real Destroyer is corrupting what you and her Guard are doing here in Spira to the Fayth! Just ask your brother if you don't believe me-!"
He takes a step forward, sword pointed away but still pressing... "Come on Mauri. Just... give these people some respite... a truce long enough to investigate it. I..."
There's a pause. Hesitation. And then, he adds...
"... still haven't forgotten what you did in Luca."
Marivel reminded him of it pretty plainly by asking if Mauri was going to burn her to ash again. And yet the fact that she's here takes the edge off that anger.
"But you're someone Ronfar really cares about. So if this doesn't have to end in us fighting you... then I don't want it to."
GS: Hiro has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Tempest! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: Red Priestess Mauri takes a glancing hit from Hiro's Tempest for 33 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Red Priestess Mauri gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple and Mute applied to Red Priestess Mauri! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Evade bonus and Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Under better circumstance, Eleanor could appreciate the sculpted beauty of Bevelle. Unfortunately, she has not yet had those circumstances; outside it on a siege, waiting for friends to make it out... Now, on the inside during a tense negotiation. Its smooth red lines should feel soaring... But Eleanor feels heavy as she considers what could happen here from where she waits.
It is difficult to stay back and in hiding when the fire starts, but Eleanor Klein has enough experience and restraint now not to ruin the plan. It brings back bad memories, though--some of those memories of things that haven't happened yet, as blazing settlements tend to. But Eleanor keeps her perch through it. She keeps it for a while longer--until the signal. And what she sees...
Eleanor recognizes the signifigance of what Clarine is doing, as she steps out. She looks to Clarine with an expression of mixed worry and pride and something a little more complex; would she be able to do the same, if it were what she knew that she had to stand against? ...Will Clarine be all right?
She'll have to trust her. And help her, if she can.
Eleanor's eyes narrow as she spots Magilou, uncertain what her angle is except that she appears to be here to help. Marivel is less surprising to her.
But Hiro and the signal both bring her out, and the young elf steps from the shadows, holding up a crest bearing the markings of Geo and Fray as sparkling light brusts into being. "Born of the earth, forged in fire! Stone Targe!"
Hiro's shield ignites, becoming as solid as the earth itself, blazing with power, but is no less light for it--quite the opposite, its aura shields him from the flames as he steps through...
And Eleanor steps forward next herself, wearing a ruby ring that lets her step through the fire.
Hefting her huge rifle over one shoulder and narrowing her eyes at Mauri. She declares, "If this is the will of your Goddess, then it is still unacceptable! These people do not represent Yevon, or those you're fighting--there is no value in burning their homes!"
"We won't allow you to do this to the people of Bevelle, no matter what authority you claim."
"You aren't the only one who can wield the elements, Priestess!"
GS: Eleanor Klein spends 1 Combo on Reload! GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Hiro with Stone Targe! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 1 Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: Hiro accepts Eleanor Klein's Stone Targe for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Hiro! GS: Hiro activates #-1 FUNCTION (ANSI) EXPECTS 2 ARGUMENTS BUT GOT 1's Reload!!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"Hmmm..." Ragnell shades her eyes, entirely unnecessarily considering she wears a hat with a wide brim, as she peers at Mauri and the congregation of Guards and Yevonites from the same alleyway as Hiro and Ruby. "Nah. The Yevonites are too proud, an' the Guards are too rabid," she tells the little pink dragon. The area goes up in flames; Ragnell gestures around them as if this is nothing to be particularly concerned about. "See?"
She looks over at Hiro when he asks for her help. She smirks. "Whaaaat, you think I'd just run off? She's cute, *an'* she looks like she'd be fun t' fight. I could go for a nice invigoratin' fight right now. Anyway, I'm here already, so why not?"
So when the flare gun goes off, and Hiro dashes out, Ragnell gives him some cover fire in the way of lightning bullets to help pick off some more of Mauri's retinue and make sure she has to fight her *absolute* hardest in the face of all these heathens. Ragnell then strolls forward, grinning, and glancing briefly at the other appearing combatants--Talise, Marivel, Eleanor, and especially Clarine. Concern for her old friend flashes through her, but Ragnell manages to keep it off her face; she can't imagine Mauri would forgive such a show of weakness. She's about to say something to the Red Priestess, in fact--
When a certain lady jester makes her appearance, a circle of water amidst the flames, and cracks wise at Mauri about how much she must be enjoying this fireshow. Ragnell double-takes at the strange, ancient young lady. "Magilou?! Well, look at *you*! I thought you woulda croaked ages ago! The hell're you doin' in Spira!" She pauses a beat, then snaps a pair of fingerguns at her. "Lemme guess: you blew Bienfu up like a balloon an' floated over the ocean. How hot am I? DON'T ANSWER THAT--" She winks and shoots her a sharp and rakish grin. "--we all know I'm *extremely* hot."
...It's rapidly becoming apparent that there are going to be Sides in this battle, beyond simply those who fight to help protect the city from Mauri and those who fight at her side: those who take it seriously, and the obnoxious jerks.
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Twin Bullet! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: Red Priestess Mauri takes a glancing hit from Seraph Ragnell's Twin Bullet for 54 hit points! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Evade bonus and Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Red Priestess Mauri has posed.
None can stand before those barreling into the fray. The Red Priestess' esocrts are taken out of the picture before they can stand there and be part of it, and few encompass that initial challenge being lobbed back at Mauri than by the mighty hand of Talise, who throws a gauntlet...
Into her face.
She flinches, but does not give ground as the hand that had been basking in flame catches it before it can leave her face. When that hand touches that gauntlet, it starts to smolder as the one eye peeking out from view were to turn on Talise... and then it closes, as if in sorrow.
"Innocent people who can't hurt me? It's... it's not about me, how would Her most devout act so... selfishly?" she speaks softly, still clutching that smoldering gauntlet... as she pulls it back and tightens her grip, it is consumed by flame, "have you not seen the pain this heathen faith has impressed upon their people? Why... surely one who is so enamored with HEROES of the ages... the Dragonmasters... could surely see this is the last bastion of wickedness--"
A whole lot of noise is made, by a jester, who in all their jesting and pompous nonsense just seems to casually put out some of that wall of flame.
It tries Mauri's smile, in that she tries to keep that placid smile and mostly succeeds aside from an errant twitch. (It is this moment the Aqua Circle gets its push-back with a snap of her fingers.)
"You would reduce a most sacred duty to amusement," it is unclear if that is amusement or menace in her voice, "but if you are so enthused to experience this without the lens of levity, I must commend your faith!" It is a good-natured laugh. (IT IS NOT)
Clarine entreats her next as Baralai and his own men are given protection from the encroaching flames - presumably he is already aware of this capacity of Clarine, nods once, and prepares to bring forth a Looming Glacier to help see himself and his own out from the encroaching flames.
"...Another heathen Seraph, then?" She is brought from her laughter to a sigh. "How disappointing. These people have suffered enough, I agree... I am here to end it. Do you not believe your resistance will merely prolong it?" She tilts her head, exposing her neck (this is key). "Hmmm... is it something about your age, that makes the mind rot, the eyes foggier, the heart... unwilling to see the truth? You would protect this fallen city's leader, so that he may continue to impress false hope and continue this land's fruitless cycle?"
Marivel happens, as she will, in a capacity exactly as abrupt and unwelcome as Magilou, and one could forgive her for thinking she might be beset upon by two different people.
<Pose Tracker> Red Priestess Mauri has posed.
"Demon," Mauri hisses, her composure slipping as fangs slip into her neck, struggling to push Marivel off of her. The immediate retort of words and barbs are put aside as she snaps her fingers. Her loose blood, trailing from Marivel's fangs and into the air where they still exist, erupts into flames. (This includes some of the blood seeping from her throat, which looks kind of ouch? But she doesn't flinch, and she stops bleeding.)
"A shambling husk of ash, dust, hypocrisy, and heresy that has caked itself again into corporeal form," Mauri fights back towards calm and almost gets there, "and you expect the answer to be different this time...?"
Hiro and Ruby hurry on in there, wind-blasting aside some of her entourage and exposing more of her to attack. Mauri's eyes flash to them with an added urgency as Hiro makes his entreaty towards her. "...My brother? My... dear brother... you say he'd corroborate such..." She starts looking downcast.
"...Lies?" That should be anger. That really should be anger, but there's a growing grin on her face. "Oh, you. You poor, deluded, most vile of fiends," she responds as he mentions Luca, and then... he mentions his name, and her eyes start to close again. "...You would still speak of the one you took from me... no, no. My faith is unwavering..." The words sound conflicted, but only the words. Everything else - body language, tone, expression - speaks otherwise.
Eleanor is a much easier topic for her to deal with, as she plainly states the total defiance of what she is doing. "Who are you? Who are you to question Her? Have you not seen what the ways of Yevon have done to these poor souls? You would question the kindness of this entreaty," though an eye remains on Hiro and Ruby for over-long, "and may I remind... stone melts, water evaporates, wind feeds, ice ceases to be, lightning leaves it as a gift, the darkness recedes, the light shines through," and with a bit more intensity, "the flames."
Ragnell comes in shooting. Mauri holds out her hand, even as she brings down the remainder of the retinue with lightning precision. Those bullets that come towards her all explode into flame. Only one comes close to striking her, washing her in the explosion. She is still not that impressed in 'toys.'
"...Even someone like you?" Mauri asks of Ragnell with a soft smile as she chats up the weirdest and most surprising addition to the gathered. "Well. It matters not how the flames are stoked, how they dance, from what wind you all blow, now does it...? Indeed. These Yevonites are too proud. But rabid?" Mauri sighs. "Comparing me to a Razor Wolf."
<Pose Tracker> Red Priestess Mauri has posed.
Flames happen! Marivel's share of the nastiness is already outlined.
Pillars of flame shoot out from Mauri, burning through the stonework before her as they fan out towards Eleanor, Ragnell, and Clarine. They wrap and warp as such to combine together into one big one to try and pull all three together.
"Begone," she intones to Hiro as roiling heat escapes her voice, shimmering but not quite exploding into full-on flame as it passes by him and Ruby. The very notion of it is there, and it is hot... but their courage is far too great to be dissuaded so easily.
Another one of exactly similar make goes to Talise, to try and shake her to her very core of her convictions, as if it were her own gauntlet being thrown back (metaphorically - the one she threw is an incinerated lump that is growing smaller by the moment). As if a challenge to dare her to think she has what it takes to speak up to her like that.
Meanwhile, Mauri curves a hand inward and one of those flame pillars near Magilou bend over as if to just bonk her. In so much flames bonks. Bonk bonk bonk? Burn burn burn? Burnk burnk burnk?
GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Marivel Armitage with Bloodflamme! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has gained 1 Combo! GS: That attack doesn't exist. [] GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Flamme Rouge! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Seraph Clarine with Flamme Rouge! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Eleanor Klein with Flamme Rouge! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Talise Gianfair with Fear Flare! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Hiro with Fear Flare! GS: Hiro critically guards Red Priestess Mauri's Fear Flare for 24 hit points! GS: Seraph Clarine critically guards Red Priestess Mauri's Flamme Rouge for 24 hit points! GS: Seraph Clarine activates Guard bonus! GS: Talise Gianfair guards a hit from Red Priestess Mauri's Fear Flare for 80 hit points! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Magilou with Burnk!! GS: Eleanor Klein takes a solid hit from Red Priestess Mauri's Flamme Rouge for 128 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage critically guards Red Priestess Mauri's Bloodflamme for 30 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage activates Guard bonus! GS: Magilou takes a glancing hit from Red Priestess Mauri's Burnk! for 76 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Red Priestess Mauri! GS: Magilou activates Arcane Font! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Ragnell takes a solid hit from Red Priestess Mauri's Flamme Rouge for 163 hit points! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
The Seraphim here might notice something familiar, about Magilou's artes. They may even notice the plus one which is currently hiding out in her body, as comfy as a lantern.
He's not coming out, though. It's hot out here! He has very sensitive skin. That's okay, though, because this woman evidently has some burns of her own.
"Oh, boy! A commendment! This is what I've always wanted!" Magilou looks from side to side, and lifts her hand, stage-whispering to the Seraph who comes in all lit up - and the woman who throws down her gauntlet. "Is that what we wanted? A pat on the head from the nice people who run the world? That's it, right?" Whisper, whisper, as if Clarine and Talise know the answers.
But right now... she's hearing double..!!!
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and that goes double when one is doubling up one's theme, layered over-and-over, just a little more maddening than the first.
"Oh," she exclaims, smiling a little too wide for sincerity as she waves to Hiro before turning her attention right on Marivel. "I'm SO glad you asked."
One may get the distinct impression she keeps her introductions on tap. Witness:
"I am the wise sorceress who has seen mountains crumble to valleys and volcanos chill to ice! A lone lighthouse shining in the dark sea, or a ghost-light leading civilisation to ruin...?! At every turn! She is here! The notorious, the peerless, the astounding: Mazhigigika Miludin do Din Nolurun Dou!" Her arms cross over herself before she flings them outwards, and the 'ta-da' is implied, hands spread as if to encompass all eternity.
This is the precise moment Ragnell introduces her. "OR," Magilou sighs, Magilouically, a hand to her forehead, "you can call me 'Magilou', for short." Her back bends backwards in such an arc it seems it must surely break, before she balances forward all at once, and ends up on one foot to avoid getting singed. "Ragnell! How the hell are ya! Oh, it was an epic, an escapade in SIX ACTS --"
There is one small problem with Magilou's banter.
This problem is called 'The Red Priestess Mauri, literally one of Althena's Four Heroes, who is still right here and increasingly unhappy about the situation'.
And the pillar of flame leans down, and -- THONK. She scrambles out of the way. It is not terribly graceful. It has all the aura of a cat being shooed off a table.
"Oi!" Magilou yelps, holding her hat to her head as it smoulders. (The rest of her does, too.) (And not even just like that, Ragnell.) "I'm not a snack for your fire, thank-you-very-much! I make an awful snack. Trust me! I've gotten terrible reviews from Holy Cuisine Monthly."
Pat-pat-pat-pat, she puts out a little fire on the tip of one of those four folds. "Don't you think you should sort out how you feel about this whole shebang before you go on a crusade? Like, that's usually the first step. If you're already going on about how righteous your cause is, that really sounds like you're having second thoughts, and oh boy, they hate it when that happens."
She unfurls her hands, shoulders sagging as she sighs. "But hey, what do I know! You love burning up, so it's totally fine. Hey, wanna try it out?"
With a flick of her wrist, there's a paper doll in her hand again, and a circle of red magical power around her. "Paint the town red... Blood Moon!"
That must be the term she's adopted for the circle of burning red, exploding over Mauri.
GS: Magilou has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Blood Moon! GS: Magilou has gained 2 Combo! GS: Magilou has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise is firmly on the 'take it seriously' side, but she does shoot a glance at Magilou, wincing slightly. Ragnell gets another. "You're hot enough that I'll overlook your rap sheet for now, babe," she tosses out with some attempt at levity.
Her tone undercuts it. She's straining to try and be even a little flirtatious, but the tension in her voice puts the lie to it. She's indignant, and it's not towards Ragnell.
When Mauri burns her gauntlet away and speaks, Talise narrows her eyes slightly. Her throat tightens just a little, then relaxes as she breathes out a slow breath through her nose. "Yeah," she says, voice quiet and more serious. "I have seen how much the Church here sucks. But you're not doing anything for these people except killing them all and leaving the survivors living in ruins. You may be the Red Priestess, but I've got a Rainbow of Tales that tell me this isn't what an Althena in her right mind would want."
When Hiro and Ruby come hustling in, Talise glances towards the pair with a crisp nod before her gaze snaps back to Mauri - and just in time, no less. The flames kick up, furious and roiling with something more than just raw fire.
With a shout, Talise flicks Rastaban up into a guarding position as Mauri hurls the flame of scorn at her. She feels it in her soul as much as in her body, her armour heating up even as doubt and fear try to lap at her soul. Muscles and spirit straining, she braces her blade with her opposite hand against the fuller, the flame roiling along Rastaban's edge. Tongues of it sear across her cheeks, the heat lashing through the small gaps between the plates of her armour.
The first tendrils of doubt grasp at her consciousness. A thought comes through: A memory of Dragonmaster Ghaleon. Of the man leaving her humiliated and beaten badly in the bowels of an ancient cave from the utmost dawn of Lunar.
...And here I am facing one of Her Heroes....
...Am I in over my head again?...
But it's not long until the flame begins to collect into fiery streams. It licks along the edge of Talise's blade, eddying for a moment before she lets out a barking shout and slashes through the blazing attack.
The fire itself splits before her. Embers of fear flicker and die in the air as Talise storms through the flame of doubt.
"And let me remind you," she barks, "that a fire can be put out!"
Talise does what she does best: She powers into close range. With a long leap, she closes ranks, practically hurling herself straight into Mauri's face to try and make the fight less a duel of magic and more a duel of bodies, where she's more in her element.
"HOOOOAHT!" Talise strikes out with a series of quick, lashing strokes, slicing into the space around Mauri's shoulders and arms. For all that she's furious at all of this, the blows aren't killing ones - each one in and of itself isn't serious, but they come in a seemingly infinite wave of strikes, fast enough that her arms practically blur and the air hums with the almost musical chords of vibrating metal as the elegant blade in her hands whirls like a conductor's baton guiding a symphony of fine steel. Each blow is aimed to try and disable, to saturate the Red Priestess in painful strikes intended to smash what defenses she might present.
She makes just enough time between strikes to reposition - and to growl something, voice quieter. "...Your brother would never do something like this. Leo's got honour. Surely you do too, Red Priestess."
It's less angry. A gem of hope is nestled in there. A vague wish that Leo's decency runs in the family.
GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Infinitely Rippling Waters! GS: Talise Gianfair has gained 3 Combo! GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action. GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Red Priestess Mauri takes a glancing hit from Magilou's Blood Moon for 87 hit points! GS: Disease applied to Red Priestess Mauri! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Evade bonus and Sufferer! GS: Red Priestess Mauri takes a solid hit from Talise Gianfair's Infinitely Rippling Waters for 167 hit points! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel says, "You don't have a crowd of refugees to murder." Her eyes narrow as Mauri burns the blood. She doesn't get enough to draw out a skill--or any secrets. Once again Mauri remains elusive. Some flame licks at Marivel but she silent-casts a small swirl of wind around her and asphyxiates the flames so that htey can no longer burn before too much damage is done.
"That's right. A demon." Marivel says. "The kind of demon that hunts other demons. And yet here I am, hungering for you. Perhaps monstrosity isn't skin deep."
"But to be accused of hypocrisy from the Church of Althena--I doubt our new jester friend could concoct a punchline as well articulated as that. Tis true as they say, the farce reality makes of us surpasses all theater."
She does listen to the entirety of Magilou's introduction. "Mazhigigika Miludin do Din Nolurun Dou... A fine name." Marivel is way too gay to be the straight man, but she can be comically serious if the situation calls for it. Magilou and Ragnell knowing one another makes everything clear. There's no need for further questions.
"Remember 'Blood Moon' we're stealing that one," Marivel asides to Hob and Nob who chirp at her merrily.
Not that she intends to fight fire with fire today. Her staff transmogrifies itself into a blood-red scythe that Marivel swings around above her head and behind her before slashing it out forward, unleashing a wave of red towards the Red Priestess!
"The longer your Goddess hides from me," Marivel says. "The harsher her judgement shall be. If you're in my way I'll devour you like any other monster...."
For a moment the astute might notice something familiar passing behind Marivel's eyes.
"Iiiis what I'd like to say," Marivel adds. "But Leo is already suffering plenty. Even I'd feel guilty adding to it. But you can make me... Someone as talented as you..." Marivel grins, fangs showing. "Someone as talented as you can make me."
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Bloody Mari! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Red Priestess Mauri takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Bloody Mari for 80 hit points! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine is very glad that she's not alone here. If she were... she's not sure she'd have the courage to do this. But the sight of others, faces familiar and unfamiliar, buoys her. And Ragnell is here, too! Clarine manages a small smile for her. It looks like, for the time being, they're on the same side in this endeavor.
And that unfamiliar face, Magilou... Clarine notices the tag-along. That gets her attention, for sure. She pauses, though, at the aside.
"Ah...? I am... unsure..." She replies, hesitantly. The woman with the large hat and the book skirt... she's a big personality and Clarine isn't sure how to react.
Before she can say anything, though, she is soon distracted by Mauri's response.
"Heathen..." Clarine repeats with a slight frown. ...It's true, isn't it? The label hurts. She shakes her head, then
"I suppose I cannot deny it. But my heart is still with the Goddess - and it is for that very reason that I must stand against you. My mind, my heart, my eyes... they're all clear. I believe She has made a terrible mistake. She has been hurt by Sin's actions against Her faithful... but the people of Spira have no control over it. They are as much victims as anyone. They are not responsible for what happened to Azado. Inflicting pain and subjugation on them is only furthering the cycle of suffering."
She hesitates for a moment before continuing.
"The crimes of their leadership have already been exposed. To continue punishing the innocent... that I cannot allow. You claim to be here to end their suffering... but bring only flame and violence. As my friend says, this is unacceptable!" She concludes.
"Allow me to lend my support, everyone... Acuteness!" Clarine incants. Suddenly, a red light erupts from her position, settling over her allies and enhancing their strength. "Let us end this before more harm can befall these people...!"
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Marivel Armitage with Acuteness! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Magilou with Acuteness! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Talise Gianfair with Acuteness! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Acuteness! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Eleanor Klein with Acuteness! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Hiro with Acuteness! GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action. GS: Hiro accepts Seraph Clarine's Acuteness for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Hiro! GS: Talise Gianfair accepts Seraph Clarine's Acuteness for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Talise Gianfair! GS: Eleanor Klein accepts Seraph Clarine's Acuteness for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Seraph Clarine's Acuteness for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: Magilou accepts Seraph Clarine's Acuteness for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Magilou!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
As Hiro's shield(pot lid???) becomes covered in blazing power that takes it's already impenetrable power to the limit, he salutes Eleanor. "Much appreciated!" He doesn't want this to go badly, but something about Mauri has always gotten under his skin enough that... well, he wants all the protection he can get.
"Whoa are you gonna be hitting on Leo's sister?"
Ruby looks at Ragnell through the goggles. "Man... you're gonna make a guy we know pretty jealous..." A pause, before she utters, "... life goals... honestly."
Hiro then picks up on the woman in the Jester's garb being an acquaintance of Ragnell's and... "Oh hey. She one of your Seraph f-"
Despite the situation he finds himself blushing a bit as Ragnell quips that she's extremely hot. Even as Magilou introduces herself to Marivel. "A-Ah... n-nice to meet... you... miss... any friend of hers is... ... ..." His brain perhaps short circuits a bit there as he stumbles on what he meant to say. "... a lot."
"Maybe tempting fate there a little Ragnell." Ruby tips her head towards Mauri, as if to indicate just how hot things could get for her.
Which Mauri makes clear in short order, as she responds to Hiro's entreaty with a big grin. "It's not... a lie." He says, grimly, though looking unsettled by her smile. Like it's putting him on the back foot. Even as sure as he is about how Ronfar came to be among them, what Mauri says has enough zealous conviction that he momentarily doubts himself...
... at the very least he doubts what he thinks he knows about the two of them. "And Ronfar coming with us. It's not like that and you know it... he's not that kind of guy." "Yeah you make it sound like he's a bad penny- ... ... Oh actually not that far off."
His grimace continues as Mauri refutes Eleanor, by saying that stone melts. Just before she tells him to get lost. "Ruby down! With me!"
Sweeping his scarf around Ruby as she flies low, he entrusts himself to the oversized pot lid that's reinforced by Eleanor's power. The heat roiling into it, and clashing with the power of the enchantment and whatever magic is in this strange shield of his. "I-It was a good try." Ruby says, muffled, as she peeks back out of his singed scarf. Though Hiro's expression, reddened from searing flame and sweat makes it clear he doesn't agree. "Guess I'll have to apologize to two people later." He whispers to Ruby, before standing back up, aglow with Clarine's red light.
And with a simple flourish of his sword, he rushes at her, the air rippling as he brings it around in a full rotation. And slams it right into the air right in front of the Red Priestess. It never makes contact, yet it goes off like a sonic boom - erupting into a shockwave of energy which is more stunning than damaging.
"I'm not going anywhere." Hiro challenges, "You can take your people and get out of this city until you get your priorities straight."
GS: Hiro has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Concussion Sword! GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: Red Priestess Mauri guards a hit from Hiro's Concussion Sword for 25 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Red Priestess Mauri gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shieldbreak applied to Red Priestess Mauri! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Who is she to question? "I am Lady Eleanor Klein, a member of the Agile Remote Mission Squad. I was there, at Operation Mi'ihen--I know full well Yevon's crimes. But today these people are under our protection." She looks to Clarine then, "Yes. I'm with you!" She doesn't know Althena or that theological debate... but she knows Clarine. that's enough for now.
She knows Mauri is powerful--powerful enough that she killed Marivel before, which is not easy. But she imagines showing weakness would only be exploited--and she is confident in the people gathered up to help. Even...
"Ragnell," Eleanor greets. "Fancy seeing you here." A beat, "I won't question it." About her being hot.
To Boudicca, "...A friend of Ragnell's?" she sayss, with a lifted eyebrow. There's something about this woman that strikes her, but there's little time to puzzle out what that impression actually is. Something about her demeanor, something beneath that humor that reads altogether differently. "Magilou, then."
A fire can be put out, Talise says. Eleanor believes they might manage it with Clarine's help. "I'll put this power to use!" She tends toward the support role herself, but against magic, that's one of her areas of expertise. So she tries something first. Channeling power through another Crest, Eleanor invokes the power of Wing and Muse in a flash of sparkling light. "Arctic winds, I call upon your power! Boreal Flurry!"
Eleanor puts out her other hand and a swirling burst of snow courses forward, putting out fire where it touches and barreling straight for Mauri.
"Hiro, if you can pin her down--"
She certainly isn't going to get in the way of Marivel's rage today. Irving's monster...
But Eleanor casts her spell and starts rushing to the side to prepare her next move.
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Boreal Flurry! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 2 Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
See? Ragnell is *extremely* *hot*. That is to say, literally on fire from Mauri's Flamme Rouge OH GODDESS THE BURNING. The pillars may or may not yank Ragnell over towards Eleanor and Clarine, but they do catch her in a bad way, leaving her with a look that can only be described as *smoldering*.
(The player wrote that joke *before* Magilou posed, okay, so there.)
She coughs out a ring of smoke as Talise banters back at her. Ragnell grins despite (because of?) the burns. "Well, ain't I lucky? The way you say that makes me think I need to up my badness game, though. Maybe next time!" She winks at Magilou. "After all, I got some big, bad competition returnin' from her final curtain jus' itchin' to show me up.
"Also, she really is an awful snack. Not enough meat, too much bone," Ragnell asides to the general public. It's unclear if it's a bit or if she means it, but this is just normal Ragnell, so. She smirks at Eleanor and gives her a quick bow. "I'm like a bad penny m'self," she jokes, indicating Hiro with one shoulder. As for Marivel--knowing that Magilou and Ragnell not only know each other but are on seemingly friendly terms honestly really does say a lot.
Ruby asks Ragnell if she's really, seriously going to be hitting on Mauri. Ragnell just grins and winks. Life goals indeed. Everyone should aspire to be just like Ragnell--right, Magivel? "Fate is all about temptation," she drawls at Ruby instead. "Temptin' and bein' tempted in turn... It's what makes it all fun."
Hiro asks if Magilou is a Seraph. Ragnell looks at him like he's crazy, then bursts out laughing. "Guess you're not entirely wrong there! But who'm I to unveil a lady's mystery~? Better you have the Magilou Experience for yourself, Hiro."
Mauri's comment her way gets her blinking in surprise, though. "What's so surprisin' about someone like me?" She smiles. "Am I too much of a villain for you? Or are you sayin' that villains aren't supposed to fight against other villains?" She catches Clarine's eye and gives her a little smile back, but otherwise lets her fellow Seraph speak for herself. After all, Clarine's faith in the Goddess is rather more pure than Ragnell's. For Ragnell's part, she heaves a sigh and shakes her head. "Look, Mauri, honey, I don't really care about Yevon. But I'm really, truly over the Guards' high-an'-mighty, self-righteous, sanctimonious act while being so totally, utterly, ABSOLUTELY clueless. I'd explain what I mean, but let's not kid ourselves--y'aren't gonna listen to what any of us say anyway. So how's about we stick with what we were both wantin' t' do from the start anyway?"
Light flows up from beneath Ragnell in golden motes as she chants a Seraphic arte. "O darkened stormclouds... Thunder Blade!" she calls. From the heavens, down at an angle, a sword made of lightning sears down towards Mauri, sending out a burst of concussive energy when it *shunks* into the earth. Whether that first hit catches her or not, a couple heartbeats later, the sword EXPLODES with electric energy, catching anything within its radius--oh, actually not. Actually just Mauri, in fact, regardless of who else happens to be nearby. The convenience of friend-or-foe marking*!
* that's not actually a thing in this theme, don't take that seriously
GS: Seraph Ragnell accepts Seraph Clarine's Acuteness for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Seraph Ragnell! GS: Seraph Ragnell spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Thunder Blade! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: Gamble: Moderate! Red Priestess Mauri fully evades Eleanor Klein's Boreal Flurry for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Red Priestess Mauri gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Sufferer! GS: You do not have any attacks from that person in queue. GS: CRITICAL! Red Priestess Mauri guards a hit from Seraph Ragnell's Thunder Blade for 116 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Red Priestess Mauri gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Guard bonus and Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Red Priestess Mauri has posed.
"...I have a much easier to remember name for that one," Mauri asides to everyone else as Magilou just Magilous along, as if taking the burden - a rare, truly unambiguously just burden - to attempt to give free reign to just push her aside, "Heathen. You all will find it much easier to remember. Such is my mercy in these trying times, among these... trying... souls." Times. She meant times. But Magilou is a trying soul indeed.
She makes the mistake of assuming Magilou will be dismissed by mere name calling, a burning circle of red that explodes around her and sends her whirling on one foot where she is now directionally face-to-face with Talise, who has her own words to say about all that transpires.
"Stories... mere... stories," Mauri draws those words out as Talise argues against everything. "Fables. How does one such as you draw such conviction and strength from fables?" Talise illustrates with her resolve that she won't be put down by the fear of being immolated, as she just tears in there, striking and slicing along her upper body. She draws blood, and Mauri steps back to look downcast as she dares bring up Leo's name - for Talise's resolve is very, very real. Something about this shakes her.
Before a demon who hunts other demons, who can find a moment of weakness in her in which to say her peace without her blood feast being lit on fire. "...Theater," Mauri murmurs, as if working back up some indignation as Marivel repeats that same determination before disintegration, and that wasn't enough to stop her. She is still right there.
"What know you of my dear brother's suffering... the proud, strong, gallant brother who helped drive these last heathen hold-outs into their squalid corner?" The Red Priestess' voice starts to go red from anger as she rises and only barely avoids getting as nasty a gash as Talise inflicted by going 'poof' in a burst of flame and reappearing elsewhere.
"What nonsense," she finds something resembling composure. "You would say you are with the Goddess, but believe She is in error? Do you listen to yourself, Seraph?" She tries to talk over Clarine, but Clarine continues outlining in no uncertain terms as to why the people of Spira are blameless. "No. The idea of freeing those who would benefit and perpetuate from this cycle, for ignorance of knowing no else... that is unacceptable, is it not?"
Clarine continues undaunted with a shining red light to help those around them.
<Pose Tracker> Red Priestess Mauri has posed.
Hiro speaks again, picking at the verbal wounds - the seeming weakness - of the Red Priestess' psyche as he can spot a tear escaping her eye. (It evaporates immediately because she's next to a flame pillar. That is how hot it is.) "Oh, Ronfar... where are you? You haven't been around in so long... it feels like you exist in name only as this," she smiles, "heathen-shaped weight on my heart--" She's hugging herself, and when Hiro swings that sword out with that crack of a sonic boom, it throws her arms right open and also fans away some of the flames near her. "...Don't you dare..."
She's in disarray as Eleanor clarifies who she is, who she stands for. "...Agile Remote Mission Squad... does it matter what banner you fly? It is not ours." Once again, disappearing into flame and reappearing somewhere else, as the swirling burst of snow puts out that exact flame... where she no longer is. "What 'protection' do you hope to give with such impotent power... Lady Klein?" She dwells on those words like they mean something, and that something is 'nothing.' "Hm, hm, hm."
Her mood improves immensely as Ragnell just doesn't beat about the bush. "Indeed... the lack of bleating, the lack of pleading on your part... yes. What refreshing, condemning candor..." She lets her arms out wide as the lightning comes crashing down. It is a dead-on strike, but... she seems reasonably intact, all told, for being directly struck by lightning. Or having the ground on her catch on fire in the lightning's wake. What was it she said about lightning's relationship with fire, in her words?
"You all should follow her example, if you are going to throw around words like those oversized toy balls these heathens so enjoy." Mauri dislikes Blitzball. That is how you know she cannot ever possibly co-exist in this society.
<Pose Tracker> Red Priestess Mauri has posed.
"All that matters... is that Althena wills it," Mauri's chilling words beget a surge of renewed strength just standing in these new flames as she steps out of them, throwing up her left hand...
And gesturing towards Talise and Hiro and Ruby alike, trying to bring this field of flames ever closer to them. An attempt to shut them away from sight and mind. "Whatever your stories, whatever you believe of those close to me... that is the simplest truth." The walls of fire close in.
"You," she says to Magilou without looking at her, "you need not scream to that twisted little heart's desire. If you would kindly turn to ash in silence," she gestures with another arm to just plain set Magilou on fire. The slow, burning kind. Which is rude and not all the sort you take in silence.
She starts walking towards Eleanor, picking up steam and pace imperceptibly but inevitably. "Whatever it is you call yourselves, Lady Klein... I would advise, for everyone's sake, you do not prolong this losing battle for these... heretics." Flames lance right out from her back, like spines, racing towards her.
She is closer to Marivel than she would like. With another hand, a burst of flames that go for the brows, trying to take her from head to toe. "It matters not how much the scum that is left keeps coming back together. The flame is always hungry. Perhaps... just like you," Mauri smiles without looking her in the eye, "ah, do feed each other."
She comes up along Clarine next, at which point she shoots out a hand towards her chest. The same gesture she showed a very strange man from far, far away. "Let me remind you of but the power you are defying, Seraph." She will send fire surging through her, in its most raw and pure form, as if truly wishing to test her conviction through this.
"She understands already, don't you... Seraph Ragnell," Mauri passes by her, sweeping a hand down low and stirring some flames that erupt and rise underneath her feet and crawl ever upwards.
MEANWHILE
Two young Guado are here - here against the better judgment of all involved. They are protected by a ribbon, and that is all that stops them from being put in a worse position. They have honored the judgment not to stay in the fray of it.
But they're trying to help.
A dark-blue haired one in a Blitzer's uniform is pushing herself to the limit - her hold of the powers of prayer are great for her age, but she curses how she only knows to draw upon the 'warmth.' She feels she is only prolonging the suffering of a Ronso who is burning. Cura after Cura. It's not stopping. She doesn't know how. Her father knows how, the chill of an Esuna. Her father is one of the greatest users of the power of prayer in all of Spira. He could have stopped all of this. Why did he leave Bevelle?
An even younger Guado with green hair and heavy, singed robes already ruined by rain is brought to tears outright as her attempts to put out a flame with Blizzard is failing. She can hear the screams of terror inside that nearby house. She's trying. Maester Seymour is one of the best sorcerers in all the land. None of this fire would have slowed him down. Why did he abandon Bevelle?
GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Althena Wills It! GS: Red Priestess Mauri accepts Red Priestess Mauri's Althena Wills It for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Cripple and Mute removed! GS: Cover applied to Red Priestess Mauri! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Sufferer! GS: Red Priestess Mauri spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Talise Gianfair with Field of Fire! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Hiro with Field of Fire! GS: Red Priestess Mauri spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Magilou with Immolate! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Eleanor Klein with Flame Lance! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has gained 1 Combo! GS: Talise Gianfair takes a solid hit from Red Priestess Mauri's Field of Fire for 0 hit points! GS: Disrupt and Poison applied to Talise Gianfair! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Marivel Armitage with Crown Fire! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hiro takes a glancing hit from Red Priestess Mauri's Field of Fire for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hiro gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disrupt and Poison applied to Hiro! GS: Red Priestess Mauri spends 4 Combo on Poison and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Seraph Clarine with Burning Castigation! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has gained 1 Combo! GS: Red Priestess Mauri spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Calamity Flare! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has gained 1 Combo! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Eleanor Klein guards a hit from Red Priestess Mauri's Flame Lance for 141 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Hyper removed! GS: Eleanor Klein activates Guard bonus! GS: Seraph Clarine guards a hit from Red Priestess Mauri's Burning Castigation for 126 hit points! GS: Disrupt and Poison applied to Seraph Clarine! GS: Magilou takes a glancing hit from Red Priestess Mauri's Immolate for 87 hit points! GS: Poison applied to Magilou! GS: Magilou activates Arcane Font! GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a glancing hit from Red Priestess Mauri's Calamity Flare for 76 hit points! GS: Poison applied to Seraph Ragnell! GS: Hyper applied to Red Priestess Mauri! GS: Seraph Ragnell activates Evade bonus! GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Marivel Armitage guards a hit from Red Priestess Mauri's Crown Fire for 102 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
There's something about that 'Rainbow of Tales' which gets Magilou's attention entirely captivated, for a second, gaze snapping over to her. It's the same treatment she gives Ruby -- this split-second of something which isn't theatrically overblown, a moment of calculation, as if her eyes were a measuring-cup and the metric used galactic in scale.
It's gone in an eyeblink. Was it ever there at all? Magilou isn't telling.
"So you've got all your people worked up now," Magilou remarks, looking between Talise and Clarine with a lopsided grin. "I can tell just by looking how serious they are... and you're just going to turf them out into the flames, ain'cha? They're heathens because they worship God wrong... hahaha!" It may well seem callous, the way she laughs, a hand to her face as she doubles over. Seamlessly, the gesture melds to a bow to one Mauri, and Magilou looks up from the stooped position, face still split in a knife's grin. "As for me, I'll thank you for the compliment."
That is because it is kind of callous. Were you expecting a sympathetic explanation? No, Magilou is just kind of a jerk.
"No penny is a bad penny, because many pennies make for plenty of twenties," she points out in the wake of Ragnell's spiel, tapping her shikigami-doll to her forehead, with a grin. "But if you ask these fine people, I'm the worst of the worst. I can't imagine why. It's character assassination, I tell you!" ... it probably isn't entirely character assassination, if she's always like this.
She is suspiciously quiet on The True Nature of Magilou, which might be its own troll.
She notices Eleanor's introduction, though, and her hands clap together. "Another 'Lady Eleanor'! Hah! One word from you," here she asides over her shoulder, as if entirely to herself, "and I'm calling her 'Madam Goldfish' for all time."
(There is no word from herself.)
Instead, she straightens, looking over to Clarine. "Hey, not that I'm ungrateful or anything, but don't you think the crazy fire lady has a point? The whole point of God is that whole infallible thing. All-seeing, all-knowing.... you wanna lay it out for me? Here, I'll take notes." She... she actually did just pull out a notebook and a pen. Did she just... have those on hand..?
"Oh, yeah," she points her pen at Hiro, "while I'm here, you wanna update me on what's going on with White Knight Leo? Has he broken yet, or is it still in-progress?" She looks entirely too excited by that question, an enthusiasm she follows up with: "I didn't miss it, did I?! Oh, man, I bet I totally missed it! This is just like that time we stopped for a parfait and missed... nah, I don't regret that, it was a really good parfait."
She watches Mauri, as she bemoans Ronfar; she wonders how long it's been. Well, there were a lot of parfaits along the way, but those are the best places to hear things.
And that's when Mauri says something --
-- and the vividness drains from Magilou's face, for a moment, leaving only a vast and horrifying expanse of nothing at all.
Nothing... at all.
A moment later she realises she's on fire, and perhaps the delay is more notable this time, as she yelps and hops away. "I will not be silenced!" She insists, all energy again, all offence. "I'm being oppressed! Oppressed!"
Beat: "... and set on fire!"
Hop hop hop, she manages to cool herself off with a water spell. "So, like, this demon girl is really horning in on my act," she thumbs over to Marivel, "but when it comes to taking things which you really didn't deserve in the first place, I've already got a trick for that." And somehow, there's another shikigami in her hands -- and with sorcerous infusion, it GROWS, long and flat and coming up from below to knock into Mauri and take something along for the ride. "... look what I found!" She exclaims, as it slams upwards.
GS: Magilou has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Hellrise! GS: Magilou has gained 1 Combo! GS: Magilou takes 21 damage from Poison! GS: Magilou has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
The light of support shines. Glints of Acuteness dance in the polished steel of Talise's blade. She's too dangerously close to Mauri to glance back at Clarine, but the smile that briefly cuts across her face - tight and fierce as it is - reflects her awareness of the Seraph's aid. It gives her confidence that as much as she failed years ago against the Dragonmaster, today is a different day.
Time has passed. She has grown. And she's not alone.
She edges to one side to clear the road for Hiro and Ruby to come darting in. "Seconded," she fires off at the Red Priestess. "Haul ass, sister. Don't come back 'til you've got your stuff straight."
Hiro's arrival buys her a moment, but she can't snap back right away. On its face, the question seems penetrating. Talise's exposure to Althena has come through a lifetime of tales - a seemingly paltry comparison to the Red Priestess, who can speak with her directly. There should be no holding the two up to each other.
She clicks her teeth together and shoulders through the only way she knows how: By just goddamn shouldering through it. The field of flames pours from Mauri's hand, and Talise can't escape that much fire. Heat consumes the cityscape around her, roiling agonizingly. Curtains of it draw about her position, cutting her off from Hiro and Ruby and leaving her momentarily isolated on the field.
"Talise!" Benedict shouts with alarm from the rear of the fighting, where he's just put a crossbow bolt in the knee of one of Mauri's entourage.
"Don't worry about it," Talise calls back instinctively, though the tension in her voice is hard to miss. Her armour's growing hot, and she's sweating profusely within even so streamlined a set of steel as she's got. Moving is starting to hurt, her muscles straining and aching beneath the padded underlayer that keeps each plate from chafing but also keeps her from effectively cooling off in this situation. Sweat runs down her forehead to mingle with the ash drifting like ghosts through the Temple District. A lot has burned by now.
Wiping her forehead, Talise manages to throw a glance at Ragnell, sidelong. "...Ragnell, it is really hard for me to flirt with you when I've gotta stop to punch you," she pants, again trying to force out a few drops of mirth against every instinct she's got. "We can break some furniture together without omnicidal antics someday. It'll be fun."
The moment of sass is broken as she takes a couple of steps forward, circling Mauri with the pacing gait of a cagefighter looking for an opening. The humour melts away, dripping off her like one of those drops of perspiration. "I'm not here because I love their religion, Priestess. I'm here because they're people who can't help themselves right now. That's what those stories of Althena give me. Context. Thousands of years of fucking context! Ask yourself how the Goddess we all grew up loving matches up to the Goddess who's telling you to kill all these people and let her sort it out!" The swordsinger snaps her hair back with a huff.
"Ever stop to think Althena might've come back wrong? That you're slavishly obeying a Goddess who might've lost her damn mind? That maybe, just maybe, you're not helping her like this!?"
Again Talise launches herself at the Red Priestess, a few droplets gleaming in the air behind her. "Goddess damn it, think about what's right, Red Priestess!" she yells as she closes the range and attempts to drive a shoulder into Mauri's chest, trying to use her greater height and bulk to stagger the Red Priestess and knock her off her footing.
Whether she manages to or not, Talise rears up, bringing Rastaban over her head in a two-handed grip as she raises her voice to a penetrating roar. "RUOOOOOOOOAAAAAAHT!!" She strikes, the blade descending towards the Red Priestess like a guillotine in a powerful cleave.
GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Parting of the Seas! GS: Talise Gianfair has gained 1 Combo! GS: Talise Gianfair takes 24 damage from Poison! GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
The children, Marivel thinks. She might just die again after all. She absolutely cannot allow those two to come to harm. A bump here and a scrape there is healthy. Anything more... Well, she's not going to rely on Mauri's kind nature here.
"Guardians," Marivel tells Mauri, trying to keep the Priestess's attention on her rather than on the kids. "What doesn't cause your brother suffering these days?" She files away some taunts that if she used might put the kidlets in harm's way--she can use them when there aren't a bunch of civilians about. If Mauri will ever fight in such a situation. More flame is launched out towards Marivel. Marivel brings up her arms and a crackling green barrier ripples around her, the flame crashing powerfully against her shielding.
"I haven't been fighting a war and subsisting off Ethius blood this time," Marivel murmurs. "Bit more prepared this time."
Marivel takes in a deep breath and swallows the remains of the flame like a fire eater.
RED SKILL:RUBYVENTION
And with that she breathes the flame right back out towards Mauri. Okay. Maybe she IS fighting fire with fire after all.
"Even if you destroy me again, the Time of Promise has not come.
"Don't spoil Magilou for me Hiro!" Marivel shouts, after. "I need this!"
Magilou accuses Marivel of STEALING HER THUNDER. "Tis in my nature, I'm afraid! If I knew you were coming--"
She looks right at Magilou. "I wouldn't have double-booked."
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Rubyvention! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Gamble: Lowest! Red Priestess Mauri guards a hit from Magilou's Hellrise for 40 hit points! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Sufferer! GS: Magilou drains Red Priestess Mauri! Magilou gains 20 temporary hit points! GS: Red Priestess Mauri takes a solid hit from Talise Gianfair's Parting of the Seas for 152 hit points! GS: Dispel! Cover and Hyper removed! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Sufferer! GS: Red Priestess Mauri fully evades Marivel Armitage's Rubyvention for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Red Priestess Mauri gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
MEANWHILE
A breeze joins the next Cura from one of those Guado, air feeding fire, and this is a truly restorative arte; Boudicca may not know 'Esuna', the way the Guado know it, but she knows the pain of trying to cleanse without success.
It's not unlike the breeze which curls around the younger Guado, but this is invigorating as spring, to enhance her magics. Air feeds flame; she cannot put out a house ablaze, but she can support someone who can.
And the wind swirls around them, taking up the fire and redirecting it outwards, giving it everything it desires so it does not consume the two guado who are trying so hard. She can't abjure the searing heat -- but she can at least keep the flames away from them.
Here the weight of Mauri's transgressions weigh heavy, the way she has plagued so many innocents of Bevelle, civilians who had no voice nor hand in the war Althena brought to them; but Boudicca does not speak on her horror, to the children. Not when they have so much to process, to understand.
The truth... is so often complicated.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Ruby actually takes on a faint pink blush in her furry cheeks as Ragnell talks about challenging fate, it's not even that Ragnell said it in a strange way, it's just when the word 'tempt' is said over and over by Ragnell her brain takes it as sensual because of who Ragnell is. "Ragnell the way you make it sound I'm not sure whether it's tempting fate you're into or just... temptation."
Before Ragnell says she's not going to unveil the mystery, that instead it's better for him to have... "The Magilou Experience?!"
Two voices cry out in confused alarm at Ragnell's statement. Like they're not certain what that is, but between Magilou's manner of talking and Ragnell's way of putting it... it's quite concerning.
Though apparently Hiro manages to sport just the faintest grin after thinking about it for a second. "What you're saying is you're... the most Vile Fiend?" Hiro eventually ventures of Magilou, with a question that causes Ruby to groannnnnn. Before... "Wha!? Marivel? I don't... how am I spoiling her for you!?" "It's more like she's spoiling herself???"
Though she asks a question of Leo, that causes Hiro to open his mouth - then look sideways at Ragnell. Then back at her again. "Excuse m-me?! Uhhhh- I wouldn't call... Leo's current state... broken? It's more like he's seeing things more clear..." And then he suddenly looks at Mauri looking mighty threatening. "... ly... y-you know maybe I should give you the Leo update later." As if even the implication that Leo's faith in the war is wavering... if Mauri believed it, could cause Leo ALL KINDS OF PROBLEMS.
His act gave him momentary breathing room, before Mauri gestures the flames closer from his flanks, and Hiro finds his scarf on fire, and his paths of approach all blocked off. The way she speaks of Ronfar just continues to get under his sweat-covered skin, as he continues to try and pat his scarf out, looking grimly at Talise, like maybe he's starting to see things a little more like Talise is in this scenario.
"What happened to you?" Hiro says to Mauri as if disquieted. He doesn't know all that happened, except that Ronfar blames himself for not saving her.
From what though?
"Why are you like this!? The way you talk about Althena - of Ronfar... of your own Brother! It's not normal!"
Before he swallows, resetting his reinforced shield and... "Noone would will this." Planting his sword down, he gathers two fistfuls of energy. Inky violet in one hand, and visible swirling green in the other. "I don't know if I can Eleanor... she's like a force of nature... but I'll give it my best." Casting out one handful, it blasts into the ground like Mauri like a bomb, trying to give him a gap of flames to jump through, and erupting into a violent column of buffeting winds.
Then as he leaps through, he hits the ground in a roll. Touching the ground as the energy in his other hand extends into pattern of rune after rune. Each rune seems to grow an arrowhead like protrusion of inky violet energy, that then scatters into a vertical array of shadowy slivers that try to rain upwards through the Red Priestess.
Bringing up his sword, he then charges straight into his own storm of wind and shadow, and just begins slashing. Each blow changing direction, growing faster and faster until... "DODGE THIS!" The wind and shadow vanish all at once... as the momentum of the wind currents sends him through her position with one final blow, before he taps down.
GS: Hiro spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Formation! Hiro has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Black Storm! GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hiro has launched an attack Link! GS: Hiro has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Sword Dance! GS: Hiro has gained 2 Combo! GS: Hiro takes 26 damage from Poison! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: Hiro takes 28 damage from Poison! GS: Hyper and Shield expired! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: Red Priestess Mauri takes a glancing hit from Hiro's Black Storm for 110 hit points! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Sufferer! GS: Red Priestess Mauri takes a solid hit from Hiro's Sword Dance for 157 hit points! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor's spell puts out a flame that doesn't have Mauri in it. She'd hoped that that disarray would translate into a chance to use her spell... But Mauri is too fast with her flames, and the young elf sets her jaw. "You haven't seen anything yet," she assures her.
But is it that simple?
Eleanor blinks at Magilou when she addresses her though--this one she totally doesn't get. "...Ah?" she asks, too polite to go for a 'what???' but definitely feeling it.
The infallibility of God, though... Clarine and the flame that courses through her gets her attention, all right.
But Hiro--Hiro she just calls, "Do your best! I'll back you up if I can!"
If she can. Holding her down seems... very difficult.
"I'll take your advice under consideration," Eleanor replies stoically to Mauri, though that lancing burst of flames is too fast for her attempt to defend against completely. Even the Fire Ring she wears that protects her from some of the worst of the heat cannot protect fully against the sheer power of Mauri's magic, and as they slam into her there is no scent of burning flesh--just the sound of impact as she's hurled backward, lifted from her feet to slam into a wall with a noise of pain. She hits the ground and slides back down, and in the fire it can become easy not to see her, for now.
"...Impotent power," her voice repeats, as she pushes herself up to one knee first, looking around. "Clarine!" She looks with some concern at her friend, spots she thinks two Guado around the outskirts of the battlefield...
She pulls this time not a Crest but a small, coppery instrument, a flute that she brings up to her lips. Despite the smoke, she breathes in. Eleanor begins to play a strange tune, and the echo of her music carries above the din. It is an eerie thing, minor tones and meandering music, all at an unusual pace. Where it falls, the magic of the song strengthens the individuals hearing it, a weird sorcerous balm that causes the flames to dance in time with it, lower. She extends her magic even to the two Guado children and their protector--to anyone who can hear that she can manage, for as long as she can manage, her yellow eyes on Mauri the whole time.
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Hiro with Shielding Melody! GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Marivel Armitage with Shielding Melody! GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Talise Gianfair with Shielding Melody! GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Shielding Melody! GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Seraph Clarine with Shielding Melody! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 1 Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: Hiro accepts Eleanor Klein's Shielding Melody for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Disrupt and Poison removed! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Burst and Lock State applied to Hiro! GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Eleanor Klein's Shielding Melody for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Hyper applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: Seraph Clarine accepts Eleanor Klein's Shielding Melody for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Disrupt and Poison removed! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Amplify applied to Seraph Clarine! GS: Talise Gianfair accepts Eleanor Klein's Shielding Melody for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Disrupt and Poison removed! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Burst and Quick applied to Talise Gianfair!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Mauri passes by Ragnell, flames following and rising in her wake. As she leaps backwards to avoid the bulk of them, Ragnell's red eyes have widened, and the humor has vanished from her face--not unlike Magilou over there, who's realized something of her own. For all that she's out of the loop on current events, perhaps Magilou knows more than she lets on... as usual. They really should form a club with Marivel. For now, though, Ragnell expresses a quiet horror. Because something *has* occurred to her, and while she doesn't know if she's right or not... even the idea sends a chill up her spine.
"Mmmm... nope. Ya crazy, girl," she then drawls through the blaze, switching abruptly to flippant again--but this time, as a calculated attempt to upset Mauri and throw her off her game. Whether it'll *work* or not, well, they'll all just have to see. "Though, I gotta say, Mauri--those Sealin' Rods, they're your work, right?" she adds. Ragnell has absolutely no idea if they're her work or not; she's saying this as a gamble in an attempt to confirm a hunch. "Some master work there! Figure it couldn't be anyone else's doin' but the Goddess' absolute most *faithful*, hmm?"
Talise says it's hard to flirt and punch at the same time. "Sounds t' me like someone's an underachiever!" she quips. "But sure, someday." Ruby's comment gets her a short bark of a laugh and a grin. "Now you're startin' to get it!" As for her and Hiro's reaction to 'the Magilou Experience'... Ragnell's grin only gets wider. Yup, they'll definitely have a time having *that*. To Magilou, she quips, "Now that's jus' absurd. You can't assassinate somethin' that never existed!" ... "Also, technically she's a Crimson Noble," she adds of Marivel. "She's fuckin' obnoxious! You'll either get along great or wanna strangle her with your bare hands. Either or!"
Meanwhile, the fire around them is spreading, thanks to Mauri's sorcery. Ragnell's magic isn't really going to help... but she is not just of lightning but of the storm. And storms include... She raises one of her paired pistols, charges power within it, and opens fire. A heartbeat later, sheets of rain and needle-like lightning pour down around Mauri and the general area. If nothing else, that water may evaporate into steam and provide a bit of cover... or it may drench some of the ambient flames and make things a little easier for those in the city.
GS: Seraph Ragnell accepts Eleanor Klein's Shielding Melody for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Poison removed! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Amplify and Quick applied to Seraph Ragnell! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Squall Shot! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Red Priestess Mauri takes a glancing hit from Seraph Ragnell's Squall Shot for 80 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Seraph Ragnell! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
A haunting melody floats up then... and its source, Eleanor. Ragnell looks over her way for a moment, some of the tension easing from her shoulders; then, with a quiet smile, she returns her attention to the fight, noticeably energized. She always has been a music fan.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Ragnell is completely correct. I am engaged in a deep and meaningful as well as sensual relationship with 'obnoxious.'" Marivel says.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell just gestures at Marivel and gives Magilou a look like 'see what I mean?', even though that was absolutely something she would've said in her position, too.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"It is because I am with Her, that I still hold love for Her, that I must believe it. She has grown silent, even to Her Seraphim... I must speak with Her and learn the truth, and until then, I must stop Her from continuing with this terrible mistake." Clarine replies to Mauri with a shake of her head. She frowns, though, as Mauri continues. "...It would seem... our beliefs are wholly incompatible."
There's sorrow in her voice, at that. And then Magilou questions her, and Clarine goes quiet, hesitating for a moment.
"...I must believe it. I must believe that She is not infallible, that She is in error, because the alternative... the alternative would be that She, with clarity of mind, sought a war that lead countless innocents - both the people of Spira and her own followers - to their death." Clarine replies. "I cannot... I cannot believe that. I do not wish to believe it.
...Was she just trying to convince herself? Was she trying to ignore the truth?
She goes quiet, and hesitates - listens as Talise puts forth the possibility that Althena may have lost her mind. ...All the more reason to wish to speak with her, she supposes. If she could help her in any way...
But she is given no more time to dwell on that for Mauri is upon her now, to remind her of the power that she is defying. With a look of surprise Clarine draws a mirror from her sleeve, raising it protectively in front of her as Mauri drives a hand toward her chest.
The flame that surges off of it burns through the mirror, reducing it to motes of golden light, and through Clarine herself. Clarine lets out a sharp cry of pain as her very being erupts into flame - a flame pure and raw. Were she mortal, such power would be fatal... but even for a Seraphim, the pain is great. But soon enough, she finds herself surrounded by a protective melody - a melody that eases the pain and causes the flames to dissipate. Clarine drops to the ground, drawing a breath.
"Th-thank you, Eleanor..." She murmurs, before hauling herself back up, floating once more in the air.
"...I am... sorry. But if you will not stay your hand, Red Priestess... then I must request your immediate retreat with force!" Clarine replies, making a quick downward motion with a hand. At her beckoning a ray of searing light shoots down from the heavens, aimed at Mauri herself.
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Limited Ray! GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action. GS: Red Priestess Mauri takes a solid hit from Seraph Clarine's Limited Ray for 130 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Seraph Clarine! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Red Priestess Mauri has posed.
"...By Althena, you are being cleansed," Mauri exhales a puff of exasperation to clarify to the jester who is yammering about, because she has never met anyone who needed clarification on what they are supposed to be doing when they catch on fire. "I do not care for what you found."
Bonk. Mauri is slapped upside the face, pointing her chin up unclimcactically as she is forced to give it only the dignity that it is long and flat. (The tip of it is also now on fire, but everything about Mauri involves something being on fire, so this is to be expected.)
Talise bites back. She does not bite back in weakness, or doubt, or meandering, or in a way where it's easy for her to casually brush aside like she might have with the Celesdue statue, or at Luca. There is a conviction there, and it has one eye widening as if clawing at something on her mind. "You're... no. She is infallible. She is... how dare you claim to know Her will more than, than... than...!"
The wind is taken out of her lungs, her feet off the ground as Talise tackles her and swings down. Her forearms swing in front of herself as pyretic flames lash out to try and blast away Rastaban, but Talise's conviction and momentum are not halted. They cleave through those flames, parting them like the sea, and strike down upon her as strength leaves her.
"Don't... don't you dare speak like you know my brother," Mauri's voice is much more strained. It is known that sometimes, for all the drive she has, sometimes she just... falters. Tears. Yelling. Flame flies out of Marivel's mouth, and the Demon's flames are met with some more of her own - but her hand is shaking, even if she technically comes out of that unscathed. "Stop it... stop it! Don't... don't come any closer..."
She starts to rise. Her words are faltering, but she has recaptured her nerves as Hiro's soft question somehow roars louder than any flame, scream, spell, or whatever sort of sound Magilou makes when she exists in any capacity. What happened to her...? A small part of her, that small part of her, is shouting.
"Where is he," she's stammering, as if not able to clarify as to whether it's Ronfar or Leo she's asking for. The words do not match the expression on her face. It is impossible to discern if it's a question of 'so I can burn them' or 'so I can see them.' "Not... normal? No, no, it's..."
Wind rushes out. Her hand is extended to absorb some of it through flame as she staggers back, and Hiro entreats her to outmaneuver that like a long-considered call out to someone shooting another at point blank in that one scene in that one story from thousands of years ago. She does not dodge it, the sword slicing clean across her diagonally.
Eleanor starts playing a strange tune. Mauri does not look her way, hands over her face. "That... that melody. That music," her voice stammers, "how... pleasant..." Her fingers part, showing one dull, dry eye. "-ly against Her will..." The fervor tries to fight its way back - or is it the panic that was trying to fight its way back? It's hard to tell, as that hand lowers. "...Coming to the aid of heretics with the heresy of song and music... hm," that smile's back, "I suppose it is less surprising your... LEGS, was it? No, no, it started with an... 'A.' ARSE, perhaps?" The smile comes back. "Ah, of course you would all talk out of that..."
<Pose Tracker> Red Priestess Mauri has posed.
"You know," she says as Ragnell joins in some of the collaborative yammering, "I thought it quaint how you all have been... bonding, with one another, while I stand here, all alone in proclaiming Her will. Yes... all alone," a fist gently squeezes, "but it is... fine, isn't it? When you all become ash, how that ash intermingles... hm, hm, hm. I am fine with however ash chooses to associate with ash. Yes. That has my blessing."
She walks forward as Ragnell asks an important question. She just has a little laugh, even as lightning rains down in needle-like forms all over and around them. And through her. Rain starts to deal with some of the flames that have been weakened by song... to a point. The flames of the Red Priestess are of terrifying strength. Even a certain Water Seraph would be hard-pressed to put all of it out, and that's with his additional cheating (of having backing by a greater water elemental). "They are quite a work... but mine? Hmm..."
Of course she'd taunt Ragnell by denying her knwoeldge and secrets, as she looks to check on how Clarine is doing with her enlightening lecture. She continues to proclaim she is with Her, but she sees how she falters. "Oh... poor, misguided Seraph, come, come back into Her grace. I see your terror. I see... you desire comfort of Her light--" she extends a hand just as Clarine draws back, apologizes, and requests her retreat - and is met with a ray of searing light that shoots through and pierces her, sending her eyes wide, because she has just been shot with an extensin of Her light.
The Red Priestess' position looks more precarious by the minute. Those robes are stained with blood (and extremely ill-advised for licking!!!), and she's down in a kneel.
Tears go down her face again.
"Just... stop... stop it," she starts to wail. "It hurts... seeing all this... all of this suffering, just... stop... stop... big brother? Big brother? ...Where are you? Have you found..."
Pyretic power builds in her hands, and then there is an angry scream. "You... you come at me with faltering... half measures, then shout such things with... certainty. Althena this, Leo that, innocents this... what if you win, today, I ask... what then? What... will you have achieved?"
Both hands continue to burn. They don't need to direct everywhere, because fire is starting to rain down around the Red Priestess. Around everyone near her, specifically. The innocents off to the side, they're all right. The rest of you.
"Sin still prowls these waters. The cycle of Spira's suffering continues... and you will prolong it? It doesn't matter who has been 'exposed.' It won't end, it won't stop, it..."
The rain picks up. It is as voluminous as actual rain, except it is fire, and it is relentless and it will not stop.
<Pose Tracker> Red Priestess Mauri has posed.
ELSEWHERE
A wonderful breeze fills the air around the two Guado. The one in the dark blue hair is taken aback as the wind somehow takes away the flame of the burning, wounded Ronso, as if shocked but also calmed by this development. Did she... do that?
The one with the green hair and the staff struggles, even with the invigoring wind. "B-Blizzara!" She can go up that high, on a really good day. (This is the exact opposite of a really good day because of an overflow error.)
The flames of the Red Priestess are beyond a mere act of courage from someone so young, and she is about to break into tears. Is there nothing they can do...?
Eleanor plays a haunting melody on the flute, and the flames dance lower. This, plus the way the wind dances... the one with the dark blue hair takes her Blitzball in hand and runs up to her younger sister.
"Pani," she intones as she holds up the ball illustratively, "let's try... let's try that one."
"...Okay... Timu," Pani sniffles as she works up another spell from what's left of her modest pile of MP - she is just a child, even bolstered by the winds. "Blizzara...!"
Timu throws the ball up to get encased in a much bigger ice crystal. That might be too big for her to hit... but no, the wind empowers her, the melody keeps the flames low, and she slams it with her palm towards that doorway.
The ice explodes, and the flame before that door is put out.
Timu takes a step forward before the burnt Ronso steps up, palms a hand out in front of her, and charges right in there to save those inside. The two are left, for the moment, in each other's embrace as Pani becomes overwhelmed by the stress of it all even in a good turnout. (Timu is not far behind that herself - not even the Guado are too proud to show sorrow.)
GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Seraph Clarine with Burning Rain! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Burning Rain! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Marivel Armitage with Burning Rain! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Eleanor Klein with Burning Rain! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Hiro with Burning Rain! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Talise Gianfair with Burning Rain! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has attacked Magilou with Burning Rain! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has completed her action. GS: Talise Gianfair guards a hit from Red Priestess Mauri's Burning Rain for 177 hit points! GS: Talise Gianfair enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a glancing hit from Red Priestess Mauri's Burning Rain for 134 hit points! GS: Hiro critically guards Red Priestess Mauri's Burning Rain for 57 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hiro gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein takes a glancing hit from Red Priestess Mauri's Burning Rain for 144 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seraph Clarine guards a hit from Red Priestess Mauri's Burning Rain for 162 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage guards a hit from Red Priestess Mauri's Burning Rain for 165 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Magilou guards a hit from Red Priestess Mauri's Burning Rain for 171 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Magilou gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Magilou activates Guard bonus and Arcane Font! GS: Magilou enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Talise Gianfair has activated a Force Action!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Someone prefers to compartmentalize the stabbin' away from the steamy makeouts," Talise huffs at Ragnell with a flick of her hair, tossing a few sweat-soaked locks away from her forehead.
She can hear Hiro and Ruby's entreaties, and they leave her with a sinking feeling: That Althena might not be the only one who came back wrong in some way. Edging to the side, she makes way for the young swordsman and his dragon with the precious pink pawsies to make their case and strike their blow, but all the while she's following Mauri with her eyes.
"You've probably felt the same thing we have, haven't you," she murmurs. "Something so awful I can't find the words for it...?"
But there's something else the Red Priestess feels. Shock - and strain. The sight of Mauri's facade breaking into horror is enough to startle Talise, a bolt of emotion shooting through her stomach and stopping her short of moving again for just a second.
"It hurts, doesn't it." Her voice is quieter, almost tender. "To think She might be misguided. But think about it. Think about all that's happened!"
The emotion manifests in flame. Bevelle is steadily swallowed by the pouring rain of holy fire. Balls of it plunge down around Talise and the rest of them. With a horrified yell, Benedict Greygust, by now out of crossbow bolts, gathers a wounded Ronso in his burly arms and takes cover beneath a pile of fallen stone and steel, but Talise is left out in the open. With wide eyes, she drops back and shields herself with her arms, holding Rastaban reversed in the hopes that the ancient blade of Green Knight Fredo can do something to protect her.
At the last moment, something intrudes upon her consciousness. The sweet magic of Eleanor Klein's song. Minor tones, meandering and haunting. But clear and true.
It can't. The fire descends - and a hail of it falls upon her position with startling precision. Fire and light swallow her up like some immense hellbeast, and she vanishes from sight entirely. The crackle and roar of Mauri's magic is positively deafening.
It is only after several moments that something else is heard through it all.
A soft voice, in a tender song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FULmDcGqknI
Fire pushes aside in a ring. Talise is down on one knee amidst the raging flames, but for all that her face and armour are scarred with hideous black scorch marks, for all that her surcoat and hair are singed in places, for all that a stream of blood races down one side of her face and along her neck... for all that, she presents only a simple, composed calm, her voice startlingly gentle. There are no words - merely a melody, slow and serene.
The fires around her ripple and flow. A few tongues of flame spiral slowly around her, in time with the song's melody. The angry orange of those flames fades, growing more pale, then phasing to a rosy pink... and finally to a bright, luminous red, before the energy pulls inward and races along Talise's limbs and weapon, finally vanishing.
The last chord of the song hangs in the air as she raises her head. And when it does, it's clear that something has changed. Her eyes are normally a shade of clear, brilliant oceanic blue.
When she opens them again, they're a steady red, matched by the gems set in the silver hilt of Rastaban. Wordless, she steps forward through the flames, raising the ancient blade in both hands. For all that the colour in her gaze has changed, though, there is no malice behind it.
There is only a profound, vermilion sadness. Anger fading to a mixture of resolution and pity.
When she springs forward, she closes the distance with Mauri in a heartbeat. Eddies of red energy flicker behind her, after-images of the young woman briefly etched into the air in luminous scarlet. When Rastaban strikes out, more of that reddish energy ripples behind it, the arcs of the blade's passage forming a flickering contrail as she charges through with a single bulldozer of a blow - a horizontal strike that could cleave through pure stone without so much as a hint of resistance.
The sound of the blow lingers painfully. Steel passes through air, and more, with a long and trembling chord like a plucked harpstring. It is as if the final note of her song has been played.
"I can't explain it all, Red Priestess," Talise whispers into the silence, on a knee behind her with Rastaban out to her side in the afterglow of her swing. "But my heart knows something is wrong... and I think yours does, too."
It's only then that the effect of her strike will set in - like a delayed effect, everything that got in the way of Rastaban, be it flames, debris, ash, potential Red Priestesses, or air molecules - suddenly splits in half vertically with a sudden explosive surge of red-white energy, bright enough to cast Talise's shadow forward.
GS: Talise Gianfair spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Steel Tsunami! GS: Talise Gianfair has gained 2 Combo! GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action. GS: Red Priestess Mauri takes a solid hit from Talise Gianfair's Steel Tsunami for 317 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Red Priestess Mauri gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"Oh, yes!" Magilou grins, brightly, to the poor baffled Hiro. "I am the vilest of fiends! The wickedest of witches! I've crowed to see towns flee in terror when they saw the might of their imminent doom! I am the advent of adversity, the herald of horror... 'Magilou'!"
She pauses, and adds: "I can be a lot of things. I contain multitudes."
Her attention goes to Marivel, then, as introduced by Ragnell. "A 'Crimson Noble'..?" She gasps, a hand to her chest. "The aristocracy! They've come for my fine crops of humour! My jokes! My japes! My bespoke takes! Well, if you think you can just traipse over my hopes, I've got news for you--!"
Magilou points accusation, and declares--!!
"... you'd better be able to do Baroque. If you don't have the range, I swear I'll rise up! Guillotine equality! We the people!!"
She's so into Marivel's whole thing, it's like she doesn't even care about the fact that so many innocent people are burning alive as she speaks. Magilou is entirely absorbed in... whatever Magilou is doing here. It's hard to say she's just laughing off the horror, when she hasn't even told Mauri to stop doing what she's doing. Did she really just come here to give one of the Legendary Heroes some trouble..?
But when she looks over to Clarine, there's a loose quality to the grin which hangs off her face, like a pair of pants brought before a diet. Her eyelids hang over her eyes; her jaw parts, slightly loose. "Hey," she says, entirely casual, even as Mauri invites her back to the light, "... you wanna be careful about your absolutes, kiddo."
Magilou brings her shoulders up, in a light shrug. "Or don't! Hey, LOTS of good people get tough skin eventually." Tough, scaly, impenetrable, and BIG...
She doesn't sound too bothered by that, either.
"Say," she asides, to Eleanor, "that's a nice tune." Evidently she isn't too bothered by the sacrilege, even if she isn't personally touched by the music.
Meanwhile, of course, Mauri is suffering.
Magilou can hear it, of course. She has ears, and they even work, despite how she acts sometimes. But for all her trailing words, the pain in her voice, loss and lost --
Magilou isn't even facing her.
It's not until that rain comes down, those too-hot tears, that Magilou turns, a beehive barrier summoned at her fingertips to keep herself from burning alive. "They really did a number on you, huh?" She asks, with that same too-loose grin. "But hey -- you'll get over it."
Does Magilou understand just what she's hearing? Has she paid any attention to the Four Heroes at all? Where they came from, who they left behind --
It's such a callous response.
"After all, you're special, right? God's chosen. So why worry about it!" Magilou cackles, and swipes her arm to the side; now the fire rains down, on her cheeks, and she just laughs harder. "Now!" She declares, with authority, and takes her freed hands to grasp her paper doll in the both of them, holding it over her head.
"Rise!"
The shikigami grows twice the length of her.
"Arise!"
Twice and twice and twice again, and didn't Magilou tell everyone that pennies become twenties, eventually? The paper doll towers over the Temple District, in much the same way Baralai's pyrefly flare did not so long ago. But this time --
"Ascending..."
-- it's not made of light. What goes up must come down, and dragging against wind resistance, Magilou sends it all hurtling to earth, like a tower knocked into the ground.
"... ANGEL!"
And the force which threatens to flatten Mauri is concussive.
GS: Magilou has activated a Force Action! GS: Magilou has activated a Force Action! GS: Magilou has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Ascending Angel! GS: Magilou has gained 1 Combo! GS: Magilou takes 30 damage from Poison! GS: Poison expired! GS: Magilou has completed her action. GS: You do not have any attacks from that person in queue. GS: Gamble: Very High! Red Priestess Mauri takes a solid hit from Magilou's Ascending Angel for 253 hit points! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
One doesn't need to say something explicitly to convey that information. The way Mauri speaks implies a negative, which in turn, combined with all of Mauri's various ramblings so far, implies a different conclusion from the one Ragnell originally had in mind. "It doesn't matter who's been 'exposed,' huh?" she murmurs, though it's probably not what Mauri meant. A low chuckle as Talise weighs in on it too. "Well, that's fine. Like I said--I already knew it wasn't much use talkin' to a cracked mirror like you."
Fun facts: that is, quite distinctly, pity in her tone and expression.
A curtain of flames billows out, scorching Ragnell even as she attempts fancy footwork to avoid the worst of the blast. She makes it through blackened but in one piece, heaving breath even though she doesn't need to breathe. But then Mauri takes enough damage that she falls to her knees, wailing for the others to stop. "Sure," Ragnell says, moving into an aggressive stance, twin pistols in hand. "I'll make it stop."
Quick as a rattlesnake, Ragnell knocks off several shots at Mauri as golden light crackles up around her. "Your pain--" A few more rat-a-tat-tats--a few more, as power and Seraphic magic connect the two. "--and your suffering!" Before she aims both pistols, into which she charges a massive beam of light. "PRISM TANGO!"
And the rainbow-white light FIRES, searing forward to smash into the Red Priestess head-on.
However that goes, when the power fades, Ragnell hurries over to Clarine. "Hey--you okay?" she murmurs, voice low, as she offers her hand to her. She doesn't remark on what Clarine has been trying to say, that she needs to believe that the Goddess is misguided and needs to be righted; sometimes, it's just kinder to hold your tongue.
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Prism Tango! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: Red Priestess Mauri takes a solid hit from Seraph Ragnell's Prism Tango for 147 hit points! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Eleanor's soothing melody seems to calm him down from this situation that unsettles and frays the nerve. Suddenly the heat of the flames seems less intense. And his sword arm feels more steady.
Hiro listens to what Magilou calls herself, the vilest of fiends, the wickedest of witches. The advent of adversity, the herald of horror. Then he looks over to Marivel and Ragnell, "I can see why you like her."
Mauri though recovers quickly, and her... scattered statements are something he tries his best to follow, "Where is who Mauri?" Hiro asks quietly to her stammered question, for just a moment, lowering his sword. And... Hiro just decides by process of elimination. It's probably testament to how much Eleanor's spell calmed him down that he's able to talk to her again at all. "... hey... Mauri. I don't know everything - but I can tell you what I do know. We just... let's stop this. Okay? I never wanted this... and I bet neither of them do either. So let's stop this and we can talk."
"Hiro... she's pretty off her rocker..."
Ragnell's accusation though causes his eyebrows to shoot up as he looks sideways at her, then back at Mauri. "There's no way right? It couldn't be... no loyal follower of Althena would ever work with Zophar." He says with a tone of disbelief, fully believing that Zophar has to be the work of infiltrators. Or just that Zophar is so powerful that he can do what he does to those rods without anyone's help. "I mean... come on Ragnell." As he then looks Talise's way as Talise indicates that maybe Althena is misguided, "Tal?" Like he's in just as much disbelief over the idea now, as the day Talise first tried to indicate that to him.
Mauri's wailing though, causes him to take a step back, and look her hands. Then looks at the sky. "Oh. Oh-" "HIRO DOWN!" Suddenly bringing himself low, he puts the pot lid over his head like an umbrella, as raindrop after raindrop of elemental flame peppers him. Or perhaps more accurately, peppers the shield, embers scattering with each strike. Until it's turned red hot. "Ow-hachahaha-ow!" And he tears off the strap and puts it down on the ground, wringing out his indirectly burned wrist.
"... ... What we will have achieved?" He echoes, while wringing his wrist. "There's a Destroyer out there. A real one. And this war? There's something he's getting from it. And even if I don't know what that is... stopping this war. This senseless conflict. Denying him whatever it is he desires?"
Bringing his sword up, and he encircles it around once, then holds it out, parallel to the ground.
"That's not nothing."
And then charging at him, his sword ignites from the air friction of his movement. It's perhaps an act of supreme hubris or desperation to attack Mauri the Red Priestess with fire. But it is something he does all the same. "BURN! BURN! BURN!" Hiro shouts perhaps excessively, as he tries to charge right through her position. His thrust leaving a massive eruption of flame in his wake.
GS: Hiro spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Formation! Hiro has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Battalion Sword! GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: Red Priestess Mauri takes a solid hit from Hiro's Battalion Sword for 234 hit points! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Sufferer! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Fu fu fu, you'll have to find your way through my 'maize' to tear down my castle. I know, it's corny, but when the torches got hot it really pops!" Marivel says.
God she loves Magilou. She just wishes she met Magilou at a better time. Like at a funeral. Or maybe literally anything else but fighting a woman who is now crying actual tears despite also being the sort of person to throw fireballs at fleeing civilians. The fact of the matter is, all vampires have hearts and no matter how they try to hide it, they're always vulnerable to something driving a stake through it.
Even if it's only metaphorically.
Though even she has to admit, that the paper doll...
Is very long.
Mauri begs her to not come any closer. She didn't even hurt Mauri yet and yet it FEELs like she hurt her.
"We gain nothing," Marivel says simply. "But maybe other people will. That's what heroes do, after all, isn't it? Fight for others? Not themselves? And then as they are used up, they sacrifice themselves and die. All for the greater good."
Her tone is not that of wonder as Marivel steels her nerves. "I don't know your story, but for now... take a break."
Mauri quips about the bonding but, well, Marivel isn't going to APOLOGIZE for that. "Fighting elsewhere, hon."
And then as fire surges htrough her, burning her flesh along her arms, Marivel swings both of her hands through the flames and shouts, "GEYSER"
--and a sudden explosion of water bursts out of the ground underneath Mauri and threatens to catapult her into the air. As well as drench her in water for that matter.
"Well, I admit. He hasn't invited me to any birthday parties." Marivel shrugs, skin dripping off her limbs.
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Geyser! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Mauri isn't incorrect. Clarine wishes it could be that easy - that she could just return to the grace of the Goddess. ...But it isn't. Because she can't forget what she's seen, what has happened.
She glances toward Magilou, then, a little confused by her response.
"...I am... afraid I do not understand...?" She replies, her head tilting to the side.
...And then, Mauri cries, and screams in anger. For a moment, Clarine feels a pang of sorrow, but it fades quickly.
"...Then we will have protected these people, even if only for today. " Clarine says. "Sin will still continue to be an issue, yes... but that is a matter we can deal with later. Razing Bevelle, burning its people... it will not stop Sin. That will only bring about another cycle of suffering, Red Priestess."
Fire rains to the ground, like a deluge of tears. Clarine dispenses several mirrors from her sleeve and they fly up to cover her much like an umbrella in a heavy storm. ...But much like an umbrella, there's only so much it can defend against, and only so much it can endure. It's draining a lot of Clarine's power just to maintain their form. If she wants to stop this... there's only one answer.
Clarine shuts her eyes and holds out her hands before her in a spellcasting stance, as a Seraphic circle flashes to life beneath her feet.
"One thousand divine lights, arise and light the path to tomorrow..." She incants. Several spears of light start to appear in the air around her, and the mirrors that aren't currently covering her from the burning rain scatter about the area... and then, Clarine points dramatically at Mauri. "Radiant Cannonade!"
The point of light fly off at high speeds - not at Mauri directly, at first, instead launch toward Clarine's mirrors, bouncing off of them before heading on a path toward Mauri herself, to surround her in a dangerous volley of projectiles. It's impossible to escape from all of them - there's just too many, coming from every angle.
And then, with a sigh Clarine descends, touching down and looking a little winded. She glances toward Ragnell then as she approaches, and one of the defensive mirrors shifts over to cover her as well.
"...I will... I will be alright, I think." She replies, after a moment of hesitation. ...It sounds like she's still hurting, but... it says a lot that she still stuck with it.
GS: Seraph Clarine spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Radiant Cannonade! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action. GS: Sneak! The true nature of Marivel Armitage's attack becomes clear! GS: Red Priestess Mauri takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's Red Power for 194 hit points! GS: Red Priestess Mauri activates Sufferer! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Red Priestess Mauri receives 50 temporary hit points. GS: Red Priestess Mauri enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Disease and Shieldbreak expired! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Red Priestess Mauri takes a solid hit from Seraph Clarine's Radiant Cannonade for 160 hit points! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"I'm--" Huff. "Glad you like it," Eleanor replies to Magilou, still kind of thrown by her entire deal. Eleanor's song seems to do enough--she brings the flute down, and does not have an immediately sassy response for Mauri's accusation of heresy. The magic took a bit out of her, after all. But she still saw the strange way Mauri was acting--the strange way she.. is. She worries Eleanor, and not for the first time the young elf finds her unstable. Not just because of her way of reaching out to Clarine--not just because of those tears. ...But a lot because of them. She hears the scream--
Fire rains down, and Eleanor is exposed; the cover she might've used to defend against the fire is largely broken by her fall, and so she has to rely solely on the magic of her ring to keep the flames at bay. It works in a way, but she looks exhausted from the force she has to channel into the ring, and if she is not burned then she is still terribly battered. She huffs, trying to catch her breath, slouching a bit at the talk from the others. "Pain and suffering... a Destroyer." Magilou's dizzingly tall conjuration. ...That gives her a thought, though.
She looks to Clarine's magic, and does not have the energy to smile. But she can see how difficult it is for her right now, physically as well.
"...But it's as Marivel says. "Perhaps we don't accomplish much. But the people of Bevelle will have the chance to do it for themselves. ...I believe in the people of Spira, and you and I have no right to hold them back."
There--"What you said about the elements--fire is powerful. Yours, especially. I can feel that much. However..." Eleanor pulls a strange-looking Crest, one emblazoned with Wing in its doubled form, but also with strange gilt, with patterns unreadable to someone who is not up on their Crest sorcery. It shimmers, in the firelight.
"...My wind isn't just wind. Mine can draw the attention of Wind Seraphim." Thanks, Boudicca. It sounds more impressive that way, and the impressive words help Eleanor straighten her back, give her confidence. "O radiant gale, harbinger of what is and was! Carry us into the future's light!" Wind begins to pick up around her, whirling in front of her in strange green form. But it doesn't fuel any of the fire around her--it seems, if anything, to age it, to wither it.
"Mistral Judgment!"
Eleanor throws out her hand and a small tornado of green and golden light erupts forth, the power of Time in its magic to weather its target as if by the hand of ages.
And Eleanor stands behind her spell, focusing into it as long as it lasts.
GS: Eleanor Klein spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Formation! Eleanor Klein has attacked Red Priestess Mauri with Mistral Judgment! GS: Eleanor Klein assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: Red Priestess Mauri takes a solid hit from Eleanor Klein's Mistral Judgment for 239 hit points! GS: Red Priestess Mauri has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Red Priestess Mauri has posed.
Can Mauri think about it? Does she want to think about it? The only one who has shown any sign, any consideration, of accepting the idea that something is so gravely, terribly wrong is her brother. Those who have had the 'pleasure' of encountering the Red Priestess at her worst has seen her ping-pong back and forth between zealous behavior and short emotional breakdowns. It is never clear where the 'medium' of her sits.
Talise makes her principled stand through the flames and tries to reach out to a young woman who seems to be in the throes of something. Talise's heart knows something is wrong - but does Mauri's, beyond whatever emotions bubble on either end of the extreme?
"...Something..." She doesn't get to say much before everything splits in half with that incredible energy, ripping the Red Priestess up into the air. It is a visceral sight to see - it felt like it wasn't all that long ago when the Dragonmaster laid her low. This is one of the Four Heroes - and Talise has thrown her clear into the air.
All while Talise is saying her part in all of this, Magilou breaks away from the meeting banter of game meeting game, to give her own special brand of encouragement to make her not 'worry about it' as Talise gets her up into the air. It is an unwitting set-up but a fortuitous one for the newly-arrived Magilou.
A paper doll is held up, rising, arising, ascending... and sadly, Talise doesn't get Mauri up that high but it's a respectable distance for the descending tower of paperdoll to just swat Mauri right back down to...
Flame catches her at the bottom, sweeping her in a gesture not far off from Ragnell but she is not completely upright. (She is deliberately facing away from Magilou and she should probably be personally ashamed - Mauri herself, that is.)
"Will you, then," her voice muted as Ragnell keeps shooting, pumping her full of ARMs and a blinding, incredible rainbow of prismatic light beams into her. Was there much use talking to a cracked mirror, some may wonder. Is that how Mauri views everyone? She keeps calling them some variation of 'heathen,' after all.
Hiro entreats her next as she comes down from being beamed to the opposite side of the field of fire. She refuses to look him in the eye, but he can see in the body language and gestures that the rest of her is seething with something. there's a Destroyer out there, a 'real' one (she mouths the name but doesn't say it - the incorrect one that is). There are then some muted peals of laughter as Hiro spells out whatever this all means.
"That's... not... nothing?" She looks up long enough that there is a grin there, but it doesn't last, as Hiro charges right through her with a massive burst of flame. The laughter picks up some steam, and the way she stands back up... it's anatomically possible, the way she does it, sure? But it feels like she's finding a wind from something other than wind itself. "...You..."
But the fight is over, no matter what front she presents - sosmething Marivel knows intently, as she highlights the folly of the concept of the hero. Entreating her to stop, to take a break. The Red Priestess clenches a fist, but that's not a whole lot you can do to stop a GEYSER from erupting underneath you, drenching you, putting out a lot of the surrounding flames (and of course catapault her - Marivel and Talise should argue about who threw her farther down the line!).
<Pose Tracker> Red Priestess Mauri has posed.
She's not in the position to retort or cackle whatever sort of holy platitudes she has against the Seraph. How short sighted, she might have cackled. Some other part of her might have given a knowing glance about what Magilou speaks of, but... here, before a heathen Seraph who presents as something other than a royal pain in the butt (hi Ragnell - actually no that's unfair, she's pain in the butt among all castes and classes, credit due where credit's due, she is an egalitarian pain in the butt), finding it in her to launch more light with the Radiant Cannonade to hold her in place as she slowly descends... escaping, at last, in another puff of flame.
Somewhere in line for Eleanor to take her turn. All the faith that Eleanor professes to place in the people of Bevelle, of Spira, when they have followed folly for over a thousand years. The fire that seems ever hungry to keep burning, keep going... it is aged, as is the patches of land that host them. All of it ages, where the fire can no longer find anything to feed as the winds whirl around Mauri, hands up and hiding her face... she falls to her knees, again.
Blessed silence.
"...Will it stop... can it stop...?" Her voice is soft.
One last time, a puff of flame, pulling her from where she is and bringing her towards the way out. She is the only one to survive, among the gathered who came here. Even wounded - no, practically defeated - those posted there on guard back away from her. They will not be blamed for discretion. They know what she's capable of.
"...I wonder... I truly do," she is standing upright despite her wounds, "how much of these beliefs, these... ideas... you have... will hold when you see what is to come." Her head bows. Sounds that could be laughter, could be crying, it's not certain. (Is she?)
"You have the day. Ah... but that never lasts long, does it...? The sun sets, the beasts rest, the skies move... all things grow and wither with these passing days, and one such day... any given 'thing' stops being. Her will..."
Her gaze flashes to those who have shown themselves most susceptible to caring. Hiro and Ruby. Talise. Clarine. There were tears. There is now a venomous stare. "Her will is absolute no matter the passage of days. No matter what you heathens..."
An aside to Marivel without ever looking at her but she'll know, "...or demons... scream, claw, deny, rage against..."
She disappears in another puff of flame. It'll be the same as she always does. Cry her hardest tears. Speak so openly about the cruelty of her reception to the correct ears. To seek audience with a certain someone and hope they are pleased.
That is her lot.
Baralai and the others come out of seclusion. There are no racuous cheers of triumph. This was a pyrrhic victory on their part - but to have tried tos trike her down on the battlefield could have led to so much worse.
"Thank you, friends." He offers to all of them, even the ones who weren't... really paid or planned to be here. "It is certain none will ever be the same - but speaking for Bevelle, there are many here who feel lost. Whatever comes next..."
It is too soon to make the declaration, but it is also exactly the time to do so. "We must take the fight back to Luca! We have seen one of their Four Heroes can truly bleed! Together... we will not be taken aback by however many 'Heroes' they have!"
Meanwhile, the two Guado children are shown quizzical looks. The Guado people all but abandoned Bevelle. All but these two, who don't have much to say for themselves. Timu remains furious. Pani, frightened. Baralai's rallying words may not yet reach the hearts of the wounded here - they were reliant on the help of Otherworlders to withstand Mauri.
But the fight to save Spira - that's going to be on all of them, whether the heads of Yevon will stand with them in their time of most dire need or not.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Magilou <3