2021-10-23: The Sign

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<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

Void 41 is not really a very cheerful neighborhood, but, you know, you work with what you have.

Venetia Vuong, on the other hand, is pleased as a hog in shit lately, because she has had dreams come true. This is a powerful, inspiring sensation; a sort of heavy greased-up strength in your arms and legs that has kept her running hard. Having done some work, it seems, she has invited everyone to come to the second-level labs of the School of Mineralogy's New Building.

Coming to the School of Mineralogy is -- probably familiar to everyone, since an image of it was part of Vakero's strange tomb-show. The main building has the same general shape, though a several-story addition has been built up. The New Building, across the avenue, is a simpler square building.

It's incorrect to call these things basements because this deep, it's all stone. There are limits, but in general, it just takes a little bit of bureaucracy to dig down a few dozen yards -- although for some reason this one took two years to ram through and they had to cut back like two planned lower layers. (Moan! Weep!)

The walls are stone but generously carved. The Active Laboratory is being guarded by a couple of graduate students who have actual firearms-- which does not seem to be usual-- but they also have a tureen of tea and a spread of snackies. Mostly crackers (with a range of toppings) and dumplings.

Inside this space, there are lights... and evidence of a lot of stuff that was removed. The air in the Active Laboratory is oddly brighter than it is outside - sort of a freshness thing. Along one wall are some pieces of metallurgical equipment and some seats, one of which holds Venetia Vuong, who is presently eating a meat bun.

"Ah good! You made it! Did you have to pay Jimmy's toll to get in?" Venetia asks, once individuals arrive. After this she goes back to finishing off her meatbun with the air of someone who has been skipping meals. 


<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Once Venetia had gotten Marivel some GOOD SHIT from her alma pater's mysterious crucible of doom, Marivel essentially promised a certain degree of service to the Vuong Legacy. Hard to know what that MEANS precisely if you're not Marivel, but it is probably and maybe a good thing. At the very least, the INTENT is that it's a good thing. Lord knows if Marivel's company isn't sometimes a curse or not depending on who you ask, HO HO HO.

At least that's how Marivel'd describe it. Humans tend to be a lot sweeter about this sort of thing.

She arrives while dressed in a shirt nad overalls, a bit of oil smudging her left cheek she hasn't noticed, goggles over her workman's cap. It's a little less dramatic or spooky than is typical.

Indeed, she doens't even TELEPORT in. She just sort of...walks in. Like some kind of ....... normal person.

"Jimmy's toll? Ah, yes, do not worry about it." She hooks her thumbs in her suspender straps as she takes a look around in the laboratory. Marivel, a NERD, can appreciate cool labs even if it's sorceric labs rather than the mechanical sort she usually mucks around with.

"Cool digs," She says. "Didn't keep you too long, did I?"

She is surprised by the guards though and adds, "Expecting trouble?"

She collects one (1) dumpling for social purposes. 

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Eleanor Klein has been here before! She has colleagues here, after all, and even a /friend/. She is happy to come today at Venetia's invitation, and doesn't mind Guild Galad at all--frankly, though, she's kind of glad that Void 41 is so distant from certain other schools in Guild Galad that might hold some awkwardness for her after the whole Monty thing. Not a /lot/, probably, but even so.

And Eleanor happens to think it's rather cozy, even if a part of her would be much more comforted by not cold stone walls but the unending distance of the v o i d over the edge of the walkways. But not everywhere can be Sielje.

And this place is rather nice.

"Oh no, he didn't bother me at all," Eleanor says brightly. Did something happen there? It's fine. Eleanor comes over to take a dumpling. "And of course! I wouldn't have missed it."

She is used to guards just sort of being around for some reason and doesn't think about it much. 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

This is Ida's first visit to Void 41. The colleges in the higher Voids--including Eastbridge, Ida's alma mater--paid it little mind. In another decade or two, it would deplete its coffers and either indenture itself to a wealthier school or go out of business. As she walked through the Void, and through the halls of the College itself, she remembered the old Dean's words, and realizes what would be lost if the College went under.

Ida arrives in a button-down blue shirt, pressed slacks, and a colorful silk drape. She carries herself with an air of decorum, but she doesn't look /too/ out of place. "It wasn't a problem," Ida says, to Venetia. Predictably, she gravitates to the teapot, and pours herself a cup. "Got here with no trouble at all, in fact." 


<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

Isn't this a void too, Eleanor? makes u thimk

Venetia smiles, faintly smug. "Yes," she says to Marivel as she rises up to her feet. "Officially, we've just discovered some new materials, a rare deposit, possibly from a meteoroid impact... vuongic oxide, found in silica nodules."

Venetia winks at everyone at this extremely clever ruse.

"They're installing more durable and secure equipment," Venetia continues, waving around what's left of her meatbun, "but for right now, I mean, we're at the bottom of Guild Galad so it's not like it would be casual, but part of why I went a-questing was in fact people who could just do as they please with time and space and what-not. If an Odessa battallion, or Gebler, or the Unified Death Skull Axe Gang shows up, they're under orders to take shots and if necessary, retreat in here and use the provisional Crest Graphs to fight them off."

Venetia raises her meat bun. "Even if it wrecks the building." hompf

The tea is decent if a smidge on the thin side. "I'm glad you could all attend, because I thought I would demonstrate just how far we've been able to come in less than a week. I've been mostly updating some of the old thesis works we had submitted, the ones I'd mentioned, with something 'lacking'? Now a couple of them turned out to just be unworkable. You'll know what I mean, Eleanor, you can't just put your grubby fingerprints on a Crest and expect to cast Quadruple Fireball."

right?

"But some others... well, we've found one in particular was even more impressive than we thought. Do any of you have a gun with you, by the way?" 

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel says, "Nice," to Venetia. She seems to be having a talent for mystery and conspiracy and that's a good thing. Less for her to stress over. The higher the tech level the higher the danger and it's best to keep a firm grip on that sort of thing even if it's just a material in careless hands.

"In...less than a week huh? Quadruple Fireball? IT's best to stick to three before floating to the other side of the room oh teleporting there depending on the phase--"

She starts fishing through the pouch she often wears around her waist. "OH sure--" Like her full arm goes inside and she says, "Oh! How about this one?"

She draws out a soggy(?!) looking gun and points it down, carefully. "This one bonked me on the head while I was in the ocean." Marivel says. "Should be still good."

She brushes it gently with the back of her hand to try and desoggify it a bit. 

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

It is a void...!

"Nice," Eleanor compliments Venetia's clever ruse. It's very good. She looks around at her friends who arrive and smiles at them, before she looks back to Venetia at the expalnation. "That's very sensible," she admits, lookin around at the preparations she's already made. Odessa, Gebler... Whoever. There's a lot of potential danger, even here at the heart of Guild Galad. Well, maybe not the heart. But Eleanor isn't going to say what else it might be.

"Even if it wrecks the building... Yes, it would be that serious, wouldn't it?" She then blinks, and her eyes light up in interest. "Really?" Eleanor says brightly. "--Yes, of course. It's not that simple. But progress already...! My, I'd absolutely love to see it!"

Pause. "Well yes, I have mine. Why do you ask?"

Eleanor laughs at Marivel's comments on fireballs, and pulls her large Veruni-made rifle. "Oh... How did it--" Pause. She frowns at the soggy gun. "Ohh. The ocean. Yes, that makes sense then."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida adds a spoonful of sugar, and takes a seat, saucer and cup perched in the palm of her hand. She pays careful attention to Venetia; a smile spreads across her lips when the sorceress fleshes out her ruse. "Wise precautions. The last thing I want is that ending up in the wrong hands."

Ida tilts her head to the side, frowns thoughtfully. "I do," she says, and she reaches around back with her free hand and slips it beneath her silken shawl-drape. She holds out Devil's Due, the safety on, the hilt pointed at Venetia. 


<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

TWO guns! And the promise of a *third*.

Venetia reaches over to accept Marivel's offering, as well as Ida's, and she looks at both slightly. "Oh, splendid," she says, before walking over to a table and messing gently with the guns. She seems to be unloading them, then checking the relative size of the bullets.

"This one was supposed to be a sort of safety net thing, but when we put it into practice and did some experimentation with large animals - a pig, a goat, and so on - we found that it had an effect rather more dramatic than what they anticipated."

"And yes! Like I said, we're sort of taking a shortcut here. Developing new sorcery past these designs will be, ah, a somewhat slower process, but we have some fun ideas as it is," Venetia says to Marivel. She smiles to Ida, even as she puts one round back into Devil's Due.

Then one round back into the gun Marivel had. She glances at Eleanor, and tells her, "I think this is enough, but if you'd like to take your piece out, just set it up so that there's just one round in it. This is important."

Having done this, Venetia walks over to a cabinet, opens it, and takes out what looks like an XL-Jumbo Crest Graph. She walks out to a chalked-on X on the floor, near what looks like a recently-removed stake. "Now then..."

The Crest Graph cleans as Venetia brandishes it, eyes narrowing behind her lacy mask. There is a... sense in the air; it's very clear even if you aren't that Ley-sensitive. To Eleanor and perhaps also Marivel it is very clear - some sort of contortion in the flow of energy through the room, centered on Venetia. A tight knot of magic of some kind.

Venetia puts the Crest Graph in a pocket of her dress. "Now, Marivel, as our senior and because fair is fair, I'd like you to pick the gun of your choice and shoot me. Aim somewhere fatal." 

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Many guns! Eleanor is holding her gun in a moment as they're talking, since she has to actually get it out of the bundle she keeps it in rather than openly carry a giant rifle, but this doesn't interrupt her listening. "Oh, hm?" she wonders. Something with experimentation...

"Yes, of course!" Eleanor answers. "I'm considering what might be possible in my style as well. It's just a fascinating set of possibilities, but experimentation is really the only way--"

Pause. "Oh! Well, sure. One round, then." Eleanor does so, loading a single round into the rifle. They are... very large rounds. But soon, Venetia walks to the cabinet, opens it, and...

"Hmmm," she says. "Yes, I can feel the effec--"

She blinks at the request. "V-venetia???" She is alarmed. 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Devil's Due has been carefully maintained. The handgrip is made of some sort of polymer resin--the sort common in firearms dating back to the Day of Collapse. The barrel, trigger, and trigger-well are all Demonbone, or at least something that looks like it at first glance. The color is similar, as are the gross biometallurgical characteristics, but it's lighter, and it's missing the patina found on proper "fossils". The whole thing looks like a rifle that was hacked down into a pistol; the gun's caliber is a fairly standard rifle round.

As Venetia prepares, Ida listens carefully, sipping her tea politely. She sits up straighter, glancing directly at the crest as that /force/ flows through the air. "You mentioned 'large animals', earlier," Ida says. "What were you--" The pieces come together. Ida's eyes go wide as saucers. "You're joking," she says, a moment before she realizes that no, Venetia is not joking. "Are you certain--?!" She meets Marivel's gaze. If her friend ends up dead because of /her/ gun, she's going to be very upset. 


<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

".................."

Marivel's fingers curl inward slightly. She has to push off a ptsd trigger. Venetia doesn't know, she tells herself, and more to the point--there has to be some kind of trick Venetia is planning even if it's hard to imagine why a fatal blow would be neccessary barring necromancy.

Marivel approaches the guns. She collects the previously soggy pistol with one bullet in and cocks the hammer back. It's a pretty nice looking gun, sogginess aside. Military sidearm grade. High quality, better than the average ARM which might make one wonder how it bonked Marivel on the head in an ocean.

She does not immediatelty shoot Venetia because of course she doesn't.

"Allow me to confirm your desire," Marivel says. She's not going to let someone ELSE shoot her close friend dead so if it's going to be anybody it's going to be her and with her own gun. Marivel can be weird like that sometimes.

"You wish me to end your life with this pistol." Marivel says. "And you know the risk involved in this endeavour."

She doesn't point the gun at Venetia yet. Once she does, she will be firing it.

"You absolve me of what comes next, my friend?" 

<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

"I understand your concerns," Venetia says, "but this is going to work. It won't even be that disgusting, based on our testing." (She eyes Eleanor's weapon for a moment, despite this.)

To Ida, she says, "Yes - a pig, a goat. The pig was traumatized, the goat is fine. The results were reliable. Multiple tests. I suppose that's why the pig isn't in good spirits. I'm not pleased about this, but that pig will get an honorable retirement." The goat will receive nothing, one infers.

"I'm doing this in front of all of you for several reasons," Venetia says.

"If something does go wrong - if it doesn't quite work - I know you'll protect me. You're right here. The infirmary's less than fifty yards away. I'll accept the risk of being disabled and forced from the field - it's miniscule."

Venetia takes a deep breath.

"And..."

"I want you to see the miracle," she continues. "You are going to need to see this to believe it. Because this is going to open a new door. I don't think we can put it to scale - but this will liberate the fires that already burn within all of your hearts. You'll know what is possible. The limits will shine as artificial boundaries. The way forward will be clear..."

...

Marivel has a question.

Venetia straightens up. "If this goes wrong - save me if you can - I won't deny that I'd rather live. I wouldn't ask you this if I weren't sure." A beat passes. "If not, then I ask you to shepherd this school. There will be others after me." Another beat.

"I forgive you," Venetia says, tilting her head out, "in advance; and I absolve you."

GS: Venetia Vuong spends 1 Combo on Reload! GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Venetia Vuong with Persephone Sign ~Death Defiance~! GS: Quick expired! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. 

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel listens to Venetia's words.

I want you to see the miracle

Marivel wants to see a miracle. She has since before she's known anyone in this room. Venetia is being quite dramatic about it. She seems confident, though confidence has often been the precursor to death and tragedy. "Alright," She says. "I accept this pact."

She raises the pistol, pointing the pistol into the air.

"I'll see you," Marivel says to Venetia. "One way or another."

She then slowly--but with absolutely no shaking in her hand, points the gun right for Venetia's heart. The slowness is not due to anxiety--it's aiming.

She waits just one extra moment, one unprofessional moment.

And then she opens fire. GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Venetia Vuong with Elly's Gun!?! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Venetia Vuong accepts Marivel Armitage's Elly's Gun!? for 137 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: Venetia Vuong heals Venetia Vuong! She gains 100 temporary hit points! GS: Venetia Vuong activates Venetia Vuong's Reload!! GS: Venetia Vuong enters CONDITION GREEN!! 

<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

It's faster than I thought it would be, Venetia thinks as she feels something enormous smash into her breastbone. The pain doesn't hit right away. It's more like a sudden punch, and she's starting to slump down and -

Ah, she thinks.

Did I... get it wrong?

A sort of white field fills her vision.

But--

--

Externally, there's a surprisingly small amount of blood, and Venetia staggers a little, grunts, and begins to slide downwards. She seems to make it to one knee, just in time to slouch forward when

the knot comes untied Death defied! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oDWlQbqCBc

That premonition of an invocation turns out to have been a down payment on the real show. There is a sudden cavernous motion of the Ley energies; the dammed energy breaks; surging outwards, forwards, the lights in the room palpably dimming as transient peak effects form a shower of a thousand shivering red and pink shapes around her. Sparkles? Droplets? Petals of a flowering tree?

The air is brightened; refreshed, as breaths are made undone, as decay is palpably pulled back a tiny notch on the inevitable road to the heat death of the universe. The price already paid; and Venetia, who had sunk to one knee, visibly straightens up and pushes herself upwards, positively springing upwards.

Stepping forwards, she points at her chest, a fire all but burning in her eyes.

"Look! I mean, within the bounds of taste, but look!" There is a hole in the front of her dress - a speckle of blood, the sort you might leave in a hankerchief after a very bad blowing of the nose - and the visible pale skin beneath... unharmed. Not even a ghost of a scar.

Venetia begins rolling down her sleeve. "You see? You'll be immortal warriors. In the face of Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus or Gebler's elite or Sin or whatever, *my sorcery will make you the unlosing warriors every child hopes to be!*"

"Now there are terms and conditions," Venetia says, pointing out a scrape on her forearm. "You see this? The Persephone Sign nullifies utterly *the fatal injury* - not all injury. And the knot in your meta-etheric bodies it's connected to won't stay 'tied' forever. The stored energy will bleed out; I can't just stack 'extra lives' on your heads like some kind of Ma-"

Venetia pauses to sneeze into her sleeve. "Anyway," she continues, "please excuse me. You'll never be able to say I don't put on a tea time entertainment, I guess." 


<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Eleanor eyes her weapon for a moment when Venetia does. But then she looks back to Venetia. "Well, if you're sure..." Who is she to deny that the impossible is possible? Apparently, as Venetia explains, they repeated the experiment multiple times, which is kind of terrible in its way but on the other hand the pig will be rewarded. And Venetia's logic...

"Well," Eleanor says, "I suppose that makes sense..." She doesn't quite believe it yet, but the spirit of inquiry cannot be denied. And Eleanor is capable of healing even fatal wounds, though maybe not /all/ fatal wounds. But... She wants them to see it. Eleanor is very serious when it happens. She watches Venetia, rather than Marivel, and can't help but flinch at the gunshot she expects, after holding her breath without meaning to. And then--

Ah, there's the magic--

"Oh!" Eleanor stares as the energy surges, noting the light and the shapes and the sparkles and the air /refreshes/. Venetia straightens up, and Eleanor /does/ look, staring in search for a wound that isn't there. "Oh--"

"That's /horrifically disturbing/ and /absolutely fascinating/! It vaguely resembles a revival spell and yet its effect is so very different! Oh, my, and even most of the blood is gone--"

The fatal injury, not all injuries. "The fatal injury is significant enough! There are many that are too dire for my spells, but /this/--"

Eleanor's eyes are bright gold, shiny with interest. "We certainly can't say /that/!!"

Eleanor moves closer, "Is there any lingering ache, or is it as gone as it looks? Is there any weakness as a result?" <Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed. Marivel watches Venetia... DIE. And then not die? Marivel's fingers on her non-armed hand fidget ever so slightly.

Venetia starts gushing over her accomplishment.

CLICK.

That's the sound of Marivel pulling the trigger again.

CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.

Her expression is enormously deadpan. Like a deadpanemental. But eventually she just lets her gun-arm drop.

A kind of Canceller spell she thinks distantly.

"Just to make certain." Marivel says. "This isn't time-aspected sorcery is it?"

Elly's gun hangs loosely in her hand like SHE wants to go throw it in the ocean now. Maybe she will where it'll find a new character to stumble upon. This is... the story...

Of Elly's Gun. 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida has forgotten her teacup. It sits in a hand gone rigid with fear. "That doesn't reassure me," she says, though a pang of grief throbs in her heart for those poor animals' sake. Realistically, they were probably intended to be dinner, but...

'I want you to see the miracle.'

"What's the catch?" Ida whispers, under her breath. She doesn't dare speak any louder, for fear of inviting in disaster.

BANG.

Venetia staggers. The teacup tumbles from Ida's fingers; crockery shatters on the stone floor. "VENETIA!" she cries, horror etched on her face. She rushes towards her friend, and has taken all of two steps before

...something happens...

And Venetia's on her feet again and Ida is standing there, eyes darting fitfully as she searches for the wound. There's only a pinprick beneath the very obvious hole in her clothes. "What," Ida says. She's still shaking a little. The spilled tea cools amid ceramic shards not three yards away. "This is what you made?"

Ida trails off as she feels him stirring in the back of her mind, brought to vague wakefulness by an echo of shared trauma. 


<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

Venetia claps her hands together. "I see I've horrified all of you, so I'm going to send for a pie to make my apologies."

"Not really," Venetia tells Eleanor. "I suppose a bit of a phantom pain. But I could just be thinking about it. It was certainly... memorable; I wouldn't encourage making it a habit, but that's like the old alchemist said. Don't start drinking poison just because you have an antidote."

"I didn't invent this spell," Venetia clarifies to Ida. "But I did make some modifications-- and I incorporated the meta-thallium into the Crest Graph for it. You can thank Aloysius Feng for this one, though he's been dead for eighteen years, ironically enough."

Then, Marivel. Venetia puts her hands on her hips. "Yes, though kind of by analogy," she says. "Are you concerned it will come undone?"

Her voice lowers as she steps a little closer, leaning forwards to gently take the gun out of Marivel's hand if she doesn't clamp down.

"You weren't as certain as I, were you?" Venetia muses to Marivel. "But you did it anyway."

"Thank you," Venetia says.

"... I feel like I should pat your head but that feels tremendously inappropriate," Venetia continues. 

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel doesn't want that gun anymore.

"I am concerned that it means we created a timeline offshot where I did kill you and you didn't come back and that it means that you'll have to deal with the Hounds or Final Destination style death traps--"

Her gunhand curls inward after Venetia removes the gun from her hands.

"I was not certain. I'm still not. Experimental magic is, after all..."

She gestures with a hand. "Experimental. Less than a week of tests, you know--"

I feel like I should pat your head

"I'll bite you." Marivel says.

She rubs at her forehead. "I need to sit down."

She does so, on Hob. 

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

"I would like the pie," Eleanor confirms. Then she goes back to her million questions. "Yes, I initially thought I wanted to see it again so that I could make more specific note of the magical working, but then I thought I don't /really/ want you to be shot in the chest again, that rather /hurts/," as the fact that Marivel had to do battlefield surgery to save her from such a wound continues to be a thing--Eleanor speaks from experience, "But even so it's amazing!"

Aloysius Feng... "Hmmm, yes. I'll have to read his papers," Eleanor resolves.

"It didn't 'feel' like the time magic I use at all," Eleanor says to Marivel. "I don't detect any similar dweomers left over, either. I'd have to study to be sure, but I am a bit of an expert on time magic..."

She grimaces a little at the matter of the Hounds. Not a pleasant memory.

"But I suppose the only way to be sure is to press on, boldly, into the unknown! Aaah, the research calls...!"

...Eleanor's going to nerd out about this a little. She's amazed at her friend's work. 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida nods, mutely. She glances back at the spilled tea, the broken cup and saucer. "That's what you meant by the 'missing piece'," she says, after what feels like an eternity. "The power to do this was there, but you didn't have the right conductor." Venetia answers the question Ida was afraid to ask.

"...I'm sorry about the tea," Ida says. "I'll go clean up." She starts to walk in the vague direction of the snack spread, to fetch a cloth napkin or two. 


<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

Venetia is unlikely to encounter the Hounds of Hell, but she can infer that Marivel doesn't mean Margaret Lastname's marvellous crue.

When Marivel threatens to bite her, Venetia feels silently relieved. Looking towards Eleanor, she says, "Exactly... I mean, as far as I can tell. You know, I imagine it'd be too much at this point for you to join OUR school, but I hope you can come over and compare some notes. I imagine you're going to be able to fly as far as I, perhaps further. After all, I'm not exactly in the most aerial of locations."

"Oh stop that," Venetia tells Ida. She walks over to the door and leans out.

"Jimmy! Shop towel and go get me a chocolate cream pie at An Lah's, would you? Yes, with the nut shavings. YES you can have a piece. Spend your damn toll money on it."

She turns around again, having been, apparently, thrown a shop towel. She steps over to drop it on the ground and daub up tea, crouching a bit to pick up cup shards.

"This is perhaps the most... fantabulous of the ones I've been able to put together," Venetia continues. "Most of the rest are wonderful, don't get me wrong, but they're ultimately battle magic. Though I am proud of the Scablands one. Can't test it in here, though; we actually would probably knock down the building." 


<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"I think we've had enough frights for one day." Marivel says. "As the resident spooky person, I feel I am qualified on this point."

Achievement unlocked? Horrifying the vampire???

Marivel wonders if she has it in her to eat pie after MURDERING HER FRIEND.

Well, she supposes, she's going to have to have it in her. Even if her plan isn't to kill anyone...She'll need to be ready. Even for friends. That might be what it takes.

Treat it as a gift, Marivel thinks, a reminder you aren't as ready as you'd like to think you are.

"Yes," She manages. "Pie will be lovely." She does not stand up. 

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

"Oh, I wouldn't be qualified," Eleanor says with a smile about joining Venetia's school, though it's not really much self-deprecation--she is just a specialist of another variety. "But I would be absolutely thrilled to come over as a guest and do research with you, compare some notes." A little laugh. "One thing my school is good at is being in the air!" She seems... very cheerful, for someone who just watched her friend get shot in the heart. She's excited to see the possibilities of this material, too.

She looks over Ida and Marivel, and feels a little for them--it must be hard to watch your friend be shot, or to shoot your friend. Even if it isn't slowing her down, so much.

"Then I'll have to see that one some other time," Eleanor says of the one Venetia is proud of. "All of them, really. I suspect we'll have enough battle one of these days to test them out."

But enough frights for one day... Eleanor reaches over for Marivel's hand, to squeeze it if Marivel will allow her, and then looks to Ida, "I think pie will do us all some good." 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida startles, ever-so-slightly, as Venetia speaks to her. Then she takes over, and the tension slowly starts to bleed out. "Thank you," Ida says. "I don't know what else to say, aside from the fact that I'm... glad I'm not the biggest risk-taker here." She laughs, and more of that tension pours out. "I look forward to seeing the others. Hopefully with less..." A gesture at the empty casing on the floor.

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