Reinholdt's Repository

[Reinholdt]

[Getting That Song Out of Your Head]

Reinholdt raises an eyebrow and frowns slightly, but refrains from commenting. He's not a fan of his memories getting messed with, but as long as she doesn't try to smear Ruby's good name, he'll let it slide. It's already over with anyways and they figured out as much earlier.

"Paladin's a class, not a race. It's like saying you were half-teacher, half-dwarf. It doesn't make much sense." Though seducing a Paladin makes a lot of sense, for a succubus. Top tier corruption opportunity right there. Playing with holy fire though. Risking getting smote.
...
Though the succubus would probably be into that to begin with.

Though maybe technically succubus is a job too? Can devils choose to be different? Rein doubts it. "I mean, that does happen..." Reinholdt says, quietly looking away. "But, speaking from experience, if your father's alive, he'd probably want to know you exist. I don't know if... there's bad blood between your father and mother, but I do know that a father should at least be given the chance to know his daughter. It's... very hard to repair that relationship the longer it's denied." Rein's sounding a little too personal right now.

[5a Violista]

[Getting That Song Out of Your Head]

Carmen puts her palms up and shrugs. "If you have a better idea for what I should call myself, I'm all ears." Since it seems like calling herself 'half-Paladin' would just raise more questions.

Carmen would probably seduce a paladin if she could, though.

Speaking of paladins, she really doubts it would be a good idea, so she tries to have some fun with explaining why. "I can already imagine how it'll go," she says. She slides forward, miming leaning her shoulder against someone and looking upwards at that person's face. "Are you my daddy?" she asks the imaginary person. "You see, I've never met him before but..."
She backs up, and has a look of disgust on her face. "No, that's not what I meant, you sicko. What I mean is..."
Carmen has a sharp intake of breath, one of her hands goes up behind her, as if it's being pinned to something. Her eyes go wider. "No, that's not what I...wait! I...please..."
Her line of vision drifts downwards. "I...wait, I'd recognize that scar anywhere, I gave it to you! You're one of those who captured me and sent me to that...Wait, no!" She turns her head away. "Let go of me!"
Then, Carmen collapses to the ground, and her tone shifts to panicky. "What did you do to Jo? Is she still alive? What- wait, no! Let go of me! Plea...." Then, she cuts herself off and puts the sandwich in her mouth to bite a little more.

She waits a few moments, stands up again, and brushes anything dust off of her that she can see. "And that's what I think would happen."

[Gullara]

[Caedem Temple]

They're not left in the dark for long. At the end of each of Kitsuki's tails a flame alights, four ghostly white and one a natural orange. "The only one that's broiling here is you!" He should have kept on her, because given a moment to collect herself the kitsune brings all her fire to bear. She pushes her arms forward, the flames around her tails diminish, and a gout of fire rushes at the ghost. The torrent is spiritual and physical both. It's not going to be comfortable.

[Reinholdt]

[Getting That Song Out of Your Head]

"Well I thought maybe half-elf might go better? I dunno. Whatever your comfortable with probably matters more." If she doesn't mind the succubus angle then it really doesn't matter.

Speaking of comfortable, did things just get really hot in here? Reinholdt's shifting around restlessly, his eyes quite wide from Carmen's dramatic enactment. "Wow, that's... umm, yeah, it... whew. Err..." Hey look there's bound to be something else to look at right? Was that a stain over there? No? Well Rein's focusing on that non-stain on the wall awfully hard. "I mean, well, uhh..." Reinholdt rubs the back of his neck and clears his throat. The half-succubus didn't even use lust magic on Rein, but he's definitely feeling the effects now. His feet shuffle in place. "What if... I- it could... Errm, yeah. It- it could happen that way. Yes. Perhaps. Maybe. Things are, uhh... complicated like that. Ahem."

Hopefully it doesn't happen like that.

[Shadowcaller]

[Caedem Temple]

Obriane moves but she doesn't have the time to fully dodge that attack. Thankfully, that armor Rein has been harping on for so long actually comes into play now. As that chain and hook are manifested by the spirit itself sparks starts to fly the moment it comes into contact with her breast plate, threatening to dissolve the entire weapon outright.
It might actually cause the spirit some pain too as the chain was like a part of its whole. Obriane seems quite aware of this as the attempts to grab the chain with both her hands to keep the spirit from pulling away.

[Reinholdt]

[Milton Island Assault]

At this point Cerabella has climbed down. The moment she can get off the ladder she spreads her wings far and wide as she seem to have been forced to keep them tightly pressed against one another while climbing down.

Her gaze is immediately drawn to the circle which once housed the demon but doesn't linger on it for very long. "Get rid of that." She remarks, then adding something in the draachi's native tongue and the owl-soldiers starts to move around the room.

They poke the dead gnolls with their spears as to make sure they're dead and spread out around the room as if to secure it while keeping as far away of those boxes with suspicious artifacts as possible. Then one of them will start erasing the circle that was drawn around the demon unless either Damon and Ilpholin stops them of course.

As for Cerabella herself, she moves right up to the door. "I can't sense any active wards, we might be able to simply open it." She declares. "But the overwhelming demonic presence of the essence drowns out all lesser ones so it's hard to tell if there are more demons nearby. There is likely quite a few guarding it. In fact, I'm surprised there have been so little resistance so far. A trap perhaps...?" Her falcon eyes scan the room but she doesn't seem to notice anything of immediate concern.

[Milton Island Assault]

Ilpholin makes no move to stop them and once enough of the circle is erased, she steps forward to retrieve her daggers, wiping them off with a cloth before sliding them back into her boots. "So the staff is here." That demon lied!

Not a surprise.

She steps towards the door. "If there is another trap, it is more likely further ahead. We still don't know how deep this goes." They already left a trap here, but Ilpholin killed her before she could drip too much poison in their ears. "Cover me," She requests, before moving to open the door.

[Caedem Temple]

"I want you to know that fear is a perfectly normal response that has saved my life many times," Reinholdt says before Kitsuki brings the lights back on.

And then greatly intensifies them.

The Butcher had many, many plans to maybe dive out of the way of a foxfirestorm and retaliate. This proved to be a difficult as Obriane grabs the chain, holding the spirit in place, forcing it to take the full brunt of the spiritual fire. There's a great wailing and even some struggling, but when the stream dissipates, all that remains is ectoplasmic ash.

And the other spirit. Rein shields his eyes a little from the fire, holding his knife up. "Right. I got this one..." He wasn't cowering or anything just a moment ago. At least, not that anyone could see. Now he moves in and stabs at Slop. While the special knife is effective at handling spirits, Rein is not effective at melee combat. He gets in an early cut, which makes the spirit hiss in pain, but leaves himself open in the process. The spirit grabs him by the arm and forces him to drop the knife as it pulls him in in an effort to gnaw away at his soul and possess him.

[5a Violista]

[Getting That Song out of Your Head]

Oh.
Maybe half-elf might work. It's a convincing argument. Half-elf, half-paladin.

Carmen decides it's about time to finish the sandwich. She's been taking too long, so she forces it down.

"So...half elf." With her hands free of food, she swishes her hair backwards, and then it changes from a red to a silver color. "That would mean hair like this, right?"

She thinks for a moment, and her ears become a little pointier. "And pointier ears, I guess, too." Anything else? "Anything else I'll need that elves have? Eye color? Something else?" What other sorts of things fo elves normally have...?

[Gullara]

[Caedem Temple]

Kitsuki doubles over, the room falling back into near darkness again as her torrent subsides. She gasps for air and pulls herself upright again. She turns to see Rein and has to take a new tactic. She picks up her wand again and centers herself. She lifts it up then moves it sharply toward the hostile spirit, the papers rustling. The spirit may feel a sense of reluctance, a warding drive. It's ill will is not welcome here. At least it might give it pause.

[Shadowcaller]

[Milton Island Assault]

Cerabella seems to second Ilpholin's motion as the soldiers move to do just that, forming a defensible perimeter around the nymph despite no foes being in sight.
They couldn't take any chances in a place like this with the presence of demons laying heavily upon them.
The angel will keep close to Ilpholin as she press open the door. On the other side is what's seemingly an empty corridor leading to another door which is gleaned open. An otherworldly glow emanating from within. Here even Ilpholin and Damon can feel a heaviness in the air and it's not the fact this place probably haven't had proper ventilation for hundreds of years.

There is something unseen beyond that door and simply moving towards it feels like trying to move through water upstreams.

[Caedem Temple]

Obriane takes a deep breath of relief, but it looked like they weren't out of the fire yet. She hadn't even looked at the second spirit yet, her attention demanded by the chain wrapping around her chest.
With that gone, she turns in the direction of the new spirit.

She could pick up her bow again and attempt to shoot it but considering it was about to possess Rein she had a better idea. Kitty might be able to take it down from afar but considering that their opposition was far stronger than initially believed Obriane isn't going to take any chances here.

She runs straight towards Rein and attempt to tackle him a moment after Kitty channeled her wand in his direction. The changeling is planning to tackle him to the floor and grab him to press him tightly against her. The anti-spirit enhancement of her armor making direct contact with him should make him a unpleasant host to possess.

[Reinholdt]

[Getting That Song out of Your Head]

Reinholdt's still pretty flustered. And apparently forgot Carmen can reasonably shapeshift. He just waves his hand around and spouts harmful racial stereotypes. "I... I dunno. Tall and skinny I guess? Wears a bow?"

On their back, not in their hair.

"I'd imagine half-elves are pretty various and diverse, so you don't have to change much." The ears might honestly be enough.

[Caedem Temple]

The spirit does pause for a moment. Though it really would like to possess, murder, and eat people's emotions though. It doesn't get the chance as that pause is enough for Obriane to tackle Reinholdt to the ground and pin him in a tight embrace. Rein looks both winded and dazed by this maneuver, not used to being tackled by deer, let alone beautiful, heavily armored deer women. It turns out it's not as pleasant as it sounds.

Just passing by the spirit with that armor is enough to give it a hint of how distasteful it would be to try and penetrate that repellant armor. Looking for easier prey, it turns towards Kitsuki, but that wand is not particularly fun either. Now no one's an easy target. Unused to such resistance, the spirit unleashes another devastating scream before it turns to flee back through the door from whence it came.

[Meowmai]

Spoiler

Show

[Fey and Falcon Escapades]

"Yep," Reinholdt says, walking along a little awkwardly now. Fortunately, it doesn't take them long to find a crumbled wall with light shining through. A clear exit. If there wasn't an exit and they were trapped in here, it'd be quite terrible that Kes didn't wish for a way out.

Rein creeps up on the exit slowly though, letting his eyes adjust and peering around for that cat-eating ochu. Reinholdt suspects he knows what happened to all of that faerie-cat's people. "It's clear."

The fresh air smells really good compared to the dust and must of that ancient church.

[Fey and Falcon Escapades]

Kestrel was quite thankful to see the sight of the light ahead. It's not that she didn't want to try explore these ruins more, but rather it was getting rather awkward since the curtains had dropped. Plus she was an outdoorsy girl. She needed fresh air and sunlight to truly feel comfortable. So once Reinholdt had confirmed they were clear, she pushed past him, take in a deep breath of the much cleaner air.

Offering her hand to him, a smile rapidly forming on her face. "Got any other plans? Or do you wanna just fly!? I'll race yah if you do!"

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Milton Island Assault]

Damon peers at the hallway and lets out an irritated hiss.

This feeling reminds him of a certain temple he ventured into a little while ago. It was...unpleasant.

He'd rather not be reminded of the futility of his goal again quite so soon. Stupid super-demons with their superpowers.

"What do you think, Ilpholin? Do we sssimply pussh through it and force our way into the next room?"

[5a Violista]

Getting That Song out of Your Head

Carmen isn't quite as good at shape-shifting as other people she knows, especially without a lot of preparation, so she opts out of changing herself too tall or too skinny. Hair color or ears is relatively easy compared to weight or height.

"Yeah, a bow would be nice and easy to get..." Only thing she needs to decide is what color of ribbon would go with her hair, and what size of ribbon. Oh, jeez! It's been forever since she last tied a bow, she's going to have to practice to make it look good, too. Purple, maybe? A purple bow would fit with silver? Maybe would be good to decide what eye color would fit with silver and purple. Purple eyes might work, as long as the bow isn't too big, because it would need some distance from the eyes.

Deciding that this is good enough, she says, "That's good. I'm not exactly the best at complicated changes, so if I can just leave it like this, with small things, that's for the best."

Now that she is finished eating, she looks around. "Should we check on her or let her rest more?"

[Gullara]

[Caedem Temple]

Kitsuki considers pursuing, but that first spirit took a lot out of her. She hadn't expected to expend this much energy so soon, and who knows what else is here. Instead she watches to make sure the spirit truly leaves and then goes over to the other two. "Are you okay?" She crouches next to them.

[Shadowcaller]

[Caedem Temple]

Obriane gets up and makes sure to pull up Rein from the floor too as she does. "We're fine I think. We should just caught our breath and then track down that spirit. I was personally afraid there was going to be more than just two attacking us." Spirits were irrational by nature, even more so than mortals. So a lack of tactics was to be expected, but with spirits this powerful that lack was also her and Kitty's only advantage. If there were more of them, which Obriane expected was the case, something as simple as 'everyone attack at once' could spell their doom.

[Reinholdt]

[Getting That Song out of Your Head]

"Yeah, they're pretty cheap." Reinholdt definitely has a different impression of what constitutes cheap. Or he's buying bad bows with too much flex and questionable strings. Or he's just stealing the bows and saying free is cheap.

Rein nods his head a bit. "I find smaller deviations best. As people get used to them you can deviate more. Until steadily they don't even realize what's happened and it's too late." Because everything's changed.

"We should probably go check up on her," Rein agrees.

[Milton Island Assault]

"If anyone has another suggestion, I'm willing to entertain it." Though the fact Damon asked suggests he doesn't at least.

She glances at the angels to make sure they don't have an alternative she doesn't know about. If they don't then, then cautiously moving through the corridor towards that other door it is. Gritting her teeth and steeling her will. It probably feels much longer than it actually is and her eyes keep darting towards the walls, ceiling, and area just behind them, as if expecting something to happen.

[Fey and Falcon Escapades]

Rein lifts a surprised eyebrow at Kes finally asserting herself a little. Flying is truly her passion isn't it?

"If you promise to crash into me again." Reinholdt grins and takes her hand. Stepping outside into the warm sun and gentle breeze, he takes a deep breath, feeling the air clear his lungs and his head. "I'd love to." He takes a look around, as if trying to decide something, before shrugging a bit. "Alright racer, where to, hmm? I'll test your limits."

He turns pink, floating in the air with his weird hover flying that he does, a wry and confident smirk on his face.

[Caedem Temple]

"Yeah, uh... pretty great really." Reinholdt claims to Kitsuki as the weight is lifted from his chest. He lets Obriane help him up. "Thanks. Had it covered, but thanks." Sure.

He brushes himself off and after examining the first one, pulls out a fresh flashlight so Kitty doesn't have to keep her tail lit. "Wait, you want to chase after it?" That sounds like looking for trouble!

In the scuffle, some of the cages in the Butcher's Kitchen shifted considerably and behind one of them appears to be a passage. Rein hasn't noticed it yet and it would be in the opposite direction that the spirit fled.

[5a Violista]

[Getting That Song out of Your Head]

Also, a good point, bows can be pretty cheap. Cheaper if you buy them in ribbon form and not fixed-in-knot form. The obvious problem with that is that you have to learn to tie them yourself and it's hard to make them look good, but if she's going to keep on claiming to be a half-elf then she'd have a lot of time to practice.
Carmen nods, to show that he agrees with him and sees his point. Yeah, they're pretty cheap.


Carmen leaves the room, to go back and look for Tina. "Hey, you good?" she asks in a louder-than-whisper voice, making sure to not be too loud in case she's sleeping.

[Shadowcaller]

[Milton Island Assault]

Cerabella considers their options for a moment and then takes a deep breath. "I am immortal, you are not. Thus, I should move in first. If my body suffers mortal wounds I will return and you will be able to figure out how to deal with whatever destroyed current vessel. The rest of you must stay behind until we know." She decides, leaving little room to argue as she moves ahead without the others.

Apparently, she also ordered the soldiers to stay back as that's just what they're doing. Leaving Ilpholin and Damon with the choice to either stay with them or follow along despite the angel ordering them not to.

[Gullara]

[Caedem Temple]

"I think I'm with Rein on this one. This place could have a lot more spirits than we can really handle. Not without a prolonged operation. Might be best to try to cut in and out, getting what we came for quickly." Kitsuki pushes herself up from her knees. "I'm guessing it's out of Rein's budget to completely clear this place out." She gives the cat a wink, keeping her tone light even after that encounter. "Following right behind that spirit might cause us trouble, though. Might've stirred the place up. Do we have any alternate routes, Rein?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Caedem Temple]

Obriane moves over to Kitty to help her up as well. "I guess it could also be leading us into a trap." She admits as she's offering her fiancee a hand. "And it's far faster than us anyway." She continues as she looks in which the direction the spirit took off.

Then Obriane turns to Rein at Kitty's suggestion. "Yeah, any alternative routes, Rein? I guess I do always have my mind set to clearing these places out." She rubs the back of her head awkwardly. "Even if that's not what we're paid to do."

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Milton Island Assault]

Well, while he has no particular interest in their well-being, these angels are still Damon's allies, and he'd rather they don't waste their lives quite so carelessly, if it can be avoided.

But he'd also rather not die.

So as Cerabella advances, Damon places a hand against the wall and sends a little line of black fire along the hallway beside her. Depending on what happens, it might prove unlikely, but maybe he'd be able to hop in and pull her out if anything goes horribly wrong.

There's a lot of maybes in there. He's not getting his hopes up.

[Reinholdt]

[Caedem Temple]

"Oh. Yeah, I guess that is a problem, huh? I have not seen any alternate routes or turns thus far." Reinholdt sighs, turning towards the door, his back facing the secret passage. "After it we go."

Reinholdt heads to the side of the door, his hand held out on the handle. "One of you get on that side and be prepared to deal with it if the spirit's still there." Rein nods his head to the other side of the door. The plan appears to be for him to throw the door open and for Obriane or Kitty to swing in.

[Murkus]

[Getting That Song Out of your Head]

Fettina is lying there on her back, definitely not asleep. She's got a glowing flush of orange crawling on her neck, shoulders, and face. Even at rest she looks puffed up with barely restrained annoyance. Her hands are folded on her stomach. "I really need to get this damn metal off me. I'm feeling things again."

[Gullara]

[Caedem Temple]

Perception check failed.

Kitsuki nods and gets herself into position. "I'm ready when you are." She nods to Rein and Obriane both.

[Reinholdt]

[Getting That Song Out of your Head]

Reinholdt steps in behind Carmen and examines Tina. Oh... he recognizes that flush. At least, he's seen that particular color pattern before.

Those kinds of feelings.

Rein frowns. "Right. I suppose a succubus is as dangerous to a chastity angel as a chastity angel is to a succubus." He feels bad cause he feels like he got Tina in this situation. Partially true. And he's equally helpless to do anything about it. Which is frustrating. Probably not as frustrating as Tina felt right now.

Shifting his gaze to Carmen, it looks like she was the only option Rein can think of. "Would you be able to extract or transfer the lust out of her?"

[5a Violista]

[Getting That Song out of Your Head]

Compared to the when they parted ways with Tina, Carmen now has another hair color, now silver. I'm sure that with everything else Tina's feeling, hair color is obviously the most important thing ever. Or possibly the least important thing ever.

"Um. Well..." Carmen thinks. Yeah, she can definitely do it. But most options she can think of either would be dangerous for Tina, have a chance of making things worse, or she assumes could possibly get Carmen burned again, thanks to however-Tina's-self-defense-thing-works.
"Oh!"
Hey!
"What about a Vi...r... I mean an...an Or..."

Carmen trails off, blushes and looks away, and decides that either of the common names of the magic probably aren't the most appropriate thing to say, not to mention the other two wouldn't get what it is anyway, even though they are pretty apt descriptors of it. "W-well, there's a type of attack magic that's probably the safest at doing this. Better with more people, but with three of us here, it would cut down what you're feeling to a third." Where and to whom the other two-thirds go is left unstated. It's probably obvious anyway, from the context.

"Is that good enough?"

If Tina gives her permission,
Carmen then strategically kisses her in five places including a shoulder and the stomach, while tracing out a magic 'circle' on her metallic skin that would cause the Lust Energy and feelings of frustration to spill over to everyone else in the room. Cut down to a third! Probably a lot more manageable.

[Shadowcaller]

[Milton Island Assault]

Cerabella moves through the corridor cautiously while the draachi soldiers all stay behind at the foyer of the bunker as ordered.
Damon will be the first to notice that something is happening once the angel has almost reached the door. On the wall which his placed his hands on symbols which previously had been invisible now ignite with the orange light that he has learned to associate with demons. But they are not just on the walls, they're on the floor and the ceiling too. Along every side of the corridor and they're pulsing with demonic magic.

The effects are near instantaneous once the runes begin to glow as any person or object not officially recognized by this enhancement within the bunker complex will quickly be shrunk down to a few centimeters in height (their possessions shrinking with them at least).

The angel herself seems to be able to resist this effect somewhat as she isn't shrinking down to the same tiny size as everyone else. If either of Damon and Ilpholin have something which can help countering this powerful curse that might help them here.
Otherwise they're going to be very tiny and might suddenly be quite aware that there are a series of what appears to be mouseholes of the now to them gigantic walls. They might also be aware that there's a chittering sound now coming from all around them...

[Caedem Temple]

"Okay, let's do this." Obriane agrees with a nod and readies her bow. As Rein swings the door open she will let Kitty enter first and just attempt to shot any spirits she spots. By now Kitty knows to move to the side as she enters to give Obriane a clear shot, they've done this so many times they got a good routine going.

[Reinholdt]

[Milton Island Assault]

Not being in the hallway helps considerably. The moment any section of the corridor lights up is the same moment Ilpholin backflipping her way through the door they came through, the cybernetic nymph a seductive blur. It's not far enough away to really take time so she's able to get through before the shrinking curse takes effect. Unfortunately, the angle of her retreat means she can't grab Damon to pull him out so he's on his own.

[Caedem Temple]

Reinholdt holds up three fingers and lowers them one by one. When he lowers the last one, he throws the door open and withdraws to his current spot so as not to get in the way of any burning or arrows that might occur.

Inside is a clear banquet hall with a medium sized table, quite fancy, though also quite old. A number of chairs lay strewn about, rotted and diseased looking. Sitting in one of the few upright chairs is that spirit that ran away, crying to itself. Well it was crying to itself. It looked up quite startled and then got shot with a spirit arrow. Something more than enough to make it howl in pain, writhing as it tries to move, before realizing the arrow was still in it, stuck to the chair it was sitting in and pinning the spirit there. Moments later the chair explodes in wooden chips as the spirit frees itself, though that does mean it stayed pretty still for Kitty.

[Murkus]

[Getting That Song Out of your Head]

Fettina allows all of this, and just ends up giggling tinnily as Carmen starts... kissing her? "This is... this is attack magic?" She laughs, smiling, even temporarily distracted from her plight. And then... the feelings subside to a dull roar rather than what they were before. She blinks. "Oh. Oh thank the gods. That's much better. Thanks, doll."

[Gullara]

[Caedem Temple]

Contrary to expectations, perhaps, Kitsuki doesn't go rushing in. Quite the opposite. She positions herself forward, in front of Obriane, but not directly standing in the way to give Obriane a clear shot. She's poised to move in an instant, ready to protect Obriane if any spirit should close.