2022-02-20: Better Late Than...
- Log: Better Late Than...
- Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Seraph Lanval, Eleanor Klein, Fei Fong Wong
- Where: The Cape of Breath
- Date: February 20, 2022
- Summary: Odessa needs a bridge destroyed, and Josie's just the woman to do it. Unfortunately, some of those aboard the train have already caught wind of the plan and intervene. Josie receives an important piece of information.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
It's a job. That much, she'll grant it.
It's not her preferred sort of job, of course, but beggers, choosers, and all the rest of it -- here she is. There had been a missive come through just in time to interrupt what was looking to be a promising enough trek, so she'd put that plan on ice for the time while, and headed out to do the work.
"There, that'll do 'er," she remarks to the crew she's supervising. The sun's low on the horizon over this stretch of the track extending across the Cape of Breath, where it begins to wind its way off towards Klein.
Where it, and this is the crucial part, crosses over a bridge.
If there are some until-now unexpected bulges on the support columns, where the black-suited men ascend back up to the tracks where Josie stands, it's surely coincidental to Odessa's presence here. Josie jerks her head off to the left. "C'mon. Clear out swiftly-like and we'll do the honors." Her lips split in a grin. "Yeah?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval was on that train. Why? One of the little fun pleasures of life is sometimes that there's something that moves really fast underneath you and that can be fun, even if the resultant smoke in the air is less than pleasant for some parties involved. Also, most people can't see him, so no one's going to complain if he didn't buy a ticket. It's not like most people can see him, so he can't buy one.
This is not the entirety of his mischief but what remains is well-documented and needs not be repeated unless one were preparing a prosecution, but this world is not a court procedural.
"Why'd we shtop?" Lanval asks of no one. He has a very good idea of when and where trains stop and why. Rather than go flop back on his back and wait for it to start again, he just rolls riiiiiiiiight on out the nearest exit.
Whatever further acts of physical comedy and altitude correction need to be made for a Water Seraph of far greater bearing than first appears, it ends with him standing upright and waving a big ol' friendly wave with that dumbest smile on his face to Josie and her cohorts.
"Heyyyyyy, were ya lookin' ta get on? It wash a fun ride, 'm... not shure ya can buy a ticket mid-journey though... ha ha ha! Hey! Heyyyyyyy!" He calls to the rest.
"It'sh Josie! 'n," he peeks, "do they decorate a bridge with shtuff like," he describes bombs and other such things, "'bout Klein?" Beat. He scratches his chin. "It looksh kinda nice 'n feshtive, maybe we should put 'em on everything. Ha ha ha!"
...Uh. Maybe he might need some corrections.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
It's a job--and Eleanor Klein has a job, too. She's lucky enough to have been on this train, heading back home with the cargo after a trip out and a patrol... when she saw the signs. If it had been just seeing the bulges on the support columns, she would've thought nothing of it, certainly not enough to do anything about it. However... this elf cheats.
"Stop the train!"
---
As the train comes to a stop, Eleanor steps out of the front, down the little steps, carefully. She sees Lanval first, because... frankly, he stands out most.
"You only do that on certain festivals!" Eleanor calls out to Lanval, and looks towards the Odessa operatives in black.
"I'm afraid the train won't be crossing just yet."
There' a glint in her hand, where she's hiding something. And she's looking--
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong sometimes rides a train! It's convenient!! And sometimes people don't even ROB the trains. It's been known to happen!
He looks out a window, looking towards some tracks ahead and--
Fei sighs. He stands himself up and dusts himself off.
He crouches down. And then he throws himself out the window head first like a cartoon character. He rolls down the ravine for a while, bumping into like every sharp rock imaginable and then flops onto his back, staring up into the sky for several moments.
He brushes glass off his bleeding face and then hops up to his feet.
He runs towards Josie and the Odessa agents.
"Josie!" He shouts. "Please don't blow up the bridge I have something important to tell you Ack bplffuh pflujhfh hair in my motuh plufghh nn ugh tasted blood ugh!!"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
The train's looking to come right on time. It's just a matter of getting clear, and then--
...watching as the train comes to a halt, sparks flaring off the wheels after the engineer hits the breaks. It comes to a final stop only just before the tracks meet the bridge proper, still well away from where the explosives are packed.
Josie hasn't so much as moved, though several members of the team have hit the bricks, so to speak. She has instead slipped out a loose cigarette as she stands, watching the engine and lit it with a small spark of lightning, waiting to see just who has managed to stick it to the plans this time.
"Shoulda known, kiddo," she drawls, exhaling a long plume of smoke as Eleanor makes her presence known. "And you, too? Huh. Didn't think you were the train-goin' type or none--"
Fei has just erupted from a window aboard the train. Momentarily poleaxed, Josie just stands there and stares for a good handful of seconds.
And then she casts her cigarette aside, her hand snaking instead for the shotgun strapped across her back. "Right. I'm startin' to get the idea now. Who let slip, if'n you don't mind me asking? Way I'm figurin', we've got a little bit of a 'mole' problem!"
With that, she spins the ARM about in her left hand; the moment it lands the right side up again in her grasp is the same moment she unloads, following that spread shot with a quick backwards step.
"O, thou lightning!" she barks in the next second, electricity trailing down her right before she lets fly for Fei with a sparking javelin. "Ain't you had enough yet, kid!?"
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Eleanor Klein with Lunar Thorn! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Seraph Lanval with Lunar Thorn! GS: Josephine Lovelace spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Bolt Lance! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Eleanor Klein suffers a terrible blow from Josephine Lovelace's Lunar Thorn for 94 hit points! GS: Eleanor Klein activates Countermeasures! GS: Seraph Lanval takes a glancing hit from Josephine Lovelace's Lunar Thorn for 49 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong solidly guards Josephine Lovelace's Bolt Lance for 66 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong activates Guard bonus and Arcane Font!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Eleanor hastily corrects Lanval's observations, and Fei... happens, in a way Lanval himself usually does. It is in this moment that Lanval has to stop and seriously give consideration about how his behavior and mannerisms influences his mortal friends (or supra-mortal friends? Fei is an odd case).
"Aww." Lanval straightens up as he sees Josie, clearly vexed and frustrated, draw an ARM. "Mole problem? How'm I shupposhed ta know ya were really, really, really wantin' ta get on the train at thish ti--" Boom. Lanval is swaying in just a way that the spread shot grazes him in a way that'd draw blood if he typically had any. It draws water, instead. Water of all kinds great and... not. He falls on his back as lighting flies over his head towards Fei.
"Mmmmph. If I had a ticket I'd have given ya mine, ya know," he continues on this failed logical track, as there are Seraphic Arte glyphs forming around him faintly, a rhyming mumbling that is entirely incoherent from low volume, and then...
A prologned snore as a bubble escapes him and floats in Josie's direction.
Menacingly.
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Sleeping Bubble! GS: Seraph Lanval has entered Stoic Stance! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: Josephine Lovelace solidly guards Seraph Lanval's Sleeping Bubble for 59 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor at first looks triumphantly at Josie. ...She is assuming that this will come down to a fight, but at least they saved the train from tumbling down the ravine for now! And as Josie drawls with her cigarette, Eleanor locks eyes with her. "Yes, I'm here--"
Fei happens. Eleanor pauses. She winces. She looks at him a little longer, and keeps wincing. "Ah, that's..."
She glances back to Josie in a sort of 'this is awkward' expression. And then Josie goes for the shotgun and Eleanor jumps back towards the train.
"Ah!" Eleanor hits the train hard, and takes a shot for her trouble, though not as bad as it could've been. Dragging herself back out, the sorceress--actually still looks pleased, somehow, except...
Hmmm.
"You must," she lies. "But I really shouldn't say."
Josie might or might not see through the deception.
"Lanval--be careful! And--"
She considers Fei a moment, before she pulls one of her Crests, inscriebd with Geo ans Fray, and lifts the golden-inlaid card to the sky. "O strength of magma deep beneath, protect my charge! Stone Targe!"
A blazing shield of flaming rock appears in front of Fei, and disappears again as quickly--but not before imbuing him with its strength!!
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Stone Targe! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 1 Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: Fei Fong Wong accepts Eleanor Klein's Stone Targe for 0 hit points! GS: Burst and Shield applied to Fei Fong Wong! GS: Quick applied to Eleanor Klein!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Which one of us is kiddo this time it is really hard to keep track of your names for people when you aren't around constantly reinforcing them maybe you should come back so we can keep them all straight and you don't have to shoot us no more--" Fei says. "Oh god I thought my head would keep most of it out of my--"
O thou lightning!
"Which one of us is kid--Oh shit it's me!!"
Fei stamps his feet into the ground and braces himself. You could almost swear you see his skeleton flash as the lightnign passes through him. Handling electricity and twisting it around back on its wielder is one of Fei's weak points as far as elemental management goes.
He brrrs and shake shis head.
"Listen Josie, I gotta tell you something! It's about your dad! We, uh, ran into him and he had this robot. Woah!"
The 'Woah!' is because Eleanor has unleashed a field of FIRE and ROCK in front of Fei and he nearly ran face first into it. "Carefu--uhh...oh it's...right! Thanks!"
He jumps into the air then, his right fist crackling with fire as he aims to come down towards Josie and clock her in the head with it!
"And well, then Grahf showed up. Do you uh. Remember Grahf?"
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Kakei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 2 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Josephine Lovelace takes a glancing hit from Fei Fong Wong's Kakei for 77 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Kid," she says to Fei. "Fei. I don't have time for this. It ain't my problem if you haven't gotten the picture by now." She narrows her eyes. "There ain't no comin' back." The fingers of her hand twitch the once where she grips the shotgun.
'You must', Eleanor remarks, on the matter of moles.. Josie sighs, shaking her head. "You've gotta get better lies, kiddo," she tells Eleanor. "Maybe you don't even know yourself. That's fine. Be a pretty good play by Irving, that, keepin' separate cells and what. It's how I'd do it, right?" Her gaze flits Fei's way as that shield manifests before him. "Never had the patience for Crest Sorcery," she remarks, shoulders rolling in a slow sigh.
"I never can tell if you're kidding around or not, Lanval," Josie drawls his way, her eyes hooded. "Trust me on this one -- I weren't needing a ride. Rather the opposite! But it's all water under the bridge now, heh heh..."
She's always been prone to laughing at her own jokes.
Someone might be forgiven for assuming that Lanval is playing around, or perhaps doesn't even appreciate the seriousness of the situation. But this would be inaccurate. "Tch," Josie hisses, taking one step backwards and narrowing her eyes; the remnants of her spell snap through the air before her in the outline of a shield, crackling with energy as the bubble slaps into that makeshift barrier.
There's something she has to know about her father, though. Her father had a-- robot.
"Yeah?! Out with it, kid!" Her gaze is on him as he jumps, and though she darts left, flame still skirts her head as he lunges at her, leaving an angry mark of red in its path. "...Tch. Let my guard down. Well! Time to up the ante a little, I'd say," she says, twirling the shotgun in her grip and ejecting the shells in the same motion. "Right! Light--" A small sphere of light has appeared before her and speeds up into the air overhead. "--Flare!" Whereupon it erupts into a dazzling flash of white light.
Into the heart of this eruption she snaps the black shotgun to the left and releases a single speeding shot for Lanval, its very trail cutting through the lingering brilliance.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Eleanor Klein with Light Flare! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Light Flare! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Seraph Lanval with Scorched Wing! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Heart and Dart! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Josephine Lovelace accepts Josephine Lovelace's Heart and Dart for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify and Hyper applied to Josephine Lovelace! GS: CRITICAL! Fei Fong Wong partially guards Josephine Lovelace's Light Flare for 0 hit points! GS: Blind applied to Fei Fong Wong! GS: Fei Fong Wong activates Arcane Font and Sufferer! GS: Eleanor Klein solidly guards Josephine Lovelace's Light Flare for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Blind applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: Seraph Lanval suffers a terrible blow from Josephine Lovelace's Scorched Wing for 126 hit points! GS: Jam applied to Seraph Lanval!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
'---all water under the bridge now, heh heh...'
"Pff," Lanval can't stop stifling a laugh under the guise of sleeping. BUSTED!!
"Mmm." He rolls and flounders face down as more serious discussion and words are being shared between the mortal adults in the room. "Ya shure that there ai--" His eyes bug out as the shotgun goes off, and that one single speeding shot lands somewhere in his back, all right - popping him up with an exaggerated grimace and tears flying right out of his eyes in a yelp of pain, flailing and landing on his feet as his left hand rubs his backside.
"Ehhhn. All right. All right." He smiles gently in Eleanor's direction. "I'll be careful."
So he staggers and saunters up, ducking his head to allow Fei safe passage to sail over him as he takes the drinking gourd - heavy enough and difficult to hold in one hand - by the neck of it rather than the rope.
"Welp. 'll drink ta that, then," he says as he just rams it right up against Josie in a concussive blow.
"JEERSsssshhhhhh~"
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Jeers!! GS: Seraph Lanval has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: Josephine Lovelace takes a solid hit from Seraph Lanval's Jeers! for 121 hit points! GS: Mute applied to Josephine Lovelace!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Better lies... Well, it was worth a shot! Maybe she can make up for it with her retort. But before she can do that, she looks between Fei and Josie. Their history is apparent. No coming back.. Is that true?
It might be. Eleanor doesn't hold out much expectation of Odessa changing, that's for sure.
"Lord Irving is an intelligent man," she hedges about the other matter, which is... not a lie exactly, but it's not really getting at the truth. SHe's not about to reveal that fact just yet. Not on purpose, anyway.
...Water under the bridge. Eleanor doesn't laugh, but she lifts an eyebrow. ...She'd have laughed if it weren't Josie.
"Ah!" The light flare bursts into being, and Eleanor, looking for a spell she could counter, gets hit right on by it, blinded immediately with dazzling stars in her eyes. "That's--"
Lanval reminds her where he is with his jeers--and that gives her an idea. She reaches down into her bag, and pulls--there it is! A vial of eyedrops!
Lifting it to the sky, Eleanor calls out, "Fei! Look out!"
...No pun intended. She Mystically imbues the air around them with the power of the eye drops, to heal their eyes.
She... doesn't speak up about what Fei is trying to say. She kind of wants to know, herself. About Grahf...?
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Seraph Lanval with Mystic Cure! GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Mystic Cure! GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Eleanor Klein with Mystic Cure! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 1 Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: Eleanor Klein accepts Eleanor Klein's Mystic Cure for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Blind removed! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Hyper applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: Seraph Lanval accepts Eleanor Klein's Mystic Cure for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Jam removed! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Hyper applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: Fei Fong Wong accepts Eleanor Klein's Mystic Cure for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Blind removed! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Regen applied to Fei Fong Wong! GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Y...you called me Fei..." Fei says, eyes sparkling like Steven Universe. Oh but she says--"I don't know, maybe you can! Why not? We don't have to be so dramatic--"
He's too focused on this to laugh at the joke. Nevertheless, this isn't stopping him from fighting.
Light--
"Ha!" Fei shouts, drawing EArth into his arms to protect himself. "I won't fall for a lightning attack again! I'm a genius!"
--Flare!
"AGH!! OH NO!!"
Fei stumbles back, covering his eyes. "I can't see anything...! Uggh... Am I looking at you right now Josie?" He waves a hand in the wrong direction and he's kinda actually facing Eleanor right now.
Eleanor's power drips into his eyes and the bright lights and sparks start to fade a bit, allowing him to turn and kick massive ice shards that fly out towards Josephine!
"Anyway Grahf showed up and gave him a huge power boost! So we had to fight him and uh--"
"....Well, we pretty much killed him. I know you didn't get along with the guy at all, but I thought you should know...!"
GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Suikei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Fei Fong Wong gains 60 THP from Regen! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Josephine Lovelace solidly guards Fei Fong Wong's Suikei for 65 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"What? Ain't that your name, kid?" she shoots off in response. "--And get your head on straight a'for someone takes it off!"
Her mouth twitches when Lanval begins to laugh himself.
"Right he is! Makes for hard planning sometime," Josie sighs, shaking her head at Eleanor's comment. "Oh well! Time to tell them up the chain that we've got a problem." She narrows her eyes. "...Possibly."
This is when the drinking gourd collides with her chin, knocking her into a reeling stagger. It takes her a moment to right herself, and when she does, she spits. It's bloody.
"Damn... underestimated you there. But don't you worry. Fool me once, shame on you--"
There is a blur as she moves. It's not Josie that Fei's incoming rain of ice shards connect with, but her ARM -- that black shotgun she retrieved from the depths of Linaweyul. The Devil Arm groans with the impact of each frozen fragment but fails to bend or break; Josie holds her ground for a few split seconds further before breaking away to leap backwards, landing hard against the dry earth.
"...So he's dead," Josie says, punctuating the remark with a plosive breath. She remains kneeled there a moment more, then finally shakes her head. "Heh... so that old bastard finally kicked the bucket." Slowly, she rises to her feet and without warning, the ARM comes with her, snapping a shot off for the very man who just told her of her sire's passing.
"And? You think I should arrange the funeral or somesuch?" She laughs, and it's bitter, fragile, a little too high-pitched. "Not bloody likely!"
Another shot follows, as she discharges the remaining bullets in the ARM, one after the other at the rest of them. Taking one step back after the other, she continues to fire, filling the air with her bullets.
She's still laughing.
GS: Josephine Lovelace spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Scarlet Tiger! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Eleanor Klein with Crescent Dart! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Seraph Lanval with Crescent Dart! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Eleanor Klein suffers a terrible blow from Josephine Lovelace's Crescent Dart for 165 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Delay applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: Eleanor Klein activates Countermeasures and Gleam! GS: Eleanor Klein enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Delay expired! GS: Seraph Lanval has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Lanval suffers a terrible blow from Josephine Lovelace's Crescent Dart for 156 hit points! GS: Delay applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: Fei Fong Wong solidly guards Josephine Lovelace's Scarlet Tiger for 47 hit points! GS: Cripple and Jam applied to Fei Fong Wong! GS: Fei Fong Wong activates Guard bonus and Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval has literal hundreds of years of watching-bar-fight experience, and he whirls in the follow-through that helps give Josie space (whether intentionally or otherwise). Eleanor casts a protective Crest Sorcery spell that fills him with a vigor and joy that makes his rear end feel a little less shot up, but what Josie's wielding has him opening one eye half-lidded.
Then a little wider when he sees that Devil Arm. A few people on the Drifter circuit have something like that, and all of them unsettling - like there's a tiny little bit of Malevolence that isn't quite at the concentration to cause problems but there's a sense it might not be... great news.
It also allows for a more urgent message to be given about Josie's dad, and then she's laughing and filling the air full of bullets. There is no amount of pirouetting and diving that can halt that rain of lead, splashing the ground with more water and seeing Lanval flop back down onto his back as he takes in Josie's emotional tenor and the whole 'being shot sucks even if you're incrporeal' thing, because Resonance is a two-way street.
He takes a moment to consider, as he digs into his person and retrieves a bottle of The Good Stuff. (it's a'ight, quality-wise)
It's a well-intentioned gesture, rolling the bottle across the ground towards Josie rather than fling it.
In the heat of the moment, though, it's a tripping hazard.
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Another Round! GS: Seraph Lanval has gained 1 Combo! GS: Delay expired! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: Delay! Attack weakened! GS: Josephine Lovelace suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Lanval's Another Round for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Charge!! You gain 35 FP!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Josie is in good spirits, anyway. ...But--possibly? Eleanor looks at Josie a moment too long at that statement--she knows something. But she isn't saying what's what, yet, and Josie might be distracted by gourd to the face. Maybe.
...Or maybe by her--?
"Um, Mister Fong Wong," Eleanor starts, "Be careful."
She is kind of worried about him. Especially after he delivers that news. Except it seems that...? That laugh. There's something wrong about that laugh. Not to mention the fact that she's laughing in the first place. Josie throws her bullets out with the gun, and Eleanor tries to get out of the way and takes a couple of shots for her trouble. The ones that hit the most vital things deflect off of the magic of her bracelets, but one gets her in the leg through it, and she stumbles back. "Agh--"
"...You're laughing?" she wonders, incredulous, but hesitating. It's a /strange/ laughter. "Your father died, and you're..."
She doesn't understand--but she never knew Timotheus Lovelace. She couldn't have, or she wouldn't be surprised.
All the same, it's hard to feel heroic in the moment. "Lanval--" He's... helping. He's definitely helping.
"...Flames of history..."
Eleanor raises her Crest, invoking the doubled power of Fray in its offensive position. "Scorch your mark on our present!"
"Desert of Years!"
Eleanor thrusts her hand forward towards Josie, and a whirlwind of blazing flame crashes towards her.
GS: Eleanor Klein spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Desert of Years! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Josephine Lovelace suffers a terrible blow from Eleanor Klein's Desert of Years for 237 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shieldbreak applied to Josephine Lovelace! GS: Fei Fong Wong has activated a Force Action!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Well, I mean..." Fei says. "I just figured you should know, whether you plan a funeral is really up to you! And I thought like--Hey!"
He brings his hand up, catching the bullet that would've impacted his face. "Don't shot the messenger!"
The others impact resoundedly into his side and he grunts, stumbling back. His vision blurs.
"And I thought like maybe you didn't really want to work for Ganon the Lord of Darkness anymore?"
He shakes out his bloodied hand. He was hardly expecting Josephine to GRIEVE considering how much of a tool Timotheus was, honestly, but even if your dad is a tool you probably should know when he kicks the bucket, that's Fei's philosophy.
He's honestly kind of grateful that his own dad is just dead and not actually a secret serial killer or something.
He runs forward, eyes closed as he shifts to an open palm style, something closer to the true Shevat Martial Arts style as he throws a quick palm strike to Josie's chest then lifts his hands and strikes down with his fingers at her wrists.
"Though if you do arrange a funeral I guess you can do it however you wanted at least..."
GS: Fei Fong Wong spends 4 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Third Eye Sleepwalking! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong gains 60 THP from Regen! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Josephine Lovelace suffers a terrible blow from Fei Fong Wong's Third Eye Sleepwalking for 295 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Charge!! You gain 55 FP! GS: Josephine Lovelace enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Your next attack with the Sneak flag will display with the name Black Witch.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Well, you thought wrong, didn't you?!"
Her father died, and she's--
"Sure am, kiddo! Ain't it grand! Won't need to send nobody a gift basket this midwinter!" Her eyes are a little over-bright, her grin more rictus than any easy smile as she replies to Eleanor. "Lemme guess what he was up to! --On second thought, no. I don't care!!"
It's a pity, really, when that bottle comes rolling, rolling along. It's the good stuff.
Josie, ejecting her spent shells and slotting in new ones, has begun to advance towards the lot of them, and in so doing...
steps on the bottle.
Basic physics takes hold at this point: Josie hits the dirt in a sprawl on her back. Rolling onto her shoulder, she rises quickly enough, that same ARM with that worrying secret coiled in its depths pointed right at all of them once again. "So, what else you got for me?" she asks of them. "Gonna tell me my village burned down? That beer I like's not made no more? C'mon, kid!!"
She's gone so far as to gesticulate with her ARM, her movements almost manic in this specific moment.
Into this, Fei intrudes, far too quick for her to evade in her current state. One palm slams into her chest. The sound she makes as she staggers backwards under the impact is one part gasp, one part grunt. He strikes then at her left wrist, and her ARM drops to the ground with a thump. "Ha..." she exhales, cradling her good hand at her stomach.
The flames rise about her.
Just like back then.
--No. Not precisely. Not at all.
Slowly, she takes a step forward, leaning into the fire as it rises all about her, sending her loose locks aflutter in its terrible haze. "Not this time," she tells them as the flames die down.
One booted foot finds her fallen ARM; she kicks it up into the air. As it spins, she snaps out a hand to sieze it, and then she is in flight.
"Get your head on straight, kid!" she shouts for Fei, seizing upon him first as her focal point in this shuddering moment. "One of these days-- someone's gonna--" Her body twists as she finds her fulcrum in midair, and here in this moment, she fires at him, still overhead.
"--put one right between the eyes!"
She's still in the air when she fires again. For the ground, the nearby train, for anything and everything in her reach.
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Josephine Lovelace has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Blinded Sphinx! GS: Sneak!! Your feint does not reveal that you spent 2 Combo on Headshot Better get that pose addition ready. GS: Josephine Lovelace enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Seraph Lanval with Black Witch! GS: Sneak! You have gained 1 Combo! Only you see this message. GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sneak!! Your feint does not reveal that you spent 2 Combo on Headshot Better get that pose addition ready. GS: Josephine Lovelace enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Eleanor Klein with Black Witch! GS: Sneak! You have gained 2 Combo! Only you see this message. GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 2 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Mute expired! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Sneak! The true nature of Josephine Lovelace's attack becomes clear! GS: CRITICAL! Eleanor Klein suffers a terrible blow from Josephine Lovelace's Silver Cloud for 192 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple and Jam applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: Eleanor Klein activates Countermeasures and Gleam! GS: Eleanor Klein enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Lanval's Cripple Ward prevents an effect! GS: Sneak! The true nature of Josephine Lovelace's attack becomes clear! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lanval partially evades Josephine Lovelace's Silver Cloud for 153 hit points! GS: Jam applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: Seraph Lanval activates Evade bonus and Gleam! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Seraph Lanval receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Seraph Lanval enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
The bullets dance, winging off the train, off of nearby metal signposts and track ties. In a display of chaos and order walking hand in hand, the storm of projectiles is wild yet directed: they may have a road to travel to get there, but they find their targets in the end.
GS: CRITICAL! Fei Fong Wong partially guards Josephine Lovelace's Blinded Sphinx for 164 hit points! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Break and Delay applied to Fei Fong Wong! GS: Fei Fong Wong activates Sufferer! GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval's mind drifts in Josephine's crazed reverie for the news back to some hundreds of years ago, when the brewery's last owner prayed so fervently to him as regards the 'good-for-nothing' son who was set to inherit it - and the way he just simply didn't care, sold it off. It's an unpleasant echo of something that's... not really of much consequence to anyone here, or maybe even ever. It was a long time ago...
But then again, the son was an elf, and he hasn't seen or heard of him since that day, and not for a lack of trying.
ARM fire goes off, and bullets are everywhere, and Lanval is rolling and rising as he sways and spins in a mostly fruitless endeavor to avoid being shot - his manifestation is a rather portly fellow, after all. ('Mostly' being the operative word - he succeeds in being struck where his manifestation doesn't quite get compromised in a way that communicates 'now you can't be this any more, for now.')
He's bleeding streams of water in a distressing visual for anyone having to parse it in 'fellow mortal' terms, which... he takes a sip from the drinking gourd, standing up.
"Fei," he might not be that receptive to being talked to since BEING SHOT AT but Lanval saw how Fei took his entry to all this, "it'sh good ya didn't keep her in the dark." He has to leave it at that because bullets are still pinging and Lanval has to sway to avoid the last ones in their ricocheting nonsense, ambling off to something with strong resemblance to a capable jog...
And then stepping up off a raised bit of scenery to leap up, shoulder first, hurling his entire spiritually-there-and-not-there mass in a body barge to try and tackle Josie before she can gracefully land.
"Fei doeshn't need anything between the eyesh!" Lanval snorts. "I like hish noshe jusht fine!!"
Beat. "I got a pretty good idea what it'sh like when ya break hish heart, ain't gonna wanna know when that happensh to hish noshe!!" As if fearful of the idea.
GS: Seraph Lanval has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Lanval has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Body Of Water! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
The next few moments happen... quickly. Josie falls on the bottle, and Eleanor steps forward from the train again, only to see Josephine stepping forward through the flames like some kind of demon. It really seems to suit her, that description, for a moment. Not this time. But Josie rises, and twists--talks to her friend that way, and fires for her, too.
Eleanor throws up a cloud of dust that solidifes into a barrier, gleaming before her. But the bullets ricochet elsewhere, and Eleanor takes a number of hits from them, stumbling back with a sharp cry and hitting one knee. Her Crest is put away by now. She wonders, for a moment. This shot...
Eleanor stares at Josie for a long moment, and finds there's an ache in her heart, looking at her. It shows for an instant, in her eyes--Josie probably sees it. It is worse than fire. It is something that burns altogether more. And it lingers, for a little while, her physical pain mixing with emotional, for Fei's friendship lost... for what could make someone this way.
She pulls another Crest. This one is marked Fray and Muse, more ornate than the others, of an ancient sensibility. It is not the gold filigree of her Time crests; it is strangely organic, like most artifacts of the Elw.
And there is a singular spell on it. Eleanor lifts it to the sky.
"O starry void, I call to you!" Light in prismatic colors spirals around her, sparkling down to the ground.
"Celestial motion halt, and bear witness!"
The brilliance of the spell begins to unfold, a pure light shining down from between clouds and becoming a column of energy that crashes towards their foe.
"LUMINOUS CONJURATION!"
GS: Eleanor Klein has activated a Force Action! GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Luminous Conjuration! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 1 Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: Josephine Lovelace partially guards Seraph Lanval's Body Of Water for 106 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo! GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Gamble: Low! Josephine Lovelace solidly guards Eleanor Klein's Luminous Conjuration for 62 hit points! GS: Blind applied to Josephine Lovelace!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei says, "I... mean I would probably tell you if your village burned down." Fei says. "If I knew where ... you were from ... and I knew it burned down ... if it burned down. I wouldn't, uh, make it burn down. I feel like I need to clarify that. Though I mean I guess I can't say that for sure considering you know who but I don't know what beer you like--"
Flames rise around Josie. He quirks his head--
"Um if it helps--" Fei tells Eleanor. "Well I actually do feel a little bad about how we killed him not because he really didn't earn it but because I just kinda feel bad about killing but he was a really bad person and I feel like I can say that considering the time he betrayed, like, an entire city worth of people--"
Lanval compliments his nose. Fei blushes.
"Aw really Lanval? You're a sweet guy, you know and--"
Josie shoots him in the head.
Fei flies back and slams into a support beam, bleeding from his forehead.
"Ghghuuh..." Fei groans. Little bits of rock tumble away from his forehead and the bullet casing drops from his face.
"My head... will never be on straight if it means pretending like the bond we had was nothing!" Fei shouts. "My head'll go both ways everyways!"
He then leaps forward, and punches Jo--
--actually he's punching the floor, sending the earth from underneath Josie jutting up suddenly in a sudden upheaval!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Chikei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong gains 60 THP from Regen! GS: Delay expired! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Delay! Attack weakened! GS: Josephine Lovelace takes a solid hit from Fei Fong Wong's Chikei for 150 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Break and Delay applied to Josephine Lovelace!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
There is no answer immediately for Fei, for all that he bares his heart and his intentions to his former friend and ally, nothing but the violence that Josie so prefers. She is the heart of the storm of charcoal, saltpeter, and sulfur that she carelessly ejects about herself, the cause yet untouched the mayhem she has wrought.
But.
Just for an instant, her gaze meets with Eleanor's.
That look that passes is far worse than any fire that Eleanor could conjure upon her.
Josie looks away sharply. In so doing she espies Lanval's determined advance, and all she can do is try to twist her body, to somehow arrest her spin just enough. He still clips her, sending her sprawling again in the dust and the dirt. "Hah..." She exhales just that once, then begins to laugh, a low chuckle to the previous maddened laughter. "His nose, huh?"
She rises, the movement of each limb slow yet still in time to meet the light that shimmers about her once she stands on both feet once more. It's but the first warning of the spell that is to come. Electrical force snaps into the air about Josephine as the chromatic storm descends upon her. Then, there is simply light.
She's blinking still as the brilliance fades, shaking her head as if she could thus shuck the luminescence that has afflicted her. "Tch--" Josie hisses. "...Fair enough."
The earth itself trembles under her feet, mere seconds afer she stands up straight. And then it erupts beneath her. There is no time for her to do anything, let alone understand what is about to come. She's thrown backwards, stumbling and falling to a knee as she tries to right herself and fails.
"...You're too damn soft, kid," she breathes, using the ARM as a brace. "Someone's gonna finish you off someday if you keep bein' like that..." In spite of everything, her lips split in a grin that is only slightly manic. "...So the old bastard bit it-- good riddance. ...And now I'm alone." The black ARM shakes as she uses it to lever herself upwards.
She stands, swaying. "Forget it. Just-- forget it. Next time... fight like you mean it, Fei!! Light Flare!"
There is no warning otherwise. The small sphere of light manifests before her and then explodes in all its terrible brilliance, just like the last time.
When it fades, Josie is no longer there.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval gracefully(?) catches himself in mid-air at the tip of a toe on the eruption of earth by Fei's will, unharmed and almost as if it were a planned, synchronized thing between Fei and himself as Josie throws down the sphere of light that gives her her cover to escape.
He's still 'bleeding.' He spits out a bullet somewhere in all this, like it were an accidental addition of a condiment he did not want in his food - he takes the little bit of inner peace in Fei holding onto the good things and having that define his time with Josie rather than all the bad, but then, making a sideglance towards the suspicious bulges on the bridge.
"Oh... yeah, Eleanor," Lanval asides, "that ain't feshtive shtuff, ish it." She clarified that earlier, so, some hard pulling at the very water of Filgaia itself later, he's going to drench the crap out of 'em. Maybe then he can go ride on the train again, get Fei back there with him, and they can just enjoy being on something going faster than, like, a thousand horses pulling a carriage at once.
Horseless carriages were the coolest thing ever the first time he saw the CaraKin rolling about.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei brings his hands up to protect himself from the light but, well, he's still smarting from the first Light Flare and he grimaces his eyes shut for a moment.
And then he opens his eyes once he thinks he can and--Josie is gone.
"...Josie..." He says, needling his fingers together. Is he really too soft?
Should he be more like...
"When you say it like that..." Fei says. "How can't I do anything but wish you were back with us...?"
He sighs, looking to Lanval. "Thanks for saying nice stuff like that Lanval. You're a good guy. I'm sorry if sometimes I'm kinda rough."
He bobs his head once and then starts heading on his own way, hobbling as he does so because holy shit he got shot so many times.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor doesn't quite realize what happened with Josie. She just knows that she suddenly left. And there... She's alone, she says. And she still says forget it to Fei.
What is that ARM...?
Lanval asides to her, and Eleanor nods. "...Thanks. We can get those removed before we get going..."
She then looks over at Fei, sad, and says, "Mister Fong Wong."
She pauses, once she's sure he's heard her. "...Please, come back to the train. Let me see to your wounds, before you go."
"...You don't seem like such a bad person yourself, to me."