1940/CatP - Finale I

CatP - Finale I
Date of Scene:	02 April 2015
Location:	A Quiet World
Synopsis:	The denizens of the catacombs make their last stand.
Cast of Characters:	2, Kotone Yamakawa, Arthur Lowell, Staren, Priscilla, 152, 183, 253, 347, Riva Banari, Eryl Fairfax, 570, Ayako Hasekawa
Tinyplot:	A Chime at the Precipice

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Mizuki (183) has posed:
    The air is stagnant. The atmosphere is oppressive. The sensation of wrongness Faruja feels when he sets foot in this world has been amplified a thousand fold, and the space around Arthur would, regardless of its physical properties, make him feel as though his whole body was being compressed. All the rest of those present would likewise feel that their grasp on life and reality is tenuous, and some might even experience dizziness and nausea as they first make landfall.

    The form of the Clock Tower is bent at its halfway point. Certain portions of its form are lacking the color and definition they used to possess in favor of bleary white outlines. This decrepit ruin of what was once Mizuki's beloved home is threatened beyond its decay, though, by the oncoming storm of light slowly overtaking the ground. The absence of the dead realms is knocking at its door. It can be no more than several feet from reaching its destination, and the warpgate is barely beyond the blankness itself. There is clearly no guarantee that it will be free of it upon their return and, the chances look far better that it will not be.

    Mizuki stands at the door waiting for them, a pained hand held to her forehead. She warns them straight off that they may not be returning from this journey, and to turn back immediately if they do not wish to die. She has said all this before, so she knows no one will turn back, but it is still a thing that bears mention -- this may be the very last time when she is capable of demonstrating such concern for her guests, after all. If she never sees them again, she wants their final thoughts of her to be of someone who worried over their safety, who had their best interests at heart. Someone who they would have been glad to call 'friend', even if that picture of her character might be somewhat disingenuous.

    Afterwards, she would welcome them into her home. The elevator shaft above them has been ravaged by ivory paints and static. The Artist, Melody, and The Priestess who have come to dwell here have been cut off from them, and have been forced into refuge until the storm clears. They may not leave them with anything beyond their thoughts, and Mizuki would not hesitate in her departure. As soon as the whole group is gathered on the elevator in the center of the room, it would begin to travel downwards.

    The rest of the journey should be quite familiar to Arthur. All the color and figure of the world fades into a dismal, all-enveloping shroud as they descend, and everyone's perceptions of time, space, balance, and all else would distort. They would float, but remain groundbound; they would fall, but stand perfectly upright; and they would be blind, even and especially when they see.

    The elevator reaches the 'ground' of that black abyss with a quake. Inertia returns just in time to knock any still disoriented the rest of the way off-balance. A single light would appear in the form of an ebony-tinted lantern, already lit, which Mizuki retrieves from a nonexistent 'wall'. She would hold the thing aloft and point it forward, taking the first step into the howling nothing. At first, nothing happens, nothing changes, but in time her footsteps would begin to call forth glass panels to serve as steps. Then those panels link together. Then, astride them, candles would appear as a translucent railing appears to hold them in place.

    By the time she has taken twenty steps or so, a bridge of glass and blue flames has appeared before the lot of them. Beneath it has formed a sea of black water that emits the gentlest rhythm of wakes and hums to soothe the group on their journey. Three-fourths of the way across, Apathy would appear, flanked by a smiling Sheep and an unusually forlorn Telephone. None of them would offer any words, and the latter two would dissipate. 'Sophia' would simply turn away from them, walking the rest of the way a few paces ahead of the group.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    When they reach the end, though, her form bursts into smoke -- a colorless mist. This substance nevertheless applies itself to the 'ceiling' above them, quickly suffusing the black walls in white. The path they had been walking vanishes. In the end, all that is left is a door eerily similar to the one used to access Mizuki's node -- a monochromatic slab with a dark line defining a white panel. Of its own accord, it gradually opens itself, revealing a wave of brightness that momentarily engulfs their vision.

    When again they are able to see, the group would be in the Catacombs. Immediately ahead of them is a tower visually similar to the Tower of Babel of lore: a spire constructed of an endless number of wide cones, flattened at their ends, which stretch infinitely and improbably into the sky. The only decorations it has are pitch ovals which serve as its 'windows'. To the west, one finds Lethargy, a veiled forest whose bowers, in lieu of leaves, wear blankets. To the North and above Apathy's 'castle', Broken Sky, a place where an endless storm of radiation and lightning pours forth from a place where the clouds are torn apart like fragments of glass. And to the East, Media, a resting ground for defunct technology - analog televisions, computer monitors, crane arms, and many more - that weaves its way into mazes around a massive, central hill.

    Once they've all had time to take all this in, Mizuki finally turns to them and speaks. She says, "... our final objective is to locate and retrieve the key to the Clock Tower. Without it, the power of the numbers is useless. The Book of the Past hinted to me long, long ago that the key itself has been fractured into four pieces. One is held by Sheep, that insufferable girl who dresses in black-and-white stripes. Another is held by her friend, Telephone, who should lay sequestered in that mountain of inert appliances to our right. The third is held by a figure I only know as 'Swan'. Naturally, you will find him in that decimated section of the sky above Apathy's palace. And the fourth..." She takes a deep breath. "... is held by Apathy herself. I will face her as the rest of you pursue whichever target you fancy."

    No sooner has she finished, though, than has the spoken of devil appeared before them. She does so without ceremony or even physical hint, simply 'appearing' in the air before them. Mizuki would turn all too late to find her there, staring them down -- too late because whatever the lady of the world had meant to say is pre-empted by Sophia. The villain says, "No. You will not fight me until the rest of them have been dealt with. My word here is law as Mizuki's is in the other plain, so it is useless to argue otherwise. Also." She turns her attention to Arthur. Her eyes gleam in perfect neutrality. "You. You will fight Swan. Alone. He has requested this, specifically, and to deny him any such wish is only going to delay what you hope to accomplish. This, I promise." In finality, she queries, "Will you comply?"

    Before any others can answer, though, Mizuki speaks. "Wait. If I am not to fight you, then what should I be doing with my time? You cannot expect me to sit idly by while my home --" Sophia holds up a single finger to silence her. "Whatever you decide to do is of no consequence to me so long as you do not interfere with my dealings. If you wish to help one of the other groups, so be it. Now." With a deep breath, Apathy backs away from them -- moves toward her domain. "I take my leave of you. I expect to see you again shortly. Farewell." Then she disappears completely. Mizuki is left sitting there, baffled.

    After some moments of silence, she unsteadily offers, "I... will be a part of the group that fights Sheep. I have long wanted to put that one in her place." A bit more quietly, reservedly, she adds, "She reminds me far too much of myself."

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    "I expect the rest of you will perform admirably no matter where you go, but do keep in mind the particular strengths of each character. Sheep will likely have some wield over illusions and magic, given her affinity for dreams and delusion, whilst Telephone's powers may be more scientific or electrical in nature. I can say nothing for sure, but plan accordingly. And, Arthur?" She looks to him a moment. "... if you do decide to adhere to their whims, good luck."

Psyber (253) has posed:
    The difference in equipment between a Psyber loaded for his day-to-day life and a Psyber loaded for war are functionally non-existence, thanks to his Sylladex and Fetch Modus. It cuts back on having to carry any of his normal equipment. His normal gun is still missing from its carrying holster at his side, replaced by a standard P226 and a couple of spare clips.

    If Psyber had a quarter for every time he walked into the conceptual blueprint of another being with the express purpose of imploding a soul scape from the inside to facilitate an outright purge or reforging into a more cohesive and less overtly damaging template...

    He would have a whole 75 cents.

    But that is hardly the point. He's here, he's carrying himself with a calm and detached sense of purpose, and he has his usual forceful step to every motion. A calm air of professionalism that tends to permeate from the half-angel when he sheds his aloof demeanor and switches to the more serious Apex Hunter people tend to expect him to be.

    "Sophia! Wait!"

    He shouts, forcefully. It probably doesn't work and she probably vanishes. But that's all he does, rather than engage either of the two opponents set before him. It's entirely possible that, for personal reasons, he will not be fighting either of them unless absolutely possible.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Faruja Senra, upon arriving, can't even work up enough words at first to express the feelings running through him. Worry, fear, and pure love for a dear friend mixed with creeping thoughts of the worst case scenario. What if they lose her in this? The rat lets out a horrid snarl as he grasps his cross, a soothing prayer muttered as he tries to get himself into something akin to a readied state. They simply can't afford to be less than their best, and the atmosphere /isn't/ helping.

Despite himself, the sight of a worried Mizuki is /comforting/. It's a spot of normalcy in all of the insanity that is this nearly-ruined place. Gripping his Blaze Gun, he simply offers her the smallest of reassuring smiles before crossing his chest towards his compatriots. He doesn't need words. Faruja trusts everyone gathered here.

The rest of the journey is so mind-bending that the rat checks his belongings several times just to make sure no one slipped him anything recently. Through it all, aside from prayers and curses alike, the rat simply endures it. Resolve and friends carry him through even the oddities, as well as a good dose of Haste and Float for the party in general.

Indeed, the rat is ready for a fight today.

But before he can react to Mizuki's plans, in comes Apathy and company. The rat is already aiming his weapon, only pausing and scowling at her words.

"...Hardly see how we hath the choice, Witch." Faruja's eye narrows balefully as his tail swishes, and then they're gone.

A glance to Mizuki.

"The Inquisition, mine dear, is at thine service. Shall we start with an attitude adjustment for Lady Sheep?" Eye cold and teeth showing, all of his fury and zeal stand at Mizuki's side.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Apathy stops at Psyber's call. She turns her head to face him halfway, only barely making eye contact. Within seconds, it's somehow clear that she grasps his intention, and for that very reason her only response is to shake her head. "No." Her voice is every bit as forceful as Psyber's own in spite of her eternal monotone. "There is no way that this confrontation can be avoided. There is no other way that this can end. For the good of us all, we must fight. If you waste but a moment's thought on me, everything will fall apart. Do you understand?" Her head turns back to face forward fully before she makes way for her tower. "Even if you do not know the details, understand this: concern for me will be your undoing. I am the villain -- I am wrongness and evil incarnate. The narrative demands that you treat me as such."

    And with that, she's gone. She pays Faruja no heed.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    If 'risk of dying' was any sort of way to discourage Homura from doing stuff, she'd probably not even know how to fight. Or have powers at all. Considering the amount of years under her belt doing exactly just that on a daily basis, this is, for better or worse, 'the usual'.

    The Puella Magi, already transformed into her magical girl outfit, is alongside Psyber, but more quiet. She is as unarmed as ever, arms crossed-- ans for the time being, watching. She's not a fan of 'the narrative demanding it', but if she had the power to change that she already would have. She'll lend her strength where it'll be most useful, for now, and more than likely content herself with following instructions.

Staren has posed:
    Staren arrives , in his robot body and full armor. He has no idea if, at some point, imagining armaments will fail him -- better to be prepared, as ready for anything as he can be. If this mission fails, the loss of a combat robot body will be the least of his backup's concerns. Certainly, he'd be kicking himself if he found out he died and /didn't/ go fully equipped.

    He stumbles as he arrives, holding a hand to his head, then shakes it. Great, something is Wrong...

    The assembled group gets nods of greeting, and then down they go... the elevator ride only reinforcing the impression that reality itself is falling apart here. He stumbles again as they land, and activates a helmet light when Mizuki takes the lantern. He follows, occasionally looking out to the sides for... well, anything, in the blackness.

    Apathy and crew get a curious tilt of the head and a shrug, as if to say 'So, what now?'

    On to... well, Staren doesn't know this is Apathy's home. Noone mentioned that. So he can only take in the curious surroundings, wondering what this place is and why it has escaped the white void.

    When Mizuki outlines their mission, Staren reaches up to scratch his head (pointless, with the helmet and all) and opens his mouth to speak, only for Apathy to appear and interrupt them. He turns to her. "Really? Even now, you stand against us? You want to fade away and die, rather than recreate this world?" He shakes his head at the place where she disappeared.

    Staren turns back to the group, and scratches his chin. "So. We fight Sheep and Telephone, and you" he glances to Arthur, "fight Swan, and then we all fight Apathy together? Hmm..." He shakes his head again. "Illusion and magic... it's a crapshoot whether I'll recognize and see through it. Telephone's powers... the risk that they can take control of me when I can change my body at will is pretty low--" he blinks, and looks down at himself. "...Oh. Hmm."

    Beat.

    He looks back up to Mizuki. "If you think it's unlikely that her powers can control this body, then I suspect I will have a better chance of figuring out and countering her powers than Sheep's."

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    The world tries to push Arthur down. Arthur tells it to go fuck itself. Forcefully pressing on, he carries an air of grim determination and somber power. He can feel the pain in this world, a world holding on by only one stitch and ready to fall apart. When he enters the elevator, his arms cross in a harsh, guarded way. There's no swaggering bluster, there's no jokes, there's no bright grins and tooth-gleaming and fingerguns, there's just a silent, somber, sober young man treating the situation with every ounce of respect he can, and bringing to bear every inch of determination he can hold.

    He's not unsteadied by the descent, nor the sudden stop at the bottom. He's gone through this once, like several people have. When it finishes, he strides forward, on over the bridge -- glaring at Apathy all the while -- on through the door, and onward into the Catacombs that are her domain. He doesn't answer to Apathy with words; all he gives is a grim, determined nod that carries a profound and intense weight.

    By the time she disappears, he turns back to Mizuki, and waits for her question. "You know what I'm like, Mizuki." He says, his voice full of a mature, intense sort of emotional weight.

    "If he's got a challenge for me, I'm going to take it."

    His King Broom is summoned in a moment. It's not just a flicker this time. It blasts into being in his hand with a shockwave of stale wind. "Psyber." He says, as he mounts it grimly. "Do what she says. It's the last necessary evil we need to do." Staren gets a similarly morose tone. "She's doing what she has to. Don't judge the story until it's ended." He flips a switch at the handle. "I'll be back soon." He says, in a low whisper. And then, with his godly hood flapping in the wind, he blasts off on the broom's rockets and streaks off towards that awful storm of radioactivity, lightning, and chaos.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva knew it was going to be bad when she arrived.

It was worse. She didn't think she could comprehend the depths to which a world built on thought and imagination should crumble. The state of the Candy Sea should have been a tipoff, but there is little to be said at this point. She looks shocked at the state of affairs, but with a grim determination, presses on in the face of Mizuki's warning. She is not going to give her up or let her down, not like this. Not here, not ever.

When you're a friend of Riva Banari, you're a friend forever. She rides down the elevator, continuing to try to soak in the environment. The sensation and lack thereof seem to carry a special significance to the artist in some manner, and as always when carrying forth, she seems to fixate upon things, perhaps storing impressions in her mind and creating memories to keep them safe.

The glass bridge is crossed, and it is not unexpected, perhaps, to see the chaotic, torn land within the Catacombs. The great tower that rises up gives Riva a sense of counterpoint to the entire exercise, a Tower of Babel constructed of hubris and confusion to counter the Clock Tower of Order. She surveys the landscapes, considering each in turn, before taking her attention to the confrontation. "Well, if that's going to be how it is, then so be it. It's going to be time for a showdown."

Riva looks to the others, concern clear on her face as she looks to Arthur. He has to face Swan alone? But what if... She fidgets for a moment, and just says, "If you need backup, Arthur, just call. I'll be there."

She turns. "In the meantime, I'm going to go have a talk with Sheep."

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    "Khh..."

    Just entering Mizuki's world makes Ayako flinch. The stagnant air. The oppressive atomosphere. The wrongness all around. It reminds her of something. Something she isn't conscious of. Something that resonates deep inside her soul. An ineffable presence that-NO.

    It's just a reminder. Ayako takes a deep breath to calm and steady herself. Even if she doesn't really breathe except to talk, it's still a calming routine. She will help Mizuki. That much keeps her walking with the group.

    A gentle smile is given to Mizki as she warns them straight away that they may not be returning. "I know. We know. But we can't just leave you alone, Mizuki!" Ayako follows the group into the elevator and down, down, down.

    Her amber eyes gaze about once they stop, and Ayako follows quietly after the group, still keeping a watchful eye. She listens quietly to Mizuki, inclining her head to the side gently. "Hmm..." And then Sophia when she appears. Ayako then nods her head once. "I'll go with you, Riva!"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone had heard the call for help from Mizuki, she'd been in since teh start, she should be here to see it through to the end like she said she would. So it doesn't take too long for Kotone to get to the warp gate and find her way here. She has to wonder what's happened as of late here, but hopefully she can get an update either way she's uneasy given the nature of what she does know has been going on with Mizuki. She's got some time to arrive and start taking things in and something really is up as she looks out at the black sea for a moment, and just about everything else.

She loses sight for a moment and now after a moment her vision returns and she finds herself along with everyone else is located in the Catacombs. She takes a moment to get her footing once again, she can see the castle, the broken sky and just leaves her on edge.

As Mizuki gives the briefing she nods a little bit listening.

"So so this means we're going to have to split up..."

Then the devil as it were pokes their head in, and lays down the law. They are going to have. She hears Psyber call out and she wishes she could make use of this strange world's properties but that's not possible she's very glad she's got overclock and did think to bring some gear form the outside with her. She's wearing a light suit of armour and is clearly carrying several weapons on her from the looks of it. Then Faruja helps with some support magic which gets a faint smile out of Kotone.

"Thank you Sir Paladin, I owe you one."

The float spell alone is going to be worth it, and well then haste? That's almost cheating with what it's going to do to Kotone's reflexes. Homura is noted as is Staren is here with some seriously heavy fire power.

"I think that's the way it's going to have to be, like it or not? If we do nothing it's going to be a heck of a lot worse, Staren. So I'm ready to go where I'm needed, Mizuki. Your my friend and you let me in when I was terrified of most of the universe around me and I owe you for that, and good luck Arthur."

Finally Riva arrives and she wishes she'd run into her friend more often when everything is not mind scape coming undone, or worse the Filth and related issues to that nightmare.

She pauses at Ayako and Riva for a moment.

"Looks like I'll help you with Sheep as well, lets get this over with."

Kotone will fall in to follow the Immortal Champion of the Bees and the water elemental. It was time to bring this all to an end one way or another, but the right call? She's not sure but she does know to not act is far worse than acting.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki nods to both Faruja and Staren. To Faruja, though, she adds a bit more: "Thank you, my friend. And yes," Aelinos appears into her hand with a flash, "may our combined judgment teach her well. If she is to depart from the world of the waking, we will see to it that she does so on good terms with the morality of your God." She hesitates a moment at Arthur's words. To her hideous shame, she still cannot comprehend them even now, but she trusts him. She trusts him more than perhaps she should. So she gives him a final, adamant nod. She has already said all that she can. The time for words is, ironic as it may be at the climax of a novel penned in her world, done.

    Ayako, Riva, and Kotone likewise receive small smiles in gratitude. She maintains her silence, but allows the act of her wings' withdrawal to speak for her. She would take off in the direction of lethargy shortly after, leading those who have chosen to go after Sheep.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Even with Homura standing next to him, Apathy's words draw a wounded scowl from Psyber. The half-angel shifts in his footing. He steps back and glares. Not out of anger, but out of frustration. His hands slowly coil and unflex, making a fist and then releasing it as his mind processes any number of thoughts.

    "Why should I?" He says to the boy, looking at him. It's not a arrogant statement, it's not an ANGRY statement. It's a statement of utter despair, bordering on an inability to cope at that moment, "Why should I do this again?"

    "I did EXACTLY THIS for the Union almost three years ago," He says flatly, looking at the God of Space with a hard red stare, "And when I came back, the man who went on that mission was dead. I've lost any semblance left of who I was before that mission, Arthur. And it's taken me three years to build back up."

    "So you tell me, Arthur. When I'm this far back up out of that black hell I lived in, why should I do it all over again? Give me just one reason why I should repeat that godawful process." But Arthur, by this point, was likely gone to go fight. Leaving Psyber lost in his own thoughts on that matter. Maybe he was actually talking to himself the whole time?

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == THE FOREST OF BLINDNESS, LETHARGY ==

    As the group progresses in the direction of the forest, the world itself seems to grow dimmer. Trees begin to appear around them as if out of a mist while murders of ravens gradually alight upon the branches. All of them stare down the approaching group, unblinking, unflinching, as if they were all a part of the same, oiled machine. The trees would appear out of the veil of moisture in the shape of a perfectly straight pathway which leads them further and further in until, finally, they arrive at a clearing. In that center can be found a throne wrought of metals which have long since lost their color. Each of its arms are surrounded by piles of plush animals that have been so worn by time as to have lost much of their 'fur', as it were, and many of them lack the buttons and stitches that should have defined their faces.

    All of them would look to the approaching party in simultaneity. The grows would launch from the trees without any cries of 'Nevermore,' congealing as an amorphous, black conflagration upon the silvered seat. Slowly they would begin to take a human shape -- a shape of a young woman, her legs crossed haughtily, her face twisted in a disdainful grin. She kicks her leg as her smile widens and her eyes, for the first time since anyone's knowing her, open.

    They are the most brilliant shade of fuschia ever rendered visible by human sense.

    The toys would again fall inert, looking back to the ground. Sheep would jump out of her seat, cross her arms, and take several, small, catlike steps toward the lot of them. Her eyes would eventually land on Riva and she would say, in a hushed tone, "Hey, Squares. Back for more?" Her right hand would reach into the air beside her where a scythe, decorated by thorned vines and decayed black roses, would hurriedly summon. "Well, Apathy said I can do whatever I want today. So I won't keep ya waiting~."

    Her free palm opens. She makes a 'Come here' gesture to the group. Her eyes narrow.

    Speak how and where you will, but even though her eyes are open, she is clearly deaf to all but the song.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     Eryl is here, despite all the blatant impossibilities the world affords. Among the many traits that were desirable in participants of the Saviour Programme, a willingness to finish what one starts was high on the list. He actually keeps his eyes closed for most of the trip, humming softly and using Original Face to echolocate to make sure he doesn't trip up.

     But, he eventually has no choice but to open them, looking around at the strange place he finds himself on. A quick glance at the tower is swiftly broken as he squeezes his eyes shut again, taking in the words of Mizuki, Sophia and the others.

     It's clear that the stress of this long journey has gotten to everyone. Eryl feels the same, but takes a deep, steeling breath. "One way or another, this will all be over soon. Take heart, everyone." He considers his opponents, before coming to a decision. "I will engage Telephone. Her powers sound as if they will not upset my environmental scanner."

Priscilla has posed:
    If there had been an occasion to visit the Catacombs before, Priscilla has definitely missed it. Gradually, as the elevator descends, the crossbreed reacts to the fractured series of mutually exclusive sensations in about the same way an ordinary person would; uncomfortable, disoriented, vaguely ill, and intensely grateful at the first sight of anything with form. Reaching out reflexively, if unsuccessfully, to steady herself as she dares to move her feet again, Priscilla regains her proper senses approximately halfway through the corridor, finally achieving a smooth, confident stride at which point she grasps her weapon preemptively rather than waiting for the need of it to arise.

    This doesn't mean she's especially ready for Apathy, or Sophia as she's called. though she has the words, it doesn't seem the occasion to speak them. The atmosphere of ultimate resolution, and the equally final resolve of her allies, is proof enough that nothing will be resolved by speaking. "For the purpose of strategy . . ." she finally says "I will deal with Telephone. I wouldst wish to see Sheep held accountable as dearly as any of thee, but I believeth she is well ready for it without mine assistance."

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    For the time being, Homura stays with Psyber.

    She doesn't have a specific thing she wants to do here-- as previously stated, she's fine just keeping Psyber company, since he seems to need it right now. She'll pitch in, even, though Arthur has it handled pretty firmly.

    "He's right. It's for Mizuki's sake. And perhaps it's not too late for someone to carve a third option out of thin air. Maybe she will, even. It's doubtful this will end so simply as to be a binary choice."

Faruja (152) has posed:
"Thank me, mine dear, when we art celebrating our victory." Responds the rat to Kotone offhandedly, a little frown sitting on his muzzle now that they all fall into formation. Faruja is smartly somewhere in the back like a semi-squishy mage that he is.

"Worry not, she shall be absolved of all worldly sin if she wouldst but ask! Or we may force the matter. Either way, 'home victorious, or home on..." He looks back.

"Alright, the saying falls apart, but ye get the bloody idea! As Sir Philipe wouldst say, 'Put thine back into it ye lot, God is watching'!" Announces the rat to those gathered.

As they find themselves in the 'dim' world of the Forest of Blindness, Faruja squints his eye. Ravens, oddly straight-pathed trees in the middle of a forest, and that horrid throne off in the distance as well as decayed servants of Sheep?

Some part of Faruja is going to be dancing a jig if this place goes up in flames. Right on point, he shoots a plume of fire from his weapon at one of the offending crows.

"Get ye gone, knaves! Bar our path and perish in the name of the Inquisition!" Even the ravens aren't beyond suspicion here.

And then the young woman herself woman herself becomes known with that /horrible/ shade of fuschia.

"Now, normally, I wouldst offer ye a chance to surrender, flee, et cetera Lady Sheep. However, ye art obviously not going to, and we art /quite/ short on time so please take nay offense if I get to breaking ye a touch early. Shouldst ye sloth off thine mortal coil, may ye go to the Lord with mine blessings, that ye art forgiven of all thine earthly sins! AMEN!"

With that, the rat begins chanting, and raises his hand. Plumes of gravity rise into his hand, then dissappear.

Should she not be able to counter it, said magical gravity plumes would form back up in Sheep's person. Namely her fingers, before Faruja makes a little circling motion with a grey-tipped claw, and his magic thusly begins to rotate and try to twist and snap Sheep's fingers inside of her flesh in a corkscrew pattern.

Faruja isn't in a nice mood today.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == THE MOUNT OF FALSITY, MEDIA ==

    As it was with the other group, odd, distorted figures rise from the ground as they press onward. These shapes, though, are completely unnatural -- they're heaps of glorified trash fashioned into walls. Broken technology of all forms, functions, and sizes would break through the ground to stall the group's approach. After the appearance of several walls, though, they might realize that they deliberately appear in places meant to block their advance, only to disappear later. Now that they've come this far, more walls likewise pop up behind them. Unwittingly, they've been trapped in a maze.

    And at the heart of that maze, they find a pole with megaphones set up at its peak, wires pulsing electricity shimmering down its length. Blue sparks fly off the post and the entire area seems to be charged with static electricity. After several moments of complete silence, several televisions embedded in those walls of refuse would click on, exposing them all for a brief time to the agonizing sound of static. When that sound clears, though, and when an image resolves on their screens, it's of Telephone. She is already holding her staff: a long rod topped by a die that appears to be rusted over. Unlike her friend, she is not smiling.

    Quite the contrary, her emerald eyes gleam a distinct melancholy.

    Resignation is evident in her every gesture. For a brief spell, she even looks away from the camera she must be using to transfer her likeness and sound to squeeze her eyes shut. She looks miserable. "... this is it, guys." Hushed, pained, sad, remorseful -- all these are apt words to describe her intonation. "I really hope we... or you..." She takes a breath, and exhales. "I hope -someone- wins this time. This has been going on so long. Too long." She's quiet for another several minutes until she finally brings herself to look at the screen again. "Please forgive us. Please. This world is twisted. And the worst part is, it's not Mizuki's fault. It's not anyone's fault."

    "And Sheep --." She fumbles a moment. "She... was only ever so rotten to you because she was scared. If we fail this time, she's gonna go crazy. She's gonna be just like Swan. It always happens after they ninth run through, or... or that's what I've heard." She balls her free fist and asks, begs at the top of her lungs, "PLEASE! If you can do -ANYTHING-, just save her! I don't care what you have to do to me! Just -save her-! Please...!" Again, she averts her eyes. There's a pregnant pause before, finally, "I'll... I'll be waiting. In the mountain. In the center of the mountain."

    The monitors shut off. Several of the walls fall. One leads to what appears to a decrepit laboratory. Another leads to a schoolhouse.

Staren has posed:
    Junk maze. Okay. That's far from the weirdest thing here.

    Staren looks at the televisions, occasionally glancing to the side, suspecting a surprise attack.

    Telephone begs for help. Staren frowns. "If we didn't have to fight all of you, we'd have more time to work on saving people. You don't get to make demands while standing in our way." He states coldly.

    If the monitors stay on long enough, he admits, "Of course, we're the good guys, so we'll save her anyway if we get the opportunity... but we'll still have less time if we have to fight you."

    Staren looks one way, then the other. The lab is the obvious choice, so he strides forward that way.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == THE BROKEN SKY ==

    Cracks of lightning plague Arthur's sojourn to the sky. Black bolts rain down astride him, but never seem to hit him. Even as he passes through the clouds themselves, all those gathered shocks ignore him outright, allowing him safe passage to the land above the clouds. There, he would see a human form, wings mounted on its back, existence plagued by static. It is curled into a ball with its feathers wrapped around its legs for what little extra protection it can find, and despite his 'invitation', he would make no motion whatsoever as Arthur makes his way unto the breach.

    The only reaction he would have at first is to give a twitch. Their wings bob up and down. Their head peaks up just slightly out of their coil. There would be a long period of stillness before, finally, he rises, shakily, from his seat.

    His entire face is wrapped in bandages, and yet he can still somehow 'detect' Arthur's presence. His head, for lack of any more detailed expression, looks directly to him. Without any words at all, he holds out his hands. In both of them, 'miniature' scythes appear -- blades held together by a chain, like nunchucks.

    He would waste no time. He throws the weapon at him as though it were a boomerang. He would dart behind Arthur to catch it once it has traveled on its intended path, but for a split second, Arthur might see him a bit more closely. Beyond those bandages, there is a resonant, breakthrough light of blue.

    A startling, beautiful aqua.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako smiles softly at Faruja and Kotone as they're going to Sheep as well! "It's good to have you around, Faruja! And be careful, Kotone!" Ayako eyes the ravens as she follows quietly after Mizuki, Riva, Faruja and Kotone. When said birds form into Sheep, she isn't particularly surprised. She waves hello cheerfully to Sheep. "Hello Monochrome Sheep!" Ayako returns the insult in the friendly way Ayako tends to do. "Of course we're back for more. I don't suppose you'll just give us the key fragment?" When she notes the newly summoned scythe, she shrugs. "I'm guessing not. Well, we didn't get to play cards way back then soo..." Yeah, she remembers that. "I'm betting you've been wanting to let loose for a long time!"

    Ayako sweeps her broom outwards in an arc. "Water Bubble!" And Ayako's really weak prepretory water barrier appears around each person in the group. She spins her broom about and then sits down neatly on it, side-saddle. One hand on broom, and one hand on the brim of her witch hat. This seems to be her ready stance!

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     Eryl sets off towards Media! Immediately, he feels reassured that he made the right choice. Junked technology is something he deals with everyday, no complaints from Original Face here. Although, when the junk begins moving of its own accord, he's able to reassure it that it must be on hidden pistons. Yeah, that's it. Mazes don't pose much of a problem to someone with a perfect memory and the ability to ping directions to check for a dead-end.

     So eventually, they stand in the centre. Eryl's hair stands on end from the static build-up. Clearly, Telephone is not much for grounding her electrical appliances. But then, the girl appears on the monitor with a piercing burst of static that drives the cyborg to cover his ears. But, he does not shut them to the girl's message.

     "Miss Telephone. All things must end, and that includes this cycle. I swear to you, it will end today." He's not sure if she can actually hear him, but making a fool of oneself is worth the price of potentially reassuring another.

     Looking about, he opts to check out the schoolhouse.

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko recognizes this. It's happened before--how many times? But of course, she was never here for this. It was one of the books that had shown her this past, as part of the "lessons" Mizuki's successive iterations were intended to learn. In the past she'd seen, any defense of the world had been too late. All had gone to its presumed destruction. But now, she's here.

    It's not as if Kimiko is certain of her survival. She has a confidence born of her successes, but they have not been universal. It's not as if she's won every fight she's been. It's not as if she's even *survived* every fight she's been in. This knowledge has never left her, yet still, she keeps moving forward. She keeps putting herself through these risks. It might be safer to say that she's unable to stop.

    She stares at Sheep for a bit. Ah, so that's the one. The other she doesn't recognize at all. But then they're both gone, and it's just Apathy--Sophia? She gets an even stare, without further acknowledgement, nor objection.

    "It is not," she says to Psyber, "exactly the same. It is a different world. And it is on its own path to destruction. Not that I say this as a comfort. Its problems are not what you may have seen, then. Maybe there is some new solution, as well." She turns again, to go. "I am not clever enough to find it. I haven't seen even the entirety of the pieces. I will only do what I can do."

    Kimiko heads for Sheep's location. There is no particular reason. Perhaps she thinks that, having seen this person before--more than once before--she will have some greater vestment in their fate. The expressionless Puella Magi dons her armor in a flash over silver light, her hands now resting on rapier and main-gauche. "I'm curious. As to how you transformed, from the person you were. But if you will not speak of that, I will not insist."

    Faruja's and Ayako's magic affect her, though to little present effect, as she walks forward, deceptively calm but for the tension just beneath the surface, as a hidden, coiled spring.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva leans in and gives Mizuki a comforting squeeze on the shoulder, and also one for Ayako too. She nods to Faruja and Kotone, and declares, "We're as ready as we're going to be. Let's do this right, everyone!" She then heads into the Forest with the others.

    one is for sorrow

The ravens that stare down cause a slight wild stare in Riva's eyes as they walk through he foggy forest. The path, however, is straight

    two is for joy

ans she has no problems finding her way with the others. The empty throne causes Riva to blink for a moment, and she focuses, watching carefully as well as the plethora of toys which have been long used. When they look up towards her

    three for a girl

she leaps back, and she watches in mild shock as the crows combine into Sheep. "You..." Riva says... And she straightens.

    four for a boy

"Your eyes..." Riva says, trailing off. "They're beautiful." She smiles. "You should show them off more often." She tilts her head as they're addressed

    five is for silver

"Why wouldn't I want more?" She asks. "I like you. But, if that's how this has to go..."

    six is for gold

There is a flash of Anima as Riva draws her MP7s, gifts from Psyber. The gold Anima flowing from her hands shifts to a bright blue-green as the power surges into the circuits laid into the weapons. "If this is what you really want... Then all right. Let's do this."

    seven for a secret
    never to be told

Riva explodes into motion, trailing faint streams of light as she focuses her actions, dropping constant short butsts of blue-green light towards Sheep as she drives to one side. Immediately, she leaps towards one of the trees, rebounding off of it and launching, attempting to sail over Sheep as she flips, still firing from above with a steady, consistent rhythm of burstfire.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is able to give Mizuki one last look and a small smile before she moves out with the others. She didn't like doing this and she wondered how she ended up living a life like this? Maybe she should have run screaming back into the depths of Japan or the Amerussio Alliance. It's Riva's squeeze to the shoulder thankfully naps her out of that. Kotone now keeps an eye on things in the forest she looks at metal place and bizarrely does not feel out of place here. She looks at the old plushies for a moment but does not dally too long.

"I think I get where your coming from on that one Faruja. Also I will do my best, Ayako. I have no intention to die today."

"I got to wonder about some things in the multiverse. Still, God helps those who help themselves."

Don't just ask for Salvation do something about it, right? She looks at Sheep as the crows take shape into her she just focuses on her for a moment and shakes her head.

"I get it your not going to give up are you, this isn't personal Sheep. Still if you want to hand it over it would be better, then again you do want to cut lose don't you?"

She's hovering there a bit off the ground now now and with the barrier she's now getting ready to go. There's a ripple about Kotone's form as she blends into the terrain as best her optic cameo can. Riva can be a source of strength just with who and how she is Kotone mused to her self as he moved in upon Sheep trying to flank her while the others got her attention. Once Kotone thinks she's got an opening she's going to let off a short burst of gire, but that might give her away to, Sheep given the muzzel flash.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "The last necessary evil is just as bad as the first one. They're all the same," Psyber says to Kimiko seriously, his hands in his pockets as she tells him it's not the same, "And if it's not exactly the same, it's close enough. I'm tired." This is the beginning and the end of the reply Kimikog ets from Psyber.

    But Arthur makes his own appeal, leaving Psyber staring at the ground for a long few moments as he thinks. It's a silent kind of contemplation that has him standing almost statuequely still while looking at his feet. Eventually, his gaze shifts up towards the sky and he says, "Nnn. Fuck me. Fine."

    And then he's off towards Media, aiming to play catchup in that area. He keeps at a jog, trying to go along with Eryl and keep up with him on the way to the schoolhouse. If nothing else, Psyber is now at least committed to see this through to the end, "Yo Eryl! Wait up!"

Priscilla has posed:
    A dark forest full of children's toys and ominous ravens would, honestly, probably suit Priscilla better. The endless tracts of obsolete technology are well outside of her cultural consciousness, and well outside of her comfort zone, leaving her to a long, tense, high strung walk through the maze. She doesn't like the sensation of being deliberately lead around, not that of being trapped, though her mounting paranoia manifests only as a steadily tightening grip on her weapon and the almost complete cessation of breathing. The tension mounts when Telephone shows her face, the crossbreed clapping a hand ineffectually over one ear at the blast of static, only for her expectations of a well prepared monologue to be dashed on the rocks of hard, sad reality.

    "I do not believeth that is how it works, Sir Staren. This conflict is not a matter of opposing goals. This is a fight that must be fought because the script requires it."The schoolhouse is also Priscilla's first choice. She doesn't like the look of the lab, and assumes Staren will probably gravitate towards it anyways.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "HAH."

    There's a loud, boisterous sort of laugh that barks loudly through the air, crashing into the ears and the form. ARTHUR LOWELL descends from above -- that is, the louder offshoot, the one in service to Apathy -- and slams down, interposing himself between Riva and her intended landing target. "WHAT'S UP RIVS? HOW'S IT BEEN?"

    The loud son of a bitch blasts a titanic gravity wave, intended to slam into her head-on, and interrupt that leap by crashing her into the tree and pinning her there. At the very least, it's going to interrupt that rhythm. Meanwhile, Kotone's gunfire gets interrupted by ARTHUR dashing to one side immediately afterwards, allowing the bullets to pass into him in a spray of blood, and just shotgunning a massive wave of solar fusion-fire out of his body in a wave at Kotone. "HEY THERE SILICON, DON'T THINK FOR A MOMENT YOU'RE PULLING THROUGH THIS WITH JUST BULLETS. YOU'RE NOT SNIPING ANGELS ANYMORE, YOU'RE TRYING TO HEADSHOT A GOD, AND THAT DOESN'T WORK."

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == LETHARGY ==

    Faruja's gravity has impact, but likely not quite what he was expecting. Her hands, rather than being weighted down, contort in ways positively demonic. Her nails curl into her palms, and they bleed. Her bones crack, leaving them to look even more like mere mounds of flesh than even the claws of the evil imp she might be. Still, she would smile through all that terror. She would proceed forward in Faruja's direction, letting her arms fall limp at her sides. "Oh yeah," She chimes, "tell me more about how evil I am. Believe me, I've heard all that enough for a lifetime. Lemme tell you, Mister Rat -- it's really easy to have a stable mind and preach platitudes when you just so happen to fit in pretty well. But if you don't~." Her eyes narrow. "Well~. That's a different story."

    All of a sudden, her form explodes back into the murder of ravens which had formed her. They fly past Faruja, attempting to peck and scratch him as they pass by. They would rematerialize on the other side, now, her hands looking as good as new. Still, something odd seems to have happened -- several ravens lie dead at Faruja's feet -- three, four, maybe more. Sheep would briefly look to Ayako, here, still sporting that same grin. "Oh, man, you have ~nnoooooo~ idea." She holds a hand aloft in her direction, crinckling her fingers at their joints. There is a cracking sound, but also... a shaking? The trees shimmy back and forth with her pull, and their fruit -- daggers -- comes flying off in Ayako's direction. That isn't all, though -- she remembered that her body is made of water. So, with a snap, she applies a freezing effect on each of them. As a bit of an added bonus.

    Again, her form would erupt into a group of wings and feathers. another dead bird is left in her wake as she reappears before Kimiko, forming a checkmark under her chin with her fingers. "Huhhhh~. I wonder too. I'd say that we all put up with a lot of stuff, and that I just couldn't take it all. In fact, I don't really understand you people at all. I never will, though, so there's really no point in getting into that now." She holds out her scythe at a diagonal slant before gradually letting go of its handle. Then it would begin to spin like a fan blade in the air, slowly, slowly approaching Kimiko. Before she can react, though, she would attempt to transform into her horrid flock again, guiding all her varied forms over Kimiko's head and out to her sides to try to prevent her from moving away.

    Again, her constituent bits would congeal behind Kimiko, but this time she is nailed square in the back by Kotone. She makes a grimace in her direction, but does nothing to react. Why? Well, mainly because Riva catches her off-guard. Particularly after the compliment, she's given pause -- outright immobilized. There's a brief lapse in the omnipresent smile before she hefts her scythe, bars her 'fangs', and...

    ... and looks elsewhere. Soon, that smile returns. Yeah - something /else/ will be taking care of her.

Faruja (152) has posed:
That's /not/ the usual reaction people have. Faruja jaw briefly drops, then his teeth grit as he raises his Blaze Gun. The woman is a blurr, and the rat's senses have trouble keeping up!

"Ye see, mine dear, 'tis the crux of it: mayhaps ye doth not. I know a little more about that than ye might think, but 'tis irrelevent! The bloody point is to stop being so damn evil, and more importantly at the moment, to get out of our bloody way whilst we try to SAVE OUR FARAM-DAMNED FRIEND YE LITLE KNAVE!" For once, Faruja doesn't seem overly interested in philosophy.

Too much anyway.

"But God shall forgive ye if ye but..." Then, ravens. RAvens everywhere, and by the time she reappears? The rat is bleeding and scratched all over. A glance at the fallen ravens, and he frowns.

The source of her regeneration, perhaps?

A glance over, and with Riva firing away, the rat teleports into the air above the flock that approaches Kimiko. With Riva and Kotone hammering her, and then Sheep raising her scythe?

The rat chants, and the scaled form of Bahamut forms behind the rat. The great Esper roars, and spits a blast of pure magical nuclear energy that seeks out Sheep and her flock without remorse. Luckily for Kimiko and anyone else caught in the massive blast radius? To them, it's like being tickled with a warm breeze. To Sheep? It might be a little like being shoved into the sun.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako watches Sheep carefully as she tries to figure out how she fights. Barriers can't really be made well without knowing what they're shielding against, after all. And so when her hand is held aloft and the cracking sound is heard, she's definitely ready to dodge the freezing fruit daggers. It's still not enough for her to narrow down the many, many barriers she knows.

    And then suddenly LOUD Arthur drops down from the sky! Her eyes widen as Riva is so rudely interrupted in her attack and Kotone's bullets are stopped by Loud Arthur's body as a shield. Now Arthur, she's more familiar with. And so she quickly prepares a barrier for Kotone to shield against the solar fusion-fire counterattack.

    "Arctic Aurora Mist!" And shimmering waves of rainbow light appear in front of Kotone to shield her against the fire! This barrier is completely defensive! It doesn't help with offense at all. Not to mention, it only lasts a short period of time. After all, only a burst shield like this has any chance of helping Kotone from a solar flare!

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == MEDIA ==

    At the LAB, Staren's entrance is recognized by a rise of the wall behind him. He's locked into this condensed realm of aged tiles and leaking faucets, but by all appearances there's nothing much to threaten him here. Or at least, not at first; ruptured automatons in the corners of the room would eventually stir at his presence, some of them shambling to their feet, others simply remaining on the ground and crawling. They would, though, all converge on his position. If they're allowed to get close, the more nimble of them would attempt to swipe at them with spiked hands whilst the crawling ones would attempt to grasp his legs in their vicelike hands. The latter intend more to slow him whilst the former mean to hurt him directly.

    At the SCHOOLHOUSE, Eryl and Psyber are allowed to progress toward the doors, but Priscilla might be held up a moment by something else. Shortly after that pair moves onward, a television would flicker on. Oddly enough, it seems to show a perfect replica of the painting of Ariamis, albeit with lines of static charging up and down the image at intervals. If this visual stops here, it would gradually become more and more corrupt with static until, finally, the image gives way to it completely. Then, perhaps, a spindly arm constituted by blue jolts of energy would launch out at her, attempting to grab her. It would do no more than this even if it is allowed to make contact, but its touch is charged by electricity -- it would hurt for every moment it holds her in its grasp.

    No such thing happens yet for Eryl and Psyber, however. For them, things remain eerily quiet...

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    "I did not imagine you had many choices," Kimiko says, while readying herself. "You took what help you could." She sounds terribly calm about all of this, particularly in contrast to Faruja's zeal. The magical blast naturally does not bother her, having at least enough trust that the inquisitor won't be including his allies in his attack. There's a barely perceptible flash in Kimiko's eyes, widening in the moment necessary to take in everything before her, analyzing on an instinctual level as she acts.

    When faced with an inability to dodge back, up, or to the side, there is no path but forward. Forward is a spinning blade. Kimiko's left hand moves, main-gauche tightly gripped, to take that scythe blade on a bone-jarring interception, attempting to arrest motion with an upward strike that leaves no room for error. She catches it, but the long blade pushes her just so, out of position, scraping along her dagger to the effect of sparks and a remarkably bloody digging into her upper arm. She shows no response to the pain as her right arm comes around, blade flashing as she strikes down, locking sword and dagger together over Sheep's weapon. It's only if and when she's managed to stop the thing that she grabs onto it, her inured left contributing little to her grip.

    If so: Chains. Silver chains and weights would drag down and bind it. All to little effect, perhaps, if Sheep can wrest it from Kimiko's grasp as easily as Kimiko would summon her own weapons. In either case, she has another question to ask.

    "Is this the scythe Mizuki gave you?"

Riva Banari has posed:
"Maybe if we just had more ti-"

ARTHUR INTERRUPT.

The gravity wave catches Riva totally by surprise, sending her tumbling through the air and sending her cracking into the tree with a shout of pain. "OH HELL!" She yells, as her brain catches up to what the hell just happened over the last five seconds, her eyes widening into saucers. That doesn't, however, solver her problem of getting away from the tree that she's being gravitically pinned to. With a grunt of effort, she brings one hand up to a sling at her side.

"It's time." She says aloud. pulling Daemon from her side and thumbing open a vial of black ink.

What the hell is she going to do with an oversiez paintbrush and some ink? /Paint/ her way free?

"We might not have Imagination control..." She dips the brush into the ink and draws out a small amount of it, and then with a colossal effort, /slashes/ it through the air. The path of the brush leaves a sudden black trail in the air, as if she was painting through space. "But that doesn't stop us from getting creative!"

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur is impressed by the power on display, deeply respects it, understands it as a mage of space, but for all that, he doesn't react to it. He's here on business. He's here for a reason. Drifting above the clouds, he dispels his broom with a flourish, and drifts there, isolated from all allies, facing the huddled figure.

    He floats, patiently waiting for the huddling figure to move and speak. But only the former happens. He's caught off-guard when he slings that chain-scythe set at him. He'll be getting a heavy gash to one shoulder as the figure slings the blade and then darts by. He only prevents the more debilitating damage by...

    Suddenly deflecting it with a blade! In his hands, there's abruptly existing a long, simple sword, formed of magically-summoned starmetals. With a spin, he drifts back, in a defensive stance with the sword now. "..."

    "What happened to you? What's your story? Everyone here's got one. But all I know is you were here the last time. And something happened." He takes a more aggressive stance, preparing to strike back. "What do you want with me? All I want with you is that Key shard. I'll fight you only as much as it takes to get it. Tell me your beef or give it up quick." He darts forward! He'll be going for short, swift swings to keep Swan on the defensive with his chain weapon, but not likely enough to break through just yet. He's got to feel this guy's style and his story out.

Staren has posed:
    The BOSS DOOR closes behind Staren, and he looks around warily. His shoulder missile launchers raise into firing position in case they're needed. Using them inside would be dangerous, but hopefully it will be /more/ dangerous for his target than for him. With Telephone not immediately apparent, he looks for the telltale blur or distortion of imperfect cloaking tech, then slowly begins to step into the room, taking it in...

    Constructs move. Staren's right arm snaps up, fires a particle beam at one, then another. He draws his beam swords and dashes -- the transparent orange 'energy wings' appear just behind his shoulders and give an additional burst of speed -- towards a third construct, slashing it then trying to hop back out of reach. When he notices the crawling constructs, he hovers up out of their reach.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == LETHARGY ==

    That moment of weakness from Riva's words proves absolutely lethal -- Sheep notices all too late when Bahamut is summoned into the field by Faruja. She has just enough time to break back into her murder, but as many as ten of the ravens are consumed within a blast that lands in their vicinity. Many, many more are singed, but manage to fly away to separate area of the field where the individual squads reconvene to create... separate Sheeps? Both of them would look to Faruja with hate-filled glares, but thanks to Kimiko only one of them would have a scythe to throw his way. The other, in lieu of a weapon, would focus her energy on it to imbue it with flame and to make it, like they themselves, multiply into a circle of six different blades which all fly at Faruja at once.

    Which of them is real?

    She's not terribly concerned with Ayako, it seems, but nevertheless a number of trees around her would begin... moving. As many as three of them would begin a slow creep in her direction. Their roots attempt to burrow underneath her feet and lacerate them to the soil whilst their vines, once they're in range, begin to lash at her as if they were whips. A few errant crows are resetd on the branches of the trees, too -- perhaps they are the ones dictating the trees' movements through contact? Stranger things have certainly happened here.

    Then the other Sheep - the one still without her scythe - would be forced to stare at Kimiko by a phantom shock. She -grabbed her scythe-. Immediately her eyes would begin to twitch, and her expression would begin to look... frenzied. Maddened. "-A- Mizuki gave me that scythe. Someone very important to me. Someone -you- never knew, and never will know." Her fists clench. Her eyes gleam, twist, and then narrow in fury. "... so give it back. Give it back -right now-." Her arms would slowly evaporate into long 'chains' of feathers, but her torso, head, and legs would remain 'human'. "Give. It. BACK!" Both of these newly-formed apendages would assail her in tandem, at first acting like whips and then, if they're successful in slowing her at all, attempting to grab at her and lacerate her wrists and ankles. Clearly that act did not make her happy.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "you two."

    The soft, academic voice of Arthur speaks gently, from every direction at once, when the SCHOOLHOUSE DOOR slams shut behind Eryl and Psyber, cutting them off from Priscilla the precise moment she's grabbed. "mmnnnhh. i wish it could have been others. you two know what's wrong here about me doing this more than anyone else." The voice is sad, somber. "you know i don't like doing things like this. the greater good is an awful burden to bear. not to mention a hypocritical one. for you and for me. it's so awful."

    Within the schoolhouse, its design is a hopelessly incomprehensible menagerie of oppressively technological and decayed academic. The desks for small children have been hopelessly scattered, shelves tossed for their books. But huge whirring machines have crushed their way in. Psyber will recognize them as something based on the Sburb machines. Something used for testing something? "for a schoolhouse, this sure doesn't seem to have ever hosted any children. me aside, i mean, and i'm a little old for it." The chalkboard is covered in scrawled brainstorming. About how to save Mizuki. It's all crossed out, scratched over, frenetically rejected.

    "only lesson i ever learned here was despair, honestly. the way trying to solve a problem will trap you." The more quiet lowell is, suddenly, standing in front of the chalkboard, staring at it, holding a book tight in one arm. "i think telephone can only really give them the key piece if you're all there. it's part of the deal." There's a sudden surge of gravity that slams down, and sustains, trying to pin the pair to the ground. "sorry, i'm supposed to keep you here."

Priscilla has posed:
    For a moment, Priscilla is completely caught off guard by what greets her on the television screen. Slowing down to look at it, she slips out of Eryl's and Psyber's formation completely, being left behind as the two of them enter the schoolhouse. It takes her a few, long moments of thought before she remembers that Sophia is a part of Mizuki. It is entirely possible that she had done something worthy of being impressed upon a reflection of Mizuki's unconscious thoughts. It's also entirely possible that exists just to distract her. Not knowing which it is, more than anything else, is what holds her attention. This turns out to be a very bad idea.

    The bolt of eerily coherent static catches her almost completely by surprise, only just barely anticipating harm from the unnerving sight of the visual distortion preceeding it. She catches it on the haft of her scythe, blocking her torso, but the weapon is far from a perfect insulator, only channeling the electricity into her arms. She screams as the resulting voltage completes a circuit up one limb and down the other, her nerves feeling as if they are on fire and her muscles refusing to unclench as the current runs through them. Unable to drop her weapon to break the point of contact, and unable to stand the pain. she responds by blasting the television full on with her breath weapon, at least scattering the electricity through the cloud if not simply crystallizing the offending appliance completely.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
With Faruja's actions she's got some of an opening, Kotone hears Sheep's comment about being called evil. She's got nothing to say on that she had no intent to call Sheep evil. As Sheep put it they heard it so much. Still she has to wonder where is this going? She does know if they fail they are going to get caught up in what ever /happens/. Which is something she's much rather not find out about.

Kotone gets a good hit in but the response leave her very much on guard. As Faruja replies to Sheep she says nothing as she's trying to not /get/ caught up in whatever Sheep's got in mind. Oh it gets worse as Shade Arthur shows up, this was something she honestly didn't see coming. Sheep is forgot about for a moment.

"How do you know my bullets are not dipped in Hind's blood?!"

Maybe not the best comeback but it's the first one to come to mind.

Then comes the fire? She's not sure what it is but well her cloak doesnt do jack against that and she's caught there's a good deal of damage she's looking a bit cooked and one could smell the stench of burnt synthetics at this point. She does however follow up Shade Arthur's comment, not by taking a shot for his head no, but the centre of his mass.

"Should have guessed Sheep would have backup!"

Thanks to Ayako's barrier earlier? Kotone isn't looking like a T-800 right now, which is something to be thankful for. Given the damage that wave would have done otherwise is not a happy thing to think about at all.

"Riva I hope you got some magic in mind for this!"

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == BROKEN SKY ==

    For all the muscle Swan throws around, his defenses seem terribly poor. Arthur's retaliatory strikes easily reach his torso, legs, and even face, cutting a bloody swath through him. His form jitters back and hangs in the air a moment as though it were a ragdoll mounted on strings. His neck is tilted so far back that one has to wonder if he even possesses a spine in a conceptual sense. Eventually, though, his head would mount itself upon his shoulders again.

    One of Arthur's strikes tore open a hole in his bandages. If he's close enough, he can see now that there -are- not eyes -- his eyelids are sewn shut. The most they can do is give off that same, faint azure light that they did before. Still, that sealed orb would seem to study him, watch him, analyze him.

    "Read it." His voice is a ghastly rasp -- as though someone had torn out a portion of his larynx, or as though his lungs had choked on smoke earlier in life. "You've... read... my story." Each word he breathes must be put out very slowly, deliberately; otherwise it's unlikely he would be able to speak at all. "Why... I wanted you here." His body comes back together properly after he's had his opportunity to speak, and he again throws out his scythes. Unlike before, though, he stays stationary -- stationary so that he can guide the blades and chains instead. He would attempt to mentally will them around Arthur's form to constrict his movement, and then to make the scythe-ends sink into his sides. He would only move again after he has either succeeded or failed in this, sweeping past Arthur to add, tersely, painfully,

    "I am dead. I want to be remembered."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    This is the point where Riva gets to see some of what Daemon does. Which is, specifically, that the hefty brush and that specific ink seems to cut a line in reality itself. The strained gravitational force means she can't catch him too effectively but the line she paints seems to emit a brutal CUTTING FORCE through reality! It looks like she's painting square on the medium itself.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako is on her floating broomstick, of course! The witch outfit really ins't complete without it! She blinks her eyes slowly as the trees begin to move in her direction. Having no way of dealing with this, she has no choice but to take to the air to avoid the roots and vines.

    At the same time, she watches Loud Arthur carefully! Being ready to intercept in case he tries to interrupt someone again!

Riva Banari has posed:
The tree creaks, and then there is a shattering sound of wood shearing as the slash in space cuts through some of the tree. But as Daemon noted, it's not enough. "If you want magic, Kotone, you're asking the wrong girl!" Riva calls back. "The only thing I cast is BEATDOWNS! JUST YOU WAIT, NEGA-ARTHUR! I'M COMING FOR YOU!" She continues struggling against the gravity, sweat beading on her brow as she forces her arms up. If she can just force the tree to fall... "RAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" She yells, as she slashes /again/, aiming for the same place she hit before! After all, that's how you cut down a tree, right? As she prepares for a third, she calls out, "SHEEP! Whatever happens, just hold on, okay! This doesn't have to be the end! We'll find a way! Somehow!" Even now, Riva is trying to be positive amd hopeful.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     Eryl greets Psyber with a nod as he joins him in the schoolhouse. When lowell starts speaking, he quickly reassures Original Face that there are probably just hidden speakers as the politer Arthur shade speaks to him. He doesn't bother looking back at the door, the sound of it slamming was all he needed to hear.

     He quietly takes in the blackboard, at all the crossed-out plans (privately wondering why he didn't just erase them). "Oh, do not fear. You will not need to fret over this much longer. For tonight, it will be resolved," he says, with clear conviction in his voice. Like he actually believes it. Even now, he's still confident in his capabilities to make everything work out somehow.

     But then, gravity starts pushing down on him! Original Face starts freaking out, but also calculating how it might affect his shots. Eryl winces, but stands boldly on two feet, shifting his stance to be wider. "Well then... let's see if these etchings will affect even a god's shadow." It takes a bit of effort, but he raises his hand and points his index finger, aiming higher than usual. A shot from 'One Hand Clapping' blasts out, carrying with it a slight black wisp as it arcs through the air to fly at the quieter Arthur!

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    "I saw her, and her work." Kimiko doesn't verbally acknowledge the request, and while holding the weighted-down weapon isn't well able to defend herself. She backs off, but she's not the quickest-moving magical girl, particularly when it comes to tactical withdrawals. Her armor takes the brunt of the damage, lashed and scored by Sheep's whips, but before that grab can happen, Kimiko tosses the scythe back toward its owner--hoping to distract her for a moment. That scythe could be easily regained, if she turns those whips to hands.

    Kimiko doesn't dispel the chains as she does this, and she's still holding a fistful of them. Whether Sheep grabs for it or not, a pull sends the scythe spinning in a long arc to the side, and she has the strength needed to send an opponent flying along with it, if they don't dig their heels into the ground immediately. One way or another, Kimiko rushes in at the first hint of advantage, or else the last moment before a counterattack. Her right hand is free but for its gauntlet--covered in spikes and articulating plate. Her attack is as cruel as its gleaming appearance, as she seeks to grab one of Sheep's arms and bodily tear it from her, her grip both cutting and crushing, and an inhuman inertia carrying with the bend of her arm.

    "They are so much the same. But the memories are what you care for. That--only that, would not return. -A- Mizuki fought, and lost. Do you blame her?" She is eerily calm, even as her arm scatters blood over the clearing.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Riva's first slash takes an ENTIRE ARM off, and much of that side's leg with her swipe! Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to slow him down. Blood gushes from the wounds briefly, but light replaces it shortly after, glowing from the wound. Despite losing the limbs, Arthur continues to float as if he still had them, and seems to experience no pain. It's as if the body's just irrelevant to him. She does get the tree to fall, though, given the sheer force and the effects of keeping it up. It seems like REPEATED STROKES and MULTIPLE USES build up the effects here, and soon, the tree will fall, pushing Riva out of the gravitational field and giving her a better angle of attack.

    Riva's attack on Arthur does shift his attention though, away from Kotone. "RIVS. C'MON." He says. "THIS STUPID PILE OF MEAT DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING TO ME. YOU CAN GET AS MORTAL-CREATIVE AS YOU WANT TO BE. IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW CREATIVE AN ANT IS WHEN IT BUILDS THE HILL. THE HUMAN BOOT WINS ANWYAY." There's another blast at center mass. Kotone's SCI-FI FUTURE ANTI-PERSONNEL or ARMOR-PIERCING BULLETS are brutal! They blast out more of his body center of mass than is polite to discuss, turning his torso into a hole.

    And still it doesn't seem to matter. There's a brilliant white light where some show of gore ought to be. "DOESN'T MATTER WHAT A MORTAL DOES WITH THEIR BULLETS. GOD DOESN'T MAKE A ROCK SO HEAVY HE CAN'T LIFT IT. YOU THINK YOU CAN TAKE ME? YOU'RE NOTHING." The bullets slam into him further until he goes for another strike on Kotone, casting a bolt of gravity towards her that suddenly slams downwards if it can get close. "KNEEL. DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU REPLACE ALL THE FLESH, SILICON. YOU'RE ALL STILL DUST TO START AND DUST TO END."

Psyber (253) has posed:
    'Perhaps it's not too late for someone to carve a third option out of thin air.'

    The words hang around Psyber as he walks along with Eryl. So much that he doesn't even notice Priscilla get grabbed until they'd moved on. And then they encounter quiet Arthur. After one Arthur encourages him, another is ready to do the opposite.

    Psyber sighs a bit, figuring it would be just his luck to choose this subpath. He tilts his head at quiet Arthur, "You're doing what you have to," Psyber says candidly to the boy, "Even if I don't understand it all, and I probably never will, I know you're doing what you have to."

    His hand falls back to rest on his handgun, still not drawing it, "You and I both know a schoolhouse isn't where you find the solution, if there is one. It's all about trial and error. You don't ever get the win you want, some times you just have to make due."

    Psyber's knee slams to the ground hard as the pulse of gravity comes in. But Psyber strains against it and pushes himself back to his feet, "For what it's worth, man... I'm sorry."

    And then Psyber reaches into his jacket. As he does so, he pulls out a slip of paper with 'ADJUDICATOR' written across it. He's already lunging towards Arthur in the wake of Eryl's attack, swinging the heavy sword in a cleaving arc.

    He grunts, "If you're going to have to end this hear, one way or another, at least tell me what you know about fixing it. Don't let the information die with you."

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == MEDIA ==
    In the LAB, countless numbers of mechanical limbs go flying as Staren eviscerates them with his particle beams. They begin to wander aimlessly as he takes to the sky, helpless, all of them eventually turning to watch him without taking any offensive maneuvers whatsoever. Eventually, though, they look away from him. The crawling ones and walking ones alike walk to the heart of the room and... fall apart. Their constituent bits and bobs fall to the floor, inert, becoming a harmless pile. It seems like Staren's fight is over already, but...

    ... but of course, it isn't in reality. Those metal pieces would come together to form a rod, a cube, legs, a torso -- all the components of a human body. Slowly, the pile resolves into a shape vaguely similar to Telephone's own, and then one crisply, distinctly hers. Though this mass of metal lacks a face, it still has the mobility of a human, and would demonstrate this by carefully raising its rod skyward. Nothing seems to happen at first, but when an errant one of Staren's leftover beams comes within a certain proximity of her, a translucent, cyan sphere becomes visible. The beam is absorbed into that field, and it dissipates entirely.

    When the shield disappears, Metal Telephone places both her hands around her rod and inclines her head. The die at its peak would begin to gleam orange -- the same orange as his wings. Then, at the peak of its charge, a -massive- particle beam eerily similar to Staren's would fly his way. More than anything else, its speed is appalling.

    Outside the SCHOOLHOUSE, Priscilla effortlessly decimates the television. It explodes, and the arm that had emerged from it is gone in an instant. There's a silence whilst the leftover smoke rises into the sky, but eventually, there's another sound.

    Footsteps. Telephone would step beside her, regarding the television with her same, distraught expression. "Isn't... isn't it sad?" She inclines her head. "... how... even the most beautiful things in the world always have a dark side? I think the saying is 'Every rose has its thorns'. Nothing is ever just 'good' or 'bad' -- everything is always so confusing. And if you look at something beautiful enough times while something bad is happening, that alone... can make it stop being beautiful. Then it becomes as scary as the things you associate it with." She slowly levitates backwards, now. "... that's what this world is like for me. For the first four hundred years, it was really like Heaven. I thought it would always be that way. But then..." She shakes her head.

    "Sorry." She rubs at an eye, forcing a smile. "I guess I just want someone to talk to. I'm not sure if I'm going to live through this or not, so I just... I'm sorry." In time, she straightens her expression, leveling her rod at her. "Show me... what you've got. Show me that you'll make this world a better place. Show me that you'll be able to keep Mimi and all the things I love about this place safe when I'm gone. Okay?"

    And with that, the die at the top of her staff would begin to emit sparks. Metals from all around are attracted to it, and eventually it takes the shape of a sort of primal mace. In the process of its construction, Telephone would already have begun to swing at the halfbreed.

Riva Banari has posed:
That tree finally breaks, freeing Riva from the grip of that pin. The whiplash sends her clear of the field, allowing her to slide to a stop. Anger is evident on her features, and she lunges, cleaving down upon Nega-Arthur before he can repeat that trick and keep her stuck out of the fight for even longer.

But that strike is pointless, Riva forgetting in her anger that Nega-Arthur doesn't actually care if he gets hurt. She suddenly remembers when Psyber hit him after his antics a ways back, and she pulls back, lowering Daemon. She looks down to the Abstractum, and back to Arthur, thinking for a moment. "So, you're part of Arthur, right?" She asks, not taking any hostile moves. "I mean, he doesn't want to admit it, but that's the case, right?"

Uh oh. Where is this going?

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Eryl has occult anti-divinity. Psyber has anti-evil. Both of them apply here... sort of. Adjudicator's many strike drivers function, as do Eryl's superior cybernetic weapons, though. Both carry a little extra oomph, but not a lot. The quiet lowell takes the shot and the slice and goes down instantly with a pair of gaping wounds.

    As he does, though, he speaks. "the first solution i had was the idea of moving the locations themselves. one was compatible. it gave me a lot of hope. you could just move everything, then destroy it, and put it back when this was done." The boy is dying though, gasping for breath now, his book tossed on the floor haphazardly.

    Abruptly, he's no longer here. "move them to a safe place. that was the first idea. it worked once. but there wasn't enough room, and there wasn't enough energy. i got hopeful for nothing, and it hurt. doesn't it make you hurt when you do that?" His voice seems to come from all directions, but the boy himself can't be found. The oppressively windowless environment is still sealed tight by Arthur's power though. He has to be around here somewhere. "the destruction finds its way to its goal eventually. just doing what it has to do. very thorough though."

    If Eryl and Psyber are going to finish him off in time, they'd better find him quick! The machines, the desks and shelves and cabinets, maybe somewhere else... The search will be disoriented though. Gravity just reversed; lowell is trying to do the same attack but slamming them into the ceiling.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Dual Sheeps? Faruja's eye narrows, leaning heavily on his magical senses. But he's just not yet that sharp, the Burmecian forced to quickly contend with a circle of burning, flying scythes tossed his way.

Illusion magic is a rarity in his world, and so he does the smart thing: rather than try to figure out which one is real he simply holds his ground. Reaching into his robes, he waits until the scythes are just about to zoom in to remove his various bodily parts, and then he crushes the timepiece he's dragged out.

A familiar film-grey creeps into the world as Faruja's magic arrests the flow of time around him, causing those scythes to pause in mid air. One can see even the flicker of flame as they cease to move. Ducking underneath one that was close to removing his throat, he simply shakes his head.

Then grasps for a scythe or two until he finds one that 'feels' real. Teleporting away to the Sheep that's currently directing the trees, and with a two-handed grip, tries to simply bisect Sheep with her own weapon.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == LETHARGY ==
    When Sheep's scythe is within her grasp, she can't help herself -- that object is the last remnant she has of a departed friend. Her whips disspell themselves immediately and she reaches to hug the scythe as though it were a pillow. She clings to it closely, seemingly unharmed by the barbs on its sides, but certainly -not- immune to the force applied by Kimiko. She's launched toward the ground. She clatters down and is completely helpless; far too disoriented to break up into her murder. This gives Kimiko ample time to rend her left arm from her body.

    She does not scream.

    She doesn't even twitch.

    The only reaction she would have to the loss of her limb is to look at as it 'melts' into something viscous. Something dark. Something hideous. Eventually, that 'ink' futilly attempts to transform into a group of ravens itself. As it makes the attempt, the figures come out morbidly disfigured. Ribcages seep into skulls. Eyes writhe around the malformed piles. In the end, the whole amalgamation of corpses simply ceases to move.

    By that time, Sheep would rise, likely clutching the leftover stub. She would quake in place, panting. When she can find the strength, she shakes her head to Kimiko's query. "... no. I don't blame her. I can't blame anyone, and that's what sucks. I try to find someone to blame -- anything to blame. This new Mizuki, I wanted to hurt her for it. But I know she didn't really do anything wrong. She just... looks like her. And I hate it. She looks so much like her, but she isn't her. It's like this is a nightmare I can't wake up from. It's like I'm being taunted all the time with what I used to have. The one person who ever liked me, the one person who ever tried to help me, is just gone. And I'll never see her again." Her eyes leve with Kimiko's. "That's why I don't care what happens. I'm ready. I'll miss Telephone, but screw everyone -- everything -- else. I'm ready. I'm ready to see whatever the hell Mizuki is so afraid of. It can't be any worse than this."

    She hefts her scythe into her remaining arm and disperses into her flock. She attempts to swivel around Kimiko, hooking in her form with a the blade's edge. It's a bulky manuever, and slow -- she's obviously pretty worn down already.

    With Ayako, her broom would be caught mid-flight by vines. The trees attempt to shake her mount violently in order to hurl her form her post. If they're successful, they would catch her before she can reach the ground, attempting to squeeze her throat -- asphyxiate her.

Priscilla has posed:
    Priscilla flinches at hearing Telephone say that. That reaction is rarely ever so visible. Why does it seem like everything of Mizuki's innermost mind is designed to tug at her heartstrings. In some bizarre way, are the two of them really that similar? The fact that Apathy's accomplice could just as easily be talking about her home, or at least, the place that was far more of a home than her place of birth ever was, makes her feel a little sick. "Indeed." is all she has to say for a good, long while. "It is the nature of the world that no single thing can remain beautiful forever. Were it possible, all of ugly reality wouldst be steadily abandoned. By now however . . ." she finally turns to look at Telephone directly. "The both of us knoweth the flaws of paradise. The limitations inherent in every mind that may attempt to envision it. No-one truly knows their own heart; not from the day they art born to the day they die."

    As Telephone summons her choice of weapon, Priscilla readies hers, sliding one foot forward as the head of the scythe traces backwards through the arc it is poised to follow. "By the same token however, if one looks upon something terrifying whilst something good remains of it, after long enough, it can become beautiful again." The crossbreed preempts Telephone's swing with preturnatural speed, intercepting her weapon in such a way that the crook of the scythe catches the base of the macehead, which should twist it up and out of her had as the scythe arcs upward. Regardless of whether Telephone's grip endures, the blunt, hammerlike end of the Lifehunt Scythe comes straight down on her dominant shoulder.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Well this could be bad, very bad really, as well? Kotone sadly does not have any Hind blood, or anything else that might mess up a god. She's going to have to work with what she has however, there's not much choice on that now is there. She's going to try to keep up and do what she can to support the others. She listens to Riva's words to sheep.

"We might have to fight but, Riva's got point! A very good one!"

You have to hang on to hope and she's only survived as long as she has because of hope.

Kimiko's attacks are moving, and well Shade Arthur is going to make it hard to go after Sheep.

Given where they are fighting the injuries might just be an annoyance to Shade Arthur.

Still Riva gave a freaking epic punch there.

Then the gravity of her situation hits her, she's straining against the pull on her body and she's trying to not kneel but it's not working to well also there's several alerts for strain going up on her hud, she dismisses them gritting her teeth as she struggles with the pull.

She struggles but she goes know and is forced to kneel she however has something to tell Shadow Arthur.

"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Yes but you forget, that's your fate as well! Your were born from that which was once mortal!"

She then attempts to fight her way free even with the damage it's going to do.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     Eryl really didn't think it would be so easy that a single shot and slash would bring the shade of Arthur down. So, he's not surprised when he suddenly vanishes (but Original Face is, and makes sure Eryl knows). "Ergh... it is always disappointing when your plans fail to conform to reality. But, letting it hurt you is counterproductive. There is no malice to it; it is just how things are. You simply move on to find another solution."

     He's panning the room now, turning slowly on the spot to try and find lowell... when suddenly, he begins to fly upwards! While he recently got some experience with fighting in lower gravity, he's yet to fight in none. In addition, the sudden loss makes Original Face freak out, so Eryl can do nothing to stop it as he slams back-first into the roof.

     The wind leaves his lungs with an 'whuf' followed by a sharp intake of breath as the pain hits. But, there is an advantage to this position. Original Face begins to split the room below into twenty-four segments before the front of his pants suddenly tear up. Twenty-four small rockets fly at each of the segments (also carrying that black wisp), exploding when within them in an attempt to flush the phantom out!

Staren has posed:
    Once it's clear there's nothing in the lab, Staren flies /up/. As he told Telephone, they're /wasting time/. He starts to look around, but when he sees the robots combining... yeah, none of that. He blasts it, then frowns as the shield appears. He blasts again. When the staff begins charging, he takes evasive maneuvers. It's not enough -- the beam is fast, such that 'dodging' it is about as practical as dodging a bullet -- you have to see where the attacker is pointing and then /not/ be there when they fire. The wide beam hits him -- afterwards, a similar, spherical field, this one translucent amber though whiter on the bottom half where it was hit, is momentarily visible before fading. The white section breaks apart into a shower of amber sparkles. One of the discs on his chestplate sparks. Staren fires a missile down, hoping to flash-fry the 'lab' area by superheating its air into plasma, but... he catches sight of the real(?) Telephone and Priscilla.

    He dives down, trying to surprise Telephone from behind, swinging his beam sabers. "Concentrated fire, bitch! Trying to delay us with robots... after your talk of wanting this over quickly! You're full of it! You'll say anything to pull at our heartstrings, make us feel bad, hesitate, give you a better chance? Forget it! I don't give a damn about narrative. In real life, I want things to be good forever because balance means innocent people getting HURT! And I'm gonna craft that better future, whatever I have to tear through to do it! So you and your secrecy and mystery can all DIE!"

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "Swan. Cygnus, the Swan." Arthur Lowell, the genuine one, says, realizing, and keeping the pace for the most part. But faltering, slowly. It's on one particularly slow swing that Arthur loses his grip of the sword when the chains slam into him, dropping it but letting it float freely without gravity. The gash in his shoulder is now matched by a gash in either side, as the scythes sink into his body.

    "Gyaaaargh!" he calls out in pain for a moment, before he struggles against the chain, worsening the lacerating wounds. "I read it. How you lost all your friends and your family and everyone you knew. Onasus. Silvia. Your mother. The village. The last stargazer." He screams out, managing to extricate himself only by tearing brutal gashes in his body. "But you remembered them! And so did Mizuki! She remembered them, and she remembers you!"

    He snatches his sword again and takes a defensive posture just in case Swan is planning another rush, but he'll be striking forward only after the boy retakes his blades. "You're not dead. Nothing that's remembered dies. Not your village, not you, not your constellations. Stars are just a mess of lights, constellations don't die as long as someone can still teach you their names. So cut a new constellation in me and live forever, Cygnus. But I won't be the one keeping you alive. I get that key, the Mizuki who told me your story lives. She lives, you go on too."

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber's sword carries through on its swing, not stopping as it cuts into the version of Arthur. And then he crumples down and Psyber listens to him, thinking the battle over as quickly as it began.

    "Yeah. It does hurt. It hurts to flail against an impossible task, trying to find a solution, and to fail." Psyber agrees with him sternly, watching closely as he talks about the solutions he tried. So moving them to preserve it didn't work? It was a worrying prospect, one he would have to follow up on. But Arthur is gone and the gravity changes, Psyber immediately being tossed upwards towards the ceiling.

    He slams into it shoulder-first, tumbling and then letting out a grunt of pain. He doesn't have the same method of attack as Eryl, lacking the missiles that would let him emulate that valid strategy. So instead, he cuts massive and cleaving strikes meant to sweep the room with attacks and locate the missing boy.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == LETHARGY (cont.) ==

    Time magic is, ironic as it may be for a resident of Mizuki's world, not a venue that Sheep had been expecting. Either that, or this clone of her is having her actions delayed by what's happening to the one with Kimiko, but either way -- it's easy, too easy, for him to close in on her and take a jab. Rather than cutting cleanly through her torso, though, she is able to separate into two more murders just in time, meaning that his slash only kills five or so ravens that can't get away past enough. Again, though, those 'new' groups would come back as two clones, meaning that a total of three Sheeps are now present on the field.

    And two of them are both trained on Faruja. They regain their faculties in just enough time to charge at him. They attempt to loop the crescents of both their weapons around him at once in attempt to, as he attempted with her, cleave him in half. She doubts this will be successful, though, and each copy would generate feathered whips like those the other Sheep used with Kimiko to lash at him as well. These have a much shorter range, however -- she probably has fewer ravens to spare.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako blinks her eyes quickly as her broom is caught by the vines. "Ah." She's quickly hurled off of her broom and then caught by the vines. When said vines suddenly start trying to asphyxiate her, she looks extremely confused-although for just a moment. She only really breathes to talk and to look convincingly human, after all. Nonetheless, she still is bound by the vines! "Umm... umm... some help here!" Anyone who's paying attention enough might notice that while she did mouth the words, the sound didn't come from her mouth!

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "PART OF ARTHUR? RIVS, PLEASE. THAT STUPID MIRROR'S A SHADE OF ME." ARTHUR says, his flesh beginning to tear away. His body isn't really much of a body at all, it's some kind of fleshy vessel. What Riva's looking at is a sun, slowly consuming a body. How does one fight a sun? One can assume they have all the time they'll need to figure that out, because god damn does ARTHUR like to talk, so when they cease their fighting, he does so.

    "THAT BOY'S A WORTHLESS HALF-SHADE, HOLDING HIMSELF BACK FOR SOME SPECTER OF HUMANITY BECAUSE HE THINKS IT MAKES HIM STRONGER FOR SOME REASON. IF ANYONE DESERVES TO BE CALLED THE REAL DEAL HERE, IT'S ME. I'VE WALKED ON THE SUN, I'VE DANCED ON EVENT HORIZONS, I'VE SEEN SHIT SO SMALL IT WOULD TURN YOUR BRAIN INTO A PRETZEL, AND THAT GUY ACTS LIKE HE SHOULD BE SOME SENSITIVE MORTAL HANDING OUT ADVICE. I'M NOT A PART OF HIM, I'M EVERYTHING HE IS WHEN HE'S NOT BEING AN IDIOT."

    By now the body's mostly melted away. It's just the brilliant, pulsing miniature sun, with the distorted body around it. "AND SURE. I WAS BORN FROM A MORTAL. IT'S ABOUT SIXTEEN YEARS A STEP UP FROM BEING BORN OF VOID LIKE SOME OF THE OTHER GODS, WHAT'S YOUR POINT, SILICON? YOU WANT TO GO FROM TRANSHUMAN TO TRANSMORTAL? BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT IT'LL TAKE."

    There's all sorts of things that can hurt a sun, of course, but one should leave that to Riva and Kotone to determine in terms of deployment.

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    "I see." Kimiko doesn't even glance at the arm before dropping it, and her eyes remain on Sheep while it transforms into misshapen beasts, though she sees and understands the event in her peripheral vision. When Sheep's remainder disperses, with her scythe, the chains in Kimiko's hands fall to the ground, rendered useless as the healthier murder flies off.

    Not quite useless. The counterattack is slow enough for Kimiko to see it coming, but she doesn't dodge. The chains wrapped around her arm after a quick, snapping motion, she takes this attack also on her left. Her armor screeches briefly as it tears, and from the crushed and scattering bits of metal her state is made more obvious. The flesh of her hand barely looks alive, and she's still losing blood, pooling in her armor, splashing when released. It's only the magic filling her, from pauldron to iron finger, that let her put strength into it. It will not quickly heal, but the steel regenerates at a swift pace, to let her hold the blow from her vitals.

    "I suppose you have already thought of reminding Mizuki of your acquaintance. Of seeking new cares. Rekindling old." The further sacrifice of flesh goes with as little comment as her opponent's own. Her uninjured right stabs, fingers together, as if to pierce her opponent's stomach with Kimiko's steel-clad arm as the weapon. If it succeeds, she'll twist as she speaks. "Too difficult, isn't it? Too much for you to care to do. Easier to give up. No need to leave your room and demand answers from one who abandoned you." Something in the content of her speech seems to have shifted near the end, though her tone has not, and her focus is ever on the other's eyes. Provocation? She knows what Sheep did. "In that case, give up and fight." The two acts are the same. "I will take responsibility for your death. I will care, even if you do not. Someone must take the pain." She speaks in absolute certainty.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == MEDIA ==

    In PRISCILLA'S court, Telephone's impromptu 'mace' certainly goes flying, but as her blade scrapes the televised pauldron, cloth, and flesh from her body, it would pause to levitate in the sky. It changes its trajectory to face Priscilla and would stay there for some time. If she's given an opening, Telephone would smash an electrified gauntlet into Priscilla's stomach. If it hits, it would magnetized her entire being -- the mace would be fly toward her, along with most other metallic objects in the area. This effect would disperse the moment Telephone is no longer able to maintain contact, but for that brief stint it may prove deadly.

    Her words, though, would bring a gentle smile to her face. "Yeah. You guys... you guys are pretty cool. It's made me so happy to watch you, doing what you do. If Sheep and I live through this, I hope we can be your friends too. That would make me so, so happy."

    Telephone would be so caught up in all this for a moment that, when Staren comes soaring past, she would be caught a bit off guard. The screen-pauldron at her other shoulder would be whopped off by his fervent slashes, and he would cut deep into her torso, and legs. She would fall to the ground and duck just in time to not be annihilated, though.

    "... you." She stands up, looking Staren dead on. "You've... done this before. Don't you see what you're doing? Even if I am that bad, you're... claiming to understand things about this world that even Mizuki doesn't. Logic doesn't -work- like that here. I -do- want this over with, but there is a -reason- I have to slow you down. Okay? I..." She averts her eyes. "But you aren't going to listen to me. You're too caught up in your own holy crusade of logic and knowledge. It's... so crazy to me that you and Mizuki can have the -same- goals, but how you can have such completely different hearts."

    If Priscilla doesn't do anything to prevent it, Telephone's wand would reappear in her hand, now free of its clutter. "You are the one person I don't want anywhere near this world when I'm gone. And the one person I don't want anywhere near me." Still wearing a scowl, she knocks the end of her staff against the ground. An electric orb appears there, and long lines of lightning crackle forth from it. Four of them would train themselves on Staren, attempting to continually zap him at intervals for as long as the staff is not broken.

Faruja (152) has posed:
"Never /didst/ like these bloody things." Quips the rat at his own less-than-perfect slashing. Having ravens to fall out of you probably helps things too. When his now-two opponents are harassing him, about all he can do is throw up his scythe wildly to deflect one swing, and then throw himself flat. One of the two hit on their initial volley, scraping along his armor but otherwise giving him no harm. But now he's in position to be neatly whipped with feathered lashes.

Cue a bunch of welts on his face, and worse as some of his armor is torn open by the magical implements. Thank God for plate mail. He breathes heavily under the assault, but doesn't back off.

This time when he crushes his second timepiece, he'll let the magic try to catch the pair wholly before fleeing towards Ayako. There's suddenly a scalpel in his hand, and he's trying to both cut apart the vines and use gravity magic to rip them apart.

Only then, as almost an afterthought, does he yank out a few more scalpels and lazily tosses them at the-in theory-time frozen Sheeps he was fighting.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == THE BROKEN SKY ==

    The Swan -- Cygnus -- does his utmost to block Arthur's blows with his twin scythes, but he inevitably takes a plethora of hits. His flesh is burned. Cuts, nicks, and scars begin to take their places all across his body. Eventually, he completely destroys the facade of bandages that had been held upon his face, and they fall away like leaves in the wind. And what's left behind is...

    ... it's hard to look at. His lips have been sewn shut in the shape of a smile. His eyelids, as stated before, have likewise been closed in ways that leave them appearing horribly asymmetrical. Assuming this visual would give Arthur pause as it comes to light, he would take the moment of liberty to back away, hiding his butchered visage in his hands. He levitates in the sky a moment, frozen by shame and agony, until he finally turns his gaze to the heavens.

    "Yes." He begins to nod, letting his blades fall beside him. "... remember. Remember when... that was written." He continues to stare upwards. "... I am not dead. But I am still... a ghost." His neck snaps back into place. His closed eyes stare dead at Arthur. "Release me. It is time. With you, and her, I may have 'peace'." Then he holds out his blades again, readying for a strike. He pirouettes over to Arthur and spins like a lethal top, attempting to strike at his stomach twice with every revolution.

    He leaves himself completely open for retaliation.

    It's true -- he wants to be killed.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Eryl goes for wide-area coverage. Psyber goes from place to place. "eventually the destruction catches up. there's not enough room to hide in. so i thought i could reverse the process. remove the psychospiritual entropy of the whole thing." lowell's place -- hidden in one of the machines -- is revealed in time for Psyber to slice him in half. He's still holding onto that book. "the world is a mind. i thought, maybe mizuki's mind could be adjusted like a machine is, tuned properly."

    "but have you ever tried to fix a machine when the machine's job is breaking itself?" lowell's voice is actually a bit heavy with misery there. The machines above the group explode, suddenly and violently, blasting shrapnel up to the ceiling while the reversed gravity deactivates, likely bringing the pair right back down, onto the fresh, damaging debris. The mass of smoke makes it incredibly difficult to find Arthur's bisected form after it's slammed elsewhere.

    "once it's set in motion it's so hard to stop. it's hard, wanting to save something that doesn't even seem to want to be saved. mizuki wants to be saved but her world-mind is trying to tear itself to shreds. so i've gave up. if anyone holds the answer, the arthur you know, who pretends to be brash and godly and cool, is holding it."

    "i can't even see it. he's hidden it that far, even from me." The huge mess of shattered wood and metal are obfuscating the position. But lowell continues to talk. Finishing him the fight off swiftly shouldn't be too difficult, and then he can retake his place as some hidden side, one assumes.

Staren has posed:
    Staren presses the attack. The lightning strikes make his shield visible again -- it seems to have redistributed its 'mass' to cover the damaged section, but the lightning makes new damaged areas. "Trying to make me hesitate again." He fires at the orb, while aerial strafing to the side around Telephone, in case an attack comes from her. "I will /force/ a good ending. Because helping people is more important than nature." He fires again, then charges, slashing as he flies past. "If the rules of reality are hurting people, I'll /find a way to change them/. Because helping everyone is /more important/ to me than random chance or the whims of some creator. It's not holy. My crusade is about /results/. The results of helping my friends, and innocents." He fires again, dashes-and-slashes again. "A /reason/. So you say, but you refuse to tell me. Because your damned secrecy is /more important/ than anything else. Are you still a real person? Do you have any will of your own? Or is Mizuki's process flawed? If you're anything but a mindless construct pretending to be a person, you'd DO something instead of FOLLOWING STUPID RULES!" He continues the attack, even as chunks are blasted out of his forcefield, hoping his defenses will hold longer than Telephone's. Taking her down before the lightning can take him down. If she proves more resiliant, though, he'll focus on the orb to buy himself some more time.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "You did it wrong!" Psyber declares. There's not hostility in his voice. Psyber doesn't swing his sword again after the bisection, twirling his blade and then setting the tip into the ground, "I don't mean you did it wrong. I mean you saw it wrong. By dividing you in two, the split perspective didn't allow you to see the whole picture."

    Psyber takes a slow breath, "That was the secret all along. To save her, we had to not save her. She's designed for it to be this way, the system is infallible in its reliability." He wobbles a bit, nursing that injured shoulder and shutting his eyes.

    "But it's reliability is its weakness. It's not about stopping the machine, it's about changing how it will fulfill that purpose. If the destruction and reconstruction is inevitable, then the achilles heel of it all is to tune the machine, tweak it just enough so that when it rebuilds, it makes itself obsolete."

    Psyber looks at where the voice is coming from, "That's the secret, isn't it?"

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == LETHARGY ==

    Both the Sheeps stop in place and watch as Faruja abandons his place in their fight to go and help Ayako. Neither of them move, and as the scalpels Faruja had thrown as 'afterthoughts' make contact, they would cause their entire beings to fall to pieces. They would spew forth the flocks of birds again, but instead of reforming anywhere, they would swirl in the sky. They would gather in such large numbers that they would obscure the light of the imaginary moon.

    As Kimiko speaks, and hurts her, Sheep's eyes... would begin to well with tears. She would open her mouth to speak, but all she can manage at first is to shake her head, continually, 'no'. "... no. Don't... don't take that. It's... it's all I have. If I don't have my pain anymore, I won't have anything to justify what an idiot I've been. Please. I need that. I..." And then her eyes close, as they had been on all visits prior. She's silent for a long moment. "I don't want to die. I was too busy wallowing in self-pity to realize it, but all of this... if all this bad stuff hadn't happened, I never would have met Telephone. I never would have met all of you. I -do- want a chance to be friends with that Mizuki. I -do- want a chance to keep living. I'm not ready to die. I don't want to..." She's interrupted by a sniffle. "... please, I don't want to die."

    She drops her scythe. All of those ravens that had been swirling about in the sky return to her form. The vines on the trees, too, would relent, and those that had not already been smashed by Faruja would release her of their own accord.

    "I-I give up...! I'm sorry Apathy!" She would squeeze her eyelids shut and hurriedly add, "T-They key piece is next to my chair. One of the stuffed animals has it. They'll give it to you if you're nice to them."

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     Eryl tuts, sounding a little disappointed. "This is all for Mizuki. If you went and fiddled with the manifestation of her mind, would she even be her anymore?" Eryl doesn't actually have an answer for that himself. Just trying to throw the shade off a little. The fact that he's taken so much direct punishment implies that this fight should be on multiple fronts.

     But, as they are dropped back towards the ground, Eryl curls up, using his arms and legs as shields against the shrapnel. He still gets nicked quite a bit on his face and torso but the worst should be deflected.

     He lands, in a three-point landing stance and peers around. His voice is coming from everywhere... but he has demonstrated no ability to clone himself. As such, there should still only be one of him. Eryl... starts whistling, at different pitches and facing in different directions, attempting to echolocate lowell.

     But, as Psyber begins talking, he pauses. Not wanting to prevent the shade from answering, he lowers his aim, and instead goes to support the detective.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is finally able to get free at this point she sees the sun pulsing with what might be the body about it she hears all his hate ridden words.

"So your jealous of him, your basically cast offs from Arthur's soul is that it?"

She struggles to move but she's now thinking of what she can do to deal with the angry sun.

"Heh, I'm just Human, nothing more nothing less. Your the one with the over hyped Ego."

Kotone is moving again and this time she's got a little present for Shade Arthur

She keeps aware of the fight with Sheep, yet she can't jump in on that further. She'll have to trust in Faruja, Ayako and Kimiko to help handle things there.

She's got the pissed off Shade Arthur.

<<Overclock you awake I got a angry nega sun God in my grill here. Got any ideas for what might be able to ruin his day!? You heard is Trans rant right! I'm going to kick his sorry ass!>>

For now however she opens fire with her SMG giving Overclock and perhaps her self some time to think she might not be able to hurt him but she can distract him.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako is suddenly free of the vines! She smiles cheerfully at Faruja. "Thank you, Faruja!" And splashes a ball of purple healing water at the welts and wounds on the rat's body. She runs towards Riva and reaches up into her witch hat to pull another broom out of it.

    A quick hop and she's airborne, as a jet of water comes from the brush of the broom. Ayako's riding the broom in the normal witch style, something she only does when she needs speed! She jets quickly towards Riva and scoops her onto the broom, placing her just behind her and just in front of the brush.

    "I don't know what you have in mind, but... you need to get close, right?" Ayako smiles cheerfully. She gestures about herself as the broom reorients to face Loud Arthur. "Ice Comet!" And a barrier of ice forms around Ayako, Riva and the broom, complete with a frosty mist. Said frosty mist sends them flying off towards the not-Sun Arthur!

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur is not a boy who can stomach murder.

    Mutilation, he can barely stand. Haunting, he can bear just a little bit. But killing someone -- even someone who claims they are dead -- is something that he has a profound level of trouble with. Someone he sympathized with as much as Cygnus. Someone who he would have wanted to be friends with. The boy does his Swan song, of a sort, and elegantly spins to cut a deep gash at Arthur's stomach.

    As he spins, Arthur's own blade comes up, almost with a mind of its own. He can't seem to stop it, and he moves as if he were trying to. He has killed once before. Accidentally. Through too much power. Doing so now is... Painful. Profoundly, on a deep level. He seems as much stabbed as he tries to stab Swan square in the heart, from behind.

    The blade emits a gush of fusion constructs down its length. Like stars in the night sky.

    "Your village is waiting for you. There's all kinds of skies to see."

Priscilla has posed:
    If Priscilla weren't locked in deadly combat, she might actually try to smile at Telephone. It is sad and cruel that the two of them must be enemies, but it brings her some measure of happiness that, if they are to play the part of mortal foes, they can do it in this way. It's a strange, melancholy feeling that pervades the physical sensations of battle, but one she doesn't entirely hate.

    Of course, she can't focus on it for the time being. Even if she likes Telephone, the enemy always monopolizes attention. She whips the scythe around as the girl's junked armour flies off, bringing the blade curving back around without slowing. Assuming her opponent disarmed, she winds up trading one blow for another, cleaving into Telephone at the same time her gauntlet smashes into her stomach. Priscilla isn't built as squishily as most humanoids, and so the impact itself elicits nothing more than a muffled sound of pain, but the magnetic affect that follows acts in full force. The mace crashes right into the back of her skull, violently jerking her head to the side as her dragonbone takes the impact. Though it surprisingly injures her very little, it stuns her quite effectively, causing her to lose her balance as the rest of the junkscape comes flying at her from every direction at once.

    There's a lot of it. Enough that Priscilla is completely drowned in a crashing tsunami of forgotten electronics, surrounded by the sounds of twisting metal and shattering glass as the magnetic force crushes her in the middle. Rivulets of blood run from the lower gaps in the pile, stippling the ground from where the shrapnel has slashes into her flesh. Even if something like that could kill her however, at this point, Priscilla wouldn't let it. The junk explodes outwards seemingly of its own accord, leaving nothing within it but a narrow pool of red; the effect achieved by Priscilla simultaneously returning to her true size and instating her invisibility. Though she feels no love for Staren in this particular moment, he is at least attempting to defeat Telephone, and so she moves with a purpose that could be construed as helping him, blindsiding Telephone with an invisible strike meant to knock her staff away, if not entirely break her arm in the process.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva looks thoughtful as Nega-Arthur begins to burn away, revaling the truth. Or some of it, anyway. "Even if you're a part of him, or he's a part of you, it doesn't matter. You're reflections of each other. I don't really have the right to judge you." It's not something Arthur would want anyway. "But there is something else. I have to accept you for who and what you are. No matter what happens here. But I appreciate what he's doing. I appreciate that humanity he's trying to hold onto. Anyone can be a god. Anyone can just give up what they are and become a force of existence. But actions speak louder than words."

She looks down to Daemon, and murmurs something on the radio. Pooling all of her power into defense and motion, Riva launches herself towards Nega-Arthur, using Daemon as a vault to pivot and rebound off of the ground, trees, floating rocks and various other things that might get in the way. As she flips, she draws in th air, buying time to quickly outline and fill in a inky rocket, almost looking like it was sketched into existence. She grapples onto it, and lets Daemon get her in close. Ayako's frosty barrier surrounds her, and she goes cruising at extreme speeds towards the Nega-Mage of Space.

All she needs to do is get in close. That's all she asked for. She crashes directly into Arthur, her arms clamping down on her as she tumbles through the air to drive Arthur to the ground in a way perhaps reminiscent of a bouncing tiger. The heat from the tiny sun begins to roar around her, the frigid protection melting quickly and her clothing beginning to smoulder as she smiles. "You're part of him. You're the godlike part of Arthur, not the human. But you're part of him nonetheless. Maybe I would have hoped for this to be more of a surprise. Maybe he won't know about it, but I want you to understand some of what you're leaving behind. And there's only one way to make you understand."

It's at this point she leans in, whispering into Nega-Arthur's ear, and then gives him a long kiss, despite the growing, burning pain from being in proximity to his body.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Sheep gives up. Faruja actively looks a bit relieved, looking up over head. The rat offers a bow, finally relenting in his agression.

"I do believe last time we endeavored to ensure ye aught not be destroyed. Go with God mine Child. ...And to a more immediate point, I wouldst suggest staying away from Apathy if ye wish to not suddenly lose important pieces of thineself. Get ye to the tower or anywhere safe, really."

Then he'll be hunting for said key-piece amidst the stuffed animals.

"Good day mine friends! Might ye offer up thine mistress' key piece? I shan't hurt the poor girl any longer. Here."

Faruja chants, and the winged Faery pops into being, already flowing healing magic into Sheep's true form. The rat then looks to Kimiko.

Frown. That looks bad. Similarly, Kimiko would get healing thanks to Faery.

"Ye art not bleeding out, mine Lady. Try to not die on us, mmm? Still too much to do!"

To Ayako, he smiles and bows. "As always at thine service, mine dear Esper." A wink. By now, he's just teasing.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == MEDIA ==

    Rather than having to tank Telephone's electric shocks throughout his attacks, Staren would receive a reprieve relatively early on. That is, Telephone would throw down her staff while he's still attacking her. "I'm not fighting you. Apathy has probably had enough time by now, and... if I'm going to die, if I'm going to be torn away from Sheep, I want to be killed by someone who is able to put -people- beyond their own -petty fixations-. So if it's really what you want, kill me. If you really think I'm so evil, go ahead. I'll die, I'll fade into the mists of time, you'll get your key piece, and you get to be the big hero who saved Mizuki's world and gave everyone else a perfect end."

    "But you wanna know what else happens?" She looks him dead on. "Sheep, if she's still alive, is gonna be heartbroken. She might even go crazy without me here. If you want to talk about logic and illogic, look at yourself. You're not killing me because I'm evil -- you're killing me because I've become a living manifestation of the vendetta you have against a philosophy you perceive as fatalistic. I never said that we had to fight to the death, and I'm genuinely sad that I have to fight you at all, but what I am doing is what I feel to be the -right thing-. I am doing this because Apathy asked me to and I know, deep down, that Apathy has this world's -- and Mizuki's -- best interest's at heart."

    "You can't see what I'm talking about because you don't understand faith. -I- have faith in Apathy. I believe in my friend, even if what she's doing seems wrong. And I know that, in the end, all of this will make sense. I know there's a purpose behind it all. And if you're really so upset by the idea of fate that you can't even conform to it enough to help someone you care about, you're no hero. You're an empty, hollow person who will never be able to form friendships in the way that I have with Apathy and Telephone. And I think that's really, really --"

    Priscilla's scythe makes contact with her arm all of a sudden, and she recoils, gripping her elbow. She bites her lips and hesitates a moment before looking back to her and Staren. "... I'm not giving you the key piece until you're all together. If you want to kill me before then, fine. I don't care anymore."

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko retracts her gore-covered hand, and she looks down, and repeats herself. "I see." There's little else that needs saying. She made an offer to kill--no, to murder this girl, and the offer was rejected. If Sheep dies, it won't be by Kimiko's hands. Instead, she says, all delivered in the same, distanced tone, "A silver-haired girl once said to me, 'everything will be alright in the end.' I was not convinced, but she said, 'if it isn't alright, it isn't the end.' When she proved this, I could not doubt her."

    Kimiko closes her eyes a few moments, as Faruja's healing summon works. "Thank you." She would bow, were she in better shape, and not in armor. Instead, she looks again toward Sheep. "My offer was sincere. You've chosen the more difficult path. But also, the only hope." It seems that's all she feels the need to say, though she's still listening.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "you're right. in a way." Psyber does eventually find him, using support from Eryl. He's hidden under one of the machines. "the solution was always there. find the prognostics. burn them. burn apathy. she's the cause of all of this. she's the one who brings that death on mizuki every cycle, and she's exposed at the end of all this. you start the clocktower, you can make this the last cycle."

    The bisected boy gestures with one hand, putting an index finger up, in a contradictory tone. "that's the answer for the greater good. apathy dies. mizuki, as you know her, dies. she's either reset, or all of the past cycles come to her too, and she becomes someone else, just like you said. change the mind, change the person. that's the last solution i knew. the last solution i could find. apathy, mizuki, there's no end to this where they live. that's just the way things are."

    He's bleeding out, a gentle shimmering white light coming from the half of his torso that remains, shining gently. "one way or another, mizuki dies. it's just a matter of saving the mizuki you don't know yet. or that's what i thought."

    "i don't know anymore what arthur lowell is doing. i don't even know if sophia knows. all i know is you need to go to him." He points to the pair looking on him. "you. and you. and faruja. and priscilla. and riva. i don't know if he's going to sabotage everything or save everything but you're the only ones who can stop him or make it work and save mizuki."

    "i'm sorry. but my nature as a shade doesn't let me release you until i'm finished off. don't worry, though. i'm not a real person. i'll just be right back in arthur." He makes a plaintive gesture with both hands, prompting Eryl and Psyber to finish him off. Once he's gone, the body will fade immediately, and the door to the wrecked schoolhouse will open.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Arthur needs to find his solution. Or he's already found it and could never deploy it. I understand this need on his part. I keep my own machinations close to the vest at many times," Psyber says, wobbling a bit to catch his breath and then leaning on Eryl when he comes to support him, "Sorry, busted out my knee and I still have a bad calm from that donut bite."

    Psyber stands up and then lifts up his sword, "Let me finish him," He says to Eryl. With a gentle limp, Psyber hobbles over to lowell and then lifts up the blade. He'd bring it right down through the chest of the boy and twist it.

    The half-angel then drags the sword behind him as he walk-limps out of the schoolhouse.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     Eryl listens patiently as the shade explains the deal. Kill one to ensure the world goes on? Basic utilitarian moral dilemma. "A century past, I would have been fine with that. But now... no. I do not believe in reducing a life to bare means to an end. Those who are strong and wise can find a better way. And it sounds like Mister Lowell Prime has something in mind."

     Eryl starts towards the shade, but as Psyber requests to be the one that does it, he nods, grimacing a little as his chest is pierced. With a soft sigh, he walks after Psyber, staying close in case his strength fails him.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == THE BROKEN SKY ==

    Cygnus is impaled on Arthur's sword.

    For a long, long period of time he hangs there suspended, eyes toward the stars, body completely limp. For just a moment, he... laughs. It's still in his usual rasp, but even within its guttural, garbled mimics of the human tone it manages to convey good humor. As he is able to work up the strength, he reaches a hand for the sky.

    And the sky responds to him. Some of those gray clouds clear away to reveal a sky filled with brilliant lights. It's the same sky that was present in the book. He folds his fingers in and traces an outline of Cygnus from memory before letting his hand fall away for the last time.

    "It would have been fun." -Now-, though, his voice sounds less strained -- ever so slightly more healthy. "... it would have been fun to stargaze with you. To pick out constellations with you. To just talk to you. I never really had any friends my own age, but... but maybe I will wherever I'm going, right?" Slowly, his head turns to face Arthur.

    The stitches are gone.

    "... read my book now and then, okay? See if... Mizuki wouldn't mind loaning it to you. It would..." His eyelids slide closed. For once, they look so natural. "... it would make me so happy."

    Moments later, his form bursts into a flurry of stars. As his clothes erode from his body, it almost looks like they've become a tapestry of the night sky. All those myriad lights would float up together into the sky soon after, laying themselves gently over the stars that make up Cygnus. They fit together like puzzle pieces.

    The electrical discharge of the clouds dissipates, and it's almost as though the Broken Sky itself is cured. A gentle, flickering light would eventually fall back from space: the key piece.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Daemon helps Riva, while Overclock helps Kotone. The big brush rapidly fills in a hefty rocket, and a gush of inky exhaust propels Riva forward towards the sun-ARTHUR RAPIDLY, far more rapidly than any of the geyser-like gushes of white fire he summons under her to try to interpose. Meanwhile, Kotone's Abstractum has something different in mind.

    She won't be firing that SMG because her arm just self-purged a large portion of its mass. It would seem that integrating Overclock into her arm went very well, or very poorly; it's now able to affect a huge portion of her body, changing her arm all the way up to the shoulder into some kind of tripod-mounted electromagnetic pulse weapon, designed to disrupt the delicate structure of a small fusion construct. Instead of the SMG, presumably she'll be firing that, but only if Arthur's defenses are properly down here...

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur turns on Kotone. His proper face finally melts away, and the star beneath, in a humanoid form, is arrogantly incandescent. He is the sun now, apparently, and all that that implies. The gravitational forces and electromagnetic emissions he can command should be more than enough to perfectly defend against Kotone's new Abstractum-powered weapon.

    LUCKILY, HERE'S THE PERFECT THING TO GET HIS DEFENSES DOWN.

    The frosty barrier keeps Riva protected, for the most part, when she dives in to deal with him. It means her skin won't be seared from her fragile sorta-mortal human bones, not that it would really be taht bad even without it. And then she lectures, which he refuses to acknowledge or react to while he establishes his defenses. And then she kisses him.

    The ethereal sunlike humanoid freezes up. The defenses all go down. "Oh." The Loud Arthur says, in a sudden moment of meekness. "God damn." Kotone should fire now: If she does, she'll blast him into a faded oblivion, and that'll be the end of that.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == LETHARGY ==

    Sheep would continue to stare at Kimiko. Tears continue to pour from her eyes, but her voice has steadied. The tears are, at the very least, more calm now. "... thank you. It couldn't have been easy, dealing with such a brat. And even if this is just another job to you, I wanted you to know that..." Sheep closes her eyes a moment and takes a deep, deep breath. "... in the moment you said all that, you were like the big sister I never had. I'll never forget what you said. Ever." Afterwards, she would only give a nod of her head. She doesn't want to make her awkward or upset her feelings than the situation already might've, but... she needed to say that. For herself. Hopefully she'll be able to say things more for others in the future instead.

    The stuffed animals, for their part, would all recoil from Faruja in something akin to fear. One of them might even pitch a little dirt at him! It seems that they share a bit of Sheep's spunk. Eventually, though, a single plush rabbit would hobble out to him and offer him... a Matryoshka painted to resemble a mouse! Should he open it, he would find a smaller mouse, and a smaller mouse, and another smaller mouse until, finally, he finds the key piece at its heart. Most of the toys would bow or curtsy to him as he recovers it, but a pair of them might stick out their tongues instead. Seems the ratpriest is a pretty controversial figure around here!

Staren has posed:
    Psyber says something on the radio. Staren can see one last thing worth attempting to bargain with Telephone for, but... she surrenders. Staren is ready to strike, unsure if it's a trick.

    He listens, frowning as she goes on and on. Priscilla stops her from going on. It seems they are waiting for the group to regather, so he alerts them over the radio.

    Now, there is time to talk. His visor retracts into his helmet to show his face. "I was going to kill you because you were /stopping/ me from helping Mizuki. /You/ were the one so focused on playing things out instead of helping people."

    He tilts his head to the side, and shuts off his beam swords. "I understand faith in friends. But as Apathy refused to explain things to us, we were left no choice but to fight. If you are standing down, I have no reason to kill you."

    He folds his arms. "It's true that I'm not close to Mizuki. That I can form few such friendships is not news. Only those at least willing to try to listen and understand my ways are worth caring about... so deeply. Heh, I guess that's ironic and selfish... if I trusted people so deeply right away, understood them first, I'd have more close friends, and more people would like me." He shakes his head. "But I just can't offer that to /everyone/. Besides, I need people's help to try to understand them, and few will give it. At least as rare is the enemy who listens to reason, or at least to words, instead of fighting it out. If I'd had to kill you, it would have been sad, but to fail here would have been worse. I do care about you, at least, I consider your life to have value."

    Staren takes a deep breath, and sighs, then holds out his hand, index finger raised. "I was about to offer you one chance to get me to stand down. It's no longer necessary, but... there's something I want, that I don't see a way to get. You say I didn't trust Mizuki... and I got a bit hot-headed there, trying to tear you apart in frustration and to win... but I was willing to go along with this, as she wished, instead of encouraging her to break it. Demanding that she break it, and refusing to help otherwise. If I were dedicated to saving her against her wishes... perhaps I could sever her connection to this place. Turn her into something else, so the Mizuki /I/ know can live on. Instead, here we are, fighting to continue a cycle that shows all signs of wiping her memory. To me, that is the same as death. But it is her wish."

    He turns his hand around, outstretches it with palm up. "You and Apathy know more than you've told us -- or at least Apathy does. If, working together, there is a way we can complete the cycle /without/ killing Mizuki... I would much prefer that. I suppose there is nothing I can offer in return -- you wouldn't want my kind of help, after all. But... if there is a way to save her without betraying her, that's more important than being enemies, or what's happened in the past. It would be an empty, broken hero, who 'wins', only to lose the friend he's fighting for."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa hears Pysber idea over the comm it's a good one and all she can do is attempt to help buy time for it. She knows she's got Riva along side her, she's not feeling hopeless here. With Ayako's added support it's a good set up, ice magic against an angry sun.

"Your two parts of the whole your not finished without the other."

She doesn't add more as she's going to do as Riva is making a move. She's not quite sure what Overclock is doing but her arm just purged a large portion of it self as well the SMG falls, and now she's got a freaking huge arm canon in it's place which goes all the way up to her shoulder.

This takes a second to get used to.

<<...this is nuts but it will do!>>

She now levels the weapon charging it and making ready for fire. At that moment of weakness that Shadow Arthur has suffered she fires!

"I guess your right about one thing, I have to evolve to deal with things like you!"

She braces her self as she's got no idea how freaking powerful the blast from this thing will be. This might be the only chance they had to bring Shade Arthur down so she freaking took it.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva knows what's about to happen. There is a part of her, perhaps that wants things to just stay like this, the burning hear searing her or not.

But when Arthur's defenses go down, she quietly gives him another kiss on the forehead, whispering once more, before rolling out of the way for Kotone to blast Nega-Arthur. She does /not/ want to get caught in that shot.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Faruja has enough dignity to not say anything during Sheep and Kimiko's exchange. Instead, he smiles lightly. This came out /far/ better than he expected. Best of all, they didn't have to murder a kid.

Truly, God's miracles are subtle and many.

The stuffed animals recoiling has the rat walking all the more confidently. Respect and fear often go intertwined in his realm, and so it's a perhaps infuriatingly benevolent smile he casts upon all of them. Though the tongue-flicking ones get little squints..followed by a laugh. One or two even get amused pats on the head.

Faruja Senra can be good at confusing people. It's good to keep them off balance, after all.

Faruja stares at the mouse-like toy for a moment, looking entirely unamused finally. With a deep, deep sigh of annoyance, he looks up to the sky.

"Cute. But very, very racist Mizuki."

Then he's going cute mouse after cute mouse until he has the key. Despite his earlier words, he seems intent on keeping the little mouse puzzle.

"...Now how in the bloody abyss art we getting back to the others?" It's mainly directed at Sheep. She might know!

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == MEDIA ==

    Telephone sighs. "... Miss Sophia has tried to do this so many times in so many different ways. I promise she only gets in your way because she has a very good reason. The point is..." She bites her lip. "... okay. First I wanna apologize for something. Some of the stuff you said hurt me a little too, so I freaked out some. I don't... like having to do this. I promise I don't. I know it seems asinine to you to continue, but even if the way I explained it wasn't rational, trust me: in this specific case, getting in your way and being dishonest is -helping you-. You necessarily can't know why until the end, but once it comes, you'll understand. There are /rules/ in place that make this necessary. And..."

    She stops herself. "... no. I can... I can tell you what it is. I can answer all of your questions, but if I do this, you have to -swear- to me you won't tell anyone else. If you do, you could end the world. Do you understand? Can you keep a secret, even if it means becoming the thing that you're talking about hating right now? If you can -swear- that, then I will tell you why we've been so secretive."

Psyber (253) has posed:
    'It would be an empty, broken hero, who 'wins', only to lose the friend he's fighting for.'

    As Psyber exits the school house, that's about where he comes in on Staren's long-winded statement to Telephone. The half-angel stops for a moment and turns his head towards the exchange, taking a long moment to watch it. Red eyes draw a slow and distant-dim light to them before he blinks, turns away from the conversation, and just keeps on walking.

    Eryl won't have to support him, his leg is steady enough now that he's out of a fight and has had a little time to regenerate. But Psyber definitely isn't going to be sticking around for the conclusion of that debate.

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods. "I /was/ trying to hurt you. Sorry. But... if what you say is true, that this fight was necessary, that we had to win... then you'll understand too." He'd smile at the irony, but... it's really not that funny.

    Telephone makes An Offer. Staren considers this, stroking his chin. After a moment, he looks around. "First of all, there are other people here. I can't promise for them. But you can tell me in secret. Second of all..." He looks right back at Telephone, forcing himself to meet her gaze. "Will it give me a better chance of getting what I really want? Will it give me a chance to save Mizuki, without making a future she won't want? If so..." he nods. "It is worth the price. If not..." he shakes his head. "Then I don't see the point in making this even harder, for no benefit."

Staren has posed:
    Staren's eyes suddenly widen. "Of course, I have to be able to do so /without/, like, killing all my friends here. Although I don't think that's a future Mizuki would want anyway, better to state it clearly."

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    During those first words, for a moment, it seems as if Kimiko's expression is moving toward a smile, but the moment is brief, and then over, and may never have happened at all. No one will know for sure. She nods, then, as somber and as still, following every motion, as the grave. She might be watching a woman kiss a sun, some distance away. It's certainly the kind of thing one's eyes would be naturally drawn to, but Kimiko acts as if it's no concern of hers.

    "We seem to nearly be out of time." Not that she knows the nature of the hourglass. And yet, there's one, last thing. "A question. One you need not answer. Did you give up your name? Or are you still Abigail Aleria?"

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == MEDIA ==
    "If you keep it to yourself... I think so. I really do think that if you could put all the passion you have against the idea right now... somewhere else, that you could really help her. Help everyone." She gingerly taps her head twice. "I think I can send this to you telepathically, if everyone else promises to give us privacy. And if you're really ready."

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     Eryl lets Psyber alone when it's clear that he can support himself. Paying close attention to the conversation between Staren and Telephone, he decides to stay out of it. While the scientist is a little... concerning in his belief and methods, he doubts that he would put any information to poor use. Besides, as a corporate tool for over a century, he can bear not knowing things.

     As such, he simply takes a seat for now, his back to everyone and starts reloading his limbs. Listening, but preparing. Who knows what lies ahead?

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur Lowell keeps the position he had, mid-impaling. "You're going to have a lot of friends again." He says. "I'd have been one. If I could. There's all kinds of skies where you're going though. They're waiting for new constellations. I'll have Mizuki lend it to me. She's gonna owe me that much."

    "...See you later, Cygnus." Is all Arthur can seem to muster. He's torn up, emotionally. It's about all he can muster to stare at the stars in the sky, and then grasp the light gently. He doesn't captchalogue it. Instead he keeps it cupped in his hands, and slowly descends.

Staren has posed:
    Staren takes a deep breath, and closes his eyes. Picture the future...

    He's told something. He'll have to act seemingly irrationally. Against his allies. They'll hate him for a little while, but it will all become clear in the end.

    Hasn't he always been prepared to be hated, anyway? At least this will only be temporary.

    He pictures another future.

    He shakes his head, is not told. They complete the quest, save the day... and Mizuki, as they know her, is lost. /If/ they ever meet again, every time he sees her, or even thinks of her for that matter, he'll wonder:

    Could he have saved her?

    He lets out the breath he's holding, slumping his body language, then stands up straight. Looking into Telephone's eyes again. "If there is no other way to save her... then tell me."

    It's not really much of a choice, is it?

Staren has posed:
    Staren facepalms. "Stupid, arbitrary... Well, you know how I feel about that, but seeing if I can prevent /this/ stupidity" he waves a hand around, "is secondary to saving Mizuki. What do I have to do?"

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Kotone's massive electromagnetic disruption pulse rips up the sun-Arthur's fusion process integrity. The projectile itself doesn't hurt Riva, but the subsequent explosion of the stunned sun-boy might. The ensuing detonation involves a lot of light and heat, but is surprisingly tame for a god. He must really have had just more ego than sense. And thus, the Louder Arthur is dealt with, still stunned by the affection from Riva. There's not a lot of drama to it, as there tends to not be with people's secret sides of their personalities.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == MEDIA ==

    "Just listen to Arthur. Since you know that, you two can talk a bit more directly. But if I knew what to do instead, I wouldn't be stuck here right now. So... I can't really help you." She gives a sad sort of smile. "Sorry."

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods, and kind of... defocuses, as he tries to contact Arthur.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako shields herself with her witch hat as Loud Arthur detonates. "Well! Of all things, I didn't expect Riva to do something like that!" She giggles softly and then peeks out from the brim of her hat. The broom flies back over to Kimiko, Faruja, and Sheep and she hops off of it as it comes to a stop. She quietly begins helping the faerie that Faruja summoned with the healing.

    She looks over towards Sheep cheerfully. "Feel better now?" Why yes, Ayako is healing Sheep too.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva lies there, staring up at the sky as ARTHUR detonates.

You know, maybe there's something to his point that romance might be lethal. Riva sighs, standing up and quietly moves to rejoin the others, getting all her stuff together and letting Daemon hang out at her side again as she waits to rejoin everyone else. Surely everything is going to go smoothly from here, right? Apathy... Sophia... is the only one left.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == LETHARGY ==

    Sheep pauses on Kimiko's question for a long, long time. A part of her wants to ask how she knows that name, but she thinks better of it. The Book of the Past -- she knows of it. She even -read- from it when her Mizuki still held the dreamer's throne, but she had forgotten that it existed until fairly recently. All that aside, though, she can't think to say anything else at first besides:

    "No one has called me Abby in a really, really long time." And they haven't. It's been nine cycles -- 3600 years since she was last called that. She had never really used that name with Telephone, either. So, in the end? She shakes her head. "That's not my name anymore, no. I've... been a brat about a lot of things, but my parents and the life I lived with them... that's something I don't want to remember. The one horrible thing I've done that I can't regret is leaving home. Even if I don't keep 'Sheep', I think I'd like to pick a new name for myself instead. Something pretty, like Anastasia, or Elle, or Serena." She... might steal another grin there. "Naaaahhh, I'm no fairy tale princess. But I'll think of somethin', eventually."

    No, she has no idea how much relevance this might have to Kimiko personally.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    == LETHARGY ==

    And let's not forget Ayako! She gets a small nod from Sheep too. "... yeah, m'fine. Thanks for the heals, watergirl."

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    "Sheep, then. I am Shinobu. I may not have said before." She's watching Loud Arthur get obliterated, for a moment, and then turning back. She cocks her head slowly to one side. "Not Elle. Too many of those."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa lowers her arm but it seems to stgill be a canon for the moment, she moves to recover her gun and looks about making sure there's no other things laying in wait for them. She doesn't seem happy how things have gone but what choice she has to say at this point. She listens for a moment. She takes her amr weapon and keeps it ready, if there is need she'll think about this for a moment. She looks to Sheep and thehn lowers her weapon at this point. It seems it may be done here.

"Is everyone all right?"

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki makes her own way to the Monochrome Castle, likely leading or trailing slightly behind the Lethargy group. She lets Arthur be the one to formally request a rendezvous, but she would arrive before he speaks, expression cloaked firmly in severity. "... please, Arthur. Tell me something that will ease my mind. Share with me a plan that will make this all end well."

    Meanwhile, back in Media, Telephone is finishing a deep breath. Once all the others have departed, she, too, would prepare to join them in hearing Arthur's explanation, but first she nudges someone else: Priscilla. "Hey." She's still smiling to her, somehow. "I think there's something going on at Apathy's place that you'll want to be a part of. I'd like it if we could go together and... y'know. Not fight for once. I think that would be a really nice change of pace." And if she accepts, Telephone proceeds to lead her back to the Monochrome Castle with all the exuberance she has never been allowed to show before. Though she would probably be even more excited if she wasn't bleeding profusely.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Faruja, with the key shard, nods to Kotone. "A few cuts aside, fine."

Then they're off to the Monochrome Castle.

Faruja notes a bleeding Telephone, in all likelyhood. Cue him having Faery heal the poor thing, and the rat offering a potion or two.

At this point, he's not questioning it.

Priscilla has posed:
    The situation gets away from Priscilla after Telephone has been disarmed. It had been more straightforward without Staren involved, but after things turned into a hot headed and deeply personal argument, she had backed off out of the desire to see Telephone safely through this, and the fact that Staren generally can't be dissuaded out of these moods. She spares Psyber and Eryl a knowingly pitiful look as they pass.

    Fortunately, things actually manage to resolve themselves in a timely and non-violent manner. She seems utterly astonished when Telephone grabs her attention again by directly addressing her. "If that is all that is required of me then . . . of course. I hath no wish to see any of this drawn any further than it hast already been." It is with a profound sense of relief that she follows the girl.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako follows after everyone else as they move towards the Monochrome Castle to rendevous. She inclines her head to the side gently. "Hmmm? There's a plan?" And then she spots Telephone bleeding immediately! She runs over to her quickly and starts healing her with healing water.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur slips down to the ground next to her. "I can't. You know I can't, and you need to trust me. But I'm going to save you. I'm going to save you, I'm going to bring back the memories you've lost." He says. The determination in his voice is still intensely grim and intensely energized. He moves with intense, purposeful steps, pushing on through the morbid atmosphere.

    "I have a plan. And all I need you to do is trust me. Trust that I know what I'm doing, and that I've got my sights on the best ending for you, Mizuki. Just a little more trust and I promise everything will be alright." He's bleeding as he walks from his many wounds, which must explain why his voice is gently wavering, as if with profound and distressed emotion.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     Fully reloaded and ready for battle, Eryl joins everyone else at the rendezvous. Along the way, he takes off his cape and ties it around his waist to hide the holes in the front of his pants. He looks to Arthur and Staren, his face impassive. But deep down, he's placing his faith in these two. And if they fail? Well.

     That won't happen. Not with Eryl here to help. He can do anything, after all.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako smiles softly at Arthur. "Oh. So there is a plan! And... it's kind of secret? Well... here's hoping that it works out." Her amber eyes turn towards Arthur's wounds. "Ah. But first... let's stop you from leaking." She giggles softly and starts working on healing Arthur's wounds, and any other wounds anyone else has as well.

Staren has posed:
    Staren has learned the BIG SECRET. ...And it turns out that there's nothing he can do at this stage, except trust Arthur. Frustrating, but hopefully it'll all work out alright...

    So, they're going to all meet at Apathy's tower so Telephone can give them the final key and they can prepare for the Epic Final Battle.

    It wouldn't do to have Telephone die before they get there, would it?

    "Hey." Staren approaches her. "I can fix that." If allowed, he pulls a small bottle of salve from his bag, and he tries to push the magic salve into the wound. Ideally, it should reconnect the severed tissue, but who knows how well it will work on sort-of-dream-people in a dreamworld that's falling apart?

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber sighs a bit and rubs his face, still getting over how something and placing his hands into his pockets. A minute later they come back out with a cigarette and a lighter, placing the former in his mouth and igniting it with the latter. He exhales a plume of smoke and then looks towards Arthur.

    "I know more than you think," He tells the God of Space flatly, "So your plan better work out. You're not the only one with a great deal riding on this world."