VVVVVigil: Valorous Veterans Vanquishing Venal Vermin

[Recaiden]

[Island Edge]

Calm Reed lets the manticore answer this question. It's one she would have asked herself sooner or later.

"Not as many as before. I killed... seven of them. There were more than that left. I do not know numbers very well, and have trouble telling humans apart until I know them. They had five wagons without horses or other beasts of burden, two long and tall with roofs, into which the villagers went. One shiny and bright, which I knocked over. One tall and short, with large wheels, that pulled a normal wagon, and neither had roofs. Most of the humans which arrived did so in the wagon. The last is low and roofless, muddy and brown, faster than any horse I've seen. It had two riders that I saw. I think my cubs are in one of the first two. They are tall but solid, I could not make one topple easily." The manticore can't count past ten, unfortunately. It knows larger numbers exist, and can count in an abstract sense of knowing there's three less in a herd of twenty-seven than one of thirty, but that doesn't help much here.

"More than seven, less than...thirty." Alice guesses. "We can handle that."
"Let's head to the gantry right away, we can cut them off in a skyskiff. Start explaining the way to your village." she instructs the manticore (although Earl can feel free to gloss over the actual directions).

Could this be a trap to lure away and eat a few VIGIL members? It would be so inconvenient to have to deal with manticore poison.
Probably not though; the manticore was clearly actually shot.

[Ashen Lilies]

[ELVES!!!]

Anika presses on, really kneading Rain's back. "Yeah, VIGIL is all about sharing, y'know? Mostly violence of course but occasionally more, uh, enticing stuff. The commander have shared a lot with me for instance. He's wise beyond words. Amazing skills in all sorts of areas, especially considering his age." She nods to herself as she really focuses all her attention on the bards skin.

[ELVES!!!]

Rain's eyes widen as Anika talks about the commander. "Really?" she says, sounding astonished as her voice color changes suddenly. "He seemed so gruff and noble to me. But it doesn't surprise me that there might be a wise, generous soul underneath all that."

[Shadowcaller]

[ELVES!!!]

"Don't worry, he gets that a lot. You're not the only one who assumed he's a big grump when they see him. I did too before I learned to know him better. You should just go up and talk to him when he isn't busy with something else. Strike up a casual conversation. He's quite the philosopher if you're into that sort of things." Anika remarks as she eases up on the massage a bit.

[Lord Magtok]

A Visit

Miss Sunsworn's undead nature is easy to gauge even from a distance. While the journalist didn't include pictures of herself in her articles Laz can still recognize her from other pictures. She have several distinct undead traits but it a way that makes her look more creepy than disgusting. Her eyes are blank but the bloodshots and all other gross details are hidden by a soft yellow glow that they're emitting, like a large cat struck by a flashlight. In the same way her skin is ghostly pale but there are no signs of rot or discolorment as far as Laz can tell. Though as she's wearing a buttoned-up brown coat and gloves she might be hiding something of that nature.

But as it turns out, Faith is there alone. Not photographers, no unpaid interns, nothing. She does have a shoulder bag seemingly intended for a camera but it isn't out as the journalist approaches Laz and offers her hand to shake. "Yes, I was wondering if you were up for a future interview, Miss Lazarus." If Laz accepts the handshake she can probably tell that Faith's gloves also are unusual. They seem thicker than even winter gloves and look unusually large, especially the length of the fingers. Faith doesn't let the handshake last very long though.
"It would be a feature in a long-running series of mine. If I had planned things better I would have brought some cut-outs of previous enteries, but you could always look them up online if you want." Faith smiles sheepishly. "Usually I just call a few days ahead to give people time for these sort of things but as I was around intervewing another VIGIL member for an unrelated article I decided to meet you up in person instead." She gestures behind her. "I hope that's alright? We don't actually have to do the interview here and now. I just wanted to see you in person first really."

Claws. It's easy enough to tell when they shake hands. She's hiding her claws in those gloves. Saint Lazarus should ask her where she buys them, and if they do armored gauntlets. No, we're not going to talk undead fashion with the reporter, no matter how useful it might be to have a second pair of gauntlets for when ghoul instincts kick in and the hunger for human flesh becomes an oppressive cloud of smoke over her mind, kicked up by the agonizing fire in her stomach below. That doesn't happen often enough to merit a new pair of gauntlets, and besides, everyone she meets keeps telling Jenette they have a cure or a solution or a temporary remedy for her problems. Sooner or later one of them is going to come back with something substantial.

"Well...I'm here, I guess. Before I make any sort of decision, is this something you're doing for all the VIGIL members, or did you pick me out because of-" she removes a gauntlet and gestures towards the exposed green skin. The original bite mark is still there, looking as fresh as it did an entire year and a half ago. There's a number of blotchy, discolored spots on her arm as well, but those are probably more recent bruises, which will heal on their own after her next meal.

[Shadowcaller]

A Visit

Faith rubs the back of her neck with, yes, her right claw as Laz takes off her glove and poses that one question. "Mmm... good question. I mean, I won't deny that's at least a part of the reason I'm doing this, and even if it wasn't people that read my articles are going to assume it was at this point. However, I do interviews with VIGIL members occasionally, like I did just now, and I was just going to start out with general questions that I'd ask to any member of VIGIL. Then if you feel okay with it I got a section of questions specifically related to that." She gestures at Saint Laz's exposed hand. "Otherwise we'll just do the general questions, including some related to your skillset."

[Murkus]

[Spooky VIGIL Encounters]

Laela can be led away here. She's perfectly alright poking ghosts in the eyes, but when it comes to giant Coras, she really has very little to contribute. "Do you guys know your way around here?" She shouts. Sure is weird... and cool! Why hasn't her dad or aunt Cessie taken her here before?

[Lord Magtok]

A Visit

"...that's fine," Saint Lazarus concedes, slowly sliding her gauntlet back into place, flexing her fingers to make sure they've been pushed all the way into the steel glove. "I'll make my final decision on the ghoul questions when we get there." Anything could change between then and now, and she really doesn't want to commit to this, in case a perfectly good excuse to get out of this interview shows up later.

[Shadowcaller]

A Visit

Faith smiles and it might now occur to Laz that she's never actually shown her teeth. Anyone else might not even think about it but Laz had some unique experience with teeth. "Of course, that's how I had intended it anyway." She crosses her arms over her chest. "Do you want to meet here at the same location tomorrow morning around 8? I can always do later at noon if you want to. Even the evening should be alright as my schedule is mostly free tomorrow."

[Spooky VIGIL Encounters]

The giant Cora grins as Bastion shouts at her. "Getting stopped can be fun too!" She booms as she taps her wand against her hat. "Hey, you up there! Watch this!" She then touched one of the clouds circling around the hat with the wand and it suddenly starts growing in size and starts to sweep across VIGIL.
Rain will soon start pouring from it. But just not any rain, purple rain. Everything touched by it will turn purple until the effect is somehow dispelled or the effect stops (it lasts 8 hours). The rain is made of up sugary grape-juice which can be quite unhealthy to drink too much of, but is otherwise perfectly harmless even to the plants absorbing it.

Giga!Cora laughs. "What's not to love about that?"

[Rebonack]

[Spooky VIGIL Encounters]

Oh no!

The giant witch is disrupting VIGIL business with...

Lapis opens her mouth and sticks out her tongue. Smacks her lips a few times thoughtfully.

Grape juice?

Still!

It's being bad! And turning everything PURPLE!

"Turning people different colors without asking is mean!" Lapis declares. "And VIGIL stops mean people from doing mean things! And I'm part of VIGIL so I'll stop you!"

It probably strains credibility that the dog-sized beasty perched on the witch's hat will be able to do much of anything, but the Nexus is full of surprises.

Lapis opens her mouth wide and tries to BITE the giant witch-ghost-girl right on the ear!

Chomp!

[Morty]

[Spooky VIGIL Encounters]

It's difficult to miss or ignore a giant Cora suddenly present on the island. When Wenomir hears about it, he's incredulous. Surely someone must be making it up. And yet, there it is. He hurries towards where his people said the commotion is when suddenly rain starts to fall and turn everything purple. Increasingly incensed, he strides towards the scene with long steps. Long and purple.

[UncleWolf]

Spoiler

Show

Early Morning Training

Mia appears calm when Jezebel shows the Genstealer, thought this seems to be more for Blanche then the others around. But since Jezebel didn't react to Mia's offer, she assume those weapons have a hidden meaning for Jezebel or something like that. No reason to bother more.

"They look nasty. We had to fight other creatures who also got this skintight armor. I heared from a few warrirs back then, that they even fought trees, but a weapon like yours would have been to slow."

Early Morning Training

Blanche blinks as she takes in the tall and lanky form projected before her, suddenly seeming a fair bit more interested in what Jezebel has to say as she begins her lecture. But as intimidating as that Genestealer looks, all taut sinew and hardy carapace, fear isn't the driving force behind it; rather, it's the tactics and analysis that enthralls her.

And perhaps a better look at Jezebel's own form, now that the anger and sleep have worn off somewhat.

"It's easy to call it overkill when your home could only dream of crafting plating even a fraction as tough as that," Blanche responds, not entirely willing to admit outright that she was wrong. "I've met enough things here to realize that some aspects of my arsenal were lacking in power, but nothing else's showed up that I couldn't see a higher caliber dealing with yet." The genestealer being the unspoken exception, although not exactly something she'd in fact met either.

Early Morning Training

"I can't say I've heard anyone of fighting trees. Maybe on one of the Death Worlds, but I've been lucky enough to avoid stepping onto one of those." Jezebel admits after a moment of introspection. She'd heard of a lot of strange Xenos, but nothing like that. "The Orkz where I come from are born of fungal spores if that counts." She adds, turning the training hologram setting to show what she'd been facing before. The large greenskin, practically made of muscle and steel, stands tall and imposing with its crude cleaver. "That's just the normal "Boy", as they're called. I imagine your rifle might do something if you're lucky, but I wouldn't have any hope of it doing anything against a Nob or a Warboss. Even I wouldn't have much hope against one of the latter." She admits with a frown.

[Lord Magtok]

A Visit

"The afternoon would be best. Calm Reed does a lot of early morning training, and in the evening I've got my jog across Skyside," Saint Lazarus explains, inwardly cringing when she realizes she mentioned where she does her exercise. Nobody's going to believe she just goes out for a nightly stroll in that crime-ridden hive of a city, that there aren't any bodies or blood involved in her nightly escapades. At least she's getting the interview out of the way before she goes for her hunt, though. She'll have plenty of time to work through her post-interview stress as she's slurping down the eyeballs of gangsters and creeps.

"Should I bring anything with me? Do you mind if I keep the helmet on the whole time? I have family in the Nexus, and I wouldn't want them to face any sort of retaliation from AMEN or other evil groups because I'm with VIGIL." Technically true. What's more likely to happen is someone from her neighborhood recognizing her face in the newspaper, telling her parents, and then ripping open a great big emotional scar in their hearts that would be better left alone for now.

[Shadowcaller]

A Visit

"Not at all. I understand. But why don't you bring your weapon as well then? For the questions regarding your skills I mean." If Laz actually have her weapon with her, Faith will gesture at it. "Otherwise, nothing. Unless you want to bring some prepared statements of course." She smiles without showing her teeth again.

[Gullara]

[Spooky VIGIL Encounters]

"Not this part." Bastion says as they flee. He's seen mommy's office and where Wenomir trains and around there, but not much else. This place is big. He leads the way behind a nearby building. "We gotta find Wenomir. He can help us. Or other Vigil people." He decides.

"Bastion! How am I gonna get my face back from over here?" Cora complains, but you don't see her running back toward the giant doppelganger.

[Lord Magtok]

A Visit

"Not at all. I understand. But why don't you bring your weapon as well then? For the questions regarding your skills I mean." If Laz actually have her weapon with her, Faith will gesture at it. "Otherwise, nothing. Unless you want to bring some prepared statements of course." She smiles without showing her teeth again.

Saint Lazarus glances at the zweihander. It's just a totally normal two-handed sword, so sure, why not. She's not really good at this whole baseless paranoia and wild conspiracy theories thing, not like a certain other character of mine. In fact, Faith seems like a pretty friendly and reasonable person so far, honestly. Maybe she was wrong about Faith. Maybe she's one of those kinds of undead that don't have to prey upon the living, and she can afford to be as nice or as awful as she wants. Must be nice to have that kind of freedom, Laz thinks.

"If you'd like, sure." That just means she doesn't have to put her weapon away somewhere before the interview, or worry about the interviewer being uncomfortable about the presence of a sharpened metal murder stick in the room. What could possibly be wrong with that?

[Shadowcaller]

A Visit

Faith seems to follow Laz's gaze, seemingly curious about the huge weapon. "Yeah, you could strike a few poses with it perhaps. For a photo I mean." She pauses, rubbing the back of her neck again. "But I'm getting ahead of myself. Just consider it, okay? Your armor is pretty cool."

[Murkus]

[Spooky VIGIL Visit]

"We'll get you your face back Cora, promise!" says Laela. She grips her friend's hand tight and practically drags her along. The girl looks wildly around for someone that can help. Maybe they run into Wenomir?

[Morty]

[Spooky VIGIL Visit]

The children will indeed run into Wenomir, whose anger turns into concern and confusion in the span of a second.

"Kids? How'd you get here? And what's..." He looks at what appears to be just clothing hanging in the air. "What's that giant Cora doing here?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Spooky VIGIL Encounters]

There is a loud YAOWTCH! echoing through VIGIL as giga!Cora is suddenly bitten, instinctively moving her hand to the ear to pull whatever is biting her. As she stomps around in pain the ground shakes around her and she is almost backing into one of the cabins!

[Rebonack]

[Spooky VIGIL Encounters]

As it happens Lapis is hanging on pretty good with those strong jaws of hers. It's like pulling out a tick.

There's actually a pretty good chance ghost!Cora will pull off a chunk of ear along with Lapis.

"Oh no I've been caught by the badguy!" Lapis laments as she wriggles in the giant's grasp.

She decides to try solving this problem in the most direct, immediately obvious fashion.

By biting the giant again. On the finger this time.

CHOMP PART TWO!

Hopefully someone will decide to help Lapis out here pretty soon.

Getting thrown on the ground and stomped would suck.

[Ashen Lilies]

[ELVES!!!]

Rain's eyes widen as Anika talks about the commander. "Really?" she says, sounding astonished as her voice color changes suddenly. "He seemed so gruff and noble to me. But it doesn't surprise me that there might be a wise, generous soul underneath all that."

[ELVES!!!]

"Don't worry, he gets that a lot. You're not the only one who assumed he's a big grump when they see him. I did too before I learned to know him better. You should just go up and talk to him when he isn't busy with something else. Strike up a casual conversation. He's quite the philosopher if you're into that sort of things." Anika remarks as she eases up on the massage a bit.

[ELVES!!!]

"Wow... I will!" Says Rain, brightly. "Thanks for the advice. You're good at it. Massage as well."

[Lord Magtok]

A Visit

Faith seems to follow Laz's gaze, seemingly curious about the huge weapon. "Yeah, you could strike a few poses with it perhaps. For a photo I mean." She pauses, rubbing the back of her neck again. "But I'm getting ahead of myself. Just consider it, okay? Your armor is pretty cool."

"...sure," the ghoul allows, a little rattled by the thought that someone might find her armor 'cool.' It wasn't cool factor that inspired her to buy the set; the armor was just cheap and practical enough to get the job done. In fact, there was a set of power armor the smith was determined to get her to take home instead, but with the maintenance costs and electricity bill she'd rack up, it just wasn't meant to be. That would've been way cooler, surely.

[Shadowcaller]

A Visit

Clearly Laz is underestimating the badass factor of knight armor. "Great, I'll guess I see you tomorrow then. I hope it the entire thing will take about an hour. But if I start to take up too much of your time don't be afraid to tell me, okay?" She offers her hand to shake.

[ELVES!!!]

Anika giggles and then grins widely. "Thanks. But I'm not much of a tour guide. I've barely shown you anything of this place yet. There's the barracks, the bar, the observation tower, the clinic, the bathhouse, the beach... we got everything around here." Rain have probably seen hints of these places already though.

[Spooky VIGIL Encounters]

Oh, if Lapis is biting that hard...

Tears start streaming down giga!Cora's face and all strength seem to leave her as she sits down on the ground, taking a couple of roof panels with her as she does, and starts bawling. If they though her yells were loud it's nothing compared to this.

She's so preoccupied by crying that she's not even trying to remove Lapis anymore.

[Gullara]

[Spooky VIGIL Encounters]

"Wenomir!" The apparently empty costume immediately goes to hug him. "She stole my face!" She explains unhelpfully.

"She's not Cora she's a ghost." Bastion explains. Maybe he'd say more, but the supposed ghosts crying makes him cover his ears.

[Rebonack]

[Spooky VIGIL Encounters]

Lapis is released!

She begins beating her wings vigorously, hovering in place as she contemplates the situation. The situation being that the giant is making a really horrible noise that makes her insides feel like they're knotting up. She doesn't love that sound even a little bit.

What had the giant done to make it rain purple stuff? She waves the wand around, right? Maybe she can only do magic so long as she has the wand? That's how lots of magic people work.

So if Lapis wants to be a hero and stop the giant from causes more trouble then she has to get that wand!

The little seraph zips over to the giant wand in question and grabs a hold of the magical implement!

"Nnnnnngh!"

And begins pulling with all her might!

Oh wait there's an easier way to do this, isn't there?

The little seraph drifts instead, sliding off two steps sideways in time and vanishing from reality. Quite possibly taking the wand with her. She'll pop back in about twenty feet away and if she still has the wand her altitude will dip dangerously.

[Ashen Lilies]

[ELVES!!!]

Anika giggles and then grins widely. "Thanks. But I'm not much of a tour guide. I've barely shown you anything of this place yet. There's the barracks, the bar, the observation tower, the clinic, the bathhouse, the beach... we got everything around here." Rain have probably seen hints of these places already though.

[ELVES!!!]

"Well, if I'm supposed to be your new bard..." says Rain, thinking. "I probably need to see the places where I'll be spending most of my time. Talking to members, entertaining, that sort of thing."

[Shadowcaller]

[ELVES!!!]

Anika nods. Bard-y stuff. Very important. All those songs and books... Wait...

"Oh! We got a library too! That should be the first thing on our list. Back home they always said it was vital that people perserved the story, and that's what bards do, right? You could like, write a grand story about VIGIL or make a song out of it." Anika stops for a moment and claps her hands. "That would be so cool." She grins, her pointy canines showing. "Can you do that? We probably have some stuffy tomes in there that got all the information you need." The druid seemed to have utter confidence that the bard could make something much more interesting out of them. Anika based this on the fact that she'd peek through even the stuffiest of the tomes if Rain happened to be on it's cover, no matter the subject.

[Spooky VIGIL Encounters]

Lapis does manage to get the wand out of giga!Cora's grip, but not before the giant girl suddenly calmed herself for a moment and given the seraaph an angry stare with her reddened eyes.
The wand glows yellow as Lapis holds it and unless she can resist the effect, she will be stuck in the form of a sheep.

She will still have all her mental capabilities, but will be unable to shapeshift out of this form as long as the enchantment is active. This means she won't be able to talk using her mouth but might be able to communicate telepathically. She could make her form smaller or larger to a certain degree (if she's capable of such shapeshifting) but not anything that would make her unsheep-y.
In addition, it will dampen but not completely remove any other special abilities she might have which means she might suddenly find herself unable to fly yet could still levitate slightly off the ground for instance.

[Reinholdt]

[A Cat and Heights]

Flaming Hawt Reinholdt is visiting again!

This time, it's not in regards to his previous business here. Which means he doesn't really need to find a commander in charge. Though he will slowly make his way in that direction if he doesn't run into anyone else.

[Rebonack]

[Spooky VIGIL Encounters]

DOOF!

Lapis is now a little black lamb.

Since lambs are notoriously unable to fly, she drops out of the air along with the wand.

Hmm...

Wait. That isn't a sheep, is it? No! Not at all! That's a wooloo!

And not just any wooloo...

That's a SHINY wooloo!

Her absolutely absurd shield of floof absorbs the impact of her fall completely, sending her tumbling across the ground comically. The rolling sheep pokemon ends up coming to a stop near the gaggle of children, her legs kicking in the air comically.

"Wooloo!"

Hmm... Lapis isn't hanging onto that wand anymore. Someone might want to go do something with it before GIGA!Cora can get it back.

[Murkus]

[Spooky VIGIL Encounters]

"Wenomir!" Laela puffs. She winces at GigaCora's cries, but looks pleadingly up at the warrior anyways. "She did something to Cora and us and she messed with the portal at my house. We didn't want her to come here by herself and get Cora in trouble so we followed her through." She is still holding Cora's hand protectively.