2021-06-15: The Golden Mean For Golden Nice
- Log: The Golden Mean For Golden Nice
- Cast: Ruth Pauling, Seraph Boudicca, Zed, Layna Manydays, Ines Colina, Ida Everstead-Rey
- Where: Zoara Badlands
- Date: June 15, 2021
- Summary: A determined Hellion, in the throes of their emotional turmoil, is dead set on not letting a Guild Galad oligarch have his way with one of the rare independent settlements that remain in the Zoara Badlands. Rather than escalate the situation by asking for full-on military aid, curiously, he calls for Drifters (and a famous overseas Geohound, and a Dark Hero who just happens to be there) to help see himself to Golden Nice's would-be protector against his aims.
==============================<* Zoara Badlands *>============================== Most of Zoara's interior is a vast expanse of desolate earth. A handful of areas receive just enough rainfall to allow the growth of foliage, but by and large, this place is almost as inhospitable as the wastes of Ignas. Ghost towns dot these dusty plains--many of them are settlements that dried up and died during the Celesti Civil War. Most of the remaining settlements have forfeited their sovereignty to Guild Galad in exchange for their continued survival. Rail travel is the easiest way to cross the Badlands. Guild Galad's military maintains a tight grip on most of Zoara's rail routes, ensuring that transit is reasonably safe, if extensively-policed. Outside of the rail network, travelers band together in caravans to keep themselves safe. Centuries of war have scarred this land, and attacks from bandits -- or worse -- are an unfortunate fact of life. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeL32o-P6Yw
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
The Zoara Badlands' only claim to fame, on the best of days: 'things can live here!' They'd get off on a legal technicality if this claim were ever brought to court, because indeed, the rapidly desertifying wastes have enough water and vegetation that, indeed, things can live here. They might not have full, healthy lives, but if one had to live somewhere? They could live here. They'd be more like to barely cling to existence here, but they can. (They have to.)
Nearly all the settlements that accomplish this, do so under Guild Galad's... support, though the relationship's benefits tend to be one-sided. There's one here that, so far, has resisted - but the wisdom in doing so is increasingly debatable as the years go on. Beyond that, that the place has a name at all now is its claim to fame. ("Golden Nice," not that it is a nice place to live nor has it ever been near a gold mine, but who wants to go to a place called the "Golden Mean?" There has to be a middle ground somewhere...)
YESTERDAY
A Guild Galad merchant caravan, armed to the teeth, journeys down the beaten roads leading to Golden Nice. It's a bit far out from the nearest railway stop, and... it doesn't seem that Golden Nice would have much to offer a rich-beyond-rich Guild Galad industry baron. (It does not.) The caravan in question is owned by one of the shadiest heads-of-family there is, with decades of cutthroat practices and outright war profiteering.
"What could daddy even want with such a... worthless place," scoffs a young-at-heart woman as she fans herself in the back of an armored vehicle, "there's no fossils, no gems... I don't see how these bumpkins could even grow their own food."
The vehicle stops.
"You," she sneers to the driver, "why did we stop?"
"...This rain, ma'am," says an older male driver. The memory of a freak rainstorm precipitating disaster on one otherwise routine train route still runs fresh. Armed guards are already filtering out from the caravan with specific expectations about what's going on.
Four gunsmoke sniper rifle shots ring out - loud, like knocking on a door. The sound report is distinctive. The driver's eyes widen, irises shrinking into pinpricks as he ducks into his seat.
TODAY
The rain has not abated any - and every so often, four more shots. A figure is obscured in the foggy mists cast by the downpour, peeking out every so often to open fire when anyone and everyone who feels brave enough to approach challenges her position. The caravan's vehicles have not turned tail and fled. Golden Nice cannot possibly be worth this trouble.
The owner of this caravan disagrees - and rather than use his coinpurse to yank at the armed forces of Guild Galad, he's asking for personal escort by willing Drifters. He is old and infirm, but insistent - he needs to see 'them.' It is not the pleading of a ruthless cutthroat capitalist, contrary to his reputation.
Who's 'them'? Well, to the Resonant, this isn't an ordinary freak rainstorm, and that's not an ordinary sharpshooter. (Not that they would be an 'ordinary' sharpshooter to begin with.) The rain is tinged with Malevolence, flavored along the gradient of despair and its related negative emotions. Perched upon a raised point on an abandoned building - a former military outpost during the Civil War - she makes excellent use of cover, and while the miasma does hide details, one can make out the silhouette of a single-winged gargoyle along with the faint purple glow of her eyes. (To say nothing about the sound of the rifle when it goes off.)
Wreathed in her emotions as she is, she does not seem keen on the idea of letting Guild Galad through to Golden Nice.
NOTE - you may open with an attack if you so please, but your target is distant. It will take two rounds before you can engage in melee combat.
ALSO NOTE - you are escorting a highly vulnerable target. Escort missions suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck, so token lip service to the idea is more than enough.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca has been haunting around this area -- largely helping Halim, but there's quite a lot of Zoara which needs help, all in all. It's not hard to find her in the light of that impact on the world, and it's not hard for her and Ida to get involved in helping someone else...
Particularly when it's in the path of one particular Hellion, perhaps. Boudicca remains quite concerned about the activities of the woman in the rain.
While Guild Galad isn't a place Boudicca can entirely agree with, she's still here to defend this fellow, which gets easier when she meets him and gets a better sense for his own personal motivations. "Please do not worry," she assures him, wrapping a buffering breeze about his person to frustrate the path of any bullets soaring in from afar. "We shall see you to your destination."
She looks to Ida, who may well need to translate that for Filgaian ears, considering how little this man has acknowledged her. Her tailwind, at the very least, should serve as shield and protection for their less combat-ready party member.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
There is an altercation going on in the Zoara badlands.
...
There is also a (very nice) tent set up on a bluff in the Zoara badlands, one which had seemingly appeared overnight as if blowing in on the breeze. Moments before the first shots begin flying, someone...
Emerges...
From within...
A face attached to a mossy head of green hair yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawns big and wide as the body attached to that green head stretches languidly into the foggy mists. "Hmmmmm, rare rain. This is... a good omen?"
The Greenhead scratches his chin and squints up into the sky as the rain falls pitter-patter against his face. "Hmmmm. Smells extra Zoara-y today, though. And grape. Grape flavored rain?" He thinks to himself for a moment, then ducks back into his tent to grab hold of a particular sword.
...and also his pants.
Because this is early in the morning for zeds, you see, and one always needs to make sure to be properly dressed for fighting.
But what is he doing out here, anyway...?
Well, actually, he's just coming back from a trip on a mysterious ghost train, as it so happens. He decided to test out his BRAND NEW TENT, and managed to pick the ABSOLUTE WORST PLACE TO PITCH IT OVERNIGHT.
But maybe someone will notice this mysterious wanderer staring confusedly into the oppressive rain with his BATTLE EYES as if sensing the opportunity to fight a grape-flavored enemy today and be so kind as to point him in the right direction...!?
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna is the last person one would expect to take a job for an obscenely rich and obscenely shady old man. In any other situation, she'd be the sort of person he would be hiring guards to protect against.
...Frankly, she still hasn't ruled the idea out yet. But there was something about the way he asked around for Drifters that lead her to decide to give him a chance - a chance to prove that there's more to this outing than just an attempt to extend his influence. And if he's found wanting, well...
...She can always cut and run with an 'advance' on her payment.
For now, though, she travels with the others in the armored vehicle... at least until the rain starts. A frown crosses Layna's face.
"...You all feel that too, aye? Malevolence - and it's got a familiar texture, at that." She says. This is going to be bad... especially since the owner of the caravan is apparently of a mind to confront her himself. This would be bad enough without a decrepit old man in tow, but with one...
...This is going to be rough.
Four shots ring out. Boudicca sees to their charge's protection, while Layna immediately draws out her telescope, scanning the horizon for their target until eventually... She sees her. Layna wasn't there at Halim, but she had heard the tales afterward. That silhouette, and the faint purple glow... it's unmistakable.
"...Right there. It's her, alright. Ida, can you get a good shot from here?" Layna asks, pointing into the distance.
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Spotter! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Layna Manydays's Spotter for 0 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey activates Layna Manydays's Reload!!
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
Bodyguard duty had the advantage of, most of the time, being honest work. Even when Guild Galad was involved. But that wasn't the only reason Ines had taken on this job. As far as she was concerned, she still had unfinished business with Death's Door, the letter still in her pocket.
The fact that the sniper had taken her to safety after their last fight raised questions.
Ines Colina was, of course, in front of the man they were escorting. She hadn't needed much convincing, but she was a Geohound. They were greedy scum, right? As they get closer, the beastwoman's eyes narrow. "This is definitely her." She grimaces, remembering what the Hellion could do. "Keep your head down," she whispers to the old man, looking around to see if there's cover they could get him behind.
She looks to her fellow hirelings briefly. The sniper's too far away for her to fight, so she'll just stand on guard for now. A strategy guaranteed to hurt.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida knew that Ruth would make another move--it was just a matter of when and how. Thankfully, Boudicca's endless vigilance and bottomless concern for the wellbeing of innocents has given her the lead she needed. The caravaneers have acquired a more visible escort, in the form of a woman in goggles, a trail-beaten duster and wide-brimmed hat. Conveniently, these articles hide her otherwise-recognizable face. After all this time on the road, she can even trade in her Skyside debutante accent for a more lower-class tone.
The conveniently anonymized Ida stands between the caravan owner and the distant sniper, shielding him with her body as she's done since she'd gotten here. "I got a friend who's good with wind magic," she says, her voice low. "She's keepin' a low profile, but she's got you covered." Ida pauses. She smiles, and her teeth gleam in the little sliver of face that isn't hidden.
That smile turns distinctly grim as Ida turns to Layna. "No mistake," she says. "That's her out there. Don't think I can land a bullet in her, but I can do one better..." I could get used to this, Ida thinks, as she pulls a metal cylinder from her belt. "Gimme a tailwind on the count of three." Ida pulls a spark-striker free, lights the fuse. "One."
She slides back into a pitcher's stance, keeping her body between the target and the sniper. "Two. Three!" She throws. The cylinder races forwards, towards Ruth's hiding place. Normally, Ida wouldn't be able to throw something that far, but between Boudicca and Layna, she's got more than enough wind to keep the grenade aloft until it reaches its target. And if it does, Ruth will get the very unpleasant surprise of an earth-shaking BOOM and a blinding magnesium flare.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ruth Pauling with Flare Grenade! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Ruth Pauling critically guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Flare Grenade for 0 hit points! GS: Ruth Pauling activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
AS ONE NEGLECTED TO BETTER INTRODUCE THE SUBJECT OF THE ESCORT MISSION... -our bad, mgmt.
Call him Ebenezer.
For his advanced age - he turned 83 last month! - he can still walk unassisted, which is more than can be said of his fellow oligarchs. He did not subject himself to the excesses of fine food and drink, but this can be owed to an attempt on his life back in the 460's that saw him becoming... shall we say, pickier. This decision has worked out well for him. (In fact, he can jog! Which makes this escort mission all the less annoying.)
In his attempt to entreat aid, he has been nothing but genial - even if there's always that quiet undercurrent of someone or something slimy, going by his reputation over the years. His family profiteered immensely off of the war from aggressively patenting a number of medicines and water purification processes. (This, too, may explain his exemplary health in his age.)
He breathes in deep of the comfortable tailwind around him, and also helps keep at bay the level of ambient Malevolence. (Ebenezer here thus far has shown no faltering in his conviction to be here, so that may not even be strictly necessary depending on how well that holds.)
Layna's eyes don't lie, seeing through all the Malevolent fog from the rain (it is also Malevolent, from here on out it will instead be noted if something isn't). She can see that the sharpshooter is playing it as smart as they can in their present environs - they're (currently) using iron sights so there's no light to reflect off of - and that a glint of purple from her eyes shines as they check out Layna checking them out.
Said glint fades when they fall upon seeing the frame of Ines moving towards cover, as if feeling... conflicted. It feeds into those feelings that have kept her awake and alert for well over a day. (Malevolence is not a recommended treatment for sleep deprivation.)
** Concentrated Malevolence is not a recommended treatment for anything. ** (ansi(+xterm8,-Legal asked for us to include this, mgmt.)]
For Zed, it's raining grape juice. It may even be sour grapes juice, as if doubting whether one wanted anything they couldn't have anyway. Most curiously for him, there's an eighty-something mortal man yelling at him. "It's dangerous here!" He's one to talk.
Ebenezer takes the anonymized Ida's commentary in stride with a knowing nod, and is good about keeping his head down as Ines instructs. Ida has herself a winning plan, between two adepts of the element of wind (one of whom basically is wind) to cover the distance needed for the Flare Grenade. Her pitching is true - it's a team effort that can clear the distance.
It is met with an oversized demonic wing by sheer coincidence, as she finds herself having to move between available cover on this roof. Something pings off of said wing and explodes with disorienting, concussing force. She misses being blinded but is momentarily halted, allowing all of them time to move closer once the signal is given.
The best possible news is that she has yet to open fire.
The tarnished silver lining to this raincloud is that the rain picks up in intensity - focusing and narrowing along those who are gathered (or are just coming a bit too close, like Zed, who nearly came to battle without pants).
"I've heard the rain hasn't stopped since she appeared," Ebenezer muses aloud, "she must be starving." He seems familiar enough with one of the central conceits of being a sorcerer: it is a career choice with high caloric requirements. (He is only unaware of the true method in which this rain is being conjured.)
You have one more round to go through before you can engage in melee attacks! You are within shouting range. Also shooting range. This goes both ways!
GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Sour Grape Flavored Rainwater!
GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Ines Colina with Sour Grape Flavored Rainwater!
GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Layna Manydays with Sour Grape Flavored Rainwater!
GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Zed with Sour Grape Flavored Rainwater!
GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Sour Grape Flavored Rainwater!
GS: Ruth Pauling has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action.
GS: Layna Manydays takes a solid hit from Ruth Pauling's Sour Grape Flavored Rainwater for 100 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Ruth Pauling's Sour Grape Flavored Rainwater for 117 hit points!
GS: Ines Colina critically guards Ruth Pauling's Sour Grape Flavored Rainwater for 20 hit points!
GS: Ines Colina activates Guard bonus!
GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Ruth Pauling's Sour Grape Flavored Rainwater for 99 hit points!
GS: Seraph Boudicca takes a solid hit from Ruth Pauling's Sour Grape Flavored Rainwater for 84 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
<poem>It is indeed raining grape juice. It is, in fact, raining sour grape juice. "Eh?" Zed asks this old man who has come running out into the pouring sour grape juice rain a non-question. "It's Zoara, so yes???" He asks in reply, "It is dangerous by definition?????"
Perhaps Zed is unaware of just what kind of danger this grape-flavored rain poses. Perhaps his particular brand of Resonance has not yet adapted to making it abundantly clear that standing out in this rain will do more than just soak him to his Ybernsphere X print boxer shorts. But he is aware that someone is throwing flashbangs into the distance, and he turns towards the sound and the fury like a bloodhound scenting a rabbit in the bush. "Oh. Ohhh! That kind of danger! Hm. Is that a gun over there? I think it is. But you say the one with the gun is starving, old man? Hm."
Zed pauses and thinks carefully to himself.
...Then reaches into his scarf and retrieves......
...A jar... of Uncle Nightburn's Patented Peanutbutter Grape Jelly Swirl Preserves.
"This should help!" He declares, before winding up and hucking said extra-large jar of tasty, high-calorie topping straight at the gunslinger in the distance! "Oh, but it's a little hard to see! Here!!" Zed... winds up with his sword.
His sword, which now blazes with an awesome power. "USE THIS!" He swings, launching arcs of glowing energy after his projectile jar, "THE TOP IS KIND OF STUCK ON PRETTY TIGHT SO IF YOU NEED TO YOU CAN HOLD IT UP TO THE SWORD BEAMS AND IT SHOULD COME RIGHT OFF!!"
(Of course, Ruth will need to avoid being sprayed by said gooey preserve, and also avoid being cut by Zed's Legally Distinct Air Slashes.)
GS: Zed has attacked Ruth Pauling with Arcane Edge - Comet Crash! GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca is not terribly shook by a MAGNIFICENT SHARK LADY joining the proceedings, but then, Boudicca was a terrifying dragon statue for some years, and has a high bar to clear for terrifying countenances. She smiles and dips her head to the bodyguard in a nod; at six feet before the horns on her helm, she's not quite as tall, but at least doesn't have to look up quite so much.
"Very well," she agrees to Ida's request of a tailwind, and the whimsical wind doesn't only curl around the gentleman they're defending, now -- this time, it comes to her, too, to issue some boon or another as it helps carry the flare grenade far.
"... 'tis a familiar sorrow," she surmises, to Layna, looking out through the rain. Down it comes, all drip-drip-drop on those fine silk ribbons through her hair, but Boudicca doesn't have to seek shelter in them just yet. She has the strength of Seers right here! "I wonder why she has taken vigil in this place..."
Her gaze comes back to one Ebenezer, at this point, but she can scarcely ask him why directly. The winds, at least, are still frustrating any attempts to harm him.
"Zed!" She calls, more relieved than the old man. "What a relief to find you here!" This is a relief no matter the solution Zed falls upon, because Boudicca thinks Zed is a fine and reliable fellow.
Though...
... his reliability...
"Ah, Zed... this hunger... it is, I believe, a metaphor..." Boudicca raises a finger, as she tries, in vain, to clarify.
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Thousand Sky! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Ruth Pauling takes a solid hit from Zed's Arcane Edge - Comet Crash for 129 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ruth Pauling gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam applied to Ruth Pauling! GS: Ruth Pauling activates Power Burst and Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Ida has an idea! A grin crosses Layna's face.
"I like the sound of that already." She replies. She'll gladly contribute a tailwind of her own to Ida's throw, helping to guide it into the correct position. She then starts forward, making use of the opportunity provided.
Boudicca asks a question, and Layna considers it.
"...I think... she was probably waiting for us - or maybe our cargo, at the very least." She says with a meaningful glance toward Ebenezer. Speaking of him...
"...Wouldn't count on that. She seems plenty energetic from where I'm standing." Layna replies. The rain, at least, shows no sign of letting up - Layna can handle the Malevolence just fine, but it's still quite unpleasant.
"Still not close enough... guess it's time to try chasing her out into the open." Layna says. She reaches into her coat and draws out a large ARM resembling a ship with cannon sticking out of the front, dubbed 'Mira' by its previous owner.
"Hey! Ruth! Why don't you come out into the open so we can talk? But if you need a little incentive...!" Layna aims the ARM right at Ruth's current hiding place. A multi-chambered barrel emerges, rotating up to speed as Layna unleashes a volley of energy projectiles from the ARM in Ruth's general direction in an attempt to chase her out into the open.
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Ruth Pauling with Mira - Full Volley! GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Ruth Pauling takes a solid hit from Layna Manydays's Mira - Full Volley for 133 hit points! GS: Ruth Pauling activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida grits her teeth. "Shit," she says, indulging for a moment in the freedom to swear openly in front of a member of high society. "But it looks like she's wrong-footed anyway, go, go, go!" She waves a gloved hand, urging the others on--but she lingers for a moment, by Ebenezer. "Keep your head down, sir. I know who that lady is--she made a career of taking people's heads off, back in the war."
Ida turns, her feet sliding a little in the Malevolent muck. It sucks at her boots as she starts to run, as if trying to drag her down. The rain becomes colder and darker; it pours off the brim of Ida's hat, drips down her shoulders. Wisps of it flow from her coat, seeping into the air as she breathes in.
Hypocrite.
Ida stops in her tracks. It feels like someone's driven a knife into her heart, and that knife is made of her righteous anger--her deep, bitter resentment--over a system she cannot change. "Ghk," she says, and when she exhales, she spits out flecks of purple-red. None of it took, though. "You're right," Ida grunts. "Still dirty pool."
As Layna tries to flush Ruth from her cover, Ida takes a knee behind a rock outcropping, draws Devil's Due, and snaps off a single shot the moment she spots an opening.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Seraph Boudicca's Thousand Sky for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Burst and Lock State applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ruth Pauling with First Precept - The Devil's Tools! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey assumes the Stoic stance! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Ruth Pauling critically guards Ida Everstead-Rey's First Precept - The Devil's Tools for 19 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ruth Pauling gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ruth Pauling activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
Ines returns the nod with a tip of her bowler. Her mother didn't raise her to be rude. The whgole full armour and horned helmet stand out, but she trusted Ida's choice in friends. Mostly. "I don't think hunger's a problem for her," she retorts to Ebeneezer. Still, she's in sight.r
The rain lands on Ines' grey skin, but she's seemingly ready for it. Or able to brace a bit better, certainly better than she did the first time. It stings, but Ines starts marching forward.
And then Zed throws a jar of spreadable gunk at her and Ines's head swivels to the metal demon, eyes narrowing slightly. She should, she thinks, go easy on Zed. He placed the monument. He helped her face what Alhazred had done. He seemed a light to the other survivor.
But there's still a flash of hatred across Ines' face, before she can compose herself and turn back to the fight.
Ida's got Ebeneezer, so Ines turns towards Ruth. She can't hit her from here, not with her magic. The building she's using as a sniper perch on the other hand...
"If you don't find Layna's argument compelling, try this one! Earth crack and crumble! Tectonic Breaker!"
She slams a fist into the ground, and the ground shatters and cracks, out towards the building. With luck, she can take out a support, and send the old structure- and maybe Ruth- tumbling to the ground.
GS: Ines Colina has attacked Ruth Pauling with Tectonic Breaker! GS: Ines Colina has completed her action. GS: Ruth Pauling takes a glancing hit from Ines Colina's Tectonic Breaker for 62 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ruth Pauling gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ruth Pauling activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Zed has the following things: a point, a jar of peanut butter and grape jelly, and nothing but kindness and concern in his heart. From within their present nest, Ruth finds a present flying for her. She does not see what it is because there is also a glowing green light that cleaves through her cover... and the jar. With a 'splorch,' the contents splatter all over her. How it looks... she doesn't get any time to acknowledge nor appreciate the humor of the situation.
They have an opening to take out her perch entirely, and they do so without delay - Mira utterly annihilates her cover (and from the sound of a shriek, it caught her proper). Is that a 'yes?' Well, that just annihilated her cover, so she's already out in the open, that's incentive!
Ines out-and-out annihilates a support and causes some of the building to collapse outright, which appears to be something the sharpshooter appears for - and in that moment there's a silhouette ready to itnimidate the uninitiated. Large, with four horns, and an especially long tail but only one wing. It might look like she's about ready to swoop down on them, if she could - but taking the leap here is the only way she can descend on her own terms.
Ida shoots and finds that the bullet ricohcets sharply off that wing, but the needed steps have been taken as their quarry lands in a crouch admist the pouring rain. Jelly and peanut butter glisten... not all that menacingly unto themselves. Her breathing is labored as she's met with further emotional turmoil, but that gaze never falls upon any of them.
Ebenezer peers downward upon the knelt Hellion, as if something about her catches his eye (he's looking further down rather than up), but he never gets around to saying it as he stays behind the disguised Ida. "I know who she is," the elderly oligarch says, but his tone of voice is unshaken - likely owing to the passive, swell tailwind still swirling about him. "Listen--"
"I won't let you harm them." Ruth's listening to something else, even if she internalizes she is being spoken to. Her ear, metaphorically speaking, is keyed in on a different voice. "They're suffering..."
"They are--"
She smiles a wicked, fanged smile, though tears are what's escaping her eyes, cutting off Ebenezer as Malevolence surges with increasing pressure at this distance. "Why help them? Why? What are you hoping to take from these people? They have nothing left to take, I..."
Ebenezer tries to raise his voice. He's an oligarch, he's not used to anyone talking back to him. Even with his genial behavior so far, there's no fully removing the privilege from him - and from there, Ruth is upright and a better sense of scale about the size of their opponent is provided. Not accounting for the wing, she comes out as being roughly Talise equivalent (or just a bit larger - hard to tell with her overcoat because it's too big on her).
"You'd help the likes of him," she tries to ram her wing into Ines to give herself more space, but more than that - she doesn't want to look her in the face as her heart keeps on racing.
Followed by a wide swing from the warped naginata-like blade of her Malevolence-transformed bayonet, wild swinging to try and repel Layna and Zed alike. "There's nothing to talk about," she's screeching, coming up at about the point that, "save that kindnessss for them behind me," yes, hissing.
"I won't let you give them anything!!" A much more purposeful one comes for Ida in a single swirling, scything motion as Ruth barrels down upon the disguised Ida. Does she know? Can she tell? She might be trying to push through to get to the target, in that telltale monomania Hellions can fall into when their emotions take them on an increasingly wilder ride with every pulse of internal discordance.
Passive as Boudicca's presence is for the moment, she's not in range for these swipes and swings, but there is a sense of the rain picking up and trying to pool upon her and repel her thusly - but she will know intimiately by now that yes, this was the Domain Master of Siddim Canyon... and that even with two Seers bearing down upon her at Halim, she couldn't let go.
How deep does the emotional scarring go, and how deeply set has that corruption gotten?
GS: Ruth Pauling has activated a Boss Action! GS: You have activated the Boss Action Extend! GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Ines Colina with Hide Our Faces! GS: Ruth Pauling assumes the Stoic stance! GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Zed with Martial Myopia! GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Layna Manydays with Martial Myopia! GS: Ruth Pauling has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ruth Pauling spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Bloodletter! GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Deluge! GS: Ruth Pauling has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action. GS: Layna Manydays takes a glancing hit from Ruth Pauling's Martial Myopia for 69 hit points! GS: Zed fully evades Ruth Pauling's Martial Myopia for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zed gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Ines Colina takes a solid hit from Ruth Pauling's Hide Our Faces for 120 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Ruth Pauling! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Boudicca guards a hit from Ruth Pauling's Deluge for 46 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Delay applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: Riposte applied to Ruth Pauling! GS: Seraph Boudicca activates Sufferer! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey guards a hit from Ruth Pauling's Bloodletter for 73 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey activates Power Burst!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Ida coughs; Boudicca sees what comes of it. "Ida..." She starts, and starts again: "We are here."
There's not much time for reassurance, though, in the wake of everyone's assaults. Ruth reveals herself, demands, and Boudicca asks: "From what do you defend them?" What is Ruth protecting Golden Nice from, in her eyes? The man, surely; the wind still swirls protectively around him. But why?
It's wind which also picks up around her, as the rain pours down, blowing those Malevolent raindrops away before they can acid-hiss upon the frame which is her. There's only so much Malevolence Boudicca can withstand...
... and not just Boudicca.
Reaching out a hand, her thumb slides over her index finger like flint over steel, click; from it births Moor Gault's flame, and fed by the breeze it flurries to Ida, to weave in around her and burn away at the corruption which threatens her. It is a purification -- but not one she angles to Ruth, so directly, yet.
"You seem so angry," she reflects, instead, those grey-green eyes on the gargoyle slicing around the battlefield. She and her wind are still in front of the man; she has not raised a hand to Ruth, as of yet.
"Do you believe we come to do harm?"
GS: Seraph Boudicca spends 1 Combo on Inspire! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Rekindling Breeze! GS: Delay expired! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Oh! Boudicca! Hi! Hm, you say that hunger is... meta? Meta for... What?" Zed asks, clearly puzzled by this woeful misunderstanding. Words are difficult things, packaging information as they do between two incomprehensibly complicated sacks of electrified cellular material. They're actually kind of miraculous if you really think carefully about them. But in this case... something seems to have been lost in transit.
Or perhaps... simply muffled by the rain.
Those gunshots, though, cut through the downpour like a hot knife. A clear sign of... aggression, if nothing else. Someone wants a fight, and is completely dedicated to making damn sure that she gets one, opportunities to hammer the <<CONVINCE>> command bedamned.
"Meta... Oh. It must be meta for this! Of course, I can see how hunger might steady the aim, if one is so desperate for food," Zed decides, in the sliver of time between when the Hellion falls out of her perch and when she charges in, bayonet sweeping. It arcs through the air, cutting towards him.
...And in that instant, the rain seem to freeze, hanging in empty space. Zed turns, his form blurring. Doom Bringer scythes between raindrops. In that singular instant, there is a flare of the undeniable battle-lust that burns pure and bright in the heart so many of his kind.
Sparks flash when blade meets blade. The sound rings out, reverberating through the deluge like ripples on the surface of a tranquil lake. A flame erupts like an aurora of foreign, alien color from the blade's dark form. Zed turns his sword, levers his stance and, in the instant immediately following his parrying blow, delivers a singular diagonal slice toward the Hellion's twisted spiritual form.
To the untrained eye of an ordinary oligarch, it seems as if this green-haired man is standing still and vulnerable in one instant, and in the next...
There is a demon there, grinning like a fiend with blazing blade in hand, eyes bright like the skyline of a burning city. In the sliver of time between those two moments, he has struck out against a foe who might be equally terrifying, albeit in a very, VERY different way. "Ahahaha! And who is this now? Interesting! The way you fight is a paradox! Give kindness to the ones behind you, but don't give them anything at the same time? Why don't you tell us what you really want!?"
GS: Zed has attacked Ruth Pauling with Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Ines' stare is... noted. But for now, there is little that Zed can say to words unspoken. He may have to cross that bridge later-- there is already one fight afoot here and now!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Mira's barrel winds down, and Layna takes a moment to nod over toward Ines before stowing the ARM away. They've been able to flush Ruth out - mostly by completely destroying her cover.
Their charge approaches Ruth and with a frown Layna moves quickly, putting herself in a position to intercept in case she does anything. She watches her carefully, and when Ruth starts swinging that bayonet around Layna moves quickly to dodge it. ...But, it's a pretty large weapon - she can't avoid it quickly but she doesn't even flinch as Ruth draws blood.
"Well, if you'd rather we beat each other up in silence, I guess I can oblige. But humor me for a second, will you?" Layna replies. "Any other situation, I wouldn't really care what you wanted to do with him, aye? But right now, seems like he's trying well enough to help... so what's the problem?"
She looks toward Zed, and nods.
"Aye, what he said." She agrees.
Ruth is in melee range, now, and as dangerous as that is, that's where Layna excels. She rushes forward aggressively, wind swirling about her as she unleashes a flurry of punces in Ruth's direction.
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Ruth Pauling with Dread Momentum! GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo! GS: Layna Manydays assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Ruth Pauling guards a hit from Zed's Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor for 93 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ruth Pauling gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ruth Pauling activates Power Burst and Sufferer! GS: Ruth Pauling guards a hit from Layna Manydays's Dread Momentum for 102 hit points! GS: Ruth Pauling activates Guard bonus, Power Burst, and Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
That wing crashes into Ines with force, driving the massive Geohound backwards and off her feet, managing to land in a three point crouch. She's strong. Ines knew this much, but still... She also can't help but answer Ruth's question. "Told you last time. Don't get to be picky about my clientele. And you seem to know enough about me to know my rules." She pulls herself back to her full height, staring daggers at the hellion. "You got something to tell me he's in breach?"
She was starting to wonder if she even cared about that anymore.
And then a laugh cuts through her like a knife. Just like the other one's. She grits her teeth, and grabs the boleadoras at her belt. She can't underestimate an enemy like Ruth. She has to wach for Layna's attack, make sure the pirate doesn't get tangled. She swings them to wind up, and hurls the triple weighted length of rope at Ruth, aiming to tangle her up entirely, the runes glowing as she does so. They curve toward the hellion.
Her eyes wing down to Ebeneezer. "You want to make your case, old man, you'd better do it louder and faster. Otherwise she ain't listening."
GS: Ines Colina has attacked Ruth Pauling with Bewitched Boleadoras! GS: Ines Colina has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Ruth Pauling guards a hit from Ines Colina's Bewitched Boleadoras for 48 hit points! GS: Entangle applied to Ruth Pauling! GS: Ruth Pauling activates Sufferer! GS: Ruth Pauling enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The Malevolence can't find purchase in Ida's soul. That doesn't mean it doesn't try, insofar as it ever "tries" anything; it's a phenomenon with discrete properties. Among them is the tendency to sink into the cracks of a soul and break them wider, like water freezing in the cracks of stone.
And that doesn't mean that Boudicca's energy isn't welcome, a literal breath of fresh air. Clean, pure wood smoke pours off Ida's body as the Malevolence ignites. She shoots Boudicca a grateful smile before turning her gaze back on Ruth. "You hate 'em," Ida says. "You've got good reason to. But one woman, 'Death's Door' or not, isn't gonna--" She trails off in mid-sentence as Ruth erupts into a whirlwind of hissing violence.
Ida steps back, Malevolence-laden muck sucking at her heels, trying to root her in place again. You deserve this, it hisses. With her feet stuck in place, Ida sweeps an arm up to guard, and for a brief moment she catches the barrel of that Malevolence-warped sniper rifle. Rather than tearing out her throat, the blade clips her collarbone, near the scar K.K. gave her. Her first scar from an intelligent, reasoning foe. In that instant, Ida reflexively clamps down, flushing her Breath into the flesh around the wound. Blood splatters into the air, an arc of bright crimson.
"Do you even know what you've become?" Ida says, eyes and voice alive with raw adrenaline. Rather than retreat, she slips Devil's Due into its holster, stretching out a gloved hand to jab two fingers at Ruth's chest. The movement is clean, precise--and should it hit, an arc of Breath crosses the gap between them like lightning. It feels only slightly less painful than that as it burns in deep.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Seraph Boudicca's Rekindling Breeze for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Poison removed! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey activates Seraph Boudicca's Reload!! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey gains a Combo from Inspire! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ruth Pauling with Searing Ember Strike! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 3 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's Stoic stance ends. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Ruth Pauling takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Searing Ember Strike for 0 hit points! GS: Cripple and Disease applied to Ruth Pauling! GS: Ruth Pauling activates Power Burst and Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth faces her right side to them after all of that - the side she can hear from better, as her additional physical weight sees her feet threaten to sink into the misery-wet mud. The voice of the wind that helps feed the Flames that Sustain the World inquires, and in that vented burst of emotion, she sinks back into receptiveness to outer stimuli. "Angry...?" she breathily whispers, flicking out her tongue again. Her head starts to raise, but she's not looking Boudicca head-on.
Ebenezer there blinks a few times, too distracted by Zed's zweeing to find his moment to raise his Entitled Rich Old Dude Voice. His loss.
Zed's diagonal slice is met with her hurling her stronger side into it, her singular wing being treated not all that different from that of, say, a paladin's shield. It cuts just enough it catches blood - blood that seems to have turned purple. (It will dry back to the 'correct' color if left there.) As a result, she's hiding her face from Zed as he criticizes and asks what she wants. "I want them to stop... taking," on the verge of tears.
It takes a flurry of punches from Layna to successfully throw her guard right back wide open. Layna defies the solemn despair of the pouring rain, and in that moment she can catch a glimpse of Ruth's gaze head-on - though they're a different color and glowing, they're the same look of that elf she met in the wastes. "Help?" Incredulous. "Guild Galad doesn't... help people," she's hugging her rifle upright, showing off now more prominently the Granasian rosary around her right arm.
Anyone else in Ebenezer's position can, should, and would hide themselves behind their hired help. Technically he is! He's still a ways behind Ida, but he is starting to stand up. There's the moment of emotional vulnerability where he might speak. "I will not deny the terms laid out in the charters following the Civil War are thorough and exacting about expectations of those who would--"
"Be preyed upon," she's hissing again, as Ines asks the important questions, and it doesn't seem like Ruth wants him to answer because she feels she already knows the answer, but she feels a lot of things and - as per Hellions - many of them are either doublethink or warped towards specific sorts of negative thoughts. Ines manages to wrap the binds as such it gets around her one wing, bending it up and back as it further constricts one of her legs and her left arm (which seems key, that's her dominant hand). This is useful as it takes out her primary form of defense and is keeping her rooted.
Ida dresses down her motives and has a pointed question besides as she jabs those two fingers into her chest. If turning Hellion alters meridians, being of strong enough will to impose the sincere belief that this is a pressure point is more than enough to supercede it - and the gargoyle's body freezes up like it were a statue, for that deep, painful burning within before her body starts to go limp with only the rifle as support as the bayonet threatens to sink into the earth again.
"...It took one woman... one heartless monster," she starts in a somber voice, "to take away so much."
Ebenezer's eyes close. Boudicca can feel it - there is a deep-seated sorrow in there, an anger, that should be prime fuel for Malevolence to burn from, but it doesn't overtake him.
Ida has an important question about how lucid she really is about who she is and what she's become. It wasn't all that long ago that several were yelling at her about things she wasn't in an emotional place to receive. Words spoken with such sincerity and clarity like they understood her more than she understood herself.
"You're... you're going to say what I became, aren't you." She laughs, bitterly. Someone else questioned this emphasis on the 'what.' Her right hand touches on her chest, over her heart. "As if what I was before was better." She's screamed it out before, as her tail slinks around the shaft of the weapon and pulls it free. "Who... what... I care." She feels her heart continuing to beat, as if feeling the emotional weight was the thing keeping her psyche about as together as it's going to be in this state.
"I care that so many people have been hurt," she draws the rifle out of the earth with much less difficulty than before via said tail, "I care all I have ever done is hurt people," as her tail orients the rifle properly around her, it switches 'roles' it has been seen doing before, somehow snaking the barbed heart tip of her tail through the triggerguard as her unbound right hand takes its proper place. Even with Ines' binding, it seems there really isn't a natural force in creation that can stop her from shooting if she wills it.
"There's virtue yet in someone like that," tears going down her face as she rises, as if the thoughts passing through her were the most difficult of all to process, "...someone saw that... I'd... like to prove them right."
Off she goes, firing all four shots - damn the peanut butter and jelly. One by one - the legendary maneuver, done in a way she physically could not do due to anatomical differences (elves do not naturally have tails, after all). To Ines. "DOESSSS HE CARE?" To Zed. "DOESSSSS GUILD GALAD CARE?" To Layna. "EVEN IF IT'S BY THE SAME SSSSSSIN," to Zed, "I WILL ATONE!" To Ida.
The Four Knocks on Death's Door - for she has ever been said to be an excellent neighbor to Death, coming to warn them when people were rudely intruding on their land.
Ebenezer covers his ears and ducks well ahead of this, because he knows how loud that rifle is and he knows full well he doesn't want to get his head anywhere near that.
The sorrow continues to build, a torrential downpour upon Boudicca to test her resolve as Ruth brings her rifle close, the rain drenching her and bringing her mossy green hair over her downcast face. "...Say what you want about how I look, how I feel... but whatever you call it... this is me." She works up a little smile. "Who... what else should I be...? Could be? Can be?" It's a sad smile.
GS: Ruth Pauling has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Snipe! GS: Ruth Pauling spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Zed with Four Knocks On Death's Door! GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Layna Manydays with Four Knocks On Death's Door! GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Ines Colina with Four Knocks On Death's Door! GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Four Knocks On Death's Door! GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Inconsolable Heavens! GS: Ruth Pauling enters a Counter stance! GS: Ruth Pauling enters the stance! GS: CRITICAL! Zed guards a hit from Ruth Pauling's Four Knocks On Death's Door for 131 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zed gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam expired! GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Layna Manydays takes a glancing hit from Ruth Pauling's Four Knocks On Death's Door for 112 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Boudicca takes a solid hit from Ruth Pauling's Inconsolable Heavens for 177 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Ruth Pauling! GS: Ines Colina critically guards Ruth Pauling's Four Knocks On Death's Door for 37 hit points! GS: Ines Colina activates Guard bonus! GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey fully evades Ruth Pauling's Four Knocks On Death's Door for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca stands by Ebenezer, and the breeze still swirls in his protection. There are footholds to be gained in him, and it is her duty -- whether he sees her efforts or not -- to help ensure he isn't overtaken. Predators and prey...
"Somehow," she says, at him, "I feel you are not entirely happy about it." He can't hear her, of course. Hers is an unseen vigilance.
"And not just you..."
Boudicca looks to Ruth, and sees a commonality she does not further press into, as agitated as she already is.
For all the weapons wielded today, there are none in Boudicca's hands, though the Seraphic glyph at her feet swirls to keep the rain from barraging them too stringently. The rain pours too heavily; she has to devote more of her efforts to keeping those dreadful drops from falling on the mortal man behind her.
It is thoroughly unpleasant. There is a part of her, of course, which wants to away immediately. She does not.
She gestures, with that empty palm, as the winds pick up about her. "An apple merchant, perhaps. Or you might herd Thomas. A clerk, if you've the mind for letters. I daresay there are a dozen or more existences you could hold which would engender less tears than sniping. But if you shall not listen --"
Perhaps it's an arrow, itself, the way the wind whistles in towards her.
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Ruth Pauling with Wind Whistler! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Sneak! The true nature of Seraph Boudicca's attack becomes clear! GS: Ruth Pauling takes a solid hit from Seraph Boudicca's Be Not Afraid for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Dispel! Cover, Cripple, Disease, Entangle, and Riposte removed!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Whistles in -- and curls around. It is Spring with all its fineries, new growth and new year, warm but not oppressive. With warm green light it carves through all Ruth's illusions, all the expectations which lay heavy upon her.
"Rather," asks Boudicca, steady as stone, "who would you like to be?"
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
Okay. Maybe getting through to her emotionally isn't the best tactic right now. She wants to yell at her comrades to hunker down and focus on killing her. But that's not how they operate, is it. Purify a dragon, talk down a monster. But Ines is different from the rest of them. She steps forward.
"Stealing from those who can't afford it, huh?" Is that what Ruth is appealing to. "...How do you plead, old man? Depending on your answer I might just walk away."
It's probably a hollow threat, though, given Ruth is trying to murder them all and losing to her rage. She sees that tail aim that rifle. One round of that tore through all her defenses last time. Put her down for the count. "MOVE!" She yells to Ebeneezer. And then she doesn't follow her own advice. Instead she crosses her arms in front of her, moving her hands infront of her heart. "Armour of rock, gauntlets of iron, grant me-"
The boom of the rifle sounds out, and Ines goes flying backwards, tumbling and sliding to a halt. That could be it. But tellingly, there's no blood. After a moment, she hauls herself to the feet. In one hand she holds the crumpled round in her metal hand, moving it between two fingers so Ruth can see it.
"Lady, you need to learn something. You try and care about everyone and everything, on a world like Filgaia, all at once?" She closes her hand into a fist.
"It's just going to break you."
And then she starts chanting again. "Shards of earth and darts of steel, rise with the dancing wind and shred all in your path!"
Jagged spikes rise out of the ground, surrounding Ines as chunks of metal- shrapnel from the wartorn past of Aquvy- join them. She opens her hand, and lets the bullet in her hand join the cyclone, and then she points at Ruth.r
"Shrapnel Twister!"
The twisting mess winds towards Ruth, the bullet at the head, to shred her apart.
GS: Ines Colina has attacked Ruth Pauling with Shrapnel Twister! GS: Ines Colina has completed her action. GS: Ruth Pauling takes a solid hit from Ines Colina's Shrapnel Twister for 143 hit points! GS: Disrupt applied to Ruth Pauling! GS: Ruth Pauling activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Bullets are a funny thing to Metal Demons. Did you know Metal Demons can eat metal? Well, they can! Their bodies are designed to process such things as scrap, to incorporate them into their bodies and bones. But this is probably not a bullet that Zed would like to eat, suffused as it is in the gross stuff of human malevolence. You know, like Ida's everything, or the grease-drenched offerings at any of Guild-Galad's seedier eateries.
It's not something he wishes to incorporate, is the point.
The bullet tears towards him never-the-less, hell-bent on getting into his body one way or another. Zed's gaze narrows to a fine point. He brings Doom Bringer up to absorb the shot...
Only to be knocked soundly onto his ass when his RAIN-SLICKED BODY comes back to bite him. Zed's menacing aura shatters like so much glass when he tumbles glutes-over-trapezius and ends up face-deep in drenched mud...!!
There's a beat as Zed remains in that position for a long moment.
...Then with a wet schlick-pop, he heaves back and lifts his face out of the ground. The bullet...
...Found his forehead...
...But stopped there, crushed into a accordioned slug.
"Hrmph. Of course Guild-Galad does not care. Guild-Galad is a country, a kingdom, a nation built out of the husk of a long-dead citadel! None of these things have the capacity to care. But maybe its people care. And yet, more importantly! This old man clearly cares! But EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY!"
"You," Zed points his sword at the gun-waving monster woman, "Don't seem to know what you want. Humans are like this too often. You don't want them to take, but, oh no, you also don't want them to give! So what are they to do? What are you to do? Hah! What did you become? What were you before!? More dualities that don't matter! Your words betray you! You are human! This is how humans too often are, for better or for worse!"
He winds his blade back, eyes glinting dangerously, "...This is why I love them. They can be so many things, haha! They can even be things that are opposite! But now..." Zed... lances forward. His sword becomes like a comet streaking through the unceasing deluge, a single point of light that splits the dark. He strikes a singular blow, cutting through wind and rain alike. "What you are mostly is confusing me. So I'm just going to hit you with my sword until you calm down and answer this very patient old man's questions."
The beam of cutting light remains for a moment after Zed terminates his charge, drawing a perfectly straight line between his origin, the Hellion, and his destination.
...Then it seems to distort, before erupting in a veritable hurricane of ultra-high-speed slashes.
GS: Zed has activated a Force Action! GS: Zed spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Zed has attacked Ruth Pauling with Secret Sword - Lightning Flash! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed has launched an attack Link! GS: Zed has attacked Ruth Pauling with Forbidden Move - Astral Dance! GS: Zed enters a Counter stance! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Ruth Pauling takes a solid hit from Zed's Secret Sword - Lightning Flash for 193 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Zed! GS: Ruth Pauling activates Sufferer! GS: Ruth Pauling enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ruth Pauling takes a solid hit from Zed's Forbidden Move - Astral Dance for 189 hit points! GS: Ruth Pauling activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca makes a mental note, as of this moment, to get the materials to create a flag to wave for Zed, who is an absolute icon.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The rain washes the blood down Ida's chest, leaving behind a thin slash-line of a scab. Ida doesn't scar anymore unless she allows it, and this isn't a wound she wants commemorated on her skin. "I do too," she says. It's the truth. Ida cannot look upon the people of Halim without feeling cold knots tightening around her heart. But that won't convince Ruth, will it? They're having the same argument again. They'll have it again, and again, and again, and nothing will ever change. Nothing will ever change.
Ida lets out a sharp hiss of breath. Magilou's words come back to her, the Malevolence amplifying their edge into something cruel and mocking.
Idiot girl. By all means, keep flagellating yourself for your failures while the world goes to--
Ida breathes in. Her eyes focus as she listens to Ruth's words. "Come on, then, 'Death's Door'." She doesn't know if Ruth knows who she is, but Ida can plainly see the violence boiling in the other woman's every move. It speaks to her. It speaks to a grim, raw desperation that she feels sometimes, late at night. Ida bares teeth. She breathes out, and lets everything else leave her but the visceral feel of the fight. "Let's see those four knocks!"
BANG.
Not aimed at her. Ida ducks low, leaps forwards, her boots ripping free with a hideous SQUELCH of Malevolence-laden mud.
BANG.
Not aimed at her. Ida dashes up the slope, chasing after Ruth with gritted teeth and eyes alight with inexorable will.
BANG. Not aimed at her. But Ruth sets up her fourth shot, then, aims for center of mass. The Gae Dearg was not designed for close range, but with Ruth's aim, maybe that doesn't matter. One bullet is enough to reduce someone's head to a red mist, to shatter bone and pulp flesh. Ida meets the Hellion's gaze. Her Breath boils from her lungs, clinging to her hands in a cloud of brilliant golden-white. She reaches for the weapon's barrel and shoves it, pitting a burst of superhuman strength against Ruth's own.
BANG.
The sound is deafening. It almost drowns out the horrible splat afterwards. Gobbets fly through the air.
...Gobbets of mud. That shot carved a fresh crater in the muddy ground, a crater large enough to swamp a wagon. Ida draws back her right fist. The Breath coiling around it condenses, forming one, two, three layers of coruscating gold and burning flame. Without any further fanfare, she drives it for Ruth's gut. It would take a very keen eye to note that she's pulling it; there isn't killing force behind it.
Ida follows after her. Her hat falls from her head, and lands in the mud. The heiress' face, slick with rain, looks up at Ruth. There are red marks in her cheeks from where she's been crying. She steps forward, wraps her other arm around Ruth's shoulder--the one without a wing.
"Ruth," she whispers. "I'm sorry. I misspoke. But let me ask you... why do you only have one wing?"
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has activated a Force Action! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ruth Pauling with Unbroken Lotus Fist! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Indeed - Layna recognizes those eyes. She recognizes that look. She considers Ruth for a moment.
"They don't, huh? Funny, that." Layna replies. She doesn't try to refute it - it sounds like Ruth's mind is already set on that regard.
She goes quiet as Ruth continues and elects to watch her carefully. She mentions, then, how the only thing she has done is hurt people.
"And so you keep right on hurting. ...Nah, I'm not judging you, just commenting." Layna replies, shaking her head and shrugging. "Well, I guess someone's gotta do it. Some people need hurting. But if you end up pointing yourself at the wrong people... well, you're just going to make things worse - and then, you're gonna find yourself on the wrong side of someone else who exists to hurt people."
And then, she asks them some questions. To that, Layna just shrugs.
"I'm not the one you should be asking that. If you really wanna know, there's better folks to answer that than me - and some of 'em are right here." She says. And then, Ruth makes her declaration. Layna exhales, a faint grin crossing her face. "Alright, looks like we're doing this."
Four knocks. Layna tenses up, readying herself. She moves to dive out of the way at the last moment... but doesn't quite succeed. You don't get to be an expert marksman without being able to track a moving target. Layna grits her teeth but keeps on moving, charging forward toward Ruth now.
She vanishes at the last moment in a flutter of wind before reappearing right behind Ruth.
"Sorry about this." And then she unleashes a single, powerful, pinpoint punch directed at Ruth's back.
GS: Layna Manydays spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Ruth Pauling with Dead Men Tell No Tales! GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Ruth Pauling takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Unbroken Lotus Fist for 186 hit points! GS: Ruth Pauling activates Sufferer! GS: Ruth Pauling takes a solid hit from Layna Manydays's Dead Men Tell No Tales for 185 hit points! GS: Ruth Pauling activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ida matches strength to strength - she manages to will it with more ease than she may first suspect. Virtually nothing can stop Ruth from holding or firing her rifle if she wills it - but it seems as though anything beyond that remains contestable. The bullets can be caught. They can be deflected. They can be avoided, if she has a mistake in her aim or her target is just too evasive. It is to everyone's benefit, for all of Malevolence's ability to warp some of the rules of reality when it gets saturated enough, that the actual ballistic physics in play are one hundred percent 'fair.' (It may just be by Ruth's familiarity with her own weapon and discipline that she can't imagine or will them to act otherwise.)
The maneuvers all come together about at once. Ines opens with the stone-tearing shrapnel, shredding into Ruth's defenses and loosing more purple-hued blood and providing the opening for the rest to come in there with their own blows. A singular blow of Zed's blade leads to many more. Layna gets into her back, just past the raised and bound wing, and slams right into her back. To look her in the eye this close, there is a whole mess of emotion that comes when she has to look someone that close in the eyes in melee combat. (This may be where the FP reaction bonus comes from. ...shh)
Ida caps it off by ramming the fist into her gut. A smoky hissing leaves as the larger gargoyle Hellion remains doubled over her... and slumps down, as somewhere in all this words are shared (and occasionally made fun of).
"...You're not from here, are you," she says, all too meekly for someone as large and intimidating as she appears, as an aside to Zed, "you don't understand what happened... you think it's as simple as that... these... parasites." She's too subdued to get to hissing.
"...This part of Filgaia broke first because of," she chokes back tears, hitting the bit where she sometimes fluctates between 'I' and 'they,' because denial is a stage of grief and she sure oscillates between a number of them. Her overwhelming guilt - based on the Geohound job note, she sure as hell is someone who broke Zoara. The idea she cares now might be oddly humorous to Ines.
Layna posits some people need hurting. "...There's no difference between feelings of pain and anguish between the guilty and the innocent," Ruth says. A smile on her face. Something difficult to reconcile, but it may say a lot about how much of her soul she still has she can distinguish these concepts with consistency. "...Why apologize if I need hurting?"
Boudicca posits suggestions, and the gargoyle shudders, more tears flowing anew as a smile turns into a fangy grin... she can't suppress another bitter laugh at the suggestions and ideas as a comforting wind washes about her, an attempt to calm her. She turns away, as if trying to spite the kindness of the wind that always runs the risk of being befouled by her very presence - since her wing's too bound to flex it in front of herself. Her tail keeps the rifle held as her right hand goes to her left shoulder. When she's her original self, she's seen rubbing or grasping at it as though it were in pain.
Ida, somewhere in all this, puts her arm around her, from the side she can't hear (mitigated somewhat by her looking back to the left so she does sort of pick up the whispers - but also means she's looking Ida head-on). Ruth flinches as Ida comes shy of touching her hand, but it stops when she (Ruth) removes her own hand from rubbing at the shoulder - Ida's arm is otherwise not rejected. As if not in fear of Ida touching her, but... herself, touching Ida with her hands?
'Why do you only have one wing?'
"...Only one?" Ruth's bitter smile. "That's one more than I had... because I used to be a heartless monster. Heartless monsters... they don't have wings to support anyone..."
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
"Please, let me speak." Ines has (had - there's a delay in response here) pointed questions to ask Ebenezer over there, who does not cower before the towering Beastfolk before him and her threat to ditch him. He holds up a hand, but not meekly - an attempt to call to calm.
"Golden Nice was once loyal to Celesti." This is an unfortunate slip of the tongue nearly all oligarchs share - the Congressional Knight forces 'were' Celesti and thus the power they engaged in trade with, the Aquvy Union were insurgents and terrorists. It's an argument that lasted decades and one where everyone suffered. "My youngest brother, who lived in Verklarung, was a general for Celesti's army." This does not mean much on its own, as money bought a lot of status - nepotism filled the ranks.
"One day, they betrayed him... February 23rd, 487 PC. They heard a sound that struck fear into them. The four knocks on Death's Door." Ebenezer continues. "It wasn't enough they surrender... one of the people behind that idea told me when I had my men meet with him. They'd kill us all, they said. You couldn't reason with a monster, they said. Death was going to answer when they came knocking."
Ruth is numb.
"When the war ended... I made sure Golden Nice didn't get approached by Guild Galad. Made... arrangements to deal with those who tried to reach out. Let them rot, I felt." Ebenezer shakes his head. "Same way I dealt with anyone else over the years."
He does sound like a real piece of work. (He was.) He looks over at Ida's revealed appearance, but does not yet comment.
"I did not support anyone but myself. The years have passed... and all I have to show for it..." Ebenezer levels his gaze, shakes his head. "We all already know. Heard the speech from Rhadamanthus. Fighting for the right to be the last to have our bones bleach in the sun."
Ruth continues to be numb.
"Golden Nice has a significant water reservoir. I... spoke with its current leader. The conversation was tense, yes. I had an offer to make."
An uptick in ambient Malevolence, as Ruth is attempting to draw in her negative emotions for another wind, but Ebenezer is heedless of the increase in rainfall.
"A delivery of a set of water purification systems. Hands-on training by some of my very best to live in residence for several months until the people of Golden Nice could maintain it themselves." He takes in a breath. "I do not have long in this world. Six months, I've been told. Nowhere near enough time to undo all the harm I have done."
Ruth numbs again (this is good).
"I've put most my affairs in order. I decided this would be my final gift to the world, even if my legacy has long since been set. This will be my atonement. I've used up all my personal capital in order to make this a reality."
Over in the armored car, the young-at-heart woman - his daughter - can be heard fainting.
Ebenezer cracks a smile. "Yes, I did some strong-arming, some persuading, to make this happen. Certainly, a few more sins... but I'm a man who only ever got as far as he did that way. If there's any good in that..."
Ruth starts to rise up, slinking herself out of Ida's grasp.
"...What good you do for Golden Nice... there's someone else who has good planned for all of Zoara." Ruth says, expression darkening as the rain starts to pick up again. "...That includes Golden Nice..."
A look over to Ines, as she gets her right hand back over her heart. "Let it weigh on my heart. Who I want to be..."
Over to Boudicca. "Someone who never is a heartless monster ever again."
There is a blinding mist of watery Malevolence, and then... the rain passes, and with it, Ruth herself.