2021-04-06: Libera Me

From Dream Chasers
Revision as of 04:14, 10 April 2021 by Strangeshrimp (talk | contribs) (Created page with "*'''Log: Libera Me''' *'''Cast:''' Character :: Billy Lee Black, Character :: Lily Keil, Character :: Xantia, Character :: Elhaym van Houten, Character :: Ci...")
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
  • Log: Libera Me
  • Cast: Billy Lee Black, Lily Keil, Xantia, Elhaym van Houten, Citan Uzuki, Fei Fong Wong
  • Where: Port Rosalia - The Docks
  • Date: April 06, 2021
  • Summary: With questions at the ready, the Black Wolves (and Billy) head into the Ethos Headquarters to seek counsel from Billy's order. Unfortunately, they're a few moments too slow to prevent a tragedy...

DG: A party led by Billy Lee Black is now entering Ethos Headquarters Attack.
DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
========================<* Ethos Headquarters Attack *>=========================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Silent Night *>=========================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The Ethos Cathedral in the Holy City is supposed to be a quiet, but busy
 place. Men and women in robes should be walking with straight backs and
 loaded holsters, hurrying about the business of saving lives and souls.
 Priests, tending to tearful, grateful supplicants. Nurses, greeting patients
 to the Ethos' one-of-a-kind medical facilities.

 Now there is only the total silence of death, interspersed with the
 pop-pop-pop of distant gunfire, the howl of lives cut short.

 The only among the fallen here that still breathes is a bishop, slumped
 against a broken pew. He looks up at you and in spite of his injuries, grins
 at you bloodily.

 "God... God is dead," he hisses to you, before he breathes his last.
 ...There is nothing you can do for him now.

 Picking your way across shattered tile and broken bodies, you eventually
 find a secret passage that has been left ajar. The walls inside are
 metallic, clean and sterile, and down a short corridor there is a second
 door, closed like a bulkhead. Above it is a screen; as you step in, the
 screen flips on to say SCAN IN PROGRESS...

 Which is when it floods the chamber with a blast of searing light that
 scorches the metal and singes your eyebrows. Someone's sabotaged the
 scanner! The 'scan' only lasts a few seconds, but you won't be able to get
 into the facility if you can't figure out how to turn it off.
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Reckless=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.

Barely an hour ago, most of this team was aboard a container ship in the Crater Sea. They had rooted out the Wels nest within it, including destroying the Giant Wels that had come upon them in answer to the screams of dying Wels. There, they discovered something dire. Manacles that seemed to be embedded in its very bones. Too many for one person, too small to be for the Wels itself...

The first sign something is wrong is when Billy receives no answer from his heading-home signal. Hurrying his pace, Billy, with a case full of the manacles for inspection, sucks in a nervous breath, tells himself nothing's wrong, and opens the door.

He makes a horrible noise in the back of his throat. "Bishop!" he yells, losing all composure immediately. "Bishop Crane! Bishop!"

The older man, his hair long since gone white, looks at Billy, blood bubbling out of his mouth. "B...Billy..." he croaks out. He grasps the boy's habit, his hands shaking violently. Billy kneels down.

"Bishop, who did this to you..." Billy whispers, his eyes wide with terror.

The Bishop tries haltingly to form sentences. "S....Kh...Ab.....HK!!"

He spits a glob of blood out onto the tiling. He expends failing strength on gripping Billy firmly by the habit. His whole frame trembles wildly.

"God...!" he gurgles.

"God!?" Billy squawks. But his incomprehension falters at:

"God....is dead...!" the Bishop gurgles, and breathes his last, collapsing.

Billy holds the dead man in his arms, breathing wildly. "I..." he says. "We..."

 He forces himself up, still stained with the man's blood. "We have to go. Now! Bishop Stone will be below!"

He runs for a side of the chapel, slapping his palm against a hidden biometric panel.

It cannot read his hand beneath the blood. He makes a horrible noise in his throat before wiping the blood, hurriedly, on his habit, using a rag from his pocket to clear the panel, and trying again. That one works.

He is nearly inside the room when the scanner array makes a noise like you might hear in the engine room of an airship, and fires a bloom of disintegrating light into the scan chamber. Billy looks at the scorched walls, stymied completely.

Quietly, praying.

DG: Billy Lee Black has used his Tool Gospel of Granasi toward his party's challenge, Silent Night.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

What are those manacles for? Why were they in the Wels? Lily doesn't know. She doesn't even have a guess. But maybe the Ethos will. ...Except...

"--!" The Bishop. Lily moves towards him, though Billy has caught him already... and it's too late. "...Right. We'll find him."

Lily continues, dressed in black already through what is now, it seems, a tomb. She looks around... It isn't just him. For a moment she considers searching through to see if any of them are alive, but...

They're not, and there's no time. Stone-faced she follows Billy, though with some alarm. "Brother!" she cautions, but the scanner array starts to work...

"Shit!" Lily pulls her knife and pushes forward towards the machinery, yanking Billy back by his habit and sweeping through the searing light with a hand up over her closed eyes. She remembers well enough where the scanner was, and that's what she draws on. She takes that combat knife, black-handled with a thick blade, and starts stabbing it into the electronic devices, arm moving with deadly precision.

DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Lily's Knife toward her party's challenge, Silent Night.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

This is not at all what Xantia was expecting to get involved in today. She was just coming to meet the Wolves team that went to deal with the container ship, curious to hear about how that went. And feeling a little guilty for not going too, but well... she's had a lot on her mind lately. Several of the Wolves are by now aware of what it's all about - suffice it to say that she doesn't fully trust herself at moment.

Even so, in times of crisis, personal circumstances have to be put aside for the moment. That isn't difficult in this case - the nature of this particular crisis is such that few who have any scruples could still choose to prioritize their own concerns over what's happening here. She doesn't hesitate for a moment to rush into the cathedral with the others, only to freeze at the sight they find there.

"...What... what happened here...?"

It's hard to believe her eyes as she gazes about the scene. She's been here once before, given a brief tour by a certain Etone, and vividly remembers the scene as it was back then. There were so many people. So many smiling, friendly faces. To think that they might all be gone...

The sounds of gunfire up ahead make it clear that whatever's happened here is still happening. Which means there's still a chance to save people. That makes the course they should take clear. Xantia's expression hardens, other emotions pushed aside to focus on making whoever's responsible pay for this.

Naturally she would've preferred to just storm on ahead, but apparently there's some sort of issue with the machinery in place there. Xantia's input there is pretty much as expected. "We don't have time for this! I'll shut it down - just, somebody show me where I can punch this stupid thing!"

DG: Xantia has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Silent Night.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Was it really that recently?

Elly had not gotten out of Vierge. They had briefly stopped at the Karlsefni to gas up for long-haul transit, and Elly had not had time to get all the way out of it. She had handed off the Mystery Part from their expedition to Hammer and received a wet towel and a box lunch in response.

She can still taste horror in her mouth.

And it isn't getting any better.

If someone was looking RIGHT at Elly's face, somewhere around the time when Billy calls out imploringly for Bishop Crane, the slightly glazed look of horror turns, briefly, completely smooth and blank, and then as if startling awake, back in tune. It is a sharp enough shift that Elly glances momentarily at the rest of the group before tightening her grip on the staff.

God is dead? Elly thinks. But that doesn't make any sense.

"Right!" Elly says, before her face contorts in sympathy at the difficulty with the reader, and then --

ZZZZNKK

"-- Is that new?" Elly says, in astonishment. She tightens her grip on the iron staff, seems to weigh what to do for long dithering moments, and then says, firmly, "Right!"

Before joining Lily in her plan to destroy the thing from the side. "Are these walls rammed earth or stone or anything? If we have to - ahh, this is going to take too long--"

DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Silent Night.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    They had found something within the enormous Wels. Something unfortunate. Something of which nothing good cause could be suggested. Manacles, marked with a serial code...

    So their road had come here immediately after all, without any stay or alternative considered. But something was wrong.

    Citan had realized it the moment they had entered the holy city. It was quiet -- no, more than just quiet.

    The air of this place is like a tomb, the doctor has realized, dread settling about him like a shroud. Perhaps it comes as no surprise that when they open the door the tableau before them is like this.

    "...Billy..." is all that Citan says, averting his eyes after the Bishop passes.

    It's then that he spots something on the floor, even as Billy, followed by Lily, move towards whatever mechanism there is in the back. He kneels for a moment, picking up a stray shell and squints at it. He's right of it, he's certain--
    His old friend's choice in ammunition was always quite distinctive.

    "....Jessiah! Surely not..."

    But there are signs of a gunfight in here, when you look for them.

    "Already tried to pay 'Stone' a visit. He's locked up tight. Security in the cathedral's no joke."
    So Jessie had said to him, only two months ago.

    Shaking his head, he moves over to the mechanism in the back... just as Lily applies a knife to the thing, in just the right place.

    "--That will not be sufficient," he says, "but it is a good start!" The position is correct but it needs a little more...

    Thus saying, Citan produces a screwdriver and rams it into the point where Lily has jammed her knife.

DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Just The Right Tool toward his party's challenge, Silent Night.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Maybe the Ethos will know. Fei has some ideas but they all seem pretty outlandish even to him and he really hopes there's a more reasonable explanation that is also, concurrently, less horrifying.

Unfortunately the fact that the Ethos HQ is so deathly quiet--aside from GUNFIRE--tells Fei a great deal already. There isn't going to be a break from the horror today.

"Why would anybody target the Ethos...?" Fei murmurs to himself. No, he has some idea. SOMEONE had been trying to turn people against them, haven't they? And besides which, it's not exactly a secret that they collect technology. Of course, Fei isn't entirely right here.... But the fact they have been collecting such tech and have so many cowboy priests working for them--Is Rosaline okay?--that means this isn't some common robbery. But who could be behind it?

"...I'm sorry Billy." Fei murmurs quietly. "Everywhere I go, things like this happen."

He hangs his head and doesn't seem like he'll be happy immediately but he manages to stir himself into focus and draws out his tricorder. He first tries using it on the bishop but it tells him 'lifesigns have ceased'--

--then he looks towards the scanner.

He looks at his tricorder.

It's just a medical tricorder how can it--

Fei tries throwing it at the scanner, hoping to break it.

He may be a little on edge. "Sorry!" He says.

DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool Medical Tricorder Fei Somehow Knows How To Use toward his party's challenge, Silent
Night.
========================<* Ethos Headquarters Attack *>=========================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Silent Night *>=========================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The Ethos Cathedral in the Holy City is supposed to be a quiet, but busy
 place. Men and women in robes should be walking with straight backs and
 loaded holsters, hurrying about the business of saving lives and souls.
 Priests, tending to tearful, grateful supplicants. Nurses, greeting patients
 to the Ethos' one-of-a-kind medical facilities.

 Now there is only the total silence of death, interspersed with the
 pop-pop-pop of distant gunfire, the howl of lives cut short.

 The only among the fallen here that still breathes is a bishop, slumped
 against a broken pew. He looks up at you and in spite of his injuries, grins
 at you bloodily.

 "God... God is dead," he hisses to you, before he breathes his last.
 ...There is nothing you can do for him now.

 Picking your way across shattered tile and broken bodies, you eventually
 find a secret passage that has been left ajar. The walls inside are
 metallic, clean and sterile, and down a short corridor there is a second
 door, closed like a bulkhead. Above it is a screen; as you step in, the
 screen flips on to say SCAN IN PROGRESS...

 Which is when it floods the chamber with a blast of searing light that
 scorches the metal and singes your eyebrows. Someone's sabotaged the
 scanner! The 'scan' only lasts a few seconds, but you won't be able to get
 into the facility if you can't figure out how to turn it off.
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Reckless=========================================
===================<* Ethos Headquarters Attack - Round 1 *>====================
===========================< Results - Silent Night >===========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Billy Lee Black                     0 --(24)--> 24                 Fail
Gospel of Granasi                   1   Wits    Effects: Cleanse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lily Keil                           0 --(12)--> 12                 Pass
Lily's Knife                        2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Xantia                              0 --(24)--> 24                 Fail
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Citan Uzuki                         0 --(12)--> 12                 Pass
Just The Right Tool                 2   Wits    Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fei Fong Wong                       0 --(24)--> 24                 Fail
Medical Tricorder Fei Somehow Knows 1   Wits    Effects: Cleanse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elhaym van Houten                   0 --(24)--> 24                 Fail
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Billy Lee Black             0 --(#-1 ARGUMENTS MUST BE NUM Fail
Conditions: Injure(2)|Reckless(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Billy Lee Black has failed this challenge! The party gained #-1 ARGUMENTS MUST BE NUMBERS
exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the
next round with +dungeon/draw.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Ethos Headquarters Attack *>========================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Investiture *>=========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 The Etone limps towards you, hand held against the wound in their side. They
 still hold in their free hand an ARM.

 "I don't... want..." they slur, head lolling for the moment as they struggle
 against whatever force has taken them, their ARM slowly jerking upwards to
 aim almost drunkenly at the lot of you.

 "Azazel is... I don't. Don't..." they utter again, as the world about you
 twists and tilts on its axis, as the hall seems to converge and pull apart
 in the same instant, and as they, puppeted by whatever power rides them,
 begin their attack on you.

 You'll have to defend yourself. But is there some way to also save this
 person?
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Slow=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.

The sabotaged scanner has one weakness: its corporeal existence. Lily stabs her dagger in, each precisely aimed with the eye of someone who has worked against such sabotages before; Xantia prefers the 'beat the shit out of it approach', which has its own merits.

Citan's shocked shout alchemizes something in Billy, who turns with wide eyes. "Father!? That...THAT!!"

He sucks in a breath, from where he landed after Lily's hard pull. He's shaking, tears already in his eyes. "No. He...he couldn't do so much damage as this," he breathes. "Not even him..."

He forces himself up. He watches as the machine sputters out, thanks finally to Elly's iron staff and Fei's tricorder - it beeps loudly in a helpful tone as it clatters to the ground. With the scanner broken, the far door pops open with a spark.

Billy is trying to get control of himself and visibly only barely succeeding. "There...there may be survivors. Or attackers still here. Stay vigilant."

And then he all but sprints inside.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly pauses in between brutal attacks on electronics to hug Fei, fiercely, from the side. She does not say anything about why.

She glances at Citan with some curiosity after he checks a shell casing. Her eyes cast thence towards Xantia, with worry. When Billy speaks - Elly says, hesitantly, "Father? Do you mean...?"

But he is in anguished shock. Elly does not press the question, especially when Billy hastens in!

The initial spaces are something that might suggest a bunker - if perhaps not a successful one, given the lingering bouquet of war in the air - but there are homey touches. Little things. The group hastens past a table bearing a small stack of portable missals as well as water cups, an emptied tureen (that had been shot), another tureen (... don't try it) and a scattered tray of fast-grabbable food.

And just past that little touch of a place that holds people in high regard, there is, indeed, a survivor. One after passing, perhaps, five who were not. An Etone leaning against the wall and making sounds.

The Etone staggers forwards. He is gray with blood loss already, gasping at the air like a fish while applying pressure desperately to a bloody side. Seeing the group, his head turns towards them.

The ARM he bears - a stout one, a carbine perhaps or a shot-gun model but of something more refined than the gunsmoke vintage that pop off so loudly and so expensively - wobbles in his grip. "I don't... WANT," the Etone gasps, before staggering forwards a step, hunched over and legs spread like a ball player awaiting a tackling. The ARM raises upwards, like strings are being reeled backwards.

The Etone takes several deep, fast breaths. He raises his head as the world seems to sway sickeningly, like they're on the Karlsefni or another ship during a storm but there's never any rocking BACK. "I don't... Azazel is... Don't...!!"

"Azazel!?" Elly says.

BATTLE BEGINS - but the Etone seems to find new strength for a moment, gazing at Billy with agony and imploration on his face, though he cannot bring himself to speak. He is frozen in place, struggling with something.

And this gives Elly an opportunity to say -

"Azazel was a -person of interest- to the Gebler forces," Elly says. "Lily, do you remember?!! ... Um," Elly continues, perhaps remembering some other contextual detail and just pressing onwards as the holy man struggles against something that shall surely destroy him if he should lose his grip for even a moment.

"They had some kind of Ether ability to create mental illusions... That power might be manipulating him!" Elly says. "But -- why --"

Elly is cut off by a shotgun blast. (The ARM had been trending towards her a moment before, and between a sudden blurring flash of flame and a timely dive towards the side of the hallway, she is only winged.)

The Etone twists the shotgun around to recock it, breathing in a heavy, steady way and staring at nothing in particular. Perhaps god is truly dead, but it took a moment for everything to catch up.

DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Iron Born Staff toward her party's challenge, Investiture.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei picks up his fallen tricorder. "This really can do everything huh..."

He will hug Elly and it seems to calm him some though, considering the situation, there's only so much calm he can have right now. And then they see a guy who, by Fei's perspective, is kind of freaking out.

"Eh? When I ran into him he didn't do any mental illusion stuff," Fei says. Psychic powers don't tend to react the way they should with Fei, hench the gag.

Honestly, he doesn't even seem to recognize that the world is twitsing itself around which will, naturally, help him with darting forward to try and knock the guy out with a well placed punch to the face. This doesn't stop Fei from looking vaguely confused.

"Why would you start shooting people if you know someone's in your head throwing illusions at you anyway? I mean, it'd be one thing if you didn't know--maybe it's some sort of Vertigo effect instead?"

He is willing to punch two times to stop this guy if need be but he probably doesn't want to really hurt someone who isn't in their right mind. Especially since Billy's losing enough friends today by the sound of it.
� Logging to file "C:\Electra\Logs\2021\citan_ethos_hq.txt" started

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily is as she always is, except without the touch of humor that she's built up over time. This is not a place or time for levity, and she moves with intent, careful and seemingly without pity for the dead.

...This isn't quite true, but any survivors who saw her would be forgiven for thinking so. "Right!" Lily agrees with Citan, shifting to the side to let the others get in there. She even points out something for Xantia to destroy. But after that...

"..." Billy concerns her. He's succeeding--for now--but he is succeeding. When he mentiohns the possibility of others, "Right, we should--Damn."

Of course he would rush inside. Lily takes up a position behind, moving quickly but somewhat more carefully, looking around at the little things. ...Food. Bodies. And a man--

"Stay still, you--" She stops short when the ARM is there. He says something that she doesn't understand, at first, but the things he's projecting make her a little nauseous in turn. Lily then hears--

"Wait--" Elly asks if she remembers, and Lily's eyes widen. "That man? That man is here?" That power... Elly dives down, and Fei starts arting forward. Lily watches him move forward. "He makes it look like the things you're shooting at are dangerous--you can't trust your senses that way."

Why doesn't it work on Fei? Who knows.

Lily takes a breath and starts to advance, hand out. "I can help you," she says. "But only if you put down the shotgun."

She advances further, circuits lighting up crimson as she starts to engage her healing Ether.

DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Investiture.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia's with Billy - wasting no time to rush further in when the scanner goes down. No need to tell her twice, right now she's all about saving people or punching those responsible (or preferably, saving people after punching those responsible). She doesn't really pay attention to anything or slow down for an instant until they happen upon someone who's still alive, which causes her to stop in her tracks.

"...Something's wrong." Even Xantia, normally so eager to punch her way through things, can tell that much just by looking. But more than that, there's a feeling in the pit of her stomach that seems familiar. It doesn't just look wrong, something feels wrong. And familiar. The name 'Azazel' doesn't mean anything to her, but after a moment she manages to put the pieces together. She had this same feeling before... in Luca, during the Fire Thief incident. Which means that what may be controlling this person is...

"...is it the Stranger?"

Now that she's looking for it, she spots it quickly. Something is attached to this person, something that she can't identify in any way other than 'it should not be, yet it is'. Having perceived the 'strings', now they must only be 'cut'. ...She's not sure if her attempt to do that last time even worked. But it's not like there's any way to practice something like this. She'll just have to try it and hope for the best.

To the others, it may have appeared as if Xantia was simply hesitating for a strangely long time, until she suddenly dashes forward, seeking to circle around the Etone attacking the group, to slam her palms into their shoulders from behind and unleash a short burst of Ether. This was not meant to do harm so much as disrupt the invisible connection that she's somehow able to see, hoping to free this person from whatever influence is making them act this way.

There isn't much she can do about the wound, but hopefully this will help the more medically-inclined members of the team to do something about that without getting shot.

DG: Xantia has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Investiture.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"Why does he have so many names??" Fei asks before realizing that he's the last person to complain about that. "...Nevermind."

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    "Billy, calm down!" Citan calls from across the room, pocketing the shell he'd picked up. "...There must be some explanation for this. I do not think Jesiah would..." He shakes his head. Surely not, he reminds himself. "Let us hurry! There may yet be survivors!"

    And with that -- and with the deactivation of the gravely malfunctioning machine -- they press on.

    There are little signs of violence even back here, interspersed with... the bodies. Citan kneels by one of the fallen who is not quite so obviously deceased as the others, feeling for a pulse. His expression tightens; he shakes his head and rises to his feet without a word. ...There is no time now for the dead.

    But not all of the Etones they encounter are dead. One of them is alive, if only just, leaning against the wall and grey-faced from the wound that graces his side. "Please stay where you are--" Citan starts to say...

    ...as it becomes clear that all is not well. Not at all.

    "Azazel?" he echoes, glancing at Elly as she too speaks that name. "Elly... who is 'Azazel'?"

    She explains after a moment: his attention turning next towards Lily, then Xantia as they speak of the man. 'The Stranger', Xantia says. "--Do you mean the same 'Stranger' who had... affected Gwen? Is 'he' the one behind all of this...? --Elly!"

    Because the situation here has just been punctuated with the man taking a shot at Elly. She, at least, is not badly hurt, but... the room about them twists and contorts. And it looks like that Etone is only barely hanging in there.

    "...You must put down your weapon at once! We are able to assist you, but you must set down that ARM!" he exhorts, even as he takes a breath, readying himself for something more direct.

DG: Citan Uzuki has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Investiture.
========================<* Ethos Headquarters Attack *>=========================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Investiture *>==========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The Etone limps towards you, hand held against the wound in their side. They
 still hold in their free hand an ARM.

 "I don't... want..." they slur, head lolling for the moment as they struggle
 against whatever force has taken them, their ARM slowly jerking upwards to
 aim almost drunkenly at the lot of you.

 "Azazel is... I don't. Don't..." they utter again, as the world about you
 twists and tilts on its axis, as the hall seems to converge and pull apart
 in the same instant, and as they, puppeted by whatever power rides them,
 begin their attack on you.

 You'll have to defend yourself. But is there some way to also save this
 person?
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Slow=============================================
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool RPS Badge toward his party's challenge, Investiture.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.

"Calm," Billy mutters to Citan's words, in the voice of someone who is not only not calm, but has forgotten what calmness feels like and now exists only in the world described by the pounding in his ears.

All this talk of Azazel and Strangers is over his head. He knows none of it. He just...throws open his arms in a protective motion. "Brother! Please! Stop!" he yells, at a complete loss and unwilling to raise his weapon to another Etone.

This might mean he gets shot.

DG: Billy Lee Black has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Investiture.
=======================<* Ethos Headquarters Attack *>========================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Investiture *>=========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 The Etone limps towards you, hand held against the wound in their side. They
 still hold in their free hand an ARM.

 "I don't... want..." they slur, head lolling for the moment as they struggle
 against whatever force has taken them, their ARM slowly jerking upwards to
 aim almost drunkenly at the lot of you.

 "Azazel is... I don't. Don't..." they utter again, as the world about you
 twists and tilts on its axis, as the hall seems to converge and pull apart
 in the same instant, and as they, puppeted by whatever power rides them,
 begin their attack on you.

 You'll have to defend yourself. But is there some way to also save this
 person?
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Slow=============================================
==================<* Ethos Headquarters Attack - Round 2 *>===================
==========================< Results - Investiture >===========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Billy Lee Black                     24 --(12)--> 36                Fail
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lily Keil                           12 --(12)--> 24                Fail
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Xantia                              24 --(12)--> 36                Fail
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Citan Uzuki                         12 --(12)--> 24                Fail
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fei Fong Wong                       24 --(0)--> 24                 Pass
RPS Badge                           3   Combat  Effects: Fanfare
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elhaym van Houten                   24 --(0)--> 24                 Pass
Iron Born Staff                     2   Combat  Effects: Stalwart
----------------------------------< Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Billy Lee Black             15 --(20)--> 35                Pass
Conditions: Fright(2)|Reckless(1)|Slow(2)
Effects:
==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Billy Lee Black has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use
party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"We might not have seen all of Azazel's power," Elly answers Fei. It is not a happy thought.

And perhaps it is too neat of an explanation. Nevertheless. Fei advances on the man, unhindered by any illusion or distortion - perhaps his kungfu (or Ether response) is just too high.

"It could be," Elly answers Lily as she regroups herself back into position.

A number of others have encountered this unnamed man. Elly glances around with a mixture of wonder and horror because if this man is behind all of this, they may be in deep.

AND FROM THE BROTHER'S PERSPECTIVE...

Shadows confront him. Terrible shadows. They hoot. They call. They sway. One of them rises upwards, but it seems eerie. They're -

They're not like the other.

The gun kicks in his hand. His other hand must hold himself together, this ravaged body, so he must twist the weapon as he has practiced so often, but -

They're calling his name.

Why, why are they calling?

... Brother... Black? Is -

AND FROM OUTSIDE

The man, in his secure crouch, fires the shotgun down the hallway several more times. He does not aim it at anybody dead on - probably a blessing - but the weapon is loaded with heavy shot. Pain and blood awaits, despite the beseeching. The autoloader only needs one hand to cycle. But there is a problem the man must face.

He sees Xantia enough to hop backwards, her blow striking his shoulders but without the wonted force. AND THAT, Constant Readers, is when Fei - *who he may not have been able to see at all* - socks him one in the mouth, and another one in the gun arm. His grip is loosened and Elly thrusts the weapon forwards, smacking the shotgun away from the Etone at what seems like maximum range.

Fei's precision blow is enough to render him dizzy; slack and unresisting. A quick positioning, a burst of healing, and some bandaging, and it seems that Brother Vitellus will survive this day. ... hopefully.

Elly places his weapon near him, but takes the ammunition out first and puts it on the other side of the hallway.

DG: Citan Uzuki has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Ethos Headquarters Attack *>=========================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Extremely Lost Scholar *>====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 "Help! Hello??"

 You hear a voice echo from one of the side rooms down this corridor!
 Entering through the automatic door, you see a storage room full of crates.
 Fortunately, these appear to be food and religious supplies, not something
 especially valuable or volatile like medicine or bullets.

 "Hello!? I hid from the gunfire, but I appear to be a bit, uhm, stuck!"

 The bad news is, the reason that's good news is that you're probably going
 to have to break all these crates to find this guy.
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Stupify=====================================
DG: Billy Lee Black has used his Tool Blasting Charge toward his party's challenge, Extremely Lost Scholar.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    Lily confirms the thing he's asked of them all which provokes the doctor to grow grim-faced indeed. "...And Miss Lilac as well..." he muses, shaking his head.

    There isn't much time to do much of anything but the basic of medical and magical stabilization between Lily and Citan once the man is disarmed; he won't die of this wound, but he will need further treatment in order to fully recover. There is no time to take him out of here -- they need to proceed before the situation becomes even more dire. The best that can be done is to relocate him to one of the side rooms and hope for the best.

    They continue, because that's the only want to ensure that this stops.

    And it isn't long until they hear a shout. Someone is calling for help from one of the side rooms! The door is ajar--

    ...There is one of the scholarly among the Ethos in the storage room, rather stuck behind a huge wall of barrels.

    "I was hiding from the gunfire," he explains, struggling against the barrels that seem to have trapped him, "and I slipped, and I seem to be a bit, um... stuck." There is some silence for a moment from the scholar.

    "You're not the ones who were doing the shooting, right...?"

    "I assure you, sir, we are not," says Citan as he shakes his head, regarding the predicament the scholar is in. "Hmm... now which one of these..."

    He pulls out a thin volume after a moment, paging through it as he glances between the sheets and the wall of barrels before them.

    Then without ceremony he closes the manual and prods a finger at one specific barrel. "...Perhaps this one?" Citan muses.

DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Acupressure Guide toward his party's challenge, Extremely Lost Scholar.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Something is very wrong. Xantia identifies him as 'The Stranger' and Lily nods. That's who it must be, though what involvement he has... Well, who can say exactly? Other than 'some'. But it's concerning. Citan asks about it and Lily answers, "Yes, the same. I don't know how much he's behind, but I recognize his magic when I see it."

It's difficult to keep down the anger response in the wake of recognhizing it, to boot, but she manages for now.

Shortly thereafter, Lily is on the way out, rising from where she'd helped the man out. Good enough. "It's a problem. If he shows up..."

She shakes her head, and soon they are in a new room. A man... who was hiding.

"Ah," Lily says. She looks down, looks over at him. "Hm." Pulling a small metal card from her things, the sorceress looks at it, starts to mutter something about constants and compensating for his size. "About how much do you weigh?" she calls to the scholar. "It's important."

Lily will be applying a hopefully exact amount of the v o i d to this problem.

DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Demolition Formula toward her party's challenge, Extremely Lost Scholar.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

When Citan questions about the Stranger, Xantia too is quick to nod, surprised a little herself by how sure she feels that this is the same thing. It's such a uniquely bizarre feeling that it doesn't feel like it could be anything else. So his name is Azazel, apparently...

Leaving that for later worry, Xantia's attempt to deal with the situation is, once again, inconclusive. At least Fei was able to capitalize, and the required medical attention supplied, but whether this man is truly freed from the Stranger's influence... who can say. There's no time to make sure. While she would never argue against such a thing, the time required to stabilize this one victim is already more than she would've liked. But she waits patiently - okay, impatiently - for everyone to be able to move on before doing so herself.

She runs right by the side room just before a voice emerges from it, and screeches to a halt. A survivor in trouble?! Of course she'll help in any way she can! And lucky her, this calls for exactly the kind of help she most likes to provide.

"I understand the situation," she says with a big grin on her face as she cracks her knuckles. It should be no surprise what she's about to do.

Well, maybe a little bit of a surprise, as she gets the hammerhead turned fist weapon she calls 'Mini-Megaton' involved in clearing things out just a little bit faster. In short, it's bound to look like a bomb went off in there even if Billy hadn't used an actual one.

DG: Xantia has used her Tool Mini-Megaton toward her party's challenge, Extremely Lost Scholar.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly feels that tickling adrenal-terror-panic feeling in the small of her back again, although she does not focus on it. She gets out an Aquasol, that familiar refreshment, as they keep on moving, AND

Barrel storage.

Elly blinks for a moment. This man is alive, healthy, and -- and he's been trapped in here. "We don't even have any guns," Elly tells the man, which is probably a non sequitur but that's where she's at right now.

Elly digs out another three of the helpfully-blue-toned bottles of Aquasol from her ditty bag, holding them up for others to take and to bite into. They do tend to sting for a minute or so, but afterwards, you feel much better. They even have NUTRIENTS and that mysterious acid that keeps you from getting the scurvy! (That one's a new addition. They took out the sulfuric acid solution and replaced it with ascorbic.)

"Sir," Elly says, over the sound of Xantia's barrelstruction. "You need to get out of here. There's a wounded man that we passed on the way in, one of the Ethos. Please help him if you can. He had a weapon, so you can use that, in case anything happens."

"... but if you can tell us what happened...!!"

DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Inventory Clutter toward her party's challenge, Extremely Lost Scholar.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei is glad that he's not important enough to need to know what's going on because he has no idea what's going on with this guy that everybody keeps talking about.

Or wait is he? Does he have to actually know what's going on? Fei thinks about this. Sure, he's the Demon of Elru and has a bunch of past lives but he never really thought of any of that as, well, relevant most of the time. But what if it is? What if Azazel is secretly his uncle or something? It'd explain a lot, he thinks, if some asshole like that guy was secretly his uncle.

But is this really the time, Fei thinks, to be thinking about this? People are dying and you're kind of stuck on this point. You should be thinking about how to help Billy right now but then again, Fei, maybe you are thinking about this because the alternative is to think about how the fact that all of Billy's friends are dying is probably, at least partially, your fault. Like maybe if you had just stayed in prison the whole time this wouldn't have happened? But then Emeralda would probably still be mind controlled or something and Elly might still have to work for those psychopaths at Solaris. And he can't really be responsible for everything people do just because they hate him right?

Right... Right...

Fei is a little loathe to destroy food and he isn't feeling hungry but he has big muscles and can toss crates without too much trouble.

"Well Billy has guns." Fei points out. "But we'll probably, um, need them?"

He nods to Elly's request.

DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool Bart Jr Doll toward his party's challenge, Extremely Lost Scholar.
========================<* Ethos Headquarters Attack *>=========================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Extremely Lost Scholar *>====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 "Help! Hello??"

 You hear a voice echo from one of the side rooms down this corridor!
 Entering through the automatic door, you see a storage room full of crates.
 Fortunately, these appear to be food and religious supplies, not something
 especially valuable or volatile like medicine or bullets.

 "Hello!? I hid from the gunfire, but I appear to be a bit, uhm, stuck!"

 The bad news is, the reason that's good news is that you're probably going
 to have to break all these crates to find this guy.
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Stupify=====================================
===================<* Ethos Headquarters Attack - Round 3 *>====================
======================< Results - Extremely Lost Scholar >======================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Billy Lee Black                     36 --(5)--> 41                 Pass
Blasting Charge                     2   Brute   Effects: Resilient
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lily Keil                           24 --(5)--> 29                 Pass
Demolition Formula                  3   Brute   Effects: Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Xantia                              36 --(5)--> 41                 Pass
Mini-Megaton                        3   Brute   Effects: Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Citan Uzuki                         24 --(5)--> 29                 Pass
Acupressure Guide                   2   Brute   Effects: Strengthen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fei Fong Wong                       24 --(5)--> 29                 Pass
Bart Jr Doll                        3   Brute   Effects: Fanfare
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elhaym van Houten                   24 --(5)--> 29                 Pass
Inventory Clutter                   1   Brute   Effects: Cleanse
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Billy Lee Black             35 --(20)--> 55                Pass
Conditions: Fright(1)|Overzealous(2)|Slow(1)|Stupify(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1)|Strengthen(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Billy Lee Black has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use
party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
DG: Xantia has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Ethos Headquarters Attack *>========================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Remains of a Shootout *>====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 As you round the next corner, you hear a sudden BEEP and have only moments
 to duck back before a mine explodes mere inches from the corner! It looks
 like there's been some fighting here; bodies are strewn about. More
 annoyingly, it looks like someone was using a minelayer ARM of some kind;
 the corridor is pocked and scorched, and more importantly, there's mines all
 over!

 You'll have to watch your feet and move carefully to get through!
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Weaken=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    "This... I had seen in Luca, too. Now that I compare the two..." Citan exhales a lengthy sigh, shaking his head.

    ...Truth be told, he had realized it the moment that name was spoken, before the pulse of that power had even a chance to birth itself anew. But the truth is always a difficult thing.

    Lily asks after the scholar's weight. "About 150. ...147? Wait, what are you doing?" the scholar voices uneasily, from behind the barrels.

    "I believe about right there should suffice, Xantia," Citan says, indicating the barrel he had poked at. Inclining his head in a nod, he then takes the Aquasol from Elly and stands aside.

    "You found someone else alive?" the scholar says to Elly's request, from behind the barrels. "Oh, praise Granas...! I'll go and help. Just get me out of here!" There is a pause. "That means it's clear back there, right? ...I'm no good with ARMs..."

    Not all of Ethos are called to take up holy arms, after all.

    It's then that in short order a bunch of things happen:

    There are explosions. A few dozen barrels cease to exist. Xantia bashes several others right off this mortal coil altogether. And Fei lifts the sole remaining barrel, perched neatly atop the somewhat bewildered (and a little dazed) scholar, thus freeing him.

    "I don't know," the scholar admits to Elly, once he's on his feet again. "I heard gunfire and screaming, so I hid! But there were a few of them. Heavy boots, I guess? I heard them coming past here once, twice? Then I heard the door open on the second pass so they must have looked in but didn't see me," he continues, wincing as he stretches out his neck. "...Good thing. I would've been a sitting duck..."

    He'll skedaddle if there aren't any questions, after listening first for the path he should take (and also importantly, getting that Etone out of here!).

    But there's more for them to investigate yet. The rest of the beseiged headquarters awaits...

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia said she understood the situation... but she was wrong. There was one vital element to the situation that she had not understood beforehand. She is left to stare in horror at the resultant barrel carnage... and their spilled contents.

"Why...? Why didn't anyone tell me there was food in there??"

While others speak to the scholar, Xantia needs a moment to mourn that which has been so callously wasted. After a deep sigh, she's over it, and ready to press on. Ultimately this has only served as more motivation for making whoever's behind this pay, and she increases her pace accordingly, putting more distance between herself and the group, paying no need to any calls to slow down. Until she rounds a corner, there's a loud BEEP... followed by a big explosion, and smoke billowing out of the hallway.

Enough time passes to start worrying about whether Xantia just got blown to bits, but when the smoke clears, Xantia is standing with her back pressed against the far wall, alarm evident in her expression upon having needed to beat such a hasty retreat. "...Explosives. Bad." That's all she can get out while she takes a moment to recover.

Once she does, she's understandibly less eager to go down that hallway. But it's the only obvious way forward. "Anybody want me to toss them to the other side? It'll be safer than walking," she suggests. "I'll go last, I'll be fine now that I know what's there."

DG: Xantia has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Remains of a Shootout.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

"Compensating for your mass," Lily answers the scholar, continuing her calculations as she does. She takes an Aquasol too, pausing a moment before she continues with what she's doing. She does not know Fei's thoughts at the moment but she does know Billy has guns.

When the barrels cease to exist, Lily is pleased, looking to the scholar again. "Reasonable," she tells him about hiding. "It definitely kept you alive." And that's a good thing! It might keep the last guy alive, too! But... food....

"We'll get more food later. If that guy's magic is around here then it might be spoiled anyway."

Right?? It's fine.

But Xantia mourns, and presses on, until--

"Xantia!"

Lily rushes over, but there's Xantia, alarmed and--oh. Mines.

"No, thanks," Lily says of the mines. "Well," she says. "I can use some ice to set them off. Just have to account for the necessary weight and pressure."

"It'll be fine."

DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Demolition Formula toward her party's challenge, Remains of a Shootout.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.

Billy probably did some kind of healing thing to their injured Etone friend, because he has the power of God and Anima on his side.

Closer to the present: "Ah! Brother Macklin!" Billy calls, with visible relief filling his limbs. "I..." He sniffles a moment and scrubs at his eye. He contributes an explosion to some of the boxes, helpfully, and then watches as their scholar friend is freed. "I'm so glad to see you. It's...dire, but we've cleared out the way back to the top. Yes, please make haste. The rest of the Holy City appears to be safe, you should be able to find backup and treatment soon. Be cautious, friend."

Closer yet: Explosions. Once he confirms Xantia is well, he looks down. "Minelayer...I think someone had an ARM like that. Maybe..." ... He reaches into his coat for one of his blasting charges. "For now, we must clear the way."

Then he lobs a bomb into a set of bombs, and sets it off with a bullet, which causes BOMB!.

DG: Billy Lee Black has used his Tool Blasting Charge toward his party's challenge, Remains of a Shootout.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"I hope they're just trying to cover themselves," Elly says when Billy seems to recognize the nature of the ARM that they're up against. She managed not to walk into the minefield, at least - a triumph of Intelligence!

"That's true," Elly tells Fei, about Billy's guns. "I hadn't quite thought of that."

"... A few of them. So it's not just 'Azazel', whoever is behind this. I don't know if it would even be 'Azazel,' unless they have a team," Elly continues, even as she reaches into her ditty bag again. This time what comes out are a small handful of -- -- are those little wooden-paper fans with chocobo themes?

Yes.

They are also really good for throwing ahead to set off mines.

And now Elly has to get new ones. It's a real killer, the souvenier market.

DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Inventory Clutter toward her party's challenge, Remains of a Shootout.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    "Brother Billy! I'm so glad to see you're safe!" says the scholar, looking the young man up and down. "It was terrifying earlier... forgive me, but there was nothing I could do but save myself." He winces, shaking his head. "Yes! Once I'm able to get out of here -- with our brother Etone, I haven't forgotten! -- I'll seek aid. The whole of Saint Heim can't have fallen to madness..."

    With that, he's off, racing down the hallway.

    The rest of them press on, though not without trouble.

    "Xantia!"

    Fortunately, she's doing just fine, but it had been a near thing. "Thank goodness... I had thought..." His gaze turns to the area ahead. There had been a battle here. It's since ended, though there are no real signs of those who had fought -- whether or not that is a good or bad thing will very much depend on whatever is yet to come. Still, this isn't the main problem for them all right now. The main problem is probably the...

    ...rest of the mines.

    "Had they attempted a defensive position...?" Citan muses, folding his arms over his chest as he considers the scene before them. He glances over at Xantia as she offers her own solution. "...That is one solution, yes, but you would need to be very fast, Xantia! I do not need to say how short an interval would be available to... perhaps only if it proves necessary to do so," he says finally, watching the others as they do some work sweeping for mines.

    "Here... if it should become necessary," he says, pulling out his manual once more to reference a particular passage and then reaching out to touch a hand to the place where Xantia's neck meets her torso, taking care to avoid the collar. A pressure point, perhaps -- something to energize the body just enough.

DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Acupressure Guide toward his party's challenge, Remains of a Shootout.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"Well I... didn't... know?" Fei tells Xantia before focusing on the scholar. "Just stay safe. Don't be a dumb hero. That's our job." He pauses. "Mostly because we're too dumb to stop."

He rubs at his forehead briefly, quelling a small panic attack as he murmurs some soft barely audible words to himself.

BEEP

*explosion*

"Man, I'm glad I was bringing up the rear there." Fei says instead of exploding.

He puts his hands in his pockets for a moment, listening to even more explosions that Bart happens to set off. He looks down towards his Bart Jr doll.

"Fire the Bart Missiles!" It squeaks.

"...Yeah that's not gonna help here." Fei adds as he elects to just...let other people set these things off and focus on moving carefully himself.

"This sounds like a really dangerous ARM. For like. Everyone." Fei mutters.

DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Remains of a Shootout.
=======================<* Ethos Headquarters Attack *>========================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Remains of a Shootout *>====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 As you round the next corner, you hear a sudden BEEP and have only moments
 to duck back before a mine explodes mere inches from the corner! It looks
 like there's been some fighting here; bodies are strewn about. More
 annoyingly, it looks like someone was using a minelayer ARM of some kind;
 the corridor is pocked and scorched, and more importantly, there's mines all
 over!

 You'll have to watch your feet and move carefully to get through!
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Weaken=========================================
==================<* Ethos Headquarters Attack - Round 4 *>===================
=====================< Results - Remains of a Shootout >======================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Billy Lee Black                     41 --(5)--> 46                 Pass
Blasting Charge                     2   Brute   Effects: Resilient
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lily Keil                           29 --(5)--> 34                 Pass
Demolition Formula                  3   Brute   Effects: Rally
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Xantia                              41 --(17)--> 58                Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Citan Uzuki                         29 --(5)--> 34                 Pass
Acupressure Guide                   2   Brute   Effects: Strengthen
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fei Fong Wong                       29 --(17)--> 46                Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elhaym van Houten                   29 --(5)--> 34                 Pass
Inventory Clutter                   1   Brute   Effects: Cleanse
----------------------------------< Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Billy Lee Black             55 --(20)--> 75                Pass
Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Overzealous(1)|Weaken(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1)|Strengthen(1)
==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Billy Lee Black has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use
party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
DG: Citan Uzuki has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Ethos Headquarters Attack *>=========================
==========================<* CHALLENGE - Holy Night *>==========================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 From the sound of it, you're getting closer to the center of the chaos
 unfolding within the Ethos Headquarters. Soon, you can even see and smell
 the fresh signs of battle: bullet holes in the walls, the scent of gunpowder
 in the air. Blood.

 You catch sight of him soon after: a grizzled man in perhaps his
 mid-thirties, taking cover behind a sharp corner between the shots he takes
 around it. He's not an Etone, that's for sure -- he doesn't have the look or
 bearing of one. Some of you might recognize him as none other than Jessie
 Black. At his feet lies a fallen Etone, ARM resting mere inches from his
 hand. At a closer look you'll realize this one is still breathing - the
 Etone is injured but not dead.

 Bullets fly from around the corner. Someone -- or more likely, some/ones/ --
 are holding their ground from down the hallway there.

 "Well?" asks Jessie, without even looking at you. "You gonna fight or gawk?"
 He ducks out to take another shot.

 ...The people he's shooting at aren't Etones, either. Dressed in black body
 armor, as if they were prepared for a stealth assignment of some sort, they
 don't quite look like any force you've seen before.

 And they'll shoot you all the same, if you let them.
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Wound============================================
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia's kind of had her fill of explosions today after getting a bit too close to comfort for one. But she's not about to argue if others want to solve the problem that way. ...to be fair, if it had come down to her idea, she was planning to use Ether to force her way past and probably cause more explosions along the way too. She may not prefer more explosions right now, but that doesn't mean she'll stop choosing the direct approach every single time.

In the mean time, she answers Elly's musings, "I don't know what the Stranger - I mean Azazel - was doing here, and I don't know a lot about him, but... I don't have that weird feeling now. And these...", she gestures down the mine-filled corridor, "That kind of feels too... normal?" For a certain definition of normal, anyway. Either way, she concurs that something more is probably going on here.

Citan expresses concern for her plan, prompting a smile that lacks any such concern. "Really, I'll be fine. I'm plenty fast!" She obviously hasn't given the slightest thought to intervals or anything like that. In response, she's jabbed in the neck in a non-painful manner. She rubs the spot, curious, but the effect is self-evident, prompting an even brighter smile.

Meanwhile, everyone has their own methods of sending off mines. Pressure using ice magic, using souvenirs in ways that definitely voids any warrenties... or just plain ol' fighting bombs with bombs. It all works equally well to clear out the obviously visible explosions. But might there still be some hidden?

When Fei is about to ignore the sage advice of Bart Missiles and try to brave the hallway as it is now, Xantia steps up, stretching an arm in front of him to hold him back. "Hang on, Fei. Let me see if they got them all!"

A blur of movement follows, as Xantia dashes through the hallway very fast indeed thanks to the boost given by Citan. To her, it feels like she's already been on the other side forever by the time the few remaining mines explode. But if that's really what happened, why does she look a little singed...? Either way, she cheerfully waves the group over from the other side. "Should be safe now!" She pauses before adding, "Oops, sorry, I went first even though I said I'd go last!"

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    "Between 'the Stranger' and whoever else was here..." Citan muses, thinking aloud for the moment. ...But all this also tells him something else. More than a few things, in fact. But not is not the time for that -- they need to hurry. If he's not hearing things, there is still fighting taking place here, somewhere still ahead...

    It's just also the case that they literally have to deal with a minefield, first.

    The majority of them are handily dealt with by the variety of options they all have for such things. The rest... well.

    There's always Xantia.

    "...Actually, you did head out after the rest of us," he says, finally approaching where she stands on the other side. "It is simply the fact that..." Citan trails out, pausing where he stands. "...There it is again. I thought I had heard it before. Billy! Do you hear that?"

    Someone is having a shootout, not all that far from here. It's just that much more audible near the door where Xantia now stands.

    It's a race to the end of the hallway that meets them after, whereupon they round the corner to find the following situation:

    A T-shaped intersection.
    A man with a gun.
    A downed Etone at his feet (still breathing, but wounded).

    "Jesiah!"

    Because of course, here is Jessie Black, in the flesh, trading shots with an unseen party. "Hyuga? That you?" he says, without looking back. Ducking around the corner he dares to take a shot, quickly. "Took your sweet time gettin' here. C'mon, quit standing around already and give me a hand. Intersections like this are a pain in the ass."

    Citan hesitates visibly for a moment, bullets peppering the far wall. "...Very well. Am I to take it that they...?"

    Jessie grunts in response. "Came here on my own business and found a mess. ...Now, c'mon."

    Nodding once, Citan then turns to the others. "This may be... tricky. Allow me..."

    He takes a breath. There is a subtle shift in the air, as if the pressure differentials had realigned in some way. The body feels... lighter, perhaps. It's just a little bit of a boost that he can offer them now. But it might be enough to turn the tide.

DG: Citan Uzuki has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Holy Night.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Aww, little wooden-paper fans with chocobo themes. That's very cute.

"He doesn't work in a group to my knowledge," Lily answers about Azazel, "But I can't rule it out." She nods to what Xantia says. "I don't feel him either." And it does feel... normal. In a way.

"It's fine," Lily says to Xantia at her apoloy, smiling briefly but only very briefly. it's a grim sort of place, and a grim sort of happening. There's not a lot of room for much else.

And there seems to be a battle ahead.

"I hear it," Lily answers, and races down there as well. An intersection--two men there--one Citan knows. "Hey," she says, and ducks down nearby, starting to channel power in preparation for the firefight. She does feel the difference--the realignment...

Lily considers. "I can give covering fire if someone can do something more direct." She means this quite literally, too. She approaches the corner as well, flames wreathing her hands as she gathers them up for this purpose. "Just give me the word."

DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Holy Night.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.

Billy's a bit zones out on account of the TREMENDOUS PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA he is currently experiencing, but he snaps back to when Citan calls his attention. He listens.

"Gunshots. Many of them. The fighting's ongoing! Let's move!!"

Billy charges off like a shot, but like a properly trained gunner, he stops short at the intersection, pulling his gunsmokes into hand. He breathes, deeply, listening to the thunder of ARMs discharging. In the distance, it's like a popcorn crackle. So close, it's like gods at war.

He turns the corner, weapons drawn, and sees.... "Father!?" he says, at almost the same time as Citan.

But Citan and Jessie talk their way through things. "Father, what is this!?" Billy barks.

"Me puttin' my nose in a fight that ain't mine, is what it is!" Jessie mutters. "Like I always do 'cuz I'm so--"

BAM, someone sets off a Heavy ARM down the hall, a shell rocketing past Jessie and exploding further down the hall. "FUCK!"

The routine of yelling at his deadbeat dad gives Billy focus. "I should hope not!"

He puts up his gunsmokes. "Hold them! I'll arm it."

He pulls out his double-barrel longarm, pops open the breech and feeds it with the Ether Cartridge he keeps on him. Then he trots down the way, setting up against the wall, near Lily and opposite Jessie. Billy glares. "Black uniforms...this is organized. Special operations...? But nobody like that gains anything from exterminating the Ethos! Aveh, Kislev, Meria Boule...not even Guild Galad. Who could be doing this?"

"C'mon, boy," Jessie grunts, and cycles his shotgun. "Stone 'n' I both taught you how to answer that, I bet."

Billy's expression grows terribly cold. "Right," he says.

And father and son, in synch, sweep out into the hallway, Jessie firing a shotgun blast down the hall - and Billy, a spear of light from his Ether Rifle, while both shout: "Search the bodies!"

DG: Billy Lee Black has used his Tool Ether Rifle toward his party's challenge, Holy Night.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia just keeps smiling as the others approach. It's like she's forgotten the situation they're in for a moment. She hasn't, but as so often, whenever the mood is downcast, she just seems to gravitate towards acting in ways that might help to lighten it a little bit.

Of course, once she hears the shooting nearby, any comments she may have had go right out the window. It's clear where they need to be right now, and they need to be there as fast as they can.

As bullets strike nearby, Xantia quickly dives for cover. The person here that appears to be on their side is a new face to her, but Citan seems to know him and that's good enough for her. She does wonder "Father...?" aloud when Billy calls that out, but this isn't the time to dwell on that. Instead, she'd like to put her focus where it should obviously be, but... she grits her teeth in frustration. The people with guns may be able to let loose, but there isn't too much she can do at a distance.

Thus, when Lily mentions 'someone doing something more direct', it's probably no surprise to hear Xantia respond, "I'll do it! If I can just get to them, I'll make them sorry for what they did!"

Especially following Citan's additional boost, she feels confident enough that she'll be able to do some damage if given cover. Even so, she hopes the extra juice Citan gave her a little while ago hasn't entirely run out yet either. She can use every little bit of speed she can get to avoid getting shot while she gets into Xantia Range. Which is, naturally, the point-blank melee range from which she can do the most damage.

Once a signal is given upon which she can go, flames roar to life around her body, offering little protection from bullets, but the elemental resistance does help to make Lily not have to worry quite as much about her aim. She also has her ARM at the ready, producing a red-colored energy blade that could, in theory, deflect bullets, but it'd be best if she didn't need to resort to that sort of gamble while on the move.

If and when she does get into Xantia Range, she won't hesitate to liberally use that ARM in whatever way is most effective in dealing with the threat. That's the point of this tactic, after all - to never give the enemy any chance to get off a clear shot.

DG: Xantia has used her Tool ARM Blade toward her party's challenge, Holy Night.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Cute... LIKE DEATH, Lily. Like death.

"I imagine the Ethos keeps some of the best things under tight control," Elly says to Fei. "And they mostly would be in conflict with Wels, right? So... even if a particular... I mean to say, once a powerful ARM was in their hands, it wouldn't leave. Or something. I'm sorry, I'm rambling..."

As the detonations fade, Elly gets back up, breathes out with emphasis, and steps forwards. "I think I have to offer you another theory, Doctor," Elly says. "'The Stranger's' talent might not be unique. But I don't know who would have been in a position to study it. Even Gebler only had encounter records... and they're probably the foremost experts in Ether science on the surface."

But there's gunplay. Elly tightens her grip on her staff and walks forth. Faster. And then --

JESSIE BLACK. Elly's eyes bug out at the sight of Jessie as he shoots in profile and then addresses -- Citan! And --

Billy. The resemblance is clearer than ever, now that she can see both of them, but there is little room for gasping at this family reunion. "Sir, excuse me," Elly addresses Jessie, "but -- why are you here right now?!?"

Enemies. Black uniforms. "-- Odessa?" Elly hazards, but a moment later she swings her iron rod down in a dramatic posture while partially behind cover and -- with an eye-narrowing effort of force... A burst of flame rips down the hallway towards the enemy! Then a second one, shortly thereafter, rippling with burning bright plasmic force, on the immortal theory of 'hit 'em again'.

DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Iron Born Staff toward her party's challenge, Holy Night.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool RPS Badge toward his party's challenge, Holy Night.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei stops and waits for Xantia. He looks after her as she dashes quickly along and he rubs at his neck and says, "Sure," after a long moment. "Right. Okay. You uh."

He looks at the fire and smoke and shrapnel for a long time.

"...Yeah, sure." He says. "This is probably for the best. Is your... Are your feet okay/ You don't have any metal shards stuck in them or burns or something?"

He looks towards Jesiah a moment later and he brings up his hands as if expecting the guy to shoot at him. But instead, Jesiah is shooting at other people. He lowers his hands and says, "...On your own business?"

He rubs at his neck. "This is getting to be an awful lot of coincidences..." Could it mean something? Probably not.

Needless to say, they seem ready to take the fight here so he darts in to start some fisticuffs.

========================<* Ethos Headquarters Attack *>=========================
==========================<* CHALLENGE - Holy Night *>==========================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 From the sound of it, you're getting closer to the center of the chaos
 unfolding within the Ethos Headquarters. Soon, you can even see and smell
 the fresh signs of battle: bullet holes in the walls, the scent of gunpowder
 in the air. Blood.

 You catch sight of him soon after: a grizzled man in perhaps his
 mid-thirties, taking cover behind a sharp corner between the shots he takes
 around it. He's not an Etone, that's for sure -- he doesn't have the look or
 bearing of one. Some of you might recognize him as none other than Jessie
 Black. At his feet lies a fallen Etone, ARM resting mere inches from his
 hand. At a closer look you'll realize this one is still breathing - the
 Etone is injured but not dead.

 Bullets fly from around the corner. Someone -- or more likely, some/ones/ --
 are holding their ground from down the hallway there.

 "Well?" asks Jessie, without even looking at you. "You gonna fight or gawk?"
 He ducks out to take another shot.

 ...The people he's shooting at aren't Etones, either. Dressed in black body
 armor, as if they were prepared for a stealth assignment of some sort, they
 don't quite look like any force you've seen before.

 And they'll shoot you all the same, if you let them.
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Wound============================================
===================<* Ethos Headquarters Attack - Round 5 *>====================
============================< Results - Holy Night >============================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Billy Lee Black                     46 --(0)--> 46                 Pass
Ether Rifle                         2   Combat  Effects: Embolden
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lily Keil                           34 --(4)--> 38                 Fail
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Xantia                              58 --(0)--> 58                 Pass
ARM Blade                           2   Combat  Effects: Embolden
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Citan Uzuki                         34 --(4)--> 38                 Fail
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fei Fong Wong                       46 --(0)--> 46                 Pass
RPS Badge                           3   Combat  Effects: Fanfare
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elhaym van Houten                   34 --(0)--> 34                 Pass
Iron Born Staff                     2   Combat  Effects: Stalwart
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Billy Lee Black             75 --(35)--> 110               Pass
Conditions: Fright(2)|Hesitate(1)|Wound(2)
Effects: Embolden(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success!
DG: The party led by Billy Lee Black has successfully explored Ethos Headquarters Attack!
========================<* Ethos Headquarters Attack *>=========================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Libera Eas De Ore Leonis *>===================
|Type: Discovery   |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 4          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Prevailing over the black-armored individuals, your triumph enables you to
 press on into the room beyond this one, with Jessie leading the way.

 What you see within may come as a slight shock, however: in contrast to the
 halls beyond, this chamber holds an advanced computer system. Rather than
 monitors, it projects images onto the walls above the consoles proper: you
 can see at a glance maps of Filgaia, of Aquvy, of the Ignas region. Of...
 what look like troop movements on the Kislev and Aveh sides of the field, in
 the latter?

 Jessie shoulders his shotgun against his shoulder. "Figured they had
 something like this... one moment." Moving over to one of the consoles, he
 spends a moment doing something with its controls. "...There. Heh. So that's
 why."

 The text that scrawls across the various projections is voluminous... and in
 Solarian.

 "Those dumbasses," Jessie remarks, gesturing at the text. "...Don't look at 
 me like that. Of course I can read it. I was born there." Without so much as
 skipping a beat, he continues, "I guess you could call 'em Solaris' go-fers
 or something. They monitor and manipulate the surface-dwellers. Have been
 for centuries. But that ain't why they're up shit creek today."

 He points at a section of text and after a second of this, waves his hand
 dismissively. "...Anyway, they're planning a schism. Or were. I'd wager
 that's the reason we're havin' all this," and here he gestures back out
 towards the hallway. "Solaris likes cleanin' up its messes. If it weren't
 for my boy I'd let 'em--"

 The door in the back slides open, revealing none other than Bishop Stone...
 flanked by a number of black-armored individuals and others, besides.

 "Jesiah," he says, his glasses glittering in the light. "I had thought that
 seemed like 'your handiwork'."

 Jessie scowls. "I knew it... you ain't changed a bit from back then. Have
 you... Stein?"

 TO BE CONTINUED

 (OOC: You have earned a buff of Hyper and 20 FP in the fight taking place in
 the scene Cindered Shadows! Let Staff know before that scene!)
=Dungeon Conditions: Secret, Save Point=======================================
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    Citan pauses a moment mid-stride at that remark from Elly. "Yes, that... may be the case," he says finally. "Still... 'Azazel'... Perhaps it is only a coincidence. But I am given to wonder." He shakes his head, though. "...We will not get anywhere simply 'wondering', though. We must get to the bottom of this!"

    Only to meet with minor complication called 'Jessie Black'.

    The doctor winces once, faintly, as father and son trade barbs, only to flatten against the wall as that heavy ARM shell rings out there, somewhere. "...Goodness..."
    Is this a reaction to Jessie's vocabulary or the ARM in question, though?

    Why is he here right now? "Business," he remarks, without so much as glancing back at Elly. "Call it a li'l solution to all my problems! Just happened to walk into a pain in the ass instead!" ...This may not answer her question, though.

    The black uniforms may provide slightly more of an answer, if only just. They aren't after all the sort of armor with which Elly would be familiar--

    Given her particular role within Solaris' military. She might be with Gebler, but has she ever seen how a small-scale purge must go?

    Jessie meanwhile ducks his head in a nod as Lily gets into position, Xantia following her lead. Citan moves to stall Fei for just a moment, though, before he can do likewise. "...Fei. Be careful," he cautions. He after all remains behind as several of the others surge forward, perhaps standing at the ready in the event the charge goes badly for them all. Closing his eyes for a moment, he takes another breath.

    The violence that follows is short but brutal. Were they expecting a charge, one backed up by the cover the ARMsfire provided by father and son provided?
    Arguably not. It isn't even the bullets they need to worry about -- not when their opposition comes in the form of several different varieties of Ether-borne flame.
    And Fei, who it should not be forgotten, has an extremely mean right hook.

    Once they make good on the Black family motto and search the bodies, a certain possibility presents itself to those who have served Solaris in the past. Only a few trace objects -- a communicator on one, a holdout weapon on another -- suggest either that they may have a particular alliance or that there has been a slight slip in weapons and equipment security on some base or another.

    It's a simple matter from there to push into the room beyond, the door in front of which this team had taken up their positioning. Is there something of import within?

    ...Yes, because without question for many of those who have stepped inside, it is filled with machinery and computers of decidedly Solarian extraction.

    "Well..." utters Citan, as if taking it all in. "A system like this...? Here? Even back in the capital, it would be rare to find such..." He walks towards some of the systems, gazing at the screens as if he were dumbfounded to see such.

    Reports, in the common tongue, are still coming in. They speak of such things after all:
    Things like the fighting in Ignas. A suggestion to stabilize Kislev's offensive capability by increasing that of Aveh's. A message from Bishop Shakhan requesting further resources. A termination request for a former criminal contact in Guild Galad.

    And then there are the messages in Solarian.

    "...Dumbasses," Jessie remarks, reading the text on the screen. "But that explains what's goin' on here. Looks like these fuckheads decided to have themselves a little 'schism'. Those guys out there... they're probably here from Solaris. Cleaning up their own messes. Just like always, eh, Hyuga?"

    His gaze still on the screen, Citan turns his head sharply towards Jessie. He fidgets with his glasses a moment, as if something was on his mind. "Yes..."

<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.

Billy gives his father a cross look. The familiar, simmering emotion gives him a kind of focus he needs, so desperately, even if i is perhaps not the healthiest. Despite it, father and son move with eerie similarity as they go over the bodies. "Nothing," Billy mutters. "No patches...these are ARM weapons, but nothing special about them..."

Jessie doesn't say it, but he does pluck an enemy's ARM out of their shoulder-holster and hold it up for the others to examine. "Hyuuga. Ginger." ...that'll be Elly. "This still the standard issue?"

It's a Solaris-produced ARM pistol.

A few seconds later he offers it up to whoever gets closest first, and then shoves his hands in his pockets. "Motherfucker," he mutters, stalking off into the neighboring room.

At which point the question of what's going on becomes vastly stranger, as the unquestionably Solarian computer equipment comes to life.

Jessie says his part. Billy looks...entirely lost, slowly stepping toward the screens. "'Schism...?' The Ethos would break from the Church...? But what would Solaris care about that?"

He isn't following. Or perhaps he's just desperately struggling not to make the connection that would destroy him.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

'Fei. Be careful.'

Fei looks to Citan for a moment and says, "Uh--yeah. I think I get what kind of 'careful' you mean. I'm not gonna go hard."

And he doesn't, he's pretty gentle as far as he could go. But then--

"Wait a minute. BISHOP Shakhan?" Fei asks. "The guy who hostile tookover Bart's home country??"

The Bart Jr doll squeaks as Fei looks at it, "If my father knew I was set up by a jerk like this, he'd turn in his grave!"

Fei frowns severely. Then his eyes widen. "H--hey hold on, that's--the thing! The thing with that lady and--Tabitha! Who has that sort of singularity gravity punch stuff...!"

He then looks to Citan for a moment, then to Jessie. "Hyuga..?" He's kind of shorting out. This is a lot being thrown at him right now.

He scratches at his head. "Wait you knew all about this all along?" Scratch, scratch.

Fei is rapidly looking more and more bewildered and lost. This is what happens Fei when you don't ask questions in the first quarter of your plot.

"It sounds like you're saying this is some kind of--"

He doesn't want to say it in front of poor Billy. "But there's so many. There's branches everywhere. They're not doing the same thing in other places, are they?"

He looks towards Elly to see if she's better clued in than he is and she probably is as a general rule, but that doesn't mean she knows about this.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Has Elly ever seen a -purge- in action?

No. Not really. She was a soft babby intelligence services agent. She sat in the back or went on expeditions where the goal was to find something, recover something, or destroy something. Something. Not - this.

Fortunately, it is the purgers who are purged, at least in this moment. And through the secured door forwards, Elly steps and --

Some tiny part of her reels! She could be back in a comms facility in Aveh or on a ship. This place is full of computer technology so new she can smell the subtle scent of recently-synthesized, still outgassing polymers. It makes her stomach twist in a way it did not used to.

"... Were they running an intelligence cell out of the Ethos?" Elly says, although it is a tentative suggestion. And then Elly is shown a familiar gun and her face blanches, before she swallows twice in rapid succession and says, "When... when I left, yes. I don't think it... would..."

Elly shakes her head briskly, pinches her nose shut, and breathes in and out through her mouth several times in rapid succession. After this, she regains some poise, enough to turn her attention towards the machinery anew.

"... You would think they would be in favor of a breach like that," Elly says, after long uncomfortable seconds, "if anything. If the surface nations subdivide and focus their efforts on one another, supervision becomes easier. ... At least, that's the theoretical principle," Elly concludes, staring directly at her feet. Her fingers find each other and twist with anxiety.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily doesn't know Jessie; she doesn't know his relationships to the others, though she's picking up on that. 'Hyuga', he calls Citan. It would make sense that he'd have a different name, back then. But everything can wait on what has to happen here--Lily is able to let loose thanks to Xantia's resistane to fire, and when it's all done...

Lily looks around thoughtfully as they get to this room. No--she steps inside, and she sees machinery, computers...

'Back in the capital'. Lily stares at each of them. She stares, noticing the particular language there. She can't read it, but she sees it. And the messages...

Lily steps towards the screens too, and then looks at Billy. She can feel some of what he's feeling already, reaches out. "...Brother," she starts, and then looks to the screens again.

...Here? A place like this? Lily doesn't follow Granas, but the very idea of this kind of infiltration this deep into society...

Wels didn't bother her. A giant Reaper didn't faze her. But this? This gives her pause, this sets her back.

"...This isn't a localized operation. It's not just here, even if it's not..."

But it is, isn't it?

"I... I can't..."

Lily, stunned, stares further. Until Elly speaks up.

"...Right. 'Supervision'. How--How much of it is--"

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Not expecting a charge when Xantia's around shows that this couldn't possibly have been operatives briefed on her modus operandi. Of course that's what she was going to do as soon as she got the chance, and with this kind of backup she's able to get away with it quite cleanly even. Afterwards, she doesn't busy herself with those no longer standing, instead watching and listening for signs of further trouble up ahead.

She doesn't immediately detect any, yet she can't quite relax in this wake of this. The presence of organized armed forces like this doesn't bode well, to put it mildly. Just what did they stumble into here? ...She can't be sure whether it's because of something actually in the related memories she's recovered, or because simply having those memories has caused it to be on her mind a lot, but the word 'Solaris' does come to mind. Even before she catches sight of the weapon that is produced.

When she does, she wastes no more time in heading into the room beyond, and... well, there can be no doubt at that point. This kind of equipment doesn't belong on Filgaia. She doesn't even need to see Solarian writing to be sure where all this had to be coming from. It's just that up until then, she could still hope there might be some other explantion for all this. When thoses hopes are dashed...

A dull thud and the sound of a cracking wall can be heard from the back of the room where Xantia was standing. Her head is lowered, and she speaks very slowly and deliberately.

"Are you telling me... that all this time... the Ethos was being controlled by Solaris...?"

Her head raises sharply. There's just flat out murder in her eyes as she looks directly at Billy, asking the wordless question 'did you know about this?' But no. All she sees there is the eyes of a clueless victim. She doesn't have anyone she can vent the rage on that she feels in this moment. She does her level best to stay calm, but this is not easy.

"...I see how it is. They didn't know. All those people, thinking they're doing what they doing for the good of Filgaia, when behind the scenes a handful of people are just using them all to shape things the way they want it, to keep it all under their control. That's just how Solaris does things, isn't it?!"

She can't help but turn her head to Elly at that, though she feels bad about it directly after, and takes a deep breath. "I... I'm sorry. But I really... really want to punch someone for this." This is an understatement.

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    Citan looks to Elly at Jessie's question on the make of ARM, no doubt simply for the reason that it's been some time since he's last set foot in the capital.

    But within the room, there are a vast number of screens-- and a lot of information still cycling from recent reports.

    "...That was my name in Solaris, Fei," Citan answers simply. "Jesiah here... was my senior in Jugend. He escaped Solaris with his family shortly before I left." It's a condensed summary of events, but one that may have to suffice, given the sort of situation they are in now.

    "...Because they have been working directly for Solaris for some time," Citan remarks. 'An intelligence unit' is one way of putting it. So is 'supervision'. "Centuries, perhaps. I do not believe," and this he says to Xantia, as she remarks on the situation, "that many who made the Ethos their livelihood knew of any of this. Even many who worked in this very building likely did not know," Citan continues, gaze returning to a particular screen.

    "Hmm... If I am to read this report correctly... then it seems that the Ethos 'found something' during a recent excavation. A... still-functional ancient computer? There had been some data extracted from it... but they do not go into detail here. Aha, it is still contained at the site." He pauses, readjusting his glasses. "It appears they... did not report this to their contacts within Solaris..."

    He turns, after a moment. "Jesiah... what do you make of this?"

<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.

Billy has the face of a man who is...well, who is learning that his God may never have been alive.

Jessie, being Father of the Decade, is currently focusing on the screens. "Couldn't stay," he says, absently. "Not after what I saw. Reckon your friend knows a bit what that's like."

Billy makes a horrible noise in his throat when Citan says the word 'centuries.'

Jessie thumbs his nose. "Fuck a donut, look at this shit. Transport logs...from every Ethos facility on the planet back to the Homeland. They been cherry-pickin' supplicants for Third Classers. Bet they think it's movin' up in the world."

His lip curls. He's not visibly boiling like Xantia, but his jaw is set, his neck is tense...perhaps the only thing holding him back is the lack of a target.

He turns his attention to where Citan is indicating. "Ancient computer...yada yada untolled troves of of forgotten wisdom, buncha academic crap..."

He sucks in a breath himself, rubbing his jaw. "...they think whatever's down there'll give them what they need to break away from Solaris completely. Power, knowledge. Both, I guess. Fucked if I know what they think they'd do afterward."

Squint.

"Fuck do they mean, 'the corpse of God?'"

Billy has sunk fully to his knees, his eyes wide and tears streaming down his cheeks. "N...no..."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly's face tries to scrunch up. She can't say anything in response to Xantia. She looks down at her hands for a moment even as Citan speaks, always smooth, always easy, always clinical. He must think I'm a wash-out, Elly thinks with an interior misery. Maybe I am.

Lily - *Lily* - seems staggered at the scope of the operation. Elly's fingers curl loosely together, digging the little metal cover on her left pinky into the flesh of her hand. She raises her hands then, pressing the heels of her palms against her eyes. She has no right to start crying right now, she tells herself.

No right at all.

At this stage of shame and guilt, hearing about the 'corpse of god' has less impact on Elly than it otherwise might. She says thickly, "Well, ah. Ah." A deep inhalation and she says, "Can you get... that information on portable, or...? If this site's marked for destruction, we might not be able to..."

Elly sways slightly after this and brings one hand up to bite into the flesh of her thumb to silence herself. She stares at the floor because the floor, or at least that patch of it, doesn't make her feel ashamed.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia slowly removes her fist from the wall where she struck it, staring blankly at Citan's additional exposition on what's been happening as well as his own past life. She looks from him to this 'Jesiah', and just... well, she can't help but laugh at all this.

"So that's it, huh? Everywhere you look it's just Solaris, Solaris, Solaris. So many people that have suffered and will suffer, all because of them." She shakes her head, assuring, "Don't worry... I'm not going to blame any of you for any of this. Because you're victims too. It's the ones giving the orders who are to blame. Those are the ones I'm really after."

She pauses, surprised at her own words, and raises a hand to her forehead, suddenly looking very unsure of herself. All this knowledge regarding Solaris, feeling urged to oppose them in any way she can... these stem from memories that were returned to her. But she doesn't have any context. She doesn't know where any of this came from. She can't even be sure how much of what she's feeling right now is her own motivation.

"...the ones I used to be after? I think...? ...Who was I? What was I supposed to do...?"

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"Oh--OH! That makes sense. You'd want to change your name." Fei says, relaxing a bit.

He then looks towards Billy. He watches him for a few moments and he approaches him after a short moment. He crouches down near Billy, looks to his eyes and then gives him a one armed hug with one arm.

"I'm sorry." Fei says softly. "I'm really sorry." He doesn't seem to entirely get what Jessie is going on about either but he knows what it's like to discover the world is bigger and stranger that you know.

"The things they lied to you about." Fei says. "Whatever they say. Whatever they do. It doesn't change the good that you've done, Billy. The smiles on their faces. Their smiles are real. Their happiness is real. And it will still be real. We'll get through this. And so will they."

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

All this time. Xantia says it's how they do things, that she wants to punch someone for it. Lily would agree, except... She feels like she's been punched instead. She waits for the familiar rage to replace it, but for a while longer, it doesn't; she doesn't shift gears, doesn't change feelings away from what she can sense of Billy's influencing her own. Her golden eyes stare into screens... as she listens to the way Jessie talks about it all, and listens to Citan explain.

"...The 'corpse of God'...?" Lily feels an ache, and she wishes for a moment that someone else were here. "...I don't know," she tells Xantia. "I really don't. I feel like... I don't know anything, anymore."

Her hand shakes. She's pretty sure she notices that. She looks up at Elly, for a moment, but not with recrimination. The people who have suffered, and will suffer...

"Fei's... Fei's right. He..."

"Y-yes, Elly, we need to... we need to get the information, to..."

"To..."

Her eyes start to darken, as she trails off.

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    Ever so slightly, Citan turns his head when Jessie mentions the transport logs. In contrast to Jessie, he looks instead carefully, completely neutral, as if he were carved out of stone instead.

    "I suspect that is the case," he says, on the matter of the computer, only to pause, as Jessie picks out another piece of information from the rest:

    The corpse of god.

    "...I do not know," he says, shaking his head as if at a loss.

    Could they obtain some information from a terminal, Elly asks. "I... hm. I suppose we could try. Now, let me see..." He takes a step forward to try fiddle with one of the consoles.

    But--

    Behind them all, the door opens. In walks Bishop Stone, flanked by figures in that black body armor. His gaze immediately zeroes in on one man in particular, however--

     "Jesiah," he says, his glasses glittering in the light. "I had thought that seemed like 'your handiwork'." His attention shifts towards Billy, and ever so slightly, the corner of the holy man's mouth turns in a smile. "...Ah, Billy. I see you have learned 'the truth' today. However... there is still so much left for you to learn."

    The fact that Jesiah has started to growl, low in his throat, might give some suggestion to the sort of form this 'truth' is likely to come in. "Stein... you ain't changed a bit from back then..."