Skyside 8: Base Violence and Unnecessary Change

[Ironsmith]

[SIN Headquarters]
((fixing her speech color because I realized I messed it up))

"Oh, good," June says. Mind reading sounds like it sucks. "Unless you tell me how it works, I'm just going to assume it's the type of protection that works better when you don't know about it."

Anyway.
VIGIL.
Right.
June spends a few moments thinking back to see if she's ever heard of VIGIL. She's heard of..."Nope." Only heard about one called GLoG. "Haven't heard about it. If they're big enough, I bet I could find out what I need to know by asking around or looking it up or something." If they're a small organization, however, she might need a briefing on it.

[SIN Headquarters]

"I see." Klaus pours himself a glass of Pixie before continuing. "They're broad-scale law enforcement for the Nexus, in simple terms. Protect the world from existential threats, nefarious plots, large-scale villainy, all that sort of thing. Not inherently good, nor inherently bad, but stabilizing. And starting in six hours, they're going to be sending people after me." He takes a quick gulp from his drink and sighs. "Your job is going to be to make sure they absolutely do not succeed, and to come get me if by some miracle they do manage it."

[Coming Up]

"Hmm... it's true minotaur aren't especially common." Finding a few to zombify will probably actually take some effort, unlike humans and elves. "It's not like you'll need to know how to drive the tank to smash through the wall unexpectedly. I guess you'll need to know how to use the brakes once you show up. Yeah, ok. Sounds like a plan. Uhh, tell what's his face to buy you a tank you practice driving into stuff or whatever." Just until Raven has time to build Rose a proper Black Abyss tank.

Raven smiles at Rose. "You seem to be catching on. Excellent. We'll paint this whole world black and red!" It's so nice to have competent help. Competent help that's also easy on the eyes and fun to kiss. Not that the rest of Raven's help is setting the bar particularly high.

"Oh by the way, do you need any help explaining why you're quitting your assignment? Should I, I dunno, kidnap someone close to you and make it too personal or something?" Raven's not really sure how one helps in this situation. It's a little more complicated than her usual evil empress antics.

[Coming Up]

The Volus probably isn't a particularly good kisser, true.

"Nah, I can handle that." Rose gives a dismissive wave. "Besides, that's a pretty short list and they're all not the type of people you'd want to kidnap. That's a great way to accidentally your brand-new base." She tugs on her shoes and smiles at Raven. "Besides again, all I need to tell MERC is the truth. 'I like this girl, I'm not taking any more assignments against her, and if you don't like it, you can-'" Rose taps a finger to her chin. "...something. It's hard to make any of the usual stuff sound contemptuous when we were doing exactly that ten minutes ago. Eh, I'll think of something." She leans in and gives Raven a parting peck on the cheek. "I'll be back in an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Just got to run down for a few things, tell MERC where they can stick it, all that junk."

[5a Violista]

[SIN Headquarters]

June takes another drink of her Pixie.

Hmm.
"And they think you're a destabilizing force," she concludes. If they want stability then they'd go after someone who doesn't. Makes sense. "Yeah, I see. Skyside would definitely be better off being destabilized, though."

She thinks about the practical issues she'd run into trying to stop them. "How committed are they to it? Is it the sort of thing that I'd just have to delay them for a certain amount of time? Convince them that it's not worth it? Or are they just going to try nonstop until something happens?"
More relevantly, she thinks, if they do succeed and she needs to get him away, that'd be a lot easier if they don't know what she looks like. So she'd probably need to do more stealth and misdirection than outright...something.

"There's a lot of things that they could be doing; you have any more details on this?"

[Ironsmith]

[SIN Headquarters]

"Sadly, I do not." Klaus replies. "I have a contact within VIGIL, but as of late she has been... indisposed." He swirls his drink thoughtfully as he considers what he intends to say next. Is June in the right state to hear this news? Most likely. He still has a few avenues for recovery if she isn't.

"However, while I can't say anything about their methodology, I can tell you their motives, and the fact that you will likely find them sympathetic." He says finally, setting the glass down. "You're quite correct in that our organization here, and by extension, myself, act as a sort of upending of the status quo here in Skyside. However, as I understand it, VIGIL would not exactly be perturbed by the destruction of the Slavers' Guild. If anything, I would anticipate they would add their own efforts to hurry it along once toppling it becomes an imminent possibility. No, the reasons they would have for coming after me are quite a bit more specific than that; doubt over my sanity, and disgust at my working with the Guild."

[Earl of Purple]

SSGTV

The builder is decapitated, and then she can wait a moment as the bunnygirl and the one-handed crawler can't free themselves from under the dead builder.

But after she's done that, the doors will open and a keyholder will wave Hana over.

SSGTV Control Room

"No need for that, most of this fight should be on the best bits show later tonight. Not all fights are live, we've got four arenas but only one channel." Death matches are always shown live, and often repeated- though the dwarf against the concrete-clad clunker won't be truly live, as it's not going to be broadcast until after the end of Hana's fight.

[Morty]

[SSGTV Control Room]

Michalson will simply wait for the fight to be over. He won't say more than he needs to and risk his cover.

[Vahnavoi]

[SSGTV Control Room]

"Yes! Go Hana... errr, Razor! That's my girl!", Sandels cheers when he sees Hana decapitate the zombie. It's more for Hazel's benefit than a truly spontaneous exclamation, though saying Hana's name was unintentional. He glances at the amazon. "Is that so? Didn't know. Thanks for the tip."

[Ironsmith]

SSGTV

The builder is decapitated, and then she can wait a moment as the bunnygirl and the one-handed crawler can't free themselves from under the dead builder.

But after she's done that, the doors will open and a keyholder will wave Hana over.

[SSGTV]

...Huh.

Is that it? That can't be it. The keyholder Hana was talking to before gave her the distinct impression that she would be in here for way more than just two waves. Had they noticed she was flagging and decided to cut the fight early? It's probably not any fun to watch a tired gladiator lethargically fighting a bunch of zombies. Or maybe they're just calling her in for a brief break; letting her get a little rest while they cut to commercial or something. Traditional sports have halftime or gaps between rounds, maybe this was something like that?

Regardless, Hana's not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. She makes her way over to the keyholder, exaggerating her weary gait. "What's going on?" She asks quietly.

[5a Violista]

[SIN Headquarters]

June does have to admit that he has been acting a little weird.
But there's a big difference between 'weird' and 'government persecuting someone because of their sanity.'

"I would ask if you've seen a therapist for paranoia, but we are talking about both a slave guild and a large group that presumably doesn't have anything to hold it accountable," she says, because speaking gives her time to think through what is clearly a complex situation.

Okay.
She's thought it through.
June leans back and stretches her fin-tail.
"Okay. So they're going to try to capture you. I need to stop - and not delay, because there's no way to know if them giving up is even a possibility - them, and..." Honestly, when she says it that way, it makes it seem like an inevitability that he's going to get captured and she'll have to rescue him, because if they never stop and there's no endgame then eventually they'll succeed. "...and I guess that's it. Seems possible, I guess."

[Earl of Purple]

SSGTV

The keyholder brings Hana to a stairway, rather than a device to hand out tokens. "You are being rented out. They paid over the odds to interrupt your fight, so you won't get all the tokens you could have. But if you behave and the gentlemen hiring you are pleased with your performance, and I feel you deserve it, you shall get more tokens. Eight tokens per round is sixteen, plus three for each zombie means you've earnt nine for round one and twenty-one for round two, so forty-six tokens are entering your account. Before you go anywhere, though, you need a replacement top- and you won't be allowed to take your weapon with you. If they want you to fight, they'll have to provide a weapon. Here, put this on." The keyholder thrusts a basketball vest with large arm-holes to Hana, one made of net material. It looks solid yellow from a distance, closer up it hides far less. "I'll be going with you, to make sure you're returned in the same condition you left."

SSGTV Control Room

"She's on her way. You have an hour. That's not each, that's total. You can decide what you want to do with her, but if you kill her you'll have to replace her. If you don't return her, we'll spread your description and hunt you down and send you into that arena with a switchblade against... I'm thinking a bear today." Before Hana gets to the command centre, though, she'll be fitted with a tracker to make sure they can find her.

[Reinholdt]

[Coming Up]

Raven smiles at Rose and nods giving Rose a little kiss back. "Alright. Well, I know you don't feel safe around Skyside, so you should take a pair of mecha-zombies with you. They'll protect you, or at least buy you time to escape."

Those are the two functions Raven most enjoys using them for.

[Vahnavoi]

[SSGTV Control Room]

Sandels tries and fails to resist glaring at the amazon. If she makes him fight a bear, he thinks, he will feed her to it. But he manages to not say it aloud.

"Understood. We'll return her within an hour." Sure they will. "Let's get to it, shall we?" He glances at Michalson, rubbing his hands together.

[Ironsmith]

[SIN Headquarters]

June does have to admit that he has been acting a little weird.
But there's a big difference between 'weird' and 'government persecuting someone because of their sanity.'

"I would ask if you've seen a therapist for paranoia, but we are talking about both a slave guild and a large group that presumably doesn't have anything to hold it accountable," she says, because speaking gives her time to think through what is clearly a complex situation.

Okay.
She's thought it through.
June leans back and stretches her fin-tail.
"Okay. So they're going to try to capture you. I need to stop - and not delay, because there's no way to know if them giving up is even a possibility - them, and..." Honestly, when she says it that way, it makes it seem like an inevitability that he's going to get captured and she'll have to rescue him, because if they never stop and there's no endgame then eventually they'll succeed. "...and I guess that's it. Seems possible, I guess."

[SIN Headquarters]

Klaus scowls at the question about paranoia, but only for a moment. She touched a nerve, it seems.

"Good. Keep that thought in your head. Focus on it as much as you can." Klaus reaches forward and attmepts to take the soda cup from June's hands. "I wasn't sure how this meeting would go, so I took the liberty of treating your cup with a psychoactive compound which induces acute anterograde amnesia." He gives her a mirthless little smirk. "In about three minutes, we will never have had this conversation." And he probably would have sent her out on some innocuous task, like fetching donuts, to explain why he called her back to the house in the first place.

SSGTV

The keyholder brings Hana to a stairway, rather than a device to hand out tokens. "You are being rented out. They paid over the odds to interrupt your fight, so you won't get all the tokens you could have. But if you behave and the gentlemen hiring you are pleased with your performance, and I feel you deserve it, you shall get more tokens. Eight tokens per round is sixteen, plus three for each zombie means you've earnt nine for round one and twenty-one for round two, so forty-six tokens are entering your account. Before you go anywhere, though, you need a replacement top- and you won't be allowed to take your weapon with you. If they want you to fight, they'll have to provide a weapon. Here, put this on." The keyholder thrusts a basketball vest with large arm-holes to Hana, one made of net material. It looks solid yellow from a distance, closer up it hides far less. "I'll be going with you, to make sure you're returned in the same condition you left."

[SSGTV]

Talk about timing. Hana wasn't sure if she could sit through another wave of zombies. Though she's also not sure if where she's going now is any better or worse.

"Can you tell me anything about these 'gentlemen' and what they might want with me?" Hana asks, trading in her machete for the vest. She has her suspicions, of course- she really doubts they just want an autograph- but the keyholder might be able to give her a better idea what she's in for.

[Coming Up]

Raven smiles at Rose and nods giving Rose a little kiss back. "Alright. Well, I know you don't feel safe around Skyside, so you should take a pair of mecha-zombies with you. They'll protect you, or at least buy you time to escape."

Those are the two functions Raven most enjoys using them for.

[Coming Up]

"I'm parked within eyesight of the building and I intend to come back the same way, more or less. Your mecha-zombies might be useful within Skyside, but once I'm back to base they'll probably just get in the way." Rose shrugs. "Next time. If I'm going to spend any amount of time as your minion, I'm gonna have to get used to being around them."

That's a pleasant thought.

"Bye~♡" Rose gives one last little wave and is out the door.

[Morty]

[SSGTV Control Room]

"Yes, let's." Finally this charade is over. Now he'll just have to find a good way to reveal his true agenda. But he won't do it until he sees Hana. Still, his leer is already gone and he's brief and to the point. "No time to waste, aye?"

[Earl of Purple]

SSGTV

"There are two of them, they will have you for an hour, and Itotia has threatened them with the arena and a bear if they do not return you intact. Which is another thing, we need to stop here." It's a medical bay, and a healer is waiting. She's an old woman wearing a sleeveless grey dress and a hat flaring out at the sides bearing a white veil. In her hands, she carries a gilded rod tipped with a black sun. The keyholder pushes Hana closer, and the healer grabs at Hana's face, looking in her eyes and tutting. "Hmmph. You should eat. I can tell you haven't. We provide you rats with food, take advantage of it. Never mind. She's healthy, mostly." Hana will feel a slight tingle as the healer uses magic to remove any bruises and scratches inflicted by the zombies, also curing the active variant of the zombie virus the Guild uses- the passive variant is harder to kill without murdering one's gut biota. As she does, the keyholder attempts to put a steel collar around Hana's neck. There's a tracker built into the collar, though it's not yet active. It's connected to a timer so it won't start pulsing until Hana's late back to the arena, or if the circuit completed by the lock holding the collar shut is broken, or if the internal altimeter senses the collar is leaving Skyside proper.

SSGTV Control Room

"She needs some prep first, make sure she's unharmed by her fight and give her a new top, fit her with a collar so we can find her if she runs, and so on. Come, let's go to the door where she can meet us there." The Amazon stands and gestures, heading for the stairs down and the small foyer where the one-legged orc awaits.

[Shadowcaller]

[Searching for Truth]

Well that's unfortunate. But if Tina says Ilpholin can't control the drones, then she's probably telling the truth. "I bet you smashing them is a wonderful ritual that still works." Demon can't control what isn't there and doesn't function.

Talking about it seems to have given the drones the initiative who rudely interrupt by firing lasers! It's terrible. Ilpholin can't protect all three of them, but does raise an arm up that becomes a shield, not unlike the kind the Hoplite II seem to be using, protecting her face. It doesn't stop a laser from catching her hip as she starts to run forward and she hisses in pain briefly before turning her pain receptors off entirely. Allowing her to truly berserk into the cloud of drones, almost ignoring their lasers entirely as her other hand turns into a whip and lashes out at them. She's trying to get under one of the rows to cut deep into chassis of the drones from a hopefully vulnerable spot, even if it does make herself more vulnerable to the lasers in the process.

[Searching for Truth]

Well, that answers that. No time in a real fight to stand around singing, especially when she can't be sure the other ladies will be able to cover her. Tina never much liked her singing voice anyways.

"Anika! Try to stay down!" she shouts, knowing that of the three of them, Anika is probably the most vulnerable to things like small-arms fire. But this is... different. Blasts of radiation? That look kinda like lasers?

Tina is almost immediately struck with one. She blinks several times. It seems harmful radiation, at least on this scale, doesn't do much to an angel. When you can fly in vacuum or near the surface of a star (not that Tina would know she can do these things), you aren't fazed much by directed-energy weaponry unless it's of a substantially higher caliber. Plus, she's not even sure she can be blinded this way. So mostly the shots just give her a little headache.

Scowling, Fettina spreads her wings in a flash and takes off, zipping right towards the cloud of drones. She moves with preturnatural speed, for a several-hundred-pound metal winged being. Not anything that couldn't be tracked by a normal person, but certainly faster than a creature like her ought to be able to, especially with so few flaps of the wings.

She lets out a scream as she levels a fist at the nearest drone, a halo of light momentarily bursting into being around her wrist. She tries to strike the thing exactly as she remembers, and will likely keep doing the same to other units until one of them stops her.

[Searching for Truth]

Whut? Stay down?
But she was supposed to be tanking the shots here!
However, she figures that Tina is about to be blasting the drones with some angel blast though so she does as she's told and tries to stay down as much as a bear can which meant dropping down and sliding forward. Planning to get up the presumed blasts were sailing over the top of her head.

But instead it's Tina that comes flying. Huh.

Was she trying to steal her job?!

Feeling left out Anika quickly gets up and starts charging after Tina despite now getting hit by the drones lasers.

---

Now, for Ilpholin and Tina it's important to remember that there's a defensive line formed by the hoplite drones. Tina who manages to close to space between them so quickly is the first to encounter this as she aims for the closest drone.

The hoplites are, to clarify, hoovering metal balls. Each one about the size of a large beach ball. The holographic shields they are producing are however larger than they are though they only seem capable of projecting them in one direction at one, like actual shields if its wearer could rotate their arm in any direction.

Before either of them can make contact with this wall of shields that are projected before them the hoplites like their namesakes raise their long spear-like appendages which are located on their right side like arms. These spears are projected out just in-between the shields of the wall and will make it difficult for either of them to run straight at them without impaling themselves on the spears.

Tina can fly above their reach however and as the ceiling is extremely high she will have no trouble doing so.

But just as Tina lands just behind the shield wall and Ilpholin comes rushing towards it the toxotes suddenly stop shooting as they're switching weapons.

Though before getting into that we deal with what happens to the hoplites. Tina gets in a hit on the first one and she can hear a roar as she can see a centipede-like entity, or at least the upper half of one, is thrown out of the drone and it seems to cease functioning.

Another punch and a second entity is thrown out but at the third they've managed to turn its shield around to meet her punch and it seems like she actually has to hit their physical body to drive the demon out. It's shield blocking her attack.

But that drone is in turned skewed by Ilpholin as once it turned its attention to Tina she can easily pierce its unprotected backside with her whip-arm and then another one which had done the same thing. This leaves four hoplite drones still functioning and two seemingly rebooting as the demon left its system.

Both Tina and Ilpholin are going to get two spear attacks aimed at them as the remaining hoplites try to attack back while they're destroying their comrades. These spears are not energy-based and are simply extremely sharp, especially when thrust with the force these drones use.

Whatever the result of these attacks Anika was right behind Ilpholin and comes charging straight into their lines as they're focusing their attention on the nymph. She will knock two of them out of the air and get directly into the toxotes lines and knock several of them out of the air as well.

The downed drones are just temporarily stunned however and if not destroyed or disabled will join the attack again.

[Ironsmith]

SSGTV

"There are two of them, they will have you for an hour, and Itotia has threatened them with the arena and a bear if they do not return you intact. Which is another thing, we need to stop here." It's a medical bay, and a healer is waiting. She's an old woman wearing a sleeveless grey dress and a hat flaring out at the sides bearing a white veil. In her hands, she carries a gilded rod tipped with a black sun. The keyholder pushes Hana closer, and the healer grabs at Hana's face, looking in her eyes and tutting. "Hmmph. You should eat. I can tell you haven't. We provide you rats with food, take advantage of it. Never mind. She's healthy, mostly." Hana will feel a slight tingle as the healer uses magic to remove any bruises and scratches inflicted by the zombies, also curing the active variant of the zombie virus the Guild uses- the passive variant is harder to kill without murdering one's gut biota. As she does, the keyholder attempts to put a steel collar around Hana's neck. There's a tracker built into the collar, though it's not yet active. It's connected to a timer so it won't start pulsing until Hana's late back to the arena, or if the circuit completed by the lock holding the collar shut is broken, or if the internal altimeter senses the collar is leaving Skyside proper.

[SSGTV (Fight Studio) => SSGTV Control Room]

Hana gives the healer a little scowl. "You've got no business calling that junk 'food'." She grumbles.

Ugh. When she gets out of here, she's going to find a Hotbox, sit down, and just pig out on whatever sounds tasty. Maybe turkey burgers? Probably turkey burgers. Then she's going to curl up in her sleeping pod and just sleep for a month, which should be more than enough to cure any unsavory microbes she might have picked up here, up to and including the ones in her stomach.

For now, though, she's just going to have to deal with being locked into a collar and led away to the "gentlemen" who "rented" her.

[Murkus]

[Searching for Truth]

Fettina will ignore the stabbing hoplites for now, tearing through the hole in the line that Anika creates with her forceful presence. She tries to position herself so her wings take the blows, deflecting the spear-tips with ineffectual tinks. Man, she had missed the big goofy bear! And now unless the drones can bring anything more than those spears to bear, she's going to pounce on the downed turret-drones. Her fists flashing and glaring with brilliant white light.

She's looking to crush or dissipate as many of those centipede-y things as possible.

[5a Violista]

[SIN Headquarters]

Huh.

"I hope you gave me the right cup because it would be awkward if you accidentally gave me the wrong one and messed up your own memory," June says with a very deadpan tone. She lets him take the cup. "And then I'd have to explain to you what happened and you wouldn't believe me that you'd make that mistake and then I'd have to figure out some more believable explanation I could give you."

Anyway, she's got two minutes? to think about this. "Anyway, you going to give me a piece of paper or something so that I can write a note to myself telling me what I'm supposed to do?" Or is he just going to trust someone who doesn't remember that she needs to do background research on Vigil before they arrive? She holds her left hand with her claws, and makes a very tiny prick with one claw, not enough to start bleeding but just enough to leave a small indent and a little pain and a little red spot.
Has he done this to her before? she wonders. If she looked at her wrist would she notice more of these little dots on her wrist? But June doesn't dare to check, because that would totally draw attention to it.

If he doesn't have any paper or anything handy, there's no way June is going to have time to grab anything to write it down.
She looks over at her dress.
"Should I get back in the dress before? Might be weird for the last memory I have to be in the dress but then suddenly find myself sitting down, or vice-versa."

[Reinholdt]

[Searching for Truth]

Ilpholin will skip backwards away from the spear thrust, letting her own shield take the brunt of what can reach, purple sparks flying as the weapons screech against each other. The angel seems to be focused on the centipedes and downed drones, so that'd leave it up to them to keep providing Tina with targets.

The dancer will let her whip snap forward, seeking to entangle itself around the two spears of the remaining hoplites and suddenly bind them together tightly. She can use this as leverage to swing those drones around wildly, preferably into other drones, but equally as often into the ground and walls. Certainly the intention.

[Vahnavoi]

[SSGTV Control Room]

Sandels follows the amazon's lead, though he isn't happy he has to walk further. Couldn't they just bring her here?

Hana will, no do doubt, be pleasantly surprised to find out one of the "gentlemen" renting her out is some grumpy guy covered in bandages, wearing a dirty biker jacket and bloodstained camo pants, reeking of smoke. When he sees her, he nods and turns to speak to Michalson. "Nice top, isn't it, Garlic?" Hana mighy catch a glimpse of the Ouroboros design on the back of his jacket.

[Morty]

[SSGTV Control Room]

"Aye, reckon so." Michalson is tense and can't entirely hide it. The cranium rat will be out of the bag soon. "Hana, was it? We should probably all make clear what we want."

[Earl of Purple]

SSGTV Combined

They meet in the one-legged orc's guard post, with the door outside quite close. The same place they'd have had to walk to on leaving if Hana had been taken to the control room, but this way the gladiator doesn't see anything more of the camera layout and arenas than absolutely necessary. The keyholder will clip a chain to Hana's new collar and offer it to 'Garrick'. "Here is Razor, ready to go. Please look after her; I have no wish to replace her." The keyholder then turns and walks back, whilst the orc guard opens the door and gestures for Michalson and Sandals to leave.

The 'heroes' should realise that Hana wasn't wearing the collar when she was in the arena, and that it probably contains some way of finding her if she goes missing.

[Ironsmith]

[SIN Headquarters]

Huh.

"I hope you gave me the right cup because it would be awkward if you accidentally gave me the wrong one and messed up your own memory," June says with a very deadpan tone. She lets him take the cup. "And then I'd have to explain to you what happened and you wouldn't believe me that you'd make that mistake and then I'd have to figure out some more believable explanation I could give you."

Anyway, she's got two minutes? to think about this. "Anyway, you going to give me a piece of paper or something so that I can write a note to myself telling me what I'm supposed to do?" Or is he just going to trust someone who doesn't remember that she needs to do background research on Vigil before they arrive? She holds her left hand with her claws, and makes a very tiny prick with one claw, not enough to start bleeding but just enough to leave a small indent and a little pain and a little red spot.
Has he done this to her before? she wonders. If she looked at her wrist would she notice more of these little dots on her wrist? But June doesn't dare to check, because that would totally draw attention to it.

If he doesn't have any paper or anything handy, there's no way June is going to have time to grab anything to write it down.
She looks over at her dress.
"Should I get back in the dress before? Might be weird for the last memory I have to be in the dress but then suddenly find myself sitting down, or vice-versa."

[SIN Headquarters]

Klaus gives a little smirk and nods. "Of course. Let me help you with that." He offers, hooking his arms under hers to lift and keep her stable throughout the process. June's right, obviously; there's not much more disconcerting than finding yourself half-undressed and with missing time.

"A note would defeat the purpose. One of them, at least." Klaus points out. "The other half is that this works as that counter-measure I mentioned. If you don't remember why you're doing what you're doing, because the memory never properly formed, then a mind-reader won't have a way to extract that memory from you."

It is, after all, very difficult to retrieve something that doesn't exist.

"Now. Here's what you do. Take your mission, make it into a mantra. As long as it's in your short-term memory, you'll still have it. Repeat it to yourself until the compound wears off. Out loud, preferably; you're not disciplined enough to do it all internally." Klaus shrugs and returns to his seat. "...I'm going to fill in some nonsense now. Ignore me, focus on your mission."

He should be easy to tune out anyway. June's probably not interested in the weather, what's going on with kids these days, or the price of synthetic tea in Tibet.

[SSGTV Control Room]

Sandels follows the amazon's lead, though he isn't happy he has to walk further. Couldn't they just bring her here?

Hana will, no do doubt, be pleasantly surprised to find out one of the "gentlemen" renting her out is some grumpy guy covered in bandages, wearing a dirty biker jacket and bloodstained camo pants, reeking of smoke. When he sees her, he nods and turns to speak to Michalson. "Nice top, isn't it, Garlic?" Hana mighy catch a glimpse of the Ouroboros design on the back of his jacket.

[SSGTV Control Room]

"Aye, reckon so." Michalson is tense and can't entirely hide it. The cranium rat will be out of the bag soon. "Hana, was it? We should probably all make clear what we want."

SSGTV Combined

They meet in the one-legged orc's guard post, with the door outside quite close. The same place they'd have had to walk to on leaving if Hana had been taken to the control room, but this way the gladiator doesn't see anything more of the camera layout and arenas than absolutely necessary. The keyholder will clip a chain to Hana's new collar and offer it to 'Garrick'. "Here is Razor, ready to go. Please look after her; I have no wish to replace her." The keyholder then turns and walks back, whilst the orc guard opens the door and gestures for Michalson and Sandals to leave.

The 'heroes' should realise that Hana wasn't wearing the collar when she was in the arena, and that it probably contains some way of finding her if she goes missing.

[SSGTV]

...These two are the ones renting her out? Some beanpole of a guy who looks like a stiff breeze will knock him over, and Mummy Returns over there? Between the two of them, she's not seeing very stiff resistance if she tries to escape. Except for the part where she's still in the studio.

But, that can be fixed.

"Shh. Not here." Hana puts a finger to Michalson's lips. "Why don't we go somewhere a little more private? We can talk more about what you want there." She flutters her eyelids at Sandels and smiles. "You, too. I'm sure you didn't intend to just sit and listen."

Eugh. She hates pulling out that voice for anyone not named Hazel. It just feels wrong. But, desperate times, desperate measures...

[Vahnavoi]

[SSGTV]

Sandels looks over Hana once, stopping to consider if he can tear or cut that collar off without injuring her horribly. Probably not. "Right, right. Let's get moving and breathe in some fresh air as we walk", he remarks and turns to the door.

Once they actually are outside, he pulls out the silver flask of rum and unstoppers it. "Okay, enough time wasted on pomp and circumstance. Time to see if power of love really is equal to power of hate", he says as he pours the contents on the ground. "Reverse Path of Binding: Evil-containing Jar."

[Ironsmith]

[SSGTV]

Hazel sputters and coughs as she sprawls out onto the pavement, finally free (most likely temporarily, but she's counting her blessings) of the rum in the bottle. "Took ya long enough!" She coughs, instinctually wiping rum from her chin, despite not really needing to.

Ah, but she can't be too mad. Sandels really came through for her. She's standing right there, her wife within arm's reach. She can see with her own eyes that she's sa-

Oh, dear god, she's been beaten every which way. Poor girl's covered in little scratches and bruises and a few puckered scars from her relatively short time in the arena. She looks pale and tired, like she hasn't eaten or slept in days. The elaborate braids that they pleated together have all come loose, leaving Hana's hair to just sort of hang in a frizzled mess. And she stinks; there's no trace of their familiar strawberry-banana scented sleeping gel left on her, replaced by sweat and... eugh. Hazel doesn't even want to know what that other smell is.

"Oh, Han..." Hazel stands in front of her wife and gently cups the woman's face in her hands. "What did dey do to you?"

Hana doesn't respond. Her gaze remains on Sandels, watching him expectantly.

"We'he gonna fix dis." Hazel continues. "We'he gonna get you outta heae and get you all fixed up, okay? I'll make some turkey burgers- I know you love dose- an' dis whole ting's just gonna be a bad memory, okay?" Hazel pulls forward and hugs Hana's head to her chest, as best she can. "You'he gonna be fine, okay? You'he gonna be fine."

Of course, for those people present who can't see ghosts, all that's going to happen is a brief moment of confusion when Sandels apparently decides to give up drinking. Hana will watch for a moment, as though expecting something to happen, before turning her attention back to Michalson. "So, what do you say? Got something special in mind?" She croons.

[Morty]

[SSGTV]

There's a brief twitch of... something in Michalson's mind. A sixth sense or gut feeling alerting him of the presence of something he can't see. Sandels didn't just randomly break a bottle. Ah, Styx it. He can't really keep up the "weird pervert" routine for very long and Sandels is obviously moving forward with whatever agenda he's got.

"You could say so, aye. I'm 'ere because I spoke to your wife in prison. Or rather, someone wearin' your wife's body. I think you and I can help each other."

[Earl of Purple]

Outside SSGTV

Because inside, they'd have bigger problems. And it might be a good idea to move away from slaver central anyway.

The Guild does not immediately react at this point, so I'll keep track of the scene and post if something happens.

[Vahnavoi]

[Outside SSGTV]

"What's the matter?", Sandels says to Hazel. "When you thought someone had hurt her, you had no trouble knocking over objects and committing bloody murder. But now that she right there, you can't even make yourself seen and heard by her?" He tries to work up a sardonic tone, but mostly just sounds... tired. He knew this was likely to happen. Marriage vows say "till death do us part" for a reason.

Of course, to people who can't see spirits, it looks like he's speaking nonsense straight to Hana. When Michalson reveals why he's here, Sandels's head whips towards him. "Oh, so that's your game? Tchk. If you'd only spoken a minute sooner, maybe we could've worked out a trade. Alas." He shrugs and points, apparently, at Hana. Really, he's pointing at Hazel.

"Your fugitive is right there. But can you catch her? Do you have what it takes to put a genie back in its bottle?"

[Ironsmith]

[SSGTV]

There's a brief twitch of... something in Michalson's mind. A sixth sense or gut feeling alerting him of the presence of something he can't see. Sandels didn't just randomly break a bottle. Ah, Styx it. He can't really keep up the "weird pervert" routine for very long and Sandels is obviously moving forward with whatever agenda he's got.

"You could say so, aye. I'm 'ere because I spoke to your wife in prison. Or rather, someone wearin' your wife's body. I think you and I can help each other."

[Outside SSGTV]

"What's the matter?", Sandels says to Hazel. "When you thought someone had hurt her, you had no trouble knocking over objects and committing bloody murder. But now that she right there, you can't even make yourself seen and heard by her?" He tries to work up a sardonic tone, but mostly just sounds... tired. He knew this was likely to happen. Marriage vows say "till death do us part" for a reason.

Of course, to people who can't see spirits, it looks like he's speaking nonsense straight to Hana. When Michalson reveals why he's here, Sandels's head whips towards him. "Oh, so that's your game? Tchk. If you'd only spoken a minute sooner, maybe we could've worked out a trade. Alas." He shrugs and points, apparently, at Hana. Really, he's pointing at Hazel.

"Your fugitive is right there. But can you catch her? Do you have what it takes to put a genie back in its bottle?"

[Outside SSGTV]

"...'Fugitive'?" Hana looks between Sandels and Michalson confusedly, trying to make sense of the bandaged reaper's disparate motions and speech. He's obviously a little demented; Skyside seems to both breed and attract that type of person. But it sounds like he's let slip just what she would need to know.

"...You're police." She says finally, looking at Michalson with a renewed sense of respect. "Thank god. I didn't think anybody was coming. Not that Hazel wouldn't try, but she's being held for seven counts of kidnapping; I expected to be dead by the time she's released legally."

"Screw dat. If I knew what happened, I'dve come foh you even if I had to file my way out wid a toothpick." Hazel vainly tries to reassure her.

"If you're here to take me to prison, I'd be glad to go." Hana adds, tugging at the chain on her collar. "At least you guys have standards. No broadcast fights to the death, for one."

"And three squahe meals, secuhity from da oddeh inmates, wohk programs... it's really not so bad in deae. About da only downside is da fact that ya ahen't, you know, free." Hazel rests a hand on her wife's shoulder. "And once we get all of dis sohted out, we'll at least be togedah again foh a while. Dat's da right choice, Han."

"...That is what you're here to do, right?" Hana adds, eyeing Michalson a little worriedly. It occurred to her at this point that the whole "creepy pervert" thing might not necessarily have been a disguise; he could easily be a dirty cop. Her hands run along the length of the chain as she starts wrapping it up into an improvised garrote, just in case she still needs to defend herself.

"Dere's a point." Hazel mutters to herself, leaning over to Sandels. "Listen. I don't know all da ins an' outs of bein' a ghost. But you said dat killin' someone in angeh is gonna [mess] me up royally. I know I've asked a lot of ya already... but could you stay wit' us just a little longeh?

[Morty]

[Outside SSGTV]

"Hmm." Michalson looks between Sandels, Hana and... the empty spot in the air where he presumes (by inference) Hazel's spirit is floating unseen. "Let's start at the top of the Spire. My name is Michalson Barring and yes, I am a detective of the Intersection. Your wife is in our custody, you're right. But I have reason to believe her body was possessed by someone else. And unless I'm very wrong, this 'ere gentleman-" he points at Sandels "-just released her spirit from that bottle. But neither of us can see her. Care to elaborate, Mr. Sandels, if that's your actual name?"