[IC] Princess the Hopeful - Vae Victus

[ZeroNumerous]

Ericka

The sunset over two hours ago, and the city settles into its night time pattern. People would remain active for a few more hours, until everyone but the dangerous elements would be in bed by four PM. Of course, that for normal people. Nobility simply didn't have the luxury of an early night, or the safety of sleeping in the darkness.

Finding the coffee shop for a non-native proves a bit annoying, especially as the Uber driver barely speaks English and spends the whole time being as skeezy as possible, but eventually Erika finds herself in front of El Diablo. It's an open air beatnik shop, and looks the part. Black walls forming an open air cube, trees everywhere to connect to "nature", tables exposed to the fresh air, and... the background symphony of city streets and cars. Whoever made this place must be a flower child trying to recapture their parent's hippy nature, but forgetting that the coffee shop is actually in the middle of the city. This late in the evening on a Monday most people are home, so the coffee shop has no customers. Or at least no one who looks like they belong there.

On the east side sit two strange customers: One's a teenage girl, and the other is a middle-aged man in a casual suit. The girl's likely a Noble, and the aging male looks like a gangster from the forties. A well tailored gray suit hangs off his form, a purple shirt opened in a V-neck, and he's wearing a simple braided necklace made by some hippy back in the 70s. With Ericka's appearance the old gangster looks up. "Good evenin'. Hope you aren't busy kiddo." His voice sounds like an east coast accent, somewhere in New York or Jersey rather than a west coaster.

Christen

With the sunset coming and the darkness claiming the sky Christen has to make her way to El Diablo. She arrives a bit early, but the coffee shop is already dull and empty. It's an open air beatnik shop, and looks the part. Black walls forming an open air cube, trees everywhere to connect to "nature", tables exposed to the fresh air, and... the background symphony of city streets and cars. Whoever made this place must be a flower child trying to recapture their parent's hippy nature, but forgetting that the coffee shop is actually in the middle of the city. Fortunately, however, there is one customer that Christen can see.

Sitting on the east side, in the back away from the street, is a middle-aged man in a casual suit. A well tailored gray suit hangs off his form, the jacket's open to reveal a purple shirt with a V-neck, and he's wearing a simple braided necklace made by some hippy back in the 70s. A heavy watch rests on his left hand, and he glances at it occasionally. He has to be old, since everyone else uses smartphones as their clocks. He's sitting alone, so when Christen pops up the man looks up and watches her. If she starts to approach then he stands up, motions for the young lady to sit, and only sits back down when she does. "Good evenin'", he says with an accent from the east coast, "are you here about the ad?"

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka smiles at the duo giving a short laugh before speaking a couple of syllabus worth of Royal to gauge their reactions, the closest translation to her words would come to "I've just finished being busy for a good cause, and though tired I am free for wonderful deeds."

Approaching the chair on the girls side Ericka unslings her heavy bag with her work gear in it.
"It's always good to meet up with other gamers, been a lot of Hellsing games recently though."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen, a thin girl with the slight but noticeable hunch of someone who wishes she was shorter, brightens up a bit when the man seems to recognize her. It would have been pretty embarrassing to have the wrong café and have to explain such an obscure internet ad. She gladly takes the seat, although she's not quite sure how to start the conversation.

When the older (well, still young, just comparatively), woman arrives and immediately acknowledges what they're both answering, she brightens appreciatively. "Er, yes! That's definitely what I'm here for. Didn't get around to introducing myself, but uh, how are we introducing ourselves?" she asks. Giving out a real name for Noble business isn't always the best idea, and giving out a real name to Craigslist randos whose legitimate LARP invitation she misunderstood would be an even worse idea.

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The middle aged man stands up when Ericka approaches, and simply raises an eyebrow when the older woman speaks in Royal Tongue. Not only does her singing diatribe on friendship seem to make absolutely no sense to him, but it takes nearly a minute to finish the absurdly dense song. He sits down when Ericka does, and nods his head in understanding when the two girls speak in English. "Right. Well, I've worked with plenty of hush-hush types, so I'm fine with not knowing your names. I hope you'll afford me the same courtesy."

He nods toward the coffee shop. "Would either of you young ladies want a drink before we get on to business?" If either Noble asks for a drink, then he gets up and gives them time to speak among themselves before returning with whatever drinks they requested.

---

If the nobles prefer getting right down to business, then he nods and explains himself. "You can call me Aequitas. My employer put out the ad you two are answering for. He's, uh... One of those Hellsing types. Some jumped up gangbanger has been causing trouble for me, and the only way I can stop it is by killing them all. He wanted you to deal with it instead, didn't want a shoot out on the streets. These knuckleheads beat up a couple of my boys during a deal. They stole some powerful materiel, my client's money, and my client's right hand man. My employer wanted the materiel and the money, but I'm willing to front whatever I can to get my client's boy back as well. I don't want him dead in a ditch somewhere."

[5ColouredWalker]

"I'm Shas, but that's all good. If you don't mind I'd rather get a drink when all's said, to better contemplate the doing."

Ericka looks to the teen, waiting for her decision.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Um...let's hear what this is about, first," Christen replies, eagerly agreeing with the other Noble.

As Aequitas explains himself, Christen's eyebrows rise steadily throughtout the entire speech until they've more or less bonded to her bangs. First of all, he was talking about a vampire using Noble pseudo-jargon to get Noble attention - something she should probably post a warning about in case a vampire with less honorable intentions felt like he needed bait, now that one of them knows it works. Second of all, everything else about this conversation.

"Sorry, so uh...you're asking for us to negotiate for your clients' stuff back? Your...nocturnal client's?"

She glances at the older Noble, then back to Aequitas. "I guess that's something we can do, especially rescuing your uh...coworker, but why ask us? That was a pretty specific style of ad."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

Aequitas smiles at Christen's comment.

"Aren't we all nocturnal these days, young lady? But no, I'm afraid I don't know anything more than the client's voice. Feminine, young, a little quiet, but not too strange. Though she has to be loaded. My employer isn't a vacuum salesman so our wares don't come cheap."

"Regardless, I would like you to retrieve everything that was stolen: The client's money, and my employer's materiel. Personally, I don't mind how you do it, but my employer would prefer you didn't make the evening news." When asked about why Nobles, Aequitas takes a sip of his coffee before speaking.

"To be completely honest: I didn't want to ask you. Call me old fashioned, but I don't like young women being in danger. Especially when they're still kids. However, I am but a humble servant. My employer was instructed to call upon your type by the client. I can't even hazard a guess as to why." However, Aequitas does address the comment about his "coworker" directly.

"As far as I know the boy isn't important: The client said he's her right hand, but he was dumb enough to not ask questions and naïve enough to not want to. He's certainly not one of mine. Still, he didn't seem like the kind of scum that deserves to be killed, so I would like to see him safe. Strangely, no one else was grabbed. My boys were all fairly beaten up, but just dumped on the street afterward like trash."

After volunteering all that information, Aequitas sips his coffee while waiting for any further questions.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka leans back in her seat, looking at some of the art for a moment.

"I'm not the best for quiet work but we should be able to work out a way to avoid a shoot out. Or be able to grab some quieter friends. By the way your talking, I presume we're dealing with normies though? And since the big stumbling block is not making the news, I bet you can give us a few leads on where to find the thugs, if not where they've stashed your employers stuff."
Ericka leans back to the table getting out her phone, opening and scrolling through her contact's list, eyes occasionally flicking to the man.

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The question of whether the gangbangers are normal people or not simply gets a shrug from Aequitas.

"Mostly likely, but I can't say for sure. The boys I sent weren't dead, clawed up, bitten, insane, or on fire for what that's worth." However, the question of information gets a smile. He taps his suit pocket.

"Certainly. I've looked into who's been interested in selling the kind of stuff we had. Found a newcomer eager to offload everything he has: Classic thief approach of robbing someone blind then dumping the hot goods A.S.A.P. I'm certain it's them. If you have to rough a few of them up, or things devolve into a shootout where they all end up dead... I'm sure my employer will understand. I certainly will."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka looks up with a smile.

"And one presumes you don't want to buy everything back. That said, setting up an exchange and then tracking them back would be easiest, particularly since the main goal you're giving us is saving the lad, even if your employer would prefer recovering the gear, and sending a message." With that, Ericka's face returns to her phone, she stops for a moment, merely sliding through her list as she thinks.

"That said, to me it sounds like we're recovering gear for a drinker and their gang which could include anything up to weapons. I can get behind saving the kid no problem, but stealing from gangs to arm others isn't the sort of thing I get behind. So what reason do you have that you think will convince us to risk sullying our lights?" Despite Ericka's words her tone remains light, but not as if she was joking with the man.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"And uh, for the record, we're not killing anyone," Christen says, more firmly than she's said anything in this conversation so far. "If you're looking for that to happen by 'accident', you'll want to call someone else."

[ZeroNumerous]

"I don't know what you're talking about, but you're free to refuse to help. Personally I don't mind. It'll annoy the client, but it means I get to shoot up the gangbangers who beat up my boys. My employer was hoping you'd do this precisely to avoid having me and my crew make the city mortician a bit wealthier."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen sighs. "Well, I guess we can help your client out, if that's the case. Do you have a name and contact for the seller? I don't think they put a listing on the net."

[ZeroNumerous]

"Afraid not. The kid knows how to get a hold of her. I've only spoken to her through his phone. I don't even know how she got in touch with us in the first place."

[5ColouredWalker]

"Than she'd best get in contact with us. But I'm still not seeing a good reason to help. Sure, other requests tend to be minor, but they don't end with me arming a gang, and I'm not inclined to double cross an unknown drinker... If you're willing to not care about the goods and cash, or perhaps be willing to swoop in and take what we chose to leave before the police arrive after the event, I'd be more than willing to get the kid out though.

Ericka's again taking to leaning back in her chair, looking at the prospective 'client'.

[ZeroNumerous]

Aequitas shakes his head.

"I think you've made a series of unfortunate assumptions. Firstly, we're not paying you. My employer offered this to you as a courtesy to our client, and as a chance to avoid a shootout on the news. If you don't want to help, then there's the street and good luck. Second, you aren't arming any gangs. Frankly, I don't understand where that idea even came from. And third, I can't tell the client to do anything with my only contact being held by some trumped up thugs."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Now, hold on..."

Christen doesn't even know this woman and she's watching her try to hardball a...vampire? Vampire-friendly mobster? She'd have to check on that.

"Before anyone else says something we might regret," she says, not letting the 'trumped up thug' bit go unchallenged, "Why don't you go get us both vanilla lattés and my friend and I can discuss details and give you a proper answer."

[ZeroNumerous]

Unless either of the girls interfere Aequitas leaves to get Christen and Ericka some coffee.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka noticeably bites her tongue for a moment before simply stating "Cocoa, 3 sugars.", waiting for Aequitas to leave.

"I would consider my assumptions reasonable, giving the vagueness of stuff... Now before you say anything, I'm more than willing to help, but he's being awfully stingy with information."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen nods. "It's suspicious, but everyone involved in this business is suspicious," she says, sighing. "I think we should take the 'job' and figure out what's really going on while we're out there, though. Someone's in trouble either way, and if we get more info on the fanged guys and what they're fighting people over, so much the better, right?"

Her tone is conciliatory and hopeful at the same time. She's not used to speaking her mind, at least in her civilian form, but this sounds important enough to come out of her shell a bit.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka nods slowly.
"The only reason I haven't accepted outright is because I don't want to risk having to pass over goods I don't want to be caught passing on, or goods to pass over. First, do least harm..."
Ericka shakes her head, humming softly a tune that carries emotions of regret, and translates roughly to "If only the light were as easy as the dark, a thousand curses on it's blighted existence."

"Regardless, I shall at least help you should you agree, though were it just me and whoever I sought to invite, I would... Request he accept us having lee way in returning the goods though promising not to take them for ourselves. I'm ok with returning their money."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen drums neatly trimmed, unpolished nails on the table while she considers the problem.

"Well...the way I see it, we don't have obligation to Aequitas if it's drugs or guns or something," she says. "We'll be in trouble if we screw him over, but that's better than not getting involved. Just by taking him up on this we'll probably prevent a few deaths, and we could learn a lot about the Vampire situation, so..."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka nods.
"I simply didn't wish to cross a-" Ericka stops for a moment as she stifles a laugh "-drinker. It's not quite as stupid as crossing a group of mages, but they have far too much power in this city, and we don't know which vampire, and thus which group we are crossing... But as said, I will help, but I shall let you take the lead in the conversation lest I say something stupid."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Aheh...great," she says, more nervous when Ericka puts it that way. She leans in closer to make sure she's not overheard. "In case something happens, by the way, I'm Christen. Champion of Diamonds, which makes me a smart person doing stupid stuff semi-professionally."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka smiles at that last part. "Ericka, Diamond Mender, though most pick me a champion... That said, we should probably exchange info later..."
Ericka's eyes narrow for a moment as she looks at the door.
"Apologies if I've picked your age wrong, but when are you expected home?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen just sighs at that. It's not like she was trying to fake being an adult, anyway.

"I've got a lot of leeway on when and where I 'study'," she replies. "I can make something up if we're out for a while, but any time past 2 and I'm gonna have to skip night stuff tomorrow so I can catch up on sleep."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka nods.

"Mhmm. If you have access to an open crawlspace perhaps we could plan in the queens court. Saves on time and energy."
Ericka grabs a napkin off the table and pulls a pencil from out among her clothes, and begins sketching on it. If Christen watches from over Ericka's arms she'll see her beginning drawing her symbol while she awaits Aequitas' return.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen shakes her head. "Nothing like that, as far as I know. Sounds really convenient, though."

She is keeping an eye on what Ericka's doing and, once she realizes what that is, an eye out for Aequitas to return.

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

A few minutes after Ericka and Christen have finished speaking Aequitas returns finally returns. He, unsurprisingly, has a couple of cups of coffee with him. Surprisingly however, they are neither lattés nor cocoa, but rather simply black coffee. "My employer called. A buyer is meeting with those lunkheads in two hours, and that means I have work to do. Normally I would have left already, but J--my employer demanded I make one last attempt. He's even willing to pay up for it, and that's saying something considering how stingy he is. Fifteen hundred to make sure there isn't a shoot out. Are you in, or can I get down to business?"

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka's eyes widen slightly though she redirects it at her cup, her eyes taking on an annoyed look... Ericka hadn't expected aand ctual cash payment and being used to paying out of pocket for assistance (Even if not neccessary, she considered it worth doing) in much smaller amounts, Ericka'd long since forgotten how much ops can pay...
She obviously had been dealing with Behemoth too much.

Remembering what she had said, Ericka merely grabs her cup and puts it down next to her napkin, where she finishes writing a couple of things with her hand covered. The symbol Ericka had been drawing remains uncovered. Sliding it accross Ericka gives a slight nod as she hums, a slight tinge of what would be described at it's simplest as fear and later joy coming across with her humming. The simple translation of what Christen hears comes to:
"Don't let his offer blind you, but I stand ready to assist and should be able to call in some help. The napkin has my symbol and information to find a facebook account I keep for my true, noble, me."

[ZeroNumerous]

Aequitas simply looks at Ericka as she speaks. "Putting aside your secret club: Is that a yes or a no?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

"That's a yes," Christen says, quietly taking the napkin and putting it in her pocket without looking at it yet. She doesn't mention anything about the payment mostly because she's never been paid for Noble work before, and doesn't want to say anything stupid.

Then she turns to look at the coffee. "Where do we need to go?" she asks, taking the cup and quietly but hurriedly grabbing some cream and sugar.

[ZeroNumerous]

Aequitas nods at Christen's confirmation. He fishes an older cigar case out of the breast pocket of his suit, then puts it on the table. "Where to go is in there, along with two hundred bucks. Consider it my payment to keep the kid alive." He follows that up by taking a pair of photos out of his left pocket, and places it on the table. It's a photo of a netbook from 2009, closed and ready, and behind that photo is a landscape shot of two men--one looks like a 30-40 year old in a suit much like Aequitas', and the other a young 17-18 year old with a mop of blond hair and a confused look on his face.

"The materiel and the kid. The money isn't expected to be still be there, but it'll be in a brown worn suitcase." Aequitas points out the case the kid in the photo has as he explains. "You've got an hour to get there and work out what you're gonna do. Good luck."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka's gaze narrows a little as she grabs the piece of paper with the address. With her phone she selects a contact but doesn't call yet.

"Short notice... How do you want us to arrange to meet you, or shall you just be waiting in the wings? Is the kid being brought along to the trade or will we be tracking him down after getting his location from the thugs? How much are they expecting to be paid for the stuff? So we can maintain the illusion of buyers if we need."
Ericka begins rising while she waits for Aequitas' answers, quickly firing off last minute questions as she thinks of them.

[ZeroNumerous]

"We'll contact you. As for your other questions: I don't know."

[Sith_Happens]

Having just finished and uploaded her latest digital painting, Allison Fearing congratulates herself on a job well done... Before suddenly noticing the "5:56 PM" in the bottom-right corner of her monitor.

"...S***."

The young girl promptly throws her shoes on and sprints out the front door (stopping only to lock it) and all the way to the bus stop. Thanks to traffic it's a fifteen minute ride before she can get off, at a stop that would normally be a fair walk from the coffee shop.

Oh well, desperate times call for desperate measures...

Ducking into the nearest alley and making sure no one can see her, Allison transforms before bursting back out into the open, a localized wind at her back carrying her as fast as her body will let her run and then some. Deciding she doesn't have time to follow the city grid, she makes a beeline straight for her destination, vaulting up and over walls, fences, and a few low-standing buildings as if they weren't even there. Less than three minutes later she slows to a walk for the last few yards, looking around for anything resembling the meeting she's supposed to be at as she reaches the entrance. Almost immediately she notices two young women sitting with an older man who seemingly decided to look as much like a pimp as possible.

That's either the right table or a very wrong one. Only one way to find out I guess...

Visibly nervous, Allison walks up to the group.

"Uh... Hi... Sorry I'm late. Is this, uh, the LARP meeting?"

I'd have rolled for the transformation but it seemed kind of unnecessary given the context, especially since even if I somehow failed I could just try again immediately.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen nods along with the questions and notes the absence of answers while quietly turning her coffee into something more resembling a milkshake. "I guess we're going to need to hurry and wing it," she says, less disappointed in this than she probably sounds.

She gets up and starts walking just in time to very nearly run into the new arrival.

"Oh, uh, hi. Yes?" she says, suddenly confronted with someone's Perfected self literally breezing into the café. It's a bit of a surprise.

[ZeroNumerous]

Allison running and hopping through the back alleys goes swimmingly, for what it's worth. As she walks into the coffee shop she gets a few sidelong glances, and one college student even throws her a thumbs up and a quiet "Nice cosplay!". Fortunately most people don't recognize magical girls or Nobility, except as things in anime.

Aequitas simply looks at Allison with a skeptical approach, but then drops the matter and walks away from the meeting without saying anything. Whether he took her as one of the others' ally, or simply a crazy person, remained to be seen. The Nobles are left on their own, with the address of some violent thugs and a time limit to save an innocent. If, in fact, he's even still alive at all.

[5ColouredWalker]

"Hey Allison. We're in a bit of a hurry so just follow me and we can talk in the car... Christen did you have a ride or are you fine in my car?"
Ericka barely notes Alison having already been transformed, one could get away with it if they weren't too loud the rest of the time.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen does what she usually does when she's suddenly lost and just keeps quiet about it until she can observe what's going on. Apparently this person is Allison and a Noble. Probably the latter. Okay good.

"Ah...yeah, I walked here," she says. Borrowing the car isn't out of the question in general, but it is for 'work', in this case. Her dad's the kind of person who checks the odometer.

[Sith_Happens]

"Oh, hey Ericka, funny seeing you here... Or I guess not, this seems like the kind of thing you'd make it to I guess."

Allison seems plainly nervous and unsure of herself, especially upon watching Aequitas leave without a word.

"...Was that the contact? I missed everything, didn't I?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

"We've got an address, a kidnapping victim who may or may not be alive, and a deal for something in a briefcase happening somewhere other than the same address in about an hour," Christen summarizes in a low voice as they walk outside. "The something in a briefcase and the kidnappee were both grabbed by unknown people from someone we're pretty sure is a vampire. Our contact was someone who wanted to go in with guns but he was told to contact us instead because we do less permanent damage. There was also cash involved but Aequitas - the contact - doesn't seem to expect that back, and also he gave us I think 200 bucks, and apparently more money if we get the client his stuff back."

She takes a breath and looks at Ericka, all the while replaying the conversation in her head to see if she missed anything. "Did I cover everything?"

In case I did forget anything, I took Eidetic Memory because my character is smarter than me, to the tune of Int+Com+2: [roll0]

[Sith_Happens]

I just skimmed the thread and don't think you missed anything important, though IMO it's kind of unclear whether the laptop and the hostage are supposed to be at the same location or not.
Allison remains silent for several seconds as she mulls over the briefing she was just given.

"That is... quite the scenario. Definitely way above anything I've done before. I'm kind of a newbie, so... Thank G-d I'm not the only one who showed up."

The young Troubadour moves to scratch her head, only to run her hand into the side of her mask. Her expression turns to one of surprise.

"...Holy s***, did I run all the way here with this thing on? I was in such a hurry I forgot I even had it. Awkward..."

She promptly removes the mask, folds it in half long-ways along a trio of very well-concealed hinges, and tucks it into a loop on her waistband.

"Oh, uh, anyways, the name's Allison. Although... I guess maybe you should call me 'Wendy' right now, I decided recently that that's going to be my, uh... character name, I guess?"

Allison tepidly extends a hand toward Christen.

[5ColouredWalker]

"He was very insistent about trying not to making the news, and he mentioned that the Thugs that beat up his guys might have just been normies, but I think they were and we will be really luck if that's the case. And if it is it is... Shas'El Ko'vash in case you've forgotten, and for you... Any chance you've a 'Character name' Christen?"

Ericka leads the duo to her car, a old white Subaru with a couple of dings in it. Opening the car up Ericka begins almost absentmindedly setting her GPS with the address while she waits for the other two to get in before activating it and putting it in a cup holder.
"I suppose the planning will be best done when we can see what we have to deal with, but to cut some things I'm not sneaky but Wendy is."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Right! Introductions. Christen," she says, returning Allison's handshake a little distractedly.

Once in the car, she adds that "I'm not exactly sneaky, either. I'm pretty okay at the detective work part and...actually pretty good in a fight," she says, with some forced confidence. It's something she knows is true, she just has some trouble believing others would believe it. "The way I see this probably going is figuring out who they are, what they've got, and uh...going from there."

In her experience, "winging it" tends to lead to a fight, so she figures she'll be useful either way.

"And my 'character name' is..."

She actually blushes a bit, which is an event for her. "I was going by the Sapphire Blade. I got into this with superheroes in mind, sorry."

[Sith_Happens]

Allison sits down in the back seat and buckles in.

"Oh, uh, that's probably good. I'm not half bad myself I think... Besides that, um, what Shas said. If you need this place cased when we get there I can do that. Hell, who knows, as far as the briefcase goes I could probably just grab it and get out. The person's another story though..."

[5ColouredWalker]

"Trust me, there are much sillier names. Particularly if you deal with any mirrored princesses... I'm mostly a thinker, but I'm a pretty good fighter. That said, you need anything, I'm a pretty person to get to, I can normally find and obtain what you need, help of otherwise, and if not I can probably find someone who can."


Ericka continues to drive, smiling. Stopping at a set of light she asks whoever got into the back to reach into her bag and get out a 'Orange shoulder pad' and pass it up to her.

[Sith_Happens]

Allison wordlessly hands Ericka the requested item, then sits quietly for about a minute before breaking the silence.

"So, Saph, how long have you been... You know."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Sneaker, fighter, thinker...this seems like a good setup to Christen, even if she's never worked in a group before. And likes to think of herself as a thinker, but honestly, there's usually only time for a little observation in combat.

"A few months," she replies to Allison, deciding she likes 'Saph' as a nickname. "Enough time to switch my PE credit to fencing and figure out how to follow Darkspawn after they leave a crime scene, mostly. How about you?"

She's just kind of assuming Ericka's been at this for a while. It's either that or she's a lot more naturally organized than Christen is.

[Sith_Happens]

"About five weeks now. I've been... painting mostly. Is that bad? I mean, I guess I did stop a mugging last Tuesday, but only because I was passing by, I wasn't out looking for bad guys or anything..."

[ZeroNumerous]

The Nobles aren't interrupted during the drive, and are free to talk at length about things.

---

The drive over takes around ten minutes, and brings the Nobles in front of a rundown one-story house. It's the last house on a dead end, and its lawn has more weeds than grass. A few loose boards hang off the porch at odd angles, appearing more like teeth than wood, and its windows have been boarded up. The neighbors aren't doing much better, and it wouldn't be out of place to see a "Condemned" sign plastered across a door or wall.

No one seems to be standing around near the house, but there is at least one soul out and about: A woman in a black business jacket, with a white blouse underneath it, and a black skirt to finish her business attire. Her clothes are pressed, crisp, clean, and completely out of place for the area. She sits on a stone bench three houses down from where Ericka's GPS ends. A messy mop of blond hair crowns her head, and she's busy reading today's Seattle Times. But once Ericka's Subaru approaches her bench she looks up, and it becomes obvious that she's not supposed to be here.

The woman's piercing green eyes radiate an inner light lit by a ruinous flame rather than the beautiful warmth of the human soul. For Allison and Ericka the sight of her eyes, even out of the corner of their own, triggers the same flood of adrenaline as smelling smoke where there should be none. Both Nobles are able to fight it down the urge to run with their strength of will, but it's plainly a reaction to some supernatural thing. Whatever it is the thing seems more monster than human, yet it gives a perfectly human smile showing its perfectly human teeth to anyone who meets its eyes.

Christen, on the other hand, experiences a completely different reaction. Her body has the same adrenaline spike, but it's not from fear of flame or smoke. A part of her spirit, deeper and more human than the brilliant Light it was married to, tells the young woman to run toward the flame. The fire behind those monstrous eyes was not something that belonged in this world. It was a danger, a threat, a ruinous beast to be slain rather than fled from. Yet, Christen's Inner Light buries that small part of her soul in a flood of her Belief. Christen's able to banish her inner monster-slayer, because even a monster has a place in the Light.

If the Nobles do not stop, then the woman watches the Subaru pass by and goes right back to reading her newspaper.

[Nerd-o-rama]

In the Car

Christen shakes her head. "No, there's nothing wrong with that. There's just different...they're called Callings, right Ericka? Mine's the one where I protect people and help them out directly if they can't help themselves."

---

At the Neighborhood

"If at least part of this place isn't Tainted, I'll be really surprised," Christen observes, taking a look around while still in the car. When her eyes arrive at the obviously-suspicious woman, her hand clenches instinctively as if reaching for her kensai weapon, but she manages to take a deep breath and let it out to get over it. What the heck was that?

"Park somewhere out of sight. Whoever that is, I don't think we should let her get a good look at us."

Int+Occult: [roll0]
10-Again: [roll1]

[Sith_Happens]

The Car Ride

Allison raises her head a little, encouraged by Christen's reassurances.

"Oh, that's a relief. I mean, Shas filled me in on all that Light and Darkness stuff when I met her a few weeks ago and I get that keeping the literal forces at evil at bay is important and all, it's just... Part of me just feels like I can somehow do that as an artist, you know?"


Arriving

Waiting on the results of my Occult roll (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20742035&postcount=95) before I say anything here.

EDIT: Now that there's a post after this one already I'll just write a response to it instead.

[5ColouredWalker]

In the Car
"8 months, but I've spent most of it learning here on in dreams... But I haven't actually done that much fighting so much as coordinating and helping in the ways you kinda need an adult for. And yes, Callings. I'm a Mender, though most wouldn't pick it, means that I'm 'saddled' with the caring... Diamonds to, though I doubt anyone has trouble picking that."

Ericka's mood seems to have dimmed somewhat at the confession of seemingly being inactive, but she almost laughs at the end.



At the House
Ericka narrows her eyes at the house as she pretends to not be focusing on the women, her eyes only eventually skimming over her.
"Hmmm... Turns out there might have been a good reason for it to be us... I hope we don't have to rush a cleansing... Just a minute away, I don't want to be too far in case we need to run."

Ericka takes the first left, driving for another minute before she pulls over, first thing she does is check the Kevlar vest under her shirt, shifting a little before she reaches for her glove box, pulling out a small taser and holster, considering whether she wants to conceal her taser for a moment before she puts it in a pocket where it'll be easily accessible and make a more threatening bulge... Meanwhile her mind races to try and pick out whatever the creature could be.
"I don't recognize that one, but if either of you do let me know... My guess is that we're going to have to deal with her before anything else, and if she's watching I don't think a break in will be feasible... Might just need to try talking and hoping things don't devolve too far... She's obviously going supernatural from the get go, but I think if we light up straight away things might devolve too quickly."

[Sith_Happens]

Arriving

"You both felt that too? I was worried it was just me. Some sort of... trippy... past life... memory thing just happened and anyways I'm pretty sure she's a monster. Like, an honest to goodness people-eating monster. Personally I say we keep away and hope it's just a coincidence."

Allison taps her fingers on her lap nervously.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka, at the house
"I didn't get flash backs... That said, your description doesn't narrow things down much... She's not doing anything, so we might be able to ignore her, but I suspect we'll end up having to deal with her, if just because she ends up being some muscle to come at us if we attack..."

Ericka bites her lip for a moment, thinking.
"I can't ask you two to not light up... Or stay lit up, I bet I'm the only one with body armor here. That said, I'd appreciate it if you could take the lead Allison, you're a great talker, but I think staying lit up will only cause a fight to break out sooner, and that makes it more likely someone will start shooting... Can either of you think of a better plan?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

"My instinct or...past life or something says 'dragon'," Christen says, shuddering slightly. "I'm not sure why yet, but let's keep an eye out."

She considers Ericka's suggestion.

"I really feel like we should go in Transformed," she says. "Even if it provokes someone, I don't want to deal with any supernatural problems when I'm regular me, and I don't want to deal with criminals when they can look me up on Facebook. I'll be fine in a fight if it comes to that, but uh...you guys do any talking or sneaking we need to to avoid that."

[Sith_Happens]

"Yeah, I'm a little confused here, are you talking about the house or the monster chick right now? Because I agree with Saph, there's no way any of us should be going into a house full of thugs without our magic. Besides, not all of us are going to look like we just came out of a convention."

Allison takes out her keychain, grabs the small brush head hanging from it, and runs it through the air down the length of her body. As she does so the many streamers hanging from her clothes dissolve into motes of light and disappear, leaving her in a seemingly-ordinary runner's outfit.

"...See? Totally innocuous. Anyways, what's the plan? One of you has a plan, right?"

Dismissing Unseen Traveler (which is useless here anyways). I can roll the transformation action if you want, but once again the extra instant action to try again after a failure isn't exactly of consequence right now so I don't see the point.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"My starting plan was to go in and look around, then sorta wing it from there. Aequitas didn't give us nearly enough detail to be sure on what to do," Christen admits. "Maybe-a-dragon complicates that, though."

[Sith_Happens]

"Um... Can you do that first part without getting caught? You said earlier you're not good on the stealth front."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Why do you think I really want to be Transformed?" she asks.

"Based on the information we do have, though, I'm not expecting anyone to be in the house right now. Their meet is somewhere else, and I doubt they'd take the person they grabbed with them anyway."

[Sith_Happens]

Allison looks towards the driver's seat.

"Hey, Shas, you're smart. Input?"

After a brief pause she quickly turns back to Christen with an embarrassed look on her face.

"Not that I'm sure you aren't smart too, I just meant... Uh... Um..."

Allison makes a frustrated noise, unsure of what to say.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Smart, yeah. Educated, I can always use improvement," she admits with a shrug. "This is my first time working in a group, so..."

[Sith_Happens]

Allison lets out a sigh of relief at the seeming lack of offense she just caused.

"Same. I'm not really much of a people person, to be honest... Especially not with the sorts of people I spend most of my time around..."

[5ColouredWalker]

"And I'm not quick... No, my guess is that the meet in a while is when the potential shootout will be, the house either has only guards and the kid, or has everyone in it... If we go loud the only difference is that a gunfight will happen in suburbia instead if they're still here unless we can persuade or pay them to hand over the stuff..."

Ericka gets out of the car, motioning for the others to do so as well, but leaves the keys in the glove compartment as she does so, leaving the car unlocked.

"I think you two wait just around the corner transformed while I talk to the dragon, maybe convince her to leave. You hear fighting, I'd like you to come for me, I'll be the one in the orange armor... Unless you'd rather risk a fight from the get go?"

Ericka takes a couple of steps before turning to the two, seemingly ready to walk out untransformed.

[Sith_Happens]

"Do we have to deal with her at all? I don't know if you two can hop fences, but if so we can go around back of the house where dragon-chick won't see us."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Now, that part of sneaking, I can do," Christen says. "But we can't just leave whoever or whatever that is sitting out front without investigating..."

She drums her fingers for a second, then speaks. "I've got an idea, though. Shas and I go talk to the dragon lady, get her attention, maybe the attention of anyone guarding the house. While we're doing that, Wendy sneaks in the back. And...maybe keeps an eye on us in case we get in trouble," she suggests.

[Sith_Happens]

Allison bites her lip. While she has no idea why her companions insist on going out of their way to confront a possible dragon, they sound like they have their reasons and she should respect that. She can at least ask, though...

"You two sound like there's some important reason why we need to confront Dragon Chick, you think you could fill me in? Because the way I see it if we just focus on what we came here to do there's a chance she'll turn out to not be our problem at all."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Ah..."

Christen takes a deep breath and thinks on this. "I...might be too eager to just know what her deal is. This is the first time since I Blossomed that I really remembered anything from my past life. It's also good not to leave a potential bad guy behind you, though," she adds, looking to Ericka for confirmation or denial. Three person groups are good for breaking ties, she thinks.

[5ColouredWalker]

"Potential bad guy, and it's always good to get to know your local supes..."
Ericka shifts from foot to foot.
"How about the two of you go around back while I go around front? I think it'll be less likely to start something if I go, and if you happen to run into a dog or get caught you'll be more able to get it shrugged off as kids having fun."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen considers this. She's only spoken to the Queen of Diamonds once, but when she did, she swore a few oaths along with introducing herself and getting the run down on magic. Most of those oaths weren't even to the Queen, but herself...but her royal highness did tell her that rational analysis could help to direct those Oaths.

"I can't leave someone in danger. Literally can't," she explains, "And in this plan, you're the one provably doing something dangerous. If we're splitting up, I'm going with you."

She looks at the time on her phone. "And we're using up a lot of time. We need to do this now. Allison, get started moving into the house. Ericka, if you think confronting her's a bad idea, let's just take the long way around. Otherwise, you and I should Transform and...roll...uh, Transform and get going."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka's eyes narrow for a moment in thought.
"Ok... Wendy, you've a couple of minutes head start since you're climbing fences, then we start walking, be careful... I suggest you put my number on speed dial in case you need help, it's -"
Ericka rattles off a few numbers, repeating them as necessary, before telling her to be safe in the royal tongue... It was rather more flowery than that, something along the lines of not wanting to loose a friend so soon after getting one, and that caution was always the better part of valour, for the hot head was one touched by the dark which was to be despised.
"For your safety please call us before you enter, don't say anything, just call us and then hang up. We'll wait to enter until you give us that call.... Otherwise, shout and call if you're in danger and we'll rush to you."
After that, seemingly done with Wendy, Ericka turns on Christen.



If Wendy Leaves
"We're better off confronting her than not. I want you to hang back and only come to me after she begins walking off, my phone rings, or a fight starts. I'm tough enough to take a hit while not lit up, so I'm not transforming just yet... Besides, I can always transform quickly if needed."
With that, Ericka pulls out her phone to look at it's clock, watching as it counts down Wendy's head start.

[Sith_Happens]

"Uh, first things first... Isn't it a bit long of a walk from here? And, more importantly, a long run back if we have to GTFO?"

Allison spells out the acronym.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Yeah, I'd say I'm up for a two minute getaway sprint at best if there's trouble," Christen says. No, she didn't spend an afternoon testing herself out in the gym and writing down times when she decided to be a superhero, only a nerd would do that.

"Parking a little closer should do it, then we can transform and head in."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka nods, a slightly sheepish smile on her face as she drives closer, aiming to be about 10m around the corner of the first left past the house, or further back if needed.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Okay," Christen says once they arrive, "Let's get started."

Stepping out of the car, she takes a deep breath and fishes the clear diamond pendant she uses as a phylactery out of her shirt, gripping it in her hand and concentrating.

Wits+Composure: [roll0] To make sure she's not being observed by any non-Princesses. If this is successful and she is, ignore the rest of this post. Failed, so she's Transforming
Belief+Inner Light-Shadows: [roll1]

Editing in a transformation description in a second just in case RNG hates me.

Electric blue light surrounds Christen as a cool breeze whips at her ponytail. The manifestation of her Regalia isn't frilly or impractical, more like a sport fencer's outfit mixed with Jules Verne's idea of a futuristic adventurer, a suit in white and bright blue complete with basket-hilted rapier, riding boots and, oddly given that she doesn't wear them in her mundane form, a pair of fashionable glasses. At the end of the transformation, she stands taller and straighter, ready to go give a dragon and some criminals a piece of her mind, or possibly what for.

[Sith_Happens]

"Hey, I thought the power to bring revolution was supposed to be my thing.

...That was a joke. Anyways, I should be off."

Allison gets out of the car and begins a leisurely jog around the neighborhood, the better to look like a resident out for an evening run. In reality, though, she carefully scouts a route to the back of the target house that will least risk her being spotted from any inconvenient windows; can't have anyone reporting suspicious behavior, after all.

As described above, Allison tries to figure out how to get where she needs to go while cutting through as few other people's yards as possible and otherwise minimizing the risk that any bystanders see her doing something she obviously shouldn't be. If there's an alley that will take her at least most of the way then that would be ideal.

Wits + Streetwise if you need that:

Roll: [roll0]
10-Again: [roll1]

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka waits the few minutes she said she would before beginning her walk towards the house they were directed to, letting Christen chose her own pace to follow as she walks with her quick pace, hopping to appear to simply be someone out for a rather walk around the block.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen doesn't honestly think they're fooling anybody, but she - especially as Sapphire Blade - knows that the key to getting anywhere is looking like you know what you're doing. Hopefully avoiding any prying eyes simply through people not wanting to be bothered, she sticks with Ericka as they head around toward the front of the house.

[ZeroNumerous]

Christen + Ericka

The two Nobles find themselves walking toward the house without a care in the world. Naturally they stand out from their surroundings, due to being healthy young ladies in what would be favorably described as a crack neighborhood. Their out-of-place appearance matches with the equally clashing well-dressed dragon. That very same out-of-place visitor looks up from her newspaper when the young ladies appear, and watches them as they get closer. Once the two girls get within a meter of her, the dragon goes back to reading her newspaper. However, she does speak to them.

"I would go home if I were you", she says in between turning a page, "there's about to be a shootout around here."

Allison

Allison's able to sneak around without anyone shouting at her or making a fuss, but who knows who saw her? She finds herself face-to-face with a chain link fence surrounding the target's backyard. On the rear wall there's a back door that's probably locked, and the rear windows are boarded up like the front. However, Allison can see bright light streaming out between the cracks of the door and the boards. Whether that means someone is inside or not: It means there won't be any shadows or darkness to hide in after entering the house from behind. Right now, however, Allison needs to scale the chain link fence then get past the back door.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka and Christen
"Just our luck, but what are the chance's you'll be doing more than watching?"

Ericka walks a couple of steps past the dragon before turning, so that in order to look at her the dragon will have to choose between using her peripheral to see both or to focus on one of the two.

[ZeroNumerous]

Christen + Ericka

"I'd hate to see pretty girls like you become chalk lines on the pavement. Whatever drug you're into: It's not worth dying for the high."

The dragon continues reading the paper as Ericka moves, and plainly makes no effort to look at either Noble as she speaks. Hearing her speak a bit more allows the two Nobles to place her accent as distinctly non-American. A slight old world enunciation, more Swiss or Austrian than Slavic, makes her seem even more out of place on the west coast. When Ericka moves past her the dragon makes no movement, nor acknowledges the young woman's passage. Though she does say something else, and this close her breath carries the distinct smell of sulfur and flames.

"Or don't listen to your elders."

[Sith_Happens]

Allison

Bolstered by a subtle updraft, Allison silently scales the fence in mere seconds and drops to the other side just as quietly. Slipping on her mask, she creeps up to the house and searches for anywhere through which she might peer inside.

Looking for any sort of crack or gap in the boarding on the windows, look-through-able keyholes, whatever. Perception roll if I need to make one:

Wits + Composure: [roll0]
10-Again: [roll1]

EDIT: As my first failure of the chronicle I think I'll make that dramatic just to see what happens (but only if the roll was in fact necessary in the first place).:smallamused:

[5ColouredWalker]

Christen + Ericka
Ericka puts on a blatantly false smile.
"I stopped listening to elders when I saw how quickly drunks fled from flame. No, I only start quaking in my stylish yet affordable boots when dealing with the sort that wake up and decide to call themselves Behemoth when they barely breach 5 ft..."

Ericka shrugs, not particularly caring if the 'dragon' looks at her.
"But we're just some peace keepers looking to calm things down before some normies get into a pissing match involving steel d*cks so a drunk can pretend they're not noticed while they tug hard at strings they think are invisible... Of course, it'd be nice to know how much you cared about a door three further up?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen lets Ericka finish speaking, then adds her own piece. "All we're looking for is a couple of things that don't belong here, and the people that took them. If there's any trouble, we're here to stop it, not start it."

She studies the woman carefully, sight, sound, and smell, watching for any sign of hostility.

[ZeroNumerous]

Allison

Allison's able to spot a good vantage point inside: A trio of boards with a knothole poked out of one of them would let her spy through the glass while covering her body. Unfortunately for the Noble girl looking through her secretive vantage point only reveals a bloodshot brown eye staring back at her. It seems she had the misfortune of finding the only opening to spy through that was in use. Whoever is on the other side jumps back and shouts, and that causes a cacophony of noise.

"S-something was out back!"

"What? Serio--"

Christen+Ericka

"Well, now he can't say I didn't try to stop it. Just try not to get shot."

The dragon pays the Noble's explanations no mind, and simply brushes them aside with her almost casual dismissal. She doesn't give either of the girls any further concern, and finishes her paper rather than explain herself.

DM

BANG-BANG

Allison's discovery is quickly followed up by two gunshots from inside the house. Blood sprays all over the window Allison was looking through as whoever got hit pops like a burst water balloon. The gunfire is quickly followed by shouting, screaming, and more gunfire.

Naturally both Ericka and Christen can hear the muffled report of gunfire coming from the house, but the dragon doesn't seem to have noticed it at all. At least, until she speaks.

"Mission accomplished; Trouble averted. Good work kids."

Allison gains a Beat for turning her failure into a dramatic failure.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka and Christen

"... No, that's a different trouble... Ready yourself to help Wendy." Ericka says the last as she looks at Christen and speaks in Noble, before moving to take cover behind a large mailbox should one be present, and pulling out her phone... Currently, her suspicion is that the person might have been sent to watch them, instead of the guard the house, but she's no need to voice it.

Her fingers quickly tap out 911 as she brings the phone to her ear. She might be able to salvage something from this, even if it's just getting whoever opened fire caught. Meanwhile in the back of her mind she hopes for a tone that indicates Allison speed dialing her in panic and being on the other line.

[Sith_Happens]

Allison

Oh s*** oh s*** oh s*** oh s***...

Figuring the best thing to do is get out of the line of fire ASAP, Allison takes a few steps up the wall, pulls herself onto the roof, and quickly tiptoes to a spot where she can lie down and hopefully not be visible from the ground.

No roll to get onto the roof because Parkour 3.

Dexterity + Stealth + Wisp + Willpower to get to a hiding spot without her movements on the roof being heard and also to hide in said spot:

Roll: [roll0]
10-Again: [roll1]
She then pulls out her phone and rapidly texts Ericka, hitting "Send" in under ten seconds.

[[F***ed up on roof what do]]

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen, for her part, only has to hear the gunshots (and see the Dragon's nonreaction) before she knows what to do.

She sprints toward the house and around the side. She pauses just a second to consider her course of action - protecting Wendy might mean bursting inside, but if she was attacked before she went inside, it would be better to ambush anyone who came out to chase her.

She stands there, drawing her impossibly-thin Kensai rapier and forming a plan in her mind: if someone rushes out of the house with guns before she counts to five, charge them. If she hears shouting or gunshots from the back yard, climb over the fence and hopefully ambush them. Otherwise, time to get ready to barrel through a window, because she knows her limits and she sure can't kick down a front door - assuming the front door isn't open, of course.

Standing here dithering might seem like a bad idea, of course, but the time for stealth's past and she's at an advantage in the open anyway, even against men with guns.

Wits+Composure to get a general idea of the house and what's going on: [roll0]
Taking a moment to formulate a plan.

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

When Ericka reaches for her phone the dragon simply states. "EMTs and police don't come out this way. Too much crime. Besides, Section 13 would dissect you just to be on the safe side."

Ericka's phone connects to 911 no problem, and the calming voice of a dispatcher came on the line. "911 emergency services, what's the nature and location of your emergency?"

Christen runs toward the house uninterrupted, and she receives neither comment nor concern from the dragon. Unfortunately all the windows are still as boarded up as they had initially seen, and the only way inside would involve kicking in the front door. Or removing the boards and then jumping into a window. The few places she can see through the boards reveal nothing but darkness inside, interrupted only by muzzle flashes.

Allison's able to climb on the roof without any problems, and her text goes through without any issues either.

The inside of the house sounds like an action movie though. Men shouting, guns firing, and a final scream play out the plot inside: Some men had an argument, shot at one another, and now the fighting was over. What follows is only silence. No footsteps race to the backyard, no armed men burst out of the front door, and certainly no more screams follow the orgy of violence. It's at this point that the dragon closes her newspaper, carefully folds it up, and starts to walk toward the house.

"Good job keeping the peace. These impeccable results speak for themselves."

She remarks sarcastically to Ericka.

"Perhaps next time you'll listen. Now come on, I have an annoying monster to subdue and you've been drafted."

A strange hum comes out of the house, sounding like an old dial up modem, and it seems to be moving around inside the living room.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka barely holds back a snarl at the Dragon while waiting for 911 to respond, her voice sounding out clearly as she responds to the request.
"Gunshots at [[The Address we were given]] and screaming. I'm a paramedic on scene and am going to try and help. Hurry." So far beyond procedure, but it was the best she could do...
To Ericka, right now everything stinks to the high heavens of being part of some sort of conspiracy... Right now she was dearly wishing she hadn't left her Thunder 5 at home by accident this morning.

Ending the call Ericka quickly checks the message and deciding to forgo stealth shouts out in Royal, hoping to be heard as she approaches the house.
[Rough Translation]"We're entering with help. Watch for those who would flee while being ready to help at our call if you can." Caution comes across with her tone as Ericka makes her way towards the doorway.


"Following you." Ericka knows her strength, she isn't going to bust the door down or break through the windows quickly, and doesn't care enough to try and argue with the 'Dragon', while presuming she's strong enough.



Requested Wits+Composure Check: [roll0]
Explosion: [roll1]

[Nerd-o-rama]

Whatever just happened in there, someone needed to take care of the results. From that much gunfire, Christen's guess is that someone on one side of the deal got spooked, although she's still not clear on whether it was supposed to be happening here. Could have been unrelated.

Either way, she needs in ingress into the house, and there's not a convenient one. She sends a text to Ericka and Allison as she walks up to the door.

Shootout over. Going in. Making an entrance.

Smartest idea? Maybe not. But either someone needs to be protected, or someone needs to be stopped before they hurt anyone else. And failing all else, that strange electronic sound she knows mostly from stand-up comedy routines about the 90's can't be good.

She walks up to the front door and starts studying it, looking for rot or weak points or signs that the lock is rusted. Then she draws her sword back and punches it forward, using it less like a rapier and more like a magically-enhanced icepick.

Kensai Dex+Weaponry: [roll0]
Invoking Acqua (after a round of study) for a total of 3+1=4 damage.

[Sith_Happens]

Allison stays still and keeps listening at first, trying to figure out what the hell might have just happened. Upon failing at that she falls back to following the lead of the two girls who at least seem to know what they're doing. Not that she can't still offer a suggestion or two:

[[If it's locked I can help.]]

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

"Uh, right. It sounds like you have things in hand. I'll send the next available car and crew." Ericka's call ends in the vaguest and probably least reassuring manner. That likely meant no help was coming.

The dragon just shrugs as Ericka ignores her suggestion, and continues on. "Should probably suppress that insanity act when someone can hear you. The singing will just get you killed some day."

Christen successfully stabs the door, and surprisingly it pops right open. Perhaps the door wasn't locked or the wood was exceptionally rotted, but either way it comes apart and gives Christen a view of the room beyond. Four dead men are scattered about the room: One sat in the corner, missing half his head, and seemed to have been unceremoniously shot in the back of the head. A second man was shot in the back of the head mid-sentence, with his chin dangling from a grotesque exit wound that had once been his face. Two other men died with their guns in their hands, and both were shot plainly once in the chest.

The only living man is a bald-headed gangster covered in tattoos, but he's certainly not normal. He's sitting on the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. His jaw is slack, eyes unfocused, and his body has relaxed completely. He has no visible wounds, though a pair of bullet holes have clearly cut through his shirt and pants. A pistol lays on the ground near his right hand. He makes no effort to move or acknowledge the door shattering or the appearance of the Noble.

Naturally, once either Ericka or Allison arrives on scene they see the same things Christen does.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka grunts at the dragon, not bothering with a proper response, and does not look to check the phone messages from either group. Instead she continues speaking, and will go around Christen to get into the house should she stop, moving to a nearby doorway as she takes cover behind a wall Ericka looks for anyone who's still active, eyes barely glancing over the still sitting man who is clearly out of it. Those with the chest wounds could still be alive, but she would do them no good if she got shot in the back while trying to attend to them, her voice continues to sing out for a moment before she switches to English.

[Rough translation of Noble]"We're in. Watch the insensate for us, he may be possessed or afflicted." [In English]"Are real dragons bulletproof?"


Base: [roll0]
Explosion: [roll1]

[ZeroNumerous]

Ericka notes that all four men are quite dead. Two are missing half their brains, and the others have bullets in their hearts. Not merely lucky shots either, but rather shots taken rather plainly and deliberately straight at the heart. Furthermore, she can see that none of the four men have any injuries aside from the single lethal shot that killed them.

"Or ignore me. Well, it won't be me dealing with the fallout. At least keep quiet around the cops."

The dragon ignores Ericka's question, and simply looks at the scene. She looks at the four dead men first, the puppet next, and finally at the girl.

"I'm willing to bet that puppet would still be active if there were people with guns around. Regardless: You should just kill the puppet. It'll only annoy the thing in his head, but at least he'll be free of the chains."

With that said, the dragon proceeds to ignore the scene and starts checking out the other rooms in the house.

[5ColouredWalker]

"It's doing it's job... Change of plans, Saphire help the Dragon make sure the place is secure but be careful." [Noble]"Keep an eye out for the one briefcase. I'll make sure the puppet's subdued non-lethally."

Ericka's tone becomes more subdued having had a moment to properly look at the scene and at the Dragon's constant callousness. Tazer in hand, Ericka looks around the room for something she could use to tie up the puppet up without having to strip clothes from the dead.


If the previous perception doesn't apply and one is required:
[roll0]
[roll1]

If something can be found, Ericka will take her time to aim and then shoot her Tazer at the previously puppeted guy, and then tie him up.

[Sith_Happens]

Allison keeps watch as instructed, making sure that no one slips out the back door and tries to run for it, but also dials Ericka's number in the hopes of staying in the loop.

[If Ericka answers the phone:]

"So... yeah. What the frick just happened in there?"

[5ColouredWalker]

Getting the call Ericka accepts it, then puts it on speaker and puts her phone in one of her pockets before continuing her quick search.

"Person we're presuming possessed went on a rampage shortly after the first shot, he's now comatose and I'm looking at detaining him now while the others including the Dragon look for anyone else."

Ericka frowns while she search, splitting her attention with the shooter and looking for something useful for tying him up, wishing she could communicate through the phone in Noble.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen spends a while just staring at the scene, deeply unnerved - more so by the blank-eyed man than the dead ones, although that comparison is like saying Freddie is scarier than Jason. She has to wonder what happened here...

Still, she takes a deep breath, regrets it, and nods to Ericka's instructions. "Be careful," she says, and follows the dragon, sword still drawn. There could be more bad guys in here, and she's not sure what the lady even wants. She is, however, more concerned with checking the house over than anything at this point, especially for anyone still living.

Wits+Investigation: [roll0] (9-Again and roll an extra die on the off chance there's evidence of Darkspawn)
Explosion (and extra die if needed): [roll1]

[Sith_Happens]

"Person we're presuming possessed went on a rampage shortly after the first shot, he's now comatose and I'm looking at detaining him now while the others including the Dragon look for anyone else."

"Well that's... lovely. Any sign of the guy we're supposed to be saving?"

[5ColouredWalker]

"I believe he's the first casualty, but given the wounds and his description being 'young' I can't be certain."

[Sith_Happens]

"Dammit, and it's my fault too... I was trying to get a peek inside but ended up staring at someone's eyeball instead. Set the whole thing off just like that."

Allison sounds clearly despondent.

[ZeroNumerous]

Christen

The monster says nothing to Christen when the Noble follows it. Unless Christen speaks to the creature then the two of them move and act in silence. Following behind the dragon affords the Noble the opportunity to stab it in the back, and an ancient memory rouses from the dark recesses of her soul: The heart, not the head, but the heart was its weakness.

Christen watches as it as it travels the house and pokes its head into every room it passes by. The monster only looks into the room for a few seconds, then walks away without closing the door or entering fully. It only stops when both it and Christen hear the muffled sound of someone trying to speak through a gag. It turns its eyes toward the Noble, and speaks in a breath of sulfur and fire.

"Seems like a hostage in here. Get him to safety, I'll keep checking the house."

After daring to give the Noble orders, the monster turns its back on her and goes right back to poking through doorways looking for... something.

Ericka

Ericka casually shoots the insensate man with her taser, and surprisingly the needless suffering doesn't bring any sympathy out of her light-graced soul. It's almost as if the man was no longer human, or perhaps simply lacked some intrinsic detail for the naturally sensitive Noble soul to latch onto. Unfortunately she cannot find any rope around to tie him up, but after having been tased he's unlikely to be terribly active.

However, her search does turn up about 1500$ bucks split up between the five men in wads of twenties. It's an easy guess to say that as the money Aequitas was expecting.

Allison

Nothing runs out of the back door, nor does anything run into it.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka
"I wouldn't call that your fault so much as rotten luck. I just wish I knew we had the time to try and clear the taint this place has no-doubt accumulated.. Hang on."

Reaching up to her shoulder pad, Ericka lifts off the ground briefly, hearing the distant sound of cheering in her ears as she transforms. Unlike the others who could pass for normal people with unusual styles, Ericka can't but be forced to pose as a cosplayer, orange tau fire-warrior armor covering her body with black ballistic weave covering everything below her face. One might note the slight hint of blue on her skin, but it was barely there for now.

With the gentle care of someone trying not to disturb the scene too much, Ericka takes the shirt from the man killed excecution style before taking her time tazing the man before tying up his arms as best she can with it. It's at this point she notices his wallet, still fat with cash... After a moments thought, she takes most of it while also checking the others, leaving between $40-100 in each (One 40, one 100, two 80 and one 60) to throw off the idea that they'd been robbed. She could cover the difference if need be.

This all done, she untransforms... While a cop might be able to see the scene is disturbed, she doubted they'd note her fingerprints all over the bodies.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen keeps her breathing even and her mind on the search. There are things Nobles just don't do, at least not just because they're unnatural.

It just goes to prove the point when she hears what should be the hostage. She's about to sheathe her sword and go in to free him when the Dragon speaks up, and it takes her full willpower to swallow an angry protest at the stranger. She settles for an obviously ineffective death glare and then goes to do what she was doing anyway, sheathing her Rapier and quietly trying the door with the mumbling behind it with a gloved hand.

[ZeroNumerous]

Christen

The door opens easily. Inside Christen spots the young man from the photograph, and she recognizes him as the kid Aequitas wanted to get out alive. He's held in what seems to be an extremely dirty bedroom. He's duct-taped across the mouth, wrists, and ankles. The young man's sitting on the floor, and a moth-eaten mattress stained dark brown lays in the corner. When he spots the Noble his noises grow louder, and he struggles a little trying to reach Christen.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka begins reloading her tazer as she waits for Christen to give the all clear, eyes roaming the room as she keeps on guard over the unconscious and bound man...
"Wendy, do you think you could sneak out an unconscious man, with or without help?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

"It's ok," she says, moving in to the room and kneeling down next to him to start taking the duct tape off. "I'm gonna take this off your face fast, okay? Don't scream."

With that, she'll un-gag him and then work on the rest of the bonds.

[ZeroNumerous]

Christen

The hostage grunts in pain when Christen rips the duct-tape off of him. Getting the tape off his hands and wrists requires a bit more effort, but it comes off easily enough as well. He seems a bit confused.

"There're five guys in there. Were those shots you?"

[Sith_Happens]

Ericka begins reloading her tazer as she waits for Christen to give the all clear, eyes roaming the room as she keeps on guard over the unconscious and bound man...
"Wendy, do you think you could sneak out an unconscious man, with or without help?"

"Uh, depends how heavy I guess? You mean right now or once it's safe to bring the car around?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen shakes her head. "One of the guys shot the others. We don't know why yet, but the important thing is we're getting you out of here. Can you stand?" she asks, rising to her feet herself.

"And while I'm asking questions, anything you can tell me about the guys who grabbed you and what else they took would be great," she adds.

[ZeroNumerous]

Christen

"Uh, ya, ya I can stand I think." He tries to stand, and stumbles at first. But after awhile he gets his footing and stands, albeit very shakily.

"T-the guys. Ya, uh.. They just ambushed us. There was this, uh, tech thing some mercenaries found. Medusa wanted it, so I was sent to pick it up. Urgh. My head still hurts. They didn't, uh.. They didn't talk to me or anything, woke up this morning duct-taped up like that."

[5ColouredWalker]

"Uh, he's pretty average of build, and I could bring the car around... On second thought I'll just carry him out, I'm a paramed, I can say I was responding to shots and I'm taking him for treatment."
Erick finishes reloading her tazer, taking the spent block and bundling it up in one of her pockets as she waits.

[Sith_Happens]

"Say to who? I doubt anyone for two blocks is coming out of their house tonight after hearing a firefight."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen notes the name "Medusa" for future reference and offers him an arm to steady himself, with commentary to the effect that it's the year of our common era 2016 if he looks hesitant.

"I'm going to take you to a friend of mine and she can check you over, ok? Just...try not to look too close at the floor out there. It's not pretty."

"I've got our guy and I'm bringing him out. Make sure you're presentable," she calls to Ericka, in case she wants to Transform first, in English for the sake of clarity.

"So were these guys the sellers, or did both sides of the deal get attacked?" she asks while cautiously leading the hostage back toward the main room.

[5ColouredWalker]

"It's always good to plan-"
Ericka pauses as Christen's words reach her... No, she'd save her transformation, everyone else had already seen her normal form, and she had no reason to hide her 'common' face.
"Has the rest of the house been cleared?"

[ZeroNumerous]

Christen

The young man lets Christen help him until his legs are stable enough to stand on his own.

"I--ugh--I don't know. The two guys I met had suits and stuff. Business types with muscles. They had the laptop and everything. Then I woke up here with a splitting headache. Figure I got hit in the back of the head first."

Christen+Ericka

When Christen and the young man arrive at the corpse-filled living room the first thing out of his mouth is a shout, followed by a dry retch and some watery vomit. He doubles over as he empties out his stomach.

"W-what the hell? Wh-what happ--" He interrupts himself with a lurch and the desperate struggle to not throw up again. Clearly he wasn't meant to deal with dead bodies, and was definitely in the wrong line of work.

Seconds later the blond-haired dragon comes back to the living room, holding a small black briefcase in her right hand. She casts a disparaging look at the young man trying not to vomit again, but ignores him and addresses the Nobles. "Well, I got what I came for. So I figure it's time for an exchange of questions and answers. I'll go first: What made a bunch of teenagers in cosplay show up out here?"

Allison

The girl up on the roof hears the sound of someone shouting inside, and it sounds male rather than one of the Nobles.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka makes her way over towards they retching man, eyes narrowing slightly at the briefcase as she approaches, trusting her phone on speaker to keep Allison in the loop.

"Wendy, you can come on down now. We're here because we were asked to collect some things. What's the chance you were asked the same by an Aequitas, or a drinker's intermediary?"

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

"Aequitas? Sorry, I don't recognize the name. And what's a drinker?"

If someone explains that Ericka means a vampire, then the dragon continues. "Haha, no way. My master is definitely anti-lick, though he doesn't get off his ass to do anything about them. But okay, next question: What were you here to find?"

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka say's Vampire at the Dragon's confusion.

Ericka thinks for a moment at the Dragon's question, deciding the best way to answer is simply to not just yet... She had decided to follow Christen's lead after all, and it would be best not to start a fight without help. When Ericka speaks, her tone carries feelings of caution and fear that transcend the words... Mentally, she appologises to Wendy who's going to hear a bunch of jibberish and static.

[Noble]"I defer to you Sapphire, but I've obtained the funds he didn't expect, this may avoid the news, and we've retrieved his friend. The Dragon seems an old hand, we may wish to accept 3 out of 4... If you'd rather not lie, I can accept that burden, simply shake your head."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen considers that for a moment, at the same time making sure she's between the dragon and the vomiting guy. Hopefully, he'll learn something from this experience and try not to repeat it, but right now her immediate concern is how to handle this. She takes a deep breath and lets her Queen guide her.

"We were hired to get that," she says, nodding toward the briefcase, "But what I'm really here for is to find out what it is and who wants it."

Maybe honesty really is the best policy here. She keeps her right hand free just in case, though.

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

When Ericka shows her obvious reluctance to explain the dragon looks plainly intrigued.

"Don't want to say, or can't say... Hm, interesting." However, the fear and caution in Ericka's voice gets a smile. She doesn't say anything until Christen speaks, and that gets another smile from her. She doesn't seem to take the defensive stance personally, nor does she move to defend herself. Perhaps she isn't concerned, or simply trusts the kids.

"Ah, okay. Well, unfortunately I don't know what it is. I do know what it does though." She points to the man still sitting on the ground, limp and practically dead, and then to the corpses around the room.

"Something about thinking on it causes something to jam into their brains. My master described them like an ant: Empty, inhuman, specialized, and disposable. This one likely kills people with guns, and is completely inactive otherwise. The last one was dead set on killing me. He'd ignore everything just to go after me, and even resorted to his teeth when his gun was dry. Scary stuff." With that done, the dragon motions toward the case.

"Well, next up: Do you plan to try and take it from me?"

[5ColouredWalker]

"That depends, does your boss intend on using it, or preventing it's use? I mean, we were only asked for the suitcase, which only implies the thing inside it... I found a large amount of cash he wasn't expecting to get back, we might be able to get away with three out of four."

Ericka's voice remains cautious.

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

"Didn't really answer my question there." The dragon shrugs, but answers Ericka's question anyway.

"My master collects garbage like this. He has a painting he throws them in to keep it safe, assuming he can't destroy it." Finally, the dragon motions to the unconscious guy.

"Final question: What're you gonna do with that guy?" With that said, the vomiting man finishes emptying his stomach. He holds his stomach, and looks at the dragon.

"H-hold on. I-I need that laptop. M-Medusa's gotta keep it safe." The dragon sneers at him.

"A seer? Poor dumb bastard. Well, sorry kiddo, I can't give this up. And even if I did, you'd just try to kill us all anyway." The kid looks offended, and groans, holds his stomach, and sways a little before finally finding his footing again.

"D-Don't be ridiculous.. It's dangerous magic, and needs to be buried." The dragon snarls openly this time, and the smell of flame fills the small room.

"My master will deal with it, but don't ignore me. You're just going to kill everyone involved in this mess."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka's eyes move between the two as they argue.
"Better yet, listen tot the fact she's got you outclassed on several levels. The only thing you're good for right now is to tell your boss what happened after the fact, assuming you want to."
Ericka suddenly finds herself thinking that either decision is going to get the trio into a lot of crap, it's just going to be a case of when.

"Bound guy is going for treatment, or if I can't find out how to fix him, a hospital which will shuffle him around and likely screw him over a little while doing better than I can if I can't fix whatever that thing's done to his mind..." Ericka's eyes flick from the dragon to Christen, her voice turning melodic again, this time carrying what would be best called cautious hope.

[Noble]"I think we should let her take it. Both claim they want it destroyed, but the ganger is claiming it's going to end up in the hands of someone the Dragon knows as a Seer, instead of going to a Vampire which Aequitus' words suggested... If there's complaints, well... Unless you're somehow getting Dragon from Werewolf, our fight would make it more likely the news is made, and he didn't want that. Win-Win, unless you think she's lying... That said, there's the potential 'screwing over a vampire' long term problem."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The dragon shakes her head.

"Unfortunately there's no treatment I know of. My master is one of the best people at tinkering with brains, and his boss can fix any injury short of losing your head. Neither of them could work out what happened to the first guy. It was like the thing scooped out his brain, and replaced it with gears, pipes, and microchips. Whatever's left is just a machine that does what its programmed to do. 'fraid most hospitals are gonna be out of their depths, if it doesn't just get Section 13 on your ass." Ericka at least remembers how her Sensitivity did not respond to the man's pain from being tased, and perhaps that spoke volumes about any hope for a cure or treatment.

This results in the young man speaking up.

"This, uh, this is why Medusa needs that. If you leave it in her hands they'll just... She'll use it. Just to, uh, just to see if they can fix it." The dragon laughs, bearing her brilliantly white teeth as she enjoys a deep chuckle that holds neither mirth nor joy.

"Oh boy, a patsy. Well, in case you don't know kids, Medusa is a Seer of the Throne. The name's as bad as it sounds. She's a mage who my master has had a few run-ins with, and her purpose in life is annihilating magic she doesn't control. Monsters like me included." The dragon waves her suitcase in the air, as if to make it the center of attention.

"She'd use this as a quick and dirty way to destroy a mind she doesn't like. Maybe even reprogram it to be useful, if she works out how." That causes the young man to balk, and he lurches toward Christen as if he were moving toward the dragon.

"Y-you lying... Seers protect the sleepers from magic abuses. Abusers like your masters, you monster! These, uh, these people need to be dealt with." He turns his attention to the girls, and looks pleadingly at each of them.

"Please, this is dangerous. Don't let her keep that." The dragon, on the other hand, simply dismisses the scenario with an insult.

"You damn blind fool. Killing everyone exposed to dangerous magical elements is SOP for Seers. Once you turn this over you'll have nothing to look forward to but a shallow grave and a nine millimeter lobotomy." The rescued hostage pushes up against Christen once more, as if he were going to push her to the side and try to limp menacingly at the dragon.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka might have said she'd help Christen and have been deferring to her at present, but she needed to keep speaking while Christen thought... Internally she wondered why Christen was taking so long to decide, but remembered that even if she couldn't hop tracks quickly she did think rather quickly.

"Kid. Let me make this clear to you now, the two of us have brains, and know how to use them. We were called out of our nice quiet days of helping people to deal with a vampire problem which is something I could deal with with some time, which turned into getting something for a vampire in a hurry fast enough that we should have turned it down then and there."
Ericka stops to sigh, shaking her head slightly.
And now you're talking about taking that suitcase to a mage. Right now, the only thing we need to decide is whether we'd like our ****ing to start now with a Dragon who sounds like she knows her **** and been around the block a bit, which among us means a fight we may not win at stakes which include dying, or potentially get ****ed over by someone more powerful later. The later's just about peaked at it's level of temptation because we're risking getting ****ed over by a mage who's name is known of by those that dance with that circle, but beyond that you're worsening your case to the point I'm tempted to walk out now, and your dealing with individuals who could put you down with no effort, please stop trying to threaten us."
Ericka then raises her tazer in the direction of Christen and the hostage, however it's pointed to the wall.
"Or I will taze you until I have to carry you out, and leave you somewhere it won't be pleasant to wake up."
Ericka's voice had hardened over the course of her deceleration, but it becomes downright venomous at the end.

Ericka's focus snaps to the dragon, while she continues to watch the hostage out of her peripheral.
"What's the chances we can get the name of your... 'Master', should we so be asked who has the suitcase, and perhaps a way to contact you or them should we think that dealing with you is... Conductive to our future safety for whatever reason?"

[Sith_Happens]

"Wendy, you can come on down now.

"Good to know, I think I should keep keeping watch up here for now though. Keep me posted."

True to her word, Allison stays on the roof at first, listening to the conversation below through the phone that Ericka was kind enough to put on speaker for her...


"Well, next up: Do you plan to try and take it from me?"

...Until she hears that things might turn into a fight, that is. If so she sure as hell isn't planning on leaving the other two to fend for themselves... But at the same time she sure as hell isn't going to go through the front door to join them.

Keeping her phone to her ear as the conversation proceeds, Allison quietly drops down to the back door and slips through it. As she silently creeps through the house trying to find somewhere she can spy on the front room from she gets more and more confused as the argument over the briefcase goes on. Robo-lobotomies? Seers of the Throne? Not to mention Ericka going all hardcore all of a sudden. Still, she can't help but think that it's everyone else who's overcomplicating the situation.

Finally reaching the right doorway and hiding to the side of it, Allison cups her free hand over her mouth and speaks slightly more softly than before (which was already rather soft) so as to not give away her position.

"Okay, so let me get this straight: the briefcase has some sort of crazy voodoo laptop in it that turns people into murderbots, the dragon and the human both claim that their bosses want to lock it away, and also both claim that each other's bosses are super bad news and shouldn't be trusted with it. That the gist of things, 'cause if so I have a better plan: we smash the thing right here and now. Surely if all five of us really agree that it should never see the light of day again, there should be no objections to that, right?"

Stealth roll here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20783916&postcount=189).

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka suppresses a snort as Wendy's voice reaches her through her phone.
"Yes, let's open a case that contains a magically lobotomizing artifact and attempt to destroy it, all while uncertain as to whether the pieces would retain the magic. I would say we bury it, but there's nothing stopping the other's from coming back to retrieve it later... Of course, it might be possible to move it from it's case into a garbage bag without viewing if that's the trigger, attempt to destroy it through that, and let a party take the bag of pieces."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Sapphire takes a deep breath, and decides to cut to the heart of the issue before things get any more heated. Possibly literally.

"Okay. Everyone here wants the same thing, right? Mind-controlling magical artifact out of the hands of anyone who wants to abuse it," she summarizes. "But you two don't trust each other's bosses and we don't know you. Meanwhile, we told this guy's friend we'd get his boss the laptop she wanted."

She gestures at the case. "That is a laptop in there, right?" No reason for the dragon to lie about it, and if it's magic that turns people into robots, it stands to reason computers are involved.

"I'm okay with going home empty-handed as long as no one else dies here," she says candidly, "but I don't think any of us trusts anyone else enough to let them walk away with something that can supposedly do what it does."

This is game theory. Or possible a Western. Three sides, each opposed to the other, stuck in an equilibrium that can't be broken without excessive risk. She looks at Ericka.

"I know you think it's too risky, but I think the only way we're all going to leave satisfied is if we agree to destroy that artifact."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The suggestion that it should be destroyed here is met with two decidedly different reactions. The dragon just shrugs.

"Okay. Lemme contact my master and ask if it's safe to destroy here."

She proceeds to close her eyes, and seems to relax. A variety of emotions play across her face as she has some sort of event happen that none of the Nobles can see. While she's doing whatever it is she's doing; The former hostage speaks up. He seems visibly distraught that destroying it was even suggested.

"W-what? No, uh, I don't think Medusa would be happy with it destroyed. It needs to be contained, but understood." He looks to the case, and a strange look comes over his face. Like a man looking at a dead rat, or perhaps a dead child. The dragon breaks the silence he leaves behind.

"Master says it's fine to destroy it, but he wants the Seer's minion brought to him for questioning. They're fighting a war, so he wants information. So... trade you a box of badness for a walking idiot." The dragon's irreverent sense of humor only makes the former hostage go pale. He looks at the girls, and pleads once more.

"Please, just help me get the case to Medusa. You'll be making powerful friends. And, and they'll... They'll kill me." The dragon just scoffs at that.

"His boss will kill him, and you, just because you know about this thing. But my master has yet to have me kill anyone who was willing to listen to reason, and I have a decade of service."

It seems like things are deadlocked. Either the case goes with the monster, or the man does.

[Sith_Happens]

Allison chimes in through the phone.

"Well, it's settled then, that was partly a test and Dragon Chick just passed. As for the other one... Hm... On the one hand, part of our deal is to bring him back to our contact in one piece. On the other hand I'm at least assuming the intention of that is that 'in one piece' is the important part, so if taking him with us means his boss kills him... Can you promise us that your boss won't?"

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka shakes her head.
"'We'll contact you', additionally it was a personal request more to see him alive and safe, though I'm doubting you'd go willingly, regardless of what the dragon says."
Ericka glances at the man, him being taken would tie-
No, bad Ericka, stop thinking like that.

"Wendy, can you begin looking for something the laptop should be smash-able in safely? Say an entire packet of garbage bags?"

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The dragon shrugs.

"If he doesn't do anything stupid. But frankly he's low on my master's problem list. He usually kills people like whoever made this... robot-maker. Not flunkies or patsies." The young man claims otherwise.

"Y-You can't believe that, can you? They'll kill me to keep me quiet. Or lobotomize me!" The dragon just laughs at the accusation.

"The fact he thinks that is the default price for being captured says a lot about his people."

[Sith_Happens]

"Sorry man, from where I'm standing you're the less trustworthy one here by a lot. Besides, there's no chance in hell we're giving you that case so the way I see it your options are either you walk away and die for sure or go with her and maybe you don't. Hell, who knows, maybe her boss will even agree to keep you safe in exchange for you talking. Now as far as I'm concerned that's your choice but my friends might have other ideas: honestly I haven't known them long enough to say for sure but I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of them feels morally obligated to break your legs if it's the only way to keep you from running to your death. Anyways, how 'bout you think on it for a minute instead of blindly following this 'Medusa' like a damn sheep, that seems like a good plan. In the meantime I have some trash bags to look for."

Allison quietly moves from her spot and begins searching the house for the bags in question, staying on the line the whole time.

Let me know if I need to roll for either of those things (talking down the mortal and finding the bags; a pillowcase will do in a pinch).

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen looks at the dragon evenly. "I'm glad you're being reasonable here, and you can tell your boss the same thing, but I can't just let a guy who's at best a lackey go get 'questioned' by someone I don't even know," she says. She hasn't signed about a million online petitions against 'enhanced interrogation' just because it makes her feel good, after all.

She turns to the human. "If you know anything that you think would satisfy her curiosity, I really suggest you let her know of your own free will. If Medusa has a problem with that, you've got at least one other friend who's willing to stick his neck out for you more than she is." She coughs rhetorically. "Probably worth mentioning that Aequitas is the one who made the offer to get you out alive, not her."

[Sith_Happens]

"...Really? You can't let him go with someone who might be his best chance at living? I'm not an expert on wizards but I'm guessing they don't exactly have to torture people if that's what you're worried about. Maybe some sort of mind probing or something, but at least in most of the movies I've seen that doesn't hurt much."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"'Mind-probing' doesn't sound much more pleasant even if it doesn't hurt, honestly," Christen says, "but I'd need some kind of reasonable guarantee he's not going to be harmed before I let him leave with anyone other than the guy who told us to come find him."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The dragon simply shakes her head when Christen makes her demand.

"'Fraid not kiddo. While I can guarantee he won't be killed barring extreme stupidity on his part, I can't say he won't be harmed at all. After all, I'll have to be rather physical to get him home in the first place." The young man seems a bit surprised that Christen would say what she did, and responds in a surprised and worried manner.

"N-no you don't understand. It.. The Seers are the rightful authority on magic. I can't help terrorists, and that's what her masters are! I'd be a criminal, and I refuse to incriminate myself." He seems to have had a small crisis of faith at the start, but grabs hold of his moral compass and pushes forward with his ideas anyway. That gets a shake of the dragon's head and a sigh.

"Straight from his own mouth then. I'll be happy to trade the tech for the guy, but without the guy I won't let go of the box. My side has to gain something out of this after all."

[Sith_Happens]

Starting off with my standard note of "Italicized and no quotation marks = thinking, not saying out loud," since I haven't explicitly specified that yet in this thread and want to make absolutely sure no one thinks Allison is saying the below into the phone.
Damn, so much for this going smoothly...

She hastens her search for something to transfer the laptop to for smashing purposes, now that worst case scenario she might be needing it ASAP.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka opens her mouth then closes it, forcibly switching track as she considers what sound to be the morals of the girls and her own... In part, she was hoping they hadn't stumbled into a belief conflict, because that could be bad...

Because for one thing, there was no way she wasn't letting the box go without being destroyed, nothing that destroys minds should be allowed to continue. If something didn't have free will, ok, fine, use it as a tool, but to take one's mind deliberately to use them better? That thought had her blood boiling.
The thought of letting the ganger get taken? That was a consequence... Not necessarily a favorable one, but one she could accept... From the sounds of things the man needed an adjustment anyhow... (That said, her Queen did talk about at least trying to understand the darkness.)

But from their words, perhaps they were just avoiding an option in which he got harmed... No, they weren't mirrors, but it was always worth striving for perfection in everything until Utopia could be achieved.
Was it better to try and lead despite what she had said though? Neither were going to let him take it... No, she could wait, and fight if she must.
But they didn't want to fight...
Ericka lowered her tazer. Threats obviously hadn't worked.

"Well kid, regardless of what you think, we're not going to help you take it. Do you think you can fight her?.. If not, than you're going to have to look for other options, or you can see if you can get your boss in the phone to talk to her boss?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen taps her fingers on her arm, considering, and waits for Allison to return before speaking.

"You're not leaving with the artifact," she tells the guy. "If you can accept that, and you think your boss will, leave now. We have a car around the corner."

Assuming he takes the out, she squares up between the dragon and the human. "I remember fighting creatures like you in a past life," she says, "but I want you to know this isn't anything personal. It's my job to protect people, you know?"

[Sith_Happens]

Oh for crying out loud...

Having finally found and grabbed a few loose garbage bags, Allison returns to her spot by the doorway as hastily as she can without making noise, desperately hoping that Christen isn't really about to start a fight.

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The man looks at Ericka, then to Christen, and grits his teeth. He looks at the dragon, the briefcase, and then clenches his fists. Then he takes a deep breath, exhales, and shakes his head. He turns to walk away, but is interrupted when a sudden whisper on the wind speaks to the Nobles. The voice is soft, quiet, feminine, and cold.

"Michael." The man clearly heard it as well, and jerks upright when the voice speaks. He opens his mouth and tries to scream, but the girls don't hear anything. Eyes as wide as saucers dart from Noble to Noble, and the pleading look on his face says everything his mouth cannot.

"Michael!" His arms twitch and his body shudders as the voice repeats itself. He's clearly not doing it intentionally, and desperately tries to turn his head with fear and terror plastered across his face. His head doesn't move, and only his eyes twitch and jerk sporadically as he desperately searches for some savior.

"Useless!" His body... twists, for lack of a better understanding of what's going on. His left and right side fold in on himself as if he were a greeting card. The disgusting crunch of bone and meat that follows tells anyone listening all they needed to know about what happened. His top and bottom fold inward to become a small neatly squared cube of fleshy meat dripping blood onto the flood. Fortunately the Nobles could not hear his screams, but even so their souls resonate with the overt cruelty of the young man's death.

The dragon simply watches, she neither grimaces nor smiles at the suffering of the Seer's lackey. Her reaction is decidedly neutral, and she watches him die with an impassive gaze. After it's all said and done the small meat cube falls to the ground with a disgusting splat. There is no further words on the wind in the wake of his death, and the dragon is silent.

---

Once everyone's processed the near comical cruelty inherent in the death of 'Michael', then the dragons speaks. If Christen continues with her statement, then she responds in kind: "Hm. People like me? I have memories of my ancestors as well, but they're faint. I remember being so confused when it came to humans. If you didn't want to die, then why did you decide to be made of meat and treasure? But that was before I slept. Now I realize you don't decide your shape."

If Christen doesn't speak about dragonhunting, then she simply says: "This is an example of why you don't give Mages your real name, and don't work with Seers. Knowing your real name makes it easy to find you magically, and Seers don't give you second chances. Or promotions."

[Sith_Happens]

Hearing the disgusting sounds of Michael's death through both the phone and the doorway, Allison pauses for a few seconds in confusion and worry before speaking.

"Uh, guys? What the f*** was that?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen went ahead with that full post when it looked like Michael was turning to leave, I guess. Did we get both of those little factoids, or only one or the other?

Christen can only stare in horror as the hostage...Michael...folds up and expires. The cruelty doesn't reach her Enlightened soul, but she's nonetheless horrified at not only the cruelty, but her complete inability to see or even stop it. It's everything she can do do avoid sinking to her knees or vomiting.

[5ColouredWalker]

Where the others got off with horrified looks, Ericka was not so lucky.
As Micheal started folding, so did Ericka, who folded like she was punched hard, collapsing to the ground while clutching her stomach as she listened to his final screams, shaking.

A few heartbeats after the screams stop, Ericka stops shaking, whispering.
"Why one avoids mages... Please take that case and go..."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The dragon absorbs the stunned fear and pain displayed Christen and Ericka respectively. She looks at the girls strangely, as if having a war with herself, until she finally makes a decision with a loud and resigned sigh. She heads over to the seemingly brain-dead man, and lifts him and carries the grown man on to her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The rough treatment of the man doesn't reflect in the girl's Sensitivity in the slightest.

"Okay, come on kids. Hey, phone girl, meet us outside." With that said she walks towards the door, and motions with her head for the girls to follow if they don't move. If forced to take initiative she puts the the mindless man outside and goes back to offer the girls a helping hand to stand.

"Come on little ones. Gotta keep moving. It's awful, ya, but it's closing hour and you can't stay here. Move forward to keep your sanity." Once Allison is outside she'll request help finding the car, and carries the mindless man--and the other Nobles if need be--to Ericka's car.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen, after a moment, shakes it off and wordlessly offers Ericka a hand. Whether she takes it or not, she'll follow the dragon outside.

"If you tell me everything you know about Medusa, it'll really help out when I eventually find her," she grumbles. "Maybe it won't be me who does it, but anyone who can do that needs to be dealt with harshly."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

"Sorry, I'm not the type to learn about all this. All I remember is her name, she's a Seer, and is at war with my master. As a result she's at war with me, and that's really all I care about. But, if you're willing to give me a ride, we can go ask my master directly." She keeps the briefcase in hand, and motions toward Ericka.

"Plus, she needs something to focus on to keep her mind off what she's seen. And a visit to the Château usually gives someone more than enough to think about."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka manages to make her own way to her feet, walking normally while holding her stomach. If one of the group was a mind reader they'd see a mind in turmoil, but outwardly she just seems depressed. When lumped in with the 'Little' girls Ericka seems ready to comment, but her face just sours.
"Car's not far. Are you sure your master will be fine with us bringing him around front, or is he somewhere we can enter quietly..? And unless you give me an address I'll need you in front for directions."

Ericka leads the way to the car, walking fine but carrying herself as if hurt. The others can tell it's a far more psychological wound than anything else... Part way to the car, Ericka hums a quiet melody, one filled with haunting regret and an undercurrent of rage.
[Noble]"I would normally advise strongly against involving yourselves in the affairs of wizards, but I believe it might be too much to ask not to, especially with the risk of Medusa tracing us to ourselves. Wendy, you were not seen but for a flicker and withheld your name though, I would suggest for your safety and the potential others you might help, that you step back from this fight... But will understand if you will not, for those willing to do such must taste justice's wrath."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The blond-haired monster seems to ignore Ericka's non-verbal complaints, or perhaps simply didn't notice them. However, the question of where to go and how to get there does get a response.

"Unfortunately I have to drive. People looking for it can't find the place unless they call it home, as a precaution against invasions, you know. Plus, with me driving it'll discourage your Georgie from stabbing me in the neck." She jabs a thumb at Christen and smiles at her own bad joke, perhaps as an attempt to lighten the mood or simply because she finds the situation funny. Regardless, the dragon holds up the briefcase full of bad news and extends her arm toward Ericka. She's holding it almost dismissively considering how terrifyingly dangerous the thing inside it is.

"Trade ya for your keys. Plus, it's collateral. You can rest easy in knowing I won't drive you anywhere dangerous, unless I'm feeling particularly suicidal. Just, you know, don't open it."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka laughs at the offer.
"No, it only proves you won't drive us anywhere dangerous to you." After a moment, Ericka puts on a smile that seems a little forced, and takes out her keys to swap, and then holds it towards Christen.
"I'll take our unconscious friend for now, unless you plan on carrying him and driving?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Uh...five dead people is enough for me, thanks," Christen says with defensive sarcasm. "And talking to your boss sounds like it'll be helpful in the long run, so no need to worry about me."

Fundamentally, Christen's curious about what exactly they've stumbled into here. She knows Mages, and she now feels a lot more educated about Seers, but working with dragons and dealing with mind control artifacts are other stories entirely. She takes the briefcase from Ericka cautiously. She's tempted to do something violent with it, but there's way too much risk. Instead, she gets in the back seat of the car and secures it firmly under her feet.

Just remembered I need to roll to stay Transformed. Christen doesn't want anyone besides her fellow Nobles to see her real face, just in case:

Belief+IL: [roll0], success
10-Again: [roll1]

[Sith_Happens]

"Okay, come on kids. Hey, phone girl, meet us outside." With that said she walks towards the door, and motions with her head for the girls to follow if they don't move. If forced to take initiative she puts the the mindless man outside and goes back to offer the girls a helping hand to stand.

Allison hangs up and puts away her phone before casually walking out from her hiding place... And promptly noticing the grotesque Companion Cube that used to be Michael.

"...HOLY S***, what is THAT thing? Did Medusa do that? If so, bitch is going down."


Regardless, the dragon holds up the briefcase full of bad news and extends her arm toward Ericka. She's holding it almost dismissively considering how terrifyingly dangerous the thing inside it is.

"Trade ya for your keys. Plus, it's collateral. You can rest easy in knowing I won't drive you anywhere dangerous, unless I'm feeling particularly suicidal. Just, you know, don't open it."

"Frankly I still don't like the idea of not breaking whatever's in there right here, but..."

Allison looks toward Ericka in particular with concern.

"...it looks like I'm outvoted on that now."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

When asked about the meat cube the dragon simply nods in the affirmative.

---

Naturally she hands over the mindless man when prompted, and the girls are ready to go once he's been finagled into the car. She trades the laptop for the keys, and takes the driver's seat. She surprisingly checks her mirrors, adjusts the seat, and otherwise takes the normal safety precautions of an average human. Whether she's doing it for herself, or for her passengers, remains to be seen. Once it's all done she drives out, and hits the freeway as soon as possible. The dragon drives the group south out of town, heading south-by-southeast toward Renton. If questioned about the route, she answers plainly: "Living in the city's too dangerous. We're a couple of hours out, living near the base of Mt. Rainier. Real beautiful, but safe and secluded too."

---

After awhile the Nobles leave the bright city streetlights and head into the dark wilderness. While Seattle could be for those who can't stay in their homes, the wilderness outside the city provides the quiet and sanctity that most places in Seattle lack. The drive over is peaceful, and as quiet as the Nobles want it to be. The car moves along the highway, swaddled in the cool darkness, and the world seems to fade away outside the small light cast by the car's headlights.

Eventually the Nobles find themselves stopped on the muddy lip of Washington State Route 410. Alongside the road stands two natural walls composed of trees growing together, and the darkness of the night leaves everything beyond those trees in shadow. The car seems nestled in the embrace of night. The car's headlights illuminate a small brown sign that reads plainly, Crystal Creek Trail, with an arrow pointing toward Mt. Rainier.

"I know it seems crazy, but here we are. Come on, we're burning moonlight." The dragon turns off the car, bathing the Nobles in the dark of night, and hands the keys to Ericka. She jingles them so the Noble can take them from her, then opens the door and steps out. If the Nobles follow then they find themselves standing in the dark on the side of the road. Mud sucks at their shoes, and they remember the recent rain from a few days ago. However, it should have dried up already. The air feels charged with energy, as if something or someone were waiting in the darkness for the girls to make the first move. The dragon seems at ease, and no sound comes from her side of the car. Until she speaks, at least.

"It's just a short hike from here, a few minutes at most. Phones out girls, unless you wanna trip." The dragon snaps her finger together, and at the end of her thumb appears a small flame like a lighter. She radiates a small sphere of light marching out against the darkness.

[5ColouredWalker]

Getting out of the car, Ericka stops suddenly, looking to Christen and then Allison.
"I need to get you home... I presume you have obligations back home, unless you can both think of a way out of them?"

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

"It'll be fine. My master can take you back to the city in a few seconds, I bet he'll even bring your car if you remind him about it."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen remains surprised that she has no ability to glow by default. Maybe that would be a little too on the nose. She takes out her pocket flashlight and clicks it on, making sure to keep the ground in front of her and the dragon both at least partly illuminated. The good news is that the mud probably can't suck Regalia boots off her feet.

"Don't worry about it," she replies to Ericka. "This is more important, and I've still got a couple hours leeway even if I don't take a shortcut back."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka laughs.
"It would make for a long walk."
Taking the unconscious man out of the car and hauling him over her shoulder (It'd be no good for him to wake up and drive off, if he still could), Ericka then takes her phone out and activate's it's flashlight app, taking care to illuminate the area before her feet to avoid slipping with her load.

"Well then... Time for a field trip."

[Sith_Happens]

"Living in the city's too dangerous. We're a couple of hours out, living near the base of Mt. Rainier. Real beautiful, but safe and secluded too."

"Right, so we're taking a nighttime ride with a dragon out into the wilderness dozens of miles from civilization to go see a wizard. Seems legit."

Upon looking to each side at her companions, though, Allison simply shrugs.

"...Whatever, if these two are fine going along then I guess I am too."

----------


Getting out of the car, Ericka stops suddenly, looking to Christen and then Allison.
"I need to get you home... I presume you have obligations back home, unless you can both think of a way out of them?"

Allison shrugs again.

"Meh, as long as I come back sober and in one piece my dad's learned to be happy with that."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

"Where do you expect a wizard to live? Besides, you'll love it. Just stay close." The dragon starts trekking into the trail, and motions for the girls to follow her. The gauntlet of trees chokes out any light from the moon, and their leafless branches reach out like fingers. Fortunately no one gets snagged or falls, but soon enough the three girls, the dragon, and the mindless man are left alone in the darkness with naught but their own various lights. The walk takes some time, and the Nobles start to notice some oddities on the trail. The mud gradually gives way to solid ground, and in turn that changes to stone. The trees get thicker and thicker, and at some point in the trip they've fused together into a stone roof and stone walls. The darkness gradually deepens, and it soon becomes impossible to see anything beyond the viewer's personal space.

After a few minutes of walking the Nobles spot a light in the darkness ahead, and as they approach they notice it becomes obvious that they're in a cavern of some sort. Ahead the cavern ends, and soon enough the girls emerge into the cool night air once more. They're standing at the mouth of a cave, which sits at the top of a small hill. To their left, nestled in a small valley, stands a large sprawling structure of wood and stone, with various windows lit up from internal lights. To the right is the snow-covered slope of Mt. Rainier. Strangely, the cool night air feels like standing back home in Seattle rather than standing on the slopes of a mountain, and there's no snow around the girls or in the valley with the mansion. In fact it's almost like a cool spring air rather than the middle of December.

---

At first the girls seem to be alone on the hill, at least as alone as one can be with four other people, but after a few moments of quiet a small cough draws their attention to the cave behind them. A young woman--dark-haired, dark-eyed, and light brown skin--stands in the mouth of the cave they had just left. She's wearing a simple black suit, blouse, and apron that looks like a modern maid. However, she has a pair of immaculate combat boots, and the holstered pistols on her hips say she's definitely not your average house-cleaner. Her body is toned and disciplined, while her posture is rigidly military. She's standing at attention, hands behind her back, head raised, and staring at the assembled girls.

"They're my guests." The dragon motions at the girls.

"Father did not grant you the right to invite guests, beast." She doesn't raise her voice, but the edge of disgust is plain and obvious. That gets a roll of the dragon's eyes.

"Okay.. They're our bosses' guests. Said to bring them by with the Seer."

"Is this the Seer, guest?"The maid points to the unconscious man draped over Ericka's shoulders. Surprisingly she's cordial, if a bit stand-offish, in tone.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka slowly comes to a stop at the sight of the guard, before turning to put the unconscious man down at a tree.

"Oh just call on ahead, we'll wait. If we have to turn around, it's not like we're able to find this place again on our own."
Ericka begins stretching out her shoulders and back with a series of cracks, and then a yawn, turning to the other two princesses.
"Can you two drive?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Yeah, but I try not to carry my license on things like this," Christen says absently, then turns to the...guard, apparently. The mismatched elements make her think of her own Regalia, but from context she's more likely to be some kind of apprentice Mage who just has her own style.

"This is what's left of one of this thing's victims," she explains, hefting the briefcase she carried from the car. "We're bringing both of them to your boss on the basis that unlike the other lady, he hasn't killed anyone gruesomely for not securing it, and said he'd destroy it safely."

Christen's aware she might be conflating a couple of conditionals here, but she's going to hold the Mage responsible for disposing of the thing even if he looks it over first, and she figures she might as well make that clear now.

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

"Very well, I'll--" The maid's interrupted by a sudden dark shadow that passes over the hill quickly. A blast of air follows the shadow, and it sweeps across the small hill they're standing on with a violent burst. The blast of wind blows out the dragon's flame, and any loosely held phones. A powerful roar follows the shadow's passing seconds later, and the maid's exasperated look tells the girls it's not exactly uncommon. On the other hand, the dragon's bearing a smile too wide to be sane and too happy to be normal.

"Kelidraxia. Would you stop it from getting to civilization?" The dragon turns her slasher's smile upon the maid, and leaps into the air without saying a word. The sound of a roaring bonfire accompanies her ascension, and another blast of air and the sound of powerful wings announce the dragon's full transformation. With the dragon gone the maid frowns deeply.

"I apologize for the interruption, guests. That was Father's greatest failure, followed by his greatest annoyance. Kelidraxia means well, but she's an annoying beast yet untamed. But I ramble. Here." The maid reaches into one of the pockets of her apron and produces a trio of nametags and a trio of matching glasses: One set red, one set blue, and a final set green. The nametags are ornately gilden squares of some unknown metal. The words "Hello! My Name Is:" are etched onto them. The glasses are big, boxy, square, and ornately gilded hipster glasses. Except they actually have lenses in them, unlike most fashion statements. The maid steps forward and provides the nametags and glasses to the Nobles and explains their purpose.

"You need only think of a name, and the nametag will fill itself out. For your safety, real names are absolutely forbidden within these grounds. The glasses are provided so that guests may perceive other guests, to avoid rudeness and any sneak attacks." The maid waits patiently for the girls to make names for themselves, and to don their glasses. In the meantime, she explains the rules.

"As long as you are within Father's domain, then you're considered his guests. According to the articles of the Pax Arcana: This means he will provide his full strength in your defense if you are attacked. This also means guests who assault other guests within the Château will be dealing with all of its residents. So please, do not break the peace. Any questions, guests?"

A Dexterity+Composure roll is needed to remain upright for the first fly-by. Holding onto your phone requires a Wits+Strength roll, on a failure a Dexterity+Wits roll would catch it if you do drop it.

A second Dex+Composure roll is needed when Kelidraxia takes off, but if you haven't lost your phone then you're too prepared to lose it this time around.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka's fairly good when it comes to keeping her feet, and thoughts of money being wasted to replace her phone keeps her hands firmly clenched around it. The second launch is a surprise but she holds her ground despite the mud, however she looks with wide eyes towards the dragon, desperately wishing her transformation was anywhere near as impressive... Hell, her plasma pistol was crappier than most real pistols, let alone the one she carried for self-defense.



Ericka actually spends a couple of moments in thought before the nickname she normally provides ingraves itself on her nametag, immediately dispelling any pretense of her name being Sasha due to the spelling being Shas. Ericka then quickly turns to Christen.
"Noble names are true even if only sometimes, should I remember right. I suggest the nickname of Shaphy due to your court sister... At least people with a brain will only get half your name."
Ericka then turns to the person who remained.
"Are we expected to assist in the keeping of the peace or prohibited to? Either way may cause some problems due to our nature, even if I'm hopeful none would be so stupid as to start a fight in a wizard's sanctum."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

Looking at the dragon allows Ericka's phone to illuminate a small section of the beast. It bears scales the size of shields, each one blacker than night, and reflecting the shining light from Ericka's phone. The sheer size of the beast doesn't let Ericka see anything more, but it's plainly and absolutely not human.

After the beast is gone Ericka is able to question the maid about the Pax Arcana. "You are not required to protect the peace, but you may defend yourself as appropriate against any one that breaks the Pax Arcana. However, I would suggest heavily suppressing any desires to break the peace within the Château. Father normally takes a rather laissez-faire approach to ruling his domain, but takes a hard line stance on protecting the peace. He rather likes people who search out and deal with problems, so he would be quite sad if he had to kill you. In interest of his happiness, I ask that you hold any action on any grudges until after you've left the Château."

"It may seem barbaric, but when one has to handle the myriad problems of beasts, vampires, and other monsters, then keeping them from killing one another requires draconian measures."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka bows her head slightly, before pulling on her goggles.
"I understand. We shall seek to restrain our natures... One final thought before I would enter, is there a grace period after leaving the Château, or being asked to leave? I doubt we would need it, but t's always better to be sure."

Goggles on, Ericka's eyes flick to Christen and Allison, hoping that the glasses do not see through their transformation, before looking at herself to see if they see her transformed self.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen holds herself and her flashlight steady during the Beast's flyby, thankful that this is real life and her Regalia doesn't feature a miniskirt.

"Just how many of you are--" she gets out before Kelidraxia's unexpected takeoff knocks her on her backside. Through a dint of effort, she maintains her composure and bites back an angry rant. "Gonna call her Keli and see how she likes that," she mutters instead, standing and brushing herself off. Her hand stays on her rapier's hilt, though, and frankly she might join in hunting just now just for catharsis if she had a means to fly.

She shakes it off, though, and accepts the nametag and the glasses. With a thought, Fencer appears on the nametag - "Saph" and even "Shaphy" are a little close to a real name, given what she saw happen earlier. She also accepts the glasses, pushing her Darkspawn-tracking Regalia glasses up onto her forehead and replacing them with the magical item, immediately checking over the group and seeing if she can spot details on the dragons.

"So does everyone come to your boss's court?" she asks. "Sounds like you get all kinds here. The only things I go out of my way to fight are Darkspawn, and if I do that I'll be doing you a favor."

Okay last bunch of rolls, all Int+Occult+2

vs. Allison: [roll0], 10-again: [roll1]
vs. Ericka: [roll2], 10-again: [roll3]
vs. Maid: [roll4], 10-again: [roll5]
vs. unconscious guy: [roll6], 10-again: [roll7]
vs. Keli (if she's in range): [roll8], 10-again: [roll9]
vs. other dragon (if she's in range): [roll10], 10-again: [roll11]

Basic success on everyone but Keli

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The maid proceeds to answer questions as she's asked.

"There is only the grace period of returning to the base of the mountain. Father claimed the mountain to avoid hikers being hunted for sustenance by our human reliant guests." The maid offers her assistance to Christen when she falls, and if Christen takes her offer the Noble discovers she is a lot sturdier than she looks.

"I am afraid Kelidraxia is the only permanent monster in residence. The beast that flew by first was Father's attempt at creating a dragon of his own. It failed. Not all of Father's creations are as perfect as I." The question of courts gets a smile from the maid, and she practically swells with pride.

"Father was part of the group that halted the chaos during the vampire civil war over two decades ago. He claimed the city as his domain, and reached an accord with the monsters. Each section of monster, from ghost to werewolf, are allowed governance over their personal territory, but only so long as their predation does not require his intervention. His intervention to date has been pro-human. As expected, really, given his origins."

On the statement about Darkspawn the maid simply raises an eyebrow. Apparently she's far too good of a servant to question a guest, but her posture asks what her mouth doesn't need to: 'What is a Darkspawn?'

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka's caution slowly shifts to excitement as the 'Maid' speaks, with curiosity and concern coming back at her mention of being a creation... Well, Ericka might be feeling the dread of waiting for another shoe, but thus far felt safe enough.

Ericka quickly turns to Christen before speaking.
"I'm sure we'll manage to force ourselves to restraint in regards to violence given the threat of a powerful mage overhead..."
Ericka turns back to the maid As for Darkspawn, think an enraged vampire or deranged changeling for temperament and empowered by the darker side of almost every creature and you're not far off. I doubt we'll see any and even if we do the only ones we're likely to see are not the ones we would just charge into without a basic plan, since most of us don't wish to commit suicide... Now, I can't think of anything else, and am ready to enter the Château."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"He created dragons?" Christen asks, incredulous. "Why am I not surprised that went wrong at least once. I'm amazed he's alive...or that the big sister up there is still able to do stuff on her own."

She nods along to Ericka's explanation of Darkspawn, but figures she should expand on it. "So...for example, Vampires are people who became freakish predators who gain their sustenance from the living, but they're still people. Even if they hurt others, it's to survive. Or just because they're jerks who like that, which humans do too."

"Darkspawn are monsters that don't have that part left anymore. Whatever they were before they became Darkspawn, all they exist to do now is cause pain and misery," she concludes. "Long story short, that's why I'm walking around in cosplay carrying a sword."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

When the Nobles explain Darkspawn the maid simply nods. Nothing so drastic as acknowledging that she had ever asked a question, but still a better reaction than the dragon had ever gotten. She carries on to clarify the situation.

"To clarify: Father did not create Kelidraxia. That beast was found wandering around the base of the mountain a decade ago. Father went to slay it, and was foolishly convinced to allow it to live when she gave her Heart to Teacher. The mindless beast came afterward, in a failed spurt of compassion for an inhuman monster. Father intended to create a companion or family for the beast, but only succeeded in giving it a chew toy. Hence it is Father's greatest failure."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

Naturally the maid waits until the Nobles exhaust themselves of questions.

---

With no further questions being asked she leads the way toward the Château proper. She opens the door, leads the Nobles inside, and closes the door behind them. The first room they step into seems like a simple jacket room. A small rug lays in front of the door, a coat closet sits directly to the east of the front door, and the maid offers to take the girls coats. She does not press the matter, and leads further into the house. When the maid steps through the next door into a meeting hall. The room is T-shaped, with the girls standing at the long end of the T, and illuminated by a chandler covered in candles. The dark wooden walls are decorated with paintings, some antiques, others copies of classics, and a few from fresh artists.

On the far wall, hanging at the junction, stands a massive painting. It's easily twice as tall as your average man, and four men could lay down feet-to-head across its base. The painting depicts a snowy landscape of a mountaintop fortress in ruins. Three dragons fly around the ruined walls. In front of the painting is a long table with spaces for ten people, and five of them are filled. Three other humans are standing around the room.

On the left side are two humans, or as human-esque as many beasts can be, sat closely together. The eldest is a woman well into her seventh decade. She's wearing a regal green dress that looks like the dress of old nobility, a blue belt that glitters in the room's candlelight, and she's sitting with her hands in her lap. Ornate golden embroidery in the shape of dragons and thorns decorate her sleeves, and a golden locket in the same of a teardrop hangs from her neck. Her hair is snow white, and she wears the weathered face and inviting smile of a grandmother. A nametag attached to the neckline of her dress reads: "Grandma"

The woman's aura is a blizzard in a summer's day. Warm, easily approached, and utterly suffocating. It would be easy to get lost in her, and escape once lost would be impossible. She is definitely still human, yet is somehow greater than any other human. She's currently amused.

Beside the white-haired woman sits a very young man. He's a little older than eighteen, and wearing a simple tee shirt, plain blue jeans, with a plainly armored breastplate with a sheathed blade slung over his right shoulder. The blade's pommel is leatherbound, quite old, and decorated with a simple ring of steel at the end. He's wearing a hard look, like a teenager trying to be pointlessly tough, and staring across the table. Christen, unfortunately, recognizes him as Siegward "Sieg" Wagner. He's the star of her high school's baseball team, most popular kid in the school, and sits in all of the same AP classes Christen takes--along with several college-level courses. A nametag attached to his shirt reads: "Dragonslayer"

The young man's aura is a hurricane. Young, tumultuous, and immensely powerful. It would be impossible to stand in face of that power, but while he'd draw anything along in his wake it would be easy to escape. He is still quite human, yet is somehow greater than any other human. He's currently angry.

The other seated guests include a broad-chested, board-shouldered, and tall man of eastern european descent. His barrel chest is covered by a tightly stretched shirt, and he's wearing a pair of torn and ripped jeans. His body tells the story of his mind, and he smolders with barely restrained anger. His head's shaved, and he's wearing a pair of sunglasses to cover his eyes. His hands clench and unclench rhythmically, and it's clear he's planning an outburst of some sort. A nametag attached to his shirt reads: "Ruskie"

He has a wild aura of bloodshed shaped like a great wolf. The wolf-beast moves independently of his flesh, pacing a few feet away from his body with impatience and restrained fury. He is clearly not human, and is currently angry.

The fourth guest is a human-shaped monster suffering deep burn scars, mismatched ears, grotesque random growths, and a mouth full of broken, jagged, and sharp teeth. The beast's ugly visage looks like it could only be improved with a violent beating, yet no one has drawn swords to slay it. A leather jacket, leather pants, and a ripped up shirt adorns its tattered flesh. It's seated at the far corner of the table, and seems to be toying with a smart phone to pass the time. A nametag attached to his jacket reads: "Gnarly"

It has a black aura of undeath that's barely animating its corpse-flesh. Whatever once remained of the monster's spirit has been destroyed with its transformation into a beast. It is quite clearly inhuman, and is currently bored.

The final guest is a rotund little man with glossy eyes, pallid flesh, and a grotesquely bulbous form stuffed into a suit a few sizes too small. The well tailored suit fits his heavy form tightly, and a few seams have burst at his joints. His fourth chin wiggles as he eats from a carefully provided plate of coffee biscuits, swigging deeply from a mug filled with some unknown fluid, and breathing as heavily as an old air conditioner. A nametag attached to his jiggling chest reads: "Fatman"

The fat man has a pale white aura with spidery black tendrils running through it. He is human, of a sort, but definitely not monstrous. He is currently ravenously hungry.

The only other people in the room are three maids: Two stand beside the painting, one seeming rather bored and the other staring at Siegward's sword enviously, and the third is an angry woman carrying more biscuits and a large tea pitcher to the fat man. All three maids, oddly, look exactly like the maid they'd already met. The same young woman copied over and over again: Dark-haired, dark-eyed, light brown skin, wearing a simple black suit, blouse, and apron that looks like a modern maid. They're armed with a shoulder-slung SMG, a holstered pistol, and a military shotgun respectively.

Each of the maids has the same aura as the first one: Black wind-dancing flames. Each one is plainly inhuman. The bored girl is feeling lazy and bored, the girl staring at Siegward is feeling envious, and the third is plainly angry.

The maid leading the Nobles sighs upon sighting the scene, then motions for the girls to take a seat nearby Siegward and the old woman.

"Father must be slacking. Please, have a seat guests, and I shall retrieve him shortly."

[5ColouredWalker]

"Thank you."

Ericka's eyes dance across the room, memories, both her own and of the past. Were she a warrior again her hands would likely be tensing unbidden, but she's been quite carefully avoiding a second flaring, and the closest her hands come to rising are with Gnarly, an instinctive urge to heal having to be forced down under a weight of knowledge and evidence that that's normal for him, and that it could well be taken an insult... She does however keep it in mind to ask about it should she have a chance that's less volatile.

When Ericka's eyes reach the maids she smiles appreciatively... Bar the SMG for legal reasons, it seemed their preferred armament was similar. After a moment she whispers to the girls beside her.
"Let's make like commoners and find a quiet patch of wall." With that, Ericka's gaze wanders for an empty patch to stand near, planning on using her phone to pass the time... That or taking a longer look at the artworks, several were quite pretty.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen nods at the maid's story, considering. That's exactly the sort of thing someone with more heart and hubris than sense would do. She resists the temptation to ask her what, exactly she is, on the basis that it doesn't pay to be rude to someone who's visibly packing heat and definitely not human.

--

Once inside, her eyes sweep over the crowd, although she can only interpret a bit of the tumult of color and light - her one visit to the Queen of Diamonds' court had been similarly overwhelming, but she'd had the benefit of a dream's perception filter at the time. She rubs at her eyes under the glasses and nods to Ericka, joining her off to the side of the chaos. The one aura she was able to really interpret, besides confirming that the "maids" are of a type, she doesn't know what to make of - something more horrible than a Vampire, she's fairly certain, but just as dead. She'd probably have to ask about that.

Now that she's not concentrating on auras, though, she can concentrate on faces. "I know that guy," she says in a shocked sotto voce to the other Nobles. "I go to school with Mr. Dragonslayer there. Wow, with a nickname like that no wonder he looks mad to be here. But...huh. I didn't think there was anything weird about him other than being too good at everything."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka shrugs, barely looking from her phone, her voice remaining a whisper despite the knowledge that others could possibly have superior senses enough to hear them.
"My guess is a hunter, maybe a stormsworn, but I'm no expert... Just remember, no names, mages wrath... That said, we may not be able to hold back but I thought better of hunters... Unless he's magical as well which would explain being too good at 'everything'..."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

Christen finds herself staring a little too long at the old woman's aura. She finds herself drawn to the woman without even realizing it. Christen knows this woman. She cannot place where, how, or why. But she knows that woman. Memories of a jealous desire, a violent death, and a leaf. Christen finds herself swallowed up in the past of a dead man. Christen owns this woman. She, and she alone, should have her. Not the boy, not that fool knight, and certainly not her idiot father! Kriemhild, why were you alone and so old? No doubt the plot of the child monster at her side, and something easily remedied with steel. Steel that sat at Christen's hip, in fact.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Yes, Christen thinks, that's someone trapped. Someone she needs to free, protect. Watch over. Keep.

Her sword actually makes it partway out of its sheath this time before, with an effort of intense will, she restrains the intrusive thoughts, taking several deep breaths and fully removing the aura-glasses to avoid further insanity like that. Her mind is a temple, and that was an unwelcome, unholy visitor. She swaps the aura glasses for her regular Regalia ones, former now resting on her forehead in place of the latter.

"I just remembered I'm going to want to go find a place to clean up," she says, fighting down the last waves of possessiveness. "I'll be right back."

With that, she briefly splits off from Allison and Ericka to ask a maid directions to the restroom or, failing that, somewhere she can magically freshen up in private.

Willpower spent (4/5 remaining).

Assuming there is a space where she can get some privacy, she'll go there to get over the overstimulation and de-Transform, re-rolling Transformation until she succeeds and gets a clean outfit.

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

Christen's able to purge whatever influence held her with the brute force of her willpower. The maid who escorted them into the room remains where she is, patiently waiting for the girls to take a seat. When Christen asks for a restroom, then the maid nods.

"Very well, miss. Your friends can take their seats, and I'll show you the restroom." She instructs Ericka and Allison to sit down, then escorts Christen to a bathroom. The maid and Noble head to a small servant's door leading out of the meeting room. Christen follows the maid into a short hallway with only two exits: The door they came through, and a door leading forward. However, the maid opens the door and reveals that the hallway leads too... A plain and simple bathroom. It looks less like it belongs in a massive mansion, and more like it belongs in a small suburban household. Small fluffy blue towels hang off the towel rack, a fluffy blue bathmat sits in front of the toilet, and the whole set up seems so... suburban. Either way, it's odd that this small hallway leads precisely to this one room, and no others.

The maid shuts the door behind Christen, and the Noble distinctly does not hear the sound of her walking away.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka barely looks up in time to catch Christen stopping herself from pulling her blade, the quiet sound steel being drawn softly dragging her from her musings.
Watching Christen, she humms a few bars before taking the indicated seat, the slightest hint of fear being carried in her tone.
[Noble]"A mage's wrath is a terrible thing. Perhaps it would be best if we left should you be having trouble."

[Nerd-o-rama]

The dichotomy is weird, almost unsettling, but it's kind of fitting too, as The Sapphire Blade turns back into Christen proper for a second...facing away from the door, just in case. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath to let go of the stress of the evening so far, briefly finding a pocket of normal in a very strange place.

Then, she dutifully takes her diamond pendant in hand and once again Perfects herself, regaining that mask and sense of confidence that's been protecting her from the worst decisions. At neither point does she bother checking herself in the mirror - what Christen looks like doesn't matter, and Saph always looks her best, at least as far as she cares to. She heads back out and, assuming the maid's simply standing guard, quietly heads back with her.

Once she returns to the dining hall and takes a seat next to Ericka, she shakes her head slightly, responding in the Royal Tongue out of deference to Ericka's deference to her. [Noble] "I thank you for your touching concern, sister, but all is well with me now, or it will be once we have had a chance to ascertain the destruction of the vile device that makes a mockery of the human soul, and seek the dangerous but potentially life-saving wisdom of the master of this beautiful house."

She clears her throat and switches back to English. "I don't know how you keep doing that. One sentence and my jaw's starting to hurt..."

[5ColouredWalker]

"It's in how you try it. Try and force it into song, it's easier but will give you a breathy accent. I've had lots of practice to though. That said, I do use it sometimes as it's the only way I can carry a tune,."

As if to prove her point Erika begins speaking in Noble, her voice breathier than normal.
[Noble] "I am glad you are well my darling sister, though it would do you well to learn to deal with those marginally darkened while we work our way to Utopia. Unless, do you believe one might have dared risk touch your mind to warp it to foul ends?

[ZeroNumerous]

Christen

When Christen finally leaves the bathroom she finds herself back in that same straight hallway with two doors. There is no maid here however, and she seems to be rather alone. There are no adornments on the bare walls, and no sign that visitors are supposed to see this part of the house. If she walks through the hallway then she finds it opens up into the T-shaped meeting hall once more, but from the "main" entrance rather than the servant's entrance. It would seem as if she had walked straight through the front door, but Christen distinctly remembers taking no side trips nor turning: She had walked down a straight hallway twice, but arrived in three different locations.

If Christen feels like experimenting by closing the door and reopening it, then it leads to the same place: The meeting hall's main entrance. If she steps through and repeats the experiment, then she finds the hallway gone and the door opens out into the coat room with the main door.

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

After a few minutes of waiting the maid with the twin pistols returns.

Ericka and Allison

The two Nobles who kept their glasses sees that the maid is being followed by a grand gilded lion. Its fur is the glittering color of a cloudless sunset, its mane has captured the molten sunlight of noon, and it carries eyes of auspicious flame. Its body of light and flame towers over the maid, standing twice the height of the small inhuman creature, and the house seems to undulate and shift to accommodate its great size. It leaves pools of molten golden light with every step, and drips of molten golden light shed off its body. It breathes deeply, and the Nobles can see the auras of those present shudder when it does. As if realizing its mistake the beast breathes out quietly, then begins taking quiet and shallow breaths. That it avoids drinking too deeply speaks of its hospitable nature. However, in the wake of its passing follows an equally terrifying monster.

The creature behind it looked human, once, and stands about six feet tall. Its body has been built of lines of green light bent at right angles, stacked on top of one another, and yet none of them ever intersect. A hundred thousand sand mandalas bent, rotated on its fifth axis, and turned inside out form a lattice of a mindless human-shaped existence. Each line radiates a sickening green flame, yet is completely swallowed in the total inescapability of its human shape, and it stands as both an eclipse and a rising green sun. The lattice of human madness given the shape of man moves in a jerky inconsistent manner, and seems to jerk about from place to place fully built, totally stable, and lacking in any sense of true fluid movement. In the jerky dance of its movements follows another maid, smiling and visibly unarmed.

Christen

Christen, on the other hand, chose not to continue wearing her glasses. Instead, she sees the physical Lie wrapped around each of the mage's souls. The maid escorts a man about six feet tall, black haired pulled back in a ponytail, with a short cropped beard, and a smile on his face. He's young--somewhere in his early 30s at the latest--and dark eyed. He's wearing thin rimless glasses, a simple, loose-fitting, long-sleeved, and comically suburban shirt, and a pair of checkered black-and-white house pants that don't fit the room in the slightest. His body is well taken care of, and his form is shaped by well kept discipline. He has but one obvious physical flaw: His right arm ends around the middle of his bicep. Whatever happened took off nearly eighty percent of his right arm, and the variety of scars on the end tell a tale of poor surgical discipline. He looks at the assorted guests in the room, smiles at the older woman and her angry teen accompaniment, and takes a seat at the head of the table.

Behind him follows another young man--also early 30s at the latest--and greenish-gray eyed. He's a little taller than his contemporary, and has the blank face of someone suppressing his reactions. He's got short military-cut pale brunette hair, and is wearing a familiar suit: A black tie, white collar dress shirt, grey vest, black morning coat, white gloves, and grey trousers marking its wearer as a butler. Undoubtedly he is the head of the servants of the household. He stands a deferential few inches behind the plainly suburban man. His arms are behind his back, and he stands firm and upright as the picturesque model of a manservant. He does not look at the guests, and simply takes his place just behind the suburban man's left side.

DM

The two mages take their places, and the maid that escorted them takes her place at the suburban man's right side. The suburban man at the head of the table addresses the room. "Good evening ladies, gentlemen. I apologize for the wait: I had to make a few calls. I've been told we have two new guests, but I'd like to address older business first." He looks to the man called "Ruskie", and stands up.

"I have conferred with the Prince, and he has informed me that he will grant you asylum to search Seattle. I have also contacted the refugees in Renton, and they'll offer you a place to stay in safety." "Ruskie" stands, looks ready to say something, but the suburban man interrupts him and simply waves away the comment before it's made.

"Send my regards to the matriarch in Renton. Pride, be a dear and escort him back to his car, please." The maid escorts him out, and then the suburban man addresses "Gnarly".

"I'm afraid the effort you went through to buy the artifact was a bit wasted. I'm told there was a shoot out over the artifact, and a Seer hired a group to take it." The vampire grunts, but the suburban man ignores his desire to interrupt and simply continues speaking. "Fortunately the matter has been addressed, and you will be compensated as if our contract had been concluded as agreed upon. Please, give your Sire my thanks for reaching out for me. Greed, please, show our guest to the vault, pay him, and escort him back to his jeep."

He motions for one of the maids, and she escorts the vampire out. With that done, the suburban man looks to the Nobles. "Now I know my dear friends are here on a social call, and I don't recognize either of you. So, pray tell, who are you and what brings you to see the Baron of Seattle, meager that he is?"

[5ColouredWalker]

With some effort Ericka takes off the glasses while the wizard speaks to the others... She's not sure which aura is more disconcerting, the one of golden light or unnatural geometries that she almost fooled herself to be the dragon after having compacted herself back to normal.

Of course, her brain just managed to catch her up on the conversation as the Wizard turned his attention to her, and her mind accidentally kicks into overtime... This has the side effect of derailing the tact train of her two track mind as that track is partially used for coming up with an answer as she struggles with how to get the Vampire's attention, resulting in a little bit of a stumble.
"I-uh-We are here about that artifact you just mentioned!" Her words aren't quiet shouted, but they are a fair bit louder... And accompanied by a mental facepalm, and imagining forcing her concerns into a tiny box in the corner.
"I-uh... Sorry, your aura has thrown me... Ch-Fencer." Ericka puts the glasses down on the table as she takes a breath, eyes flicking suddenly in hope the Vampire heard and paused before turning her head to Christen and the suitcase.

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

Whether the vampire heard or not: It carries on following the maid. Given that he was told to leave by the mage, albeit politely and with pay, it makes sense he wouldn't delay his departure. In the end, the vampire leaves entirely barring a more extreme action from the Noble. The mage on the other hand, looks to his man servant.

"Did you hire these girls?" The butler simply shakes his head.

"No, I simply informed Kelly to find it, because I did not trust the bloodsucker." The vitriol in his voice is obvious, and it's plain the mage has nothing but disgust for vampires. The Baron nods, taking what his manservant said at face value, and turns back to the Nobles.

"Very well. Girls, could you show me the artifact? And, perhaps, explain to me what happened?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen looks at Ericka's reaction and decides that seeing someone dressed like her uncle who lives in Santa Modesto in the middle of this feast of supernaturals is probably preferable to whatever she was getting with the magic glasses on. She nods and stands up, holding onto the briefcase (as she obviously would have been this entire time with something so dangerous).

"Good...good evening," she starts, not really used to anything this close to public speaking but doing her best to rally. "Earlier this evening, we were sought out - not us particularly, but people with abilities like us - by a vampire, who contacted us through a man calling himself Aequitas. He wanted us to find something described as a laptop computer that was supposedly going to someone we came to understand is called Medusa, a Seer of the Throne."

She looks at Ericka and Allison briefly to make sure she's worked out the connections correctly, then continues. " I'm not convinced of where he really intended the device to go, only that Aequitas wanted the 'computer' and the money Medusa paid for it back. On our way to retrieve it and interrupt its sale to some third party, we met your dragon associate, the thieves who stole the device were killed at the hand of one of its victims, and one of Medusa's employees who...didn't make it out after he accepted the idea that we weren't going to hand over the device without learning more," she says solemnly. "At that point, we agreed with Ms. Keli to come here and discuss the device - and how to get rid of it - with you."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka nodded when Christen looked at her... She might even have heard embarrassed mutterings about Ericka making herself look like a 'baby mirror'... These were in English for Ericka didn't trust herself to keep quiet enough in Noble at present.
As Christen finishes, she takes a moment to think through and catch anything she might have missed, quite happy to be stepping back from the leading roll at the moment.

"While we're happy to give you the case, apparently looking at it can warp your mind enough to be brain dead. The victim of the artifact is currently bound in the coat room, while we doubt he would cause any trouble I don't wish to execute him without at least trying to help him... If nothing else, observing him might help with disabling the device safely, as well as any others that might turn up... Also we weren't directly contacted by the vampire and only met by one claiming to work for one, unless there's another seer looking for another artifact which also ended up in a shoot out, I have no doubt that the vampire you just dismissed was looking for the device, though that we were doing so on his behalf... May not be true.
Additionally, it sounded like we would be dealing with a vampire problem when first requested, not assisting one."

Ericka's voice is rather meek, and not just because of her previous stuff up. She can hold her own in front of crowds but she saw herself as being entirely out of her league, this was the sort of things she wished the Queens of Light were as present in the world as the Queen of Tears, then at least she could pass the matter upstairs while knowing she had more protections in place in the waking world.

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The suburban man listens with a smile on his face and a relaxed posture, while his manservant focuses on Christen's every word intensely. Neither of them say anything, and allow Christen to tell the Noble's side of the story uninterrupted. The old woman chuckles when Christen mentions Aequitas, and the young boy tenses when she mentions the dragon. Either way, both of them wait for Ericka to speak up, and listen as quietly and intently as they had to Christen's telling. The suburban man smiles when Ericka tries to warn them of how to handle matters. Once the story is done the manservant looks to the suburban man, and he in turn looks to his butler. Something unseen and unknowable passes between them, and after a few seconds it's followed by an admonition from the old woman.

"It's rather rude, dear 'Baron', to not include your guests in your musings. Please, tell us what you think. I'd hate to have to guess." She speaks with a distinctly Eastern European accent, somewhere Polish or close to it, and smiles as she scolds the mage as if he were some errant child. The suburban man simply shakes his head and smiles, then motions toward his manservant. The butler speaks when prompted. His voice has a light French accent to it.

"Your series of events match the details we've gathered, but allow me to inform you of the details we know. A month ago a group of soldiers returned from overseas and posted an offer of sale of an artifact. An antique machine, they thought, found on the side of a mountain in Afghanistan. We sent Kelly to speak with them, but the artifact had a containment breach. Most of the soldiers were killed in the resulting fight, except for one. He escaped with the artifact. We lost the artifact so we studied the victims, both 'living' and dead, and determined what you fear, young lady." He looks to Ericka when he says the last bit of his statement, then continues on and addresses both of them.

"Two weeks later, the artifact appeared on the market again. This time being sold by a group of monster hunters calling themselves 'Aegis'. A worm by the name of Theodore set up a purchase for us, but he lost a bidding war to a second buyer. A week after that, we found out the sale went badly and someone else stole it. And now, here we are." The butler takes a step back, and the suburban man takes over. His accent is distinctly American, but seemed to have an oddness to it that made it impossible to place.

"Indeed. So, we believe this 'Aequitas' of yours is likely a member of Aegis, and Medusa was likely the second buyer. He certainly wasn't an agent of any vampires we have contact with, since they would have turned over the artifact once they knew of our involvement, and none of them stepped forward as the second buyer. As for the victims: I'm afraid he's far beyond help. The husks left in the wake of this artifact aren't even human corpses, because what made them human is irrevocably destroyed when they're attacked by the device. Neither of us could find a trace of either soul or mind within any of the direct victims we studied. I'm sorry to say, but there's nothing to be done for him... It isn't even a 'him' anymore." The suburban man asks one of the maids--the one with the combat shotgun slung over her shoulder--to fetch some tea, and allows for a short respite from the oppressive nature of the artifact's handiwork. Once the tea has arrived, the mage speaks up once more.

"However, I do have some questions if you don't mind answering. While I do admit to indulging in my curiosity and looking: I only know you aren't human. I refrain from looking too deeply, as it's rather impolite to pry into my guests' souls without their permission. So I'm left to wonder: Why did this 'Aequitas' seek you girls out? You're too alive to be vampires, too calm and afraid to be werewolves, and you haven't demanded any of the rights afforded you by the Lex Magica so I know you aren't mages..." The suburban man shrugs and gives the girls a bemused look.

"If I didn't know better I'd think you were just kids in over your head."

[5ColouredWalker]

Some confidence returned, Ericka speaks first, setting her teacup down calmly.

"I believe we were sought out as a test of our kind. Our closest comparison would be those known as Hunters, were they empowered by the light. I am-" Ericka abruptly skips to noble, because having not been asked for true names yet knowing that almost half of what she says is about to be lost she feels it the best answer [Noble]"-Her Lady Ericka, Mender-Princess of Light, Courtier of the Diamond Queen, the eternal reincarnation of the Knight of the Purest Goal.-" With those few incredibly meaning laden and breathy syllabyls, Ericka transitions back "A member of the Nobility, who have only recently returned to the world... Not related to the lords of the Changlings... And before you comment, to all the knowledge I have access to you caught at most half of the information even if you knew what to look for, so anyone trying to use my declaration of my name to target me will be very disappointed."

The question having been answered, some meekness returns to Ericka's voice. However this time it's not the meekness of nerves despite knowing how the end of her little speech must have sounded. Instead, it's of one calmly talking to someone they see far their superior, and ignoring the rest in the room.
"That said, for our knowledge we are both only little further than those recently introduced to the world, and far beyond in knowledge that happens to be out of date. As to our nature, the only thing I will say without trade is that Nobility is not something 'inflicted' upon us, but something we remember. It comes to some however very young, and it's burdens force us to deal with the world beyond mortals. We three in particular are all relatively new to our natures, I am in effect 'oldest' by a handful of months, and only by force of will have I instead learned more about the magical world instead of rushing into it completely blind."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The two mages listen quietly as Ericka makes her speech. That is, until she inadvertently challenges them to find the truth behind her words. The butler takes a deep breath and shakes his head, while the older woman sighs and rolls her eyes. As if anticipating what was to come she looks to her young follower, and speaks to him in a quiet whisper. "Tell her to recant that, or we'll be here all night."

However, before the young man can pass on her message the suburban man at the head of the table smiles widely. It is not the happy smile of an uncle seeing his favorite niece, or that of an academic having found an interesting question, but rather he wears the all-too-wide smile of an obsessed madman. He stands up, as if having a 'eureka' moment, and it's immediately obvious that he's definitely not human.

"Aha! A challenge. That was a challenge, was it not?" He speaks to his manservant, and the butler sighs in response.

"Technically, sir. But we have more impo--" The suburban man interrupts his manservant in a burst of maniacal statements. The flame of desire burns in his obsessed eyes, and it becomes obvious that Ericka has incidentally stepped on some sort of conversational landmine.

"Nothing is more important than understanding! Besides, it'll only take a few hours to work out whatever is hiding her words. It's no different than Atlantean is it not? And that fire was stolen from the gods, so why not this one as well? Very well, girl! I accept this challenge. Let us unravel the mystery of your words!" The old woman simply touches her forehead and sighs, as if suddenly overcome with a headache.

[5ColouredWalker]

Erika's eye widened slightly as she realized she stepped on a landmine. There was little worse than stroking a mage's ego too much, and belittling it was one of them which meant she would have to pick her next words very carefully. Keeping her focus on the mage, she can only imagine the looks that would be on the older woman's face and her peer, as well as those also in the room.

Of course, none of her tracks were on thinking of that while she tried to extract herself from the landmine without loosing a leg... Or more. While possibly gaining further assistance in the future.

"I offered my statement not in challenge though I would be interested in seeing how close the Baron comes, but I would request that he keeps his answers private. I would also ask that we deal with the original matter first, and offer that if you do, that I will repeat my name as previously stated, as well as another sentence of your choosing in as close a translation as I can, as many times as you wish, before what you wish to record it, while I remain or whenever visit your chateau, that you may better decode my words, with the one exception that I shan't speak noble should you be reading my mind, or using something that can... I'm sure you'll learn what I said, and from it my truest name, in time."

There... That would count as a withdrawal while leaving it free to the mage to pursue, which he undoubtedly would regardless. Additionally, it offered a route for further beneficial trade at the potential expense of something that while potentially harmful, Ericka was certain would never be obtained...
Of course, if the mage achieved immortality and solved the riddled of Noble Tongue well enough to say Ericka's name, all Ericka's future reincarnations would likely take to kicking her memories any time they met him. This was a thought Ericka had only after she spoke, but it was too late to go back now.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Your...Lordship, if I may?" Christen begins after a momentary pause to try and remember the proper mode of address for a baron, even if a magical one was probably addressed differently. And anyway you ironically can't legally hold a title of nobility in the United States, but that doesn't matter. "We'll be happy to share any number of details about our particular niche later, but one thing we don't have rules for is formal challenges. If we could address the more pressing matter first..."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

"More press--Do you girls not understand the glory of solving a mystery? The beauty of unraveling questions to spawn flowers of comprehension and understanding? Do they not understand how important oddities are?" The mage rambles a bit incredulously, almost as if he can't comprehend what he's hearing, and addresses the last bit to his manservant. He bluntly brushes aside the girl's attempts to convince him to return to topic, and his manservant obliges.

"Seems not, sir. That one seems more concerned about what to call you, but there IS the question of the artifact, sir. It is currently contained, but who knows if it's sapient or not. It may try something, and we may have concerns." The baron simply dismisses his manservant's concerns with a blithe wave of the hand.

"Oh please. I could burn out that little thing whenever. There's no mystery in it. Besides, it's harmed my subjects. I'd put it to the sword whether it's sapient or not. And they can call me 'old man on the mountain' for all I care, there's a mystery at foot!" His manservant responds.

"I think our guests would feel safer were it thrown in The Painting first, sir. It would only take ten seconds." The baron rolls his eyes at that.

"Psh. I'll just burn it away with the holy flames of the Aether. There's nothing a good holy fire can't burn. But if they're concerned I can deal with the matter now. Besides, I'd like to test its mettle against me anyway." The manservant bluntly frowns.

"I would prefer you destroy it while it's still in the case. It's safer to you." The two carry on with their snipes like an old married couple.

"Now hold on. That's a perfectly good suitcase. Besides, I can just swallow it before opening the case. Then it won't attack anyone but me."

"For the record sir, I'm against that idea. It's a meaningless risk for no gain."

"You were also against hunting the dragon down. And now you've got a personal servant and a dragon's Heart."

"She's also a literal gold-digger, and you lost an arm sir. And would have lost more had I not intervened."

"I've said it again, and again, and again. But once more: I was fine. Besides, I learned something. A spear doesn't mean anything to dragon. A fair trade for a limb, I think." At this point the old woman interjects, hoping to cut off further argument.

"You could have just asked us--" Both butler and Baron round upon the woman, and state in unison.

"This doesn't"--"concern you!"

It seems Ericka's complaints have caused a short argument, and Christen's comments have only fanned the flames.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka, still sitting down, leans towards the standing Christen with a sigh.

[Noble]"I would say we just throw it into the painting while they argue but I know not which one, and even my tired mind has recognized that I'm functioning more at the level of a very young mirror than a diamond true... I'm just going to sit here and try not to fall asleep."

[Nerd-o-rama]

As exhausting as this conversation is to listen to, it's downright enlightening. It's very interesting that someone would ask if she understands the beauty of unraveling questions and then immediately answer half a dozen without even being asked. She'll certainly have to talk to this man after he's calmed down, but at the moment...

Christen shakes her head to Ericka and replies quietly in English. "I've got it."

Standing up, she walks toward the enormous painting she identified as magical and hungry earlier, holding the briefcase. Addressing the butler, she says "If you're all busy, I can just take care of this myself? Is there anything special I need to do first?"

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

Christen's approach sees no push back from the mages or the maids. The two mages continue arguing among themselves, until the young girl finally gets close enough to ask her question.

"Furthermore, the Cayman job fell apart on YOUR problems with the sheriff."

"He was a damned zombie NAZI! What were you expecting me to do?!"

"At least TRY to get along! He was a former mage and you broke Pax--!"

"FINE!" The shouting match stops suddenly when the room shakes from the force of the Mage's words. The argument seems like it's going to end in violent exchanges of power, but then the suburban man closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, exhales slowly, and shakes his head.

"Fine. I'll deal with the problem now. Give me the box." The suburban man extends his one hand outward as he waits for the box. At this point the butler takes a step back, and looks to the Noble behind him. He motions for the girl to step forward.

"The artifact, dear."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen quietly hands over the case. She could choose to be suspicious, or flippant, or whatever, but in the absence of evidence, it seems prudent to trust this man in his own home. If nothing else, he's already on edge.

"I should let you know that none of us have opened it. Medusa's agent did identify it without being prompted, though, and was...killed when he left without it," she comments. That might provoke a Pandora's Box response, but she'd rather everyone involved be as fully aware of the situation as possible.

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The mage takes the case, and then speaks (http://i.imgur.com/LiHt1bX.gif). A golden orb made of 10 glowing runes encapsulates the briefcase, and the mage nods. He casually opens the briefcase, and retrieves the object inside. He's holding the golden orb floating over his left hand. Within it Christen can see a small cube of tubes, circuits, and gears. It pulsates with a black evil that Christen immediately identifies as the cruel Darkness. What follows is... indescribable. The cube was, then it was not. What's left is nothing, a pure void of Truth where no lie can exist, and an indescribable emptiness held in the mage's hand. He frowns deeply, then brushes away the orb. The spell falls into dust, and Christen can feel the air rush to fill the void of the briefcase.

"There." He sighs once more. "I apologize for the shameful display. Now, shall we go on with introductions?"

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka turns her head quickly when the mage opens the case. Hearing no screaming, she eventually looks up and steadily lowers her gaze to see the mage and the others in the room to see if they're affected, before her eyes turn to the ritual... And upon seeing it's completion looks positively giddy, only barely holding herself back from jumping up and shouting...

'But that means the seer wanted to harness the darkness, not just strip someone of their thoughts...'' Ericka's face falls flat into a composed look as she stills... For a moment she considers speaking again, but refrains, not wanting to share her thoughts since they'd take too long and be to open in English, and because speaking in Noble might start the argument again...
No, Ericka would sit and calmly allow Christen to continue.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen stares at the sudden empty space where that Thing was for a moment, blinks away the afterimage, and nods.

"I am...not supposed to give either of my names here," she reminds herself, before continuing, "but that thing you just destroyed was a piece of something my friends and I here are sworn to fight, so we're in your debt."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka nods slowly, taking a moment to remember the names the trio had on their tags... Inwardly she wishes Christen hadn't declared the trio in the mages debt, such declarations could be dangerous.

"That said, all three of us a members of the Nobility. While you've asked us not to use our names in your Chateau, you may call us Shas, Fencer and [Name Wendy Assumed.] respectively." Ericka inclines her head towards Christen and Wendy as she says their assumed names.

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

"Indeed, though your friend had the right of it. I had meant to ask "What are you", but not so impolitely. All I can tell from a glance is a light-filled vessel, perhaps once human or perhaps quite good at faking it. What do you mean by nobility, and who are your subjects?" The mage sighs and slumps back into his chair. When the question of debt comes up the suburban man simply waves it away.

"You don't know much about mages if you're willing to take on debt so easily. Regardless, with what you've told me of yourselves and what my people have learned: I think I rather like you. People who go out and do things are becoming rarer as the nights go on. Some days I miss the chaos of my first years after waking up." At this point his butler coughs, and the mage shrugs and sighs once more.

"Very well. Ask away." The butler steps forward.

"Honored guests, I would like to know about this 'darkness'. What is it? We had assumed this device came from a type of creature we've encountered before, but you've clearly encountered it before as well." He motions toward his master.

"We are, as you well know, collectors of magical artifacts--dangerous and otherwise--and would like to know as much as we can about the things we collect."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen clears her throat. "Well, it's a very long story, and I honestly haven't had long to learn it, but here's what I know."

She closes her eyes and focuses on what she's learned and what she's been told, only occasionally shooting glances to Ericka and Allison for confirmation.

"In the world we live in, everything's pretty murky and messed up when it comes to 'right' and 'wrong', but there are extremes - the Light and the Darkness. Both of them are supernatural forces in and of themselves, and I'm sure you can guess what they're about. Goodness, mercy, and hope on one side, despair, selfishness and destruction on the other. I'm sure it sounds corny," she acknowledges, reassuring herself that others' opinions of her are less important than her faith in herself and the Light, "but you have an actual dragon working for you, so I'll ask you to accept that these things happen."

She takes a deep breath and continues. "We're people...empowered by the Light. Reincarnations of people who lived when it was much stronger, before recorded history...or at least I am. I've heard rumors of the Light choosing new souls, too. And when we call ourselves Nobility, it's less about ruling and more about noblesse obligé or...chivalry, maybe, in the original protecting-people-because-you-have-the-means sense," she finishes. Thinking back over the duties she swore to her Queen, she wonders if her Court is actually the Court of Exposition.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka thinks a moment, half listening as she checks her phone for the time. When she feels Christen's eyes upon her, she nods, knowing her information is correct, if very broad.

"Baron, while we would be happy to answer such question in great detail, I myself have been up since 5 and am eager for bed, while my companions are young enough that they have parents to return to and school on the morrow, while anything but the broadest strokes such as Fencer has would leave us here all night... With your permission, I would like to see my companions home before returning, be it tonight and resting here or in the morning, to pass on what I know. My own interests, relative lack of ties, knowledge make me best suited for spending a day or so exchanging information, and it would be a step to assuage the debt we feel... Additionally, Fencer has memories of the past that relate to your dragon. She herself may be able to provide some knowledge tonight."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The baron simply listens, and his manservant smiles when Christen mentions they're 'people'. The two exchange a glance when Christen mentions the 'Light', reincarnation, and other magic. Regardless, neither of them speak.

However, when Ericka complains the baron proves slightly less than receptive. His left arm raises once more, and he speaks (http://i.imgur.com/rXwlNLW.gif). A swell of energy builds up in Ericka's body, and she finds herself surprisingly rested. Her body feels like and her mind sharp, almost as if she had slept for eight hours and had a quick cup of coffee to chase the night away. The baron then points to Ericka's chair, and he continues onward.

"We'll return you to your homes when I'm satisfied with your answers. Consider it a full repayment of your debt." He looks at Christen and nods. "Continue, please."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka suddenly sits completely upright, revitalized by the mage. Shaking her head she whispers to herself.
"How much having some of that bottled would help."

Taking a breath to center herself, Ericka begins speaking.
"I was not there in the crucible of the world's forging, and I know that others may disagree with me. That said, this is what I know as well as what I believe.
In the very beginning the world was created, and there were two major forces fighting to control this little speck of blue, and likely many others. One force is known as the Light, the other, the Dark. In broad strokes, Christen is right, the Light is all that is nice and fluffy, the Dark is it's opposites. At their core however are two tennants. Hope, the ever surging desire for something better, from which all is created. And Greed. The desire to take what is and make it your own, to control and dominate it completely. I'm sure you can tell which is which." Ericka takes a calming breath, before her voice saddens.

"Into those endless battles, I was born. My first shape was that of a man, his soul so pure he could touch the very Light itself, and channel both it and his emotions for great things. Into the cycle of reincarnation I was thrown, often wakening, often different, and sometimes sleeping, corrupted by the darkness just enough to not wake, but never enough to become it's tool. Slowly however we were winning, and then we won. But I know you can tell the world is imperfect, and even the purest soul cannot forever avoid the taint, and not all chose to reincarnate, not wanting to loose themselves and become a memory in a future self." And now, Ericka's voice becomes bitter.

"I was there when we fell, and though we still don't know why, I remember that life being a fighter and defender. Bedeked in golden plate, shield at my side and spear in hand, I fell under a weight of numbers that our deaths only weakened enough that our loss wouldn't leave the world to be completely dominated. From my research, I was Sir Beralt of the Eastern wall, Knight of our Lady of Flame, and that is a incredibly rough translation of a translation, and I died so that others could ready a line behind me, my Queen of the time's name on my lips, before I was ripped apart bodily and used as a puppet..."

Ericka takes another breath, her voice returning to one of sadness, and her eyes become unable to meet those of the others.
"The Darkness won, but was weakened. Unable to truly defeat all the queens, some were changed. And other were locked away, hidden in a trap that is now one of our greatest assets. We call it Dreamland. Three queens survived outside the trap and kept the darkness from winning completely. The Queens of Tears, Mirrors and Storms. For this their names hold a place of honor alongside the Dream Queens which lead most of the Radiant to this day, though each are tainted in their own ways. Many are of the belief that at the Queen of Tears has fallen to be a warrior of the Darkness in all but name, however she is one of the few who's touched the world the entire time, and her power is beyond compare, despite herself destroying the light to hold to her own city. The Queen of Mirrors is all but universally agreed to be insane, following prophecies that have all but come to nothing, but through her princesses a light has been carried. The Queen of Storms has become as her name, her body a vicious storm which actively fights the darkness, and only it and it's channeled power was, until this day, the only thing I knew of that could destroy the darkness outright instead of cleansing or containing it, yet she doesn't respond, only grant and take power, while somehow spontaneously imbuing people touched by the darkness who have rallied to fight it, turning them into warriors that while not our equal, are very useful if fueled by rage."

Slowly, Ericka's voice steadies out, and her eyes rise again, her voice flat instead of saddened.

"The trap the Darkness wove for the sleeping queens was incredibly complex, but held one simple note that contained the Queens too well. It was a shadow of the real world, but it was one where they still eked out victories as long as they themselves remained in their kingdoms working through others, forcing them into a dark story. There they still had hope, but it was a distant one... However, in mirroring the real world, they introduced weaknesses, and the final blow to the traps ability to ensnare, was with man stepping on the moon. An impossible task, achieved purely through mundane means, with words set down of hope. A victory of emotion, that was also something far too different for the Dream to mirror. For the first time, those who died reincarnated to the waking world. A world the Dreaming Queens only forgo, for they know they can offer far more help in the dreaming world, aiding those who are awake by being there for them to reach through their dreams."

"The Darkness lives on in this world, doing it's best to make a playground. Where evil acts occur, the very ground is tainted and objects become cursed, constantly seeking to ensnare others. People exposed to too much evil descend to madness of a kind not of the mind, but the spirit. Those who give into dispear are claimed, turned into greedy monsters who fake normality while also seeking power and prestige, as well as glimmers of joy they can't truly feel. And those of us who lose our way and give in... We are tortured as play things until we are set against our former friends, empowered by stolen shadows and the Darkness which enjoys seeing us forced to fight our friends. We of the light have returned to counter it's influence wherever we can, to bring the utopia that could be, with us we bring the power of creation which the Dark eagerly wishes to subvert, for that is all it can do."

With this, Ericka finally stands, her hand reaching up the rest in the middle of the Sigil that emblazons her single shoulder pad, and which suddenly detonates. is surrounded by a corona of light, her ears ring with the sounds of trumpets, of joyful victory.
In her place, Ericka is replaced with Shas'El Ko'vash, bearing orange body armor and a pistol which glows with blue energy at her hip. Her wrist is clad with some sort of computer, which lights up to shed a holographic projection just above it. Her features are Canadian, as is her accent, but her skin is also tinted blue.
"I am-" [Noble] "-the Knight of the Purest Goal-" [English]"A Healer of the Court of Diamonds, soon to become a warrior as well. Among my tasks is teaching, and though my knowledge is limited compared to some, I am happy to help you learn."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

"Don't rely on it. It's a good way to lose touch with what it means to be human." The suburban man passes down a bit of his own wisdom concerning the spell Ericka felt.

Ericka's speech goes without comment from either of the men. Though they share long glances at times, and the suburban man smiles when they mention "Light" and "Good" in the same sentence. The butler frowns when she describes the darkness, and raises his head like he's going to comment. However, he seems to think better on it and simply allows Ericka to continue uninterrupted. The mundane nature of the moon landing gets a knowing smile from the butler, but he says nothing on that front either. Finally, the two share one final look, and he nods.

He looks ready to say something, but whatever that was going to be is lost in what Ericka tries to do next. She's able to touch her phylactery no problem, however her attempt to transform is meet with a sudden and violent end. The shoulder plate suddenly glows with golden runes. It rapidly becomes white hot and violently explodes, sending shards of shrapnel everywhere. The mage jumps to a standing position, and the butler also seems rather surprised. Naturally the older woman and her young companion are both surprised and caught in the blast.

"What was that? What kind of spell did you try to cast?"

"It wasn't a spell sir. She was thinking of a knight of some sort."

"Clearly it was a spell of some sort. The wards don't blow anything up unless it's... magic. Hmm." The suburban man sits down, placing his one hale hand against his chin and miming the motion with his stump. He seems to have completely forgotten the violent explosion of Ericka's phylactery, and rapidly becomes lost in thought. The butler, in the mean time, approaches Ericka and the other two guests. He reaches off to his side, sticking his hand into the air as if grabbing something, and then pulls out a towel from... nowhere. At least, no where the Nobles can see. He produces two more, then gives them over to each of the guests.

"While cleaning up is all well and good", the old woman says while accepting the towel, "could you do something about the piece of metal in my side Dust?" A snide smile comes to the butler's lips, and he looks at his master.

"Sir, your guests need tending to." The suburban man jerks up, as if woken from an internal slumber.

"Ah, yes, right. My dearest apologies, but the wards do prevent anyone aside from residents from casting within the room... Allow me." Without further ado, the Baron proceeds to speak once more. A golden light radiates outward from him, and when it touches the injured it knits together flesh and closes wounds. Christen and Allison, despite not being injured, are both refreshed as if they had slept for a night.

The baron restores 7 levels of lethal (http://lapo.it/rpg/dadi.php?time=1464845780) to everyone in the room. Everyone present regains willpower as if they had slept.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka falls to the ground with a surprised shout when her phylactery explodes, falling to the ground hard and hissing with pain as she feels her shoulder bruising, rising to her seat with help and rubbing her shoulder, though she forgoes the towel.

"It was magic. My sort. I have heard theories as to Mages magic but know they are at best distantly related at the moment, and would be happy to share... You all have my apologies, my observations had me thinking such was safe." Rubbing her shoulder despite the healing, but now without the grimace, Ericka's head turns to Christian.
[Noble]"You lost the mud and I assumed you transformed... Given the lack of explosion, was that not the case?"

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The butler casually responds to Ericka's use of the Royal Tongue. "As mentioned, the wards only prevent casting within this room. Anyone allowed further inside would have to be escorted further inside by a resident, or only find themselves back in this room. Whether the young lady used the same magic or not: She would not have been affected. We only ward the bathroom against teleportation."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka's face immediately turns hard for a brief moment before calming.

"Were that not a guess, in which was accurate, I ask you to withdraw from my mind... In any event, judging by your reactions I would presume your wards wouldn't normally stop other displays such as of a vampire's powers even if they weren't directly related to their form... Interesting given that I can speak in Noble freely and both my companion and I make sense to each other's ears... It would however lend slight credence to Atlantis being a fallen and corrupted Nation, despite the fact to my knowledge Mages are not reincarnations and their powers aren't inherited."


Surprise, combined disgust/betrayal, combined fear/hate. 'How dare he'

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen listens attentively, almost enraptured, to Ericka's retelling of the story of the Kingdom. She's never been much for expressing herself, and she's always glad when someone is around to tell such an exciting story with the proper tone. She's paying enough attention to Ericka to duck just before a piece of phylactery shrapnel flies toward her face, biting back a swear and quickly springing up to check on her ally.

"I'm so sorry...I changed in another room. I didn't mean to mislead you," she says, worry and apology etched clearly on her face even through her more resolved Perfected visage. She looks up, angry at first but then immediately mollified by the healing spell. Still, she has to comment, "It might be better if you hung a warning sign, or something. Especially if it even works on magic directed internally..."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

"Having a sign would defeat the point I'm afraid. It's there to prevent ambushes, and generally those who set off the ward do not survive the chaos that comes after. Were it not obvious that you are not mages, then you would have died as well. We are at war with other mages, after all." The Butler doesn't bother to address Ericka's complaints, and simply goes back to his master's side whenever the girls have cleaned themselves up. The baron does, however, address her questions and statements.

"That particular ward isn't triggered by vampires. The magic on your language isn't a spell being cast. From what little I looked into it: There seems to be some sort of spell worked over the language itself, and the Lie changes to protect it. Not much different in concept than Atlantean, really, and too banal to pursue further." The statement of "Nation" gets a request to clarify from the Baron, and once one of the Nobles specifies as to what a Nation is, then the Baron simply smiles.

"Interesting idea. Wrong, but interesting. I'll need to know who told you of Atlantis, since sharing our secrets with outsiders is generally opposed. I imagine it was Behemoth, since he thinks he can run a black market in my city without me knowing. Regardless, let me set you straight on our story, or at least what little remains of it to be told. Atlantis held no such concepts like Queens or Nobility, no rulers, no gods, only humans. Atlantis was a pure meritocracy where those who were successful rose to the heavens, and those who failed at very least remained safe from predation by monsters. We were the last bastion of Humanity in a sea of monsters: No vampires manipulated mortals like sheep, no werewolves chased men from their ancestors, no gods or demons made them dance on strings for amusement... And no spirits of light, no matter how Noble she thinks she is, lorded over them." The mage leaves the last statement to hang for a moment, as a reminder that Nobles were decidedly not human any longer. Even if they pretended otherwise.

"Atlantis was human glory incarnate. We scaled the walls of reality, and achieved greatness beyond our predators, gods, and 'queens'. But, as all things run by humans must, it fell to hubris. Those strongest among us worked a grand magic called the Celestial Ladder, and used it to ascend to the Supernal realms where magic was drawn from. Unfortunately, those who raced up the ladder fastest were also the greediest. They turned their back on their fellows, shattered the Ladder behind them, and the result is the world as you know it. A great void appeared where the Ladder was destroyed, and it swallowed up all magic that attempted to pass from the Supernal to the physical. Those humans residing within the world of magic then built a beautiful Lie upon the ruins of Atlantis. They shaped it to deny humanity their birthright, their right to use magic, and now try to hoard magic for themselves." The baron shakes his head and sighs.

"Now we're at war. Half of the sons of Atlantis follow those who reside within heaven, and violently suppress anyone with magic who won't kneel, while the rest of us are fighting a guerilla war to depose the new 'gods' by awakening enough humans to their birthright that we can recreate the Celestial Ladder. You've met one of the former, a Seer by the name of Medusa. My manservant and I are members of the latter group. My name is Null--the mathematical concept of nothing--and I am an Obrimos who has walked the paths of heaven, and seen the lie of this world for what it is. I am the baron of Seattle, for what little weight that title grants, and I think I know enough about you to offer you a place within my city's borders. As long as you remain harmless to its people, of course." The butler simply watches the girls, as if introducing himself were unimportant--or, perhaps, not a detail the girls needed to know.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen, likewise, listens to this story, memorizing it and turning it over in her head at the same time. It might or might not match up with Ericka's version, or any other Noble's, but even if history is in question, the pattern of the story isn't. Regardless of Baron Null's attitude, even, the tale's almost exactly the same - a bastion of someone's version of hope and happiness betrayed from within and crushed by the tides of Darkness outside. And now they're at war, just like the Radiant and the Twilight Queens.

"I think we're more similar than either of us realized," she says, "or at least, that we can get along. I hold no ill intent toward anyone in the city, and regardless of any authority, it's my calling to protect the people in it."

She pats the hilt of her sword. "This isn't just a badge of office, although thankfully I haven't needed to use it on anything living...or uh, ambulatory tonight."

If nothing else, she's glad they picked the side who was this forthcoming with information. "I think there's a lot we can learn about each other's magic, if you're interested. I've also got a few questions about the Vampire situation I've been trying to look into, and you seem very informed about what's going on in the city..."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka gives a accepting nod at the first statement, and slight curiosity touches her features on the second. She's smart enough that she doesn't need to ask if there's other runes for preventing vampires and other such creatures from attacking others, personally expecting guns and bombs would find themselves simply failing at best.

While Ericka accepts the story of Atlantis, it's only by digging her nails deep into her hands that prevents her face from showing how insulted she feels when the Baron dismisses the Queens so. Mentally however, Ericka continues filing away the memory for comparing with the records of The Academy, with intention to also place his words in there as closely as possible... She had never played close attention to the extremely distant history of groups, preferring to instead fill herself with more practical knowledge... Knowledge as to the known ins and outs of Atlantis might have prevented any unintentional insult, but knowledge of protective amulets against magics and more common 'dos and don'ts' compiled by recent princesses was worth more.

Ericka's eyes flick to Christian while she speaks, patiently waiting.

"Our aims run together, at least for a short time, and we are far enough from bathing the world in light that I'll be able to restrain myself doing harm. If nothing else, knowledge of the horrors mages can level upon one will stay my hand except in defense of another or my person. That said, my knowledge of Atlantis comes from before the fall, from the libraries of The Diamond Queen, however Atlantis was never a subject I studied in depth in my search for more immediately practical knowledge."
Ericka bows her head slightly.
"I would be glad to accept your invitation. Personally I see any attack on the Seer a long term goal at best, but I am happy to offer my aid, if nothing else her using of the Darkness is enough reason alone to put a stop to Medusa. If nothing else, I'm certain your Barony would be a worthy place to trade information and assistance while I continue to do what I can for the world."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The baron quietly laughs at Christen's statement to defend people.

"Bold. I like it. I don't care what happens to the monsters in the city, as long as you don't prey on the humans." The baron opens the floor to questions, and addresses Ericka's first.

"Hm. You have a repository of knowledge outside of us? Interesting. I'd like to see it, but I'm so used to working with organizations who closely guard their knowledge that I won't ask. I'd be willing to swap stories in terms of magic, but my butler would be more concerned about that than I am." On the Medusa situation he simply frowns.

"If you're going to go after Medusa, then I don't care. She was never protected under the Pax Arcana, so I'm not required to intervene. However, finding her is... It's not something I can do. It ties into the vampire problem. As you know, vampires technically rule the city proper. The riots twenty years ago would have consumed the city if I had tried to eradicate them all, so I granted them the city and split it between the various sects. Unsurprisingly, the vampire condition is not unifying. Most of the city is ruled by a sect calling themselves the First Estate, and small groups of a second sect calling themselves the Sanctified survives in the outskirts. So I laid down an edict to end the riots: The First Estate stays away from the Sanctified, or I burn them all out and to hell with the consequences. Unfortunately, vampires are reactive idiots at best. If I act, even if it's to find a Seer like Medusa, then the First Estate or the Sanctified will assume they're all going to die, and the riots will start up again. So we're in a cold war straight out of the soviet era." At this point the baron's butler produces a cup of steaming tea from... nowhere, again. He proceeds to snatch a teaspoon from thin air, stirs the baron's tea, and hands it over to him before throwing the teaspoon into... also nothing. It vanishes almost like being put into a drawer, but neither Noble can see any drawer beside him.

"I believe", the butler says, "what the good baron is saying is: He'd like to employ you. Officially, of course, we can't give you anything. But if you're willing to help people, then we'd look the other way if a few rules are broken. Naturally we don't expect you to work for free, but it'll all be under the table, of course. Our dear friends do much the same work. In fact, we have a few outstanding problems that you might like to hear about." When he mentions his 'dear friends' he motions toward the old woman and her young accompaniment. The two of them nod at the Nobles, as if that would suffice as a greeting.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka considers the Baron's and Butler's words, before tilting her head to the Baron.

"I shall have to consult the rules. If I am right, bringing Guests, particularly if information is exchanged instead of just taken. If nothing else, I might be able to get in contact with a more mature Sparkler. That said, you would need to be skilled at entering dreams in a lucid state, preferably another's, in order to enter the first time, barring me getting lucky with favors... As for restraint in official action, I fully understand, even if my restraint is often for different reasons. That said, tonight has been one of the very few jobs I can say I've turned a profit on, and I would be happy to bend the rules in a way that does good, as well as being as rewarding."

Ericka's last words are directed more towards the young man and his elder, as denoted by a nod towards them.

[Nerd-o-rama]

So the Vampires had previously been at "peace" only thanks to this man's threats. She should have guessed something like that, although not that it would come down to one man.

"Did you know that the Vampire out-group is re-establishing themselves in the city?" she asks. "I've only heard rumors so far, but if you have any idea what they're up to, I'd really appreciate hearing about it."

She looks at Ericka again. "And this isn't true of all of us, but she and I serve the Queen of Diamonds. Sharing information is a big part of her philosophy. Not to the point of outing the supernatural, of course, but teaching, learning, and honesty are all important. If you give us information to help us do our job, I'm sure we can help you keep the peace as well."

If nothing else, Null was probably wondering why they're both being so forthright, so she figures this deserves explanation.

She also nods toward the human duo, careful not to make eye contact with either - Sieg, in case he might somehow recognize her through her Regalia, and the woman mostly out of embarrassment and a lingering feeling of vertigo. "Speaking of which...may I ask what you two do?"

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The baron listens quietly to Ericka, and also to Christen when she speaks up. The question of the vampires gets a nod from the baron. "Yes. Their Mother Superior contacted me. She came here in person, requested that I grant her and her flock patronage to set up a church. Naturally I refused, as I cannot show favoritism. However, I did act as a mediator between her and the First Estate's Prince. They brokered an agreement that segregated the city. For what little it matters: I wouldn't worry about them. Mutually assured destruction keeps most of them quiet." When the question of helping comes up, then the Baron smiles.

"Well, I'm willing to trade you what I know in exchange for information from you. And if you find any magical artifacts or objects that may cause some concern, then we'd be happy to reward you if you turn them over to us. Those that're too dangerous to keep we'll destroy, but most of them go in The Painting for safe keeping." When Christen speaks to the old woman and Sieg, then the Baron secedes the floor to his other guests. The old woman looks to the Baron, smiles, and adopts a coy look.

"Oh? Not going to introduce us, dear 'Baron'? I'm shocked. I thought you enjoyed flaunting your understanding of things." The baron laughs at that, and shakes his head. He either ignores or allows the old woman to admonish him as if he were a child.

"I'm afraid not. My guests should speak for themselves. So, please." He motions toward the girls, as if signalling her to speak, and the old woman turns her attention upon them.

"We are problem solvers, much like yourselves. My name is Sieglinde, daughter of Siegmund, of the line of Siegurd. This is my grandson, Siegward, son of Siegrun, of the line of Siegurd. We, much like yourselves, have an obligation to mankind. To protect them, as our ancestors did before us, and to stride forth where the sheep fear to tread. As you can undoubtedly piece together from my grandson's poor choice in sobriquet, and our names, we are descendants of the dragonslayering hero Siegurd." The old woman motions to her grandson as she speaks, and this prompts the boy to nod to the girls. He looks at Christen and Ericka, but seems to not recognize either one. Or if he does: He's a master at hiding it. Unfortunately, this prompting also causes the young man to turn upon the Baron, and he stands up quickly and speaks.

"Baron! I have been patient throughout your proceedings--""Siegward if this is about Kelly""--and I must request that I be allowed to slay the beast you have plagu--"--"Siegward, you damn idiot"--"ing your estate! It has already caused harm to the people by kidnapping Emma Bell. I request your permission to put an end the beast!" The old woman sighs as if this were already a tired and played out encounter, and the baron puts his hand on his temples and rubs his forehead. Meanwhile, the two Nobles notice that the butler quietly leaves the room, but neither the Baron nor the two heroes make any mention of it.

"I hear you Siegward, and the answer is still no." The baron sighs loudly, and Sieglinde tries to cow her grandson with her authority.

"Siegward, listen to your grandmother. Emma is happier here. Sit down." The young boy pays no heed to his grandmother, and instead stares daggers at the Baron.

"How many more maidens will it kidnap, Baron? How many will it take for you to act? 5? 10? 20? How many lives ruined to appease a monster?" The baron ignores his complaint, and turns to the Nobles instead.

"Take notes girls: Don't accept dragons as vassals. It only causes problems when your gentry want to make a name for themselves by slaying it." The old woman chuckles at his joke, but it's obvious that Siegward isn't taking things so lightly.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen accepts the information about the Vampires, memorizing the details. She knows there has to be more to it, something that prompted a change in the status quo after all these years, but now she has a few more details to follow up on, at least.

Once Sieglinde introduces herself, Christen quietly searches her mind for where she's heard all those names before. It definitely sounded mythological. She listens to Sieg's extended rant with very little surprise. She could sympathize with the desire to fight a dragon just on principle, but something about going into a man's home and asking to attack one of his associates strikes her as just...stupid. And probably suicidal.

Diplomacy isn't her strong point, but she speaks up to at least be able to help the more eloquent Ericka. "I understand your concern, Siegward" she says, making sure to use the full name he was introduced with. "But can you explain what's so urgent that you came all the way here just to ask permission to fight her?"

Int+Academics to remember her Pan-Germanic mythology and/or opera: [roll0], 10-again: [roll1]
Can arguably add 2 dice for Eidetic Memory, count these if it's relevant: [roll2]

And Wits+Empathy to gauge his reasoning: [roll3], 10-again: [roll4]
Also while I'm second-guessing myself, if this is more like Manipulation+Empathy, chop off the last two dice there.

Specifically, I'd like to know what Virtue or Vice is motivating him here to use for any later social maneuvering, or if we're not breaking out those rules, just a more general idea of his logic in going into a man's house and asking to kick his not-daughter's ass.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka tilts her head with a slight smile.

"If she's truly happier here and would rather stay I see little problem with it... If she's truly unwilling, I think the nature of the dragon's protections moves her somewhere near the very bottom of my list of problems as long as you're curbing her desires."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

"It's about Emma Bell. Girl who disappeared two weeks ago." Rather than Siegward, it's the Baron that answers Christen's question.

"It was only on the news for a couple of days, until her father came out ranting about how she'd been abducted by a beast from the sky. The cops questioned him, and find out he'd went out and bought a few guns, started cutting himself a spear out of scrap, telling people he was gonna hunt it down, and generally acting like a crazy person. So they arrest him, take him in front of judge, and end up putting him away in a psych ward. They think someone kidnapped his daughter, and the event broke him. We had the First Estate encourage them to stop looking, because..." The Baron sighs loudly, as if admitting to a failing of his own rather than recounting a tale.

"Well, he was right. Kelly came back with the girl, fed us a story about how she'd needed a new Maiden so she went and got one, and then went on as if she hadn't just kidnapped a teenager. She refused to answer questions about it, and had to be subdued when we tried to take Emma away. We wanted to take Emma back to her parents, but found out her father was committed, her mother died of alcohol poisoning a year ago, and her next closest relative was an aunt we couldn't track down. So, with the only other option being turning her over to CPS to go to a foster home... We've been taking care of her ever since. Siegward has come by twice now to argue that I should kill Kelly. For what's it worth: He's not wrong. She did kidnap a teenager--violently, if the dad's story is to be believed--and that makes her dangerous to humans." Siegward interrupts him there.

"Did you forget what you told my mother? Anything that hurts humans is a monster, and monsters are fair game. She died believing in that, doing what you said was okay, and now you're gonna tell me this monster is off limits? **** you." Siegward immediately turns to leave, clearly too disgusted to remain, and the baron just shakes his head. Sieglinde simply watches her grandson leave, and unless one of the Nobles stops him he proceeds to storm out. The shotgun-totting maid follows him like a shadow, and the Nobles, Sieglinde, and the Baron are left alone in the room. ...Wait, wasn't there someone else?

"Ended this way last time too. For what it's worth: Kelly hasn't kidnapped anyone else since, and Emma hasn't complained." The Baron answers Ericka's question, and ends his statement with a shrug.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka quickly rises to head off Siegward, seeking merely to halt his progress for a time while she awaits his response, whispering words that carry a note of calm before adding 'I would speak with you after.'

"I know it may not be my place, but I would ask as to what punishment was leveled against to Kelly, and if she's made any restitution to those she's harmed, beyond continuing to care for Emma with your assistance?"

While Ericka's features haven't hardened, any fear from her features has temporarily evaporated.



"Seek calm valiant knight. Sometimes battle can't be brought but that doesn't mean one fights those above directly."

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

Unless Christen or Allison acts to physically stop him, then Siegward simply brushes off Ericka's hand and continues onward. If Ericka bothers to shout her message anyway, then Siegward continues onward without acknowledging it. Whether he even understood it or not remains in the air.

However, the Baron does answer Ericka's question. "We couldn't punish her. My butler already has her Heart, and that's the only thing that we could work out to actually affect her. Injuries are healed instantly as soon as she forgets to be hurt, she can't be physically restrained except through direct applications of magic, and her mentality is completely inhuman. We could have put her in an extradimensional time-out, but what good would that do except give her an opportunity to laze around?" On Kelly's attempts to repay her debt, the Mage simply shrugs.

"Kelly didn't do anything, but what do you expect? She's a dragon, after all. She told me a story of how she used to eat people, and how she couldn't comprehend a creature that didn't want to be killed yet was made of food and carried around treasure. She sleeps on a pile of melted gold with cedar ash spread over the top of it, and she enjoys it. What little moral code I've seen from her in a decade amounts to: One, don't walk away from a good fight; Two, don't protect things you don't care about; Three, don't pass up free treasure; and Four, free treasure is anything its owner can't defend." The baron simply sighs and shakes his head.

"Our current theory is that Emma isn't even important to her. It's just part of... dragon physiology? The draconic soul? A psychological crutch? Whatever the cause behind it we noticed that, shortly after Emma arrived, Kelly has steadily become more human-like. She cares about how people feel, she has more desires than just stealing, eating, and killing, and it's not just a one way street either. Emma's aura has steadily changed since arriving, and so has her personality. When she first arrived she was formal, stiff, and constantly afraid, like kindling wrapped in etiquette and spiderwebs. Now she's gotten bold enough to talk back to Kelly, argue with me, and wants to "learn" magic. To be stronger, she says."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka sighs as the younger Hunter pulls himself free before turning to the Baron, listening to him calmly.

"I see. It is always nice to hear that magic does actually have limitations." There's the slightest flick of the lip when Ericka makes her joke, though her mind speaks of disappointment while adding 'Free dad from insane asylum' to her list of things to do. Unfortunately, she's not in a position to push for anything just yet... It seems she's going to have a busy night of research in the tower.
"In that case my last request for the night before I would exchange details-" Ericka looks to 'Grandma' while inclining her head "-And heading home with my car, is the chance to see to Gnarly's injuries if he's still on the grounds."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen sighs mentally. Kelly seemed to have a handle on herself, but none of that seemed remotely acceptable. She does, however, like to consider herself more reasonable than Sieg, so she's not going to call it out in front of Kelly's protector. If nothing else, it seems like Emma was doing what she'd be doing in the situation, had she never Blossomed. Or what she likes to think she'd be doing. If nothing else, that's a lot of nice details about dragons.

"I won't tell you how to run your household or try to indirectly tell Emma how to live her life, but as a fair warning in case it comes up, if Kelly goes and does something like that again where I have the ability to interfere, I'm going to interfere," she says. The Baron will surely laugh off the assurance, but she'd feel dishonest if she didn't say it. "If Emma wants to try a different style of magic than yours, though, we can teach otherwise-normal people a few tricks."

She nods and prepares to leave with Ericka. She'd rather be driven home than take the Baron's shortcut, just to have time to talk things over in private, and it's probably getting close to her limit on being able to do that safely. Then she looks around. "...wasn't there someone else here a minute ago?" she asks aloud.

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The Baron just chuckles and smiles when Ericka talks about the limitations of magic. The Baron looks surprised when Ericka mentions "Gnarly", then snaps his fingers in a eureka moment.

"Oh! Yes, the Nosferatu. Well, if you want to try and find him in the city, then feel free. I doubt he's still in the Château, since he usually gets taken back to his sewers. But you aren't gonna cure that kind of train wreck. It's some kind of curse for coming back from the dead: They always look like they just survived a wolf attack." However, when Christen speaks up about potentially breaking the peace, the Baron is unsurprisingly less cordial.

"Whatever goes on out in the wilds, or in the city, and any fights between your kind isn't my concern. In fact, if Kelly's actually hurting humans then you have my blessing to try and kill her. But attacking anyone in the Château or on the mountain will cause me to come down on you like an angry god. And I do NOT forgive." The question of the missing Fatman brings a confused look to the Baron's face.

"Someone else? Hm... Oh, ya. There was that cultist from Bainbridge that was coming today. Ugh... Greed probably took him. Don't worry about it. I'll get him back soon enough." The baron pauses, and for a few seconds he doesn't respond to questions. Then, without warning, the maid with the SMG hanging off her shoulder returns. She wears the same look as every other maid they've seen so far, and lazily looks at the girls, then to the baron.

"I apologize, but Gnarly has left the building. Sloth, be a dear and show these girls out, please." Sloth looks at the girls again, then throws a whining look at the Baron that says more than words.

"Yes, you have to, and no, don't slack off." She rolls her eyes, and without even speaking she simply walks toward the "front" door. She seems to expect the Nobles to follow her. Unless the girls don't follow, then Sloth leads them out of the Château, back to the cave, and through the long dark corridor back to the hiking trail where Ericka's Subaru was parked. The maid doesn't bother to respond to questions, nor does she speak to the girls. Instead, she simply turns around and heads back up the hiking trail.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka nods to the Baron's explanation as to Gnarly's state and shares a quick look around to Christen's question before shrugging.

Quickly taking out a pad of stickynotes and a pen, Ericka notes down the details one would need to find the facebook account Ericka uses for dealing with the supernatural as well as a phone number for her, before placing it on Grandma's desk.
"I look forward to hearing from you in the future."

With that, Ericka makes her way to following Sloth.


((If nothing of note happens before arriving outside.))

Ericka pauses and looks around, her phone turning into a flashlight quickly as she scans the area, hoping to spot some sign of 'Dragonslayer'.

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

There is neither a car nor any sign of any other person around Ericka's Subaru. The area looks just like they had left it when they went to the Château.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka sighs as she looks around, before motioning to the car.

"Well let's head on home... I'll probably be up and about after 10, gotta do some research first but by then you should be able to contact me online and we can discuss how we're going to proceed."

Barring any incident or questions, Ericka will take the other two home, before heading home herself.

[Nerd-o-rama]

The first thing Christen does, once they're out of sight of the place where reality met the Mage's sanctum, is relax back into her normal, every day girl form, letting out a shuddering breath while the events of the evening washed over her. "That's the longest I've ever stayed Transformed...and the most crap I've seen in one night, seriously."

A few moments of jittery breathing later, she adds, "it looks like there's a lot more little wars going on here than I thought...Mages and Seers, Heroes and Dragons, and...whatever's actually going on between the Vampires. I guess I'm going to need some help doing research..."

While talking about this, and as soon as they get back to a place with a decent mobile data signal, Christen is online and on noblechan, carefully tapping out a warning based on what she's found out tonight.


PSA for Seattle area: be careful about anon ads! Bad actors in area tonight & some serious creepers. Always get names & details BEFORE meeting!

(view comments)
Be on lookout for the handle "Medusa" also. If you hear that name stay away, & be careful about giving out your handles OR your real names.

Serious e-stalker potential.

[5ColouredWalker]

"Yep... I'm going to be doing a lot of busy dreaming... I suggest you try to remember your crawlspace, when in doubt I'll be somewhere in the Academy, last I checked someone was at least talking about putting in a PA system, but I've always got a computer on my wrist so you'll be able to contact me online... In dreamland. An in real life to, remember the napkin with my details... If you can't get to me how about you drop a message? That way we can talk about what we want to do next."

Ericka drives carefully, looking to get each of the girls home ok, not driving off until she's certain they've entered the house, and more than willing to introduce herself to any inquisitive family members.

One home, Ericka quickly makes up a message similar to the one Christen made, but she also mentions Aequitus, using her better known 'Madam Good' account that she uses for less subtle waves among the supernatural. If she's lucky, all those she's worked with previously will avoid the two like the plague. She also says they came across as 'Agressive'.


And then, she goes to sleep... A very busy sleep, involving meeting with her Queen... It's been a few days, she was starting to miss the sound of her voice, she always made for a couple of calm days, something Ericka could use.

[ZeroNumerous]

DM

The Noblechan posting, naturally, gets a variety of nonsensical responses. But a few in particular are... Odd.


You should try to get along instead of judging (｡◕‿‿◕｡)

I just do (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ to bad people~

I'm here to help (◕‿◕✿)

Unless you're a bad person (ღ˘⌣˘ღ)



I know you talked to that dumb lion kid (－‸ლ)

What poison did he say, hm? (ﾟヘﾟ)？

If you want the truth, just come to me okay kiddies? Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ

Bye now “φʕ•ᴥ•oʔ

By the way... Don't use registered phones. (*≧艸≦)

Perhaps the enigmatic Medusa actually revealed herself? Or, perhaps, it's just a crazy person. Regardless, two other responses use Noble coded language:


Had a similar experience tonight. LARPer in Big City, and got called out by a bad actor in secret.

Got rough with me, but I got out. I'm Home. I'm safe.

Look out for the handle "Apep": Crazy stalker with flashing lights

Someone in New York got drew out by an aggressive mage, but they escaped. They're in the Dreamlands.


NorCal here. Ran into a psycho. Claimed the Seer class. Caused problems for group.

Angela quit. Good luck. I'm done.

A Noble in northern California ran into a "Seer", and lost a friend named Angela.

[5ColouredWalker]

The Next Day

Ericka awakes to the sound of a beeping alarm with a frustrated noise as she's slowly dragged from her sleep, the last few moments quickly becoming as fuzzy as her first few waking ones...
Someone needed to develop a charm that allowed those to sense realtime within dreamland, it'd save herself from waking mid conversation... Who was she talking to?
Ericka frowns as she looks at the pad she has next to her bed, crossing out 'completed tasks' and making some notes... Tasks for the day, needed to do some work for Gary sometime today... Had to check noble chan... She added checking back about handbooks with apologies for waking... Then added notes to research 'Heroes', see who she could get her in contact with some hunters about helping... Whats his face... And do some modern research on Dragons...
...
Fuuuuuuuuugh... She didn't want to visit Behemoth but asking him for some books or a 'study session' was the only way she'd be able to get it all done at a decent click... Perhaps she could ask about her airsoft gun idea.

Eh.

Draging herself to her computer Ericka opens her 'morning reading' and Noble Chan, looking through her various posts and responding as appropriate... Then she comes to the major ones of last night.

*Message on Medusa/Christen Thread, Handle 'Madam Warrior'*


Right, I saw how you treated friendlies, I'm just glad I convinced some to quit your clique.
Seriously, how do you make friends? You're like every mad ex sterotype wrapped up in stranger danger...
Hey, do you know pedo bear personally (O.o)


*Message to Newyorker, Handle 'Madam Shas'El'*


Flashies are always fun. I know some things that help, drop me a PM.
Or meet me on Wonderland's Academy IRC. Handle's Greatest Light. I just started a thread on Atlantis. Normally on 12-8 night.


*Message to Callifornia*


Met one to, but she cased more problems for her group.
Think 'Seer' Class might be some deliberate stirrers. Take heart though, you have friends. And I can lend a hand, drop me a PM.
Or see me on Wonderland's Academy IRC. Handle's Greatest Light, I just started a thread on Atlantis.
Normally on 12-8 night.


Ericka then sets her threads aside, moving onto her work while she waits for Christen... Give it a few hours and then she can get to looking into other things.

[Nerd-o-rama]

After faceplopping onto her bed at home and having a disappointingly dreamless night, Christen gets up and gets ready for school with several concerns on her mind - and one more major one when she checks online while brushing her teeth. Up until last night, the only intelligent monsters she'd been super aware of were dead people who almost all acted like it was still some time between the 1880's and the 1980's. She makes sure her phone's GPS is off and pockets it, not messing with the internet today.

At school, she's her usual quiet self, passing through final exam week with a dutiful but distracted dilligence. In her opinion, she does okay on most of the exams, but through a stroke of inspirational luck, she pounds out a very detailed essay on Pan-Germanic folklore for History class. She does try to keep an eye on Sieg, but in general is too absorbed in schoolwork and not getting caught being a creeper to do more than notice that his day seems routine.

Even her after-school job sees her distracted, though she does still feel the literal warm and fuzzy sensation of helping kids who need it learn to do as well as she does. If she seems a little out of it, well, final exams.

From there, she gets on a bus to downtown, after texting her parents that she's getting dinner out with friends as a study break. While she's on her way, she gets into contact with Ericka - carefully. She may not be a computer expert, but she knows FB has a terrible security policy and understands the concept of burner accounts (even if she can't afford a burner phone to make them on). New email and new Facebook account in place, with a picture of the phylactery she keeps tucked in her shirt 95% of the time and the name "Dia Fencer", she contacts Ericka privately.


(Private Message)
It's me. Gonna go to El Diablo and talk to = about giving his money back. After that I'm free. Want to meet?

Once she's there, of course, it'll be a different strategy, but for now she just wants to see about meeting.

[5ColouredWalker]

Before leaving for Behemoth Ericka check's her 'Noble' FB account for messages, quickly typing out a response to Christian.



'Shas'

No need, I grabbed at least part of what he wanted, he can have that instead. I'ma gonna be dropping a friend a line, so I might be a little late.
Contact you if I know things are gonna run overtime.
Please don't see him alone, at least privately.
I don't want to see how good Medu's Cubism when she can actually get her hand on a canvas.


Logging out, Ericka grabs a last couple of things before heading out, including her pistol and fresh Phylactory, both of which she tucks away on her person.

[ZeroNumerous]

Ericka

A call to a disposable cell phone is all Ericka needs to set up a meeting with Behemoth.

Ericka finds her way to the quite literal hole in the wall Behemoth uses as a store front. The place is a condemned former factory whose north wall collapsed a year ago. It was pretty big on the news as a safety hazard, then some celebrity or singer or whatever went on a coke binge and it became yesterday's news. The lurching rat-faced mage moved into it within a week, and he's been hiding out in there since. Or, at least, he's always been available whenever someone makes house calls.

When Ericka shows up she finds that Behemoth is indeed there. The five-foot-tall weasel-y man sits on a rock that bends and conforms to his weight as if it were a beanbag chair. A box, black lacquered wood with silvery-white metal wires forming beautiful chrysanthemums on each side, sits behind him. Ericka knows the box is where he keeps his things, and potentially serves as his home. The ruined mess that was formerly a factory floor has been adorned with a few carpets of varying colors. Several shelves sit on the carpets, and a variety of wares are stacked on the shelves. A weather-beaten six-foot-tall staff, a pair of black and white M1911s, a military-grade shotgun, a motorcycle helmet whose faceguard is shattered, and a fist-sized Babushka Doll are the major draws. The rest are miscellaneous items of no real concern.

When Behemoth sees that Ericka's alone, the mage just frowns. "Oh. I thought you were bringing a client, so I wasted all this time setting out my merchandise. Ah well. What do you need girlie? I don't have any more bottled life, sold the last bit to some fatass from Bainbridge."

Christen

El Diablo's as empty as it was the last night. If Christen's not transformed, then the barista calls her over. She hands over a note, and a key. The note lacks any direct message, and only has a couple of lines on it: A phone number, and a PO Box address that points to the post office at Madison. The key has a number etched on it: 309. If Christen asks, then the barista explains that it was an older gentlemen in a suit that left that stuff for her. If pressed, then the barista describes Aequitas as he was dressed last night. Unfortunately she doesn't have any other information or things for Christen.

[5ColouredWalker]

"Why Behemoth, I am always a client. Even if the only thing on display I immediately want is a shotgun I know will cause me no end to trouble because it will eventually be found am saw it would be entertaining to go through many of them. Even the mundane can be enchanted, and there's always the odd chance you're carrying a cursed item I can deal with."
Ericka's eyes linger on the gun before she drags her eyes away, first to the helmet and then to Behemoth, forcing herself to remember that she can't engage in deception despite it making up more than half of battering.

"That said, I'm here preferably for a study session or a couple of books, with a side order of some enchanting work depending on how much it costs me. I'm looking on information on Heroes and Dragons. As in actual supernatural beings, not myths or imaginary creatures, but, at least in the later's case, actual flesh and blood people who can transform into dragons... And no, I'm not looking about information about my kind that's calling us heroes, or about hunters with special powers, though I've a feeling that's the best I'll get."

Ericka takes a quick look around for something on which to sit.

[ZeroNumerous]

Ericka

"That thing? Possessed by an, uh, eternal slayer of monsters and blessed by angels to slay demons. ... What? Too cliche? Ya, it's just a shotgun." The question of Heroes and Dragons gets an odd look from the weasel-y mage, and he narrows his rat-like beady eyes in concentration.

"Heroes and drag... wait. Whoa whoa. You're talking about lion kid. I don't deal with lion kid! ****, he's on to me. I gotta get outta town." Behemoth becomes plainly agitated, and more than a little spooked. He gets up out of his beanbag rock and starts putting his things away in a hurry. Every so often he stops and listens as if he'd hear a dragon bursting through the wall.

If Ericka explains, or gives him the Baron's message, he calms down.

"Aha. Ha. Right. Uh. Dragons, ya? I know a bit. They, uh, the first mistake people make is assuming they're like you and me. They ain't flesh and blood: They're fire. Not, you know, metaphorically either. They're the Living Flame given shape and will. That means their bodies are malleable, so they can be giant lizards, humans, rats, everything in between. And injuries...? Don't mean nothin'. They just think themselves back to health, or forget to be injured, or all variety of other nonsense. Real freaky, if you ask me. Supposedly dragons were the first mages, who uh, led us all on our great pilgrimage to Atlantis. But who knows the truth anymore?" Behemoth is still visibly on edge, but he's no longer rushing around to pack.

"I think I got a few books on them, but they're old and written in Latin. I'd translate, but my Latin is terrible." Unless reminded, he doesn't mention Heroes.

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka explains the situation more carefully when Behemoth gets agitated. Should he ask if Ericka's going after Baron Nul; she'll deny it with a laugh.

Ericka frowns slightly at the description of Dragons... Just what she needed, a werewolf on 'roids.
"I don't read Latin, and I don't hate myself enough to try and struggle reading it well enough to put through a translation program, unless you happen to be able to get your hands on something that'll handle the translation for me." Ericka's frown switches to a light smile and her stance relaxes somewhat, with a bit of a struggle she holds back from smirking.

"But I bet you know more about heroes."

[Nerd-o-rama]

After arriving at the café, Christen (naturally in civilian guise), speaks to the barista, exchanging thanks for information, and gets in contact with Ericka again.


I think it's safe-ish. He was a contractor, not working directly for her. Anyway, he's not here, but he left a key to a drop box. Want to meet up and head over there together?

She considers dialing the phone number, or heading over there directly, but waits to hear back from Ericka first. Safe-ish isn't safe, and there's no point taking unnecessary risks over something that isn't life or death.

[ZeroNumerous]

Ericka

When Ericka asks about translating Latin Behemoth scratches his head.

"I think I got a translator laying around somewhere. You won't like it though: Some Moros enchanted a severed head, then went and crossed lion kid. I'm sure I have it around here somewhere." Behemoth heads over to his box, and digs around inside it for a bit. He stops searching when Ericka mentions heroes.

"Ah. You must mean the Wagners. I can't speak to specifics: They're not my friends. All I can really say is what we did. After Atlantis then man was directionless, purposeless, and falling under the sway of inhuman monsters. So, those of us who were left began a great working of fate and spirit. This is where the old legend of wizards granting kids magic swords, or revealing great destinies, comes from."

It's at this point that Ericka's phone rings.

Christen

Christen's able to make her Facebook post without any problems. She's able to leave whenever she'd like.

[5ColouredWalker]

"So Hunters plu-" Ericka frowns as hr phone rings.
"I'm sorry. Please hold that thought." Ericka pulls out and answers her phone without looking, taking a couple of steps back and looking away from Behemoth, but not turning around.
"Yo, you called me so whom I hearing?"

[ZeroNumerous]

Ericka

Behemoth shrugs, and goes digging in his box.

"Hello, am I speaking to Ms. Ericka Valentine?" The voice on the other side of the line sounds young, feminine, and a little quiet, but she speaks in the formal tone so many salesmen had perfected. Whether Ericka confirms or denies her name, then the person on the other end of the line continues.

"I was wondering if you were interested in some health insurance." If Ericka lets her, then she launches into a health insurance pitch. If Ericka simply hangs up, then she sees that she has a facebook message from Christen. Once Ericka's call ends, then Behemoth speaks up.

"Found it." He pulls a skull out of the lacquered box, and holds it aloft by a chain attached to a nail driven through its skull. The skull looks to be a young woman's head, and its jaw seems to be wired shut. "Speaks thirteen different languages, including Latin, and yours for just a tiny little trade."

[5ColouredWalker]

"And here I aske-... Not Interested."
Ericka hangs up, noticing the message indicator but not reading it as she returns her eyes to Behemoth.

"Good thing I'm always ready to bargain. Head and Book on loan for however long it takes. I doubt more than a week. So what can I do for you that sounds worthy of such a trade?"

[ZeroNumerous]

Ericka

"Well, I can part with it for as long as you need, but I'll need some effort. A guy I know, calls himself Warden, is investigating a disappearance down at UW's med school. Some kid just up and left their dorm. Completely disappeared. Thing is, lion kid's got one of his maids down there doing the same thing, so I figure: Whatever's going on has gotta be worth a nice chunk of change if he's looking into it. If you find out what's going on, then I'll be happy to hand over the skull and the book I've got. I'll even throw in a few extras if you can bring me who or what caused it." With that said, Behemoth puts the skull back in his box.

"Needless to say, but I wouldn't try to pick any fights. Warden's an Arrow--uh, warrior-mages--and pissing off the crazy kid ain't worth the effort."

[5ColouredWalker]

Ericka suppresses a snort.
"I'll try not to... I might have an idea for an extra but it can wait, I'm not the best for investigating but I'll move it as close to the top of the list as I can... That said, I'm not going to cross him, I might start needing him soon, I'm supposed to be dealing with the Dark but instead I'm tripping over you lot left and right." Ericka says the last with a slight smile.

With that, Ericka offers her goodbyes before heading out, and then checking her messages, including Christen's.



Safety in numbers and I doubt you pack anything long... Lets meet up nearby though, say (Address) before heading over. I'll head that way now.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Christen responds in the affirmative, and starts making her way toward the address Ericka suggested, still in civilian garb in case Aequitas is physically around or otherwise has eyes on the place. If she needs anonymity, as opposed to an actual disguise, pulling her hood up against the winter weather would provide it more easily than Transforming.

She'll wave to Ericka when they both arrive, not calling out for the sake of not attracting attention. "Busy evening?" she asks when the older woman's closer.