[Fate] Magical Girls Unlimited: Unlocked Hearts (Volume 1)

[Ascension]

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Magical Girls Unlimited:
Unlocked Hearts

Episode One: Green and Pleasant Land
OP 1: Dessa - Skeleton Key (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-elJDC8N7I)

Thursday, October 2nd. 4:30 PM.

"Idyllic" is the word, I believe. Past the heat of summer's dying days but not yet overtaken by winter's encroaching chill, early autumn dwells in a sort of beautiful twilight. This day, in this moment, everything is as it should be. The grass is green, the sun is shining, a breeze is blowing, and two teams of Landsgate girls are gathered in the fields for an impromptu game of the world's favorite sport... or at least that's what's happening if Emily Dew has anything to say about it.

"Hey, you lot!" she calls out as you pass by the practice pitch where her friends are idly kicking the ball around, "Come and join us."

Her grin is unabashedly predatory, but a quick head count shows that she's only got five girls with her; numbers, at least, would be even if you accepted her challenge.

"Not quite elevens, but we could go six a side, make it a game. That'd probably be enough to make it interesting."

She indicates Kaleemah with a jerk of her head.

"She can play football, right? Shouldn't need hands for it."

She turns that grin of hers directly on Erika, and her eagerness is palpable. She wants this badly, wants to face the fencing captain on her own turf.

"What do you say, Wiessman? I know you'd rather have a sword in your hands, but you know it's good to get outside every now and then."

[Inspector Valin]

Erika met Emily's gaze, cold, uncaring. This wasn't the first time the blond haired athlete had asked to play them, and it probably won't be the last. The most irritating part of this was the idea that playing out on the pitch might get her uniform dirty. Still, they'd been out here for a while, and Em tended to attract the other members of the school's actual Football Team. Erika glanced between their opposite numbers, noting who Dew had on hand for this little confrontation. She took a look down, briefly, both at the pitch and the girls' shoes: just how far was Emily willing to go for a win?

Doesn't matter. We can still take her down. The Fencing Captain turned back to her friends, looking between them. It could be a good teamwork exercise, and unlike an Importune key encounter, nothing serious was riding on it. Not all of the other Key-Barers were that good at football... but they could still play well enough to outdo Emy. Quick brisk offense, they'd have won before the bell went. The black haired girl tilted her head, looking the others in the eyes one by one, an eyebrow raised in the simple question. "Well?"

[roll0] Notice Roll, looking to see who is with Emy, and if the other girls had thought ahead to put their football boots on. It'd give them a pretty strong advantage if they did; better grip on the pitch for a start, and a stronger kick. But they're probably not supposed to be wearing them outside of proper practice. :smallwink:.

[Jadev]

Melissa turns her ever-present smile towards Emily and waves after the young athlete calls to them

"Hi Emily!"

She's never had much occasion to talk to Emily. The sport-loving girl has always focused on the more athletically inclined of the group. But there's no reason not to be friendly. Melissa notes her roommate looking at the rest of the group. She nods.

"I'm fine with it! It sounds fun!"

Leave it to Melissa to completely misinterpret the situation as an innocent game played between friends. Oh! Speaking of friends, Melissa realizes she hasn't greeted any of the other girls yet! She scans all of their faces, seeing if she recognizes any of them.

4d3-5 Trying to figure out if Melissa recognizes any of the girls, using Rapport in place of connections.

[Ascension]

Looking at Em's friends, it's not difficult to see that They've Come Prepared to play: gym clothes, cleats, the works. Erika and Melissa both also recognize Ruby Faulkner at Emily's side, though given how she follows Em around it'd be more of a surprise if she wasn't on hand. The other four girls aren't as distinctly recognizable, though Melissa might remember a couple of names.

Em smirks at Melissa's enthusiasm.

"There's a good girl," she affirms, "That's all we're looking for, a bit of fun."

[Lykan]

Olivia squeaks a little when she's addressed, snapping closed a book she was thumbing through before looking at the girls who were addressing her. Once she's grasped the exact nature of the challenge, she shakes her head and looks down at her feet. "Can't. S-sorry." ... Apparently explanations were too complicated for her to get out? Eh. It was hardly new for the girl to be so taciturn.

Kind of a shame, though. Being about a head taller than the rest of the girls there probably would give them a bit of an advantage.

[DeafnotDumb]

"Oh, can I play football? Gee, I don't know, Emily. What do you think?" Kaleemah responds with all her typical grace and restrained sarcasm, looking down as if to reassure herself that those two things at the end of her legs are really, despite appearances, feet. She taps them against each other just to make sure.

Of course, Olivia's not up for it. It's a shame, because that girl should really boost herself up a bit and Kal just knows that - unlike Kal's previous suggestions of fencing, martial arts, bungee jumping and white water kayaking - that this is what she really needs to break her shell. She prods the girl with her foot as if to say come on, try and then faces Emily again.

"How 'bout this?" She says, raising her voice. "When we beat you, you owe me a favour. If you beat me, I owe you one. Should be easy - unlike you, I can remove my dead weight." She taps her arms meaningfully.


Digging to earn a Fate point by making that bet. HINT

[Ascension]

Emily feigns surprise as Kaleemah answers her challenge with a challenge, giving her cronies a quizzical look.

"Well I don't know about putting stakes on the outcome... we are just looking for some friendly competition here, aren't we, girls?" she asks, her voice almost dripping with sarcasm, "And I don't know if the school rules would even allow gambling on sport..."

Ruby steps forward out from among the other girls, smiling up at Em.

"Oh, but Emily, how about this? If they win, we owe her a favor, but if we win, they don't owe us anything. That way-"

Emily's hungry smile returns in full force as she claims the end of the sentence, "That way it wouldn't be a gamble at all!"

Ruby glows in the light of Emily's malicious cheer, mirroring the taller girl's grin. Em nods at Jaya, allowing an incongruous note of humility to creep into her voice, which really only seems to highlight her insincerity.

"There you see, Ms. Prefect, we wouldn't want to do anything against the rules. We just want a nice, friendly game."

Riding the wave of Em's confidence, Ruby smirks up at Livi and chimes in, "If you're up to it, anyway."

The fate point is yours, DeafnotDumb.

[Lykan]

Livi flinches a little when she's nudged, giving Kal a rather apologetic look. Really, you would have thought at least one of those previous things might have been successful. More than once the lanky girl's been caught watching Bruce Lee and Zorro flicks on her laptop (which she'd immediately shut and proceed to scamper off back to her room once she discovered there were prying eyes about), and it wasn't entirely rare to find her outside on her own juggling a football at the edge of the field. Whatever reasons she had for remaining so guarded seemed rather arbitrary.

Still, after being poked, she does shuffle over to Jaya and tug on one of her sleeves, whispering to her as quietly as she can while still remaining audible. "C-can we get changed first?"

[Inspector Valin]

Erika stayed silent for a few seconds, as the two groups started to converse. Her irritation at the other group's behaviour was less obvious than Kaleemah's, but no less real. The young protegee glanced around the football pitch, mind turning back in time a little. The first trick Melissa had taught Erika when the two started playing cards together was misdirection. When people are paying attention to something else, they're not focusing on you, which helps minimize the risk of them noticing your tells. Say, if she had a whole gaggle of people looking for a fight, all their eyes focused on Erika's friends rather than her. Or, for that matter, their football.

With a spurt of speed, Erika jumped past Emily and Ruby, ducking through the group of friends, and making a swift beeline towards the ball. Her lack of sports gear was barely a handicap; Inspector Wiessman's daughter had trained herself to move swiftly in uniform. With ease, she ducked around the unsuspecting girls, bringing the worn blue football around on the side of her smooth black shoe, away from the gaggle of friends, before kicking hard with the ball of her foot. That kick sent the football straight towards the nearby goal, skimming across the ground like a stone across the ornamental lake. A shot at the goal, before any of the other team could do a thing about it.

Point made, Erika turned around to her friends, nodding to Olivia, before glancing around her friends. "Go get changed, quick as you can. Olivia, you're in goal, Jaya and Melissa, you take defence. Izzy and Kal, up front, with me." Orders given, the recent champion of the Fencing Club turned back to Emily and Ruby, not so much as raising an eyebrow at what'd just happened. Her expression remained as detached and uncaring as it always did. "First to three?"

Spending a FP to activate Fires Burning at the End of the World. Also, it's not a firmly established aspect, but hoping for a free invoke on Looking the Other Way. The girls were not paying attention to Erika when she decided to try this, so feels like sneak attack territory. Not including that below, if you're ok with that, throw another +2 on there. :smallwink:

[roll0] Athletics

[The_Snark]

Jaya has to fight the instinctive response to decline. She has brothers, she knows what friendly competition looks like, and this isn’t it. Better to just walk away; a small disappointment is better than escalating the conflict... (Besides, she's not sure they're supposed to be wearing proper football boots outside of practice - too much of that is hard on the green.) But of course, the others don't see it that way. Erika and Kaleemah, at least, will be annoyed at her if she tries to stop the game, and Isabel probably won't care for it either...

Olivia's acquiescence tips the balance. She glances down at the other girl - well, up really, the other girl is a bit taller than her, but she always seems somehow smaller - and nods after a moment. If even the shyest of them is okay with this... well, all right. She looks back at Emily and her friends. "Sure. As long as - "

Wait, what's Erika doing? Is the game starting now? Jaya blinks, then tugs Livi gently towards the gymnasium and locker rooms. They can't very well play in skirts, but if Erika is kicking things off now they might well lose before they even get the full team out on the field...

[Jadev]

Melissa, proving that her lucky streak is likely to continue into eternity, randomly chose to wear trousers today. She is not so insanely lucky that she happened to have cleats on her, but you can't have everything.

She is somewhat shocked when Erika bursts forwards and kicks the ball, but she gives a playful salute as she is given orders.

"Yes Ma'm!"

Melissa gives a giggle and moves over to the side of the field that Erika has designated theirs-- that being, the side that doesn't have a ball in the goal.

[Lykan]

Livi scampers off to the gymnasium alongside Jaya, hoping that they'd all be able to get back before Emily forces the start of the game without them. It seemed like the sort of thing that'd get pulled here, and she really didn't want to have her own hang ups be the source of their team's loss.

[Propagandist]

Isabel glanced down skeptically as Erika handed out marching orders. "Well, as long as you don't mind a wing who can't keep up or cross the ball or get back on defense, I guess I'm game." Yes, at least she was wearing trousers - because it was chilly out. The only football match she was prepared for was on TV at the pub in town. Still, she wasn't going to leave her friends out to dry.

"So Em, you're going to at least pretend to have heard of sportsmanship and you're going to wait 'till half our team is finished changing?" The question didn't come out as much of a question, but as simple statement. If Emily didn't want her game to end with part of the other team just walking away, she was going to have to play nice.

[Ascension]

The ball sails into the open goal with contemptuous ease. Emily Dew's smile disappears.

"That doesn't count!" she screams, flushing an angry red, "That did not count. This match is not underway. You, you, you..."

Grasping at straws, she thrusts a finger in the direction of the retreating Olivia.

"She needs to get changed first."

She nods to herself and to Isabel, beginning to regain her composure. Ruby tries to lay a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugs it off.

"Right. Right. You all scurry off and get changed, and then we'll have a nice. friendly. game."

Her teeth glint again, but there's not even a thin veneer of cheer to veil her intent any more.

"If that's all right by you, Wiessman."

She turns and gives a curt nod to her teammates, who need no further instruction to fan out into position. Her friends mirror the aggressive posture Erika laid out (Ruby falling in on Emily's left wing), though it seems likely that was planned in advance. Em didn't set this whole thing up just to play a defensive game. As she waits for Livi and Jaya to return, she aims impatient glares at Erika. She's wanted to best the fencing captain from the first, but that "goal" stunt raised the stakes. She's out for more than just a simple victory now.

[Lykan]

It isn't long before Livi was bolting back out of the gym and onto the pitch (letting Jaya know before she headed out), apparently expecting the match to be well underway by then until she notices that it, well... Wasn't. Discovering this fact at least allows the girl to go to a brisk walk from an all-out dash, conserving a bit of energy for the game.

It seemed she managed to procure a sweatshirt and sweatpants during the short time in the locker room, as well as her own personal pair of cleats. She didn't exactly take any time to get her hands on any sort of goalie's gear, though, given the false notion that there was a time constraint involved. She didn't exactly think to pick up gear for anyone else, either, although this might have been impossible anyway. It's kinda difficult to divine everyone's locker numbers and combinations if she were to go and pick up their stuff.

[Inspector Valin]

You weren't even ready for that. Pathetic. The other team's reaction to her early goal didn't move Erika. Seemingly taking Emily's anger for assent, she turned away, looking towards Isabel, frowning slightly and raising an eyebrow. That same attitude of hers; why try when you don't have anything to gain? It irked Erika, but she wouldn't change Izzy by arguing with her. She shook her head, no sense in pushing this. "You can go midfield if you want. 2-1-2-1: not too bad. Still, you could push yourself a bit by taking a wing. We learn by doing."

Words given, and continuing to ignore the other team, Erika turned towards Kaleemah, gesturing across the forward half of their side of the pitch. She had a feeling the other girl wouldn't object to the chance to play up front, between her skills and Emily's words to her. "Left, right or centre? Doesn't matter to me, it's your call, Kal."

[DeafnotDumb]

It takes Kal a bit longer than the others to don her gear, being inflicted with her insistence on dressing absolutely without help, but she is on the pitch with more energy than the rest of them, bouncing from foot to foot like a girl anticipating violence. Any comment about how it would have been, like, a lot quicker to remove her arms and then have someone change her would likely not go down well, nor would any remark about how it would have allowed her to follow up on her promise to play without her prosthetics.

She grins at Erika's sentence. She doesn't know too much about football strategy further than charge! but she is aware of the position that offers the most battering and fun. "Center." She declares. "I'll be the bulldozer."

[DeafnotDumb]

With a touch of swagger, Kaleemah trots to the center forward position and smirks at Emily, who looks back rather more dispassionately. Kal scuffs her feet like a bull waiting for the opportunity to charge, and decides to kick-start things with a little bit of spite.

"So, are you actually going to play this time?" She mocks. "Or are you just going to talk about how brilliant you are while Erika scores all the goals?"


Rolling Provoke at +3 to place a No Insult Left Unanswered aspect on Emily.
[roll0]

[Ascension]

Emily's Will at +0: [roll0]

That is, narrowly, success by three shifts. Success with style. No Insult Left Unanswered is established, and Kaleemah gets two free invocations of it.

Your opponents, incidentally, also share the Aspect Landsgate Football Squad.

Emily's eyes narrow, her nostrils flare, and she bares her teeth in a snarl as her body responds to Kaleemah's taunt on a physical level.

"Okay ladies," she yells, loud enough to be easily heard all across the pitch, "you've had plenty of time to powder your noses. Guess Little Miss Prefect decided that playing football doesn't suit the dignity of her position after all. Your loss."

She toes the ball over the line for the kickoff and rushes ahead with Ruby and her right winger, all three forwards pressing hard on the attack.

Em is going to risk trying to create an advantage herself, but Ruby and her right winger will be providing teamwork bonuses on the action (using up their opportunity to create an advantage). Roll in my next post.

[Ascension]

Athletics to create a Ruthless Aggression aspect describing Em's team's play.
[roll0]

[The_Snark]

For Jaya, gym shorts have always fallen into much the same category as swimsuits: an article of clothing that would normally fall a little too short of decency, not the kind of thing one wears in public, but in certain situations is not only expected but required. She’s aware that her standards - well, her mother’s standards, which she’s inherited somewhat against her will - are rather old-fashioned in this regard, but that doesn’t change the fact that she feels like she’s not wearing enough as she jogs out towards the green. They hardly cover her knees. Sure, she’s seen girls wearing much shorter shorts in the city, but that’s not the point. She doesn’t mind what other people wear, it’s her sense of modesty at stake...

She's distracted by the sight of distant figures running towards. Did they start without her? It looks too intense to be practice kicks... They did start without her. Jaya feels a stab of annoyance. She didn't take that long, it hasn't even been five minutes. Maybe she shouldn't have expected patience from a group including Erika, Emily and Kaleemah, but...

Not the time. Jaya breaks into a run, hoping to arrive in time to shore up Melissa and Olivia.

[Inspector Valin]

Erika tossed her bag down towards the edge of the field at Emily's words, nodding contently. Jaya would be here soon enough. The theoretical winger darts quickly towards the centre, standing at Kaleemah's side as the ball comes towards the insult-prone juggernaught. All eyes on Kal, Emmy's especially so, it was harder to notice the quiet girl nudge the ball towards herself with a single gentle tap of her school shoe. She glanced between the three of them, close enough for easy passing, far enough apart to split when needed, and all sprinting down the pitch at full tilt. This was Landsgate Football Squad, and they were playing as if this was the Youth League final. That's what comes of having a bitter captain with a grudge or two to settle.

If anyone had been looking to Wiessman's face just then, they might have caught the black haired girl doing something a touch uncharacteristic of her: smirking to herself. Is this supposed to scare me? They were good, sure, but their Captain's faults were painfully obvious, and Erika had learned on their first day together just how to push Miss Dew's little buttons. This match was not going to be decided that easily.

Nodding in brief apology to Kal for her use as a distraction here, Erika darted right, straight between the two people she knew would be distracted: Emily, by Kaleemah and Ruby by Emily. Everyone could've sworn that the girl with the massive arms had the ball, but as they closed on her, Erika was sprinting down the field, straight past the Squad's front line. The trio could turn about to meet her, but Isabel and Kally both were in the clear to advance too, and neither had tired themselves sprinting in the wrong direction. What'd started out as a strong promise for Emily's side had turned into a shambles; their two defenders and goalie now all that stood between the Key-Bearers and yet another early goal.

Ok. Resisting that with Will. Erika's at +2 against fear, and half the point of an aggressive game is to intimidate the opposition. +2 for a free invocation on 'They Came Prepared for This' (They're not certain they're going to win this.) and +2 for a free invocation on the Location aspect 'Ripe for Drama' (because thwarting Emmy's 'grand assault' will really escalate the situation. :smallwink:) Spending a Fate Point to invoke Fires at the End of the World for an additional +2. Total of +10, so... let's see how the rolls pan out. :smallwink: I will edit the final para out depending on how this goes.

[roll0]

[Ascension]

"What?"

Erika's fearless counter to Emily's driving offense catches the latter girl almost completely off guard, reversing the two teams' momentum in an instant. Ruby scrambles back across the field at a glare from Em, but she's too slow. This goal (or lack thereof) will be determined entirely the back three players on Em's team.

They know that. All three drop back to shield the goal, trying their best to bolt the door before Erika sends the ball into their net again... this time for real.

Desperation time. Both defenders and the goaltender will be making create an advantage actions with an intent to establish passive opposition to Erika's attempt on goal. The goalkeeper will be spending a fate point to invoke Landsgate Football Squad for +2.

Left:
[roll0]

Right:
[roll1]

Goal:
[roll2]

Oh, right, need to give the aspect attempted a name...

Desperate Defence seems to fit best, doesn't it?

[Jadev]

Melissa is about to jump in when Erika makes a sudden play that catches everyone by surprise. Feeling a little useless, she decides to pitch in as Moral Support.

Go Erika! You can do it!

Rolling Rapport to create aspect Moral Support4d6-5
EDIT: Oops, did 4d8-5 instead of 4d6. Fixed.

[Propagandist]

As Emily rushes forward without waiting for Jaya to return, Izzy's first thought is to just leave. This wasn't a friendly match. It was barely a match at all. The football team's captain was two steps short of deranged and getting there in a hurry, desperately trying to prove some sort of point that existed only in her head. There were better uses of Izzy's time than humoring Emily's cheating hide. She could go watch paint dry, for example.

She tosses the idea aside. That would leave her friends at even more of a disadvantage, and the lesson Izzy meant to teach would bounce off Emily's skull like the ball. There had to be a winner and a loser, and if those were the choices...

Izzy breaks down the sideline as Erika picks Emily's pocket, doing her best wing impression despite her protests moments before. "Erika, Kal! Come on!"

Feeling remarkably uninspired lately, so just going to add teamwork bonus for the others. +1.

[Lykan]

Livi trots over to the goal, just as the game is beginning. Her agility wasn't exactly top notch outside of being unlocked, so she was just a tad nervous about how well she'd be able to perform in the face of the other, much more sporting ladies. Still, she had to have all of that inside her somewhere, right? That's basically what the keys were all about; bringing out full potential and what-not. The thought doesn't exactly dispel the entirety of her anxiety, but it does enough to give her better focus on the game.

Cracking her knuckles and slapping her cheeks, the lanky girl digs her cleats into the ground, ready to counter any sort of offensive advantage the other side could muster up.

Can't really think of a good method of how Livi could use her higher level skills to aid in the game, so she'll just be providing a teamwork bonus.

[Inspector Valin]

Erika's smirk from before briefly becomes an honest smile as she looks to either side, seeing her team... no, her friends behind her, backing her up as she sprints towards the goal. Kal and Izzy at her wings, keeping the angles open, the others sticking at the back, ready for things to turn. They were doing what they always did; working together, and putting aside their differences to make wonders happen. Like literally beating the school football team at their own game. They have some flaws, but these people know how to stick together. How to look out for one another. Keys or no keys, we've actually become a pretty good team

The last led to a glance at Kal, and Erika's smile faded after that. Emily was competitive, wanted to prove her skill, fine. Erika had no problems with that much; that was what they came to schools like Landsgate for. But insulting a disabled student? Nothing got through Kaleemah's skin, but there were others she'd known in prior schools who would've been reduced to tears by Emily's remark.

No mercy. Not for you, or your lot. Face set, Erika intensifies her pace, making a brief pass to Kal whilst gesturing sideways to Izzy. Her two wingers knew just what to do. A second pass from the rebellious right winger back to Erika and the defenders were completely wrongfooted. Just in time for Erika to pull back her foot and boot the ball straight towards the back of the net, full force.

Going to oppose those Aspect forming attempts with Athletics; Erika's just moving too damn quick to let them get a defence off, and pulling a simple bluff to help with that. Not sure if I should oppose each attempt separately, or all with one roll. [roll0]

And now, the contest roll. Teamwork bonuses from Jaya, Izzy and Olivia, Free Invoke on No Insult Left Unanswered, and all that with Erika's Athletics for a total of 8. (Saving that Moral Support invoke for next round) This should be good. [roll1]

[Ascension]

Erika scores the first real goal of the game almost as easily as she had when she was unopposed, and the entire atmosphere of the practice pitch changes. Em has been irritated, even angry, almost since the moment the keybearers arrived (Erika and Kal saw to that), but after that first goal... something breaks. Em is used to the fencing team captain dominating on the piste, but the pitch is supposed to be hers. Erika and her ragtag friends running roughshod over her and the school's actual football team was never in the plan. It was never supposed to be possible.

Em doesn't say anything after the goal, she just silently radiates fury, and that's almost worse. It's obvious that her teammates are more frightened of her than they are of your team, more frightened of her than of losing itself, and their next attack falls entirely apart. Em is sloppy, faltering between bursts of aggression and an uncharacteristic hesitancy, and most of her squad seems scared even to get near her. Finally Ruby herself takes the ball from Emily (leaving Em momentarily too shocked to glare) to make an attempt on goal herself, but with no support and only a pale echo of Emily's skill, the effort quickly dies and the momentum again shifts in your favor.

With Emily and her friends demoralized and disorganized, your counterattack goes as smoothly as a practice drill. Their defense crumbles as you drive forward, and soon the ball swishes into the net once more. As you line up for the third kickoff, though, the tenor of the air again seems to shift. Emily's team knows that another unanswered goal will end the game, and that is unacceptable. Disbelief and despair give way to desperate determination, and Emily's impotent, uncertain rage cools to something harder and sharper. She briefly exchanges words with each of her teammates in turn as they take their positions, ending with Ruby (and if you're watching closely you might see her fingers dig sharply into the shorter girl's shoulder for a fleeting moment), then she herself stands opposite Erika.

"That was your last goal, Wiessman," she swears.

[Inspector Valin]

Erika met the angry footballer's stare with the icy satisfaction of someone with absolutely nothing to prove. Half the football team were standing right here, and they'd just been torn to pieces by the Keybearers. By her. Emily's anger showed nothing more than just how desperate she was getting in her quest for validation. The best response would've probably been not to even meet her gaze, to just continue the game as though nothing had happened. But... after those earlier remarks from the Football Queen, a lesson was in order. Thus, after a few seconds of silence, 'Wiessman' simply nods, taking a step back. Her face is once again its customary calm blank, giving little away of the fencer's intentions. "If you insist."

With those three words, Erika turned to her side, to Kaleemah, placing a hand to her shoulder-joint. She paused for a second, before nodding. "Good luck, Kaleemah." Brief encouragement given, the dark haired fencer turned and walked towards the side of the pitch, evidently intending to sit out the final part of this game and leave the finale in the hands of her teammates. She did not spare Emily, Ruby, or any other figure a backwards glance.

[roll0] Not sure if this fits better as an action to bolster the team's spirit by showing Erika's confidence, or to provoke Emily. Thus, I'm going to leave it up to the GM's Call. Both aspects have simple names, Inevitable Tide for encouragement, Crazy, Stupid, Angry for provocation. +2 if it's Rapport, +3 if it's Provoke.

Either way, Erika will not be participating in this round of the contest. No teamwork bonus, and Kal will now be the one rolling for our team. Good luck!

[Ascension]

That, ah, seems more likely to be effective in provoking Emily than in encouraging your now-undermanned teammates, so... here's Em's Will!
[roll0]

And that's success with style, but I'm going to spin the aspect in a bit of a different direction: Em's now Purposelessly Angry, and you've earned two free invocations of that aspect. There's also still one free invocation of No Insult Left Unanswered and one free invocation of Moral Support available, I believe.

Emily is devastated by that single stroke, unable to even form words until Erika's already turned her back.

"You can't... You can't walk out on this, Wiessman!" she screams at the retreating figure of the fencing captain, "Get back here. Get back here! You can't run from me!"

When Erika doesn't even deign to respond, Em seems... heartbroken. Her bewilderment mingles freely with her hatred as she glares, no, as she simply stares dumbly at her self-proclaimed rival. It takes a gentle touch from Ruby (promptly rebuffed with a swat and a glare) to remind her that there's even still a game in progress, waiting on her to continue.

"Right," she mutters under her breath as she takes her position again, opposite the conspicuous absence of Erika Wiessman, "I finish what I've started."

She hardly seems eager to back up that claim, however, as she allows her teammates to take the lead off the kickoff, the veteran footballers attempting to bring more cautious, technical play to a game that's largely been dominated by dramatic, emotional offense.

Not rolling for the NPCs' actions just yet. I'd like to see a couple responses to Erika's departure from you guys first.

[Jadev]

Melissa gave a frown as Erika walked away. Emily is so obviously upset! This game was quickly becoming not very fun at all. She would have to talk to Erika about that later.

But for now, Melissa turns her head to Jaya.

"Should one of us move up to take her place?"

[Lykan]

Olivia's frowns a little as she watches Erika leave the pitch. In some respect, she could sort of understand why she would want to step out; really, Erika had already done what she needed to do to prove her athletic superiority to Emily, so she really didn't have much else to gain by participating aside from securing a rather easy win. A victory that, one could imagine, would be much more invigorating if the athletic kingpin didn't carry them all through to the final goal.

At the very least, it said a lot about the confidence she had in the rest of the keybearers.

Livi scurries off toward Kal as Erika leaves the pitch, tugging a little on the back of her shirt before leaning down to whisper in her ear. "There's a muddy patch down the left side of the pitch beyond the half-way line. If you skirt it you should be able to lose anyone following you up on your left. Also, their lefthand full-back ha a habit of going a bit beyond her bounds, so if you charge past her while she's up toward the half-way line you'll have an easier time getting down to the goal. Also, If you make a shot for the bottom right side of the goal she should have a bit more difficulty blocking it, too. She's right handed and she doesn't seem to drop down to the ground that fast." Jeeze. That probably exhausted her spoken-word count for the next two days or so. "Tell Izzy about these too, okay? And maybe bring up Jaya or Melly. Pressing full offense is a gamble but it's also likely to end the game faster."

With that, she shuffles back towards the goal, hoping that her tactical advice was sound. It was difficult to procure all the information from the far end of the pitch, and a lot of it was guesswork, but, well... If at least some of it worked out, it might just give them the edge they needed, right?

Rolling Notice at +2 to hopefully find some accurate Subtle Weaknesses in the opposing team's tactics.
[roll0]

[Propagandist]

Good for her. Isabel watches Erika respond to Emily's ranting by walking away with surprise and a little pride.

Izzy shadows one of Emily's wings as they bring the ball up and smiles to herself. The calm around Emily was fake, a shell. It wouldn't take much to break it. She waits until Livi is safely back in goal before piping up.

"You don't get it, do you Em? We know what you're trying to do, and nobody cares. Not Erika, not any of us, not even your own team. They're just afraid of you, you know that? They're humoring you, because you scream like a toddler who dropped her ice cream the instant you stop getting what you want. You're so delusional you're trying to cheat to win a pointless pickup game I won't even remember next week."

"And you can't even manage that."

Using Create an Advantage on Em's Purposelessly Angry. This seems like a pretty clear-cut use of Provoke, which Izzy has at +3, but I'll roll generically in case the GM decides otherwise. [roll0]

[The_Snark]

Jaya shrugs in answer to Melissa, curiously unenthusiastic. "Maybe. We’d be awfully short on defense if they come up the pitch."

This isn’t a friendly game any more. (Not that it ever was, really, but at least there was a fair pretense at the start.) Jaya has brothers, she knows what friendly competition looks like, and this is decidedly not it. They’re not just playing to win, they’re playing to beat the other side and rub their face in the dirt, and she can’t help but feel guilty at being on the winning side. Do Erika and Izzy have to keep pushing Emily’s buttons like this? Her friends’ psychological warfare tactics may be effective, but for Jaya it’s drained all the pleasure out of the game. Emily isn't the one she's annoyed at, anymore...

But she can't walk away now. After Erika's maneuver it would seem like another taunt, further cheapening any victory the football team might hope to seize. She can't undermine her team either, that would be hurtful for everyone here... No, she has to see this through to the end. But she doesn't have to give it her all, either. With a two-point lead they can afford to take risks in hopes of ending this decisively, but why? Scoring a goal or two might soothe Emily's pride a little.

"You can move up, if you like," she adds, her thoughts clearly elsewhere. Her eyes linger on Isabel, up ahead. Not just annoyed. Disappointed, angry...

Jaya is, grudgingly, providing a teamwork bonus. I should note that her Caring Soul aspect could probably be invoked against her at this point, she'd rather not win this completely...

[Ascension]

Em's Will to resist that provocation from Izzy. Will edit in the rest of a response once I have the roll.

[roll0]

I'm going to spend a fate point (my third in the scene) to invoke Ruby's Emily's Shadow aspect in support of Em's defense, bringing that up to 2 and reducing Izzy's success with style to a regular success. Izzy still raises the number of free invocations available on Purposelessly Angry to 3, however, and, just as a reminder, all those can be stacked if desired.

As Isabel twists the knife further into Emily, Ruby appears out of nowhere at her friend's side, dark eyes blazing.

"Shut up," she snarls bluntly, showing more fire than anyone's used to seeing out of the diminutive girl, "Stop it! You don't know what this means to Emily, and you all just-"

Em raises a hand and Ruby bites off her sentence immediately, though a scowl briefly flits across her face at the interruption.

"I'd rate my friends higher than your Erika," Em growls, beginning to come to life again, though her eyes keep flitting back over to her rival on the sidelines, "They know not to walk out on me."

Emily takes back the ball with a trace of her former confidence, but Isabel's words have clearly irritated her open emotional wounds. She's still distracted, her ball control a poor caricature of her usual self-assured skill... but she has Ruby shadowing her steps, and there's still something smoldering in the brunette's eyes.

[Ascension]

Though Emily's emotional state is still a dangerous variable, most of her teammates seem to be almost enjoying a chance to demonstrate their skill in the absence of the almost equally volatile Erika. They do their best to compensate for Em's sloppy play with Solid Teamwork.

These are the four nameless NPCs working together to create an advantage with Athletics.
[roll0]

And I bet a fate point that the Landsgate Football Squad can do even better than that, raising the result to +5.

[Jadev]

Melissa backs away from Jaya, having heard her two cents, and acts perfectly normal-- that is, until things get started and she launches into an Unexpected Offense. Admittedly, she's still not leading the team, but she's hoping to catch the other team off guard.

[roll0]
Please let it work the first time this time.

[Ascension]

[roll0]

Melissa's sudden drive succeeds in catching Emily completely off guard, but Ruby is there to fight her for control of the ball, and she shuts down the gambler's offense almost as soon as it begins.

[DeafnotDumb]

Kal nods in tune as Olivia whispers tactics into her ear, and gives the girl a wink when she finishes off. "Thanks, Livi." She says, but then the game's off to a start and there's not enough time to spread the word around. It's down to Kal, just the way she likes it.

She accepts the ball as Melissa passes it through Ruby's defence, and sprints up by the muddy patch as fast as she can, hijab fluttering in the wind and ignoring any yells from those who fall. Then she's past the first line of defence -

-but here's Emily, who's anticipated this and has moved back to block the goal. Kal smirks, just wide enough to be offensive, and grabs the girl's ire before she starts running towards her. Still, Emily is confident on her advantage over the charging bull. Kaleemah might be able to do some clever footwork with the ball, but she's just plain worse and doesn't...

With a start, Emily realizes that her opponent has forgone any sense of subtly and is just running right at her. Running with the weight of two heavy, heavy prosthetic arms behind her charge, like a bowling ball rolling towards the pins.

Oh dear.


Kal's Athletics is at +2, and she gets a +1 team bonus from Jaya. Then invoking the second take of No Insult Left Unanswered and Moral Support and the first of Purposelessly Angry and Subtle Weaknessfor a whopping total of...

+11?

Okay, let's... go with that.

[roll0]

[Ascension]

For Ruby, time seems to slow as Kaleemah races at Emily full speed ahead, seemingly with no intention to stop before running straight over the other girl. That's something she can't allow to happen. Not to Emily. She races up behind Kal and throws herself into a violent slide tackle, knowing full well that if she connects, coming in from this angle, it will be a red card offense for sure... but this game doesn't have any referee, does it?

Ruby's going to attempt to create the aspect Dirty Play. I'm spending a fate point to invoke the aspect No Ref in support. You're saying to yourself "That's not a current aspect!", but it is within anyone's right (not just mine as the GM) to propose the use of existing elements of scene description that aren't explicitly aspects if they want to take advantage of those descriptive elements.

[roll0]

[Inspector Valin]

As the teams clash, Erika watches from the sidelines, eyes shifting swiftly between various members of both teams. Her focus was more on the dynamics of the match rather than the ball, That was what mattered to her, and it was interesting. Jaya hanging back, Melissa and Olivia trying hard to give it their all. And Kal and Izzy were relishing the fight. There were no stakes here, but the Keybarers were functioning as a team, even without co-ordination. A feat the other team were only now beginning to try and match.

The dark haired girl's glare was withering whenever she looked towards members of the football team. Emily's behaviour, she understood, the samewith Ruby's to a lesser extent. What she couldn't get was putting up with that kind of arrogance. One or two members paused, looking towards the sideline and meeting Erika's gaze. They've been trying to regain their confidence, but they know how the first two goals had gone. They knew, looking into Erika's eyes, that they didn't have the same connection and teamwork that the Keybearers did. Erika's friends were a team, a group of equals working together...

And the footballers were just Emily's back-up squad. Having to supplement her rather than make plays of their own. The crazy expression on her face and Ruby's sudden vicious tackle left the team falling back, starting to grow nervous. Unsure of their leaders.

[roll0] Provoke, to try and shut down Solid Teamwork. Will be using the Pointlessly Angry invokes based around how this goes

[Ascension]

Valin tied the Solid Teamwork attempt, so... Athletics +3, Stunt +2, Teamwork +5, single invoke of Fragile Teamwork +2, two invocations of Dirty Play +4. That's +16, so...

[roll0]

The last goal is ugly, void of the easy grace with which the first two points were scored. Naked aggressions are unleashed by both teams' leaders, and despite cooler heads' best efforts, it's that driving emotion that decides the match. Ultimately Emily's directionless anger and Ruby's fierce protectiveness simply shake their team apart, and it's a rattled, disorganized defense that Kaleemah ultimately overcomes.

Em doesn't stay to chat after it becomes clear that her loss is final and total. She retrieves the ball herself and turns her back on the pitch, stalking off toward her dorm, anger silently simmering, no words left capable of expressing it. Ruby falls into lockstep behind her as usual, and the rest of the team trails awkwardly off the field after them, sprinkling a couple insincere "Good game"s and apologies in their wake as they go. For now there's no fight left in them, that's all been broken, discarded with their shattered pride.

[Inspector Valin]

Erika sighed to herself as the group dispersed. She'd hoped against hope that pulling away from the match might show Emily where her problems really lay, but it seemed as though it'd just re-enforced her existing anger. A shame, though not her responsibility. If the other girl wanted to continue to be stupid, there was little sense in continuing to meddle. It'd just be one more distraction she didn't need. Instead, Erika called out to the retreating football captain.

"If you want a rematch, come find me after diner. The Rodriguez Foil is coming up soon, and I need to get my practice in."

Tone as guiltless and polite as you could ask for, Erika moved forward, nodding to any football squad members still willing to look at her. Soon enough, she's with the other Keybearers, and the Fencing Captain can't help but turn the corners of her lips upward slightly. They pulled together well, and overcame a pretty skilled opposing team through strong co-opperation and mutual belief. They hadn't needed her. She nodded to Kal. "Well played."

[Lykan]

Olivia lets out a sigh of relief when the final goal is sunk, shuffling out of the goal and heading towards midfield. The lanky girl had a small hope of alleviating all the bad tension between the two teams by thanking or apologizing to the members of Emily's squad for the match, but, well... The lot of them were gone before Livi could even reach the halfway line.

... It probably wouldn't have accomplished anything, anyway.

Quietly, Livi inspects Kal's leg where she was slide-tackled, biting her lip. She knew if she just asked straight out if the rowdy girl was alright in the light of effectively getting smashed in the shins with someone's full body weight, she wouldn't get a straight answer, so... It was likely best just to check herself.

[Propagandist]

Izzy yells loudly, not caring if Emily and company heard. Her cheers were for Kal, and half the football team had already wandered away by the time she reaches the end of the pitch anyway. She runs up, laughing a bit. "Well, it wasn't pretty, but it worked! Are you OK? That was a really cheap shot from Ruby, it looked like it hurt."

Sorry for the silence, I lost internet for a couple of days. :smallredface:

[The_Snark]

Jaya takes her time joining the others at the other end of the green, and when she arrives she hangs back rather than rushing to congratulate her teammates. Her arms are folded tightly, as if to ward off a chill, though it’s perfectly nice out. Her eyes…

... okay, maybe there is a bit of a chill.

"You know," she says finally, her gaze lingering mostly on Erika and Izzy, "it might have been nice to play a friendly game of football. I know Emily is not the easiest person to get along with, but you could have at least tried."

[DeafnotDumb]

Kal opens her mouth to reject Olivia's inspection, and then shuts it. This is Livi, and shouting at her to push off with her is like using a sledgehammer on a nut. It's good that the girl is being, like, more active and such. "I'm fine." She insists, despite the red welt on her ankle. Knowing her, she probably takes pride in it. After a moment's thought, she adds "Thanks for the help. It... helped."

Jaya, though, has no shyness to prevent Kaleemah from speaking her mind, and the girl pointedly crosses her arms to empathize her oncoming point. This is more effective than it might be with most people, because of the practice it took to gain this sort of motor control and the impressive clanking sound the arms make when they hit together. "Look, miss prefect, you want to be all responsible and that's fine." She complains. "But don't go around telling us we should have played nice if you didn't say anything when they were throwing words in our face. If Emily doesn't want us to beat her, she shouldn't challenge us. That's not hard."

[Jadev]

Melissa gives a halfhearted wave goodbye to all the dejected football team members, and though her smile has not left her face it seems a bit forced. After all the other girls are gone, she walks over to the rest of the keybearers. She only speaks up after Kal's response to Jaya.

"No, I think Jaya's right. You were really mean to Emily out there. I mean, I guess she was being mean too, but maybe you took it too far.

She sighs.

"Why does everything have to be about the competition? Can't we just have some fun?

She sounds... pretty dejected actually.

[Inspector Valin]

Erika shrugged at Jaya's words, face still impassive, entirely unmoved. It was hard to make the fencing captain feel guilty, and the prefect's icy stare was not enough for the purpose. She turned, gesturing back towards the pitch. "I walked away. I thought it might calm her down. You saw how well that worked."

Melissa's response however got a more immediate reaction from the fencing captain. Erika turned to the diminutive poker player, frowning and nodding at her words. "People judge their worth by things like this. Not by being good, but by being better, outperforming those around them. This was going to end with her angry or gloating, no matter what. Someone was going to lose, and feel bad, because that's what Emily wanted out of this game. She wanted to make us feel like losers, we just outperformed her. At least this way, she might learn not to get so invested in beating people."

[Lykan]

Well. Nothing on Kal looked broken, and she seemed to be standing on it okay. This probably meant she was fine... Livi had some doubts that even she could manage to put weight on an injured leg for this long without succumbing to pain. Standing up again, she remains quiet as the others discuss their behavior during the match, frowning a little.

While Erika was totally correct in that people weren't unknown to stake personal worth on a game, trying to prove one's worth while blatantly doing everything to skew victory in your favor seemed kind of like overkill, if not entirely defeating the point. Maybe there was some sort of ulterior motive? "... She seems desperate. Not game-winning desperate."

[The_Snark]

"You thought walking away would calm her down?" Jaya says incredulously, not sure whether to believe Erika or not. She wouldn’t have thought the fencing captain would resort to bald-faced lies like that, but she also wouldn’t have thought her that oblivious...

She holds up a hand to forestall further argument from Kal. "All right. Let’s try again. I don’t expect you to go easy on Emily, or anything of the sort. But I do expect you to try to beat her by playing a clean game of football, rather than throwing her off her game by insulting and belittling her" - her gaze flicks pointedly at Isabel here - "or playing mind games. Erika, if you truly don't understand how you were taunting Emily..." She shakes her head, still half-disbelieving. "Then we should talk later, I suppose, and I can try to explain so you won't make that mistake again. She's not the only one who would take that sort of behavior amiss."

"Let me be clear on one thing: if you had approached Emily to challenge her rather than the other way around, then some of us would be on our way to the matron to discuss bullying right now. The fact that you didn’t go out of her way to antagonize her mitigates this somewhat, but 'she started it' does not make your conduct acceptable. You did not just beat Emily, you humiliated her, and you kept doing it even after it was clear how rattled she was. I am disappointed in you." She casts an apologetic glance at Livi - and Kal? They're still next to one another - as if to exempt them; Melissa has made it clear where she stands already. But Izzy and Erika get an even stare, inviting them to defend their actions or apologize.

This is not Jaya feeling obliged to uphold the rules even though it's uncomfortable; this is Jaya honestly angry.

[Propagandist]

"They didn't play a clean game. Ruby's just better at slide tackles than I am." Izzy would be tempted to dismiss Jaya's indictment out of hand, but she was sharp enough to know the difference between grumpy prefect and angry friend. The latter deserved a real answer.

"Look, I didn't want to play at all. If this was just a silly fun game, that would have been great, and I wouldn't have said anything, but Erika's right, this whole thing was a setup from the start. It wasn't fair to ask all of you to back down too, and it wasn't fair to make you play a man down either. But I didn't stick around so Emily could cheat and insult us to make her ego feel better."

Izzy frowns, eyes aimed at the ground instead of Jaya, but her expression is more "hand caught in the cookie jar," than genuine regret. "OK, so I was a little harsh, but it was the truth, and I thought being blunt might make it stick. If anyone here is right, it's probably Livi. Look, if I have to deal with Emily again, I'll lay off, all right?"

[The_Snark]

Jaya weighs this for a couple seconds before nodding. "Please do. Thank you."

After a moment she continues, "I’m not trying to claim that Emily and Ruby are blameless here. But I’m not talking to them right now, I’m talking to you. They might have started it, but you were the ones who escalated. I don't think this would have gotten nearly as ugly as it did if people hadn't kept pushing Emily's buttons." With Izzy having acknowledged the issue (however grudgingly), her attention falls mainly on Erika.

[Inspector Valin]

Erika met Jaya's glare coldly, unmoved. Condescension was not the way to change Miss Wiessman's mind; and the prefect's response to her had come all too close to it. You did this wrong. This is your fault. You should've known better. The fencing club Captain turned her hand towards the goal, where the other players had stood when Emily made her challenge, her own voice cold and cutting. "You really think this would've gone better if none of us had done anything? That Emily would be calm and collected at losing, at her best sport, with half the football team on her side? Please."

The dark haired girl shook her head, turning away from the Prefect. As far as she was concerned, that idea was pointless. "She wasn't going to be ok with this, no matter what. What we said to her just made it more obvious. Olivia's right. She was wound up. Agitated. Even before this whole thing started." Erika glanced towards the direction Emily and Ruby had retreated in, her right hand raising to her neck, and the silver key that lingered there. "We should probably keep an eye on her, just in case."

[DeafnotDumb]

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that Kaleemah had a temper, as opposed to understanding that she just normally operated at a level of low-grade anger and undirected spite. Therefore, Jaya's warnings are just accepted with the view that of course the local representation of authority is complaining about the response to the bullying, not the bullying itself - it's the prefect's omission of Kaleemah from the list of troublemakers that is irritating.

Still, the butting heads of Erika and Jaya could easily spin out into a whole long argument, and Kal was pretty sure that Livi wouldn't like that. "It's agreed then, girls!" She says loudly, spinning off Erika's last comment. "We keep an eye on that - on Emily and make sure she's not going to monster up or anything. Even if it means being polite."

...Subtly, thy name is not Kaleemah Khan. Nevertheless, it is an out.

[The_Snark]

"If Emily reacted this way to losing a civil game," Jaya says, emphasizing the uncertainty, "then the fault would lie with her. But that is not what happened, and given that you apparently thought turning your back and walking away would calm her down, I'm not inclined to place very much faith in your judgment of her."

This isn't working. She's frustrated, which means she probably shouldn't be leaning on her authority too much right now, and Erika doesn't seem like she's willing to admit to any fault on her part, no matter how small. She's not sure how to get through to the other girl, but this isn't it. Time to take a step back, give herself a chance to cool down and think.

Kaleemah's declaration cements it. "Keep an eye on her if you like," she concedes, shaking her head, "but no more provoking her. If something really is wrong, then pushing her more isn't going to help."

[Jadev]

Melissa's mouth forms the shape of an O at Erika's hypothesis.

"You don't think..."

Melissa's hand finds its way to the key in her pocket, right next to her lucky deck.

"That would explain a lot. I mean, she usually takes this stuff seriously, but she took that really seriously."

[Inspector Valin]

Erika looks down at her key rather than turning to Jaya. The silver talisman flashes in the dimmed evening light, responding to its mistress' touch. The dark haired girl smiled quietly to herself, nodding to Melissa as she spoke, and then to Olivia in confirmation. It was a solid theory from the quiet girl. They didn't have a good way to hunt Importune Key bearers; they needed to stay alert like this, to try and make sure they dealt with the insanity before it got too bad. The Keybearers had to be quick, efficient, and know what they were doing to protect the school.

Why is Jaya a keybearer again?

Unfulfilled potential. Right. That fit. Shaking her head, Erika turned to Jaya for the final time, smile from before faded into a polite but thin upturned lip. "She pushes herself. No promises." That said, Erika stepped away, moving back towards the main building. Thursday, early evening, fencing practice. Erika always ate alone on Thursdays, to make sure she'd be ready to put time in at practice. That bit wasn't just for Emily's benefit.

[Lykan]

Well. The fact that everyone was going to keep there eyes open about this was comforting, at least, although the lot of them seemed to be blowing over the other person in the match who was behaving a bit oddly. Quietly, Livi gives a few more tugs on Kaleemah's shirt so that someone might be paying attention to her before she let out another string of barely audible words. "Ruby too."

[DeafnotDumb]

Kaleemah turns to Olivia, listens, asks with a quirked eyebrow whether she wants to make the announcement herself, and accepts her inevitable refusal. "Livi says we should keep an eye on Ruby too." she adds. "Should we set up a rota or what?"

[Ascension]

Ai Zheng is leaning up against the door frame as Erika approaches one of the back entrances to the main building. She flicks away a cigarette as soon as she spots the approaching student, crushing it under the toe of her boot with a sheepish grin. Not the sort of habit she should be caught engaging in, though at least it isn't Jaya who's found her, or a senior faculty member. Of course, it isn't her first such gaffe, nor is it likely to be her last. "Legitimate authority figure" is not a role that suits Ms. Zheng well. If rumors are to be believed, someone on campus may be running an actual betting pool on how long it'll take her to get fired. Of course, if you believed everything you heard in rumors...

"Wiessman," she says, nodding cordially to Erika, "I know you're friends with Kaleemah Khan and Olivia Marszalek, so I shouldn't have to tell you this, but... don't overlook anybody. Every person you meet has got potential. Every single person."

She waves a black-nailed hand dismissively, chuckling to herself, at herself.

"But I sound like a motivational poster, don't I? I think it's education classes that do that to people. You go in one end talking like a real person and you come out the other saying 'if you miss, you'll land among the stars'..."

She bends over, picks up her cigarette butt, tosses it casually into a waste bin. She stands there for a moment staring at the bin, then shrugs.

"I'll see you around, Erika," she says, walking off in the vague direction of the other Key Bearers.

[Inspector Valin]

Erika didn't smile back. Nothing against Zheng, smiles were not generally her thing. Instead, she simply nodded at the older woman's words, chuckling a little as Ai started condemning herself for sounding like a motivational speaker. Not untrue. The young fencer muttered, more to herself than the 'adult', as Zeng looked into the bin. "The game showed that well, didn't it?" She leant against the doorframe for a second thinking to herself. She could spare a little time for reflection.

If Emily's team had gotten their act together, they'd have crushed us. 'Power of Friendship' or not. She's a better player than I am, and that was the football squad. They didn't need anything more than that, really. But they mucked it up, or Emily did at least. Charging ahead to try and prove she was better, not just someone on the better team. The fencer raised a hand as Zheng departed, still thinking to herself as the strange woman walked across the grass towards her friends. People hold themselves back through emotion. Through hang ups, embarrassment and stupid grudges. The first step to realizing your potential is letting go of that stuff. Shaking her head, Erika turned back towards the door, stepping inside with a confident stride out of sight of her fellow Keybarers.

That's why I'm ahead of people like Emily. And Jaya, for that matter. I know not to get hung up on things.

[Ascension]

Ms. Zheng wanders toward the other Key Bearers as they discuss their suspicions about Em and Ruby, pausing some distance away to stare at them, eyes unfocused. After a moment she draws nearer.

"Hello girls," she says, giving them a wave that turns into a thumbs up in a single fluid gesture. Her eyes fix on Olivia, and she smiles.

"Keep up the good work."

That's apparently all the advice or encouragement she's in the mood to give at the moment, and as soon as the message is delivered she moves on past the students, headed in no direction in particular.

[Propagandist]

"Ruby, really? If you're sure, OK, I'll keep an eye out, but I thought she was just regular angry. I mean, I took a shot at her friend and she fired back. Not really an argument to write home about, not like whatever's gotten into Em." Izzy seems a bit nonplussd at how quickly things switched from "That football game got out of hand" to "24/7 monster watch!"

"Thanks?" She waves back at Ai as she wanders past. She liked Ms. Zheng. OK, so she wasn't a teacher, not yet, but if all teachers were like her, Izzy wouldn't be nearly as anti-authoritarian. On the other hand, she had a feeling Ai knew a whole lot more than she was letting on. About a lot of things, really.

"So, my first step in Operation Emily is to go get something to eat, because I'm starving. It's a hazardous mission, anybody want to give me backup?" Izzy grins, waiting to see what the rest of the Keybearers decided to get up to.

[The_Snark]

"Something to eat sounds good," Jaya agrees, glad someone here is in agreement with her. There's nothing unusual about defending a friend. Still, Ruby doesn't have Emily's temperament, so she doesn't think keeping an eye on her will actually do any harm. As opposed to what might happen if Emily notices she's being watched, especially by Erika...

'She pushes herself.' Really. We're not five, if you deliberately stick a leg out in front of someone it is not their fault for tripping...

Stop that. No seething at Erika. It won't help to get worked up about the fencing captain in her absence - she needs to try and understand what's running through the other girl's head, not get angry at her.

[Jadev]

Melissa waves at Ms. Zheng as she passes, watches her for a second as she walks off, then turns back to the group.

"I'll join you Izzy. I'm a bit hungry."

[Lykan]

Livi scoots a bit behind Jaya when Ms. Zheng's eyes fall upon her. A great number of the teachers had been made privy to the state of her gender, which... While making for some awkwardness (and some not-that-great treatment), it did at least remove some of the anxiety about having to keep something about herself hidden. The problem was, Olivia wasn't entirely sure that Ms. Zheng knew or not. If she didn't, all the kind treatment she was getting from the TA was bound to abruptly end, if her personal experience was anything to go off of.

In response to Izzy's question, she just gives the girl a quick nod and a small smile, keeping herself huddled behind the other girls.

[Ascension]

The Dining Hall

While Erika has apparently already managed to have eaten and left by the time Izzy, Jaya, Livi, and Melissa arrive in the dining hall, it's still fairly early, and it isn't particularly crowded. Annette Renard's unofficial conspiracy theory club seems to be enthusiastically in session, however, gathered around a table half covered in annotated building plans. They're starting to get a little loud, but Ms. Lizzie Rassul, the librarian, has somehow been roped into watching the cafeteria this evening, and she seems hesitant to intervene.

Melissa spots some members of the tennis club at one table, eating with a heptathlete who's a regular fixture at her poker games. She could probably get some good information about Emily and Ruby out of them.

The Fencing Club's Room

While their upcoming competition will be held in the more spacious environs of the school's main gym, Landgate's fencing club usually resides in a smaller hall, only just long enough to accommodate the length of a regulation fencing piste. In the past that intimate setting helped make the fencing club one of the most closely knit athletic organizations on campus, but recently the club's grown to the point where its members can't all comfortably practice at a single time in such cramped quarters. Maybe if the tournament goes well, the administration will realize that they could use more space...

Emily is, predictably, nowhere to be seen when Erika arrives, but a couple of her other usual sparring partners are on hand. It seems for a moment as if her day is finally about to get back to normal, but then one of the other fencers catches sight of her and everyone immediately stops what they're doing and turns to look.

One girl takes off her mask.

"What did you do to Emily?"

[Inspector Valin]

"Nothing."

The question and reaction caught Erika by surprise: fencing club wasn't normally a place where she had to deal with quetions like that. Rivalry aside, they were a fairly tightly nit group her answer is not quite as calm as usual: that trademark icy gaze melting slightly. Emily's temper was well known, her simply getting angry shouldn't have caused this reaction. Had something happened since the match? Or was Emily just a bit better liked than she realized. Frowning slightly, the dark haired Keybarer put her helmet down in turn, meeting the other girl's gaze, direct and to the point. "She wanted a football match against me and some of my friends. We won, more easily than she'd have liked, and she got annoyed. That was it."

That was the truth, as far as Erika was concerned. She'd kept her thoughts about Emily to herself, bar that one remark to Jaya later. Kal and Izzy had said a couple of things, but nothing too important. She looked towards the other girl with honest curiosity. "What happened?"

[Ascension]

The Fencing Club's Room

The fencer wants to believe her captain, but Erika can see a flicker of doubt in her eyes, doubt that wasn't there before.

"She burst in here with some friends of hers from the football team, threatening to quit," she explains.

"We all know she has a temper," another girl breaks in, "but I've never seen her like that."

"Ruby was with her, and you know she's usually pretty quiet, but... I honestly thought she was about to hurt someone," the first girl continues. Her voice is almost shaking, but she goes on, "We talked her out of it, said how much we needed her with the tournament coming up, but she said... she said if anything like that happens again, she'll see you removed as captain."

"And that was all about a football game?" the second girl asks, incredulously.

Outside the Dining Hall

An often overlooked benefit of the practice of making lots of enemies is that you meet a lot of people. Small-minded individuals might not recognize that networking is useful even when (occasionally especially when) your networks are composed of people who despise you, but that's just why small-minded people making lots of enemies is called "natural selection." More intelligent (or at least craftier) rabble-rousers learn from their adversaries: learn how they're connected, how they react under pressure, what they're liable to reveal when pushed... oh, and their schedules, of course.

So it is that Kaleemah Khan knows the right place and the right time to wait in order to intercept Jessica Sandys on her way to supper, accompanied by only a couple of her entourage, which is about as close to alone as anyone will ever find her outside her own room. Emily Dew, with her athletic accomplishments, is among the chosen few the so-called Queen of Richborough House deems worthy of being called her friend, but Jessica is nothing if not socially self-serving. If Emily's been showing any kind of consistent pattern of potentially embarrassing behavior lately, Jessica will know, and she'll be in damage control mode. That or she'll have already severed her ties with Em. Shouldn't be hard to get the news out of her, either way.

And here she comes, just as expected, sauntering toward the dining hall with a pair of sycophants trailing in her wake. She looks as perfect as she always does, of course, like a flawless marble statue given a dancer's grace. It's only when you look close, or when you ask the right questions of the right people, that you realize how much effort she actually puts into seeming effortlessly beautiful. To all outward appearances she is the epitome of what Kal can never have, can never be.

[Inspector Valin]

"It was. I thought it was, anyway."

Erika's tone was collected now, though she didn't credit that statement much more than the second girl. Something was eating at Emily; not just an Importune Key. They'd fought enough of the black key barers now that she had worked out the basics of the Keys, and they didn't create anger and bitterness that wasn't there. If Emily was a Keybarer, there was probably something at the root of it. She looked between the two girls. "She's competitive, and easily worked up, but this seems like more than that. Do any of you know anything about Emily's home life? Anything that'd explain why she'd get this angry over losing a no stakes football game?"

Whatever it is, they probably should've let her quit the club. No matter how good she can be, her emotions would probably drag her down, leave her easy pickings for someone smart enough to take things slow. Fencing isn't a sport for angry people. Plus, if she's getting this out of control over one lost football game, how is she going to react to losing a duel? Whilst holding a blade?

[DeafnotDumb]

Kal was a close study of human nature, albeit one who had only been taught how to use a hammer and treated everything as a nail. While this led to a number of much abused screws, hooks and plastic connecting things, metaphorically speaking, it did grant an understanding of just how neatly flaws could be hidden, and how the illusion of perfection could be maintained... and weaponized. Despite strong mutual dislike, Kaleemah can appreciate the artistry of the queen bee's dominance, and even the effect it has on her. The envy runs strong if cold, even as Kaleemah recognizes how stupid it is.

No, she doesn't want to be swanning Jessica Sandy and would refuse the option if offered, but she'd like at least to have it offered so she could reject it. Bare headed, hijabed, beautified, bloodied... Kal's never inspired envy. Nobody ever pities swanning Jessica Sandy, and people would look at you like you were insane if you did. But the illusion that forges Jessica's armour also restricts her and forces her to react in certain ways, especially to the bluntness of an enemy like Kal. She has to reveal information in response to a challenge, to prove how much nicer and kinder and better-connected she is than this lout...

...this isn't going to be a fun way to get the information. But at least it's better than pity.

"Hey, guess what?" Kal says, popping out to walk beside the local queen. The easy manner should shoot right up that overpowered, perfumed nose. "Turns out your rising star Emily's not so great after all, to be beaten by a cripple. You think this means she'll stop trying to hassle me?"

The response will tell. If Emily's still a friend of Jessica's, then she'll likely hint at some problems she's going through, make Kaleemah look like the bully in the eyes of the school. If she's not... then the lack of defence and friendship might itself be part of the problem.

[Jadev]

Melissa scans the dining hall quickly-- no, not the (unofficial) conspiracy theorist club, they were fun to hang around sometimes, but she went to them for odd rumors and weird facts about the grounds, not Dorothy Passwell, she's a huge gossip but her circle of friends wouldn't overlap with Emily's much--and then her eyes settle on a member of her other group of friends-- the oh-so-nice people she plays poker with on a regular basis. She remembers that this girl has often talked about the various sports teams she is involved with and has mentioned Emily once or twice. Perhaps she knows something.

Melissa turns to her fellow keybearers and gives a wide smile.

I'm going to go ask around a bit. See you all later!

With that Melissa waves and weaves into the crowd. This is her element-- well, not really, a poker table is her element, but Melissa has found that she is surprisingly good at making friends, considering her general lack of experience. She gives another smile that would be award-winning if there were awards for that kind of thing as she approaches the table. Sure, half of it is made up of people she doesn't know, but those were people she just hadn't made friends with yet!

"Hey there! Mind if I sit here?"

[roll0] Rapport to make a good impression on the girls at the table. There's never a bad time for making more friends after all.

[Ascension]

The Fencing Club's Room

Erika's question draws little more than shrugs and blank faces in response. Em isn't really tight with any of the fencers, nor is she particularly good at opening up about any vulnerabilities she may or may not have. In the uncomfortable silence, one of the girls, Sara Higgs, begins to pack up her equipment. That sound breaks the spell and draws the others' thoughts away from Emily's drama... but also away from the thought of continuing practice. As they begin to mill about, it becomes clear that if Erika wants to get any actual training done today, she's probably going to have to put her foot down as captain and rally the team.

Outside the Dining Hall

It's a testament to how much effort Jessica Sandys has put into cultivating poise that her only immediate outward sign of shock at Kaleemah's sudden appearance beside her is a pair of drastically raised eyebrows. She stops walking, stops to stare beneath those plucked, arched brows. Even though Kal goes through life with all the subtlety of a bull traveling through a china shop, Jessica seems almost continually surprised by the existence of any people beneath her notice.

"What are you going on about? What's the matter?" she asks, her voice a mix of genuine confusion and feigned concern.

The Athletes' Table

Melissa is greeted by a table full of smiles, and welcomed to a seat. She may not have the same kind of influence the school's leading lights command, but she's plenty popular enough just on the basis of innocent cuteness (and/or cute innocence). Though the tennis players at the table have only just met her, Melissa is attuned enough to people's tells to see the now familiar signs... she's made the right first impression.

Her sometime poker buddy, Kylie Jones, leans over the table to introduce her.

"Hey, this is that girl I was telling you about before, Melissa Pramm!"

The four tennis players each introduce themselves in turn.

"Lindsay Rogers," says the first with a polite nod. She seems the most reserved of the quartet, and the most composed.

"I'm Kim! Kim Hunt!" the next enthuses, punctuating each introduction with an unconscious giggle.

"Where'd you find this one again, Kylie?" the third asks, smirking, "She looks precious."

She nods to Melissa, "It's Nomi."

Before Kylie can answer Nomi's question, the next girl introduces herself, rounding out the quartet of tennis players.

"Victoria Braybrooke," she says, "But please call me Vickie."

"Nomi, she's the one who has the game nights," Kylie reminds, then glances back to Melissa, "Hey, do you know when the next will be, 'Lissa?"

Melissa has created the aspect "Isn't she adorable?", with two free invokes.

[Propagandist]

Izzy gives the dining hall the same appraisal her friends did, but elects to take a moment and get food before diving into the Mystery of the Unhinged Football Squad Captain. Having emerged from the line with some decent crusty bread and a bowl of split pea soup, one of Landsgate's most reliably edible offerings, she makes a beeline for the raucous table of Annette Renard and company.

The others seemed to be focusing more on Emily's supposed shift in mood and temperament, which, in Izzy's eyes, was not as big as it appeared. Better to get to the heart of the matter. Either there was an Importune Key involved, in which case the Keybearers needed to get to Emily fast, or there wasn't, in which case Isabel could go back to ignoring someone who failed a lot of "are you a good person?" tests without any help from evil artifacts.

With that in mind, the best person to ask about strange goings-on was Annette. It was hard to tell how the head of the unofficial conspiracy club would respond. Izzy liked the sole French student, she was interesting and fun to be around even when she wasn't spinning up ideas about all the strange things that happened on campus. On the other hand, Izzy was one of the strange things that happened on campus, and a subject of great suspicion.

"Hi Annette, hey Erin! Room for one more? You guys are all excited about something, I could hear you outside. What's happening?"

Rapport: [roll0]

[Lykan]

Unlike the others, Olivia has next to no ability to strike up conversation out of the blue, or make friends out of complete strangers. As such, after acquiring some dinner, she scoots off for one of the uninhabited tables and quickly wolfs down her meal, keen on heading out and finding Ruby before anything bad could happen. It was her responsibility as a keybearer, after all.

Assuming nothing happens that would keep her there longer than she wanted, she's quick to shuffle out into the hallway once again, beginning her search for Emily's wingman once she's out the door.

[Ascension]

Annette's Table

Annette looks up, squinting at Isabella. She's usually glad for any additions to her audience, but no one ends up as immersed in conspiracy theories as she is without a healthy dose of paranoia, or an overactive sense of pattern recognition, and she definitely suspects there's something strange going on with Izzy and her friends. That does mean she might learn something from Izzy, but it pays to be cautious...

After a moment, she makes her decision.

"Have a seat," she says, smiling and gesturing at one of the few remaining empty chairs at her table.

She smooths the architectural blueprint she has spread out in front of her, one of the several sets of building plans laid out on the table, each covered in scribbled notes.

"We found some new floorplans... Erin did, actually," she explains, nodding as she acknowledges the other girl, "and they just raise more inconsistencies. This school looks like it was drafted by an abstract artist and put together by workmen who thought that building plans were only vague suggestions."

She bares a toothy grin and locks eyes with Isabella.

"But that's the intent. To confuse us. Building records... they're a matter of public record, filed with municipal authorities. And Landsgate's true purpose cannot be known to the public."

That's a tie, but you do get the boost Not A Threat Yet. She trusts you... for the moment.

Olivia

Being quiet, keeping to the background, being ignored... these can be advantages. As Livi walks the halls, it's easy for her to pick up snatches of people's conversations, and it sounds like at least some of Emily's recent actions are beginning to drift into the school's rumor mill. Apparently she and all her friends made a big scene with the fencing club not too long after Olivia last saw them...

[Inspector Valin]

"Do you have a problem, Sara?"

Erika is standing uncomfortably close to the errant Higgs, seemingly condensing out of the ether like some small demon She smilied a thin, slightly creepy smile. Erika threw her own bag down on the bench next to the other girl's, taking the weight of her gear off her shoulders at last, before meeting Sara's gaze directly. She didn't need to raise her voice to ensure the remaining members of the fencing club were listening to her. She just spoke, calm and quiet, fully aware that everyone was paying attention. "We're not the football squad. We know better than to try and grandstand like they do. We're a team, and we've got a competition coming up that judges each of us as individuals. To have our group at their best, everyone needs to practice, and we help each other to do that"

The Captain glanced around the room briefly, before turning away, back to her own bag. Erika kneels down and starts to unzip it, as if the conversation was over, before finally speaking up again. "If something's wrong, we can try and help. I don't care what it is, we can try. If you don't like how I'm dealing with Emily, tell me. But nothing changes if you just walk away from us. And nothing gets better."

[roll0] Empathy roll; trying to take a sympathetic approach and quell the squad's fears. Erika knows them fairly well, and can understand what motivates them to a degree. It's also fairly apparent to those who know her that she is being fairly understanding, compared to her usual reaction to backsliders. ('Good, we're better off without you.')

[Propagandist]

"You don't have to tell me this place was built by mad people. Last week I went out in the hall to get a drink. It took me 20 minutes to find the classroom again." Landsgate's... unique design was something all students could commiserate over, even before the supernatural side started messing with them. "I thought it was just because it was old, you know? Refurbished over and over. You mean this place was built this way on purpose? That really is crazy."

Izzy can't help but smile at Annette's dramatic pronouncement. "All right, I'll bite. What is the true purpose of Landsgate? I take it you don't think this place is just an overpriced school?"

Might as well put it right to work. :smallsmile: Invoking Not A Threat Yet to encourage Annette to spill some of her theories. Rapport is probably the appropriate skill? base roll: [roll0]

[DeafnotDumb]

Kaleemah mentally stumbles a bit here, Jessica's response not quite fitting neatly into either of the two paths she'd expected, but her natural contrariness rises to the fore. "Well, Jess," She challenges calmly, "I guess you don't know everything. Not about your friends, at least. Emily challenged me to a good old game of sports, and seemed way invested in it. Shame she lost!" She finishes with satisfaction.

She shrugs, and there's a clank as the prosthetics settle and Kal tries to pretend she didn't just awkwardly trap a piece of her shirt in the gap between her stump and arm. They must have been put on a bit loose today... "I'm sayin' that you should tell me how to get Emily off my back, or let her know she should calm down." Kal elucidates, wriggling her left shoulder. Any blockage is going to make the operation of her arms rather more difficult...

"If you're her friend, then be her friend. Start sorting out her problems so they don't bother me. I've got stuff to do."

This as a whole is turning out much clumsier than she anticipated.


We should probably start angling towards that Social/Mental consequence now. One way to do it would be to hurt Kal's reputation with a Weird Girl or similar, but it might be interesting to hit her empathy and slap her with Aid Thy Enemy to make her try and help Emily due to the lack of support the girl's getting, which would tie in with her... odd view of rivalry.

Should I roll Provoke or similar, also?

[Jadev]

Melissa giggles at the girls' introductions. It was obvious that she'd made some new friends. As Kylie asks her the question, she nods.

"It's two days from now at the usual time. Same place as last time, in that room on the second floor past the labs.

She continues conversation with the girls, having fun despite her end goal still being on her mind. When the conversation turns to sports, she takes her chance.

"Speaking of football, we played a game with Emily earlier."

She lets her voice take on a tone of worry.

"She seemed really agressive, more so than usual. Beyond even how she gets with her rivalry with Erika. Do you know if anything's wrong?

She addresses this to the table at large, but she looks at Kylie as she does so.

[roll0]
Invoking Isn't she Adorable for a +2
EDIT: That's a Rapport roll by the way, since Melissa is legitimately worried about Emily.

[Ascension]

Erika

Sara's eyes flash when Erika confronts her. She's in no mood for her captain's snark... but she's completely caught off guard when Erika takes an entirely different tack. There seems to be a genuine compassion in the fencing captain's words, an understanding that no one expected. Maybe, just maybe... Maybe this Erika is concerned about Emily. Maybe this Erika could actually make peace with the abrasive footballer. It's not a certainty, but it's a possibility, an open question.

And the team's readiness for the upcoming competition is also an open question. They need the practice. They all know that, even if they don't much want to admit it. Sara puts her bag back down. Practice is back on the schedule.

I don't have that much more for you at this very moment, I'm afraid, unless you'd just like to montage some fencing practice. Olivia's probably headed in Erika's direction, so I can hook you back in if she pokes her head in the fencing room.

Isabella

Will: [roll0]

I'll edit something in here based on the result of that roll.

EDIT: Well, I accidentally rolled 4d4 instead of 4d3, but it was a low roll anyway. I'll just go ahead with that.

Annette's smile falters slightly, and she glances back down at her blueprints, smoothing them beneath her hands again. After a moment, though, she replies honestly.

"I have not been able to determine its exact purpose yet," she confesses, "but no, it's not just a school."

She looks around at her friends, and her grin comes back at full force.

"And we do have some theories, grounded in the basic facts of our situation. We are likely being readied for some purpose, thus the facade of a school... and a school where the best and the brightest daughters of the rich and influential are gathered. Actually, our very presence here could indicate our parents' membership in Britain's hidden ruling class... or perhaps we're being bred in the hopes of overthrowing the current shadow government. The latter seems unlikely, though, considering the age of the school. We are probably meant to further an old, old agenda... perhaps connected to the United Grand Lodge of England, given Masonic symbology in some of the school's 18th century construction..."

She goes on at some great length in and in some great detail about all number of possibilities, but one recurring element stands out to Isabella: One of the stronger themes of Annette's argument that the conspiracy behind Landsgate is an ancient one is that the city of Sandwich was once much more important than it is today, before the coastline shifted and left the former port stranded inland. That might be a valid hint that the school's magic isn't of particularly recent vintage... or maybe whatever force brought magic to Landsgate wanted someplace out of the way.

Kaleemah

I think neither of us have been acting quite the way the other expected, but fortunately the awkwardness works reasonably well IC. A Provoke roll about now probably would be appropriate, though. Go ahead.

A reflexive scowl picks at the corner of Jessica's lips when Kal calls her "Jess," and as Kal rambles on her brows furrow in confusion and consternation. Could such a pathetic creature really have beaten Emily in a fair athletic contest? The very thought seems laughable, but the cripple's confidence, while obnoxious, seems honest enough. She'll have to investigate this. She'll have to have words with Em. But that's a worry for the future. Right now she needs to teach a lesson.

"Emily Dew is my friend," she admits, then leans in closer to Kaleemah, looking the shorter girl in the eyes.

"I'm sorry, but you aren't. I don't know you. Don't call me Jess, and don't make presumptions. I'm not Em's keeper, and I'm certainly not yours. Whatever problems you may have, you're going to have to solve them on your time."

A thought occurs to Jess, and her face brightens, that little scowl quirking up into a little smirk.

"I know you're probably used to having other people do your work for you, but it doesn't take hands to be polite."

She straightens her back and gives Kal a broader, less sincere smile.

"I'm sorry I can't help you more, but I've got to get going. See you around."

With that she turns and walks on into the dining room. If Kal is going to keep pressing her, she's going to have to do it in public.

Melissa

The athletes look surprised at Melissa's concern.

"She does get really wound up sometimes," Kylie admits, "but more so than usual?"

Nomi shrugs.

"She's been pretty normal, I'd say. Now that girl who always hangs around with her, Ruby? She's been getting creepy lately."

"Nomi! Don't say things like that!" Kim objects, and Nomi gives out a dry chuckle.

"What? It's not like it isn't true. I mean, I think she's always acted like she wants Em's body, but lately it's been less bedroom eyes and more 'I want to wear your skin' eyes."

"I don't think that's something you can really see in someone's eyes," Vickie says, uncertainly, and Nomi rolls her eyes.

"That's not the point, Vic."

"Ruby's our friend, guys," Kim pleads, clearly uncomfortable with this line of discussion, "We shouldn't be talking about her like this."

"Maybe that's exactly why we should be talking about this," Lindsay weighs in, though she frowns at her own suggestion, "Ruby's our friend and Emily's our friend. If something's gone wrong between them, and if it's affecting Emily now like Melissa says, we owe them our concern."

"Girls!" Kylie interjects, laughing nervously, "I'm sure it's not that serious. I mean, everyone has off days..."

Jaya

Erin Ledger stands from Annette's table and works her way over to where Jaya is sitting. She smiles brightly at the prefect, laying a well-worn notebook down on her table.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" she asks.

[Lykan]

Well. That certainly seemed like the next place to check, then. Maybe she could catch someone inside taking a break and ask them what happened. She could probably figure out where Ruby and the others were from there.

... Jeeze, what the hell had the wrought with that match? Maybe she should have turned down playing after all, if this is what it amounted to. She only really did it figuring that the others would get on her case about it later if she refused, but... This is the sort of thing that makes real life monsters pop up inside this crazy, cosmic horror-inspired school. She had to vigilant, even if it meant talking to people she didn't know. It was her fault for being scared of her own friends, so this would be the price she'd have to pay.

[The_Snark]

Jaya looks up upon being addressed. "No, not at all. Sit." The assent is almost automatic - there are very few people Jaya would balk at sitting with, and even in those cases, a mixture of politeness and curiosity would probably change her mind if they approached her.

"Is everything all right?" It probably is, but on the off chance Erin is here to speak with a prefect it might help to have the subject introduced for her. If she's not, well, asking never hurts.

[Ascension]

Jaya

"You're a prefect, right?" Erin asks, flipping her notebook open and taking a tooth-marked pencil out from behind her ear. There's no doubt in her voice; it's clearly a rhetorical question.

"You might know, then," she says, paging through the notebook, "I haven't been able to find official statistics... Ah! Here it is."

She looks up at Jaya with eager eyes, tapping the pages laid open in front of her with the eraser end of her pencil.

"Is it true that there's a consistent pattern of the frequency of disciplinary infractions increasing over the course of each school year? I heard some anecdotal evidence my first year, and I've been keeping track as best I can since then, but if you've got access to actual records that would be just grand."

Erin's observation is, in fact, true. That certainly doesn't mean that it necessarily means whatever she thinks it means, though.

[The_Snark]

"I would need to look at the records myself to be sure," says Jaya, a little nonplussed, "but I believe that's true. I can check if you like." This is not why people usually seek out a prefect, but nonetheless, it's her job to be helpful. She cranes her head a little to try to get a look at the notebook, although if Erin tries to keep it hidden she'll stop.

"May I ask why? Is this a statistics project, or just curiosity, or...?"

[Ascension]

Jaya

Erin's notebook is opened to a series of hand-drawn tables, packed with tightly scrawled writing and rows of tally marks. Mathematical calculations are scribbled in the margins. She can also see that many sticky notes and loose pages have been haphazardly shoved between pages throughout the rest of the dog-eared spiral-bound notebook.

"Annette and I think that it's a sign that prolonged exposure to this school actually makes students progressively less likely to follow its regulations," she openly admits, "That strongly suggests that we're actually intended to break the rules, though to what end I'm not sure. Classic reverse psychology... perhaps to program us to unconsciously accept hypocrisy? To accept that laws apply to the poor and the powerless, not to the elite?"

She holds up a placating hand, smiling disarmingly.

"Don't worry, this actually absolves you of blame. There's a reason I'm coming to you, and not just any prefect. You really believe in the rules, don't you? That means you're not part of this conspiracy."

[The_Snark]

"... if there is anything like that going on, I certainly haven't been told about it," Jaya agrees, as diplomatically as she can manage. Right - Erin is one of Annette's friends, isn't she? Last year she'd thought the French girl just had an overactive imagination and maybe a touch of paranoia. Now that she knows there is something odd going on behind the scenes at Landsgate... well, Annette's fancies still don't seem very accurate. She's either paying attention to the wrong clues, or spotting clues and leaping to the wrong conclusion...

... probably.

"What makes you think it's a conspiracy?" she asks, letting a little of her doubt show. "Most of the staff here are very kind, it doesn't seem like something they'd do... Could there not be another explanation?"

Rapport, if necessary: [roll0]

[DeafnotDumb]

The red-hot burst of initial anger is quickly smothered by the icy wastes of stronger, keener, fiercer anger. Responding rashly would play entirely into the girl's hands, and Kal is entirely able to hold onto her temper using the rolling and stormy reserves of unadulterated spite that dwell like oil beneath the barren ice*.

*The geography of Kaleemah Khan's mind would have been of much interest to the school therapist, especially if the interview could be conducted from the other side of a double-plated steel door.

But she's not going to leave empty-hand... without anything to show for, not after that conversation. And Jessica has swanned on ahead, leaving her trailing sycophants without any social armour, the weak point in the chain unprotected. An artificial arm slams out and blocks the escape route before they can follow their leader, and Kaleemah smiles like a cat who's been left to watch over the mice.

"So, now that she's gone," Kal says, "does either one of you want to tell me what's been said about Emily and Ruby?"


I move that Jessica's 'hands' mention there inflicts a mild Mental consequence of Best Served Cold. Revenge is gonna happen. It's just not gonna happen now.

Provoke works as intimidating the sycophants, I think. This can be a public intimidation if you want. [roll0]

[Ascension]

Jaya

Erin puts serious thought into Jaya's suggestion. Her eyes drift toward the ceiling and she taps her abused pencil against her lips as she mulls it over. After several moments she seems to come back to earth.

"It's possible that the majority of the staff aren't complicit in it. You know how chaotic the school's architecture is... it's possible that it's actually constructed this way in order to influence our thinking. Subtly and subconsciously, of course, but we are shaped, in part, by our environment... so the school itself could be passively molding us, without the need for active intervention."

She shakes her head, letting out a low whistle.

"Creepy stuff, isn't it?"

Kaleemah

Consequences are supposed to have an even more negative slant than Troubles, so how about Need for Revenge? That angles it more against Kaleemah (and that can lead naturally into a healing stage like "Simmering Resentment" or "Still Holding A Grudge" while Kal's recovering).

Will (with Teamwork): [roll0]

Kal doesn't have long before Jess will notice the absence of her usual hangers-on, but she doesn't need long. By their very nature, sycophants don't have much of a spine of their own, and Kal doesn't have to try hard to be unsettling. That last bit may not be good for making friends, but it's great for making rats squeal.

"Look, I don't know what your deal is, weirdo," one scoffs, "but Ruby's the one you want."

"She's almost as mental as you are," the other editorializes.

"If you can get her away from Emily, by all means, do. That girl's bad news. Em's way too good for her."

"Now let us go or so help me, I will scream."

[Jadev]

Melissa listens to the girls as they debate, but she manages to mask her worry a bit.

"You say you haven't noticed anything off about Emily? Well, I suppose it could just be her normal rivalry with Erika going a little bit further than usual."

She internalizes the bit about Ruby being the one that was acting weird. It could be a coincidence, but something told Melissa it probably wasn't.

"I think Kylie's right. It's probably just an off day. Nothing to worry about."

She looks down at her watch. Time to move on.

"Well girls, I've got to go. But it was fun chatting with you. We should do this again sometime!"

Melissa smiles as she stands up and goes to dispose of her tray, and leave the cafeteria for whatever's next on her schedule.

[Inspector Valin]

By the time Olivia reached the fencing club, Erika and Sara are already sparring, along with two other pairs, whilst the other club members stood by watching. The dark haired girl smiled across at Higgs beneath her helmet; the other girl was giving her a challenge. Making her work for even attempting a strike. Good. The Foil was not Erika's preferred weapon, she generally used the saber, but the tournament was foil only. So she was going to learn the other blade, and Sara was helping a lot with that. It was... good that she'd stayed. Even if Erika had been a little unsure of what exactly had made her almost leave.

It's simple, really. Sara likes a caring leader. She thinks that if you try to help people like Emily, you'll care for her when she needs it. How you deal with your enemies can reflect how you treat your friends. At least that's how some people think about it.

Lunge from Sara. Erika had to take a step back towards the edge of the mat to avoid the hit, frowning to herself. Giving up ground was not something she liked to do. Gritting her teeth, the Keybarer started to advance, strokes shifting more towards her saber-style. Not efficient with a foil, but it was enough to catch Sara off guard. A few seconds back into the centre was all she needed.

Did she care about Emily? Perhaps. The obvious reason for her ego was that she identified her self worth with sporting prowess. Perhaps she was here on scholarship? The reason she got into the school was the fact that she was good at sports, so being challenged? Being beaten? That could hurt her sense of self worth fairly directly. Her reactions were understandable. Not justifiable, but she knew what'd led the footballer to this point. That would all make sense, and explain Ruby's comment. That was something Erika could understand.

But you have to be stronger than that. You can't let failure or challenge throw you emotionally. You learn from them, redouble your determination, get stronger from the opposition. That's something the game showed that Emily doesn't do. If she hadn't been getting worked up about me, she'd have beaten us easily. She is failing. And she doesn't seem to understand that.

Another strike from Sara. Erika was ready this time though, sidestepping and letting the other girl walk into her foil. A buzz sounded, signifying the point, and the two girls stepped back into the centre. Not much longer now. Sara was good, and giving it her all, but that just meant she'd lasted longer. There was a reason Erika'd been made club captain in just her second year. The master-fencer smiled as she bowed to her opponent, tapping blades before calling "En guarde." It was good to be practising, to have to actually draw upon her skills to their fullest, even if her mind was dwelling on other things.

Emily. Yes. She wasn't a truly bad person. Mildly contemptible, perhaps. Irritating, certainly. There are worse things. But she needed to learn self control. And that wasn't Erika's fault. If the football captain couldn't work out how to take a couple of lost goals in a friendly game without getting crazy and angry... well, that wasn't Erika's fault. That was just something Em would have to learn in life. Everyone had their trials to deal with.

[The_Snark]

"That would be creepy. And the school layout is definitely peculiar," Jaya concedes. Not even the most hard-nosed skeptic could deny that much. "Do you know the school doesn't have any accurate maps? When I started as prefect I asked if we could print some to give new students at orientation - I got lost so many times during my first year - and Mr. Battle said they used to, but got so many complaints they stopped..."

She shakes her head, trailing off. Complaining about the byzantine architecture is the Landsgate equivalent of talking about the weather: everyone does it, it's always a safe topic, but nor is it all that fascinating after the first few times. "How would you tell if something were influencing the students like that?" she asks, turning back to the original subject. "We can see the effect, but unless you can find a causal mechanism of some sort then it's just circumstantial evidence. I can get you official records if you like, but that won't help you learn anything new. What is the next step?"

[Propagandist]

Izzy had a reputation for being a lazy, uninvolved student, doing the minimum to avoid being kicked out. While not entirely undeserved, it disguised the truth. Isabel knew quite a bit about the subjects that interested her. She absorbed what teachers said and delved deeper on her own time, in the library. It was the pointless busywork the school tried to bury its students under that earned her ire, not the learning itself.

History happened to be one of the subjects Izzy actually picked up on.

"So, if I might make an observation?" Izzy breaks into the "conversation" at long last. "All of your theories, which are fascinating, by the way, have something in common, this idea that whatever is going on is old, ancient. Sandwich was bigger and more important once, yes, but what if whoever's behind this isn't a leftover from something big, what if they wanted somewhere quiet and out of the way?"

"We know when the school was built, but what about before that? Have you asked Ms. Lizzie? I mean, she probably knows more than any of the teachers, and she's always poking around in those old books in the library. Does the strangeness go back before Landsgate was here? If it does, how far back?"

[Ascension]

Jaya

Erin riffles through the pages of her notebook, but it's an empty gesture. The answer to Jaya's question isn't there.

"I'm sure Annette has an idea," she ventures after a moment, but it's clear that she's largely trying to assure herself, "I don't know, I've just been focused on collecting data."

After a moment more she flips to a marked page near the back of the notebook and tightly scrawls a note into its remaining space. She nods to Jaya.

"I need to talk with her about that."

Isabel

Annette frowns and glances in Ms. Rassul's direction.

"The librarian and I..." she explains, the words coming slowly, "have had a misunderstanding in the past."

There's more of a story there than she's telling, but she quickly moves on, denying Izzy the chance to follow up on it without being rude. Ms. Lizzie's alleged antagonism hasn't stopped Annette from doing her own research into the school's origins, however, and she continues to chatter on about her theories. The further back her speculation goes, though, the less solid its foundations seem. Pre-Enlightenment history seems to be a weak spot for her.

Olivia and Erika

No matter how motivated an athlete may be, everyone has a limit, and some of the other fencers had already been training for some time before Erika arrived. It's no real surprise, and no real shame, then, that one of the pairs of sparring partners knocks off for the day before Erika is done with practice, or with thoughts of Emily. They pack up quietly, not wanting to risk catching the captain's attention the way Sara did, but before they can hit the showers they run into Olivia first.

"Oh!" one yelps, startled by the tall, quiet girl's presence, "I didn't see you there."

"Are you... waiting on someone?" her partner asks, a bit suspiciously.

"Maybe she wants to join?" the first wonders out loud, then begins to explain, "It's a bit late to sign up if you want to compete in the tournament..."

[Inspector Valin]

Erika smiles beneath her helmet as she spars with Sara. The two were swiftly starting to wear each other down, and soon enough moved away from the ring, removing their helmets to catch their breath a little. You couldn't just throw yourself into fight after fight and expect to be better at the end of it. You had to push yourself, pace yourself. A little rest now and then was healthy. Erika glanced across to Sara briefly before looking down, checking her blade for damage.

It was in that time that she noticed Livie lurking near the doorway out of the corner of her eye. Her fellow Keybarer had actually come to seek the club out, rather than texting or waiting for her to leave. That was surprising, and potentially worrying. Within the second, the fencing club captain was on her feet, walking across the room and raising a hand in greeting. "Hey Livi." Erika was wearing her white fencing outfit, padded and bulky, and there was a bead of sweat on her brow. But still, her Key rests about her neck, a lucky charm as far as the rest of the school was concerned. Erika smiled gently across at her friend, keeping her blade lowered, trying not to seem intimidating. "Are you here to join? Or is it something else?"

[Lykan]

The assault of questions caused the shy girl to shrink over, visibly, as she tried her best to stammer out a response. Before she manages to get out more than a few words, though, Erika calls her over, which prompts the lanky girl to give a short, quick bow and squeak "thank you!" to the two other fencing club girls before scampering over to Erika. "I'm tracking Emily and Ruby. People said they came here before."

[The_Snark]

Jaya nods back. "All right. Let me know if there's anything else I can help with. And - I don’t think I really need to tell you this, but make sure you don’t break any rules while looking, please?" She gives a small embarrassed smile, feeling a little self-conscious at delivering the warning, but better safe than sorry, right? A reminder never hurt anyone.

[Inspector Valin]

Erika frowned: why was Livi tracking the two girls alone? Still, no easy way to discuss that in front of everyone. The Captain's voice is slightly louder than the quiet girl's: still controlled and gentle, but making it clear that she wasn't trying to keep secrets from the other club members here. (or at least, that she wasn't trying to hide her feelings about Emily and Ruby) "They did. They both came here after the game ended, and weren't happy. But they left shortly after that."

She glanced around the other girls briefly before turning back to her fellow Keybarer, prior frown replaced with a smile. Livi didn't need discouragement. She needed support. "They probably went back to their hall or something. Everyone else has been here since then. Go after them if you want, but be careful, Livi. There's something odd about how they were acting." There's no lingering pause on those words, no subtle insinuation. The Captain meant what she said: the idea that Emily was an Importune Barer still had no real evidence to back it up. Still, their behaviour had continued to be... strange. Even if magic wasn't involved, the two girls' reaction to Livi materializing behind them might not be pretty.

[Ascension]

Olivia and Erika

Any further speculation on Ruby and Emily's whereabouts and disposition is abruptly cut short by the sudden appearance of a wide-eyed, frantic Year Eight student in the door to the fencing club's room.

"There's some short girl fighting Emily Dew outside the locker room!" she relates, her voice dancing the hysterical tightrope between excitement and fear. "She's really tearing into her!"

[Inspector Valin]

Some short girl...

Erika looks towards Olivia at that, the duo's suspicion seemingly confirmed in a single motion. If whatever had happened was serious enough to make Emily start actually attacking Ruby, the one girl in the whole school that could traditionally mollify the obsessive footballer, this situation had become toxic. If Emily didn't have a Portune Key yet, one was probably lurking in the shadows with her name on it. The situation had gotten serious. They needed to end this, now, before Emily escalated things further, or Ruby got seriously hurt.

Nodding to the out of breath girl, Erika started moving swiftly towards the exit; not quite a run, but walking with a brisk sense of urgency. The saber she'd been practicing with was still in her hand, seemingly unnoticed by the older-looking girl as she exited the room, heading straight towards the lockers. Some instincts were hard to overcome.

[Lykan]

"I know, I was just gonna talk to Ruby anyw-" The lanky girl is cut short by the student alerting the lot of them to the fight happening down at the lockers, which... Yeah, it obviously wasn't good if the situation had devolved into an all-out brawl between two people she swore were actually friends. Livi follows after Erika, nervously clutching her emerald key that was strung on her necklace as she hoped that the worst wasn't about to happen.

[Ascension]

Erika and Olivia

A morbid curiosity draws the Year Eight student and a few of the fencers out into the hall, following behind Erika and Olivia, whispering gossip to each other. If the Keybearers don't do something about it, they're going to have an audience when they confront Emily and Ruby.

[Inspector Valin]

"No."

Erika half-sighed, half-growled the word. She wheeled around in the corridor, pivoting on the spot and staring down at the assembled ranks of fencers following in her wake. Her comrades had seemingly become enthralled at the prospect of something interesting going on. The Captain scowled at her would be followers, shaking her head emphatically. This was not what they needed right now. Her glare was cold and her voice barely retained the Year Nine's traditional calm. She nearly hissed at the other girls, voice quiet enough not to carry far but projected sufficiently to be heard across this corridor. "Do any of you think a massive crowd is going to be any use in this situation? Are any of you these two's friends? Close enough that you might be able to help calm them down? Or are you just heading out to watch the show of two people hitting each other?"

Wiessman shook her head; the question was utterly hypothetical. She knew precisely why these people were looking to spectate, and it was pathetic. Boring people looking to watch the action of those more interesting than themselves. Instead, Erika gestured backwards towards the gymnasium... with her still held saber in hand. "If so, go back into the gym and start practising again. Or to the rest of you, go back to whatever you were doing. That's not what we need here. We're going to resolve this, to try and talk them down. Not to gawk at two best friends getting into a fight."

[roll0] Empathy through Motive Rant, trying to get these people to back down.

[Ascension]

Outside the Fencing Club's Room

It's difficult to social-fu groups in Fate without a stunt specifically for that purpose, plus Motive Rant keys off of knowing the target well enough to hit their weak spots... arguable with the fencers, but definitely not applicable to the still-unnamed Year Eight (without spending a fate point to establish a previous relationship, anyway, and I think Erika's out).

This isn't going to work well... and I'm going to compel Self-Fulfilling Cynicism to drive a nail in that coffin. It's hardly worth trying again when it's obviously futile, isn't it? They're just too pig-headed to listen.

How is she going to deal with that?
For a moment, Erika's barely controlled fury gives the other fencers pause. They know how she can get when she's angry, and she knows how to shame them, but... wait. Wait. They also know about the issues Erika's had with Emily recently. Very recently. And she thinks she's going to be able to talk the footballer down? She's more likely to add fuel to the fire.

One of the fencers heads back into the club's room, sufficiently admonished, but only one.

Resolve firming, one of the lingering fencers speaks up.

"Captain, Emily hates you," she points out, bringing the issue into the open, "I don't think she's going to want to talk to you right now."

Another has the audacity to press on past Erika, moving in closer to the fracas. One door stands between her and the scene of the fight: one door, slightly ajar. If you listen close, you might hear a pained cry already. Emily's or Ruby's? Hard to say at this distance.

[Lykan]

Something inside Livi snapped as she saw the girl push her way into the front of the crowd. Was this really nothing more than bloodsport to the girls here? Before, she was willing to accept that no one interfered because no one really knew what to do, but... It was getting progressively more difficult to think that way the more they shoved each other about just to get a better view. "Move." Gritting her teeth, Olivia started pushing people aside, making her way for the room with the hopes of putting an end to whatever was going on beyond the door.

[roll0]
Might invoke Just Brute Force It to reroll or add to the result if necessary.

[Ascension]

I would require you to spend a fate point to bump that roll up, Lykan, but success in this case isn't a particularly great reward, so you can keep the fate point and just accept the consequences of being the first to enter the hall outside the locker room...

Outside the Locker Room

Livi pushes ahead of the pack, shouldering her way into the hall outside the locker room. The hallway is dimly lit, half its bulbs either burnt out or turned off, but the two combatants are perfectly framed in the remaining light. Both are still in their football uniforms, a sound of water from within the locker room suggesting showers planned but forgotten. Ruby shows some signs of having been in a scuffle, but Emily is an absolute mess, clearly on the losing side of the fight despite her advantages in height, speed, and strength. The star athlete's blonde hair has been torn out of its customary ponytail, falling wildly around her face. Her left eye is swollen; her nose is bleeding, possibly broken; her lip is busted open, painting her teeth red and pink.

Emily is far too dazed to notice Livi's arrival, but Ruby's dark eyes dart toward the door as soon as she arrives. The short girl scowls at the interruption, but Livi is too far away to actually intervene before she has a chance to reach up and pull Emily down into a fierce kiss. The lights above the perversely intimate pair flare briefly into brilliance, burning the moment into Livi's eyes, then abruptly cut out, plunging the hall into darkness.

The darkness persists only for a scant moment before a light flickers back to life, revealing Ruby standing alone. She wipes blood from her lips with the back of her hand before grinning cruelly at Olivia.

"Looking for Emily?" she asks in a sticky-sweet tone. "I'm afraid she's not here right now."

Backlit as she is by the one bulb left burning, Ruby's shadow stretches out straight toward Olivia... and it stretches out longer than should be possible. Glancing down, Livi can clearly see that the silhouette of Ruby's shadow possesses tattered shoulder-length hair... not at all a reflection of Ruby's own short bob.

"It's a shame you missed her," Ruby teases, voice saccharine and cyanide.

[Inspector Valin]

Erika didn't notice Livi's departure: her focus was on the stubborn crowd, not the door. The young fencer was staring daggers at the unfortunate girl who'd raised the point about her relationship with Emily. She'd had tried to be calm, logical, but after that, the captain's patience starting to fray. Explaining herself to these people was a waste of time. They didn't see her skills, her focus on studying people, the psychology textbooks in her dorm. They just saw someone who had angered Emily, and thus would make things worse, not someone who could talk to to the footballer about the situation, help her work through her anger....

Then a flicker. Erika's mother taught her many things, but above all else, she taught her daughter alertness. To spot the things that happened in the corner of her eye. Erika pivoted, glancing towards the crack that still held the door open. There'd been light from it a second ago, faint but there. Yet now the corridor was pitch black, a thin trickle of light from their side the only illumination. There was a faint fizzzt in the distance, the smell of burning wire just perceivable on the air. The younger Wiessman muttered to herself, only just audible to those standing closest to her. "The lights..."

It could be a regular blown fuse. Landsgate's architecture had proven a nightmare infamous amidst local electricians: bulb failures were fairly common. But the timing was... insanely convenient. Especially since none of the lights in their corridor had blown out. This could be the sign of a Key at work.

Then light returned. Faint, but there. That settled it. One light blowing out was natural, but most of the lights in a corridor going, bar one or two? Erika turned around, introspection done with for the moment, looking towards the other girls. "Either one of them has done something with the wiring, or they smashed the bulbs. Either way, this fight isn't safe to get close to." Looking amidst the crowd, Erika gestured to two of her more trusted fencers. "Sasha, get the headteacher. Mercy, try and find the caretaker. Everyone else, go back to something else, or at least step away from the door. Now."

There was no debate in Erika's words any longer. No attempts to reason with those around her. These were orders, instructions to keep them away from danger. She was Fencing Club Captain, she was responsible for keeping them safe during sparring anyway. If these people were stupid enough to still disobey her... well, she'd tried her best to get them out of harms way. What happened after this wasn't her fault. She stood between the crowd and the doorway, studying each face, blocking the path forward. Throughout this entire encounter, Wiessman hadn't put her sword down. Though her current frown shifted as she studied the faces set before her.

Livi? Tell me you didn't..

Trying a different tac with them. I don't know if I need to roll persuade here, since Erika's now attempting to block the corridor anyway and has provided a different reason the girls shouldn't go any further. If you want me to roll/spend FP I'm happy to, just ask on the OOC

[Lykan]

Livi glares (a rather odd expression for her, to say the least) at the sickeningly sweet monster that had become of Ruby, idly reaching up to place a hand on the emerald key around her neck. She gives her armed companion a side glance before quickly returning her gaze to the presumed importune keybearer. "I... I haven't done anything, yet. Em just disappeared when the lights went out." Once Erika's fully inside, Livi uses the heel of her foot to kick the door shut and grabs her key, jamming it into her chest and turning it. "Untamed Heart - Unlock!"

A stiff breeze rushes through the hall, swirling about the girl as the red, glowing image of eight intersecting rods shines up from the floor below her. The light grows in intensity until it engulfs her entirely, turning her form into a dark silhouette against the sanguine glow. The cries of animals the world over ring out as metal and cloth materialize around the girl, before they are suddenly silenced by the roar of a lion. The light disappears an instant later, revealing that Livi was now adorned in a stylized, iron armor, adorned with the likenesses of eagles, lions and bulls. A crown of antlers lay tangled within her hair as well, giving her the look of some wild, warrior queen.

When the transformation is complete, she makes a point to step on the elongates shadow before pointing at Ruby. "You may find me a more amusing opponent than Em. Come at me."

[Jadev]

A distance away from the oncoming battle, the door to the Fencing club's usual meeting space slams open.

Okay, maybe it doesn't slam open. But the girl opening it does look angry!

Fun fact: Melissa Pramm is incapable of actually looking angry. It just looks kind of cute.

"Erika! We have to--"

She stops in her tracks, noticing the distinct lack of her roommate in the club's practice space.

[Ascension]

Erika

The little gathered crowd still hesitates for a moment or two as Erika quits trying to be diplomatic and assumes a tone of command. Barking orders, physically blocking their path, waving around a friggin sword like she might actually use it... the fencing team captain's demeanor does a fair job of making sure no one wants to challenge her, but it doesn't really make anyone want to obey her either.

"Psycho," someone mutters from the back of the group; Erika can't quite tell who. That comment sets off a storm of sotto voce murmuring throughout much of the crowd, but it spurs Erika's faithful into motion: Sasha and Mercy take off on their errands. After a few moments more, the rest of the crowd breaks apart, though not before targeting Erika with a few more dirty looks.

Erika's not won any friends, but the crowd is at least dispersed, and she's able to follow Livi into the hall outside the changing room, finding Ruby standing alone beneath its last functioning light...

Unlocked Soul: Unbound Shadow

Ruby steps back quickly, back behind the still-lighted bulb, so that that shadow of Emily's shape is thrown behind her instead of toward Livi, but she still chuckles bitterly at the armored keybearer's words. She fixes a contemptuous glare on Olivia and her friend with the blunted sword.

"And who says I want to fight you two?" she asks. "Em was the one who hated you."

Her lips pull back from her teeth in a sudden, delighted grin, but her focus isn't on her would-be opponents.

"Em!" she says to herself triumphantly, savoring the single syllable, "Oh, it does feel nice to say that."

She glances over her shoulder and asks her own shadow, "You don't mind if I call you that now, do you? Oh, of course you don't."

She gives her head a quick shake, returning her focus to the Opportune keybearers in front of her, but she still can't help smiling to herself.

"Where was I... Oh, yes! Who says I want to fight you two? I know we've had our misunderstandings, but I did that for Emi... for Em. Come, come, I'd much rather show you something. Share something with you. A truth I've only recently come to understand."

She dances backward several steps, moving far more quickly and gracefully than the Ruby you so recently met on the football field. A key appears in her hand, a key apparently forged of solid darkness, visible less as a distinct object and more as a simple void, a key-shaped space in which light is entirely absent. She holds it out to her right and a door opens, a door that shouldn't be there, in that point in the wall, and ought to lead back into the gym even if it did exist.

A bright, flickering firelight spills out from the opened door.

"Follow me!" she urges, stepping across the threshold. The shadow that was Emily Dew follows dutifully on her heels.

Melissa

Melissa doesn't find Erika, and neither does she find any fencing practice to interrupt. As she bursts in, the girls remaining in the club's practice space are standing around gossiping instead. The little poker player may fail at slamming doors loudly enough or looking angry enough to command much attention, but all heads still turn toward her at the mention of the fencing captain's name.

"You won't find Queen E here," one of the girls scoffs, "She's off to play peacekeeper with Emily Dew."

"With a sword, apparently," another adds, seeming unsure whether to sound shocked, amused, or appalled by this fact.

"Some girl said Emily had gotten into a fight with a short girl outside the changing room," a third fencer explains, "and Erika and some weird tall girl went into to break it up. Even though everybody knows Em hates Erika, and she's just going to make it worse..."

"With a sword," the second girl reminds, again.

Kaleemah and Jaya

"Excuse me!" a girl in a fencing uniform shouts as she barrels past Kaleemah and on into the dining hall. After looking around frantically for any other authority figure she can talk to, the agitated fencer approaches Ms. Lizzie, the out-of-place librarian. Her voice is loud enough that Kal and Jaya can both hear her clearly, along with most of the cafeteria.

"Erika Wiessman, she's the fencing team captain, she sent me to find the headmistress, and I can't find her anywhere, and I can hardly find anyone, and there's some terrible fight going on in the changing room in the gym, and something really must be done about it or someone's going to get hurt," she reports. "Actually I think someone already has been hurt."

Ms. Lizzie looks terrified by this news, but she rushes out of the room alongside Sasha, leaving the dining hall unattended by faculty.

[Jadev]

At first Melissa is happy to hear that Erika may be going to mend things with Emily.

Then she hears the rest of the explanation.

"She went to do what? With a sword?"

She frowns.

"I need to go find her..."

Just as quickly as she had entered, Melissa turns around and dashes out into the hallway, making her way towards the locker room.

[Inspector Valin]

The Fencing Club Captain nods as the group disperses, expression carefully neutral. The students can think what they like. Their safety would be attended to by those more competent and dedicated. The dark haired girl raised a hand to her neck as she turned towards the door, bringing her silver key down towards the door handle. A twinkle of light gleamed upon the metal. one that her fellow key-barers might feel in that strange sealed off part of their inner selves as the spark settled upon the keyhole. It was Erika's mark, leading the way to... whatever this would be. Satisfied with her work, Wiessman stepped forward, into the darkness.
__________________________________________________ _

Ruby has... changed rapidly. Erika frowned, trying to work out just what had happened here, glancing to Livi with her sabre still in one hand whilst the other rested on her neck. This was... a tense situation. They'd already lost an innocent life potentially, and were now at risk themselves. All her fault for not intervening sooner, not working out the emotions that were driving Ruby. Things might change now if she Unlocked, her blade sharpening to an impossible point that she could undoubtedly fight with, but that would escalate things. Make her own powers obvious and make Ruby less able to let go of whatever drew her to this. She could shift later. If there was a chance to talk Ruby down from this... they needed to try it. And Livi at least was fully ready for a fight now.

Resolution given, Erika nodded to Livi, stepping forward towards Ruby's conjured flames. She tensed a little as she drew closer, before finally shaking her head towards the unseen duo and stepping through, blade held strong. Blunted or no, it was a symbol to Erika. She wouldn't let it go.

Spot of key magic; not sure if it requires a roll or not, if so I'll be using one of those two new FP to buff it. Erika's marked the door with her magic, enabling anyone who is paying attention to their key to teleport straight to it. You might have to duck out of a conversation, but hey: you get to go visit hell! That's got to count for something, right?

[Lykan]

She didn't want to fight? Well... Perhaps this whole thing could end nonviolently, crazy importune-ness or not. Livi is quick to follow after Erika, content enough without a weapon for now. For a moment she thinks back to the shadow that Ruby had cast, different from its owner in shape and movement. It was pretty obvious Emily was still around, but how exactly they'd go about reversing the condition was still a mystery.

... Their opponent was clearly invoking metaphor with her abilities. Maybe the solution would have something to do with that.

[DeafnotDumb]

Kal blinks. Right, that wasn't good. The sudden thrumming of her key - the familiar metallic sound of Erika's magic - didn't do much to encourage. Wraggling her way through the crowds, she finds Jaya and places a heavy hand on the Prefect's shoulder.

"Can you make sure nobody panics now the librarian's gone off?" She requests. It's not something that comes easily, but Kaleemah can accept that this is not a situation that calls for her own skillset. Admitting it out loud, that's another matter. "I've got to go and see what this stupid fuss is all about."

It's not hard to slip away and touch her key - and then there's the sudden shift of transport, the strange feeling of the world moving around you - and Kal is suddenly on the wrong side of a door, next to an Unlocked Olivia, an armed Erika and a shadowy firelight spilling out from an open door.

"Huh." She says, and turns to - not the fencing captain, Erika notices, but Oliva. "What's going on?"

[Ascension]

Olivia

Olivia walks through heatless flame, the phantasmal bonfire proving entirely intangible. She finds herself in a rough, rocky cavern... and she finds she can only take a few steps into it before she is stopped short, caught by chains around her ankles. Looking to either side of herself she sees that she's not standing with the same company she was when she walked through the door. The bloodied Emily stands in place of Ruby, though she seems dazed and distant, more absent than present. In the other direction, Erika stands beside her; not the Erika who stepped through the door, but the fully Unlocked Erika. The transformed girl seems as blind to the world as Emily is.

With the bright flames behind them, the three girls' shadows stretch out long across the floor of the cave to stand opposite them on its far wall. Livi's own shadow does not wear her armor, bear her crown. Erika's shadow follows the silhouette of her fencing gear, and carries a thinner, weaker blade. Emily's shadow is too short, its hair the wrong style... it's clearly shaped like Ruby.

Erika

As soon as Erika steps over the door's threshold, something strange happens. She finds herself staring back at the door she just entered from across the length of a cavern, and she can see herself there, standing next to Olivia, in all her transformed finery. Looking down at herself, at the self she inhabits, she sees a body rendered in smoke, a dark smudge against the wall. Livi, the shy, ordinary Livi, stands beside her, and she can glimpse Ruby's shadow standing beyond her.

Kaleemah

The flames kindled at the threshold of the magic door flare brilliantly as Erika and Olivia step through. She can barely see what's happening on the other side of the blaze... though it looks like Erika has transformed? And is that Emily standing next to Livi?

Unlocked Metaphor: Allegory of the Cave

Ruby laughs, the bitter sound echoing throughout the cavern of flames and shadows.

"This is the truth that was shown to me. A truth you key girls should already understand. The whole world we live in? That we inhabit every day? It's nothing but a dim shadow of the ideal world. We're shadows of perfection. Only magic allows us to pretend to be anything more."

She takes Olivia's shadow by its shoulders, shaking it. Livi feels her touch distantly, as if in a memory.

"How can you stand it?" she demands, anger swelling in her voice, "How can you walk in the world of shadows after you've seen the sun? How can you live with yourself when you've seen, hell, when you've embodied the ideal you can never really live up to? How can you go back to being a cripple?"

She turns her face toward Emily, and even out of featureless shadow you can feel the force of her glare.

"And how can you not hate those who stand closer to the light?"

She pushes the shadow Livi away and takes a step back, her body trembling, her hands shaking as her fingers lengthen and taper into wicked claws.

"Answer me!" she demands, and her eyes flash blood red (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBgX0JwNs4c) in the midst of darkness.

And now we're in a conflict. It's debatable whether I should go with a physical combat or mental combat turn order, but I think I'm going to go physical if no one objects, meaning that the turn order is:
Livi > Erika > Kaleemah > Ruby

There are three zones in this conflict. Kaleemah is Outside the Cave, Livi is in the Realm of Ideas, and Erika and Ruby are Shadows on the Wall. Moving between the Shadows and the Realm of Ideas (or vice versa) requires an Overcome action with Key Magic at a Fair (+2) difficulty. No attacks can be made between the Shadows and the Realm of Ideas, but your reflection in the world opposite the one you occupy can be attacked, and, if attacked, must defend with its own traits. Ruby's reflection, however, is Emily, and attacking her would only hurt Em, not Ruby.

And these (http://www.ohtori.nu/audiology/translations/Earth_As_a_Character_Gallery.htm) are the translated lyrics to that song linked up there.

[Lykan]

Well. The unfettered queen was in fetters. Great.

The lanky girl gives a slight tug to each of the chains bound to her, testing their strength before deciding it was probably more important to get the lay of the land than try to escape. Erika was beside her, at least... Well, sort of. A quick look between the unresponsive unlocked girl and her shadow gave her a little insight as to what was going on in this weird little cave, which.... That would mean Ruby thought of Emily as her perfect self? Really? Huh.

"What we become is not perfection. Even like this, I still make mistakes, have lapses in judgement, and trust people I shouldn't. It's just something that I can be. Something I can strive for. And because I know this is something I'm capable of, it gives me all the more resolve to reach for it. That's why I can stand it... This form's not some sort of unreachable light. It's a beacon of what I can be." She tries to take a step toward the shadow-Ruby, only for her movement to be restricted by the chains. When she realizes this, she instead holds out her hand. "Please... I know if you stop trying to hurt people, we can search for your beacon too. I promise it's there, and I know it's not a reflection of anyone but you." The unfettered queen gives the shadow a small, gentle smile. "Maybe I can help you find it?"

Let's try creating an Advantage with Empathy through rational discussion, shall we?
[roll0]

[Ascension]

Let's try defending against rationality through irrationality!
Provoke: [roll0]

Ruby is a girl who's modeled her ideal self on the acerbic Emily Dew... when confronted by reason and comfort, she lashes out. Her barbs are blunted, though, hesitant and half-hearted. It seems Livi's words have had more of an effect on her than she's willing or able to admit.

"That's what you think! I guess you don't get it after all! You only see yourself like this when you use the power of the keys... and you only see it from the inside. That gives you hope, but it's false hope, smoke and mirrors, just empty magic! You haven't had to live with perfection in the real world, living day after day in the shadow of your better... and never being able to have her. You're just ignorant! ...stupid..."

The shadow Ruby folds in on herself, shuddering, and you get the impression her last words are directed more toward herself than to Livi...

"Stupid girl."

That's success with style. You get two free invocations on an aspect... and what would be appropriate? How about False Equivalency, since Livi's driven home that Ruby's situation isn't directly analogous with the PCs'? That's not as positive a message as Livi was trying to get across, but when you're in pain it can be easy to frame attempts at comfort in the harshest light possible. I'm open to suggestion, though.

[Inspector Valin]

Where all the shadows play, my dear. Where all the shadows play...

Erika heard a voice, singing to her from the back of her mind as she looked down at her new self. Great. Entering something like this Locked was always a risk, but this was a particularly strange little oubliette. She was some kind of... smoke creature? Shadow? The doorway was what made this realm. Light and shadow, their Unlocked selves lit by the flame and shadows on the cave wall representing... mortality? The everyday people? Philosophy wasn't Erika's strong suite, and the chains raising up around Livi swiftly made the fencer turn her attention elsewhere. It... didn't feel like she could move from the wall like this. Unlocking might help, but Ruby'd shown herself to have no issues restraining Livi's unfettered form. It'd just draw more attention, make the shadow more hostile... Great.

Ruby was with her, here on the wall, the shadow behind the now restored Emily. It was... strange to see the confident and powerful Em bloodied and reeling like that. Livi, as expected, remained calm and shadow-Ruby seemed shaken by her words. She was angry, reeling... but not committed to this. Persuasion could work. Steping towards Ruby, the Erika shadow loward her blade, looking between the Importune barer and her 'shadow'. It was strange to speak without a mouth, but thinking the words was enough. They echoed around the cavern, just as the other girl's had

"Emily isn't perfect, Ruby. No more than you are. You think the key changed that?"

Erika gestured towards their opponent with her off hand, her shadowy face devoid of expression. "Take a step back. That key hasn't given you hope. It made things worse for you. Instead of facing Emily, telling her how you feel, you did this to her. First you lashed out, and then you moved her out of the way. Wrapped her up in shadow so she'd be yours" Shaking her head, Erika turned towards the bloodied Emily. "Except she isn't. She's still over there, with the magic and the light. And you're still her reflection. Hiding out in the darkness with everyone else. Even now, with magical powers that Em couldn't ever have, a realm of your own and endless possibilities, you're still just someone else's Other. And that's pathetic."

The fencer turns back towards Ruby at the last few words. You didn't need to see her face to feel her scowl; her contempt almost made the walls of the cavern shake. Ruby's problems were obvious, but she needed to acknowledge them. The Importune Key was driving her back into what she was before, the tortured shadow, lurking on the edges of existence. That was the path it wanted her to tread down, dark and bitter as midnight coffee. But you've shown more than that, Ruby. Let's see if that was a hoax or not..

Motive Rant: Targeting what seem like Ruby's specific weak points, and spending a Fate Point to invoke Unlocked Sight: Unwavering Judge of Eternity. Erika sees just how Ruby's failed and has no qualms explaining the situation to her.

[roll0] Empathy, looking to deal mental damage.

[Ascension]

Will: [roll0]

Going to spend a Fate point to invoke Unlocked Soul: Unbound Shadow; she isn't supposed to be beholden to Emily any more... in theory. In truth, that only reduces it to a 2 shift hit, so she still takes stress.

Spending a second Fate point on Ruby's magical stunt.

"No, NO!" Ruby rages, tearing at her own smoky form, her glowing eyes flashing hate at Erika, Emily, and even Livi, "I do have magic, and this shadow is in control. This shadow finally has its day. I'm the one on top now. I'm finally better!"

Her claws find her key, and her whole image flickers. A rending sound fills the cavern as something impossible happens: Her position and Em's are inverted. A three-dimensional shadow stands at the mouth of the cavern, talons sharp and eyes burning, a void standing amidst the light, and from its feet stretches a flat, full-color image of the battered Emily Dew, running along the cavern floor and up onto the far wall.

"See?" Ruby exults, triumphantly.

[DeafnotDumb]

Kaleemah rushes towards the shadowy cave, clutching her Key as she does so. As her finger touches it - as metal touches metal - the world changes....

...if Kal was forced into honesty, the word she would use is peace.

There's the anger, of course. It would be wrong if it wasn't there, given all that created it still happened. But it's... not further, or more distant, but smoother. Cleaner. Under her control, instead of controlling her. No, that's not quite it either...

...it's as if, somewhere in the calcified core of Kaleemah, the spite and bitterness and anger have been pressureized into something better, like diamonds from coal. Poison is medicine and it fills her now, burning away all the shame and immolation and regret...

Purified, the Inverted Squire stands in the Realm of Ideas. Her hijab has expanded into a full body chardor, dark floral patterns embossed on the black, and beneath the cloth the sound of a thousand maniac chains echo as the gleaming silver of her arms is built piece by piece, wielding a luminous greatsword of old. It blazes out a brilliant light, scaring shadows away.

Kaleemah Khan would have gone right to attack Ruby, but the Inverted Knave recognizes wasted potential and noble foes, and focuses on Emily's Shadow. "Come on, Em." She says. "Scared of being in Erika's shadow, afraid of being in mine... this is you now? I don't believe that. You scrabbled against that idea and you're gonna lie down now? You're better than that."

She turns away and faces the border between the shadows and the cave, headed towards it. "I'm going away now," She says, "because I don't believe you need my help. You're a worthy foe for me - you think you can't challenge her?"

Her challenge laid at the knight's feet, Kaleemah rushes towards the border, trying to force her knightly form across to the other side and protect Livi's mortal form. This is her magic being used here... it's all a matter of inverting the natural order, showing that the way things are isn't how they have to be...


Kal's weapon is a blazing bright greatsword, a +2 against shadows. A good disadvantage would be something like Easy Target, as the light makes her easy to see and hit.

Rolling Provoke to inflict mental stress on Ruby by encouraging Emily to fight back against her (+5): [roll0]

Rolling Key Magic to cross the border (+3): [roll1]

[Ascension]

It's hard to say for sure with Emily's image so distorted, and chained to the restlessly shifting shadow shape of Ruby, but do Kaleemah's taunts stir her from her sotted state? Is that a hesitant blink or just a flicker in the firelight? Did Emily twitch just then, or was that Ruby who moved? Well, regardless of whatever effect they may or may not have had on Emily Dew, Kal's words do scratch at Ruby's wounded psyche.

"Stop talking to her!" Ruby demands, "She can't hear you. She isn't important. You people still don't understand. I'm in control here!"

Ruby throws herself at Kaleemah, but, no, she flows past the Inverted Squire, gliding fluidly across the cavern floor, reduced to a shadow of her own shadow. She soon rises again in a column of night, standing beside the sullen statue of the transformed Erika, poised to strike.

"Em was right about you and your friends," she seethes into the Knight of Justice's unhearing ear, and her hand flies at the girl's gut, not a fist now but a dark, sharp blade.

Erika is able to defend her double, but that isn't immediately obvious to observers. If Kal or Livi would like to try to play hero, they can attempt to defend against this attack, with the caveat that if their defense fails, they'll be subject to the consequences. I can't remember if there are any penalties other than that, I don't have the book in front of me right now, but you can look it up. I'm following the letter of the law on this rule.

And let's see what you'll be dealing with...

Fight: [roll0]

[Inspector Valin]

Erika's sword can't move nearly fast enough, not with her consciousness severed from the Unlocked body. The Knight's eyes open just as the shadow's claw jabs straight into her, emerging the other side covered in blood. Erika looked into the other girl's eyes, for once honestly surprised. As the shadow withdrew its blooded talon, Erika slowly fell to her knees, teeth gritted at the pain as she looked upwards towards her attacker. Ruby had won, had done what Emily couldn't. Humbled Erika. Hadn't she?

The dark haired fencer chuckled. shaking her head.

"And I was right about you. Just look at yourself." She gestured limply towards Ruby's darkened form, the once shy fellow student had become more monster than girl now. A creature of pure darkness, with two unblinking eyes the only indication of life left. Erika smirked upwards, sword raised between the two of them as she explained. "You say you're important now. But that's the key. That's the magic. That's not you. You're just a shadow still. Because that's all you know how to be."

[Jadev]

Melissa manages to find the right way to the locker room rather quickly for a change. She runs there as fast as she possibly can, the only thing on her mind stopping Erika before she makes things even worse with Emily. As such, she doesn't notice the thrum of magic when Erika sets up the portal. When she reaches whatever crowd still remains outside the door she hardly slows down, using her slight frame to slip between her schoolmates and enter the locker room. She sees the door, through which she can see the flickering of a fire, but not much more from this angle. She instinctively grasps her key--

And suddenly she's inside the room, outside a cave. To give Melissa credit, she doesn't freak out too much. Her first instinct is to pull her key out of her pocket and focus on it. And, as she is engufed in a swirling storm of playing cards, a little switch within Melissa's mind flips.

Melissa loves her mother, and she knows her mother loves her. But, on some level, Melissa also knows her mother has been perhaps done more damage to her than anyone else in her entire life by shutting her inside the house. Melissa, the stalwart optimist she is, refuses to acknowledge this. Transformed she has no such problems. It's a sobering experience, but necessary.

The storm of cards subsides, settling into the deck that Melissa now holds in her hand. Her now long-blonde hair spills out of a blue hood. A similarly colored domino mask now adorns her face-- in any other circumstance, this would not disguise her identity, but in this case it works. Melissa, now fully transformed, observes the room. She picks up on everything rather quickly-- Shadows on the walls, Transformed selves in the cave-- except Ruby, who is apparently a shadow in three dimensions. It kind of reminds Melissa of a game she played once. But what is the most worrying is that Shadow-Ruby is moving towards Erika and... running her through.

"Erika!"

Melissa, not even thinking, rushes into the cave and pulls a card-- 5 of Blades, she notes-- and tosses it at Ruby so that hopefully she will stop impaling Erika!

I know I said that Melissa would largely be setting up her attacks using key magic then finishing with fight, but I think this situation requires some urgency.
Fight Roll to toss the card: [roll0]

[Ascension]

The Dining Hall

Panic doesn't exactly set in at Ms. Lizzie's departure, but her leaving, coupled with Sasha's news, hardly encourages order. The volume level in the cafeteria, already at the high end of a reasonable range before Sasha came in, spikes appreciably just as soon as the librarian is out the door. Voices are raised, students are out of their seats, and the gossip is flowing freely.

Annette Renard's inner circle is in the midst of an especially chatty knot of students gathered near the exit, loudly debating amongst themselves whether they should go investigate the fight themselves, how much of a head start they should give Ms. Lizzie if they do, and, of course, if this violence is another marker pointing toward the secret agenda of Landsgate School's Hidden Masters.

Wasn't Isabel talking with Annette the last time you saw her? She's nowhere to be seen now. Maybe she took off with Kaleemah?

The Cave

Athletics: [roll0]

Ruby snarls at Erika, readying some riposte to the fencer's taunt, but, before she can capitalize on the opportunity to pull ahead in the banter race, Melissa appears, and a gilt-edged card is flying at her face. She leaps away, her legs lengthening as she nimbly sidesteps the thrown card, momentarily mirroring the shape and tone of Emily's own. Even with that stolen speed, though, her escape is a near thing: the sharpened card shears a few strands from the shadow of her hair.

"Magic is all you girls have, too!" she screams, "But mine is better!"

She brandishes her bloodied hand in front of herself as proof. The claw spasms with erratic tremors, spattering the cavern floor with flecks of Erika's blood. Her night-black lips pull back, unveiling a bright, serrated smile.

[Lykan]

Livi can't help but flinch as she sees the card whizz past the shadow girl, looking around for the source of the thing before her eyes fall on Melissa. She seems about to motion for the other girl to stop, but, well... Ruby had already drawn blood. Trying to keep away from a violent conflict now would be admirable, maybe, but probably not too smart. "This isn't about magic. It's about what each of us think we can be." The lanky girl motions to the wound Ruby had inflicted on Erika, her expression grim. "Is this really what you think of as your true, unrealized self, Ruby? Someone who has to dominate and hurt others to feel vindicated?" Livi starts to approach the shadowy girl again, only stopping when the chains on her ankles grow taught. "I know you're better than this. I know you know it, too. If you can resist the importune key, we can figure out who you truly are."

Empathy for mental attack. [roll0]
Liable to invoke False Equivalency.

[Ascension]

Ruby dances back from Livi's approach, unwilling to let the tall girl get close to her, unwilling to be looked down upon.

"You want me to go back to the way I was," she snaps, bitterly, "You want me meek, trampled on? No! I'm never going back. Even if I have to bleed you all dry. I'm not giving this up!"

[Inspector Valin]

"What do you want, Ruby?"

Erika stepped forward, blood flowing gently down the turquoise and tan robes that made up her Unlocked outfight. With her sabre, the Unlocked Judge gestured towards the Shadow's counterpart. She knew the answer. She knew everything. "You want to be like Emily. Respected, looked up to, the centre of attention. Popular, with friends who care about you and a bright future ahead. But that's not what this key's given you, is it?" She held up her own silver key with her off hand, the strange Portune metal glinting in the firelight. "Key Magic doesn't make you perfect. It doesn't even make you better, exactly. It just extrapolates from what's inside you already. Unlocks a door and lets you see what's on the other side"

In an instant the glint and glisten became a blinding flash, bringing light to the darkness of the room. And Erika saw, just for an instant, the girl behind the shadow. Coolly, as the light receded, she shook her head. "Your key saw your worst qualities. Your jealousy, bitterness, and desire. It twisted them into this. It turned you into a vicious little darkness monster with a taste for blood and a hunger for that which it can't have. All your worst traits and none of your virtues. And you think that this is your 'time to shine'?"

Erika didn't snort. Didn't even smirk. She just met Ruby's gaze with her own ice blue eyes, gaze unwavering. Even through the blood and the pain, the Judge was sure of herself. "You can't get what you want with that key. And you know it."

[roll0]Sometimes, you have to go all out. :smallwink:

Empathy Attack, whilst Unlocked. Invoke Unwavering Judge of Eternity and free invoke on False Equivalency, as Erika's driving that point home.

[Ascension]

"No," Ruby growls, low and menacing, an animalistic sound pulled from a throat that may no longer be quite human. Her head thrashes as if Erika's words are physical blows, and her whole body trembles with its motion (liquid, boneless quivers), but her growling and howling keeps rising, rising to drown out all the fencer's blade-sharp words. "No, no, no, No. NO. NO."

The crimson radiance pulls back to the edges of Ruby's eyes, revealing a wild, bloodshot stare. The eyes of madness.

"Every dog will have its day. Everyone deserves fifteen minutes of fame," she misquotes, voice tense and shaking, on the edge of breaking, "Everyone is special. That's what they say. But it's lies without the Key. Lies."

Well, that takes her +3 mental stress box and a chunk of her sanity, but she's still in the fight.

New soundtrack is: Amanda Palmer's drunken live cover of Radiohead's Creep (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek5ZNgw8Vdk) on ukelele (NSFW).

Kaleemah is up next.

[The_Snark]

Kaleemah is gone before Jaya can utter a word of protest. She hesitates a moment, caught between conflicting obligations; whether this is a simple fight or something more, she ought to be doing something about it, but at the same time somebody should be watching the cafeteria. A snatch of overheard conversation between Annette and one of her friends settles the issue: clearly it isn't right to leave this group unsupervised. If she slips out to try to find the problem, they might follow to see what happens. If it's just an ordinary fight, that would be unseemly. If it's something more... well, even more important to keep bystanders away.

Jaya stands, briefly wishing the glasses here were actual glass rather than plastic. She'll have to grab attention some other way... She brings her hands together in a loud CLAP, cutting through the hubbub of chatter in a clear demand for attention.

"Erin," she says in a carrying voice, "would you please go find Mr. Lester and ask him to take over for Ms. Rassul? He should be either in his office, or in the classroom preparing his next lesson."

She waits a second or two for this to settle in before continuing, picking two more students out of the crowd. "Melody, since Sasha is busy, I'd like you to take over her job and look for either the headmistress or the deputy headmaster, please. And... Lindsay, would you please find Mrs. Lester and let her know she might be needed? She shouldn't go out looking, it's better if she stays in her clinic so that we know where to find her, but you can let her know to be ready."

This feels like Rapport! I don't know if it's an Overcome or Create Advantage action or whatever, but essentially Jaya is trying to keep things orderly. Everything is under control, the cafeteria is being supervised, etc...

Rapport: [roll0]

Also: any chance that staying to calm the crowd rather than rushing off to join the fight counts as a compel on The Weight of Expectations?

[DeafnotDumb]

A world of inversions, of barriers, of potential inverted and vices celebrated... this is the Inverted Squire's environment. Her Key. Her call to being.

"Hey, Ruby!" Kal calls, summoning her power. "How about you listen to what Oliva's said? And if that's not enough-"

Unlock

"-Try this!"


Busy, so quick post. Invoking False Equivalence for free, and paying one Plot Point to invoke Inverted Squire. With a Key Magic of +3, that makes for a roll of +7.

[roll0]

[Ascension]

The Dining Hall

That was a fairly low roll... how about we call it partial success? She's made an impact, but she's going to have to get a little more forceful if she really wants to ensure order.

Jaya's clap is almost lost amidst the rising din of the cafeteria, and she only catches the closest students' attention... which is good enough to put a damper on Annette's friends' chatter, at least, but it's not enough to really rein in the noise. Erin dutifully nods and scampers off to go find Mr. Lester, but the other girls Jaya called out appear to have not properly heard her... or are deliberately ignoring her.

Ruby

Ruby's shadow aura flickers for a moment, exposing her natural body within, and in that moment a look of terror dawns on her face... but then the darkness reasserts itself, flowing out from her key to embrace her once again.

"No!" she screams, "I'm not letting you do that! I'm not letting you take this away from me!"

As she steps forward, her shadow-body swells, growing to tower over Kaleemah. She comes on like a wave of darkness, sweeping down on the Inverted Squire... and as she flows over her she breaks apart into a harmless cloud of smoke, leaving the battered Emily behind in her place. On the opposite wall, a black claw scythes toward Kaleemah's own shadow.

Spending my fourth fate point to transpose Ruby into the shadows without using an action, then attacking Kaleemah's shadow. Kal can only defend with her locked abilities.

Fight: [roll0]

[The_Snark]

That... did not as well as she'd hoped. Jaya fights off the impulse to wilt, to call that good enough and give up. Sometimes she thinks she's not cut out for this, being an authority figure. She's conscientious, and she works hard, and she likes to think she's good at the part of the job that involves looking after others. But being the disciplinarian, taking charge, standing up in front of everyone? It doesn't come naturally to her. She doesn't seem to have the knack for being forceful: all those arguments with Izzy, and the thing with Erika earlier, and now this... It's very tempting to bow to the will of the crowd, fade away and sit down and wait for a teacher to get here to establish order.

Two things stop her. First, something really is going on elsewhere in the school, and the staff should be notified. Especially the nurse. Second - this is her job. She is supposed to help keep order. And she does not like giving up.

Jaya takes a deep breath, psyching herself up. If she messes this up twice she won't get a third try, they'll just keep ignoring her and she'll look a fool for trying. Just shouting isn't a good idea, she's not good at being loud... There might not be any glasses, but metal on plastic should work nearly as well. She climbs atop a chair for the added height, dons a stern expression, and begins to rap a spoon insistently against an empty meal tray in what is clearly a variation on the universal signal for Attention, please.

Let's try that again! Spending a fate point to invoke Stubbornness of a Saint for +2. I'm not sure if this is better represented by Rapport or Provoke - I've rolled the higher, so subtract 1 from the total if it ought to be Provoke.

[roll0]

[DeafnotDumb]

The two Kaleemahs spring back, trying to outdistance the claws of the shadow: but one moves much faster than the other, not unbalanced by ungainly artificial arms, leaving her shadow lagging behind. It's not going to be enough.

Not this way, at least.

The mortal Kal grabs her key, the metal thrumming with the possibilities of what could be and what should not be, and focuses very much on the possibility of being not here, away from the slashing claws. Around her, the shadows in the cave try to invert... but can they change fast enough?

She's going to find out soon, one way or the other.


Rolling Key Magic to shift places between the mortal and Unlocked Kal, at +3:

[roll0]

Also rolling Athletics for defence at +2. If the above roll succeeds, Kal's unlocked form will be defending with a Fight of +6, so add 5 to the roll if that occurs.
[roll1]

[Jadev]

Melissa watches as her card goes to strike home-- only to take nothing more than a few shadowy hairs. She watches as things happen so quickly in front of her-- Emily and Livi try to talk Ruby down, Kal tries to brute force it, Kal's shadow gets slashed.

Melissa grabs the top two cards of her deck, not even bothering to glance at them as her mind runs through possible actions at high speed. She couldn't throw them at Ruby, not as she is now, and throwing down a flop couldn't help anyone other than her... but Erika was good at shutting down Importune key monsters, and she could help with that.

She tosses the cards, slower this time, to Erika, yelling "Catch!". Hopefully, the Pair of Eights, one of Blades and one of Coins, reaches the fencer.

Now we can start setting up aspects! Since Erika's going to try some key magic to shut down Ruby, I figured I'd throw some support her way. Key magic to create aspect Pair of Eights.
[roll0]

[Ascension]

The Cave

Among the shadows, Ruby laughs as her claws draw blood again. That her victory is only over a hollow reflection of a handicapped girl means nothing to her now. It isn't about pride for her any more, not exactly. She needs to triumph, no matter the means. That's the validation she craves.

Meanwhile, Melissa throws a pair of cards to Erika, an easy toss for a card-thrower of her skill, but the gesture isn't really about the cards, it's about what the cards represent, the magic in them. What Erika holds are talismans steeped in her roommate's overflowing good fortune.

Okay, Livi is up next. As a reminder, all of the PCs are currently in the Realm of Ideas, while Ruby is among the Shadows on the Wall. It takes an Overcome action with Key Magic at Fair (+2) difficulty for you to transition between those zones. I believe you guys have three free invocations outstanding, one on the Fleeting Vulnerability Kaleemah exposed with her Key Magic attack and two on the Pair of Eights that Melissa lent Erika. Ruby has lost her +1, +2, and +3 mental stress boxes, but has a free invocation on the moderate consequence she inflicted on Kaleemah.

The Dining Hall

That certainly gets their attention. The mounting cacophony of the cafeteria dims away as all eyes turn to Jaya. She has the floor (or the chair, as the case may be), and her audience awaits.

You can pretty well tell them whatever you want (within reason, of course); given the strength of that last roll, they are listening.

[The_Snark]

All right. First step, accomplished. Now she just has to hold on long enough to restore order. Jaya takes a deep breath, and hesitates a moment before addressing the same girls she called on earlier. It's tempting to pick someone else, in case Melody and Lindsay were ignoring her earlier - but if that's the case, then she doesn't want to send the message that ignoring her works. It'll be harder to brush her off with everyone listening... and anyway, they probably just couldn't hear over the commotion.

"Lindsay, would you please go find Mrs. Lester - or whoever’s on duty in the clinic - and relay what Sasha told us? There’s a fight going on on the grounds, and they should be ready in case anyone’s hurt. And Melody, would you look for the headmistress, or the deputy headmaster? I know there's not much to tell right now, but it's good to keep them informed."

"Everyone else, please quiet down a little. We'll know more soon, I'm sure."

[Lykan]

The momentary look of regret on Ruby's face was all Livi needed to steel her resolve. She takes a moment to survey the battlefield from her manacled position, quickly trying to find a way to best help her comrades through this trial. Repeatedly attempting to break down Ruby's logic didn't exactly have the effect she desired, so it would be better to expend effort elsewhere... Like on helping Erika. The fencer girl certainly was doing a much better job at getting through to Ruby, so maybe it'd be best to pull something out of the storybooks to boost her abilities further.

Calling upon her mythological magic, Livi summons a fairly large stein, floating gently in the air before her comrade and inviting her to take a sip. With the odd item created, the unfettered queen calls out to the swordswoman, motioning toward the cup she'd just created. "Erika, drink it!"


Humanities Roll: [roll0]
Rolling Humanities to create an advantage, a la Fairytale Forge.

More specifically, summoning The Mead of Suttungr for Erika to drink. It is a fabled beverage that turned anyone who consumed it into the likes of a poet or scholar, giving them the ability to recite any information and solve any question. I figure the stuff would boost Erika's own natural abilities for talking people down, so... Hopefully this flies.

[Ascension]

The Dining Hall

There may be a moment of hesitation there... or it may only be Jaya's doubt. Regardless, Lindsay and Melody do comply, and the noise level subsides to an urgent murmur. Once her immediate obligations are discharged, Jaya only has just enough time to get down from her chair before Mr. Lester rushes into the room, followed by Erin and her notebook. He glances around the room, blinking rapidly behind his spectacles, clearly surprised to find the dining hall as calm as it is, but after a moment he notices the prefect's badge on Jaya's lapel.

"You stepped up," he surmises, and gives her a fleeting smile, snuffed out almost as quickly as it takes shape, but bright and genuine while it lasts. Then, for appearance's sake, he's all business, striding between the tables, eyes sharp. "Remember, this is a house of learning. Knowledge is why we're all here, girls..."

If you'd still like to put in an appearance in the fight, you're free to move Jaya into it now. If/when she enters, she comes after Erika in the turn order.

The Cave

Livi breaches the border between fantasy and reality with the effortless grace of a girl who's spent a lifetime reading beyond the boundaries of objective truth. The legendary mead of poetry, Odin's stolen gift to gods and men, appears before Erika. It's... probably best if she doesn't know (or focus on) its mythic origin, but it should have the intended effect.

That's a success with style. And here's the abridged version of how poets got access to the Mead of Suttungr (Wikipedia version): A wise man was made from the spittle of the gods. He was killed by dwarves who mixed his blood with honey and brewed mead that would grant the drinker the talents of a scholar and poet. Later, Odin stole it from its owner (who guarded it jealously) by drinking it, turning into a bird, flying away, and then spitting it out into cups so that the Aesir and the poets of mankind could share of it. So it's mead brewed from the blood of a man made from spit, then later regurgitated by an eagle.

Also some of it came out bird!Odin's other end, and that part's free for anyone to drink. I'm personally glad that Livi didn't summon up that bit of the legend.

[Inspector Valin]

Erika shifts with effortless grace, grabbing Melissa's twin cards in one hand, and taking a sip from Livi's strange cup in a single twirling motion. The Judge's eyes glow as she looks towards the shadow, a faint shade of green amidst her won silver light as she raises her key. You know what your problem is, Ruby?

Bringing the silver Portune key to her side, a door of light started to form upon the shadowy wall wherein stood the Realm of Shadows. A way past both of Ruby's twin realms. Erika didn't seem to even focus on it, letting the doorway come into being as she continued talking to Ruby"Limited perspective. That key's set you and your view of the world in place. And you refuse to change it. When we bring up reasoning, logic, points that contradict your view of the world, you just close your ears and hum. You're just a sad little girl who wants things to go her way so badly she doesn't think about the consequences"

With a final flash, the door came into existence. A mighty thing; larger than Erika, with an old iron handle, resting open to any who chose to advance. The fencer steps into it, gesturing her friends inward one by one before shaking her head at Ruby, smiling smugly. "You're not worth our time."

Through the Door

Those who step through the door see perhaps a surprisingly ordinary sight, all things considered. The nave of a large church, perhaps a cathedral, though it doesn't quite correspond to any of the great buildings known to exist in England. The columns were majestic, light played off the marble of the vaulted celing, and the whole area gave an impression of serenity. Eternity. The pews are empty, and the door the group had entered from led into white light, but otherwise this place seemed almost normal for Landsgate. There was no blatant magic to it, no moving gargoyles, no hidden voice whispering to them. It was simply a room, like any other.

Yet there were abnormalities, that grew more apparent the closer you studied the strange place. Only the great door they had entered from led out of this strange cathedral. The curtain behind the high alter was apparently made of stone, hanging heavy and immobile as a barrier between the central chamber and some hidden place beyond. As the girls advance down the aisle, lights flare above each of the stained glass windows in turn. Each bares an image not of religion, but of heroism. Firefighters rescue people from a burning building. Surgeons kneel over a dying man in a ruined city. And above the high alter were two police officers in dress uniform, looking down over the cathedral with what looked like an army of constables standing behind them, united.

Erika stands before the alter, head bowed as the group enter. For once, the fencing captain looks legitimately solumn. Once they do, she turns, stepping to one side. Instead of the standard altar cloth, a navy blue flag is draped across the table, displayed so it can be seen throughout the chapel. Erika's eyes don't leave the door, her blade resting on one hand and her key in the other, held alongside Melissa's playing cards. She knows this isn't over yet.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Metropolitan_Police_Flag_(SVG).svg/1000px-Metropolitan_Police_Flag_(SVG).svg.png

[The_Snark]

Jaya smiles a little, ducking her head at the teacher's acknowledgment. But there's no time to savor the feeling of accomplishment - there's a fight going on elsewhere, if the other Keybearers haven't put a stop to it already, and she can't ignore that. Quite possibly it'll all be over before she can even find her friends, but possibly not, and if there's a chance they need her...

She leaves the cafeteria at a brisk walk, resisting the temptation to move faster until she's out of sight; no sense riling the students up again by running out into the halls. Her hand dips to her side, where her key resides in a pocket sewn into the side of her school-issued skirt. As always, the dried grass feels brittle to the touch; she wonders (not for the first time) whether a fall would break it, and if so whether she could remake it. But those worries will have to be put aside. There is a brief lurching sensation - like walking down a staircase and finding level floor where one had expected another step down - and she stands elsewhere, before a door. She recognizes it as the one leading to the locker rooms behind the gymnasium.

She pushes it open, and steps through the door.

~~~

The unsteady light she glimpsed beneath the door is even stranger once inside. On the ceiling a single lonely light fixture sheds its stark white radiance over the room, flickering at erratic intervals. On the far side of the room a door is carved into the wall, firelight spilling out from the threshold. The harsh electric light from above mixes strangely with the diffuse reddish glow from the doorway, casting a mad patchwork of dancing shadows over the room.

Nobody's here.

But there, on the other side of that peculiar door, stand Livi and Kaleemah - both transformed - and Emily, her face battered and bruised. No enemy is apparent, but someone beat up Emily, and her companions wouldn't be transformed for no reason. She takes a deep breath, and clasps her Key in her right hand, and speaks the words to unlock her other self, the hidden one. There is a flash -

- which we will not describe here, for who can say what happens when no-one is there to witness it? -

- and she steps through the door.

~~~

The girl who emerges into the Realm of Ideas is dressed in a flowing gown of emerald and azure, the colors bleeding into the air and trailing behind her as she walks; a stylized peacock mask adorns her face, though it does little to conceal her features. Especially not with her untransformed self - wearing her comparatively dowdy school uniform and a faintly worried expression (as usual) - standing on the wall opposite the light. Jaya stares at that a moment before turning to the others; Olivia and Kaleemah are likewise mirrored, but Emily...

"Ruby?" she asks, confused, as she recognizes the silhouette.

[DeafnotDumb]

The Inverted Squire picks herself up from the aftermath of Ruby's attack, stamping the stump that remains of her left arm into the ground for leverage. In her right, she drags along with one hand a glowing sword that was meant to be wielded by two, leaving a blazing trail in the darkness. Behind her, Erika creates a new door, opening into a land of heroism and sacrifice.

It is tempting for a girl with a shattered arm, but it is not in Kaleemah's nature to back down merely because she has been injured. Quite the reverse. Swinging her sword in a large spiral in order to build up the momentum necessary to lift it, she calls out to Ruby.

"Hey! Shadow! Our duel isn't over!"" With effort, she spins her body so she can swing the greatsword in a single-handed overhead strike, one that makes the cavern reverberate with its weight. "Come and finish me off if you can. You won't have won until you've done that."

She is not going to be the first to retreat, ever. The point of the Squire is to take the damage others won't, to face any enemy like they were your only one. Sometimes that means defending the rearguard.

Sword glowing, she braces for impact.


Rolling Provoke to get Ruby to focus on Kal rather than anybody else, allowing them to escape. It's create advantage, and possibly worthy of a Fate Point on Friendship Through Superior Firepower.

[roll0]

[Ascension]

Ruby flows out of the path of Kaleemah's clumsy one-handed stroke, but her red eyes burn with rage. It's bad enough that Erika could just turn her back on her, leave her, but this one spits defiance in her very face. And what defiance it is! Defiance of disability, weakness, injury. Defiance of mediocrity. Defiance of the truth!

"You, of all people, really ought to see how the world works. You should see how we're chained in shadow, you should know how distant the light is!" Ruby seethes through sharp, white teeth, "You couldn't even lift that blade without magic. Hell, you can barely lift it now! And you know what kind of person Em was. Why would you fight all this, fight reality, just to protect her?"

She laces her fingers together and lifts her hands high, the shadow of her clasped hands swelling and darkening. Then they fall, fall in a heavy axe-handle blow, a blow meant to drive Kaleemah to her knees.

"Just! Stop! Fighting!"

Fight!
[roll0]

[DeafnotDumb]

Point still stuck in the ground, Kaleemah swings her sword up so the hilt blocks the strike. Ruby pounds away at the weapon, leverage, power and extra arms indeed forcing the Squire down to her knees until she twists the sword and catches the hand on the hilt and the pommel. Kal looks into Ruby's face, icy calm in her eyes.

"To spite you." She says, and twists the sword and Ruby's arms to the left.


Defending with Fight at +6.
[roll0]
Is Ruby rolling fight at +6? Because that's what she's got in the post above me.

[Jadev]

Melissa steps through the new door as it opens, eager to move out of the cave full of false ideals and lies.

It's beautiful. She takes in the stained glass, the scenes of heroism, the altar... but she cannot do this for long. Kaleemah's yells outside confirm that. She turns, and calmly draws another card into her hand. The Eight of Cups. Lucky.

She grips the card and more of her magic enters it, linking it with its fellow Eights as she tosses it at Ruby, with a single command.

"Unite!"

Not sure if this is actually possible. The idea is to use Key Magic to force Ruby into the room, by exploiting the connection between the Eights. I might steal that last invocation of the Pair of Eights to do this, if the roll doesn't go well.
[roll0]

[Ascension]

The card adheres to Ruby's shadow form with a flash of light, and immediately she staggers backward along the wall, Melissa's talisman pulling her inexorably toward the door Erika conjured... and she writhes, and screams, and her dark talons flash, and the Eight of Cups falls clattering to the floor, its face smeared black with soot.

Ruby's shadow still stretches tall along the wall, coiling back over the wounded but valiant Kaleemah.

[Lykan]

Well... A method of leaving this place was all fine and good, but Livi was still chained up to the cave walls. If she didn't act fast, it would be likely that she'd be the only one left in the cave for Ruby to play with, so escaping from her bonds was probably one of the more important things to worry about at present time. Thankfully, the importune girl's attention was presently elsewhere, so perhaps she could free herself before the shadow noticed.

Drawing a sword from her belt, the unfettered queen strikes a blow at the chains that hold her, so that she might actually live up to her namesake.

I'm gonna presume this is Fight or Athletics, which are the same value for me, so...

[roll0]

[Ascension]

Ruby is rapidly losing control of the situation, and she knows it. What was supposed to be a simple, succinct victory, a validation of and vindication for all her pains, is turning into a messy, protracted defeat, but she refuses to let go. As the Unfettered Queen shatters her bonds, Ruby calls up the shadow of her chains, hoping to snare Olivia anew before she's able to escape.

Mechanically speaking, Ruby is just opposing Livi's escape attempt with Key Magic. If you succeed in getting her free, Livi can move to any zone, including Erika's cathedral.

[roll0]

And Livi is free!

[Lykan]

Indignation crosses the girl's face as the chains easily shatter under her blade, only to be reconstituted into a more phantom form a moment later. Kicking and snarling, she yanks at her bonds once again... Only to have them shatter. With a bestial grin, she dashes for the cathedral door, stopping short only to pat Kaleemah on the shoulder. "Let's take this to more favorable terrain, yeah?"

With that, she hops inside with the others, ready to defend herself and the others should the situation call for it.

[Inspector Valin]

Erika's focus wasn't on the fighting now: the fencing captain's eyes were trained solely on the altar. She hadn't visited this place before, but the feeling of it was something she understood. This was... about duty. Responsibility. Her beliefs in the power of Unlocking and why the arts they had mattered. Ruby had turned her worldview into a trap for the Portune Squad, but if Erika could manage the same trick...

The young fencer took a gulp from the strange goblet she'd laid upon the altar. Resisting the urge to gag she placed it back, the playing card resting beneath the strange artifact. The young keybarer looked upwards, studying the two officers of the law who framed the window above. She and Ruby... they were different, they had different interests, different goals and beliefs but there was something between them. Both wanted to be more than just 'the normal one'; Erika had always despised the idea of being content with what you had. They'd both fought to transcend that, to make more of themselves and their lives.

Well, Erika had. That's what her life had been about, even before the key. Ruby... perhaps she'd wanted to, but the Judge could remember how she'd acted on the football pitch. Taking her lead from Emily, letting the bigger girl speak and just backing her up. Ruby hadn't fought to be more than she was. And that was the problem.

Reaching around her neck, Erika brought the key upwards, resting it in some invisible slot above the altar. At once, the room changed. Candles that had once burned with seemingly mundane flame now burned with a subdued, pure white flame. The stained glass windows around the room seemed to glint, as though the light outside was intensifying. Erika seemed almost oblivious to it all, speaking softly, looking at the stone beneath the central window. Who she was talking to was not entirely clear. "If I live to be a hundred, I'll never understand why people think they're entitled to things. That the world needs to bend over for them and give them what they want. I should have been picked first. I should get to be the lead in the play. I should be Captain. Because there's obviously a fast track to being the centre of attention, the most important one, and you just haven't found it yet."

Her thoughts turned to Jaya briefly, a small flash of irritation in her eyes, and the light from the window wavered slightly. Erika gritted her teeth: she had to focus. She continued, her words more to herself than Melissa or even Ruby. "If you want that power, you have to earn it. You have to work at what you do for a start. It doesn't matter if it's school or a sport or anything else, it works the same way. You need to be good enough to outshine everyone around you, and make it clear you deserve what you've accomplished. That you really are that good." The details on the windows get harder to see; now the key itself is glowing a brilliant silver too. Erika's eyes didn't waver, her voice didn't grow louder. "But then you have to do more. You have to find the strength to put yourself forward, to establish yourself as someone unique and worth knowing. Because without facing that, you won't be seen as your own person, no matter how good you are. People will just see a shadow."

Wiessman chuckled darkly, her mind turning back to Ruby during the football game earlier. That look of anger, not on her own behalf, but Emily's. How could someone fixate so much on a friend that they lost themselves like that? She clicked her tongue, a little contemptuously, as the last two windows of the Cathedral begun to fade into the light. "That's always been your problem. Wanting to be more than what you are, but not being willing to pay the price that comes with it. You're still being held back by your baggage and your fixation on meaningless words. And if you can't accept that simple truth..."

Whilst she was speaking, Erika's key magic had shifted the fabric of her realm; turning a metaphor into a more direct representation of the Judge and her beliefs. That all should be held to the same standard, and that all those who do wrong should be known. The Cathedral had dissolved into a colourless void; the walls and windows fading first, before the pews organ and altar gradually vanished into the light as somewhere in the distance the sound of tramping feet could be heard, marching in lockstep, whilst music from the phantom organ drifted out in a wordless hymn.

Back in Ruby's world, the white glow coming from Erika's doorway intensified, the light as strong and consistent as a bunsen burner. Ruby didn't notice at first, her emotions and gaze focused far more on her remaining targets. The Importune Barer might start to feel the light as it spread outwards however, as the shadows of Ruby's inner world started to melt away into the unending white void of Erika's soul. A place with no shadows, no deceptions, no nebulous qualities of interpretation. Only you and what you had accomplished in life.

Somewhere deeper in the void, with no noise and no one else at her side, Erika reached upward, and placed a hand upon her levitating key. A flash of silver run gently along her arm as the judge shook her head to herself. "Then, no. You don't deserve to be here."

Going for a Sealing Attack. Erika's going to end this fight, and shut down Ruby's power

Spending a Fate point to invoke scene aspect Highest Standards: Erika's Cathedral is a reflection of the ideals and aspirations she holds herself and her peers to. Ruby is a fellow Keybarer and she's fallen short. Free invokes on Pair of Eights, The Mead of Suttungr, Focused on Kal and Momentary Vulnerability.

That would be a total of +14 [roll0]

[Ascension]

Here the truth stands revealed: shadows hold no power. Shadows can never rise against the light, can never hope to snuff it out. The very existence of shadow depends on light... shadows are created by light just as surely as shadows are destroyed by light. When the sun rises, then are shadows born from out of the general darkness, born cowering from its radiance, and when the sun reaches its zenith, those same shadows are abolished, unable to bear the sight of its full glory.

There is no room for self-pity in Erika's mind, no hiding place where self-doubt might dwell. Her inner realm is a world without shadow, a world in which Ruby Faulkner cannot exist. And the doors to Erika's fierce, uncompromising soul yawn wide, and Melissa and Olivia's magics hold them open, and Ruby is too focused on Kaleemah to see any of what's happening until it's too late, until the tipping point has been reached. She screams and claws and rages, but shadow cannot stand against light. Shadow must flee or shadow must fade. The touch of Erika's unwavering judgment would be Ruby's utter annihilation. And so the Unbound Shadow is brought to heel once more. The darkest door in the depths of Ruby's soul is shut, sealed, and barred, and a blackened key falls from the lock.

As Ruby's Importune power fails, reality crashes in around her, and a crying girl kneels over the bruised and broken body of her once-best friend, their blood mingling on her knuckles. The hallway lights that faltered in the time before, when her influenced reigned, now burn brightly; before Erika's eyes, there is no hiding her sin.

[Music: Cast No Shadow (cover) (http://youtu.be/KKBiiTbN3SI?t=30s)]

You all can hear approaching footsteps. Company's coming, and Jaya can probably guess who.

Congratulations, guys. You've made it through your first big conflict. You're not quite out of this episode, but you're mighty close.

[Inspector Valin]

Erika pauses for a second, looking down at the pair, a turn of her own key reverting the Judge to her fencing uniform. She wanted to say something, to try and explain that this was how the keys worked, that Ruby wasn't the first to have to deal with this situation... but at that moment, any comment on her part would've probably aggravated the situation. Better to talk about it later.

Instead, the fencing captain bent down, picking up the fallen black key and putting it in her jacket pocket. Best not to leave that lying around. The talisman secured, Erika turned to the rest of the group, nodding to her friends. "Good work, everyone." The words weren't exactly enthusiastic, but Erika was sincere. They'd come through the fight, and none of the group had taken serious injury. They needed to work on more in depth plans for situations like this though. They usually were the ones who saught out Importune Key bearers, not vis versa. This could've easily gone very badly wrong.

The footsteps made Erika turn, frowning, before moving towards the door. People hadn't seen most of the party enter the corridor, but all of fencing club knew that Erika had been here. There was no point in trying to keep her involvement in this situation quiet. So she might as well cooperate with the teachers in getting all of this 'sorted out', quote unquote. And she might be able to buy time to allow any of her friends that wanted to dodge the spotlight a chance to escape.

[Lykan]

Once the ethereal world around them withdraws, the unfettered queen uses her key to return to her gangly, meek self, her eyes darting to the door for a moment when she hears the sound of footsteps growing ever nearer. Her first instinct was to hide, but, well... Someone should probably try to comfort the poor girl. Livi kneels down next to the once-importune girl, resting a hand on her shoulder. "It isn't your fault... Those keys, they're... They bring out the worst in everyone." Removing a handkerchief from her pocket, she does her best to clear away the blood on the girl's hands. "Those feelings the key brought out are a part of you, but they don't define you. Remember that."

[Jadev]

As the world returns to normal, Melissa follows suit, transforming from the smooth and capable card-slinger to the optimistic and emotional young girl she normally is.

She steps over to where Ruby cries on the floor and Livi comforts her, barely stopping to pick up her now-tattered Eight of Clubs on the way over. When she gets over, she immediately drops to her knees beside Ruby... and gives her a hug.

"Don't worry. We'll help you through this."

[Ascension]

Ruby flinches and cringes at the touch of Livi's hands and Lissa's hug, but she no longer has the energy or will to properly glare at either girl.

"No," she croaks, her voice small and hesitant now, her voice bled raw by her shadow-shape's shrieking, "There's no coming back from this. All I had was what she shared with me. There'll be none of that now."

She reaches out a trembling hand, trying her best to smooth Emily's matted hair.

While Ruby struggles with the imagined consequences of her actions, Erika finds herself facing a small crowd at the door. Sasha is there, standing beside Ms. Lizzie rather than one of the headteachers, but Mr. Battle is hot on her heels, accompanied by another student. A look of profound relief crosses the librarian's face as she notices his approach, and she visibly defers to him. He takes that in stride, mustering an appropriately solemn shadow of his famous grin.

"Ms. Wiessmann. I understand there's been some manner of... altercation here."

[Inspector Valin]

Erika's eyes flickered as the faces materialized, trying to appraise the situation. Several faces she didn't know; bad. Sasha was with them though, that much was good, and Erika smiled for a second upon seeing her friend, before turning to the rest. Ms. Lizzie was with them, which could go either way, but thankfully Mr. Battle was close behind her. Erika's gaze softened at that, taking a step back and nodding to the deputy headmaster. He always seemed to be a calming influence in Landsgate. "Yes sir. Between Ruby Falkner and Emily Dew." There was no real point in concealing that part: half the school probably knew the basics of what'd been going on. At least she could be calm about it

Erika glanced behind her before turning back to the group, frowning slightly. There were too many people here: the price for not having managed to keep this low key. There had to be a way of getting the crowd to disperse, but Erika wasn't sure on a reliable one. For the moment she stood her ground in the doorway, continuing to explain things to Mr. Battle. "It grew violent, but a few friends and I were able to stop the fighting. Before anything else though, we should probably get them both to Mrs. Lester's office. Both of them were hurt." Briefly, the Keybarer turned her head upward towards the now active strips above them. "We should also get Ms. Zheng to take a look at the lights. Something strange was going on with them." One more point for the conspiracy club. She knew the reason for it of course, but there'd been other witnesses, and it would've been irresponsible for Erika not to mention it.

[Ascension]

Mr. Battle's eyes are searching, appraising Erika and probing into the hallway behind her. There are questions which must be asked, but now... now is not the time to do it. He nods his agreement with Erika's suggestions.

"Yes, we'll need to have Mrs. Lester take a look at the girls. And I'll need to have a talk with you and your friends, but... that can wait, for the moment. Ms. Rassul, please stay, I may require your assistance."

He glances back at Sasha and Melody, brows slightly furrowed.

"Students, please go about your day. I'd rather not make this any more of a spectacle than it already is."

He doesn't need to ask twice. If the students of Landsgate listen to anyone, Mr. Battle is that person. Turning back to the door, he moves to push it open.

"Ms. Rassul and I will take care of things from here, Erika."

[Lykan]

Livi's heart twinges a bit at that, watching Ruby try her best to reach out to the fallen Emily with a pitying look in her eye. "We... We can help you patch up your relationship with her. We'll try to help her understand how you weren't in control of your feelings. Emily's a bit brash but I think even she could understand what happened." She pauses, looking between the two girls, slowly. "... You really care about her, huh?"

[The_Snark]

Almost as soon as she's arrived, it's over. Jaya watches with mingled relief and dismay as Ruby falls, the sinister power of her shadow-self vanishing to expose the lonely, brutish, desperate girl beneath. After the eerie lights and looming shadows of the Cave, she seems so very... small. And yet there's blood on her hands, and a girl lying bruised and beaten before her...

Jaya doesn't hesitate long, but it's enough. Olivia and Melissa are there before her, kneeling beside Ruby and offering words of comfort. She feels a surge of warmth towards the pair, that they can look at this and feel compassion first and foremost. They have good hearts; they will help if anyone can. Perhaps she'll find words to try and help Ruby later, but for now, there are others who need looking after...

She kneels opposite Ruby (her mask and flowing peacock-gown gone as if it had never been there), checking Emily over for injuries. It doesn't look too bad - well, it looks awful, in fact, but it doesn't look serious. She hopes. Her mother made her take a first-aid course once but that was years ago.

[Ascension]

"She... I... yes."

Yes is definitely the answer, but Ruby is much less sure of the question.

"You really care about her, huh?"

Oh how she cares about Emily Dew. Cares about her opinions, cares about her status, cares about everything she represents, cares about the pedestal she occupies (and the shadow cast by that pedestal, that shadow just big enough to hold one Ruby Faulkner). But does she care for Emily Dew? Does she care for the girl atop the pedestal, the girl inside the jersey? She wants to say yes to that too, she would have said yes to that just yesterday, but now... after all that with the key...

"Those feelings the key brought out are a part of you," she said. "Your true potential," he said.

Was all that... is that... how she really feels about Emily?

She cups the taller girl's face in her hands, and fresh tears well in her eyes. God, that's not how she wants to care about Em. That's not... it can't...

"I do, I do, yes."

[DeafnotDumb]

"So." Kaleemah's voice breaks in, rather ruining the lovely moment. "I've broken my arm." Using her remaining arm to pull herself up, she goes over to the remaining, twisted limb and kicks it pointedly, a decidedly grumpy expression on her face. She looks at the nearby teacher and does the best approximation of respect and servility that she can. "Mr Battle, can I go to the metalworking shop and fix it?"

[Inspector Valin]

Erika nodded at Mr. Battle's words, confident in the music teacher's authority. He'd be fair, gentle but firm, and between him and Ms. Rasul, the situation was under control. They weren't needed here any longer. They'd sorted the supernatural problem, they needed to give both Ruby and Emily time to breath and get over this before moving forward. Erika turned around to her friends...

To her surprise most of them still knelt at the side of Ruby and Emily. Only Kal stood off to one side, looking irritated about her arm, and making a beeline for Mr. Battle.

Erika sidestepped the oncoming juggernaut, letting Kal make her appeal whilst frowning to herself. The others weren't going to move easily, not when they had injured to care for, logic be damned. This was not what she wanted, and if they'd had a chance to discuss this, the Judge would've been vocal about the fact. But getting into an argument in front of the deputy headmaster was a spectacularly bad idea. As was staying here after Battle had all but told them to leave. Noting Jaya's approach towards Emily, Erika nodded to herself, before looking back to Sasha, her gaze... not angry, but pointed. Hold on for a second

She took a breath before stepping back towards Mr Battle. Wiessman could really do with a little rest after everything that'd happened. Trying to meddle more with Emily and Ruby right now was a mistake that could have consequences later. But her team had obviously made their decision. She had to honour it. As such she looked up, meeting Mr. Battle's gaze and speaking firmly. "Sir, we witnessed this. And we know both Emily and Ruby. Can we go with them? You could use some help carrying Emily, and Ruby..." She simply took a step back at the last, gesturing into the corridor. The young Miss Faulkner's red rimmed face should serve as illustration enough.

[Ascension]

Mr. Battle's eyebrows furrow for a moment before his face resumes a professional neutrality. Emily's injuries are more severe than expected (and Ruby's are noticeably light), but Kaleemah's broken prosthetic he had not anticipated at all. Erika's report doesn't place Ms. Khan as one of the initial parties involved in the fight, and he knows she has a history of, ah, instigative behavior, but if Kaleemah were to decide to report the violence against her as a hate incident... that could look very bad for Landsgate. Best to reassure her that this matter can be handled internally.

"We'll see that it's taken care of," he assures Kal, reaching down to retrieve the limb himself (frowning a fleeting moment at the extent of the damage, imagining what could have caused that). He leans closer to quietly add, "And please, please feel free to talk to us about how this happened. Landsgate is concerned with the well-being of all its students. This isn't just about Ms. Dew and Ms. Faulkner. We care about you."

Battle hears Erika's newest suggestion as he steps away from Kaleemah, and he nods along with her again. He might as well keep the witnesses together, get statements from them while the incident is still fresh in their minds, and Emily... certainly seems to be unconscious.

"Yes. Yes, please come along, all of you. Ms... Marszalek, Ms. Wiessmann, if you could, please help me support Emily. We need to get her to the nurse's office first of all, and then... then we can hash out the rest."

I don't need (or particularly want) to do individual debriefings with all of you, but I would like to know generally how each of you plan to report what happened. If you want to put your heads together to get a cohesive story planned out as a group, you'll need to figure out some way to manage that IC.

Mr. Battle also wants to get Kaleemah's arm professionally repaired, and she'll have to talk fast if she doesn't want to lose it for however long that will take.

[Inspector Valin]

Erika nodded at Mr. Battle's words, before turning to the one student that'd remained at his side. "Sasha, this will take a while. You're in charge of Fencing tonight. You know what the others need to work on, make sure they listen to you. I'll be back as soon as possible." She was about to turn away, before stopping herself, looking back at her young fellow club member with an expression almost akin to worry. She didn't know what it was, but something about the image of Emily, bloodied and unconscious... Erika took a step closer and nodded, speaking a little hesitantly. "Thanks. For helping."

Not something she was used to saying to her fellow students, even the ones she liked. Strange conversation done, and still feeling a little uneasy, Erika bent down at the unconscious girl's side, glancing across to Olivia with a quiet smile. Carrying Emily Dew like a princess was not how she'd expected to close out today, but the two of them together could manage this easily enough. She nodded down at Emily's still limp form, placing her hands ready for the lift. "On the count of three?"

Erika's going to focus on the stuff that happened before Ruby shifted; she'll admit freely that Ruby was the one who initiated this, and give her supposition as to the motives. Pent up emotion triggered in the response to the football match, though she's 'not sure exactly what set Ruby off'. She will admit that Ruby attacked them with 'something sharp', but that the group were largely able to dodge her. She'll also give her opinion that this was in part Emily's fault

Whilst waiting for the interview [roll0] Empathy for Erika to get her own read on Ruby

[Ascension]

As the girls carry Emily to the nurse's office, Ruby follows along dutifully, quietly. No resistance now, no clenched fists, no screams and cries, just slow silent tears. She seems almost empty, hollowed out and spent. Erika has a hard time getting a clear read on her emotional state... it's likely even Ruby herself isn't certain how she feels. So much has happened to her and around her, all so quickly.

While Mrs. Lester checks on each girl's physical well-being (slowly and methodically, as is her wont, even in these dramatic circumstances), Mr. Battle speaks with each in turn, gently but firmly questioning them as to exactly what happened. The picture that comes together is consistent enough, but still leaves questions regardless. If Ruby had a knife, what became of it? How was Kaleemah's arm so badly damaged? How could Ruby do so much damage to the face of a girl who had clear advantages over her in height, reach, and even fitness? The hour grows late before answers emerge, and at last he settles on leaving the keybearers with a single admonishment:

"Just to be on the safe side, try not to become involved in any more football matches in the next week or two, all right?"

After Mr. Battle's departure, Mrs. Lester reports that Emily's injuries aren't as bad as they might look ("Still worse than what I usually see, but not that bad."), but she is taking a worryingly long time to wake up. The nurse gladly accepts Jaya's request to sit with Emily, leaving the girls at Em's bedside while she returns to her crocheting in the next room.

This might be a good opportunity to talk amongst yourselves, and unpack the day's events, if you're so inclined.

[Inspector Valin]

Erika's been looking out the window for a long while. A suspiciously long while, considering that it was dark outside by now. The shade had never bothered Erika too much: she knew what lay beyond the window in any case. The field. The place where the story of Emily Dew and Ruby Faulkner's confrontation had begun. Though the eeds had probably beensewen a long time before that, with the two first meeting each other. A slow dance, over the span of years, culminating in blood and (almost) in death. Ruby had been a harsh opponent with an Importune Key in hand. What she could have done with it... The prospect was almost enough to frighten Erika. Almost.

Finally, with a sigh, the dark haired fencer turned around, gaze settling immediately on Jaya. She frowned, stepping forward, interrupting any moves to talk on the other girl's part.

"If you're working up to a lecture, I wouldn't bother. This wasn't our fault."

The fencing captain leaned back against the windowsill, looking down at the recumbent figure in the nurse's bed. Her eyes didn't soften in the slightest. "Emily was going to end up here sooner or later. She was too self-absorbed, too self-centred. She didn't pay any attention to the world around her, or how her actions affected other people. She refused to ever stop, think, consider or change to fit the world around her. She had her path, and kept at it, no matter what. And she paid the price for her stubbornness, entirely without our help."

Erika paused at that, placing her hand on her key for a second as she looked more closely at Emily. It was hard to hear her cries of "Wiessman!" now, with her eyes closed and face covered in bruises. Something was... missing. Shaking her head briefly, the Judge turned back to her fellows, her tone more sombre than condemnatory. "The Importune Keys look for many things, but I think the first they check for is suffering. People afflicted by envy, hate, fear or sadness. All those emotions are generally the fault of someone else, intentionally or otherwise. When those people get a Key, they have power, perhaps for the first time in their lives. And they lash out at those who torment them. Emily herself ultimately caused this, through her attitude towards Ruby. The magic just made it happen quicker."

[The_Snark]

"I wasn't going to lecture you," Jaya says, taken aback by the assumption. "I was about to ask what happened before I arrived. I saw enough to see... the general outline of what happened, I think, but I still don't quite understand why. And we need to, I think, if we are to help Ruby and Emily."

It's strange to listen to Erika, so insightful one moment, so blind the next. What she says about the Importune Keys has the ring of truth. What she says about Emily is true as well - but does she realize that most of her criticisms could be leveled at her, too? Her stubbornness, her indifference to the hurt she caused others, her refusal to admit or even consider that she might have done something wrong... She really doesn't understand why I was angry after the football match, does she.

"You're not wrong about her," she continues, looking over at Emily on the bed. "But however thoughtless she's been, she needs our help as much as Ruby does. Someone she thought was a friend just hurt her very badly. I don't know how she'll cope with that. She's made mistakes, and she needs to learn from them, and I don't think she is very good at that - not on her own."

She raises her eyes to meet Erika's. "As you say, suffering creates more of itself. With or without magic."

[Inspector Valin]

Erika shrugged, some of her defensiveness slipping away. She expected Jaya to be hostile, or at least passive aggressive. The dark haired fencer took a step backwards, leaning back against the window ledge. "I don't think anyone knows more than you do. Ruby was feeling bitter, got an Importune Key transformation into some kind of shadowy manipulator and attacked Emily. We sealed the key, end of story. As for trying to help Emily further..."

Silence. Erika took a deep breath before beginning, looking around the group, as calm and as clear as she can manage. "We fight monsters, seal away Importune Keys. We try to explain to the Keybarers why what happened doesn't make them bad people. That much, I agree with. But Emily's problems are unrelated to the keys. They're rooted in her attitude, her world-view. I understand trying to make sure she won't become a Keybarer, but trying to reason with her is too much work for something that probably won't happen. She's shown repeatedly that she doesn't want to change, that she's comfortable as the person she is. You can't teach someone who simply doesn't want to listen to you, no matter how hard you try."

It's strange how passive Erika is. She seldom raises her voice, but the other members of the group know how to recognize the fencing club captain's irritation or wrathful anger. Right now though, neither expression is on her face, and her voice is once again quiet. Sombre. "Perhaps what happened with Ruby will change her. It depends on how much she can remember. But it's just as likely to make her even worse. She was right, others were wrong, Emily Dew is just a put upon saint surrounded by lesser beings." Now the anger is starting to creep back into her tone. Erika glowered over at her recumbent rival for a second; she can almost hear her voice now, sneering at them. The dark haired Judge shook her head, furrowing her brows across at Jaya. "I can't handle that holier than thou stupidity. Why should I try to help someone like that?"

[DeafnotDumb]

Kaleemah snorts, left arm clenched protectively around her empty stump. "I guess we just don't bother, then." She says, apparently in agreement with Emily. "What's the worst that could happen? She shrugs. "I'm sure it won't a problem for Ruby. She seems totally fine with how Emily acts."

"Yeah, Em's not worth the effort. Not a way. So... we just push off and she carry on acting as she likes?" Her mouth briefly curls with spite. "What, because she's so nasty that means we have to let her keep on being nasty? We're going to let her win?"

With care, Kal pulls down the shoulder of her shirt so it shows the stump of her arm. "I've lost a hand." She complains. "I'm not walking away from this. You can, Erika, if it's too difficult. After all, we all got our Keys for giving up without even trying."

She shrugs. "Look, maybe we focus on Ruby instead." She grumps. "That might fix Emily a little bit, without an adoring fan pottering around her. Or we can get right to the problem, at least give it a try."

[The_Snark]

Jaya winces as Kaleemah says... more or less what she was about to, only stripped of every iota of tact, and wrapped with barbed wire for good measure. All right, that might be a good way to motivate Erika, but on the whole Jaya thinks she'd rather do without Erika's aid than have her angry and determined to prove she can handle Emily Dew...

Time to step in before this escalates.

"She's young yet, Erika," she says quickly (with all the authority of someone a whole two years older). "She still has a lot of growing up to do. She could change. And I think we can help her learn from this, insteed foisting all the blame off on others. Maybe it won't work. But maybe it will, and she hasn't got anyone else, does she? She has friends, but they're... not exactly the type to stand up to her."

"If you'd like to focus on Ruby instead, or on looking for other Keybearers... that's all right too." She carefully does not imply that this would be giving up, thank you very much, Kaleemah. "It might be better if not all of us were clustering around her, anyway."

[Inspector Valin]

If Erika was ruffled by Kaleemah's words, she didn't show much sign of it. The fencer stood there impassively, head tilted slightly to one side as she regarded her one armed compatriot, not turning to Jaya as she tried to moderate between them. At the close she nodded slowly, though her eyes were still on her argumentative comrade. "It's the first rule of life, Kal. Know your limits. Go against the odds for the sake of an ideal, fine. But if you try to fight a completely hopeless battle, with no prospect of success in sight, all you're going to do is waste time and frustrate yourself. And yes, you could even make the situation worse. Sometimes knowing when to take a step back is more important than charging forward."

Seemingly done with Kal for the moment, Erika turned to the side, taking a deep breath. This was getting exasperating. Still, she was the better person after all, so Erika begun slowly, as calmly as she could manage, and with every indication of sincerity. "Jaya, if you honestly think that Emily is worth your time, wonderful. Try to change her. Perhaps she will be a different person, she could reconsider her place in the world, become more self-reflective, that'd be excellent. Really."

Erika chuckled slightly to herself at that. A quiet, friendly Emily Dew was hard to picture, though... not an entirely unwelcome thought. Still, soon enough the fencer's eyes snapped open once again "But I don't expect that to happen, and I don't see why we should waste time trying to push Emily towards it." The young fencer shook her head, taking a step forwards to emphasise her point, glaring down at Jaya with a somewhat icy expression. "You can prod and prompt all you want, but people have to decide for themselves what they want to be. The choice is theirs. Not yours, Prefect. Key or no key."

There was silence, broken only by the muffled clack of crochet needles from the next froom, the keybarers staring one another down. In the end though, Erika sighed, taking a step back and turning around towards the door. "I'll go find Ruby. If you need me for anything, text me. " Nodding briefly to Olivia and Melissa, the fencing club captain withdrew, back into the winding corridors of Landsgate. Always the first to leave, it seemed.

[The_Snark]

Jaya nods, accepting the decision. It's easy for forget that, for all that the football captain and fencing captain mirror each other, in some ways they're very different people. Emily has a temper; if she sees you as an enemy, she'll fight you. She doesn't lose gracefully, and . Erika doesn't do that. Oh, she has the same habit of categorizing criticism as an attack, but she doesn't hit back, exactly. She goes cold and distant instead, wrapping herself in an armor of confidence and contempt. If anything, it makes her even harder to engage with - but at least it doesn't escalate situations like this.

She exhales, trying to release her frustration. Someday, maybe, she'll figure out how to get through to Erika, convince her that she's not - how did she put it? - a put-upon saint surrounded by lesser beings. But not today. "Do any of you want to go with her?" she asks, looking between Melissa and Olivia."I don't mean to make this more about Emily than Ruby. And..." She pauses, trying to figure out how to say this next part delicately. "Erika is... a harsh sort of person. Maybe a little harshness will be good for Ruby right now, but I think a little kindness to balance it out would be good, too."

[DeafnotDumb]

To continue Jaya's reflection on tempers. If Emily is controlled by hers while Erika manages hers, then Kal more or less is her temper, with the zenlike calm of constant anger. Right now, Erika is arguing with her, so she'd argue back. What other way is there?

She opened her mouth to say something to Erika's back, but thankfully Jaya's question intercepts before the girl can attempt to escalate the situation further with the question of moderating Erika's tough love approach. "Oliva?" She suggests lightly, and turns to the person in question. "If you wanna?"

[Lykan]

Well. Given how curious Ruby's reaction was to Livi's attempts at comforting, it was difficult for the lanky girl not to be a bit intrigued. Really, it was all the girl could think about while Erika and the others went back and forth about the situation. Only when Kaleemah suggests her to help Ruby did she snap out out of her reverie, prompting her to spend a moment being entirely confused about what was going on before she notices that the fencing captain had left. In response to the suggestion, she nods and steps towards the door. "I think I need to talk to Ruby about something anyway."

With that, she's out the door, hurrying after Erika after waving goodbye to the rest of the crew.

[Ascension]

Ruby:

Erika finds Ruby waiting in a chair outside Mr. Battle's office, staring down at her bandaged knuckles. She seems somewhat calmer now... her tears have dried, at least... but she still seems wearied and wasted, like a candle with its flame gone out. She doesn't look up at Erika's approach.

Mr. Battle's office door is ajar, but mostly closed, and a faint strain of music drifts out from it. Erika could safely speak with Ruby now, as long as she keeps it quiet.

Olivia isn't far behind, and could catch up with Erika fairly easily if she makes the effort.

Emily:

Meanwhile, Emily begins to fitfully stir in her sleep.

"Wha... Ruby...?"

[Inspector Valin]

"Hey."

Erika didn't try to make eye contact with Ruby, taking a seat next to hers. Given the fencing captain's generally harsh attitude, her tone is perhaps surprisingly soft. The black haired keybarer sat there for a few seconds, letting the music from Mr. Battle's study play out. It was strange to Erika, this whole concept of waiting to listento someone tell you off. Her parents always told her what she'd done wrong right away, something Erika appreciated in retrospect. The waiting was worse. Finally Erika spoke again, looking across to Ruby with a raised eyebrow.

"Have you spoken to him yet? Or are you still waiting?"

[Jadev]

Melissa looks like she's about to go off and attempt to be the balancing force in the other keybearers going to find Ruby, but when Olivia offers she seems satisfied. She takes the chair closest to Emily and sits there, keeping an eye on her. She fiddles with a coin in one hand, flipping it between her fingers in a slow, slightly clumsy motion-- more than once, it drops to the floor, the clattering on the tile much louder than it has any right to be.

It's during one such moment, when she's reaching down to pick it up once more, when Emily stirs. Melissa jolts back up and speaks, surprised.

"Emily! Are you awake? Are you okay?"

Stupid questions aside, she's clearly worried.

[Ascension]

Ruby

Ruby shrugs, looking toward Erika but not meeting her eyes.

"He asked me about what happened, and I told him. I think he's trying to decide what to do about it. About me."

Emily

Em's left eye is still swollen shut, but her right cracks open, squinting at the light.

"What happened?" she asks, voice slow and slurring. "Where... is this the nurse's office?"

[Inspector Valin]

"I... see."

The old fashioned Sword of Damocles. Basically what these chairs existed for, a chance to make people feel guilty about what they'd done. Landsgate School Purgatory for the errant youth.

Erika paused before turning to Ruby, gesturing to the door with her off hand. "Do you want me to talk to him?" There was nothing but sincerity on the judge's face. If it'd help, she'd be happy to try and put Ruby's side of things to Mr. Battle. But she wouldn't force herself into this situation. After everything that'd happened with Ruby, and the revelation of how she'd been feeling, that just seemed like a bad idea.

[The_Snark]

"Yes."

Jaya speaks softly, leaning forward so Emily can hear without straining. Her voice is gentle; if she could, she'd take Emily's hand to offer comfort, but that would require rooting around under the blankets, and she can't recall if the other girl's hands are injured in any case. She settles for reaching out and resting a hand lightly on the edge of the bed.

"Take it easy. You've got some nasty-looking bruises, there. Nothing that won't heal in a week or two, don't you fret, but you shouldn't strain yourself. What's the last thing you remember?"

[Lykan]

After rushing out the door, Livi stops a few paces shy of Ruby and Erika, hanging a bit outside their conversation while observing from her slightly-off center position. It... Kinda seemed like the fencing captain had a good handle on the situation, from the looks of it. She wasn't being quite as harsh as she expected, given her previous behavior during the day, so... Well, Olivia was at a bit of a loss as to how to contribute to making this situation less bad. Quietly, she hovers in her position, just listening to the two speak.

[Ascension]

Ruby

"You've already spoken to him, haven't you?" Ruby asks.

Her eyes suddenly rise to meet Erika's, and her brow furrows.

"Is that why you're trying to be nice to me now? What did you say?"

Emily

Em reaches a hand up, wincing as she touches her bandaged face. Her open eye still seems distant, unfocused.

"Ruby..." she murmurs. "That was... Ruby?"

[Inspector Valin]

Erika doesn't react to Ruby's shift; it was a natural misinterpretation of her words, and she was on edge. Suspicion was understandable. Instead, the fencing captain simply shook her head, meeting the other girl's furrowed gaze. "I just told him what happened. Physically. And that I didn't see who started the fight."

It was a pretty easy lie, really. Just omit the confrontation with ShadowRuby. They found the end results of the fight, not what was going on. They really didn't have the information Battle wanted: who started this, what was it about, things like that. Erika sighed, turning away for a second and leaning back in her chair, eyes lingering on the opposite wall. "Which is true, but I'm allowed to speak up in defence of a fellow student. I can at least try to help."

Glancing down the hall, Erika noticed Livi watching. The quiet girl's presence made Erika raise an eyebrow, both surprised and mildly irritated. Jaya'd probably sent her to make sure she make things worse. Annoying, but not Livi's fault. Outside presence noted, Erika turned back to Ruby and their conversation. "It's your choice though. I won't meddle if you don't want me to. I just... thought I'd ask." She wasn't entirely sure why she'd offered, it wasn't what she'd come here for. It just... felt right.

[Jadev]

Melissa shifts in her seat to face Emily. She's obviously nervous, and continues to fidget with the coin in her hand.

"Well... er... you see..."

The coin slips out of her hand once more. She speaks again, more softly this time

"Yes."

[Ascension]

Ruby

Ruby's eyes drop to her hands again, and she lets out a weary sigh. Everything about this day has just been too much... too much to process, too much to deal with.

"Don't worry about it. What happens, happens. I'll survive."

'Probably...'

As if on cue, Mr. Battle's door suddenly swings open, and Ruby starts in surprise... surprise almost matched by the deputy head himself when he finds Erika sitting beside his delinquent charge, and Livi nearby.

"...Hello, girls. You came to check on Ruby?" he asks, somewhat cautiously, but he soon settles back into his usual good humor. "Your concern is... appreciated, but it's getting late. You should see about getting back to your House. We wouldn't want to provoke Ms. Kimber, would we? I know I don't want that on my head! I promise you Ruby will still be here in the morning."

And there's that trademark smile again, and even Ruby can't help but think, for just a moment, that maybe things will turn out okay after all.

Emily

Em's focus sharpens as she finds shock, disbelief... and then anger. And as you know from the pitch, Emily Dew's anger is not a quiet, subtle thing. She bares her teeth in a snarl, winces at the pain that causes her, then defiantly resumes the expression anyway.

"That... bitch."

She half rises, and Melissa has the ill fortune to be the nearest person she can glare at.

"How could she?" she hisses, and there's hurt there too, alongside the anger, hurt and continued disbelief, but her simple fury comes through the clearest.

[Inspector Valin]

"Yes, sir."

Erika, for once, takes a second to get to her feet. The threat of the glowering Matron was honestly the last thing on her mind at the moment. She smiled back at Mr. Battle for a second, almost content to leave it at that, before soon enough coming back to reality. She turned back to her side, kneeling and looking into Ruby's eyes, gaze firm. She'd come here to say this, and she wouldn't be deterred, not even by Mr. Battle standing there. "If you need someone to help, or someone to talk to, my room number is Richbourgh twenty seven. Either come and talk to me in person, or send me an email on my school account later. I don't want to be annoying, but you shouldn't have to be alone right now. You should have a choice."

[DeafnotDumb]

Out of some instinct of protectiveness towards Melissa - and, it has to be said, her distaste for Emily - Kaleemah imposes herself in between the athlete's glare and the gambler, covering up her worry about what to say with a blank glare. Despite her barbed speech to Erika earlier, the fencing captain's reaction has indicated to her that her usual bullish response might not be the perfect approach.

"You tell me." She says instead, flat as a stone wall. "I just came in to stop the fight. Lost my arm because of it." She scowls softly at the lack of reaction her temporary dismemberment has received, conveniently forgetting her usual distaste for any kind of sympathy. "Got any idea why that happened?"

[Ascension]

Ruby

With the reputed bad blood between Erika and Emily, and thus, by extension (at least before today?), between Erika and Ruby, Mr. Battle is suspicious of the fencer's offer, but he holds his tongue. Erika's saying the right words, and he'll just have to leave it to Ruby herself to determine whether or not their intent is sincere.

Ruby still hasn't quite shaken the shell shock, but she manages a nod and a mumbled "Thanks."

Emily

Emily recoils a bit as Kaleemah interposes herself between her and Melissa, but, on recognizing Kal, holds her ground as well as an injured girl lying in a hospital bed can. She won't be seen cowering from Kaleemah. From the cripple.

"Because Ruby Faulkner has lost her damn mind?" she snaps, and the soft sound of Mrs. Lester's crocheting ceases, and her chair screeches.

The nurse appears at the door.

"I see Emily has woken up," she says, looking around the room, "Good."

She doesn't outwardly react to the tension in the room, but she does firmly state, "Perhaps it would be best to leave her in my care." It isn't a suggestion or a request so much as it is an order wrapped in a silk handkerchief, but she still blithely smiles as if nothing at all in the world is wrong.

[Inspector Valin]

Erika nodded to Ruby, and briefly once to Mr Battle, before turning around and walking away. She'd said what she'd come here to say, that was it. There was no reason to draw things out, and definitely no reason to question the deputy head's expression at the end there. At lest, no reason to question it within his hearing.

Walking to Richbourgh is almost automatic for Erika now. They'd all been here for a full year, after all. She and the other Keybarers walked this path more or less every night, slowly trailing back towards the dorms. As she and Livi proceeded through the mildly dingy corridors, the fencer glanced upwards briefly, towards the blackened skylight. Somehow, it left its mark. Resuming her pace within a few seconds, Erika glanced across to Livi, chuckling gently to herself. "Is me being nice to someone really that hard to believe?"

Lykan, I'm not trying to shut Livi out of interractions with Ruby here, just wanted this done to resolve Erika's bit and felt throwing up the second part would give you a bit more to play off. Sorry if I'm being annoying.

[Jadev]

Melissa probably should have expected Emily getting mad. She didn't. Upon later reflection, she'll realize she didn't know what she thought would happen, but she did think it would be better than this.

Melissa freezes up. She stammers, trying to think of a good reason, something she could tell Emily other than "Oh, a magical artifact twisted your friend's mixed package of admiration and jealousy towards you into violence and rage and then she turned you into a shadow".

Why did it have to be like this? They'd beaten the bad guy! Things were supposed to go back to normal! Everyone was supposed to be friendly and nice! They were Magical Girls now, why weren't things like the stories?

Luckily, Kaleemah interposes herself between Melissa and Emily. Still, the young Poker Queen is shaken enough that she can't do much more than nod when Mrs. Lester comes back in.

[Lykan]

Livi remained quiet as Erika and Ruby spoke. She didn't have anything to really add on top of what the fencing captain had to say to the poor girl, so she did her best to be as unobtrusive to the goings-on as she possibly could. When Mr. Battle's office door swung open the girl wouldn't help but flinch and hop backwards in surprise.

Without the influence of the key, it seemed she was back to being as timid as ever. It was a bit of a jarring change but, well... Erika'd been on enough missions with the unfettered queen to know that that's just how she turned out once the fighting was done.

As the pair was sent on their way, the gangly girl couldn't help but think over the way that Ruby had looked down at what had become of Emily. There was something about the way tiny girl looked that made the entire scene smack of something other than broken friendship, but... Well, she probably shouldn't put too much stock in the idea without a little more evidence. Being wrong about that sort of thing would just end up being embarrassing for everyone involved. When Erika's question seems to snap Livi out of her reverie, prompting her to shake her head quickly. "You're assertive, but still nice."

[Inspector Valin]

Erika blinked slightly at Livi's words, the statement not quite sinking in for a second. Finally though, she chuckled, meeting the other girl's gaze with that rarest of things. An honest smile, and a twinkle in her eye. "That was a kind thing to say, Livi. I'm not sure it's true... but thank you for saying it."

It was good to have friends. People who'd reassure you, who'd be kind to you and stand by you when times were hard. That's part of what seperated her from Emily Dew. Erika glanced around the corridor they were walking down, sighing wryly at the never ending set of doors to either side. Just one more reminder of where they were. Landsgate School for the Strange, Magical and Socially Insecure. Erika turned once again to Livi, gesturing around the abandoned hallway. "Do you think this is ever going to end? That this place is ever going to just run out of Importne Keys, and all the strangeness will just... stop?" Her earlier smile lingered slightly, but the fencing captain's tone was somber, her eyes cold. This topic was weighing on Erika.

[DeafnotDumb]

Kaleemah grunts, the closest she's capable of getting to agreeing with Mrs. Lester. "We'll see you around, Emily." She warns. "Come on, Melissa. Let's find where the others are."

[Jadev]

Melissa nods again, still somewhat shaky, and goes to follow Kal. She spares one last sad look at Emily before she leaves.

[Lykan]

Livi returns Erika's smile with a tiny, shy one of her own, content with the fact that she was able to make her friend happy, even if it was seemingly short lived. The endless deluge of importune keys and their bearers was getting to be quite overwhelming, despite their continued success in bringing them down. The lanky girl quietly wondered the same thing to her self, remaining quiet for a long time. "I don't know... I think all we can do is investigate and try to find a source of the keys. Maybe try to figure out what the heck Ianus is in the process. That seems kinda important." Well. The guy was the Roman god of doors, so... His name wasn't entirely out of place in a place like this. Still, the exact way any sort of metaphysical entity interacted with their day-to-day lives here at the school remained a complete mystery.

[Ascension]

ED 1: Fat Les - Jerusalem (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfwC5vNvIvk)

Night falls, and the Keybearers of Landsgate Girls' School find their way back to their rooms, their schoolwork, their beds. The immediate crisis of Ruby's transformation has been dealt with, and they have earned as much rest as they can manage, but still questions linger, and issues stand unresolved. Particularly distressing is the fact that Isabel never returns to the room she shares with Kaleemah... it's not unimaginable that the rebellious girl might have simply popped out for a night on the town, but it is a dire sign that she said nothing about any such plans to any of her friends before disappearing, nor has she left any kind of note. It's hard not to fear the worst under such circumstances. The morning may bring answers, though... and, if the Keybearers keep fighting for it, one day it may even bring peace.

That's the end of the first episode of Unlocked Hearts, and your first minor milestone. Just as a reminder, that means...

During a minor milestone, you can choose to do one (and only one) of
the following:
• Switch the rank values of any two skills, or replace one Average (+1)
skill with one that isn’t on your sheet.
• Change any single stunt for another stunt.
• Purchase a new stunt, provided you have the refresh to do so.
(Remember, you can’t go below 1 refresh.)
• Rename one character aspect that isn’t your high concept.
Let me know in the OOC what you choose to use the milestone for, if anything.

Also, while a recovery roll was never actually made to help her get over it, enough time has now passed that Kal can begin recovering from the Consequence that has her fixated on revenge against Jessica Sandys. Since it's a Mild Consequence, she only has to wait one more scene before she'll have recovered from it completely.

The start of the next episode will be posted soon.

[Ascension]

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c78/Chris-Ascended/Unlocked%20Hearts%20Logo_zpsnb4xqsnw.png

Episode Two: The Flower Garden

OP 2: Dessa - Skeleton Key (Youngblood Brass Band Remix) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcwyYDj8VS4)

Friday, October 3rd. 8:15 AM.

"You are all young ladies of distinction," Headmistress Reynolds reminds you, for what must be at least the twentieth time this year, "and we expect you to comport yourself as such."

At the end of breakfast today you found yourself ambushed by a school assembly, all herded together to hear just how thoroughly you've disappointed the faculty. As might be expected, Ruby's fight with Emily occupies a special place of distinction in the litany of admonishments (albeit with the involved students' identities thinly veiled in some imitation of discretion), but it's hardly the only event Mrs. Reynolds takes the time to ramble on about. A rubbish bin fire, apparently started by a carelessly discarded contraband cigarette, earns a good few paragraphs, as do several other mundane-sounding indiscretions... the flowers are perhaps the only surprise of the day.

"We would like to ask you to keep an eye out, girls. Someone has been defacing school property with images of flowers. I'm sure that whoever is responsible thinks it's simply a harmless prank, or may even have some misguided notion that she's beautifying the grounds, but this school is not hers to decorate however she pleases, and the removal of her graffiti costs us time and money. She is a vandal, not an artist, and we would very much appreciate any information which might assist in identifying her."

As you are dismissed and the assembly begins to break up, a student in the row behind you starts griping loudly enough to earn a warning look from the nearest teacher.

"Of course she goes on about how awful it is to deface school property, but she doesn't say a single word about what's happening to our work."

"She was talking to the whole school, Mandy," another student interjects, trying to calm down her friend, "Most of them don't ever pass through the art room while we're working. Yelling at them wouldn't help catch our vandal. Anyway, who knows, maybe they're the same person, anyway."

"Don't say that," Mandy snaps, "I've seen a couple of those flowers she was talking about... they really are beautiful. That can't be the same person who... You wouldn't call what was done to my landscapes beautiful, would you?"

"Well... no, I wouldn't, but..."

"They're not the same person. One is an artist, and the other is a vandal. And she's off hunting the wrong one."

[DeafnotDumb]

Kal listens to to the headmistress's lecture with half an ear and even less respect, only cataloguing the odd occurrences about the flowers as anything remotely useful. The other stuff, especially the fire, get rather more appreciation than admonition in Kal's mind. She is quite determinedly not a lady, no matter what the Headmistress says.

The girl has dressed appropriately for her situation, with soft shoes she can kick off when the lack of one of her limbs limits her and she requires her feet for not-so-fine motor control. Currently they are been worn, coupled with a glare that demands anyone say anything about her at all.

The conversation of the arts students comes to her attention. While Kal's not an artist with paint, brush, pen or paper, she does have an aptitude for the more physical kinds of craft, from woodcutting to occasional overenthusiastic sparking in the metalwork shop. The art club is, therefore, one of the few social gatherings she bothers to go to, though she rarely does anything so drastic as talk to people.

"Mandy?" Kal suddenly. "Somebody broke into our club?" She shoots the nearby Keybearers a significant look to direct their attention towards the conversation. "What they'd do to your stuff?"

The girls can probably recall how possessive Kal can get about certain things - and, probably, just how subtle her help usually is.

[Inspector Valin]

Erika listens to the Headteacher's words with attention, if not enthusiasm. It was early in the day; she'd have prefered to spend this time relaxing a little, pondering the school around her, perhaps working on homework or revision. This was a profound waste of time that teachers up and down the country still seemed to think had some strange merit to it. At first the two art club members' conversation only serves to reenforce this irritation at Ms. Reynolds and her overlong speeches. So, a fight between two people who were both emotionally wound up is announcement in assembly worthy, but not the calculated defacing of people's work? The priorities of the staff around here.

The location of the vandalizm made Erika turn her head however, suddenly regarding the conversation with a raised eyebrow. "The art room?" She might not be a member of the club, but Erika is resolute in keeping up practice with her art classes. She maintains the black and red school provided sketchbook Mr. Goddard entrusted them with at the start of the year, and can be relied upon to produce one A4 sized painting per Art lesson, no matter what. Doing less would be a failure after all. The dark haired fencer tilted her gaze inquisitively, her focus on Mandy's companion for the moment whilst Kal attended to the more worked up artist. "I thought I'd have heard about something like that. I'm pretty sure I've still got one or two pieces locked up in the cupboard. What happened?"

[AmberVael]

Rebecca Greyson sits a bit further back, dressed in a neat and tidy school uniform, her chin length black hair neat and her posture upright. Her choice of company is a little less proper than her appearance though- Annette and her circle of conspiracy theorists are just a bit too oddball to be respectable. And truth be told, Rebecca's reputation for getting in trouble with the faculty makes her less respectable than the rest of them.

The little reminder of the school's policies on curfew and venturing out of bounds at the tail end of the other indiscretions is rote and unremarkable, but Rebecca grimaces at it, certain it is directed at her (and it probably is). Can't they just give it a rest? Her mood sours enough that when the headmistress moves on to the subject of flowers Rebecca considers helping the vandal just out of spite. That's a great idea, Rebecca. Lets give the headmistress even more reasons to throw me out. Brilliant. Still, she certainly feels no interest in helping them catch the artist- the only thing the lecture did is provoke her curiosity on the subject.

"Why would someone put up flower graffiti?" She wonders aloud, not really to anyone in particular, though she does glance at Annette and Erin on the off-chance they had thoughts on the matter.

[Ascension]

Kal and Erika

Mandy is beyond caring about the potential consequences of filling Kaleemah in on her problem.

"I've been working on a couple landscapes, right?" she explains, "They were supposed to form a series. Well, I come into the studio the other day and my canvases have been slashed. Each one torn straight through the center. That was no accident."

Mandy's friend (Kal recalls she goes by Susan) chimes in rather more reluctantly, meeting Erika's eyes with an apologetic look.

"Some of the other paintings that were left out to dry had their colors smeared, but only Mandy's were gouged like that."

"But it's not the first time that vandal's been in the studio!" Mandy cuts in.

"It's the first time more than one painting has been damaged at once. The others might have been isolated inciden-"

"She's getting bolder, is what it is."

Susan gives Erika a pained smile and a shrug. With friends like these, what can you do?

Rebecca

"Maybe it's some kind of feminist message?" Erin muses, "Flowers could mean yonic imagery... If anyone can actually find one to use as reference, I'd love to sketch a copy to study it."

Annette is rather less interested... at least in part because it's too early in the morning for her to be fully engaged.

"Flowers don't seem consistent with the underlying architectural symbology of the school," she says, with a lazy shrug, "I doubt they're linked to the big agenda."

[AmberVael]

Rebecca bites her lip, then speaks slowly, a bit of hesitation in her voice. "That wasn't what I meant, Annette, but... I dunno. Sometimes I'm not sure where the weirdness of this place ends." Then she shrugs, dismissing the odd moment. "Its probably just graffiti, but I wouldn't mind getting a look at it either. If I see one I'll get something of it for you, Erin." Maybe she could get her hands on a camera and keep it in her bag? Probably wouldn't be too hard. At minimum she could make a sketch of it herself.

"But hey, speaking of agendas, what's on your mind, Annette? Anything we should be doing?"

[Inspector Valin]

"That's... strange."

Erika frowned, leaning against the wall. This conversation was becoming more and more worth her time: both as a fellow user of the Art Room, and as a Keybarer. She nodded to Susan in brief commiseration, before looking back to Mandy, trying her hardest to look understanding and sympathetic. "At a guess, the teachers assumed it was someone with a grudge against you, and that any other damage was collateral: the vandal getting too excited or something?" That seemed like the standard response from most adults to anything like this happening. It could be the case... but it remained an assumption. She left Mandy to talk more for the moment, she didn't seem to need much prompting to outline the situation.

[Ascension]

The Keybearers

Susan shrugs again.

"Pretty much. As far as we know, all the damage, and I mean all the damage, not just from the latest incident, has been limited to the art club's work. I don't think anything from the regular classes has been messed with, at least not in this fashion. So it looks like a grudge."

"Or she's just getting started," Mandy chimes in, with stubborn determination.

Beyond your circle, the crowd in the auditorium is really starting to thin. It won't be long before you'll be needing to get on to your classes, so now would be a good time to get in any more questions (or suggestions) you might have.

The Conspiracy Theorists

Annette hums to herself, idly thinking... and then she gets a glint in her eye and leans forward, motioning Rebecca in closer.

"'Becca, have you ever noticed how some of the library's older books are locked up-"

"Annette!" Erin interrupts sharply, with uncharacteristic alarm, "You know what happened last ti-"

"Last time we didn't have Rebecca! And perhaps I got a little too ambitious, a little too excited. Now we have wisdom, and we have her skills... we can handle this," Annette assures, with cool confidence and an easy smile. She looks up at Rebecca, meeting her eyes, and her smile quirks mischievously. "If we're smart enough about this, you won't even have to steal the books themselves."

[Jadev]

Melissa isn't one to complain, but she really doesn't like the assemblies they have at Landsgate. This one is perhaps worse, since it dredges up memories of Ruby's key-influenced attack. She doesn't really listen to most of the speech, though she does wonder why anyone would be upset about someone painting flowers around campus.

When Mandy starts speaking, Melissa listens interestedly-- someone vandalizing someone else's hard work seems much more important than someone painting flowers on school property. She doesn't speak up until the crowd begins to thin out, however.

"Do you think there's anything we could do to help? I'm sure a couple extra people looking for whoever this is could be of assistance."

[AmberVael]

Rebecca raises her eyebrows, her interest piqued. "Yeah, I've seen that. I always figured that they were just fragile or something though. You think there's something else?"

She crosses her arms as she considers the idea that there might be something of interest hidden among those books. If there was something really secret, why would they put it in the library to begin with? Just remove them rather than locking them up in plain sight. That said, there could be an older book with some clues about the school anyway, just forgotten or not generally known. "I might be up for it. Whats the plan?"

[Ascension]

The Artists

"We can do a stakeout!" Mandy decides, eager for the chance to finger the perp. That's the kind of thing they do on American crime shows, right? Stakeouts, perp-fingering, the whole works.

"We couldn't keep a watch on the studio all the time," Susan cautions.

"Not without breaking a few rules, no, but you know what they say about eggs and omelettes..."

"Mandy! Surely there's some, some... sensible way of solving this problem!"

"Alright, see, the saying is 'If you want to make an omelette-'"

"You can help us as long as you agree not to follow her plans," Susan interrupts, "Otherwise, you can help her, and I'm out."

"Hey!"

The Conspirators

"We don't know for sure what's in there," Annette admits, "but they're old, and that librarian is all up to her ears in local history. There's got to be information about the school in them. Figuring out what and where is the first big objective. Erin can get the librarian distracted while you get the case open."

Erin looks anything but comfortable with that idea, but she holds her tongue.

"Take a camera, or a phone, and take pictures of title pages, tables of content, indices if you have time. That way we can find out what's in there, and we'll know what pages we specifically need to see. That can be done, right?"

[DeafnotDumb]

"I'll stakeout." Kal says. It's almost a snap, but she manages to limit herself just in time. "I've got that thing I'm working on for my arm." It's a design on a wooden limb, a prototype of what might one day go on her primary arms: a fierce flowing pattern whose final design has yet to be determined. Most of what's been produced so far has been a pile of crumpled up sheets of paper, jealously hidden from prying eyes and discarded where no one can see them.

"I'll tell the teacher's I'm seeing if I can't get it to replace my missing one for a while." Kal finishes off. "Don't really feel like going to classes today."

[AmberVael]

"Maybe." Rebecca draws the word out with her uncertainty. Leaving the books there would be better in the end, but it would also mean more time spent. "Wouldn't it be easier just to do it when she isn't there? I mean, she can't be watching over them all the time. Or even most of the time, to be honest."

A question occurs to her, and she looks at Annette curiously. "What did happen last time?"

[Ascension]

The Artists

"Can you do that? Just tell them you can't come to class today?" Susan asks, skeptically.

"Sure she can," Mandy breaks in, with one of the smuggest grins imaginable, "I thought you'd know that, Susan. Anybody can do that. The question is whether or not she may!"

That crack earns Mandy a light punch on the arm, but her smile doesn't waver in the slightest. Susan just sighs.

"You can give it a shot, I guess, but I need to get to class," she says, rising to her feet. "Are you coming, Mandy, or have you come up with your own excuse not to?"

"Emotional damages from having my paintings vandalized," Mandy claims, but she, too, gets to her feet and starts filing out of her row of seats. On her way out, she emphasizes, "If the stakeout turns up anything, let me know."

The Conspirators

With a pained grin and a shrug, Annette confesses, "I got caught. I try not to be seen in there any more. That librarian... I don't think she likes me much."

"She doesn't," Erin confirms, with a frown to mirror Annette's smile. "As for getting in there when she's not in there, well, honestly she would probably be easier to distract than anyone else she might ask to look after the library..."

Annette's grin broadens as another possibility occurs to her. "Going in after the library closes, though... Could you manage that, Rebecca? That might give us plenty of time to see what we need to see."'

"Annette..." Erin warns, "If we were caught at that... we wouldn't just get a warning or a 'keep out of the library' or a slap on the wrist. That could get serious."

Annette leans forward, looking Rebecca in the eyes, still smiling.

"Could you get us in after closing?"

[AmberVael]

"Um... yeah, probably." Rebecca replies, rather caught off guard. "But when you say 'us' do you mean we'd all be doing this? I think it'd be better to go on my own. Its just... easier to keep things quiet that way; less chance of getting seen. Besides, I kinda have practice sneaking around, and it sounds like you don't. I'm sure I could get you in, but after that point is where things tend to get tricky."

The not-entirely-reluctant troublemaker sticks her hands in her pockets. "Anyway, she's got to take a lunch break or something at some point. I doubt there is someone watching at very second of the day. I could go in when its closed though, if I have to."

[Inspector Valin]

Erika frowned at Kal's declaration. She'd been thinking along the same lines, but she hadn't intended to skive off of class for the sake of better securing the art room. Still, if she tried to argue with Kal now they'd both be late. Sighing, the Keybarer nodded to Kaleemah, glancing briefly at the doorway to ensure the other two had gone before whispering to her. "If you need back up, call us. You're not at your best and there could be more to this."

The odds were good that Kal wouldn't listen to her, but Erika had to try. Warning given, the fencing captain wheeled around, walking swiftly out of the room. She wouldn't sacrifice her principles for this. And she'd have chance to reflect on the strange case of vandalism over the course of the day. Perhaps later, we can work together and investigate this properly.

[Ascension]

The Conspirators, Morning

"I think she takes lunch in the library," Erin says, "Honestly, I don't think there's much chance at all that she'd leave the library entirely unwatched while it's open. Not long enough to get up to anything, anyway."

"Unless we created a big enough distraction," Annette interjects, with a playful grin, but continues, "Still, if you're sure you can get in after hours, that would probably be best. No interruptions."

That's close enough to a final decision that Erin stands, gathering her books into her arms.

"I'm off to class, then."

Annette also gets to her feet, favoring you and Erin both with a bright smile.

"Then I'll see you girls at lunch. If there's any more to discuss, we can take care of it then."

Kaleemah, on the hunt

Some of Kaleemah's teachers seem doubtful, at best, that she's really supposed to get time out of class to work on a new prosthetic, but it's difficult to maintain an appearance of moral superiority when you're arguing with a one-armed girl, and she does receive grudging permission. Finding excuses to stay in the art studio, however, might prove more difficult; most of the woodworking supplies are in the workshop used for D&T... near enough to the art room to keep an eye on who's going and coming, but not near enough to see what's going on inside.

How do you occupy your time?

The Keybearers, at lunch

The morning's classes pass uneventfully, and soon the Keybearers find themselves gathering for lunch... short one member of their group. You haven't heard anything from Kaleemah, so you're not certain if she's maintaining her watch on the art studio, if she's run into some sort of trouble, or if she's just running late, but whatever the cause, she's not yet arrived.

The Conspiracy Theorists, at lunch

When Erin sees Jaya enter the dining hall, she excuses herself from your conversation, saying that she has to speak with someone for a moment. Annette frowns at that, and her frown deepens when she sees that Erin is headed toward a prefect.

"Rebecca... I'm worried for Erin. I'm not used to her being this vague. She usually shares everything with me. Could you go check on her, see if she's all right?"

Her voice is appropriately compassionate, but her eyes are hard. This definitely goes beyond friendly concern.

[Jadev]

Melissa was deep in thought as she entered the cafeteria. This whole business with the paintings being destroyed wasn't good. She didn't much care about the graffiti-- after all, who was she to complain about a little harmless rulebreaking? But paintings being destroyed was just mean-spirited.

Melissa scans the hall, taking in the faces, many of them familiar, searching for anyone who had links to the art room or who would be in touch with the gossip around school. It was a shame that she wouldn't be able to eat with the other keybearers again, but someone had to hunt down the information.

[roll0]

[AmberVael]

Rebecca looks off after Erin, considering the request rather than answering right away.

"Yeah, alright." She says finally, though her attention seems to be more on Jaya and her friends than Erin and Annette. She does glance back at Annette though, for a moment. "I don't think you should be too worried about it though, okay?"

Rebecca walks after Erin, though she doesn't exactly hurry- Erin might have time to speak a bit quietly before she turns up.

[DeafnotDumb]

It's not like she'll have the workshop entirely to herself throughout the day. It's not as if there aren't other classes, other people in the school... but it's not nearly as well-used as the classrooms she'd otherwise be spending her day in. And this means that, after she's done the difficult part of arranging her workbench and dragging her nonfunctional spare prosthetic - the one she's saved for artistic experimentation - she can finally relax.

Nobody's going to bother the girl working in the quiet corner, especially if that girl is Kaleemah. With a sigh, she kicks of her shoes, stretches her feet and fits the knife into her hand before slowly carving designs into the arm clamped in front of her. They're a lot more floral than you'd expect, or perhaps the long creeping enroachment of vines draping down from the shoulder to the wrist. Either way, they're relaxing.

Every so often, Kal remembers the reason she's here and glances towards the arts room, checking for intruders.


Okay. Kal's still got that Need For Revenge minor consequence, so she's going to attempt to calm herself down with a bit of arts and craft. Rolling tinkering at +3, with an additional +2 for doing it with her own prosthetics for a total of +5:



And here's the notice roll for keeping watch on the arts room, at +1:

[roll]4d3 - 7

[The_Snark]

Jaya spots Erin heading in her direction just as she sits down; after a split second she smiles, offers a little wave. if the other girl's just passing by her table, then it's just a friendly gesture. If, on the other hand, Erin finds herself wanting to speak to a prefect... well, sometimes it's hard to go to someone else about your problems, and Jaya tries to look welcoming just in case.

[Inspector Valin]

Erika had been focusing more on her lunch than the room around her, as usual. How other people wanted to eat was their own business. Her mind was lingering on the question of the art room, and Kaleemah. Weissman had already resolved to pay the other girl a visit after this, ensure that things were ok, perhaps do a little work in the art room herself. It had been a while since Erika had simply sat back and tried to paint something. Real life, and her other life, kept getting in the way.

As she was pondering that however, the sound of footsteps coming towards them made Erika look up. Someone new. The face was vaguely familiar, one she'd run into before, but she didn't seem to be looking towards the fencing captain. Frowning slightly, Erika leant back a little, studying the new arrival briefly. What was she after? What'd driven her over here?

Empathy, trying to work out what Erin is feeling. [roll0]

[Ascension]

Kaleemah

It's a good morning. None of the traffic coming in and out of the art studio looks suspicious, but that almost doesn't matter, because the work on your arm is coming along so very well. After the frustrations of the previous day, it's refreshing to be able to put all that out of mind and lose yourself in the simple act of creation. No dysfunctional footballers, no prying teachers, no Jessica-bloody-Sandys...

No Jessica-

Jess-

Jessica Sandys just walked into art class. Her last class before lunch, judging from the time. And it didn't look like her cronies were with her... this might be an opportunity to get at her directly. But do you have to get back at her? Could you let it go? You're not as angry as you were, but...

Okay, that was a definite success on recovery-through-carpentry. Kaleemah has produced a fine work of art and has calmed down considerably in the process, buuuuut...

1.) Mild consequences take a scene past the recovery roll to fully fade away, and 2.) as a GM, I'm really encouraged to make sure consequences inconvenience you at least once, and Kal hasn't seen Jess since she got the consequence in the first place.

So...

One compel. One opportunity for Kal to go after Jess and get a Fate point, or spend a Fate point to restrain herself. After this scene Kal's need for revenge will be gone whether she chooses to embrace it or to reject it, but first, she's got to make that choice.

Erin

Erin gives Jaya a quick, nervous nod, glances around, and sits at her table. It's not difficult for Erika to read the girl's discomfort... she seems strained, as if caught between powerful but contradictory influences.

"If... if I informed you of a potential violation of school regulations, would you be obligated to report it?" she asks, quietly.

"Nothing's happened yet, but..."

She glances over her shoulder, noticing Rebecca's approach, and her words fail her. She hugs her notebook tightly to her chest.

Melissa

Melissa can spot Mandy and Susan again, from the assembly, and it looks like Mandy's in the midst of another rant about the vandal, seemingly trying to sell some other artists on her concern. Her audience might have more information, but they might not. Lissa could try one of her poker buddies instead... Rose almost always has some sort of gossip to share.

Who does she try first?

[The_Snark]

Ah. Not just a friendly hello, then. Jaya puts on her sympathetic face, listening attentively.

"If nothing's happened yet, then there isn't anything for me to report," she answers after a moment, hands folded in her lap. "There's no rule against thinking about breaking the rules - or talking about it. If I knew that something was going to happen in advance... I would probably want to stop it. I'm not sure how. I don't think reporting it would be my first choice." She stops there, not asking for clarification. It wouldn't be right to pressure Erin about something like this.

[Inspector Valin]

Something had seriously worried her. She'd come to Jaya for help. And now another figure was cutting across the cafeteria towards them. It didn't take a mind reader or an Importune key to work out what was going on. And whatever she might think about the self-righteous Prefect, there was a time and a place for that as far as Erika was concerned.

As Rebecca drew closer to the Keybarers' table, she was intercepted by a suddenly on her feet Erika. The Fencing captain bowed her head politely, meeting the second girl's gaze with something that wasn't quite a smile, but at least seemed to be something other than a glare of hostility. "Yes? Can I help you?" It wasn't much of a distraction, but coupled with the general hubub of the dining room, it'd hopefully give Erin a chance to finish her conversation with Jaya, one way or another.

[AmberVael]

Despite Erika's sudden appearance in her path, Rebecca comes to a surprisingly graceful stop, reversing her movement just one step so she wouldn't end up right in the fencing captain's face. Her expression isn't nearly as composed though- a mixture of startled and nonplussed. "I ah- um-"

I should have thought of something to say before I headed over. Rebecca hesitates and glances past Erika towards the others at the table.

Taking a breath, she tries again. "I was wondering if I could sit with you and your friends?" Uncertainty colors the question as Rebecca looks at Erika, obviously put off-balance by the reception she is getting.

[Ascension]

Erin

Erin looks like she's almost as likely to bolt as she is to say anything more, but after a moment she leans in closer to Jaya and stage-whispers, "I can't do this any more. I can't help her with... this."

It's likely to be difficult to get her to clarify what "this" is with Rebecca so near.

[Jadev]

Melissa's getting used to scanning the lunchroom for potential sources of information at this point. Since it doesn't take too much active attention, she's somewhat close to Erika when she intercepts Rebecca, and she overhears their conversation.
A war soon begins to rage in Melissa's head.

Inside Melissa's mindscape,two copies of her stand face to face. One has her arms crossed and is staring at the other, who is not only significantly larger, but is also on their knees begging to her comparatively tiny clone.
Melissa's sense of responsibility speaks first.
"We can't just drop everything for this. We have to find out what's going on with the painting vandals."
The other one whines in response, her voice much deeper and louder than responsibility's.
"But new friieeeeeends!"
Responsibility sighs.
"What about our duties as a keybearer?"
The whining only increases.
"But new frieeeeeeeeeends!"
Responsibility's forehead twitches, and she stomps her foot, yelling.
"Sometimes there are more important things than new friends!"
There is absolute silence for a second. Then the larger Melissa starts crying.
"What? Stop that! You can't just... I... darn it, all right, we can go make new friends!"
As abruptly as she began, the Melissa's inner child stopped crying and stood up.
Yaaaaaay!
She runs off into the distance, overcome with joy. Responsibility's palm connects with her face.
Why can't the Keybearer be around for times like this...

The conflict resolved, Melissa is beside Rebecca and taking her arm.
Of course you can! Come on, take a seat!
If no one intervenes, she'll try to guide Rebecca to a seat and take the seat beside her.

[The_Snark]

Jaya looks more and more concerned as Erin's fright - and that is the word - becomes obvious. This. What does that mean? She'd thought this was about some planned transgression on Annette's part (God knows it wouldn't be the first time), but Erin seems deadly serious. It could be tension over what could be taken as a betrayal - ratting out a friend to the prefects! - but she can't help but wonder at other possibilities. This is Landsgate, after all.

It's then that she spots Rebecca's approach, belatedly puts two and two together. Ah. Asking for privacy won't do, if that's what has Erin so nervous... She reaches out to try and take hold of one of her hands (though she might have to pry it off her notebook). "Hey. It'll be all right. You don't have to do anything, okay?"

If a roll is called for to get through to Erin... I guess this is probably Rapport, although Empathy is possible? Assuming the former, subtract 1 if it's the latter.

[roll0]

[Ascension]

Erin gives Jaya's hand a quick, gentle squeeze, but almost immediately draws her hand back. It isn't from shyness, though... she does it so she can free her hand to pull a scrap of paper out of her notebook. She hastily scrawls "library tonight" on the scrap in cramped cursive while Melissa is dragging Rebecca to a seat, and, palming the note, offers her hand to Jaya again.

[The_Snark]

Jaya smiles and tucks her hands in her lap, keeping the note hidden until she can find an opportunity to slip it into her bag. Her attention turns to Melissa and her new friend as they arrive.

"Hi," she says. "It's Rebecca, right? I've seen you around, but I don't think we've talked. I'm Jaya." Rebecca might already know that, of course, there aren't that many prefects... but she's only been one for a couple of months now, and anyway it feels conceited to assume everybody knows her already.

[AmberVael]

Rebecca looked a bit relieved as Melissa came to her rescue, stepping around Erika as she took the seat she was offered. She smiled at Erin, her brow furrowing just a little in uncertainty as she caught a look at the expression on Erin's face, but she didn't say anything and soon turned her attention away as Jaya addressed her. As it happened, Rebecca did at least know Jaya's name... and that she was a prefect. Just one of those details she tended to pick up, and one that made her just a bit more nervous. Bet she's heard more about me than my name.

"Yeah, that's me. 'Ignorer of Trespassing Signs' and 'She Who Has Skipped One Too Many Classes.' But I'm not that bad, I promise. I mean hey, at least I'm not terrorizing the school with flower paintings." Rebecca spoke with cheerful bravado, grinning and leaning back in her chair. "Plenty of crazier things than me around here, at least to hear Ms. Reynolds this morning."

[Lykan]

Livi had a bit of a morning.

For starters, her alarm (well, her phone, rather) went dead the previous night, causing the lanky girl to oversleep a tad too long. Truly one of the non-benefits to having a room to yourself was when you didn't have a roommate to wake you up if something like that were to happen, but, well... That's not quite why she was gone all morning. Rather, it had more to do with the fact that, in a fear-induced hurry, the girl dashed out of her room and to her first class, only to hit a patch currently-being-mopped floor and slipped, smashing her head rather nicely against the ground.

By the time she came to it was noon time, and she'd missed both her starting classes for the day and the assembly. One might say she didn't really miss much, but it probably wasn't worth a possible concussion!

[Ascension]

Rebecca

Annette drifts conspicuously into Rebecca's line of sight. She's keeping her distance, not doing anything to directly intervene (yet), but it's clear she's keeping as close an eye on Rebecca as she wants Rebecca to be keeping on Erin. Trust, it seems, is in somewhat short supply when one's stock and trade is suspicion of conspiracy.

Livi

Most of Livi's day still stretches out ahead of her, assuming that she doesn't abruptly succumb to a cereberal infarction or some other sort of scary-sounding head-related medical crisis. What is her first priority? Locating her friends? Locating lunch? Locating medical assistance?

[The_Snark]

Jaya smiles politely. This is not the first time that someone has assumed that, being a prefect, Jaya knows all about their transgressions and punishments. In fact she's heard nothing of the sort; the teachers don't share that sort of thing with prefects, and if the prefects gossip amongst themselves then she's been thoroughly left out. (It could happen. She is new.) It's strange, at times, to be on the other side of authority, and realize how much of it is merely illusion.

"Well, I'm sure we're all glad to be spared your reign of floral terror." It's not much of a joke, but better than letting the conversation falter just as Rebecca is trying to join in. She casts about for something else to say, but all she can come up with is, "Have you seen any of the paintings? I haven't - I didn't know about them until the assembly this morning. I'm a little curious."

[AmberVael]

"I haven't yet. I promised Erin I'd try and get a picture of one though, so I'll probably go hunting around for them later. And then probably run through the wrong door and become lost forever, of course; did you know there's an actual labyrinth in the basement?" The slight quirk of Rebecca's lips indicates that she might not be serious, but given the nature of Landsgate its hard to be sure. Rebecca's attention slips past Jaya for a moment as she spies Annette in the distance and she raises an eyebrow before waving at her. "I think Annette might want to join us." She postulates, thought that's not what she really thinks at all.

[Ascension]

Erin looks up at the mention of Annette and catches sight of the conspiracy buffs' ringleader. A quick thrill of uncertainty rushes through her, but she swallows it and tries to smile.

"She's free to," she says, with only a little difficulty, "Um, we do have enough seats, after all. And we could introduce her to... our new friends?"

[DeafnotDumb]

The work is going well, Kaleemah's anger fading as she etches it into a frenzied floral pattern, and she's feeling almost content in herself when of all people Jessica Sandys with her swanning... swanning.... swanniness swans in like a, a, stuffed up swan. Her earlier snootiness, already magnified to outright snobbishness in her enemy's memory, grows further yet, and Kal reaches for revenge.

Revenge turns out to be a platter of paints.

Other people might have claimed it was a fit of jealous rage that clouded their thoughts and made them do the following. Kaleemah would be quite happy to confess to it being cold, carefully considered rage. Paints carefully balanced on her hand, she gets up and walks towards Jessica Sandy and then, quite deliberately, trips.

There is a brief, multicoloured moment, and a fall, and then she pushes herself off the other girl.

"Sorry." Kal says blandly, not caring about selling the lie or about the paint dripping down her or Jessica's clothes. "I tripped."


Revenge. No question.

[The_Snark]

"I would not be surprised," Jaya says of the basement labyrinth, glad to have a familiar topic of conversation. Landsbridge students talk about the architecture the way most people talk about the weather: it's not new or deep, but there's always something to remark on.

She twists around as Annette is mentioned, nods, and beckons the other girl over with a smile. No guile here, no sir. Jaya is a prefect, she's above such things.

[Jadev]

Melissa smiles and nods throughout the conversation between Rebecca and Jaya, not really having anything to put in. Then Annette is mentioned, and Jaya beckons her over. Melissa spots the girl as well, and waves somewhat more... enthusiastically, trying to, in her own way, create a Friendly, Welcoming Atmosphere.

Rapport roll to attempt to create the aspect Friendly, Welcoming Atmosphere.
[roll0]

[Lykan]

... Locating the nurse might be in her best interest, if for nothing else than to give evidence for why she had skipped all that morning's classes. She heads to the nurse's office, hopefully to get some ice for her head. The way there, she's sure to take it a whole lot slower, not exactly desiring to crack her head open a second time.

[Ascension]

The Dining Hall

While Annette had no intention of actually directly approaching the keybearers weirdoes and prefect with whom Erin and Rebecca are sitting, the friendly and welcoming atmosphere of their table goes a long way toward making them seem... outwardly innocuous, at least; unlikely to pose a threat in such a public setting.

She draws near enough to speak comfortably with you, though she does not yet take a seat. Her smile is more guarded than it is when she plays to her more usual audiences.

"Bonjour," she greets you, "You are... friends of Erin's, I take it?"

The Art Studio

Jessica shoots up from her seat, hot anger shining brighter on her face than any of the many colors now staining her clothes, but before she raises a hand to strike Kaleemah she remembers where she is, remembers her audience. Without privacy or a cluster of trusted sycophants to protect her image, she has to maintain her public facade. Unfortunately for Kal, Jessica Sandys is very adept in that role.

The tears come on cue as she sinks back into her chair, pressing her hands to her chest in a futile but universally understandable effort to hide the wild splatter of mismatched paint. Gasps and murmurs of shock ripple through the rest of the classroom.

"She... she..." Jess sputters, and the art teacher is at her side almost immediately, squinting down at Kal through a dainty pair of reading glasses.

"You're not in this class, are you?" she asks, pointedly.

Olivia

With much of the student body at lunch or headed in that direction, the hallways are relatively empty and calm, and no one interrupts Livi's slow, careful journey to the nurse's office... no one, but not not quite nothing. Before turning the last corner between her dormitory and the nurse's office, she almost steps on a large, colorful image of a tropical flower, seemingly painted directly onto the scuffed hardwood floor.

[AmberVael]

"Well hey, we're all suffering through the same nonsense together, aren't we?" Rebecca says to Annette, amused by her wariness. "We were just talking about the weird architecture... and the weird flowers... weird everything, really. Makes me wonder why more people aren't in our little circle, honestly."

She looks around the other girls and holds her palms face up, inviting people to chime in. "I mean, none of you guys think this place is normal right? I might make a joke out of the labyrinth in the basement, but Jaya's right: we shouldn't be surprised if it was true. I've poked around the school a lot in my spare time. And my not spare time, honestly- a lot of looking, is my point. This place is the weirdest and most suspicious place I have ever been in, and that's only touching on the structure itself. Surely you guys have seen some wacky stuff going on?"

[Jadev]

Melissa smiles at Annette (or rather, continues to smile at her) and responds.

"Of course! You can never have too many friends, right?"

She appears to have not noticed Annette's reticence, though she may just be ignoring it. Whatever is going in in Melissa's mind, however, she waits until Rebecca is done speaking to speak up again. She taps her finger on her chin and adopts a thoughtful expression.

"This school is pretty weird. It's really easy to get lost here, and there are a lot of weird doors that don't seem to go anywhere."

Then there's the mysterious keys that unlock magic powers in boarding school students, but Melissa knows enough to not mention that. Unless someone was really trustworthy. Like the girls in Poker Club!

"Those flower paintings are really weird though. Plus, I've heard that someone's vandalizing paintings in the art room! Have you girls heard anything about that?"

[DeafnotDumb]

"You're not in this class, are you?" she asks, pointedly.

The rush of revenge is over, and everything is back to normal, despite the glimmering satisfaction sinking into the surface. "No." Kal says, and half-heartedly points at where her unfinished project is going to remain unfinished. "I was working on my arm."

She's probably not going to get much of a look into the graffiti defacer, at any rate. "Should I leave?"

[Ascension]

The Dining Hall

Melissa's naivete is charming enough that Annette begins to forget her wariness. Such a child deserves education, not undue suspicion, and Annette, of course, is the one to give it to her. She flips her hair with practiced ease and leans in to look Melissa in the eye as she says, with a philosopher's self-seriousness, "Ahh, but paint itself is meaningless, however 'weird' its origin. Pigment alone is nothing; what matters is the artist's message. The staff, the gossips, they are all caught up in 'where did these flowers come from?' and 'who is doing this?'" She smirks for emphasis and concludes, "What we need to know is not 'who,' or 'where,' or even 'how'... the question is, why? And that will likely solve the other mystery as well."

She shrugs as she leans back, glancing around at the keybearer's faces for reactions, hoping she hasn't gotten too carried away. Melissa might not be a threat, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's safe to speak around the others.

"Just one opinion, of course."

The Art Studio

The art teacher glances around the room, silently tallying an estimate of just how much more disruption the class can endure before her lesson plan is completely ruined.

"Miss Sandys, you may go wash up and get changed into a clean uniform," she says, without looking in the girl's direction. Jess quickly grabs up her things and brushes out past Kaleemah. For a moment, she manages to lock eyes with Kal, and her glare promises she won't forget this.

The instructor's own gaze falls appraisingly on Kaleemah. She has her suspicions of the girl, but she caught only a glimpse of Kal's... accident... first hand. There's little she can do on suspicion alone.

"What's your name again, dear?" she asks, without any of the warmth the term of affection might imply. "I might like to speak with you and Miss Sandys about this later. But yes, it's probably for the best if you leave for now."

[The_Snark]

"It seems like it would be hard to figure out the why without getting the other answers first," Jaya says after a moment of silence. (Annette's pronouncements often get that sort of reaction.) "There isn't really an obvious motive for painting flowers around the school, is there? We could guess, but. That's just guessing."

She shrugs, glances back at Rebecca. "Landsgate is a bit strange, maybe, but I wouldn't say suspicious. It's just a school. People like to tell weird stories." She offers a regretful half-smile, as if to apologize for disagreeing. It's no doubt a familiar expression to the conspiracy theorists, that of someone who is too polite to scoff openly, but clearly doesn't believe them. "I think it's nice that you go out and look for oddities, though. Very sensible. I'd love to hear about it if you did find a labyrinth in the basement, or anything like that... but I guess I'm not really interested in speculating about what might be out there."

(Sometimes it still surprises her, how easy it is to lie. She's spent so much of her life striving to show other people what they want to see in her: look, I am a good Sikh, a dutiful daughter, a model student, a wise prefect. It took Landsgate to show her that all of these were masks; that she could take them off and don different ones, if she wanted to.)

There are strange things at Landsgate, and maybe Erin, Annette and Rebecca will find them... but Jaya will not be the one to pull them in. If they're meant to find the secrets behind the Academy, they will.

[DeafnotDumb]

"Kaleemah Khan." Kal mutters. The sullen look and tight lips are routine now, but she does take some satisfaction from the way Jessica stops to glare at her. She hopes that the paint never washes out. "I'll grab my stuff."

It is only halfway through the labour of picking up and packing everything that she remembers she was supposed to be on watch. She should probably find the others and see if they've got anything. It's not like class has ever been particularly fulfilling for her, anyways.