2023-01-26: Jailed
- Log: Jailed
- Cast: Rixia, Magilou, Shalune Amira, Margaret
- Where: Pendrago
- Date: January 26th, 2023
- Summary: Rixia gets arrested after a drunken bout of frustration. But there are forces at work...
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
LAST NIGHT
There was furor and gossip and rumour of a low-ranking member of the Althenan Guard that got "severely intoxicated and disparaged the noble values of Pendrago," "spoke of heresy and utter nonsense, spitting in the face of public decency," and "my goodness I think she used a no-no word."
Whatever the actual events may have happened, a high-end gala was soured (oh no, however will we recover from this), and a perpetrator was arrested: one Rixia of Sagahli, who's at least been put in a local jail (not the horrible Unreal Ultimate version of jail, just the 'hey you're drunk and need to be put away for the night' variety of jail) and is currently sprawled in a kinda dingy, wet cell that's leaking from at least four cracks in the masonry.
NOW
Of course, Rixia doesn't really protest her stay for much of it because she was so stone-cold drunk that she spent most of it sleeping, but it's now closer to morning and she's waking up with the hangover of her life. Is there no Status-Def-J against hangovers?
>> calibrating...
>> detected: state known as post-inebriation debilitation of above-average levels
>> adjusting blood sugar and hydration levels
Well, not an instant cure, but isn't it amazing that you never need fear a sugar crash with this device, Rixia? Oh, Rixia wouldn't know what that is.
The fox girl groggily rolls over and stares at the ceiling. Ooogh...
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Outside the jail, there's a magical performance going on.
"... magikazam!!" Declares a very, VERY wanted woman, and how did she appear here when they're in the middle of their main quest? Don't question Magilou, who spreads her arms, and sends a flight of doves fluttering about.
There's fireworks! And special effects! And when it draws the attention of the Guard, it only gets more ridiculous and attention-seeking! Flash! Bang! Kablow! BAM!
Magilou proceeds to lead the entire procession down the street, to the tune of Benny Hill.
Meanwhile...
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune is not completely certain of the steps that have brought her here in life.
Out in the street, a criminal clown(??) throws confetti in the air and does magical tricks to distract the rank and file of the Guard. On the other side of her stands a high-ranking member of Althena's Guard(??) who she last faced down in a high velocity bomb-filled chase through Kattelox to pay off a mortgage. And in the middle, she's keenly aware that she routinely carries around enough in the way of ancient and advanced technology that she could probably be called a heretic(??) several times over.
But deep down Shalune is a Lunie - and even if she's the most grounded of that particular faction, that still means there's a streak of chaos in her, especially when it comes to civil disobedience against putting people in prison. Even her responsible side can't stop her, because it's currently whispering traitorous little thoughts about how cool she'll look being a big responsible mentor helping a newbie out like this.
Besides, between the three of them, they're a matching riot of colour. In Magilou's honour, she's even pulled out the rainbow bobble hat for the occasion.
"Last time I was here, the masonry was really shoddy," says the bobble part of her hat as it peeks over the edge of the barred window. "I mean, having water run down your prison walls makes it look all dank and oppressive, but what that really means is you're just eroding away all your mortar and turning your big fancy stone bricks into sponge. You gotta fix water damage. ... should we use all four bombs anyway?" she adds, in the tone of someone going 'so how big a firework do we want?'
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
Pro tip in life, Shalune: All clowns are criminals. But not all criminals are clowns.
Just the majority.
MEANWHILE, in the belfry of the imprisoning structure, there is a bunch of nothing. A patch of air that looks particularly shadowy but doesn't really have much going on. There is, however, a faint scent of exotic fragrances - some sort of personalized blend of pipe filling, ylang-ylang oil, white greasepaint...
Beneath a shroud of concealing images, Margaret and Dollie kick their legs. Carefully. Don't want a shoe to slip out of this boundary of shade and elusivity.
"Do you see them?" Margaret asks.
"Aye," Dollie says, adjusting the leather harness she's wearing over her healer robes, which is attached firmly to one of the random gargoyles (weight tested ahead of time) on the wall. "Do they really have bombs?"
Margaret, whose right hand remains in the hip pocket of her dress, says, "Oh, I'm sure it's just going to be one, or else just a firework or something. Once they've gotten everyone distracted, use the masonry loosening oil to get the bars free and give her a big bear hug. We can get her out from up here, slow and steady."
"They're getting close," Dollie says, straightening up. "Hold my staff?"
Margaret tucks it into the crook of her arm and takes a last appreciative draw on the pipe.
"Get ready..."
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
"It's her! It's the Wicked Witch!" "I thought she was the Evil Sorceress?!" Which title is Magilou even going with these days? Well, there's multiple bounties under multiple titles and the coolest one clearly has the highest bounty, but very pointedly there's a cadre of guards chasing after her and possibly slipping on a banana peel and one of them stumbles on a barrel and ends up treadmilling on it horizontally and then oh no watch out for those two window repair guys carrying a translucent pane of window--
Shalune's probably exploded this same jail before on account of Lunata Crimes, maybe more than once?? This is some real old hat stuff for her. Should they use all four bombs? That's four times as many as one. That might be terrible.
Above in the belfries (where gargoyles live, of course), Margaret and Dollie make their plan under cover of invisibility. The plan is set: masonry loosening oil, a big hug, and then an evacuation. Ready, ready, and theeen...
~ * * K A B O O M * * ~
The Terrible Goose is in the Hatchery, Shalune! Plan Alpha Red Cucco Three is go!
Rixia, meanwhile, does the very important job of staring towards the sudden emanation of light and then getting bowled over by the shockwave of a bomb--
Margaret (meg) pages Shalune Amira and Rixia: i think it's lunie again since Magilou was doing a magicameo
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
There's probably something a bit telling in the practiced speed with which Shalune, a pink blob of friendship the rest of the time, goes through her various tasks:
Feel out the weakest parts of the wall.
Fish around in one of her pockets for four plain disks of metal.
Slap the sharped charges against the stone wall to let them hang there.
Press the Big Red Button on the gadget in her pocket, setting off a cycle of ominous beeps.
Throw a small coin through the window to ping against the metal bars of Rixia's cell, catching the Drifter's attention and leading her away from the points of detonation to the far side of the cell, with one side of the coin having 'GET READY - WE GOT YOU' cut into it with a miniature welding tool to warn her about what's going to come next so she can brace herself and not just flop around on the straw with a hangover.
Peel out on the scooter with an explosion behind her and a dopplering 'Byeeeeeeee' into the distance.
In retrospect, she probably should've switched some of those steps around. And maybe not planned several Rixia actions ahead. And maybe accounted for the fact that Rixia is not Lunata and thus probably not going to be able to walk off an explosion quite as easily. And remembered that a Lunar provincial prison probably can't stand up to the Filgaian Special - a stick of dynamite swung in a sock - let alone top-class Veruni tech.
"Oh, crap," she blurts when she catches sight of Rixia caught in the force of the explosion. "Uhh. --Rixia! Are you okay?!" she calls over the din of crumbling rock. "We got you a ride! Margaret!"
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
THOOM
Margaret and Dollie both fall off the wall.
"YAAAAHAHAhaahahaheheooough" says Margaret, who is so absolutely surprised that she nearly hits the ground before there are a few dim blue-green flashes, a thump, and cursing. You don't swear with control if you're dead or severely injured, so she's probably fine.
Dollie swings on her eather harness for a few moments, before tilting her head back and looking over at Shalune. "Oh," she says. "Well, I mean, I'm with her but it's not like she's my mam or anything. Is that an ARM there?"
She swings closer, applying the oil dutifully on what may be the smoking remnants of ironmongery grating - which obligingly sizzles with rapid oxidization of the mortar components. After this, she looks up towards Rixia, pulling out a knife--
To rest it at the strap holding her more or less in pace. "Grab onto me a bit, would you? Once you've got a grip I'll cut loose and we'll scarp, you know? Nice and clean. Now hurry, I don't think the 'juice' will last long on the guards."
EARLIER
A cunningly paced pitcher of fresh fruit juice with about 20% cheap Filgaian liquor was set out with a ladle and wooden cups as a treat for the guards. Althena's prohibition means they'll have lost their tolerance!!
page margaret=did rixia and dollie ever meet i forget
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Perhaps the most critical flaw of the plan, which maybe can only partially be attributed blame to Shalune, is the assumption that Rixia is awake enough to get distracted by a coin getting tossed into the corner. Alas, Lunar doesn't work on Agent 47 rules, especially because Rixia is well and sufficiently hungover and sleepy. Still, rather than Lunata's freaky undead strength, she has... an instinctive magic barrier being thrown up over her courtesy of the Sleeping Lion instead, which stops her from being turned into gibs or anything. It still bowls her over on her butt, though.
"uggg," Rixia groans, before suddenly--
There's a woman with a knife out of the smoke and debris!! Rixia whimpers timidly for a moment-- but then Dollie instead calls out for rescue! Bedazzled and confused, Rixia grabs hold onto her, in the fumbliest way she can. "O-okay. Aren't you the lady with Miss Margaret?"
MEANWHILE
"Whew, nothing like some orange juice after (failing to) chase the Wicked Witch," a guard proclaims as he glugs down a pitcher of juice. "Wait, I feel a bit funny... oh no! That's alcohol! Wickedly delicious alcohol! I'm doooooomed!!"
"Doooomed!" his cohort echoes.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune stumbles over most of the rubble left in her wake, ducking with a squawk as one hanging stone threatens to detach and clonk her on the end. She looks a little guilty, and the only thing that softens that is the realization that Rixia isn't plastered across the far wall. "A-ahaha... haah..." she lets herself sag for a moment.
"Sorry, uh, I kind of went a little wild there. But we're here to break you out!" she does her best to recover her cheer, plastering on a bright smile. "A jester lady said there was gonna be some big reward in it-- well, not like I wouldn't help anyway," she grins as she offers Rixia a hand up to her feet. The big reward is probably friendship.
A shout of existential teetotal horror goes up from elsewhere in the compound, and she freezes at both that and Dollie's question. She's kind of gotten used to the fact that Margaret and her crew really aren't all that fussed, but she's on Lunar and old habits die hard. "It's-- not an ARM. Technically," she tacks on. "I mean, what's an ARM, anyway? When you take them apart they're just like anything else, it just depends on the materials. You could call a clock an ARM if you really wanted, I think--"
There's another cry of horror, and she clamps her mouth shut and resets her brain. "Time to go!" she blurts as she stumbles back over the rubble to hop onto the back of the scooter that's sat motionless in the air. It's faintly disturbing the way it doesn't seem to react to any momentum or breeze - at least until she weights down one foot to pitch it forwards.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
"Dooomed, aye," Dollie agrees, before she smiles at Rixia with the air of someone who doesn't smile much or at all lately. After this, she says, "I am, I am."
"The reward is friendship!" shouts Margaret from the bushes. "Did you get her?"
Towards Shalune, Dollie dangles and considers her words. "Yup, yup, aye there we go - alright - casting off moorings..."
Cut! Twist! Three point landing! Dollie pauses for a moment and then grimaces because she was still fairly high up, but as iron and weapons clatter within the building, she declaims "Thunder Road" --
And jogs after the scooter!!
Margaret joins in, with about 15% of the bush in her glossy black hair.
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
"Oh... you're the big sis who's good with the machines," Rixia recalls Shalune after a moment's thought, because she's pretty far from clarity right now. Hey, being upgraded to 'big sis' is pretty good, isn't it, Shalune? ... I mean, someday you'll really catch up to your Granny mimicking days, but right now, you can enjoy being the oneesan.
"A jester lady? Miss Magilou??" Rixia gets a bit more spirited. "I thought I heard her magic earlier..." Dollie's off with that familiar phrase of Thunder Road!! and they're off at speed, Rixia's hair whipping off into the distance as she spots Margaret. "Miss Margaret!"
She sighs faintly and rubs her head. "I'm sorry for causing so much trouble. I got so mad last night... I hope no one died." ... that's an ominous way to put it.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"Eh? Eh?" Shalune blurts towards Margaret's vantage point, then her expression falls away into something of a pout. "Urgh... I really need to stop blowing up prisons for the sake of friendship. It's kind of a dirty habit I should probably kick, you know?"
She hops twice on the back of the scooter as if to rev it up, considers for a moment, then adds towards Dollie: "... but I could show you how to make some. Just pass the knowledge on a bit, you know?" she offers dangerously and with an award-winning smile.
That smile gets turned on Rixia right afterwards, the sheer power of the friendly aura showing a stunning disregard for the mercenary's hangover. "Yeah! That's me. I mean, I heard you were in trouble, and I'm kind of an old hand when it comes to helping people escape prison. Honestly, this one's going pretty smooth, you haven't even promised you'll beat them all up for screwing up your breakfast."
"--anyway, hop on! Or go with Margaret, but if you ask me the Little Dipper's a bit more exciting," she strikes an action pose on the back of the rather futuristic-looking vehicle, before it rockets forwards and
pootles gently off down the road. It would be rude to just get ahead of everyone else!
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
Dollie, jogging, calls up to Rixia, "Oh, was it your first time then!" She sounds cheerful about it, which is partly because she's getting vigorous outdoor exercise (which is always good for your spirits) and partly because --
How many times HAS she gone to prison?
Margaret keeps up neatly enough. "If you're not used to running at speed, I'd go with the Dipper Thingy," Margaret advises, even as Shalune declares its amazing powers for Safe Fun.