4270/PWTWM-An Acknowledged Threat-Prologue

PWTWM-An Acknowledged Threat-Prologue
Date of Scene:	01 July 2016
Location:	Alberichstadt <P:WTWM>
Synopsis:	Someone has been abducted once more, not long after the last time. But when Die Reisende searches the Mirror Forest for the victim, they find themselves obstructed.
Cast of Characters:	August Kohler, Janine Liberi, 999, 908, Damita Stark, 151, 513, 385, Kotone Yamakawa, Staren
Tinyplot:	Persona: Were the World Mine-1

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August Kohler has posed:
The Mirror Forest is the same as it always is: unnaturally dark, full of strange noises and fleeting movements, and unfathomably alien. Whereas the world on the other side changes with the passing of the sun and the moon, the Mirror Forest is always the same to the human eye.

It has been less than a week since the last time someone was tossed into the Mirror, whereas the previous time it had been months between. If there is a pattern to it, it's certainly not obvious. And there's been no recent missing persons notices or signs of anyone disappearing, so who it might be is a complete mystery.

August is already through the Mirror and at the spring that the portal leads to. He's certainly anxious, pacing around the pig as he waits for the others. The White Pig, meanwhile, is eating a random mushroom it found, trying to rip it out of the ground. It is failing miserably.

Hopefully, they can find out whoever is missing, and get him out of there as fast as possible. Should just be another fight against a Shadow, right?

Janine Liberi has posed:
    With harsh, tromping steps, Janine arrives, looking more than a little pissed. She had just been sitting down to dinner when she saw the clouded mirror. Nothing, not even Emily's cooking, tastes better reheated either. Her sabre is already in hand, the sheath left on the table in the cabin.

    "Literally one week later, this is bullshit. It's never happened this fast," she complains, keeping one hand in the mirror to make it stay 'open' for the invited guests. "And I haven't seen any posters or rumours or none of the crap that precedes this. Have you?" she asks August curtly.

Emily Branford (999) has posed:
    After her showing last week, Emily has come a bit more prepared. Which is to say, 'holy shit where did she get an HK417?' The butler is just giving the assault rifle a last-minute once-over and slapping in a magazine as they step through the mirror, her own expression the same neutral look as always. "If this is out of the ordinary pattern, like as not something odd is going on. I might not know precisely what I'm looking for, but I'll keep my eyes open for anything concerning all the same." She doesn't seem to look the least bit awkward or nervous about carrying a fully automatic rifle.

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    How Gudako gets here is anyone's guess. This time she hadn't arrived with everyone else; perhaps another mirror, perhaps assorted magic courtesy of Caster. What's certain though is that when the girl appears, in her usual duds, creepy 8D and all, she smells really, really good. That's because she's carrying a very large bowl of bacon.

    It's not clear where you can buy a very large bowl of bacon, such a place may very well be outlawed given health concerns, but Gudako has one, it smells amazing, and she extends it towards August upon arrival, sharing some of the contents with him. But not all of it.

    Behind her, Berserker is already materialized, chomping on larger slices of bacon, managing to hold it perfectly despite her large cat mitts. Caster circles the two, dematerialized.

    There's even a brief awkward pause as Berserker eyes the White Pig. One can make very good guesses as to what's going through her head and they're probably all correct.

Damita Stark has posed:
Damita's been ... busy.

The archer and LONE PERSONA HEALER, however, eventually finds herself called back into shenanigans by a second toss in within a week. Now it seems like it might potentially be passing into something way more crazy, so she supposes she best show up, lest she forget what she's doing. She shows up a few seconds later, quiver over her back, bow in one hand.

"Yeah, this bodes well." She comments behind Janine, with a deep sigh.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley makes no assumptions about the nature of the Mirror Forest. It simply doesn't do her any good to assume it is a place she can predict. So while she watches the others exchange words about the frequency, she keeps her opinions to herself. She stands off at the fringe of the group, looking around the forest with a mild look on her face. Emily's weaponry gets a second of pause out of the reptile, baffled by the readiness of what should be a servant trained in house work.

    She eventually looks toward the pig and wanders over to get a look at what it is trying to eat. It makes for a good distraction so she's not awkwardly staring at people. As a lizard, more than a second or two can be uncomfortable for people, she's found.

Finna (513) has posed:
This time Finna has not come as the white fox. She's herself, but dressed as a Haslanti huntress - if having ditched most of the extra layers of warm weather clothing in favor of the barest leathers. modified to show off a lot more skin than they should. (And consequently, the Moonsilver Tattoos that she allows to become visible upon passing through the mirror.

    She's looking considerably less on edge this time.

    Spotting August, her face immediately lights up like a teen spotting their crush. Which is maybe not too far from the truth. Just look at that tail start wagging! "Aaaaaugust, hope you weren't waiting too long."

    She's seemingly unarmed, but this means little when you're a Lunar, now doesn't it?

    "This place never loses its charm. What kind of terrors does it have for us today?" She asks, mildly sardonic.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"You know," Yuna remarks sympathetically, "there are some worlds where 'once a week' is considered a *slow* week ... and others where it's right on schedule."

As before, Yuna transformed into her Light Suit before stepping foot through the Mirror; also as before, Elner is with her. What's not as before is the amount of company she has - not just Jiina, but the full Matrix of Light (which technically includes Elner). Erina and Marina are staying closer to where the group is appearing from the Mirror; Jiina will presumably be with Yuna as the group explores the Forest.

Finna's (rhetorical or not) question is replied to by Yuna, "Hopefully it won't smell as bad as the Bearer of Bad News and the Herald of Hearsay last time did." The blonde idol wanders over to the White Pig, perhaps wondering if she can help dig that mushroom up for it without scaring the Pig away.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa was once again here in the mirror forest but she was not wearing her stealth suit to deay she was waaring osmething a bit more causl an sleevely long coat with an undershot shorts and ghigh highs but it seemd to work and she was going to be trying anotehr tactic today shge looks to Emily and to Jaine for a moment.

"I just give up when it comes to trying to fuigure out magic most of thetime Janine, I just try to cope with it."

August Kohler has posed:
The pig is trying to tear a mushroom out of the ground. This mushroom looks nothing like any mushroom either Yuna or Ainsley have seen, mostly because it is large, green, and seems to be crying because a pig is trying to murder it. The White Pig allows Yuna to help, which ends up ending the weird mushroom thing's life as the pig eats it's corpse. The world is cruel.

August first reacts to the bacon, by taking a few pieces and eating them. Gudako has won another point in his favor, and he isn't even aware of it! CHomping on the bacon, he turns to Janine, shaking his head. "No. No one's talked about a missing person, and everyone I usually interact with is still there. Either it's someone we've never met, or something stranger is going on." And then he blinks slowly at Finna. "No, but we should probably hurry. The longer we take, the more risk this guy's in." He's certainly on edge, as he pulls out his burned spoon and fiddles with it.

After he finishes his mushroom corpse, the White Pig figures out what they're there for, and begins sniffing. He finds something immediately, leading the group down the trail. The path this time is very winding, leading into dark curves several times, but it eventually seems to be opening out up ahead. So far, it's just usual Forest, but perhaps there'll be something at the end?

Or so August thought, up until the path leads into a large grove, with no other paths out of it. There are no signs of life. There are no signs of a person, or a Shadow, or even weird talking mushrooms. However, the grove is unusually dark, and there sure is a lot of foliage for the Forest. But there's no sign of anything else...

Until the Pig walks right into a tripwire, which makes a loud snap as it is torn under his piggy feet.

Immediately, a dozen shards of pitchblack glass are sent hurling towards the party, razorsharp at the edges. Two slam straight into August's arm, sending him reeling back from the impact as they slice right through his flesh, getting caught inside. The rest fly at the remaining members of the party, attempting to tear them down where they stand. None of them fly at the pig, because he's super short and they're all at chest level.

This looks to be a trap. And they've fallen straight into it.

Emily Branford (999) has posed:
    For someone of such poise and composure, for such a thoroughly elegant and refined butler, when she's got a rifle in her hands in hostile territory Emily Branford moves more like a soldier with years of combat experience under her belt. Her steps are smooth, the rifle kept lowered but ready to be raised ay any time, and her head constantly turns this way and that, sweeping their surroundings incessantly for hostiles. "I think if anything this is a bleaker neck of the woods than the last time," she comments idly, but keeps quiet other than that. The stare from Ainsley either doesn't register on her, or doesn't prompt a response. For now, Emily is focused on sticking close to Janine.

    Which is good, because there's a tripwire trap.

    The instant the pig's foot results in a snap, the butler in black almost seems to disappear. In the next breath, she's already tackled Janine out of the way, off to one side and on the ground where they're out of the danger zone. Janine will probably have felt a brief but powerful rush of air at the sudden movement. "Are you alright, Janine?" she asks as soon as the trap has expended itself.

Finna (513) has posed:
"Taking things way too literally," The foxgirl murmurs. She doesn't seem bothered by the pig eating a crying mushroom. She's done similarly weird and seemingly cruel things in animal form. That's just nature.

    What she's surprised about is that the mushroom could cry.

    Along the path they go and go, and Finna tenses the barest SECOND before the tripwire's sprung, ears going straight nd on full alert--

    For her at least, time seems to slow. She goes full limbo mode, bending BACKWARDS at an impossibly angle, spine curving around in ways it simply should not be capable of... "Yeeeek!"

    Shares of glass go flying overhead even as she twists around in a sinewy movement that brings her leaning FORWARD without actually raising her body into the shrapnel.

    To people who cannot see at hyperspeed, it would seem that she just became a blur of motion and was instantly crouched forward, and VAULTING across the ground. Her goal's to head the pig off and examine the area for any more traps, senses sharpening. She's not about to waste time checking if the otehrs are alright. Her acute sense of smell can already detect every bit of blood and whose it is and how much, which is all she needs to know of how much she should worry...

    But she concludes, "That nasty surprise is the only one in here...."

    Although she emerged unscathed purely due to supernatural reflexes and flexibility, that event now has her ANGRY with whoever's at the end of this trail.... and her heart's pumping WILDLY from sheer adrenaline.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna and Jiina are generally staying alert, watching/scanning the woods to either side of the path. It may safely be presumed that Elner is scanning even more thoroughly than either of them ... although not even the robo-faerie picks up on the trap's tripwire before the Pig snaps it and sets off the trap.

Fortunately, Yuna's Light Suit is sturdy enough that the shards wouldn't likely penetrate it ... but the two that hit her breastplate still elicit bright flares from the normally-invisible protective aura around Yuna's body. "Ow - !!" the idol cringes, even as the shards fall to the ground in front of her.

Whereupon Elner flits down to get ac loser look at them, particularly studying the shape and trying to sort out whether they were crafted (and what kind of tech might have gone into it) or whether the shapes are potentially 'natural'. "Everyone okay?" Yuna asks the others while Elner is thusly occupied. One hand brushes against her breastplate, as if making sure nothing's still lodged in it; the protective aura has subsided again, back into its normal invisible state.

Janine Liberi has posed:
    Janine stares at the casual mushroom-murder with dead eyes. At this point, she's numb to all the bizarre nonsense that happens in the Forest. She does stare a little enviously at Gudako's bacon, but with her only usable hand occupied with a sword... well, she can't exactly ask someone to feed her. Especially since Emily probably would.

    At the very least, the Pig seems ready to go now that it's full. It's quite a trip, which is why Janine pulls out an old trick she used before joining Die Reisenden. Every few feet, she drags the edge of her blade along a tree, to mark a trail. Needless to say, the shriek of metal on glass is awful, but at least it means it's easier to find their way back.

    And then... an empty glade. "Really, nothing? Not even another path like the cros-" Snap. Woosh. Janine jets out a startled cry when she is suddenly on the ground courtesy of Emily, razor-sharp glass whooshing overhead. Her eyes are wide with dawning horror as she realizes what's going on, ignoring the pain that spreads through her weakened form from the impact.

    "A trap?! T-There's never been a trap before!"

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Once the pig turns and starts walking, Ainsley follows. She made no comment about the mushroom because, again, it's bad to make assumptions. As usual, she stays near the rear of the group so that she isn't on the front line when things inevitably get violent. This gives her a very small amount of leeway to dodge the flying shards of glass, but one of them embeds in one of her arms and she barks out an animalistic noise of surprise and pain. She regains her composure quickly, but now she's bleeding.

    "/Piss/," she curses, as she tries to get the glass shard out of her flesh. "A-ah. Just a little glass."

    The surprise Janine displays makes her say, for no particular reason, "Well, I did make someone in here mad the last time I did my magic thing, when we ran into the Herald," as if it helps explain why this adventure may be different.

Damita Stark has posed:
"Oh sh-" Damita finds herself on the floor.

Well, she's there because she flung herself down, hands over her head. She took some hits on the way down, but that doesn't mean she's not feeling it. There's a grumpy hiss from the Spainard, rolling her shoulders slightly before she takes up, pulling out some of the shards wordlessly from her arm, blood trickling down. She kneels back on her heels, before a glowing blue card materalizes in front of her. "Protect my friends, Bone Princess!"

The Persona flows into life, a lonesome melody strumming from her harp for a long moment, lights curling around anyone that got hit every so often, leaving the archer yawning slightly. She doesn't flex that persona muscle all that often. Yaaay, ~healer~.

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    "You know one of those days I could just poison the food and you'd never see it coming," says Gudako, to August, in the most nonchalant and... okay it's the exact same tone she always uses. Did I throw in a 8D for good measure? Here's two, better be sure. 8D.

    Gudako chomps on bacon, though, possibly indicating it's not poisoned. Or that she's insane. With her, anything goes, and her idea of humor is odd.

    As they go along, she chats.

    "You should let one of the Shadows grow! It'd be cool to see what happens when they get really big and fed. The status quo is pretty dull, the whole mirror and glass forest thing was cool the first few visits but now it's like, I'm ready for the next content patch."

    Oh, it's a trap.

    Berserker nyas, rather loudly. Calling her 'fast' is kind of an understatement. There's some sort of blur, and then she's holding the two glasses of black shard, looking at her master expectedly. Gudako headpats her, reaching to take one of the glass shards to look at it. Maybe it's special or magical? Could just be black glass, too. "There there Berserker, you're getting two dinners tonight! And Caster's cooking!"

    "HEY!" comes the disembodied voice of Caster, which is functionally the exact same voice as Berserker but less unhinged and wild.

    "No body no say, Caster~." 8D

    A disembodied huff follows.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa looks at the pig as it's hunting for mushrooms and the Doll looks at it with interest tiling her head. She also looks to August and then to the mushroom and the pig. There's not to much reaction out of the doll but the things cries are going to be hard to forget. She however knosws they need to move on.

"I wasn't able to find anything searching online ither I'm at a loss about this myself."

The Doll is cut off by the trap and she's not quick enough to avoid all teh shards one ofd them lodge it self in her arm as she was shifting to avoid the suddent attack but with no luck. She moves to grab the shard to pull it free with a cry of pain.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley pauses in the middle of removing AWFUL BLACK GLASS out of her flesh and accepting healing to turn her Arcane Sight on the White Pig. Her eyes glow and then ornate magical circles cover her eyes, which widen as open as they can get. She focuses on the pig not because she is suspicious of it but because there is some very mild paranoia about it and they're being led by the little beast.

    She searches it for Shadow-like concepts (in the form of Name fragments) and any connection to that force from before.

August Kohler has posed:
The glass shards are not poisoned, but they are sharper than they have any right to be; if they were normal civilians, it's entirely possible they could have cut straight through the bone and kept going. Gudako will notice that while they're glass, they're not /normal/ glass. They're way too sturdy and solid, and looking into the reflection is unnerving, despite there not being anything special in it. They could probably cut through steel if you tried. Other than that, they can easily be removed from the body if you try, and there's nothing left in the glade.

The White Pig is confused. It is even more confused when the scent it had is gone. It is also now scared, because it led them into a trap and Gudako is openly eating its bretheren. Ainsley will notice that the Pig was just following a human scent, as usual, but the human scent vanished after they tripped the trap. There was no intentional illwill on the White Pig's part, someone's manipulated the scent. That something seems to have been a Shadow, but there's no specific name connected, it may have been a nameless henchman.

Panicking, the Pig considers running. But if it runs, then Gudako will probably hunt it down and eat it. And that is bad. So it needs to do EXTRA GOOD at finding what they're looking for. But it can't smell anything. So it'll have to do something else, as it begins to glow blue...

"OINK!"

And a Persona is summoned, appearing on the ground in front of it. A small brick house, attached to wheels and much more reminiscent of a motorhome than a traditional house, with three windows. Out of each window pokes the head of an even tinier pig, pink and adorable. On top of the brick motorhome is a satellite antenna, which reads 'SEARCHING' on a small box connected to it.

The White Pig is a Persona user, and its Persona seems to be the Three Little Pigs. The Three Little Pigs ride around the grove, trying to track the missing person, before it turns straight back to the path, stopping for the others. The Pig looks up at the party, hoping they will trust it and follow him. He's honest, really!

Emily Branford (999) has posed:
    With the immediate danger passed, Emily releases Janine, and swiftly gets to her feet; once she's done so, she leans over enough to offer one gloved hand to her mistress. "Up you go." Once she's satisfied Janine is in fair shape, she takes a few steps over to August. "Here, let's see your wounds, then. At least, once the healer has..."

    Emily Branford turns to quietly stare at the Pigsona.

    "...That is some pig."

Staren has posed:
    Staren was there, too! He's in his armor, and nods approvingly at the buttler carrying an honest-to-god assault rifle.

    They come to a trap. Staren's surrounded by a forcefield. Glass's mass is significantly less than bullets, so as it shatters against his forcefield, the transparent amber sphere displays a smattering of cracks before it fades from sight, rather than partially shattering outright. Staren flinches and then looks around, trying to determine where the glass came from. He almost goes off looking for it, but vaguely recalls something about not wandering off of paths when in magical forests.

    As other people pull glass from their flesh, he looks to make sure everyone's okay now, and offers healing potions if needed.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley's magic dispels when she discovers the Pig is completely normal and was in fact thrown off by the machinations of a Shadow. She watches as the Persona is manifested, the panic having been obvious to the lizard woman--

    Her eyes are wide and glowing with wonder. She is impressed. A pig with a Persona? Amazing.

    "Oh." She'll return to following the pig once everyone gets going again.

Janine Liberi has posed:
    Janine is slow in getting back to her feet. That sudden jolt really has her aching. But eventually, she grumbles and releases her sword to take Emily's hand back up, then kneels to retrieve it. Looking to Ainsley, she says, "So whatever you saw knows what we're up to, and knows how to lure us? Fuck..." That there is an intelligent, malevolent force behind all this is deeply concerning.

    And now the Pig has a Persona. Janine stares down at it, narrowing her eyes. "And you thought not to show us before now?" She doesn't sound mad really. Just frustrated at current events. "How the hell did you even get one? Are you in cahoots with the Woodsman? Why am I interrogating a pig? Ugh, fuck my life."

    Well, guess they're waiting for the search to complete. Janine busies herself with checking the edge of her sabre. Dragging it across glass can't be good for it.

Damita Stark has posed:
"Who knows where this road may go? Back to where we were, on to find our future, things our hearts need to know..."

Damita hums in the back of her throat, She stands back up again, brushing down her knees as she continues to stride with the group. She'll trust the pig, sure. Why not? It's not the weirdest thing that's happened so far. (Actually, now that Damita thinks about it -- it probably is the weirdest thing so far. Really so far.)

"Hey, Liberi, d'you think the pig understands us? What if it could talk back?"

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    Gudako does not really do anything! That's bacause she takes a moment to carefully pocket the glass shards, take her cellphone out, check on her AP, groan about the Forest's sub-par internet signal, and generally provide absolutely no aid to anyone or anything.

    Berserker's taken ownership of the bacon bowl, now stuffing her face. She only stops to stare at the Pig, those crazy animal eyes trying to assess its deliciousness. The appearance of the Persona only helps the Pig get more attention, not less.

    "Magic pig, nya! I've never eaten a magic pig. What's it searching for? Is it more magic pigs? I hope it's more magic pigs and Berserker can prepare a big feast for master!" Third-person reference, yes. And when she says 'master' the actual Japanese word being used is 'husband'.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Now having a hint of the Pig's name, and the nature of its willpower and its emotions, Ainsley decides to help it surpass the language barrier. A good guide can communicate, right? She reaches forward with one of her hands, weaving through the air. Her magic tries to enchant the Pig, and tries to see if her magic can help it speak, or at least come as close to speaking as a powerful Persona-wielding pig can.

    It would only ever work while she's near the enchantment to power it, but it sure would make this easier on all of the kids dealing with this. Plus... Ainsley really wants to see if she can do it.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna looks decidedly askance at Berserker. "For all we know, the Pig blundered into that trap because she was so upset about you and your 'Master' eating bacon ..."

She's not in any particular hurry to get the Pig or the party moving again; the Pig (and her Persona - or maybe 'his'; she was guessing) is likely better suited for scanning the Forest than Elner is. Also, the Pig *is* their guide in the Forest, or has been on the trips that Yuna's been part of, and as such, she's inclined to trust the Pig's guidance ... even apart from the trap that it just blundered into.

Very likely somebody ELSE would have set off the same trap even if the Pig hadn't, too.

Finna (513) has posed:
And the Pig turns out to be quite something after all. Finna can't help but grin. Then waggles a finger at Janine. "Sooooo many people I run into who've forgotten that animals can know so much more than you think they do. Our humble pig's clearly a spirit guide, show it the respect it's due! ... Which just went down a notch from blundering into a TRAP...."

    She notes sharply and teasily, just to give the pig a case of the nerves. Though it seems to already have those in spades.

    She hops along after it in full trust though, peering curiously at its strange, STRANGE summoned spirit....

August Kohler has posed:
Ainsley's spell works, in a way. The pig doesn't say any words, but those around it can 'feel' what it means. Basically, the White Pig is scared of Janine, Gudako, and kind of everyone else to a lesser degree. It is male, or male enough for a weird alternate-dimension pig. It did not tell anyone about the Persona because no one asked. It is capable of sensing things with its Persona, the Three Little Pigs, but this requires more energy than it really cares to put out on a regular basis, so it usually relies on its nose. Its nose has worked for it before, but this is the first time it failed. It is scared of whatever trapped them. It is scared in general, of pretty much everything.

Finally, the Three Little Pigs gets a lock, the screen reading 'LOCKED ON'. It speeds down the path, the Pig trailing after it, as it tears through a much less winding path. This path actually has Shadows roaming around in it! Eventually, it opens out into another glade, but less suspiciously, this glade has paths out of it, there's Shadows peeking out of the trees, there's actual litter of glass and stuff in there, and there seems to be something in the middle! It is white and smells like human to those with supernatural senses. It is not made of human, but probably belonged to the human.

However, as they approach, the Shadows in the woods chitter for a minute. That chittering is loud, it is fast, and it seems to be relaying.

It's an attack order.

Suddenly, arrows made of glass fly out of the woods, as masked Shadow Archers hang from the glass trees, firing from weirdly shaped bows. There's about four of them, on either side. Additionally, from the center two paths, comes a charge. Two large knights, decked in armor, wearing angry masks, and holding two handed swords, slam through, charging straight for the party. The White Pig is scared, and so it hides in a log. The Three Little Pigs also hide in the log. It is a cramped log.

The Shadow Knights meanwhile move to attack; one goes directly for Ainsley, while the other looks at her for a minute, almost goes for her, is chittered at from the trees, and then decides to go straight for Damita. Meanwhile, arrows from the four Archers fly rapidly at the rest of the party; August summons the Tin Soldier in an attempt to melt the glass coming at him and Gudako, which sort of works but doesn't get all of it. The Pig remains cowering.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa does not assume glass it glass persay. She's pulled it out and is rmaging in herpockets for something. She'll take amoment and the sound of what might be duct tape, and something's slapped over the wound at least to prevent more damage. She doesn't look happy and the Doll oddly was in pain shockingly but that's when things are now going for it the pig does summon iot's persona and she just /stares/ Some how it's fitting seriously it's fitting somehot.

"It would have to be that story for the pig wouldn't it?"

Emily Branford (999) has posed:
    The pig takes off like a bullet. That leaves no time left for tending to August, really. So she moves to follow after, but sticks close to Janine once again; not far down the path, she decides to actually raise her rifle, keeping it ready to fire. All those Shadows all over the place are not a good sign in the least, as far as she's concerned. When they come to a clearing with something lying in the middle amidst a large amount of broken glass? She starts sweeping the trees, suspicious of those observers... with, it turns out, good reason.

    An arrow clips Emily along the side before she can quite dodge out of the way, but after that she's not so easily taken by surprise. Those stampeding knights represent large, easily-tracked threats, and there are only two of them. The heavy-hitters of the group can take care of those. Instead, the butler starts firing into the treeline in short, controlled bursts, aiming for anywhere she sees an arrow fly. Her movements are crisp, precise, hands not shaking in the least. She's cool under fire.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Spotting the Shadows is enough for Yuna to get more cautious - at least, enough so to call out, "Shugoseiheki!" and bring her shield to hand. Or more accurately, to her left forearm.

It's only when they reach the clearing and a handful of Shadows go on the attack that Yuna conjures a weapon as well - namely a sleek-looking pistol. With her shield poised to try and block the arrows which fly at her, Yuna leans around it to squeeze off shots at the Archers. She remembers the Holy/Light element of her attacks proving extra-effective against the Herald a week ago; as such, she's concentrating on that, strengthening the elemental attribute of each blast as much as she can. If she can pump it up enough to get one-hit kills on the Shadow Archers, all the better - she doesn't feel like letting any of her allies get pincushioned with those glass arrows.

"At least I think we know where that trap came from!" she comments to her allies, in between shots.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley shows a great deal of compassion for the Pig, and she seems pleased the spell worked. It would've failed if the Pig wasn't intelligent enough for it, but it seems he just doesn't have the capacity to speak. "That should help... at least while I'm present to maintain the enchantment." It would really come out as vague feelings, a spell that would help everyone understand the Pig a little better.

    The Pig's fear is alarming, though. "I wonder if we are endangering him by bringing him along," she muses aloud. She looks aside at Gudako and her... tactless Servant, their behavior making the reptile wary as they travel down the path the Pig leads them on. She thinks on this revelation until they reach the glade and--

    The Shadows converge. Arrows of glass and a couple of Knights. She does notice that both Knights were very much about to attack her, but the chittering convinced it otherwise. She frowns at that. "Looks like I was right, they are very unhappy with me. Let's see how intelligent they are, then," she breathes in thought, as her fingers weave strange symbols into the air. She then casts a spell toward the Knight as it barrels at her, and turns to f***ing RUN because she is not a combat fighter and it would probably kill her if she lets it catch her.

    The spell goes off invisibly. A wave of intention washes over the clearing, tuned to the way the Shadows have been communicating and what little she has felt from her examination of those other more unique Shadows. It's a spell that says...

    STOP

    It's not mean to do a whole lot more than momentarily confuse the Shadows, as its a rough mockery of the commands she's been hearing and is unlikely to carry any controlling power. It is also very likely to make ALL of the Shadows angry at her, a fact that fuels her dash for cover.

Damita Stark has posed:
"Shi-!"

Damita gets closer to finishing that word every time she turns around. There are archers, and knights, and while Damita would be much happier with the archers, instead she gets charged. Damita swings the bow up, firing off a shot, but it's not particularly great in melee, and she summons her Persona again, the beautiful princess swirling into the air.

Hama gets casted, even as Damita swings her bow around, trying to block the sword. This is only so effective.

Staren has posed:
    Pig with a persona. That's weird, but probably not the weirdest thing in the Multiverse. Although Staren might need a moment to think of what he's seen that's /weirder/.

    He doesn't get a moment, because archers and knights are attacking! As before, the arrows expose his forcefield, which suffers some more heavy cracks, its outermost layer starting to fall apart.

    Staren has some trouble seeing the archers. He rapidly flips through sensors to find one they show up on, and for everyone else's benefit, reaches into his bag and hurls a handful of bright LEDs into the forest, before taking aim at one of the archers with his beam cannons!

Janine Liberi has posed:
    Now they are actually interrogating the pig.

    Angry muttering in Italian issues from Janine's mouth. The translation effect indicates that not a single one of them is pleasant. "Fucking... fine. Whatever. Lead the way Pig." Too grumpy to consider the implications, that the Forest can now 'fake' someone being inside it. She just wants this over with.

    It's a dash, along the straighter path. A wary eye is kept on the Shadows actually along this one, her blade flashing if they come too close. Something lays on the ground ahead! But... not an unconscious/dead person or anything. Mere bait, for the second trap.

    "Fuckingchristshit EMILY I got this help Ainsley" Janine snaps rapidly as the knights come charging out, the arrows descending. Janine peers into her blade and intones, "Biancabella!" The maimed woman arises in a haze of blue and twirls on the spot, twitching and scowling to mirror her user's frustrations.

    In a sudden burst, green winds erupt from her form, forming a momentary cyclone to deflect the inbound arrows! Furthermore, they send rose petals cascading through the treeline, bringing with it the poisonous odour of rotting roses to weaken the Shadows.

Finna (513) has posed:
THIS TIME Finna's ready for the things. Her sharp ears hear the movements, the creaking of strings and bows. She moves like a spring that's just been released from full tension, leaping and KICKING OFF of an in-flight arrow for an extra burst of speed. Up into the trees she goes and DOWN upon the Shadows she drops, hoping to drive her foot into the shadow's - well, it's upside down and hanging from a branch, so...

    Time to find out if these things have genders, if that's even a thing for their morphology.

    "You only GET one surprise attack on me, idiots! Now... FALL!"

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    "Oh, that's more like it! Look at all those Shadows!" Gudako exclaims, counting them by hand. That's much more impressive than just one. She wonders if each time someone is thrown in here, if that's the Shadows average people make. Unimpressive, but there's a lot of them. A lot of very average people who tried to play the Persona Game and failed? She really needs to get a labcoat, goggles and actually test it properly. One at a time? No, maybe rerouting an entire class...

    WELL, HAPPY THOUGHTS.

    Berserker seems ready to lunge, but Gudako stops her.

    "Caster!"

    A ring of paper slips forms as Caster appears, the pink-haired fox-girl extending them towards August. Most of them bear runes and Japanese script associated with fire and aim to bolster August's ability to melt the incoming glass arrows, likely to the point where they're barely a threat anymore.

    ONE paper slip, however, slips through the others, headed for one of the archer Shadows. It attempts to latch onto it, but inflicts no damage if successful. It's a curse. A very powerful curse, trying to compel the Shadow to immediatly return to its master.

    "Did you make it say what I told you to?" Gudako looks towards Caster, still 8D.

    "Yup! I hope she can read Japanese," Caster nods, firmly.

    Berserker glances at both, frowning. "Can Berserker play now? Berserker is already bored of watching and talking!" she insists.

    Gudako shakes her head. "Nah let them clean up."

August Kohler has posed:
Finna learns that Shadows do not have reproductive organs, and are kind of like Ken dolls. However, a foot to that spot is still horribly painful, the Shadow realizes, as it's knocked backwards into a spike of glass and impaled. Another Archer is fried by a mixture of Hama and a beam cannon, falling backwards to its doom. A third is Cursed in the face, attempting to run away as it chitters, but is stopped as its own arrow pierces it in the heart.

The fourth archer looks at its fallen companion, as it chitters briefly. And then it aims a glass shard straight at Gudako, firing straight at her arm. And then is both weakened by roses and obliterated by gunfire and mahou magic.

The knight on Ainsley is frozen to a brief halt as she casts her spell. The one beside it also stops. The archers are dead, and can't stop. The knights are sitting ducks.

Emily Branford (999) has posed:
    Janine gives an order.

    "Yes, ma'am!"

    Emily Branford is on the move immediately.

    The archers are down, so the battle butler begins moving towards Ainsley and Yuna, switching her aim over to the knights. The one closes to Ainsley is her first target, and she hits it as simply and efficiently as she can - first a single burst to confirm whether her bullets can get through that armor or not (and, surprisingly, most medieval armor is not cut out to handle armor-piercing rounds), then a few at various apparent weak points, just to gauge how easily it can be injured. And then she finally empties that particular magazine. The speed and smoothness with which she reloads is incredibly practiced.

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    The arrow is intercepted by Caster. It came a bit close for her tastes; Gudako's pretty fragile in the end, and it wouldn't take more than one of those aimed well enough to severely injure or kill her. The blue-robed Servant holds the projectile within a bubble of compressed wind, two ofuda circling it and keeping the arrow from finishing its course.

    Gudako observers it and hums, before plucking it out of the bubble and twirling it between her fingers. You'd think she'd be mad the archer Caster tagged got splattered, but no, actually, Gudako remains completely 8D. "That's vague, huh Caster? How should we do that?"

    Proudly, Caster puffs her chest up. "You're speaking to someone who courted an emperor, master! I know all about pleasing royals." And making double entendres, apparently.

    "Huh-uh?" Gudako asks.

    "Well, when people wanted to get in the good graces of the emperor, they'd usually offer things like jewels and gold, or if they didn't have any, servants. Or your children. Or land!"

    "We don't have any of those though, nya." Berserker pipes in.

    "Psht, I know to what to." Gudako responds. Her 8D almost widens. During the course of this conversation, no efforts are made to help the party. Gudako is the MVP of this team.

Finna (513) has posed:
CRASH! Down goes a Shadow! And with an unsatisfying thud. Finna flips around in midair and perches just briefly on the glassy branch, a SCOWL on her face. "What ARE these things?!"

    The very next second she flips backwards off the tree branch and through the air over the heads of the knights. She reaches into a pouch on her outfit... and hurls KNIVES down from the sky at the momentarily frozen Knights. hit or miss though... she re-enters the backward somersault moments before hitting the ground in a pflwless roll and unfolding to a crouched position with a dangerous gleam in her eyes.

    "I have NO COOL NAME TO SCREAM LIKE YOU PEOPLE!" The fox randomly complains!

Janine Liberi has posed:
    Now it's just cleanup. Unfortunately, Janines sword isn't much against armour, and those knights look too beefy to be bowled over by winds. So Janine is content to find something else to do right now.

    To that end, she examines what lies on the ground, the thing that draw the Pig here. With her blade, she pokes at it, and lifts it up if she can, looking for anything that might identify what it is, and who it belonged to.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
That just leaves the two Shadow Knights, as far as Yuna can see - and it sounds like Ainsley has something she'd like to try.

With that in mind, Yuna hefts her shield and sidles quickly towards Ainsley and Emily, ready to help defend them against the Knights in case anything goes wrong and they come after Ainsley again. She's not solely taking a protective posture, though; her pistol is held at the ready, a slowly brightening glow emanating from its muzzle as she focuses power for the next shot.

Assuming, of course, that she NEEDS a next shot. If Ainsley tries to manipulate the Knights into attacking each other, and it works, then Yuna can re-absorb the focused power without pulling the trigger. Or she can wait and blast the presumably-weakened survivor.

And if Ainsley's not going to push her luck? Well, easy enough to aim and shoot as soon as she knows she needs to.

Damita Stark has posed:
"Bone Princess! Play it harder!"

The harp, clutched between bony, skeletal fingers, does not get rocked out on. What, did you think that was possible? Persona isn't that cool. There's another spell cast though, more lights in the darkness. Damita doesn't like the dark. (It's a wonder she's in the forest as much as she is--)

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa loosk at the shadopws now and this time is trying to dart in using her cyborg speed to run for the knight a ttop speed she's going to start just decking them she's not got bullets today but she does have dread cyborg fists and she's just going to start trying to pummel the last two nights as best as the Doll is able to.

Staren has posed:
    With the archers down, Staren thinks his allies have pretty much got this -- still, he moves to stand in front of Ainsley protectively in case the knights survive the onslaught that is no doubt headed their way now!

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley stops running when she discovers that her spell actually worked. She turns around to get a look at the Shadow Knights, marveling at their simplistic behavior. She had... controlled them? They listened to her? She expected it to lash back at her immediately, but these things... "These are just pawns, I wonder if they even have a human they came from at all," she murmurs. She doesn't, of course, try to investigate that in the middle of the violence they are about to endure.

    She also relays a soft, pleasant "Thank you~" to everyone that helped her, her feathers puffing up in a cute(?) way.

August Kohler has posed:
The first knight goes down from the two Hamas and the disabling shots at its joints, disintegrating in a ray of light and bulletholes. The second is taken down by a mixture of cyborg beatemups and laser beams, its lack of a counterattack sealing its fate. Once all the Shadows have been disposed of, the White Pig appears out of its log, while the Three Little Pigs run up to Janine, the satellite beeping at the cloth.

It's a sock. More specifically, a human sock. If examined carefully, it appears to belong to a male with small feet, likely teenaged. It's torn at the edges, ripped by glass, and stained by blood, which has dried. Any further information will need to be recovered either by magic, or a much more thorough investigation.

Reading off the sock, the White Pig attempts to continue the search, but the Three Little Pigs' satellite reader flashes red. The words 'MORE DATA REQUIRED' appear on the side, indicating that this sock won't be enough to track the boy, wherever he is. Hopefully, someone in the party can find a clue.

Janine Liberi has posed:
    Janine wrinkles her nose. With a family as extended as her own, she is quite acquinted with the horror that is a boy's sock, but she's never seen one covered in ominous blood spatter before. Keeping it on her sword, she presents it to the Pig, only to get nothing. "Figures..."

    Once everyone has finished killing the knights, she gets their attention. "It's a sock, with blood on it. Owner might still be in here. Any of you got anything for tracking some punk?"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna dismisses her shield and pistol once the fight is over, and looks at the sock which was found. "Elner, did the injuries draw enough blood that the owner left a trail at all ... ?"

"Scanning now," Elner states, scanning teh 'sample' in the sock first - and then attempting to pick up on any additional blood residue in this part of the forest ... say, within about a ten meter radius. If there's residue to be detected, *then* Elner checks it against whatever identifying factors are still viable in the dried blood within the sock.

And while Elner's doing that, Yuna goes over to where the sock was found (asking someone to point her at the spot, if necessary) and ... well, *looking* for footprints, trampled grass, broken glass plants, whatever might also serve as a directional hint.

Emily Branford (999) has posed:
    The knights go down. Emily does not lower her rifle until she's /sure/ they're not getting right back up, and even then she keeps it in her arms and ready to use. With the immediate threat handled and Ainsley secured...

    ...is anyone really surprised that the butler has taken up post beside Janine again? "I've got some very basic tracking skills, but I doubt they'd be of any use here."

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    "Afraid I'm not much of a tracker," Ainsley replies with confidence and some regret when the sock is presented to her. She stares at it for a beat or two, and then wonders, for a moment, if the sock was left here as a message. If it was...

    Ainsley's eyes glow and she focuses on the sock, searching for any sort of intent or meaning left in it. It's about the only clue she can divine from something like this unless something unexpected is lingering on it. Shadows have, thusfar, carried emotion and meaning in the very core of their existence, so it couldn't hurt to see if something was left that she could see with her unique capabilities of seeing Communication. Meaning hides in all kinds of places.

Damita Stark has posed:
"Erm... I'm not sure Princess can really do that sort of thing."

Damita looks at the skeletal Bone Princess. She strums a little tune. There's nothing that comes of consequence. Damita shrugs, then explores the area.

Finna (513) has posed:
"Going to help our oinking friend!" Finna exclaims after coming to the conclusion that human form is not helpful here. She leaps forward and lands... in fox form, the transformation being a few seconds of freaky-looking squishing flesh and shrinking bone, fur engulfing her clothes... she's in fox form quickly enough, and lightly trots over to the snock to sniff it.

    Not that she expects this alone will give any kind of scent trail, but it's a starting point of what to sniff around for.

    And at the same time, the little fox makes a chirpy sound at the pig, almost a declaration of 'hello fellow four-legs.'

    Then the fox bounds off into the surroundings, scouring for anything at all. Even so much as a strand of hair...

    If the pig can't smell them out, she's unsure if she can. But, well... it's the only thing she CAN even try is lend some extra nosepower.

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    Eventually, it seems Gudako, Caster and Berserker stop discussing amongst each other, and Caster glances back towards the group at the request. "I might be able to, but tracking magecraft isn't one of my specialties. This place is unusual enough it might not work, too..." She huffs a bit, evidently upset at the idea.

    Gudako has been consumed by whatever mobage she's playing right now. She really could not care less about the person the sock belongs to.

    Berserker is licking the bacon bowl clean.
    Don't judge, you'd do it too.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley's face scrunches, and her eyes stop glowing. She considers the sock thoughtfully for a while longer, and then looks around, and back to the sock.

    "The sock is soaked in fear... the color of an escape attempt, if I were to put a meaning to it. But it's odd. It's like..." She rubs the side of her face. "It's like he got all the way out here," she points to the ground, "And then he only wanted to flee when he got here. Did he see someone? Something?"

    "Are there portals nearby, I wonder..." she murmurs.

Staren has posed:
    Staren is relieved the fight is over.

    When tracking is mentioned, he turns to look at Finna expectantly, then tries to follow the fox as she bounds off...

August Kohler has posed:
August moves to the side for a minute, now that the fighting is over, to check on his arm and make sure that it didn't get worse during the fighting. He'll probably be fine.

The searching provides much more information than just a sock. Elner's tracing identifies an odd blood trail, originating at the sock. The blood trail leads off not towards either of the paths, but towards the center of the grove, before it gets kind of odd. It splatters about, indicating that whoever took the boy /flew/ off with him. Tracing him via the blood now will be impossible, seeing the nature of the Forest and how hard it is to travel through the trees.

Near where the blood trail ends are several tracks. One track runs off towards where the sock was and then stops, while two others stop at opposing points, facing each other, before one disappears into the trees and the other disappears at the end of the blood stain. The boy tracks originated with the non-clawed tracks, and left with the clawed tracks. There is a single track next to the blood stain that is not like the others: it is a pair of massive talons. The track that gets onto whatever owns these talons has weird feet, clawed and seemingly built for speed. The tracks move rapidly even over the short distance.

Finna finds a few old scents around where the sock was. Human. Shadow. Shadow. Some sort of mixture of oil, shadow, and avian? Four unique scents in total. The pig oinks back at Finna, though wary of the predator animal, because a fox would probably eat a pig.

Even with this new information, the Three Little Pigs still seems to need more data. If they're going to find the boy, they'll probably need to learn /who/ he is. After all, in the past two situations, it was known who was missing. Until then, he's lost to the Forest, the Black Queen holding him somewhere.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is looking at the sock for a moment peering at it but there's not much she can do right now save she moves to summon everal small drones which she lets fly away to do some recon for her while she turne her ttention to the pig an everyone else. She does notice that Finna use her nose to track the kid down and while her drones find nothing she ends up moving to follow after Finna with theothers but the Pigs need even more data? She isn't sure just what's going on here with it.

"Humm I'll see if I can get anything with them."