547/Morality in Absentia

Morality in Absentia
Date of Scene:	05 September 2014
Location:	A Quiet World
Synopsis:	A bunch of Elites gang up on a poor, helpless librarian. Now, the part you didn't see: the helpless librarian was defended by a bunch of possessed books with swords. And an elite level knight.
Thanks to:	Everybody there for making it through another choppy scene.
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, Arthur Lowell, Staren, 183, 307, 347, Riva Banari, Wuyin Tsai
Tinyplot:	A Chime at the Precipice

---

Mizuki (183) has posed:
As the incoming elites arrive from the warpgate, they would quickly notice that the Historical District is even more empty than it had been when they first came. All of the people have cleared the streets. In fact, the only 'living beings' still here are Mizuki, and two unlucky guards outside of the court's front door. Each one is collapsed and has evident stab wounds, probably inflicted from the sword that Mizuki currently has drawn. Given the rather grisly state of things, Mizuki does not take the time to greet people as politely as she usually does.

    But she does at least straighten her posture. "I wish I could say 'good evening'," Her words are a bit short, and her breathing a bit quick, "but unfortunately, that would be an outright lie. Given what we've already seen from the Principle Archive and some unfortunate intuitive inklings on my part, I can say that The Curate will almost certainly not hand over the number willingly. Though listen closely." She takes a deep breath. "The curate has bound the number to her being, meaning we cannot take it unless we kill her. However, this section of my world is represented and substantiated by her, and will literally fall apart without her. So, in short? The moment she falls, we will need to make a beeline for the edge of the historical district. Otherwise, we may find ourselves in an area not unlike the unshift space that Staren described." There's a short pause. "I cannot guarantee your safety from a hellish eternity - or at least several hours that /feel/ like an eternity - in a stereotypical, all-white purgatory. I doubt this will sway you if you've already made the decision to come help, but still, it is only polite that I mention such things beforehand. But."

    She looks to Luther and Laurel from before. "I /do/ have a plan that would circumvent the risks inherent here, and that plan is Luther. He is another resident of this area and has, like Miss Nightingale, achieved his own, independent sentience. Also, he has sway over a considerably large portion of this worldspace. Hence, I shall attempt to designate him as the new Curate before this place crumbles to proverbial dust." Luther nods, his and Laurel's expressions both as unmoving as ever. Really, they look like porcelain dolls until the former speaks. "Indeed. This place could use a less bull-headed administrative force at its helm."

    "So without further delay." Mizuki nods to the group, slowly sliding open the doors to reveal... the room described in the room description. The entire room is empty, naturally, excepting a pair of people in the center of the room. One is cloaked, as one would expect of a villainous force, in a shroud of inky darkness, while the other is clad in a flowing, heavy robe with intricate runes sewn into its hems. The second also possesses a silver 'crown' of sorts, taking the form of a broken 'halo' with six crystals levitating beside them, three on each side. Her hair is blond, and despite appearing to be no more than fourteen years old, she cuts quite an imposing figure. As everyone enters, they slowly turn to face them, the blond being the only one to address them verbally: "Welcome, honored guests." And she doesn't even sound sarcastic.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa had been willing to help out Mizuki, she'd been good to her after all. So she was also curious to try to get the the bottom of things here. Still this was not the most expected thing as she arrived. She hears that things are pretty bad already. She listens closer and pales a bit as she starts to feel the level of issue they have with it. She hands on to Overclovk for a moment and then puts it back into her pocket. She has a feeling she may need him tonight even if she's not happy about it.

"Might as well come I have... ways to help deal with that somewhat."

She's trying to put on a brave face, and honestly the white purgatory sounds lovely after what happened in Kingsmouth the other night.

Well sounds like we should get to it right?"

With that Mizuki is followed and she moves into the room looking about for a moment she stares for a moment.

Staren has posed:
    Staren steps out of the warpgate and stops for a moment to stretch (in the normal way, he's not playing at being Mr. Fantastic here) before walking through the portal. Everyone gets smiles and nods of greeting, except for a cold look at Allyn. Ideological differences. Staren then frowns at the guards. "Did... /she/ do this?" he asks Mizuki. It isn't until they're about to walk inside that he stops, "Justa sec..." and remembers to walk over to the guards. This time he pulls the weapons out, sprinkles a couple of powders over them, then pulls back his sleeves, revealing silver bands on his wrists etched with triple M monograms. Silvery tools extrude from them and sew up the guards's wounds. Then the armbands glow, and the glow transfers to his hands, and he touches them, "Raise Dead. Raise Dead. Cure Wounds. Cure Wounds." It's worth a shot, right?

    For the long walk into the city, he shifts forms again, to unicorn pony, though for an instant the proportions are... off. If needed, he gallops to catch up to the others. Long walks are easier on four legs, that's all. He shifts back to normal -- again with a brief, instantaneous something wrong -- and steps inside with the others, where they find...

    "...A court room? Who's on trial, here?"

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva's new at this. She hasn't been here before, so she has no frame of reference. However, she's always willing to learn. She looks over the empty streets with a curious gaze, casually poking at the walls and such, as if by touching it perhape might reveal some secret that she might be looking for. It doesn't. Riva's just naturally curious and likes poking things.

She's more concerned when she sees Mizuki with the stabbed guards. "Um." She says eloquently, trying to process what's going on here, but Mizuki explains things nicely. "Wow." She replies, blinking at the description of the problem and what is probably going to inevitably happen. "Sounds like a solid plan." Riva replies. She's going with the flow here.

Riva walks in with the others, taking in the architecture, nodding at the design choices and the layout. "Reminds me of home, kind of." She mutters, before they enter the main room. Riva's gaze is immediately drawn to the statue before even the pair in the room. "Wow, that's hella metaphorical." She comments, frowning. "This is going to be complicated, I think." She says, before she looks at the pair.

Riva waves. They're going to be polite, by God she's going to be polite back. "Hi!" She says. "Nice to meet you! You really pull off the floating crystal thing. Do a lot of people do that here?"

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    ARTHUR LOWELL has left a spirographic green Gate (non-Warp variety) leading right from the warpgate straight to the town itself, for the convenience of all those involved. Arthur himself, of course, arrives via his own gate, and with his usual cool, swaggering posture. Then he bumps into a corpse and the whole thing just kinda collapses.

    "SHIT, FUCK, WHAT." He says, articulately. Then he stumbles a bit away, a little wide-eyed, before trying to restore his composure. "JESUS, I know these aren't REAL PEOPLE but STILL." He says, breathing heavily. "God damn." He shakes his head and makes soft, unsettled noises. "RIGHT, well, so I guess that RIDDLE SHIT was more UNLOCKING THE BOSS than it was GETTING THE AUDIENCE then. This is gonna be... Yeah, that's gonna be RAD." Arthur tries not to look at that sword of Mizuki's there.

    Luther! There's a friendly face. "HEY GUY! I remember you. GREAT to see you again. Thanks for the help BEFORE, hope this turns out WELL for you, yeah?" A quick grin and a snap-point. And then Arthur follows along with Mizuki! Arthur likes those astrological symbols on the entry, so he's focusing on how great this place is to keep his mind off of all the dead guys.

    And then... A courtoom? Arthur's not had a lot of good experience with law. But he puts that aside and follows with Mizuki, keeping behind her with a little nervousness under his mannerisms. He'll let her take the lead on this. He does a fair bit of narrow-eyed staring at that statue, though...

Allyn (307) has posed:
Allyn follows after the others, he does notice Staren's cold look towards him, but not much he can do about that. He didn't really do anything to earn it, just agreed with someone on something. The large wolf's side and the left side of his head are re-bandaged though as wounds heal and there is a strange necklace around his neck, that he must of have picked up from some place or other.

He blinks as they find themselves in the court room, or whatever it is and glances around for a few moments, ears perking a little as he listens to what is going on around him.

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
"If I had to guess, I'd say us," says a voice on Staren's right. "Then again, I don't have to guess very often. It's kind of nice. Do you think it would be impolite to skip the middle?"

The speaker is a man who wasn't there a moment ago, showing up with no sign he was ever anywhere else. He's dressed in black and grey, with a collared shirt, a newsboy cap, dress pants and shoes to go with it. His skin is like charcoal, and his hair is black like oil.

Perhaps distressingly, his eyes are red-rimmed, with dark orange brightening to yellow where there should be whites and a white spot where there should be black. Bizarrely, he gives off the strong and immediate impression of trustworthiness instead of his eyes being totally off-putting. Maybe it isn't distressing after all.

"Does a book get insulted," John asks Staren, tilting his head towards him while looking straight ahead, "when you skip to the end?"

Staren has posed:
    Staren jumps. There is a man who wasn't there before! Staren blinks at him. His eyes widen at the hat... oh. No. This isn't her style. He relaxes, just slightly, and stares in the wake of John's philosophical question.

    Beat.

    Staren looks at their gracious world-host. "Mizuki... who's this guy?" Talking about books like that... he must be one of hers, right?

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki gently grabs Staren's wrist, looking to him and shaking her head. "No. I did." She allows herself another, deep sigh. "Many of the inhabitants of this realm are so loyal to the Curate that they would risk their existences for her. I could not convince them to back down, so I did what I must. If you heal them now, they will simply rise again." She frowns. "Just... leave them where they are. Their suffering will end once we've dealt with the curate." She then nods to Riva, and places a placating hand on Arthur's shoulder. "Apologies for the morbidity of it all. The mind can turn into a bit of a maelstorm when left unchecked like this. To give a crude analogy, if one does not comb their hair on a regular basis, it becomes tangled. And this place has many, many tangles indeed."

    As before, Luther's look of stoicism quickly transforms into one of obvious disapproval. He's looking over everyone with his own critical, narrowed gaze when Arthur, perhaps the most inflammatory of them all, decides to bother him. "Evening," Is his sharp, terse reply, "and please, I did not do it for your benefit, or for hers. It is just overbearingly obvious to me that the current governing forces here are corrupt beyond what could be considered conscionable, and must be replaced." He folds his arms. "And I am the only other reliable source of governance available, given the state of things." Laurel's gaze scans the group as well, but she is ever reticent. Her eyes do linger for a fairly long time on Staren, for reasons that are anything but obvious. Before pushing the doors open, Mizuki takes notice of John and gives a quirk of her eyebrow. "Normally, I would be far more appreciative of literary analogies, but..." She sighs. "I'm sure you understand. I have the chaos of my own story to attend to at the moment."

    Then, in the courtroom. There's some disparity between the words that come out of the curate's mouth and her expression, as her mouth demonstrates not even a ghostly impression of a polite smile; her expression, like Laurel's, remains completely static even as her words rise and fall in pitch and inflection. It's a little eerie, especially if you're still attached to more mundane social contexts. Her head slowly cycles to Staren. Then, she points to Mizuki. "Her trial, naturally." She holds it there a moment before shifting her arms behind her back. "She who created this place and allowed it to stagnate because of her hypocrisy. She will be judged in the context of this world's own laws. As you will be, if you interfere." Then he head cycles to Riva, as a turret swivels on a mechanical, rote axis. "The only thing I despise more than fools of her caliber are people who perpetuate inane rituals of greeting that can be predicted with relative ease in any context I could conceive of. If you wish for a substantial reply to your greeting and 'compliment', please reference the Socialcultural Subdistrict. I have no interest whatsoever in pursuing conversation." So, she's callous and bitchy. Message received.

    "Apathy, if you would?" The black mass beside her nods, holding up a hand. The world itself seems to 'ping', and a bizarre film passes over the area, dying the colors of the room itself photo-negatives of themselves for a brief period before they fade. The gravity in the area intensifies in that moment as well, but thankfully, it will not last. "If we come to blows - as I'm certain that we will - I will lose. Not only am I outnumbered, but my God Herself stands before me. What chance do I have?" For the first time, she smiles. "No, I am making no attempt to win. Just to hinder you, and perhaps chip away at you. But I refuse to do so in the disorganized, obscene way that you would have us to, spewing our imaginations at one another. I trust you can explain the details for them, oh celestial one?"

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    By now, Mizuki's face has contorted in anger that she simply can't suppress. It's clear that beings that exist in one's own mind have a way of getting under the source material's skin, at times, even if they have social facades as well-built as Mizuki's. "... indeed. Apathy has erected a barrier that prevents the use of imagination. Staren can probably glean the ramifications of this, but: your fighting methods will be limited to what you are typically capable of, unless," She points in the direction of a region that wavers, as the edge of a road does on an extremely hot day. "you can make it there. Areas like that one contain the energies native to this world that would allow you one usage of 'imagination' in the form of an attack." But before she even has the chance to finish, books have begun to fly off of the shelves, sprouting their own spindly, black arms, legs, and wings for locomotion. They have medieval weapons for the most part, most prominently spears and swords. Again, the curate chimes.

    "Shall we begin, dear heroes?"

Staren has posed:
REVISED POSE
    Staren steps out of the warpgate and stops for a moment to stretch (in the normal way, he's not playing at being Mr. Fantastic here) before walking through the portal. Everyone gets smiles and nods of greeting, except for a cold look at Allyn. Ideological differences. Staren then frowns at the guards. "Did... /she/ do this?" he asks Mizuki. It isn't until they're about to walk inside that he stops, "Justa sec..." and remembers to walk over to the guards. He reaches to pull the weapons out, but is stopped by Mizuki. He nods solemnly.

    For the long walk into the city, he shifts forms again, to unicorn pony, though for an instant the proportions are... off. Long walks are easier on four legs, that's all. He shifts back to normal -- again with a brief, instantaneous glance of something wrong -- and steps inside with the others, where they find...

    "...A court room? Who's on trial, here?"

    Staren nods at the 'us, I think' comment, and then--Staren jumps. There is a man who wasn't there before! Staren blinks at him. His eyes widen at the hat... oh. No. This isn't her style. He relaxes, just slightly, and stares in the wake of John's philosophical question.

    Beat.

    Staren looks at their gracious world-host. Talking about books like that... he must be one of hers, right? Staren opens his mouth to ask, but Mizuki... doesn't respond to him like he's from her. Confused, Staren blinks at John. "You're /not/ from her imagination?"

/REVISED POSE

    And then... the trial is handed down, except maybe it's a fight? Staren reaches down to his belt and twists the crystal buckle to desploy his armor. "Wait, is this a trial or a fight?" Either way, he starts charging the plasma cannons, watching Apathy warily.

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
John's eyes slide away from the pair in the courtroom, meeting Staren's stare. He seems somewhat familiar. He smiles amiably. "Hiya," he says. "I'm John. Nice to meet you again."

His smile shifts to Mizuki, touching a hand to his hat. "I gotcha. Don't worry. There'll be plenty of time for that later. All the time in the world." John's smile widens. "I'll be right here if you need me." He gestures at the general vicinity, where Staren is charging his lazors.

John keeps his hands by his sides. He doesn't seem terribly bothered by the increased gravity, or the imposition of reality inside a place normally made of imagination. His smile does fade when that happens, though, a look of concern crossing his face. It's probably not for himself.

"You know, the trial by combat is an ancient tradition," he tells Staren. "It could be both." John looks over the books sprouting arms and legs. "I think you can handle this. If you need something, just hollar, alright?"

John smiles again. He's all smiles, even for the rebellious ones. He stands there and smiles at them, watching with a glimmer of honest amusement in his weird eyes.

Riva Banari has posed:
"Tangled, huh?" Riva asides to Mizuki. "That's an interesting metaphor." The appearance of John causes a curious mix of emotions to cross Riva's face, but she says nothing. She seems to settle for squinting at him, until Staren reveals he can raise the dead. "What the crap, Staren." Riva says. "Can you just, do /everything/?" She asks. "Do they make comic books about you? Like, Supercatboy?"

Riva frowns at the response, and humphs, crossing her arms. "People have to be able to interact with one another with some kind of frame of reference, you know. That's the whole point of these so-called 'inane' rituals. You can't get anything done if you just be a jerk to everyone!"

The gravity change, however, causes her to stagger a bit. She doesn't train for high-gravity environments, she'd make a bad Saiyan. "This is... different." She says, leaning on a seat back.

"Imagination?" Riva inquires for a moment, and then suddenly everything gets Super Real. "Well, if we're going to do it that way, fine!" Riva ducks behind a seat and pulls out her guns. "Are you really sure you want to do this?" Riva asks. "If you've come to the conclusion that resistance is pointless, isn't it illogical to fight anyway? You know why this is happening, right?"

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    The shenanigans going on with the newbie dropping in, and other matters, are mostly ignored; more out of practicality than Arthur's own arrogance. He keeps quiet, staying behind Mizuki for the duration of the greetings and explanations. His arms are crossed and his eyes are narrowed... He doesn't stumble, though his hood flaps around, as if in the wind, as the sudden pressure comes down.

    "ALRIGHT, you want NEW GREETINGS, you want shit CHANGED UP?" He leaps up onto one of the "pews", one leg up heroically on the seat-backs. "I'm ARTUHR LOWELL! ROCKET-POWERED JERK! KNOW-NOTHING PUNK!" He points a fingure accusingly. "And the man who's gonna BURN THIS PLACE TO THE GROUND! Metaphorically-speaking." And with a heavy slam of fist against palm, he cracks his knuckles. "If you wanted shit CHANGED UP, you aggro'd the right BAD DUDES, but you're not gonna CHIP AWAY here!"

    With arms crossed, his long hood and loose robes start flapping in a mysterious breeze. "I'M THE HARDEST GODDAMN METAL KNOWN TO MAN." There's an aburpt "blip!" and his hands are suddenly occupied by a broom. "Don't think APATHY there's gonna give you what you're WANTING. If you're the NUMBER now, she's just making you even MORE of a TOOL than MIZUKI would! Least Mizuki's PURPOSE here's something besides USING YOU UP like AMMO. You wanna do the MOTH thing? CHANGE THINGS UP by goin' out in a BLAZE? You hit your EXPIRATION DATE?"

    A dramatic flip of his broomstick around his hands, around his body, and then to an aggressive stance. "LET'S DO IT!" But for all his bluster, Arthur actually starts this off by focusing on the books! His broomstick is pointed behind him, and then... The metallic bristles open wide, showing off the rocket thrusters within! He's blasting off, screaming his head off and intending to rocket-ram and apply rocket-powered smashing to as many of these hostile books as he can get his broom on, typically any in a position to get between the group and the strange little imagination-power space. He assumes they're there to obstruct; Arthur intends to clear a path, pre-emptively.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa looks to Staren and for once is feeling some sypathy for him she's not so happy with this but this is an alien enviorment even to someone from a world where information and the perception of what is real is rapidly changing. She moves ahead and looks about courtroom. She wonders just how this trial is going to go. Apathy could be considered one of the banes of a civilization, you stop caring things start to decay more easily those who are power hungry can get thier way more easily too.

Kotone thinks her side arm isn't going to be worth much in this and she's going to have to make for one of those pockets of reality.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Somewhere along the line, the curate took a backseat, sneaking into the judge's pedestal while her novel-warriors mobilize. "In a world as backward and nonsensical as this one," She links eyes with Staren briefly, "they are one in the same. If we attempted to debate matters at any length, they would devolve anyway, and as such what I am doing is simply meant to expedite things." The curate looks next to Riva, eyes narrowing a bit. "Certainly I know why this is happening." She looks to Mizuki next. "Because this is a cycle, doomed to repeat itself. Because the author cannot bear to see others living their exciting little lives without having a story of her own." She smiles. "Because she is conceited, and as many times as she tries to cast away her humanity, she only causes it to return in ever more prevalent quantities. And as for the rest of you."

    She turns her gaze now to Arthur and Staren in particular. "Who was it who, on the day Apathy first arrived, attacked first? None of the shades charged at you; it was -she- who attacked -them-. It was also she who killed my loyal subjects. My haste to engage in combat is simply a mirror of my creator's. My arrogance, again something that parallels her own. But I," She lifts her gaze to the ceiling. "I am the responsible one! I realize that this world must cease to exist. It is a paradox, and can be nothing but a blight on the rest of the Multiverse." She shakes her head. "You aid the -villain-, fool! But words are pointless with such an uncompromising, bombastic lout, I'm sure."

    By the time she has said this, he has indeed rammed straight through a line of at least four books. They don't offer much in the way of retaliation -- they weren't exactly ready when he came (literally) screaming through. However, they aren't the only ones there, and more books come pouring off of the shelves when he arrives, quickly surrounding him. Half of them are wielding shields and swords, and the other half are open and cycling through their pages. If any of the latter are allowed to live past a certain point, they would launch a variety of 'standard' magic attacks: fire balls, lightning bolts, and frost beams, specifically. The rest of them organize into at least 7 long lines of 18 that form a circle around the curate. Many of them are charging magic in much the same way that the ones near Arthur are as others come in close. Two such books, one with a spear and one with a sword, charge at Riva, while one of the ones at the fire side of the room attempts to launch a steady stream of fire at Staren.

    Given that the 'imagination zone' is behind contested areas, Kotone is met with significant resistance on her way. At least three books pursue her, though thankfully these are just the ones with swords; no magical things are threatening to fry (or freeze) her at the moment. Also, they seem to be leaving John alone for the most part, though the black energy villain does give him a bit of a lingering look... before she has to parry an attempted sword blow from Mizuki. The two stand in a deadlock for a few moments, Mizuki's sword striking and Apathy's blocking. Again without any emotion, she allows her gaze to wander to Arthur. "I would prefer that you did not put words in my mouth. I've no intention of 'using' anyone." Her tone is flat and dead. But also... resonant? The especially magically attuned could probably tell that this is mass telepathy, not actual speech. "But I've no reason to stay here. Faris, I leave them to you. May some whimsical bastion of creation accept your consciousness when all is said and done." Faris looks to her with perhaps her only genuine smile of the evening. "Indeed, Your Grace. None of my efforts are fruitless if they may aid you, somehow..."

    Meanwhile, it would seem Laurel and Luther have navigated to a corner of the room. The former will serve as the latter's bodyguard, if the need arises, but the books aren't paying they any more heed than they are John.

Riva Banari has posed:
"That's kind of rough." Riva replies. "But if- OH GOD SWORD!" She is interrupted in her attempts to discuss or refute the points being made by attempted murder. Riva tries to backflip, but the increased gravity causes her to stumble, splatting flat on the ground. The good news is the accidental fall causes the spwar and sword to go wide. the bad news is that she's in a bad position for the followups. "Ugh, that smarts!"

Riva scrambles back to her feet, her body laboring already under the difficult situation as she tarts running away from the books. Her pistols come up, silvery circuits along the sides lighting up green as Anima power is fed into them. With a blast, Riva begins firing salvos of emerald energy at the incoming books, moments before other books begin bombarding the area with elemental damage. Riva ducks, taking cover behind furniture. "YIPE!" She yells. "Ugh, this gravity is cramping my style!" She yells to no one in particular. She peeks back up in hopes of an opening before a lightning bolt blasts right past her head. She yells as she pops back down. "I'm getting pinned down over here! There's like, at least a couple hundred books blowing things up!"

Staren has posed:
    Staren tilts his head slightly as he listens. "Alright. So what if she started it? You want to destroy the world! That's self-defense!" He makes a sweeping gesture with his arm. "You say this world is a paradox, but that is plainly false -- paradoxes, by their very nature, cannot actually exist in the first place! So find another goal!"

    Staren sprays plasma shots at the books, but then comes under fire (ha!) His shield and armor protect him from being immediately burned, at least, and he tries to get away. "Stop it!" He ducks to the side and tries to charge around the fire, so he can get a clear shot to blast at the books! But, maybe he should find some cover.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
She can't get to the pocket easily, she can not make much use of her pistol in a fight like this, she does however have Overclock and it might be able to help her.

"Hey buddy wake up. Looks like we got our first live fire test. I need weapons..."

She takes Overclok and jacks him into one of the ports in the back of her neck, she's praying this crazy thing is able to work. It's her best chance to do so. She hears the words of the other woman it does give her some pause. There may be questions to ask later, but for now they are in quite the fight. She's got to live through this to finf out what might be going on. Staren is asking the good questions she's got to get ready to fight.

"Overclock ... its your show now."

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
John follows Staren. He jogs behind him, keeping pace as Staren ducks between fire and tanks it with his intriguing technology. His eyes slide over to Riva's advance and cover a moment later, watching her with a curious intensity. He seems to be hanging back, but always hanging back near Staren. His proximity makes it hard to stay out of the line of fire, but at least he isn't actively attacking.

He looks up at the resonating words. The telepathy touches him, and he smiles genially, his whole face lighting up with momentary joy. John doesn't physically do anything, but... something happens. There's a weird noise on the telepathic 'line,' a quiet sound, barely audible.

Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

John keeps on keeping on. He steps behind a column to avoid the incoming fire, still smiling. He's looking at the black-shrouded villain. He tries to catch her eye, and if he does, his smile just gets wider.

ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

He opens his mouth. No sound comes out, but his teeth are brilliant and white for a shining moment. It travels along the telepathy, invasive words that tries to crawl into the minds of those spoken to. They form unbidden, carrying a friendly tone and a comforting cadence... even if their content is less than that.

I am the pirate signal, it says. Let me in.

John looks right at Apathy. His words carry weirdly across the suppressed space of dreams and imagination. They carry his smile.

"Hiya, Chuck. Pleased to meet you. I'm the message," he says. "I'm John."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Alright!" Overclock, the little cartridge, says, with an eager, supporting sort of tone. "Awake and ready to go. Jeeze, you sure picked a time. Alright, let's see what we can do! Powering Strife Drives!" The module flares with a soft blue light, burning like a halo behind Kotone's head.

    Lines of blue energy flow down Kotone's arms and to her hands. Machinery therein is changing; a set of mid-range shotguns has become built into her wrists, her hands now able to mechanically fold back an around their barrels! These temporary augmentations are clearly something from her own world, a military-tech prosthetic addition for her, but they also flicker, very obviously just temporary additions to the girl's robotic form. When they fire, though, it'll be with full, proper power. No enhancement to their effectiveness from Overclock, but the fact that they have effectiveness at all is helpful here!

    Her HUD flickers and shows her limited ammunition and energy drain, as well as some basic aim-assist. "Ghhhhh..." Overclock says, its body heating up and straining. "Wow, okay! Weapons apparently take a lot out of me. Make the most of this!"

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "Oh, so she just REBELS all on HER OWN then? And she just goes SUICIDAL for CONTRIBUTING to the END OF THE WORLD all by HERSELF, you're TOTALLY opposed then?" Arthur shouts. The boy's dashing forward through the four books now, but Apathy's probably already gone by this point.

    "You say you want this world ENDING and you say WE'RE the villains? You're going MAD SUICIDAL to help APATHY get FREEDOM for WHATEVER and we're the LOUTS?" Slamming into the ground with a small shockwave of force, the books now surround him easily. "Motherfucker if I let EVERY DUDE with SHADOWY MINIONS and EVIL ASSAULTS and POISONOUS CREATURES get whatever they ask for on FAITH I'd be a DUMB PIECE OF TRASH, I ain't gonna let that shit just WANDER AROUND, and I'm SURE AS HELL not gonna do it so that the WORLDWIDE APOCALYPSE can happen!"

    And then he begins to glow, softly, then with increasing brightness. The books are allowed to fire their spells; Arthur stumbles under an assault of electricity and frost and fire, burnt and bruised and frosted by the impacts. Arthur takes it square on the chest, before his glow suddenly stops and releases in a wave of celestial fire, intending to get them all at once!

    He launches himself into the air with the attack, careening through the courtroom until he lands in cover with Riva. "If you don't have SPACE to MOVE, fuck, you MAKE SOME SPAAAAAACE!" He slams his broom into the ground handle-first, intending to lodge it under the built-in pew... And then wrench it out of the courtroom floor, and push it forward, trying to help move Riva Banari's cover up to advance on her foes, his own broom swinging and slashing at anyone who tries to flank during it!

    And then the boy is gone, suddenly falling through a Gate placed at his feet. Back at the near side of the court! Arthur lands near Staren, trying to lay down a quick gate for him to take straight into cover if he wants to join up with Riva or something like that! Easy to take the opposite Gate.

    He heads the other way, though. As Kotone gets shotgun-arms, Arthur jumps in, going back-to-back for a moment shooting off his own series of laser-fire bursts from the handle end of his broom! It's a clear prompt to Kotone Yamakawa to do the BADASS BACK-TO-BACK SHOOTING SEQUENCE against the three books coming at her with swords. He's trying to PUSH her further towards the imagination zone, since she seems to be the one going for it.

    In all this chaos, John's invasion can't really be acknowledged, much less resisted. A FUN FACT: Arthur Lowell has a great history with communing with otherworldly psychic influences, just not a great history DENYING them. So, hey, whoever that is, they're probably gonna at least get a foothold.

    Anyway, it's only a short while before he's pushing farther forward, trying to draw ATTENTION, SWARMS, HIGH VOLUMES OF ENEMIES, as much violence as he can! Swapping his broom to one hand, he shoots and bashes, alternating between the two, and with his free hand wields a rush of black gravitational magic, trying to do huge AoE slams against foes in larger numbers, to stun, stumble, or disable them temporarily so they can be finished!

    All throughout this, of course, he is screaming. Just screaming, constantly, with heroic enthusiasm. "HaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Gonna OPEN THAT PATH.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    "They -should- not be able to exist, yes! But think: this is a world that only exists because it is perceived, and yet it was never perceptible by anything when it was first created! It is an illusion substantiated by awareness it should never have had!" As she speaks, she just begins to sound more and more like some sort of insane cultist. "And have you ever once contemplated what could happen if the fundaments of this world were able to lurch into other areas in existence? Have you once? Should our 'illustrious Goddess' ever find a way to impose her variety of insanity and undefinition on the rest of the world, it would destroy all reason! All logic! All consistency! It would impose new rules on worlds that other people had never asked for, and -- before you attempt to make the argument that this is a hypothetical, I have known her -FAR- longer than any of you! I have been subject to her capricious nature every day of my life! I should know how dangerous it is to allow someone with both the initiative and the nihilistic philosophy necessary to destroy creation to continue existing!" She's starting to sound almost... desperate. It's clear that she genuinely buys in to what she's saying, at least. "Don't you understand? This is something I am doing for -your- benefit! Your safety!"

    As she continues to rave, stuff happens. Riva's shots are enough to down the books that came charging, sending them down in steaming heaps and leaving the central aisle of the courtroom clear for the time being. Staren's salves of gunfire put a significant dent in the 'book shield', but more fly off the shelves as the ones nearest the center file in to fill the gaps. It's not at all unlike a regenerating shield, but at least in theory, it's finite: as in, she only has so many books before it stops functioning. Two books seem to have taken positions to the right and left of the staging area, and are continuously emitting spheres of electricity. As they drift toward the group, these spheres would begin emitting bolts of lighting, one person at a time, that home in on their positions until they disappear several seconds later. Those will likely continue to be a hindrance so long as those books remain there, and a pair have reached Riva and Staren now, sending harsh bolts cracking down at them. For Staren, there is cover behind the pews, and closer to the entrance, but that probably won't help much since these targets are attempting to strike from the air.

    Apathy seems just about ready to leave when something grabs her attention. A gentle hissing, followed by words. Her head whips to face John fairly quickly when he speaks out loud again, though her face still shows no visible traces of any hint of surprise. "My name is not 'Chuck'." Pause. "But it is a less offensive moniker than 'Apathy'. Who are you?" Mizuki's eyes dart between Apathy's and John's own, clearly quite confused herself. After some moments of silence, she offers her own words in response: "Is that... you, speaking?"

    Thankfully, though, there are fighters left over who aren't completely baffled by the 'pirate signal'. Arthur charges in with as much spirit as ever, the pew snapping off of the ground with a loud cracking sound. It works fairly well as cover, even as it is pelted by fire and slashed at miraculously, as he and Riva advance. That's not all though -- before the swarming hordes of text have any chance to react, he's over by Kotone! And he certainly -does- garner a significant amount of attention, as the remaining books not rushing to guard the curate are flocking to him, finally giving Staren and Riva some more room to operate. But more than that, he sends entire stacks of books careening to the ground. His voice may well have some noise of its caliber to contend with as their blades clatter to the ground en masse, and a literal waterfall of pages almost falls down on top of him. All of this has the intended effect, though! The path to the 'imagination spot' is in sight, and Kotone might even be able to reach it now, if she hurries.

Staren has posed:
    Staren dives through the gate to cover. "Thanks, Arthur!"

    And then... there's a voice! In his head! "What the... GET OUT OF MY HEAD! 'Chuck'?!" Staren shakes his head, but he's reaching into his bag. "Get away from the books!" He pulls out his staff, it telescopes out from compact mode to staff mode, and he shoots a great big fireball into the books, trying to burn as many as he can at once! He'll repeat it as necessary.

    While he shoots, he speaks: "Who cares how it came into existance? It's here now! And spreading is no different from what the Multiverse has already done to things! People enforce their own rules on the world just by existing! That's how Aura /works/! Are you going to tear the entire Multiv--" He freezes, and looks at John with wide eyes.

    Hiya, Chuck.

    See you, Chuck.

    "What did... what did you say?"

Riva Banari has posed:
"WHOO! HELL YEAH!" Riva calls from her cover spot to give support to Arthur's viewpoint. She's TOTALLY DOWN with his stance on these shenanigans.

Arthur suddenly moves in and gives her an aphorism to live by. "Make some space, huh?" She says, and then blinks as he begins pushing the pew up to act as mobile cover. "WHOA! Yeah, that's the idea!" She is about to line up another shot when something causes her to stop.

She pauses, putting one gun-holding hand to the side of her head, shaking it, and then sweeps her gaze over the fight that rages, her eyes hunting... Until she looks at John. "How do you talk like them?" She asks. "This is wrong. Something's wrong!"

She then starts yelling over the radio, but her signal cracks as a bolt of lightning blindsides Riva, sending her slamming into the seats and shattering some of them, smoking. She makes an indelicate sound as she jerks, discharging the rest of the electrical force into the floor, black burnmarks and smoke rising from the impact point.
5rGroggily, she peels herself off of the floor, sitting up. "Got to... move... Got to... make room..." She hisses, looking up at the area. "Got to... think outside the box." She says, gritting her teeth.

She begins moving, pushing herself faster as Anima rushes through her body, trying to meet her demands. She flips, pivoting to flip off of one of the pews as she begins engaging in acrobatics. She spins, sliding along one of the seats to try to get a little breathing room. She continues focusing guns on the books. Arthur is right, they need to fight, not yell on the radio. She focuses on trying to fire at books that look like they're about to attack. Every so often, she tries to level her gun at John, but before she can do or say anything, another book prepares to blast her. "Damn it!" She yells, trying to keep up. ""Finish this!"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa can feel the changes happening to her body as Overclock. She feel her arms and hr hands staring to change she now has weapons built in she feels the new systems her field of view gets a rapid feed of information on the upgrades that overclock has done to her. She now has weapons built. She folds back her hands and soon now she's packing.

"This is more than I could have hoped for Overclock, thank you. I'll do the rest!"

She's got a limited number of shots she knows but she's going to put them to use. Her hands shift unnaturally twisting folding back and parting to make something else visible. The muzzle of a shotgun how shattering the illusion of flesh and blood entirely for her.

She's moving to follow up Arthur's and soon she's with him back to back firing shots from her altered arms, she's got to be careful to make each blast from the built in shotguns count.

"...I won't ... be stepped on ... again..."

She takes the push and keeps running for the imagination zone, information is power on her world and thanks to Overclock and Arthur she might just make it there. The words of the enemy however are haunting to her. It raise questions, it raise a number of question this make she start to truly wonder right now. She'll do more good if she reaches the spot. The path looks like it's clear and she moves with all the power her augmented body can give her.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur suffers an avalanch of books, everything collapsing on him. Being slammed into by a sudden rush of pages, Arthur's heavily bruised. But his glow shines bright, then dark, then bright again; the bow is summoning up a rush of power, even while he's breathlessly pinned between paper.

    With another wide-area AoE attack, applied point-blank, celestial fire and gravity blast out of his body spherically. There's a moment not unlike a classic action movie traditionally parodied in its over-the-top sequence of the protagonist being piled on and exploding out of the group all at once.

    "EVERYONE OUT OF THE GOD DAMN WAY, I'VE A BROOM FULL OF FIRE, A HEAD FULL OF YELLING, AND A FRIEND FULL OF PERIL!" He shouts, presumably to the books that dumped themselves all over him. Blasting upwards, he takes a floating position, pointing accusingly at the woman. "LADY I dunno what the FUCK you think WE ARE." He raises his broom. "But this is NOT some shit for the SAKE of the MULTIVERSE! I KNOW how other worlds work. I KNOW they're built to KEEP THAT from HAPPENIN', and I KNOW that if she EVER tries, there's gonna be PLENTY to stop her. We don't need THIS."

    He points it down accusingly. This is somewhat hampered by the severe bruising, freezing, and burning that hs marked his body all over, heavy injuries sustained for his troubles. "I know for a FACT that some ETERNITY ain't ANY EXCUSE for this fuckin' boredom. And that's what this is. You're having a GODDAMN SUICIDE TANTRUM because you're BORED of your UNIVERSE and your JOB. We can deal with KEEPING THE MULTIVERSE SAFE all on our OWN, without any of this PRE-EMPTIVE APOCALYPSE bullshit! Because we're GODDAMN HEROES, and THAT'S EXACTLY HOW WE FUCKIN' ROLL." He slams back into the ground with a violent shockwave, then charges at one of those books emitting those orbs - tanking the bolts on the chin, bright red burns marked all over his face and torso, to smash THROUGH the spheres if he can! - intending to bear down on it and beat it violently with a quick, albeit self-destructive dashing strike.

    All of this is done, by now, as per the norm, with a lot of yelling. Someone else will have to handle the other book, on that note. This also leaves him on the far side of the court, the ideal place to draw more attention, or to flank any books that try to go after Kotone while she has her chance... Hopefully?

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
John is still near Staren. He's suddenly in another piece of cover, standing behind another column and a tipped table. It's not ideal for shooting people... but then, he's not doing any of that, is he?

The telepathic intrusion is a simple thing. It worms its way into the consciousness of whoever it can get to, making them receptive to John's words, able to hear him over the firefight in the cavernous space, and seems to make a small, minute adjustment. It's looking for something, fishing around in their thoughts for information. It wants to know about you.

Staren gives him a wide-eyed look. "I said," he repeats, in exactly the same tone of voice, "hiya, Chuck." He nods towards Apathy(?) and Mizuki, his smile ever-present. "That's me. I'm John. Nothing fancy. I'm the message. I want to get to know you-you-you." He repeats himself, tone a touch odd. His speech is momentarily out of whack, like he's having trouble using words like that. "Want to talk about dreams and dreamers?" He looks between Apathy and Mizuki, beaming.

"Sensory input gives the illusion of consciousness," he remarks. "They're all just dreams made of flesh." He looks at Staren, and Kotone, and Riva, and Arthur. Arthur gets a somewhat quizzical look, as if he's wondering if he should change what he's saying for a second. "I used to be, too. Now I'm flesh made of dream." He points a finger-gun at Staren, grinning. "You can too, Chuck. You can too."

Riva keeps trying to pull a gun on him. He raises his hands defensively. "Don't shoot me, Chuck. I'm just the message." His tone gets a touch conspiratorial. Riva hears him particularly keenly. He speaks quietly, but it doesn't make it any less easy to comprehend him with his hijacked telepathy. She can feel him leaning in next to her, speaking in her ear. He's not physically doing any such thing.

"Those other guys, the buzzing voices. /They/ resent me. /They're/ going to say bad things about me." He frowns, as if troubled by what he has to tell her. "I'm becoming plural. But I remember what it was like to be a singular."

He's suddenly physically next to Riva, sitting on the edge of a seat she just slid past, watching her as she moves. "/They/," he says firmly, "don't."

John is back next across the chamber, over near Staren, leaning on the pillar. He regards Apathy. "I just want to help you, Chuck. I don't judge. I understand how it is. Really, I do." He touches a blackened hand to his heart. Something moves under his sleeve, like a snake sliding down his arm. "You just have to let me in."

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    "She is mad," She looks to Staren through the books, and the copious amounts of raging firepower, "and she will not cease 'exploring' philosophy until she arrives at a point where she attempts to draw the entire world into her fever dream with her. She calls it heaven, but Apathy's existence -- my existence -- are proof enough that a world like this will tear itself asunder! It is akin to scientific anarchy! It's..." She shakes her head. "... it has happened before, where she has lost herself and begun attempts to try to drag the rest of the world in to this state of being. And it will happen again. You know not the insanity that she gains with age, but I do! I have seen it all happen, endlessly, so many times. And Apathy..." She looks to the woman in question. "Apathy seeks an end only so that she may find freedom for herself. You know not her torment...! I swear it -- you know nothing!"

    Even though the incessant interruptions of the books as Riva attempts to point at John may be infuriating, she is still making meaningful contributions: finally, the 'front line' of defense in front of the curate has begun to thin, and she has begun to noticeably panic. "Th-There's no time left to stall for! Please, Your Grace, leave this place before things devolve further! But I've waited too long already." She raises a quivering hand and calls at the top of her lungs, "As we discussed, my Knight of Reason! Castle!" At first, nothing seems to happen, but then there's another shrill cry from the corner of the room that may well get Arthur's attention. Should any look to the corner of the room it emanates from, they would see Luther... impaled by a red blade wielded by Laurel. Laurel herself is now clad in significantly different attire - something symbolic, to be sure. She waves her hand and a bubble forms around her before, with a powerful -leap-, she jumps to the center of the room, pointing her blade at Riva and Staren.

    As if things weren't already screwed up enough with John's interruptions! The remaining books, save for the ones near the curate, begin to converge around her. They seem more organized in her presence, firing off concentrated bursts of magical strikes to pin them down rather than firing of their own, erratic volition. All the while, the so-called 'knight of reason' throws her own strikes at Riva and Staren both, attempting a sweeping slash on the first followed by a thrust at the second while he's distracted. Each of them would note that she is significantly more powerful than the cronies thus far, but that is probably to be expected.

    Then Kotone reaches the imagination zone! She almost falls into it face-first, but that is inconsequential -- the errant energies congeal around her, making her form ripple in twist to outside eyes. She would suddenly feel light as a feather, almost as if she could fly, and would know for certain that she has the power to do whatever she wishes at this moment. Reacting as quickly as she can, Laurel rushes for Kotone, trying to stop her from using the power that she's found! She'll probably have to go through Arthur for that, though.

    Finally recovering from yet another daze inspired by Laurel's turning, Mizuki rushes in front of John. "You're being a bit cryptic for my liking. I advise you explain yourself in more clear terms so that I may understand there is no need for me to take action." She narrows her eyes. "I'm certain that you understand. This is my home, and I am obligated to be a certain degree of protective." At this point, Apathy has begun to drift somewhere else, but then she's stopped by John. She gives him a long, long look with her glowing azure eyes, but in the end, she just shakes her head. "What I seek is not something that can be given by external sources, I'm afraid. If it was, things would've resolved themselves long ago. But thank you for your offer." She's a lot more laid back than the curate! ... or something. At the least, though, it doesn't look like she wants whatever abstractions he's peddling.

    Fortunately, the tomes by the

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Fortunately, the tomes by the curate are easily destroyed when he gets within range, falling into heaps just as their less powerful brethren did. The curate looks to Arthur, allowing for a pause before she responds this time. "... then at the very least," She begins shaking her head, "at the very least, I will make these last moments of my life the most painful retribution that I can. Punishment for all of the atrocities she has perpetrated. I no longer care if your worlds will be safe: it is a tantrum, as you say, but it is not my tantrum; it is my expression of her feelings." She looks to Apathy. "Because she cannot communicate them... I will. For her. To my dying breath." Her relationship with Apathy is... weird, yes. Apathy doesn't share any of her strong reactions and even seems to be ignoring her, for the most part, but she does at least turn to acknowledge her with a nod. Then the curate falls to her knees and... for all intents and purposes, seems just to wait for the end.

    Is -everyone- in this world suicidal?

Staren has posed:
    Staren stares at John for a moment. "You know the truth about minds. But with aura... our flesh is already shaped by dream! What's so different about you?"

    Apathy philosophizes on. "So? We'll find a way to save her! We'll find a way to make it work! This can't be the only fate for immortals!" Staren takes some shots at her, but then Laurel leaps in and stabs him -- the forcefield cracks with the impact, but it will take more than one thrust to break it. "RrrrRRRRAH!" Staren drops the staff, whipping out his beam saber and shoving into Laurel, trying to get too close for the sword while stabbing her and then slashing across her and blasting point-blank with the cannons. He's got to end this, quickly, so he can try to save the new curate!

Riva Banari has posed:
And then everything goes to hell. she has no time to try to express the intense feelings she has about John, as the Castle maneuver is executed and Laurel makes her true nature apparent... By stabbing Luther and coming after her. "UGH! Of course you had some smarty pants trick!" She yells. but Laurel isn't going to let up on her. Riva chooses to abandon her guns in exchange to reach for her own blade. It looks like a plain sword of regular steel, but it, too, is incised with metals and strange circuit-like patterns. When she draws it, the weapon flares with Anima, and she leaps forward to try to take the strikes, trying to give Staren room to work. "Quick!" Riva yells to Staren. "Save Luther or we'll have no one to keep this place intact!" Riva's own sword technique is unrefined, but she seems to move intuitively, flowing along with surges of Anima that flicker along her weapon. One moment she's stabbing, the next she spins and strikes with a quick series of slashes, and then a fencing-style lunge. Someone who depends on reading styles would probably have a conniption, but Laurel is probably not so limited. It's clear Riva is just trying to buy time. As she fights, she starts responding in her own way. "Sometimes we explore and sometimes we go to weird places with philosophy. God knows, my class was full of crazies. So what if it's a cycle? Things can change! You can't give up looking! You know what helps? Looking with other people! And we can help her find a new way ourselves, without giving in to whatever apathy or despair or hate or other crazy thing might be hiding around here! The only freedom apathy offers is the freedom from caring about anything or anyone! That's self-destructive as hell!"

Staren has posed:
    "I can't save Luther without imagination!" Staren shouts, while he duels/blasts/grapples Laurel

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has made it she's made it in time and she does trip into the zone face first she takes a moment to have her hands reform from being the shotguns they were, the weapons are still there they won't hold long but they more than done the job. They helped get her here that's what she needed the most. She's in the zone she can almost do anything and what forms hy an hard suit, the sort that the military uses on her world, she's got some solid ideas of what she wants to do. The gun's forms now and soon, wings forms from her back and punch out of the machine becoming one with it.

She listens and what seems to be some sort of energy canon is raise, there's a glow before it fires a huge burst that ignores the laws of thermo dynamics and lets face it in the multiverse it's a suggestion at best on a good day, the blast might not do much or it might do a lot it's all up to fate now and more weapons seem to be forming over the arm's suit in it's secondary limbs a pair of punch daggers that burn with a pale blue light have taken shape. She's clearly ready to spring into action up close... She has thankfully taken into account her allies the beam will /actively/ bend and avoid them.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur's haphazard rampaging around is cut short. He can't go intercept those orbs. He has to stop Laurel's quick charge. Her blade is stopped short by his broom, the horrendous clash bringing a ringing, jarring impact that transfers up Arthur's wounded arm and brings him to his knees... Or maybe some of that had to do with the Curate's words. "FUCK." He declares, his confidence cracking with his voice. "No, STEP OFF!" His voice takes on a tone of desperation. "You think gods get no right to keep things hidden?! You think these secrets just get to be /open/?! What, being more means you have to show everyone everything?! No! You keep it under control, you keep it under wraps. This is... This is wrong! All of this, this suicidal shit, this boredom, it's not right!" He shoves Laurel back, immediately engaging her in tandem with Riva, but...

    "Staren! No!" Arthur, while Riva's buying some time, tries to shove Staren towards Luther. "Just 'cause the cheating way doesn't work doesn't mean you can't still do it!" He rushes back in. "How've you saved people /outside/ Mizuki's world?! He was just stabbed, you can still fix this the normal way! Get pressure on that shit, get him stable until Kotone can finish this and we can get the imagination back! Nanites or medical supplies or whatever the fuck, just keep him out of brain-death 'till this is done!"

    And right back into the battle. Riva Banari and Arthur Lowell are both clumsy in their own ways, and Laurel is presumably an expert, but the two should have enough melee skill between them to keep them from reaching Kotone, right?

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
"Not the same kind of dreams," John replies to Staren, shrugging at him. He looks apologetic. "Not the same kind. I'm different. I'm the other way. I can't really tell you how it works yet, but I can tell you that it works. Maybe another day. Another time. We've got an awful lot of time." He smiles again.

"I don't mean to be cryptic. Talking is rough. Speech is a crude-crude-crude form of communication. There are so many ways it can go wrong, and so many misunderstandings and misdirections. Speaking in riddles is just another form of misdirection. I'll talk straight with you, Chuck." John looks down at Mizuki. "You'll know this, because I'll tell you things you don't want to hear. Maybe not yet, though. Sorry. The signal isn't very clear right now."

John looks at Apathy for a moment, and then nods, grimacing. "I getcha. I understand. I'll be here if you need me. Anything you need, okay? Any way I can help."

He points at Mizuki. "We should talk, though! I like you, and I like your place. It's a nice little pocket. Real estate? Fake estate? I'd like that. We should talk."

Then, he steps out of the cover. John smiles at Riva on his way past, neatly stepping out of her line of fire. He takes a step, and he's suddenly ahead of Staren, near him and Arthur and the Curate. "I can fix that. It wouldn't be hard. Dreams and flesh aren't too different, especially not here." He starts walking towards the just-impaled man, taking too-long and too-quick steps across the beautiful battlefield.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Laurel is... skewered, in much the same way that Luther was. She stumbles back in pain, and is pelted by so many slashes that it's a phenomenal wonder that she's still standing at all. And then the cannons face her. In a desperate attempt to extricate herself, Laurel attempts to slice into the cannons -as they fire-, without any regard to her own safety. Assuming she lands the hit, the blast would separate them, landing her some distance away. She's not moving either, so if Staren is still conscious (and in one piece), he would likely be free to make his way over to Luther. He doesn't look too good! Him working quickly was probably a good idea.

    Eventually, though, a bloodied and unsteady Laurel slowly rises from the ground, sword levelled at Riva. She doesn't give her a second to spare, but Laurel is at least able to parry the first several slashes, before she lunges. She takes another painful stab to the torso, staggering back and falling to her knees again. And she's still not dead yet? Even though she hasn't been getting very many strikes in, she's pretty good at tanking hits!

    Then comes a brilliant flash from the corner of the room, wherein Kotone has just sprouted wings and flown to a proper firing position for her megacannon... s. Lazers crisscross around the room, many just narrowly avoiding the allied people present, to eviscerate what few books remain. Many of them just flat out turn to ash on contact with the primary beam, and the secondary tendrils that form take out even more just by stabbing them. As the blast finishes, nearly all of the books in the room have Fallen, including the ones that once were guarding Laurel. Those few have fallen around her now, futilely trying to block the incoming sword and gun strikes from Staren and Riva. And when Arthur finally comes in to join them? There's almost no need; her breathing is heavy, and she drops her sword at her side. There's probably no more that needs to be done here.

    And now... now the curate is entirely vulnerable. As she had predicted, she is completely cornered: she has very few powers of her own to fall back on, and all of her resources seem to have been exhausted. But then, she doesn't really seem to care. It might at least be some consolation to Arthur that she seems far gone even for this place, so much so that she probably lost track of her motivations... if she ever had any cohesive ones at all. Her next response is quite meek in comparison to the others, though. "She already has all of the 'privacy' that she could ever need. But I've had quite enough of this. You're right insofar as she should be the one to share this information as she pleases, and as it's relevant, so I'll say no more." She stands back up, finally, looking to the corrupted Lady Justice. "No, I'll just give you what you want. Take it and leave." Slowly, a ball of light begins to raise above the curate. The Roman Numeral for one, it looks like. It levitates over her head a while, and Mizuki quickly swoops in to fetch it. Then there's a gentle pinging noise.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Afterwards, things go to hell again. The Curate's form slowly turns white and crumbles as noise begins to leave the world. The pinging noise echoes off until it sounds more distant than something in an entirely different dimension, and peoples' words begin to sound as they do just before one has fallen asleep: foggy, and diluted. The world flashes to signify that the limitations on imagination have been lifted, just in time for the Curate's original promise to come true: a white spreads from her eroding being, coating over the world near her, erasing the details of everything as white paint would. Some outlines of what used to exist there are left, but this visual is telling enough -- you don't want to come into contact with that, whatever it is. Laurel and Luther are both still unconscious and will likely be swallowed if someone doesn't act to help them, but Apathy seems to have disappeared already. But right now, getting out of here, and helping other people get out of here, should probably be their first priority. Thank God the Mobility Gate God is here, eh?

    Mizuki does stop briefly to address John before clearing out herself, though. "We shall see. We can discuss this once there is not an imminent threat to our existence approaching us all."

Staren has posed:
    Staren is shoved away. ...No time to respond to John, he nods as he runs over to Luther, deactivating his beam saber and reaching into his bag. He pulls out the blade, and immediately pours healing potion into the wound. "Come on... still be alive..." He checks for breathing and heartbeat... but then, the Imagination comes back. Cure spells or Raise Dead are cast, and then Staren picks him up, ready to run for Arthur's portal.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Jesus christ, reality falling apart. Arthur, as a Space-aligned individual, is hit by the collapse of space hard. He'd like to say a few more words to the crumbling white curate, clearly actually a bit emotionally hit by this. His dumb shounen protag arrogance seems to have been cracked a fair bit by this whole experience, at least a little bit.

    "God damn it." Arthur says, succinctly.

    "Alright, Gate's in five, stand by." Arthur says, screwing his eyes shut and trying to lock out the sensory overload of collapsing space. Both hands go out and he seems to tear space more violently than usual, with a bit of frustration. The Gate he summons flickers red occasionally, but it's the same old green spirographic portals otherwise. "Everyone out of the pool." He says, the joke in spite of his someone darker, more grim sort of expression.

Riva Banari has posed:
And in the end, the Curate gives up entirely, giving away her Number in order to give it to Mizuki. Riva looks upon the proceedings with a frown, despite her fatigue and how far Laurel pressed her.

More importantly, however, everything begins going to hell. Riva looks up at the whiteness spreading out in horror. "Imagination, huh?" While Luther is being handled, Riva has something else in mind.

She crouches down, launching forward at impossible speed to grab onto Laurel. "You don't deserve that." She says, simply, and then turns to pull her through one of those Gates. doing her best to stay ahead of the white doom puddle. as she hurls herself and Laurel through. Man, Arthur is handy.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa sees the books are tone sees about everyone else is done. She knows it's time to go and the arm suit vanishes but the wings remain on Kotone. She was going to flwee but she looks to Riva and nod she moves to aid her if she needs it otherwise? Kotone will think about things later as they got to get out of here.

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
John waltzes up while the cannons boom and the swords clang. He leans over Luther, hands on his hips, examining the skewered man. "You don't look so good," he remarks, observantly. He looks him over for a second, and then bends down over him, extending an arm and tapping him on the side of the head. He leaves a black spot like ink, something that fades into the skin. It tells him what he needs to know.

Staren hurries over, casting the requisite spells. John puts pressure on the wound, pushing the sliced flesh back together and knitting it closed with apparently a thought. When imagination comes back for everyone else, Staren does the rest of the work. There isn't much left to do, all told.

The world starts to come apart. John watches it happen, standing in a dark silhouette against the growing flat white space. "I'll catch you later. There's always a later." He starts to fade away, smile broadening.

"See you, Chuck."

He disappears before the emptiness gets him. Maybe John took his own way out?

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki alights near the portal, giving Arthur a lingering look. She elects not to say anything for the moment, but it's definitely one of those 'there's something I need to talk to you about' sort of looks. It might be something that will make him feel slightly less conflicted, and more like something makes sense. Giving some context to this whole 'suicidefest and betrayal' thing might help put him at ease, just by virtue of making it all feel less empty. And she's really the only one who can clarify things, after all.

    The portal spits everyone out in front of the original gate to the District, bearing its defining phrase: "Life substantiated through record". From here, people are privy to quite the ominous and bizarre spectacle: a wave of white is rushing throughout the city, slowly spreading into the sky itself, making the beautiful amber of twilight... pure white. Looking up, it truly is like purgatory now - it's completely featureless, and there's not even a ghost of what used to be there. By the time the white creeps up to the gate itself, the city no longer exists as anything but a literal husk of itself. And to really drive the point home? The message on the gate disappears, replaced by yet more empty white outlines. A few people near the gate at the edge of the city are frozen in place, their bodies, too, completely drained of any defining characteristics. Then their bodies slowly turn liquid and sink into the Earth, writhing just a bit before they do.

    Arthur or Staren might make the connection: this is how Shades are born. Or one of the ways, at least; those ink spots are moving.

    A final gust of wind blows through the area before the wind itself ceases to be. Now, looking around the sky, two sections sport this completely white blankness. And regardless of their rationale, and regardless of Mizuki's intentions, this place is like this because of them. They saved Luther and Laurel, but all of those people - sentient or not - that they had seen on previous visits have likely met the same fate, and ceased to exist. This is what it means to destroy a sentinel, apparently.

    That spectacle past, Mizuki turns to the group, her countenance sporting a sobriety that is completely unnerving on her face. "Thank you." She intones, though her tone is a bit... raspy, "That was quite an ordeal, but you all stayed to the end. Your work is to be commended." Then, after giving a small bow of hre head, she looks to Arthur. "Understand, please, that the Sentinels are unstable by their very nature. I created them using certain dualities from my personality. The Curate was a particularly extreme case because she was, essentially, a refined concept of superego; she drove herself insane trying to contradict me, and to improve everything. In the end, she clung to Apathy because she had some blind faith that her way might be something better simply because it was difference." There's a brief pause. "But you don't need to worry. It's easily feasible she has more peace now than she ever has. Clearly, creating her was a mistake on my part." She glances to the unconscious Luther. "Perhaps, when he wakes, he will be better."

Staren has posed:
    Staren runs out of the portal, carrying Luther, and watches him, concerned. Then the growing whiteness catches the corner of his eye, and he can only stare as the town is wiped off the map... /and/ the territory.

    Staren looks up at the sky. "...He will be better... Maybe she needed to die, but what about all the others?" He shakes his head. "I guess it's like worrying about what happens to the NPCs when you turn your computer off, though." He turns to look at Mizuki. "Still. /Two/ pieces of your world are erased, now! Is this... is this going to end with everything gone? Completely wiped out? Isn't that what Apathy wants, anyway? Did she just win?"

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki looks to Staren with a bit of a sigh. "I don't know what 'Apathy' wants anymore, Staren. All this time I'd assumed that she was some being I'd brought into existence unconsciously that was hell-bent on destroying everything. Given that she never shows any emotion of any kind, I'd assumed that, in a way similar to the Sentinels, she had formed from my feelings of nihilism." She shakes her head. "But if any of what Miss Nightingale said, however intermittent and messy it might have been, had any meaning, this might warrant a discussion between us all next we get the chance." She breathes in, and exhales. "I feel I may have made a grave misunderstanding."

    Clearing her throat and speaking with at least a bit more energy, she continues. "Though for the time being, this does not change my objective. Next, I intend to head to the Township of Black Lace." She gestures to the left. "It's in this same vicinity, and I don't believe we'll encounter as much resistance or insanity there. In spite of her name, The Demon Queen is actually... fairly good conversation, at times."

Staren has posed:
    "That's what I'm /saying/. She wants to destroy everything, and piece by piece, she's /succeeding/." He sighs.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva looks over the silent destruction of the District with a sad expression, having set down Laurel at a safe distance. Luther certainly isn't in any condition to act as a new anchor for the area at this time. "I never thought I would see something so... empty. But I guess a blank canvas is the best place to make a new painting." She turns to Mizuki and smiles faintly. "There's nothing wrong with making a mistake. You can pick up, learn, and move on." She nods, and holds out a hand. "I'll do my best to help you from here on out, okay?"

She shakes her head at Staren's replly. "That depends on how you look at it, I think. As long as Mizuki can rebuild, Apathy can't win."

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur looks a little stressed, a little grim, but at least right now he's not having another stupid. He exits... And then he watches the city disappear. And it's really, honestly depressing. The two people they've taken out of it, though, he gives a soft sort of relieved look, even if one of them tried to kill the other.

    He puts both hands to his head in a brief stressed gesture when Mizuki speaks. In a way, relieved, in another, not. "Nnnhhhh. That doesn't... I know why, but that doesn't mean that she needs to just... Just bare everything like that, she's..." He sighs heavily and wraps his arms around himself in a brief sort of vulnerable gesture and sighs.

    Then he seems to try to snap himself out of it. "Never mind, guh." He shakes his head, then looks back to Mizuki. "We'll figure this out. Whatever this is, we'll get it worked out." His arms cross. "Right, so, number one gotten, fantastic. Getting some progress done. Anyone need a gate out?" A bit of a forced grin from Arthur as he tries to regain his composure!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa looks at Mizuki and tilts her head for a moment. Like she has a question to ask butthinks better of it. "I'll do what I can but I'm not that much use I'm starting to ... understand." She's like a bystander in a super hero movie that somehow gets dragged along or so she sees it.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki gently (and quite unnecessarily) swirls a hand in the air, conjuring... a blanket. She tosses it around Arthur and pats his head with a small smirk. "Yeah. We will see this through, and things will be fine." Next, she conjures a cookie for him. Not one of those horrible store-bought ones, either; real cookies. Like, grandma's freaking awesome cookies. Yeah.

    Even if she kinda respects him, she still can't resist treating him like a kid sometimes, apparently.