Vigil VII: Strife Amidst the Clouds

[Morty]

[Training Grounds]

Some people's first instinct in such situations is to say "it's okay" or something like that. But that wouldn't be honest, would it? Nor would it treat the apology with the gravity it deserves.

"...thank you for admitting it and apologizing. It was a very uncomfortable situation, but I'm willing to put it behind us now."

[Rebonack]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzt!

The training dummy is bifurcated, a searing arc of light splitting it in twain. Lapis steps into the slash, allowing the momentum to carry her forward into a thrust that transfixes another dummy. Seamlessly, she dives forward, unfolding like an origami child into her natural shape, the blazing starlight still hissing at the end of her tail. Another wide sweep, another dummy destroyed. She springs forward, a child again, evading an imagined counter blow. Something like a sword blossoms like a flower into a wide prismatic shield, blocking the fire of her imaginary foes. Then with a shout she hurls it skyward where it bursts into streamers of incandescent white power.

With a huff, Lapis plops onto her butt in the grass, surrounded by smoking training dummies.

"UGH!"

She flops over onto her back, arms spread, gazing up into the sky.

Lapis Lazuli is frustrated.

She needs worthy opponents.

Commanders Wenomir and Cessie don't want her to fight and she doesn't understand why.

She sneaked off a few times with her sister Eao to beat up bad guys but those fun expeditions are few and far between. Lapis needs to get stronger. And how is she going to get stronger if she can't beat bad guys and fill up her reliquary? Training on the dummies doesn't get her anything anymore. She needs foes that can fight back.

Sure, Lapis likes tending to the VIGIL grounds. It's nice! And the people here are nice she loves it! But...

But that just isn't the same.

She needs conflict.

The nagging impulse never goes away. She must Climb the Tower.

Thus, Lapis may be found laying in the grass watching the clouds and craving adventure.

[Purple Eagle]

[Training Grounds]

Some people's first instinct in such situations is to say "it's okay" or something like that. But that wouldn't be honest, would it? Nor would it treat the apology with the gravity it deserves.

"...thank you for admitting it and apologizing. It was a very uncomfortable situation, but I'm willing to put it behind us now."

[Training Grounds]

Svetlana nods, smiling as her apology is accepted. "Arigatou, commander." She bows respectfully again, then forgets herself and gives him a hug (unless he moves away or stops it, that is)!

"Meeting you has been one of the highlights of my life, Commander. You are a very intriguing man, to have made one in my circumstances feel anything remotely resembling a crush. Perhaps I saw something in you that reminded me of him." She turns to look at the recruits as she speaks, once the hug ends. After a few more moments of silence, she turns to look at her former sensei, her electronic eyes searching his. "Might we be friends?"

[Earl of Purple]

Lapis

Someone approaches, a young lady in her twenties. She's got blackish-grey skin, the colour of scorched wood, and she's shaved her head completely. Her eyes are a dark purple, and she's wearing a dark blue dress, a white lab coat and a pair of hiking boots. In one hand she holds a flip lighter, which she's being very careful with. She's a bit surprised at the state of the dummies, and looks around until she spots Lapis. "Uh, hi. I'm Felicity, I'm... quite new, or I feel it anyway. Do you know what happened to the training dummies? I was... going to try something." She's not visibly armed, however; maybe Felicity is some kind of martial artist? She doesn't look much like one.

[Morty]

[Training Grounds]

The hug takes Wenomir by surprise, something that's not otherwise very easy.

"I would like that. It might take me some time to learn not to treat you as a student, though," he adds as a half-joke. "I seem to make a stronger impression on many people than I would expect. Hopefully it doesn't go to my head. But I've got people to keep me grounded, too."

[Rebonack]

[Dumb Dummies]

Oh no.

Lapis sits bolt upright, glancing between Felicity and the ruined targets.

"I'm sorry I broke them all I didn't think anyone else would need them."

'Broke' seems like an understatement.

A few are broken in the traditional sense. Some seared into bits. At least one reduced to a still smoking scorch-mark.

"But that's okay there are more in the shed over there I'll get them!" Lapis says as she hops up and hurries over to the shed in question. She pulls out a little ring of keys from her pocket, unlocks the door, and throws it open. Then she vanishes into the shed only to return a few moments later carrying a pair of the training dummies.

They're nearly as big as she is.

It looks very awkward.

"My name's Lapis Lazuli I help keep the grounds at VIGIL looking pretty!"

Seems kind of weird that a (six?) year old half-drow child would be tending to the grounds.

[Zefir]

[Return -> The Training Grounds]

Mia comes back from her last mission. She seems a bit exhausted, but thats mostly mentaly. Getting into a foreign technologie is not an easy task even for someone with her knowledge and skills. She heads back to her cabin and stores her tools. After that she changes and heads for the training ground. She needs to clear her head so she heads there and starts running down the running track.

[5a Violista]

[Return -> The Training Grounds]

Mia comes back from her last mission. She seems a bit exhausted, but thats mostly mentaly. Getting into a foreign technologie is not an easy task even for someone with her knowledge and skills. She heads back to her cabin and stores her tools. After that she changes and heads for the training ground. She needs to clear her head so she heads there and starts running down the running track.

[Training Grounds]

Zophiel, the Paladin, is also in the training grounds. He's been there for a while.

...
Honestly, he's given up on getting rid of his wings. (He's got large black feathery wings at his back and smaller leathery ones by his hip.) So he's decided to just train while having them, to get used to their weight better.

Also, he's been pretty lost. No idea what he wants to do or needs to do.

Seeing Mia come in to start running, he waves over at her. "Hi," he says.

[Ironsmith]

[The Academy]

"...I still think this is a bad idea."

Vlad sighs as he and Eun step onto the island. "I know it's unpleasant. But you've got to get out of that house, doc."

"I think you'll find I don't. I've got all the stuff I need right here." Eun says, patting her Hotbox.

"I meant socially."

"Says you. I'm not built like the rest of you guys. I don't need to be around people. I don't want to be around people."

Vlad pinches the bridge of his nose, frustrated. "Eun, when I found you, your house was in disarray and you hadn't been back in your sleeping tank for weeks. You were slumped over your computer with flies going in little circles around you. If I didn't know better, I would have assumed somebody broke in and shot you." He puts a hand on her shoulder, to which she winces. "We're all worried about you, doc. Me, Miranda, Rose... even Klaus sounded concerned last time I checked with him."

Eun's gaze drops as Vlad speaks, and she lets out a little huff. He was right. He was right and she hated it. "...All right. Fine. I'll apply."

"That's all I ask." Vlad smiles. "You've got my frequency if you need me to pick you up, right?"

"...Yeah. Yeah, I do."

"Good." Vlad stands there awkwardly for a moment. "...You want a hug or anything?"

Eun shoots him a scathing look, glancing at the hand on her shoulder, then back at him.

"Oh. Yeah." Vlad hastily withdraws his hand. "No touching. Right. Sorry."

Eun gives him a small smile and starts walking toward the building. "Wish me luck."

"Luck!"

[Earl of Purple]

Dumb Dummies

"Oh, I can help! Don't... don't do it on your own." Felicity will go to help, and if they touch then Lapis may note Felicity is very warm; her body temperature is hotter than normal.

"I'm Felicity, I mostly work in the labs doing theoretical work. I miss real science, but... bit tricky for me right now. I'm working on something that might fix it though. In the meantime, I want to see if I can help in other ways." Vigil does anti-apocalypse work, and Felicity can't currently help out on the front line much- she's not got the knowledge of how to fight. But she's got a few plans and tricks she wants to practice, just in case.

[Rebonack]

[Dumb Dummies]

"How come you can't do any scienceing?" Lapis asks as she slots the second dummy into place before running back toward the shed to grab another.

Lapis isn't sure what could stop someone from doing that.

OH!

WAIT!

"Is it-"

No, Felicity still has her lab coat.

Everyone knows that you need a lab coat for sciencing.

That's a rule.

Hmm...

Lapis is pretty stumped!

[Zefir]

[Training Grounds]

Zophiel, the Paladin, is also in the training grounds. He's been there for a while.

...
Honestly, he's given up on getting rid of his wings. (He's got large black feathery wings at his back and smaller leathery ones by his hip.) So he's decided to just train while having them, to get used to their weight better.

Also, he's been pretty lost. No idea what he wants to do or needs to do.

Seeing Mia come in to start running, he waves over at her. "Hi," he says.

[Training Grounds]

Mia is less suprised to see anyone on the training ground. After all Wenomir has a lot of students who are eager to get better. It is strange though there is no known enemy they fight against. AMEN hasn't doen anything latly and she doesn't know anyone else.

Mia gets a bit over to Zophiel after a few laps.

"Hello there." she says. "I don't think we met each other. I'm Mia Mechanicus, High Priestress of Deus Mechanicus and I work here in the Infarmary and Maintanance."

[Earl of Purple]

Dumb Dumbies

"I sequenced my genome and developed a serum guaranteed to give me superpowers and not something self-destructive, like the ability to melt into a puddle of goo without the ability to reconstitute myself, or the ability to teleport half my body three miles away." The first has apparently happened, the latter hasn't, but is probably more lethal. "The power I got is that my bodily fluids are extremely flammable- my blood even ignites on contact with air- whilst the rest of my body, hair excluded, doesn't burn. Pretty much at all, actually. I've tested it with most easily obtainable temperatures, and I don't scald in boiling water. I was training to be a chemist, well... biochemist. But a lot of chemistry involves flames, which wouldn't be safe." Felicity looks over at Lapis, realising she's apparently a small child. "Um, do I need to explain any of that better?"

Felicity wrestles another dummy out, but will stop after two more dummies; about six is really all she's happy with right now. She's not sure how long she'll stay alight without panicking or deliberately trying to put herself out.

[Rebonack]

[Dumb Dummies]

"Those don't sound like very good super powers," Lapis observes. "I've never melted before that sounds like it isn't nice."

Lapis DEFINITELY hasn't ever teleported before.

She can only walk or fly places and she thinks that's okay.

"Does your sweat catch on fire, too? Oh! What about your spit?" Lapis asks, suddenly finding this conversation more exciting. "Mine doesn't do that-"

Then she spits in the grass.

It just...

Sits there.

Being saliva.

"See?"

Lapis is pretty proud of the fact that she has normal half-elf girl spit.

"What are you going to do with the dummies I was using my Something Like a Sword on them."

[5a Violista]

[Training Grounds]

Zophiel stops whatever training and workout he was doing when Mia comes over.

"Hi! I'm Zophiel, a paladin," he says introducing himself. "Joined about a year ago, but have been too busy meeting my daughters, doing random things around Inside, and dealing with personal problems to do anything with Vigil. Was hoping to come back here, train a little, and find if there was anything I could do to help," he says.

It's very possible that Mia can tell: Zophiel's wings have a very distinct demonic energy to them. From this close, it should be noticeable.

[Earl of Purple]

Dumb Dummies

"Yes, even my sweat. And my spit. What was I going to do? Well... this." Felicity walks up to one of the dummies and pulls out her lighter, flicking it to make a little flame before holding it against her other hand. There's a slight fwoosh sound as the thin layer of sweat and natural oils covering everyone's body ignites, and Felicity then pulls her hand back and punches the dummy in the face, before wincing. "Ow. That hurt." So she slaps the dummy instead, in the hope it won't hurt her hand as much.

[Rebonack]

[Dumb Dummies]

Lapis watches Felicity punch the dummy.

And hurt her knuckles.

"You haven't got any skill points in brawling?" Lapis asks curiously. She's pretty sure the answer is no. That was a REALLY bad punch. "I've only got a few mostly so I'm not bad at biting things in case I've gotta bite something."

Sometimes you just really need to bite something.

"But mostly I've got all my skills in swording and gardening since that's what I usually do," Lapis explains as she moves closer to Felicity to watch her dummy-slapping form. "I don't think your trick is any good for just hitting things the fire's not that hot. Maybe you should get something that can put lots of fire everywhere since that won't hurt you but it'll hurt the bad guy?"

Lapis is being helpful!

"Like a flame thrower! Or a big bucket of kitchen grease!"

Very helpful.

She considers options a few seconds longer and suggests-

"Are you allowed to get other Talents or do you only get the spit fire one?"

[Earl of Purple]

Dumb Dummies

"Um, I guess not? I mean, I've never been in a fight, really." Her fire didn't start hot, but it's getting there. "The problem with lots of fire is there's lots of potential for collateral damage, and that's... kinda not great." Then, Lapis says something which gives Felicity an idea. She steps back from the dummy, and starts trying to salivate, which is harder than it sounds. Then she'll spit a gob of saliva at the dummy. Her lips are on fire, so as it passes through her mouth it ignites with a blue-white flame, hotter than her basic body-fire. It lands in the dummy's chest, and starts to smoulder. "That's hotter. Um, my research in how I... did this to myself... was based on that of my employer. And, uh, every time he had tried doubling powers it always resulted in death. The serum's effect varies based on the individual genetics of the individual given it, and using the serum alters your genetics." Which raises a possibility that any children Felicity may have could also have superpowers, potential fire-based ones.

[Rebonack]

[Dumb Dummies]

"That's dumb that you can only get one Talent," Lapis concludes after some careful consideration. "I've got more than one! They're all for making Something Like a Sword better."

And then, just so Felicity knows what she's talking about, Laps sort of clutches her fingers, causing a ball of brilliant light to appear in her hand. She squeezes her fingers around it and with an electric HISS it takes on the rough shape of a sword. By all accounts it looks like she's wielding a lightning bolt.

She takes the weapon and stuffs it through one of the dummies.

It pierces right through with no real resistance, blackening the surrounding fabric by failing to set it on fire.

They're pretty flame retardant!

For safety reasons.

"I've got some talents that make it so I can throw it! And another one for making it a shield. And one that lets me power up cool sword moves! And one for helping me cut stuff."

All sorts of sword related things.

[Earl of Purple]

Dumb Dummies

"I've got other skills too, just... not so blatantly supernatural." She's a science student, and she also used to be a skilled cook in her free time. She still is, really, so long as she doesn't use a gas cooker. "So, um. What are you?" Because Lapis sure isn't a child, that's for sure.

Felicity is still on fire, and it's getting hotter quite quickly. She's not yet hot enough her dress is burning, however.

[Rebonack]

[Dumb Dummies]

"Mother says that everyone should have lots of skills since learning new skills makes you better," Lapis reasons as she releases her grip on Something Like a Sword, allowing it to dissipate into rapidly vanishing wisps of plasma.

Then?

Felicity asks a really weird question.

Maybe the weirdest question!

Lapis wrinkles her nose, confused.

"I told you already? I'm Lapis Lazuli! I help here at VIGIL I'm really good at it! I caught a boss bird one time and it left a duck behind do you wanna see it?"

It's a pretty great duck.

If a little burned.

[Earl of Purple]

Dumb Dummies

"That's who you are, and I do know that, yes. I mean, like... are you an alien, or a robot, or... What are you, besides Lapis Lazuli who helps at Vigil and catches boss birds?" Felicity would probably be more interested in the hoopoe than the duck, if she knew about it. As it is, though, her knowledge of avians is lacking so even if she's seen the hoopoe it hasn't attracted her suspicion.

[Rebonack]

Dumb Dummies

It sounds like Felicity doesn't want to see Lapis' duck.

How sad.

Anywho!

Further explanation seems to get through to Lapis.

"OH! Well, my daddy is drow and Mother is human so I'm a half-elf."

That explains everything.

"Mother is also a seraphim so that makes me a seraph. But I'm really little, still. I could show you but I shine a whole bunch I'll try not to be too bright."

Then she...

Unfolds?

Is probably the most sensible way to put it. Like an origami crane unfolding, except unfolding into something much bigger and MUCH more complex than a sheet of paper.

Something like a dragon, awesome and terrible.
Something like a tree, growing and reaching.
Something like fawn, free and wild.
Something like eyes, endless black ringed in stellar white.

"Mother says I'm supposed to say 'don't be scared!' when I do this, but I don't think I'm very scary."

She is extremely scary.

Felicity might be reminded of one of the creatures the Professor had that he regularly took samples from for his potions.

[Earl of Purple]

Dumb Dummies

"Well. Well, that is... certainly something, thank you." Felicity does note the similarity to the entity the Professor has stored, which may well have provided ingredients for Felicity's own transformation- alongside other creatures and substances, at least. "I've... seen something like you before. Not exactly like, but there's a resemblance. Sort of. Nearly. Do you all get swords like yours?" Because now Felicity is really starting to wonder why it hadn't escaped, unaware of the glyphs and wards that prevented exactly that from occurring. Or maybe the one Professor Payne has didn't do the tutorial and doesn't know how to summon their sword.

[Rebonack]

[Dumb Dummies]

Interestingly enough Lapis is becoming more concrete in appearance the longer she remains in her natural form.

Felicity likely noticed something similar with the 'child' the professor had captive. It would often disguise itself as a human child and when that disguise dropped it was extremely abstract. But the longer it remained the more physicality seemed to impose normal order upon it. Lapis is definitely a strange creature.

But a guileless one.

The one in the crate had a pretty significant nasty streak. It was also child-like, but that also included a child-like unpleasantness. And imagine how a child might act if they wielded significant power.

"Yeah! Everyone gets something like a sword but I dunno why. Mother doesn't, either. When I asked the Servant how come everyone got one it said that's just the way it is which is the worst answer."

Lapis blows something like a raspberry at the non-answer.

"I think it's maybe so you've still got a weapon even if you haven't picked up anything else? It's my favorite weapon, though swords are WAY better than guns."

Just to show off how great they are Lapis brandishes the sword again, a flashing arc of death, lightning given coherent form. Like the gods of old, wielding thunderbolts to drive back the primordial forces of chaos.

"OH! I got this super great new Talent it's called Law of Blades and it's soooo cool it makes it so I can use my Shape sphere for cutting things better watch this!" Lapis says as she turns back toward the dummies. By now she's fairly coherent. A strangely cervine dragon with branches for antlers and leaves for pinions, full of eyes around and within. She backs up a few paces from one of the dummies and makes a broad, sweeping stroke-

-from about eight feet away.

The sizzling blade doesn't even come CLOSE to the dummy.

In spite of this it slides cleanly in half.

Lapis turns back toward Felicity, a huge fang-filled smile on her face. "Did you see? Isn't it cool? I love it it's my new favorite Talent."

[Earl of Purple]

Dumb Dummies

"That is pretty cool." But Felicity can't help but notice another dummy was destroyed before she had a chance to try anything with it.

Felicity is still on fire, and getting hotter. She's not noticed yet, but her dress has just about caught aflame. Felicity doesn't notice because she doesn't feel the heat as a normal person does, and she's already on fire. "I don't have a sword like that. I don't think I do, anyway. Pretty sure I'd notice." But if she tried using it, she'd immediately burst into flame probably.

[Rebonack]

[Dumb Dummies]

There are many dummies.

Felicity can slap a different one.

Lapis rips off a bit of cloth and holds it out for Felicity to take. Like the dummies it is fire resistant so it should be fine being held by her for a little while at least.

"Here hold this and close your fingers around it okay? I want to show you something really REALLY neat it's just the best I promise it won't hurt."

She promises so much.

If Felicity seems hesitant Lapis will clarify a bit.

"The best thing about the new Talent is I can make it so I just cut the thing I want to cut I'm going to cut that cloth and not your hand okay?"

This sounds pretty dangerous.

[Zefir]

[Training Grounds]

Zophiel stops whatever training and workout he was doing when Mia comes over.

"Hi! I'm Zophiel, a paladin," he says introducing himself. "Joined about a year ago, but have been too busy meeting my daughters, doing random things around Inside, and dealing with personal problems to do anything with Vigil. Was hoping to come back here, train a little, and find if there was anything I could do to help," he says.

It's very possible that Mia can tell: Zophiel's wings have a very distinct demonic energy to them. From this close, it should be noticeable.

[Training Grounds]

Mia can feel it. She isn't sure how to react since there are a few people who are related to the demons, but work against them.

"I hope your personal problems could be solved." she says and looks at the wings for a moment as if they are related to it. "That explains why we never met. I used to be here most of my time or at the church in Riverside. I can tell you that there is no big thing going on right now, but maybe someone can need another pair of hands."

[5a Violista]

Training Grounds

Zophiel spots her looking at his wings and picks up on the implication.
He shakes his head: "These are unrelated, but they can't be removed, either," he says. The fact that he said 'either' suggests that the 'personal problems' can't be solved, too. "Any attempt at healing magic makes them grow back, so any solution is temporary at best."

Anyway, back to the better part of the conversation. Zophiel is a paladin, so of course he would be interested in religion. "What church do you go to?" he asks, "And what sort of things are taught there?"

[Earl of Purple]

Dumb Dummies

"Uh... sure. I'll trust you for this. But, um, if it doesn't work my blood will ignite on contact with air." And Felicity's not sure what would happen if something more drastic occurred and it wasn't just blood that was spilt.

Felicity will hold the scrap of cloth between both hands, one above the other. Her own clothes are properly burning now, too.