2022-11-20: Survivor
- Log: Survivor
- Cast: Solitaire Collier, Lily Keil, Venetia Vuong, Ruth Pauling, Ida Everstead-Rey
- Where: Guild Galad - Skyside
- Date: 2022-11-20
- Summary: An investigation
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.
The Blugarde House is a big supplier of Dragon Fossils and is held in high regard by the Master of the city. The household consists of Maximilian Blugarde, Frankie Blugarde (his wife), and their servants as their children left home a long time ago to make their own fortune in November City.
Recently their workers have been coming down with a strange new illness that has quietly been spreading amongst the long term professional Diggers that help recover Dragon Fossils in the Boneyard. The disease seems to start around their throat before ending up in their lungs. Symptoms include quicksilver beads in the throat and coughing fits, worsening once the disease reaches the lungs. If there's any further complications, they are presently unknown to ARMS. The Dragon Fossils mined up helps the whole ARMs industry but also, flat out, just ARMS itself.
There have been some preliminary investigations. Venetia and Ruth spoke to a 'Johnathon Bones', a fossicker who was suffering from the illness and one of the only ones willing to speak to ARMS staff. They also met 'Solitaire' (possibly a pseudonym) who had also been investigating and seemed angered by the situation. Venetia believes that the illness was contracted through the inhalation of Dragon Fossil particles.
Eleanor had also met this adventurer and confirmed that she was, at least, wearing an Odessa uniform at one point and that her goals were for 'strength' and an 'equal world'.
And Lily Keil had a run-in with her in the lower levels where she was speaking to one of the servants of the Blugarde Household.
The investigation now points to Maximilian and Frankie Blugarde. Kate Lindberg, the ARMS comms officer and telepath, has officially asked for the Wolves assistance to ensure an efficient handling of the affair as the Blugarde family is theoretically close to ARMS and it is all too easy for there to be a sense of impropriety.
The manor is in Skyside on the northern side of the city. Kate suggested approaching late in the evening to avoid causing a disturbance. The mood outside of the estate seems a bit grimmer than usual though it is not so severe that they seem to think something is 'up' but the dragon fossil shipments to the local ARMs dealers has taken a downturn in number and quality. There are some whispered concerns that the greatest source of income for Guild Galad might be drying up while others speculate the illness or 'lazy workers' are simply not managing to meet the quotas.
The gates to the Blugarde estate are manned by a pair of local guardsmen. They don't seem too surprised to see the delegation and send a buzz in to get permission to let the party in.
There is no response. That encourages the guards to open up ANYWAY and your path to the mansion itself is clear.
'Careful everyone!' Kate Lindberg emits over the empathite radios. 'I'm getting a bad feeling...'
And supporting this feeling is the fact that the main entrance doors are already slightly ajar and, why, a guard seems to have fallen asleep propped up against them!
Well the top half of him seems to be. Lord knows where the other half went. Maybe it went for a walk.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
As a rule, the Black Wolves don't really care about who's regarded how by the Master of Guild Galad, nor about what its wealthier citizens get up to. Even strange diseases aren't especially their problem here, though some of them are naturally compassionate enough to give a shit. Even Guild Galad's overall stability is not a particular concern to all of them. However...
They can be paid to care. And that's what's happening!
Lily Keil is here, dressed in dark, armored clothing, with a sword at one hip and a pistol at the other. She looks to the local guardsmen as she approaches, and lifts an eyebrow when there's no response. But Kate Lindberg has a warning...
Lily drops her hands to her sides, loosening up for casting. This is the sorcerous equivalent of picking up a loaded gun, and the Ether in the air might make that plain for those familiar enough to notice it.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
It isn't that Venetia Vuong cares about the Master.
She cares about Guild Galad as a place, perhaps; loss of an industry without growth of another industry is bad for an area, and while it isn't widely talked about, it's true that Guild Galad cannot simply 'go to seed' in the way that some other, more groundbearing nations can-- at least not yet. GIVE IT TIME, PEOPLE. EAT YOUR MUSHROOMS.
But a new disease is a problem, and the connection of one thing to another is rather clear. Maybe there are underlying reasons but that is why you have to investigate. You have to reach out. You have to understand the situation - THEN destroy the enemy.
Especially since there was SOME kind of affray... but maybe someone was going rogue.
Right?
Venetia is wearing her usual garb, if on the newer, more ceremonial side - hair piece, but not the one that says "THE GREATEST." "ch," she says. "And me without my gun. I suppose I'll have to use my words," she continues, adjusting the strap on her Crest pouch. It does not say 'words'.
"Dinoginos wept," Venetia says, at the sight of that guard. "Kate, this is looking worse by the moment - someone is in here. If you can, call someone to watch this region's elevators in case they make an escape--"
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida has been making inquiries of her own.
The Fossickers' Union has made no inroads into the Blugarde's business, meaning her contacts there have to rely on /their/ contacts, and everything in that quadrant is coming in secondhand. But Ida can put on a different face--a face neither the workers nor the tabloid reporters will recognize--and go investigating herself. What she's found, and what the others have turned up, paints a distressing picture. People are getting sick. The bosses don't care. And when people are scared and sick and ignored, they'll turn to whomever is willing to listen, even if they're with the likes of Vinsfeld.
Ida is right behind Lily, dressed for combat as well as the seasonal chill. She's wearing refurbished Hyadean armor and a trenchcoat overtop, and the latter is far more durable than it looks.
<"Understood,"> Ida says. As the guards step aside, she follows Lily in, and immediately regrets it.
"Granas," Ida says, as she sees the corpse. She presses two fingers to the Empathite on her collar. <"Watch the vents, too. The shaft on Tenth and Blackstone's big enough to crawl down, and so's the one at Tenth and Opal Avenue.">" Her whole body tightens. The thought of defending people she would otherwise hate twists her guts, but this is not the way forward. "We've got trouble all right, Lindberg."
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth - at first - elects to take a lookout position. Some of it is for her own mental health, given the crusade she let herself be roped into some time back by a former mine worker with a love of fairy tales and stories. Another part of it is that her eyesight remains keen, in case something looks to go deeply awry.
Another part of it is just that it's a thing of comfort for Ruth to situate herself on elevated terrain somewhere.
All the same, she can't - and won't - be looking away from what happened to Mr. Bones. By the time she's able to situate herself and get a better vantage point at the goings on... Kate speaks of it before Ruth herself can chime in what she sees.
Half of a guard, dead at the front door. That's Ruth, over the empathite. She doesn't speculate on what happened, but she knows what she saw.
She's not too far away if they call for her to step down and rejoin the group from her vague but close-by vantage point (that may, in fact, be an act of trespassing on her part to begin with).
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.
As everyone starts heading deeper into the mansion, our heroes (and antiheroes!) will find more bodies (and parts of bodies) scattered around like it's some kind of indie rpgmaker game. Ida and Lily are the first to notice that there don't seem to be any dead servants amongst the bodies so far, just guardsmen. Indeed, there don't seem to be any servants present at all though it IS a mansion so they might just be elsewhere.
'Understood Venetia,' Kate responds.
So far the vents seem clear when investigated. Either the person or peoples behind all this didn't sneak in that way or they already cleared it. Most of them seem sealed up by secure gratings though it wouldn't take too much for someone determined to bust one down. You can make that stuff only so tough. It's quiet. Ruth, taking her position at one of the guardwalls, doesn't see anybody leaving the building though she can see, just barely, a half open window on the second floor. Other than that, nothing seems to be stirring. Not even a...
'Venetia, Ida. I sense two minds nearing your position.'
Not even footsteps. But as you step into the main foyer, on the second level you can see a familiar (to some of you) mouse beastwoman with a familiar large axe walking by. She is wearing a black odessa uniform with gold trimming, marred by the occasional blood splatter staining the uniform.
Ida (or more accurately Fafnir) recognizes the axe as Malice Striker, a weapon that once belonged to Metal Demon known as Nidhogg. Others would readily recognize the mousegirl.
We're not alone.
Solitaire turns to look towards the assembled, though from Ruth's position she doesn't know she's outside and in position--but she does expect it.
She glances to the right towards a second story room that she had been approaching--
--only to flip herself over to the first floor and make her way to the main entrance, walking at a leisurely pace, intending to just...walk past everyone.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily detects an interesting magic about Venetia, but hasn't asked what it is yet. That seems rude. And she can't puzzle it out just by sensing it, because she's not familiar enough with Crest Sorcery. Still...
"Right. Words."
Lily does not know GUild Galad nearly so well as Ida or Venetia, so she leaves this matter to them, and focuses with Ruth on keeping her eyes out for what is here instead. More bodies are around. "No servants," Lily notes. "Just guards."
Odessa uniform.
"...So your 'friend' is here too," Lily says, looking around for the source of that additional voice that only she hears. Then, she steps into the way of the exit, shaking her head. "We need answers before you leave. Are you the one who killed the guards?"
"What's happened to the servants?"
Those are the first two.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia briefly studies the guard. There seems to be a forlorn, crazy hope that perhaps if he'd landed right --
No, she thinks.
No.
But she had already brought out the Crest, and a liquid-ruby flicker-flow around her settles in as she exhales. >Understood< she replies to Kate, pursing her lips as she steps inwards, prepared, perhaps, for almost anything, but when it is instead the rather petite form of Solitaire coming with her blood-streaked clothing and a great axe...
Who then flips down to the floor.
"HOLD IT," Venetia shouts loud enough to echo, but as she's taking a replacement breath, Lily speaks up. Venetia's head tilts backwards as she seems to puff up slightly. She is absolutely doing her Commander of the Occult Forces pose, probably on purpose.
"You'd be wise to answer swiftly," Venetia says, "because stranger things have happened; and I would rather not see more blood shed."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The trail of carnage leads inside. All the bodies are in uniform, but that's cold comfort. Ida's eyes dart sideways as Venetia activates /that/ Graph, and her face pulls tight as Kate reports the presence of two minds. The Blugardes? No. It's--
Ida's head turns up, her eyes focusing on the small, blood-splattered figure. Odessa uniform. Axe looks Hyadean. Axe looks--
Ida's face twitches as vague suspicion filters into her mind. The source isn't /her/. "You must be Collier," Ida says, her eyes going flinty--
Flinty, /and/ the right one turns bright emerald-green--
"Drop the weapon."
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
'There's an open window on the second floor.' Comes Ruth, over the empathite. Her eyes narrow. A part of her is ever eager to catch the movement. Another part of her is resigned to what will entail should she catch 'it.'
'I don't see anyone leaving this way.' She is, at the time of stating this, unaware of who is inside other than Kate's note of there being 'two minds.'
'Moving in to cut off their escape.' Ruth communicates over empathite. From her position at one of the guardwalls, she sucks in a breath that doesn't leave her... and she takes off running.
Her encumbrance gradually becomes less of a concern as she finds her wind, tapping into that legacy she rejects. That legacy she embraces. Even with the seeming disadvantages of a weapon that was cumbersome to hold, it didn't stop her. There was a time when strength might have been her only virtue.
'The next sound is me.'
There's two leaps. The first, one can give a willing suspension of disbelief for the distance traveled and the stress the landing might have on the knees and ankles. The second, Malevolence substitutes for blood and breath as...
- SHATTER *
Ruth helps herself /through/ the second floor window, tucking and rolling despite what she carries. If there's a door in her way, it gets thrown open. A faint whiff of Malevolence in the air as it visibly courses up her left arm for support as she draws that rifle, advancing to that vantage point to see down to the first floor below.
Followed by a sharp twinge of pain in her arm as /something/ gives her pause to look at -
Solitaire.
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.
HOLD IT
Solitaire stops. She unleashes a low exhale. Answer swiftly....
Solitaire: Can I get away with saying no?
Patience: I think you should tell them so they don't get their own idea.
Solitaire lets out a long sigh before saying. "Yeah," on the matter of the guards. "Insisted on being... In way."
She rubs at her throat in irritation but she explains the lack of servants. "Told servants... to leave early. Innocent. Masters..." Her gaze focuses on Venetia. "Gave faulty masks... to workers." She coughs wetly. "Save money."
Ida gives a command. Drop the weapon. Solitaire does not drop the weapon. She turns to look right at Ida. She stares into her eyes. Like she's trying to read them in spite of the strange things going on with those eyes. Her own eyes narrow dangerously. That kind of command...
"The old man." Solitaire says. "Gave me clothes. Gave me food. Gave me cards. I gave him nothing. His killers, before me. Pt...Ptolom..."
"Ptolomea."
They're too much for you. Let me help.
Solitaire nods slowly and then--
--Ruth shatters the window. She didn't need to! She could've opened it! But she shatters the window anyway and Solitaire moves as soon as the window shatters.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn4bacShbjw
Deeming Lily as the greatest threat (for once, not because of her sorcery), Solitaire swings the axe towards Lily--intending to catch her throat by the shaft and hit her hard, threatening to slam her into one of the blades too if she doesn't react quickly as Solitaire swings it around in a wide upward arc for Venetia's right side even as she slams it back down afterwards, embedding the axe in the floor and running up it before aiming for a double kick for Ida's body, her tail snapping her back and throwing her up into the air so she can land on the axe's hilt. She crouches down.
She smiles.
She provides a 'c'mere' gesture with two of her fingers even as her ear flicks in Ruth's direction.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily isn't here to save guards, and she isn't fazed by death. So it makes sense that she's more willing to talk. But Venetia's reaction may be more appropriate, and Ida's suggests knowing something. She knows Ruth went upstairs...
Lily 'hears' the voices again. And it tuns out... "I see." Solitaire has been able to express herself well enough, it seems. But then when she mentions the old man--
"Ptolo--"
'Let me help'. Lily is surprised enough that she's caught off-guard. Ruth shatters through the window, and Lily takes the shaft of an axe to the throat. She throws out her hand and the axe blade bounces off a sudden barrier of dark force, but Lily is still sent to the ground coughing as she tries to regain her breath.
It's going to take her a moment. She can't speak to give more warnings, or to explain what she's heard. But she doesn't have to be able to speak to use her magic. This may be something of a surprise to Solitaire.
Lily, from the ground, takes a moment... while from behind the party a black blur surges forward!!
DOG appears, and /lunges/ at Solitaire, growling furiously as she seeks to snap her jaws onto Solitaire's arm and dissade her from getting any closer to Lily.
Lily, in the meantime, starts to glow purple.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
"An understandable motive," Venetia tells Solitaire,
because really it kind of is,
"Still murder," she concludes,
because really... it kind of is.
Venetia already had her suspicions about this girl and she steps forwards even as Solitaire comes towards Lily. Venetia's head turns as she puts the Crest back into her Crest Pouch and then Solitaire is coming towards her. Venetia tries to dodge but it mostly pulls her arm up which means that Solitare's axe bites into her side deep enough to make something wet rupture and cause Venetia to gargle blood as she topples forwards, twisted around by the backstroke and rotating in the air --
She lands on her back.
For some reason, she grins.
NEVER LET THEM SEE YOU SWEAT, she thinks, before the world goes grey and...
...
...
Death defied!
Venetia sits bolt upright. Her head feels woozy -- ah, Venetia thinks, fresh from Hell, that must be the blood that actually left my body, that's interesting -- but not enough is gone to stop her from kipping upright and approaching Solitaire just as she makes her come-here gesture to Ruth...
To kick her in the back of the knee!!
It's a rather sweeping roundhouse kick; the angle isn't great; and Venetia immediately throws herself backwards, not with a ton of grace, rolling clear and streaking shed blood everywhere *despite that axe wound being completely gone*!
As she does, she digs into her pouch and throws out - money? IS SHE PAYING SOLITAIRE OFF? Approximately two hundred Gella in arbitrary denomination coins are thrown out in her general direction. Venetia keeps retreating even as she gets out another Crest Graph and holds it outwards towards Solitaire. Her other hand reaches up to tell Kate, hotly: "It's that girl! She's sent the servants off - killed everyone else!"
The enigmatic Crest Graph's purpose becomes clear when the thrown coins start suddenly flying off the ground to whack into Solitaire's body.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
So that's what happened.
Ida is expecting an explanation. The justification on both sides goes more or less how she'd anticipated the moment she saw that corpse at the door. "They did," Ida says. "And you killed them for it." The anger grows into a hot, bright knot, even as it turns against itself. No one should have done what the Blugardes did. They were a part of the machine Ida hates, the machine she was born into.
But Odessa cares only for its warped ideals. Ida's heart tightens as Solitaire speaks fondly of a man who died by those ideals.
"Then come at me," Ida says, her face still cold, her eyes all but unreadable. She glances at that axe, and a flash of Fafnir's confusion bubbles through her own sadness and anger.
Solitaire comes at her. Ida slips back as the axe slams into the floor, and throws her arms up to block the kick--but Solitaire's right foot slips through the guard and hits her in the chest. The breath rushes from Ida's lungs; she skids back, hits the ground, and lets out a violent, hacking gasp. A moment later, Venetia hits the ground beside her, carved open.
For some reason, Ida's only reaction is a knowing nod.
The heiress plants a hand on the ground and surges up to a three-point crouch. She pulls a flare grenade from her belt, ignites it against her palm(?), and whips it at the Odessa operative's head. It cooks off a moment later with a thunderous BOOM and a magnesium flash.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Opening windows slowly is for people who aren't forces of barely contained violence and strife.
Violence is easy for Ruth to find and follow. She is no stranger to blood. She is late to explanations and motives, but exactly on time for that violence and strife that attracts her.
But to see the blood on Solitaire, standing on her axe's hilt and giving a taunting gesture to the others in their varying states of fresh injury... Solitaire's ear flicks in Ruth's direction.
'It's that girl! She's sent the servants off - killed everyone else!' Comes Venetia's words.
That ear flick, that notice, might be a saving grace as regards the new entrant to the battle, glass shards still glistening and falling off of Ruth as she holds the rifle. Faint clicking noises follow. What conflict, what deliberation Ruth has about whether or not to shoot a young woman hurt enough by the world around her to seek strength... makes it, in a contradictory fashion, a lot easier to pull that trigger.
A deafening report follows. It won't land anywhere fatal, should it do so. It was deliberation enough to pull herself back from that.
Words, explanations, and apologies are for when she comes /off/ the tension high, a saving grace being that her monstrous shape is still contained within her former self (which Ruth will, as always, insist /is/ the monstrous form, something history might agree with).
She catches sight of Ida's flare grenade and briefly ducks behind cover after taking the shot.
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.
'Eh? How could she...by herself? But I sensed two minds...'
A black miasmic aura ripples around Solitaire as the Demon Axe starts glowing with energy even though Solitaire isn't presently holding onto it. But she seems ill inclined to not have the weapon close by--least not for long.
Solitaire wasn't expecting Venetia to go down so easily. When she sits back up from CERTAIN DEATH, Solitaire's mouth hangs open in an o-shape as she asks, "Can you do that...twice?"
The back of her knee is slammed as she's distracted and she tumbles off the top of the axe, tail-releasing the axe as she snags the weapon with her hand, ripping it out of the floor with the aid of inertia as she drops back down on the floor in a 3 point marvel heroine stance just like Scarlett Johansen!
A dog (named Dog) leaps at Solitaire--
--her eyes sparkle with excitement! A dog!!--
--only for it to clamp its jaws around her arm. She lets out a yelp of pain but she seems to be at a loss as to what to do with Dog. Look, she might be a literal axe murderer but even she doesn't want to hurt a dog.
A dark tendril expels from Nidhogg towards Dog and--
--gently lifting Dog off via the collar, setting Dog on the ground nearby and then pats Dog on the head twice. Nidhogg may be a Demon Axe from an alien invasive species but even he doesn't want to hurt a dog.
Venetia tries BRIBERY. Solitaire stubbornly doesn't reach for the coins but--
Um, we're really low on lunch funds...
Those dark tendrils emanating from Nidhogg deftly snags the majority of the gella coins as they whirl around rapidly thanks to Venetia's mystical arts. Unfortunately, they don't really slam into Solitaire who weaves around the coins quietly while looking embarrassed.
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: FUNDED A TERRORIST
Ida tosses a flashbang! Solitaire throws herself right at it and kicks it away with the back of her foot towards Ruth--
--though she isn't quite fast enough to knock it towards Ruth. A blindening flash goes off behind Solitaire but Ruth already pulled the trigger.
Ruth pops off a shot and it slams into Solitaire's shoulder, the power of the impact enough to send her crashing to the floor.
Ruth is frustratingly out of reach.
Nidhogg finishes putting the coins in Solitaire's pouch. Solitaire grabs at the axe's hilt and starts spinning around in place, threatening to carve into Ida and Venetia before she flings the whole axe hard towards that cover Ruth just ducked behind.
It won't be cover anymore once Patience hits it.
Spinning on a heel, Solitaire throws herself at Lily, rearing back with her head to try striking at her neck with the back of a spare knife. She's not too happy about being this far from her axe. She could have easily swapped to the BLADE for that throat strike but she isn't electing to. It would still suck though!!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily wasn't expecting Venetia to go down that quickly, either. She grits her teeth when she sees her fall, because she liked her. And then she... gets back up. tThe wound is gone. Lily's eyes widen. "...?" she wonders. There was a flash of magic, and...
Ida is moving. Ida is angry. And Ruth is firing again, Lily can /hear/ and practically feel it. Lily gasps for breath again, but she can't catch it. Frowning, she decides what she needs to do, even as she sees Dog lifted off by the.. axe? "Ts," Lily vocalizes, and Dog as ordered gets behind her again. And then Soltaire throws herself. Lily finds her neck targeted again, but it's by a blunt edge. Lily has to dampen her sorcerous output in order to funnel that power into her body, and she burns violet-black for an instant as she makes the switch. Then her eyes snap up.
"Smart," she rasps, and then lifts her hand.
Red begins to shimmer from within Ida, Ruth, Lily, and Venetia, an aura of light shining around each that fades after a momen, and brings with it health and restoration.
"I'll be honest," Lily says. "I'm here to discover the truth. What you've done doesn't change my pay any. ...But Odessa is my enemy."
"So if you want a fight..."
Lily rises to her feet again, and pulls the sword at her hip, adopting a two-handed stance.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
"I'd be stupid to answer that question, if you're going to insist on fighting us," Venetia tells Solitaire. "I'm not stupid. Throw away your weapon or signal you can't and we'll work from there!"
The dark tendrils capture her thrown coins and Venetia arches an eyebrow. Her mask is designed to make this action at least DISCERNIBLE.
"Touche," Venetia states, to herself, even as there is a flashbang - kicked away - Venetia digs out a different Crest Graph, because it seems that her cleverness may not win the day, requiring other, less clever, more kinetic solutions.
She does not strike right away, pivoting to follow the action with a Crest in hand. After Lily erupts in strange light, and then begins to glow in some other way, Venetia brings that one up - a more familiar one, a personal one.
One that hurls one huge and thirteen moderately-sized amethysts at Solitaire! CATCH THESE, Venetia thinks, even if aloud, she says, "There's more to Odessa than you think...!!"
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Two minds, it is repeated from the empathite. Two minds. There's another.
The glowing miasma-like aura between Solitaire and the Demon Axe is noticed, but it takes a backseat to watching - and knowing - she shot Solitaire in the shoulder.
Moments later, the Demon Axe comes to collect. It bisects the cover (editor says... it was a grandfather clock), missing Ruth's skull by /this much/ as stray sharp mechanical bits escape from the cleaved upper half graze her, some of which fall into the space provided by shawl and overcoat to give a few extra chance to poke and lacerate.
Rather than be stunned by the near-miss on her life, Ruth ducks down and moves again as Patience's thrown arc sees something /else/ in its warpath collapse, because like hell would Nidhogg's axe be stopped and stuck in some inferior ornamental object. Something larger, something heavier, that crashes onto the ground with enough force and velocity to bring a floor that had already been visited by 'Patience' against fallen guards to its limit.
The floor Ruth stands on gives out, and she falls in a crouch as the bayonet blade of her rifle carves a line in its path. (This also allows 'Patience' to eventually come down and be on the same floor as everyone else, too, in a manner befitting them.)
Ruth doesn't delay before swinging that blade outwards in a horizontal slicing motion, Lily's warm red-hued Ether reinforcing strength and lightening (some of) the physical tension involved in exerting strength over something that had always been unwieldy for her to hold.
"So," Ruth says all too softly with a smile there, "where's your friend?" She asks. "There's another here..."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
That is not a normal Hyadean ARM. Recognition glimmers in Ida's eyes a split-second before those shadowy tendrils form, and she blinks--momentarily stunned--as they start /grasping things/. Even /less/ normal than she expected, then. Is Collier controlling it herself, or--
Ida slips back into a defensive stance, arms up in a boxer's guard. The axe digs into her forearms, cutting through armor and spraying a few drops of blood onto the floor. Ida grimaces in pain.
Not all of the blood is red. It's easy to miss, though. A moment later: Two minds. /Two minds/?
Ida lets out a hiss of breath, and then rushes forwards, blood trailing down her sleeves. Golden-white Breath erupts from her fingertips, forming an aura around her hand. She drives it palm-first at Solitaire's chest, and if it hits, that power will snap loose, and sink into her. It /burns/.
Two minds, Ida thinks. That axe. Is it--?!
She says this as 'Patience' should be some ways behind her.
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.
Solitaire might be a LITTLE stupid. She pouts a little when Venetia doesn't tell her the secret to her technique like she's about to complain about how unfair that is--
She is thrust off of Lily by her expulsion of power. She pants for breath. Patience is too far away but she couldn't just let Ruth keep taking pop shots at her or eventually she'd have readily popped one in her head no matter how fast she is. She struggles to express what she wants to express to the psionic sorceress.
She takes another step back. "Why? No slaves. No masters."
Throw away her weapon? She shakes her head emphatically. She can't? Or she won't? Or is it both? She brings her own hands up, ears flicking behind her to keep track of Patience and Ruth. Venetia's thrown amethyst (no pearl or garnets) slam into her hard, cutting up her upper body significantly as she slides backwards, closer and closer back to Patience.
I feel someone familiar.... A name.... comes to me? .... Fafnir?
Solitaire's attention snaps to Ida. She weaves to the side. The power burns into her but it isn't a direct hit as she stares into Ida's eyes. "You know...Patience?" the hardness in her eyes peels back some and she says, softly, "He... saved me."
Fafnir... I am sorry...She needs me...
Solitaires raises up and shakes her head.
She places her hand to her chest. "Solitaire Collier. Killing Malice."
She nods once. "The Prayer Bells... Will Not Toll."
She starts hopping in place and rolling her neck from side to side as Patience suddenly jerks out from behind Ruth, cleaving for her from behind as it snaps into Solitaire's hand as despite her vocal issues shouts--
"The Prayer Bells Do Not Toll!"
She raises the axe above her head and gives one heavy swing for Ida, not seeming particularly happy about it--but that isn't stopping her right now even as a dark aura erupts out of it, threatening to envelop Ida in toxic miasma.
Solitaire then swings 'Patience' into the large amethyst chunks, sending shrapnel flinging towards Venetia and Lily--really, they have the least to worry about right now.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
No slaves. No masters. "Odessa will only replace the masters of yesterday with their own. There will still be slaves. Nothing will change, except who holds the reins of 'power'. Those like my father."
"...Fafnir?" Lily ks then, and looks around. That voice. "...Patience. The--"
Lily's eyes widen. "The axe?"
But Solitaire explains who she is. And the prayer bels..
Lily takes a few hits from the shards of amethyst of the spell, and they slide straight into her jacket. Most wedge in the armor there, but a number cut through, and her blood is quite red, actually.
But that's when she bursts into flame.
Through her jacket, symbols of red are visible, little bits of her circuitry shining through at her collar, at her hands. It glows brilliantly as starfire bursts into being around her, around her weapon. Then Lily charges. "Your strength requires that I meet it with my own."
She /spins/ around when she gets halfway there, and the flames gather on her sword, burning forward and outward like a sunspot as they all drain off directly for Solitaire.
"There's no need to be sorry," Lily says as she rights herself into a battle stance. "We do what we must."
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
No slaves; no masters.
Oh, for Dinoginos's sake, Venetia thinks, her class awareness being RATHER LOW. Perhaps this is because she is in the LABOR ARISTOCRACY. Either way, there is definitely more going on in this room than CLASS CONFLICT, and as such Venetia's initial focus is to deal with the spray of amethyst shards flying back at her. "That damn axe's strong!" she says, staggering and bleeding a little. The bleeding from THESE isn't stopping.
She introduces herself.
She's killing -- no, that's the name of --
That sounds bad. "Damn your bare face," Venetia shouts, "We've been rolling up Odessa and all of the sad people they've been using as rounds in their gun! I won't take your pain from you, Collier," ah good she knows the last name so she can be polite, "BUT IT'S BEING USED AGAINST YOU!"
Venetia reaches for her gun, which is not there. She swears under her breath; what comes out instead is a different Crest, which erupts in sparkling (and significantly more friable - and hence, less dangerous) crystals. Also different: they try to engulf around and embrace Solitaire rather than, like, fly at her really hard.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth staggers once with the follow-through of the swing of her rifle, Malevolence rolling up her left arm to offset its weakness. It is hard-won discipline wrought from uncomfortable understandings of who she is that prevents the majority of it from escaping into the air around her.
For now. Ruth forces her gaze down to not let the woundings of comrades around her incite more... but there's something else in all this that brings a pause that the near-death experience with the thrown axe prior did not.
'Why? No salves. No masters.'
A LONG TIME AGO
"Some may claim the land!" Shouted someone on the corners of war-torn Guara Bobelo, after its siege a little over a quarter century ago. "But all live under the blue sky above!" A revolutionary, who bore the colors of brown, gold, and blue from left to right. A believer in a democratic Aquvy Union, against oligarchs who flexed their material might to bring the now-domed city low.
A young woman with pointed ears, driven to grief, anger, and guilt, contemplates the borrowed revolver she took off a dead soldier as she stared into a puddle formed from a ruptured, ruined water tower.
She didn't look back.
NOW
Ruth's only hint is a scent of worry, somewhere... behind her. But there's no one there.
'The Prayer Bells... Will Not Toll.'
The axe goes for her, and Ruth puts her rifle between it and herself. The clash produces clouds of Malevolent miasma as they lock, for a moment.
Wills fight, only for that singular moment.
It is 'Patience,' whose purity of purpose wins out. Solitaire needs them, and there is nothing - nothing! - Ruth can do to hold back the one known quasi-living remnant of one of the greatest warriors of the Metal Demons on that alone.
Where she isn't cleaved in twain, she's /flung/ like a ragdoll across the length of the chamber they all fight to equally injurious impact. Things collapse - ornamental objects of wealth, stolen Hyadean racks and pieces turned into gaudy mockeries of what they once were thanks to 'restoration experts.' Ruth disappears underneath that pile.
It might have been enough to remove her from the equation. Under the crushing pile of debris, Ruth goes motionless.
Solitaire, a victim of cruelty. Of... course she'd know, the cruelty inflicted upon people like herself. She would know. Her desire for strength... she would know. Her desire for a more equal world through unparalleled violence...
Ida, of all people, would keenly know and feel /when/ someone decides to undo the metaphorical chains holding one's Malevolence within their heart and soul, and the form that /shrieks/ out of that is no different than expected. That stone gray single-winged grotesque, plowing through wing-first before /stabbing/ the edge of a somewhat transofrmed bayonet blade towards Solitaire, trying to pin her.
Glowing purple eyes bear down upon the mouse-form beastfolk, unable to resist trying to meet her gaze. Ruth doesn't want to see Solitaire hurt. She doesn't want to see Solitaire become hurt by how much she will hurt.
"I've /lived/ that sssssame fight," she hisses and hissing is never a great sign, "where it endssss... to become sssso sssstrong to desssstroy everything and leave /nothing/...!"
Her heart knots up into the idea that the best way to not hurt Solitaire further is to run her through and try to impart the fear and pain of a failed war to impart a more equal society. The sort of contradictory double-think that further emboldens.
But can Solitaire be dissuaded?
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida blinks. Both eyes act in unison; there's no tic or twitch or asynchronous movement that would give away Fafnir's control. There's only that distinct color, and perhaps that mental 'passenger' that just grew active in the back of Ida's head. /That/, to someone with the right knowledge, and the right powers--
Ida presses two fingers to her Empathite, and focuses for a few precious seconds. Both her mind and the 'passenger's' presence grow clearer, thanks to the psychoreceptive material. She can almost hear...
"The weapon--!" Ida breathes. Patience. He saved her...?
He doesn't... what? That can't be--
Whatever Solitaire and her partner have done, it's introduced a distraction, and Ida pays for it. The heiress throws up her arms again, and this time the exoskeleton comes out--a sluicing wave of biometal that hardens into plates. The axe-blade grinds and strikes up sparks as it skids down Ida's forearms, but the armor does nothing to stop the miasma from sinking in. Ida coughs, violently. Distantly, she thinks it's good the others are /talking/ because she's in no shape to. The lingering energies of Lily's sorcery give out, leaving Ida's body without reinforcements. "Ruth," Ida chokes out, horror in her eyes as the Hellion goes flying. She knows what's coming, knows Ruth's tougher than that, and she /feels/ the very instant when the gloves come off.
On one level, Ida knows Ruth has the best chance of /getting through/. But she could just as easily escalate this, and it needs to stop.
Ida lets out a breath; toxic smoke flows from her lips as she expels some of the weapon's taint. In the next breath, she takes a step, and pulls back her first. More of that Breath-aura builds around it, gold-white surrounding an aura of fiery orange-red.
There's no scream, this time--just Ida's face frozen in a rictus of pain and defiance as she rushes Solitaire like an oncoming train. A sound like a thunderclap rattles the windows as Ida drives her fist for Solitaire's center of mass.
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.
Earlier!! Ruth got a good thick crimson carve along Solitaire's back! She's slowing down though maybe less than you might like. She is incredibly nimble but her body is likely to give out before her speed.
"You're on fire," Solitaire points out to Lily because she doesn't seem to be noticing it. She's not sure where the fire came from. It didn't come from HER. Yeah Solitaire might be clever in some ways but she's still fifteen and is definitely not book smart. Granted, would book smarts help with this 'why is Lily on fire and why is she cool with this?' question? Maybe a little?
Venetia (and Lily to a lesser extent) suggest that her loyalty to Odessa is misguided and furthermore, that they just want power for themselves. Solitaire cocks her head to the side.
"Maybe." She admits. Especially now that so many have died, imprisoned, quit, or fled. "Then I use them too. If they become Masters, I have.... My next target."
It's easier to speak when she's empowered by Nidhogg but it isn't a perfect solution either. There's still this raspiness to her voice, it's more likely she just doesn't feel the sensations as much.
The flames on Lily's sword gathers like a heavy metal album cover as they impact solidly against Solitaire's chest, causing the young woman to bowl over. The smell of sizzling flesh permeates the air. The crystals then slam in, pinning her tightly. For a moment, Solitaire just...can't move at all.
Ruth comes in first, unleashing her inner monster. Solitaire doesn't get a good look until after Ruth is already upon her. There is a faint widening of her eyes because one just doesn't usually expect on to turn into a gargoyle but she doesn't scream in terror. She fixes her gaze upon the gargoyle.
She looks like a monster but...
A monster wouldn't be pinning her against that crystal with a bayonet blade now would they?
Like recovering from a jumpscare, Solitaire's heartbeat gradually returns to normal as she looks at Ruth, bleeding from that heavy wound in her shoulder. Now both shoulders are in pretty bad shape.
"You Are NIce." Solitaire says to the woman who treated her throat every time they met. "No matter... the costume..." She suddenly twists her shoulder, using her own joints as a pin to pry the weapon free and send it flying away. She bites her tongue so she doesn't scream from the pain of it.
The malevolence doesn't seem to affect her in a noticeable way. It even affects Marivel but Solitaire has the confidence of a lion and there is little doubt to be found within her. Maybe she could've been a shepherd if she was born on a kinder world. Whether she would've been a good one is another matter.
"I have met... scarier monsters... That wear human costumes..."
Blood drips from her mouth from her lips as she swings her head forward, aiming to cudgel it into a gargoyle's head before slamming it back hard against the Amethyst behind her. It cracks and shatters, finally releasing Solitaire. She drops down into a crouch but all that took a lot out of the girl.
And Ida is coming in hot.
They know now... But Soli, we need to escape.
Solitaire shakes her head. Despite all the physical agony, the fire in her eyes is still burning. And she can't run, not after hearing that from Ruth. She is having trouble seeing and Ida--
Ida throws her punch. The windows in the manor shatter. A decorative statue, less durable than Ruth, crumbles. Solitaire can't move yet--
--but Patience--Nidhogg--can. The axe turns its body around on its own and intercepts Ida's punch.
Its jaws open wide and bite down on Ida's fist. An echo of a dragon on dragon combat that still continues long after their passing.
I WON'T LET YOU HURT HER!!
The Demon Fist pushes forward, slipping out of the jaws and through the shaft, ripping it in twain. She still gets a good solid hit to SOlitaire's chest, but it doesn't go THROUGH her chest.
The head of the demon Axe crashes to the ground as the shaft crumbles to dust to Solitaire's side.
"Patience...?" Solitaire asks, throwing herself forward and curling around the Demon Axe's head as she scampers across the ground on all fours, using one arm to hold the head close to her body. "Patieeeence......!!" She wails, tears flowing from her eyes. "I'm sorrrrryyy!!"
Urggh... don't kill me...already...
"Patience...!" Solitaire beams happily. "You made me worry, you dummy...!"
She looks around for a bit longer, reaching into her pouch, drawing out a flashbang of her own--and slamming it down as it bursts into a huge flash of light.
And when the light fades, a big hole in the floor leading into a sewer drainage slide can be seen as can Solitaire sliding down it.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
'If they become Masters, I have.... my next target.'
"Fair enough," Lily answers. She doesn't answer the bit about being on fire, though. The fire is intentional, and indeed, for some people booksmarts only make Lily's fire /more/ of a problem, rather than less.
She looks sharply at Ruth as she feels the change come on her, as she /sees/ her monstrous (less monstrous) form. Strength...
'To become so strong to destroy everything and leave nothing.' Lily looks away, at that, feeling a pang of something in common with this monster that is not the fact that she once nearly became a Hellion herself.
The weapon. Ida sees it, too. Ida sounds her defiance, and that fist of hers slams forward. Lily watches, thoughtfully, as it happens. Scarier monsters? Perhaps Lily is one of those.
"I hear their thoughts," Lily says, as they fight. She doesn't make to attack again, yet.
"The axe... protects her."
Lily averts her eyes at the flashbang, and then looks back to the light. She sees the hole in the floor, Solitaire sliding down it.
"..."
A monster in human skin...
"...This is as far as my pay goes," Lily says after a moment, turning away from the hole to look over Venetia and Ruth and Ida. "If ARMS wants more of the Black Wolves' help, you'll need to pay me more."
Lily doesn't voice her sympathy for Solitaire. It doesn't matter.
"But I'll go back and report what happened. That much is in my contract."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida hears that second voice, distantly, as her fist smashes through the weapon. It's like it's coming from the bottom of a vent, distorted and tinny, but...
Ida comes to a halt, fists clenched, face tight. Her breath comes in short, raspy gasps thanks to the poison, and her vision swims. Solitaire's wailing sets bands of tension around her heart. She is a sorrowful, desperate, angry girl, and she killed people. Would it have been better if she'd never found that weapon?
The flare goes off. Ida staggers back, hisses out a raspy "Shit!", and shakes her head. It takes a few moments for her ears to stop ringing, and another few for the spots to fade. She turns to Lily, emotions roiling in her chest: a mix of frustration and sorrow and despair Lily knows all too well.
"I'm going to see if anyone survived," Ida says. She doesn't have high hopes.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Solitaire hits Venetia with an answer she did not, to be honest, expect. Maybe, but she doesn't care. She's using them back.
Venetia, whose dignity is like a bar of two-inch-diameter bronze that a child is trying to bend in half by raw strength - a woman of towering ego, however channeled - simply stares at the very idea. Her mouth hangs slightly open.
It's probably just as well; because Venetia is the human among monsters, it would seem. Solitaire is able to fend off Lily, or at least, recover; she is able to evade what Ruth says, and what Ruth seeks to do; she tears her clothing, she gets loose from the Cavern of the Crystals;
Is this discpline? The ARM?
Venetia does not doubt herself, but there is, rarely for her, a moment of hesitance -- but she reaches for her Crest pouch again. Cursing herself for not bringing that tool of swift and decisive violence, the GUN, yet again, she gets another one of the Crest Graphs out even as a great echo of draconic battle rings out--
FLASH!
"Gahhh!!!"
So much for her initative.
"Tch...!" she says, once her eyes clear. Her face turns muzzily towards Lily. She makes a face, but it is perhaps partially involuntary gurning... partially. Straightening up, she puts a hand on her hip and says, "A professional, then, through and through!"
Blinking away lights, she hears Ida - she looks round.
Venetia's voice --milds slightly. "Give me a moment to check in with the home office." Mentally: >> Kate, the instigator got away. Miss Keil speculates that you were hearing a mentality inside of her ARM.
Aloud to Lily, she says, "You were able to hear the mind of the, ARM, yes? The axe?"
Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
If Ruth's hissing, it's a consitent measuring stick as to whether or not she's on the verge of losing lucidity. Her serpentine tongue flicks for that fear, that distress, that pain that serves as fuel for a perpetual feedback loop of despair and sorrow that gives her strength. It's the first time in months that Ruth's let herself go that deep into it, a tenuous grip on that leash.
The widening eyes are nearly enough to break that grip she has. It's always the fear in the eyes that bring out her worst, but that 'worst' hits a brick wall when the rise in Solitaire's heartbeat... stops.
There is no further fear. For seeing the color and shape that is Solitaire in front of her, it's almost like going invisible. A culmination of Solitaire's determination even after several blows that could have - and have! - felled others like her. Slight of build, young of age...
'You Are Nice. No matter... the costume...'
For Ruth's much larger stature, the way Solitaire wrenches herself free staggers Ruth off to the side. She could avoid this by letting go of the rifle. She cannot - her tail has coiled around it tightly, as it often does. Her grip upon it is uncontestable. It is also her undoing.
For those who would chance looking into Ruth's eyes as Solitaire speaks of scarier monsters in human costumes, it's unmistakable.
Solitaire's unshakeable resolve is frightening. Her desire to continue on her path of strength, unbowed and unconvinced, is frightening. That she already knows her next target should Odessa become the new masters...
The bestial grotesque is stunned by Solitaire's uncompromising acceptance of her without diverting from her desires or goals. It is the axe that bears that emotional scent that should draw her, but she does not pursue it.
There is wailing that follows that she turns back, once, to Solitaire's honest worries - but she is /afraid/ to pounce again.
The axe is under the ward and protection of a pure heart of unshakeable conviction. Lily's mention almost goes unnoticed (only because Ruth's deaf ear is facing her so she has a hard time hearing her above her own head).
The flashbang goes off. It doesn't blind Ruth's eyes - her senses are rarely deterred by most conventional means - but she does not dare follow her. Ida's and Venetia's own yells keep her anchored (somewhat) to the world around her rather than the whims coursing through her.
She nods in acknowledgement for the search of survivors. This, she can help. This, she can do.
It will be any time before she can get her mind off of Solitaire. She can see 'it,' and it scares her like little else has.
She can see that young woman grasp an unaccountable strength that might even transcend the kind she used to have.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Nobody challenges Lily on her reasoning. Nobody seems to plan to make an issue of the fact that there's more than /just/ the terms of her contract on the mercenary's mind.
"That's right," she says to Venetia. A professional.
"And that's correct," Lily answers about the ARM. "They seem to be in some kind of telepathic contact. 'Patience', I think was the axe's name. It has thoughts and ideas of its own."
The others go to check for survivors. Lily says, "...I'll give medical attention if you find survivors."
That's about what she can do. Should do.
"Then I'm out."
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.
Maybe Nidhogg would have been better off if he had never found that mousegirl.
Solitaire knows where she'd be if she hadn't found him though but that is a revelation for another day, not that Solitaire is particularly chatty about her past. Instead it's time to check the damage and provide reports.
Venetia checks in with Kate who has this to say. 'It could be, Ma'am. We'll send a forensics team and correlate it with your story and we'll be able to confirm for sure. Please let Miss Keil know that the money has already been transfered and we'll include a small bonus for the helpful intel regarding the ARM.'
Outside of the servants who are unharmed (even the ones that didn't actually listen and didn't leave. There's always a few like that), there are some guards on the upper level that just didn't run into Solitaire--showing up to stop Solitaire might have saved their lives. There is one more guard who did survive that was only knocked out on the second level too. He didn't see what got him--Solitaire probably dealt with him nonlethally because it didn't slow her down to.
Unfortunately Frankie and Maximilian Blugarde are definitely dead from Head No Longer Attached To Body Disease. Further investigation of their documents will prove that a) Yes they were ordering cheap masks to make more profit that they really didn't need b) they kept using them even after they realized improper filtration was causing the Dragon Lung disease and c) They were ordering them from a supplier in Port Rosalia. It is unclear whether or not the supplier knew what their cheap masks were doing but this might provide a suggestion as to where SOlitaire might be making her next strike.
The good news is that replacing the cheap masks with better masks will curb the Dragon Lung disease and no further workers will be hit by it. Marivel is bloody furious about this and will supply the new masks free of charge and also promises to see what she can do for the suffering workers though she does comment that Wyatt or Kasim would be better at this sort of thing so there may only be so much even she can do.
But it's better than nothing and at least it won't hit anybody else. Johnathan Bones is grateful.
Frankly in the long term, this is probably better for Guild Galad's ARM production that the Bluegardes are no longer in the picture but in the short term this is a pretty significant disruption to ARMS's weapon supply chain. And so shortly before the planned attack on Heimdall Gazzo... And the tensions between the classes are heavier than ever...
But you do know more about this Odessa agent now too. That's not nothing. Next time you're sure to be better prepared. She might be too.
To the surprise of nobody, despite Venetia's warning to the elevators, Solitaire is not found and captured.