Scene #7524: MI: Shout It To The Heavens

Owner	Pose
Kale Hearthward	Welcome back to Camembert Way... ... where this might be a fairly short sceneset, because not much has changed here. You'd think there'd be more. The Watch showed up, made an ultimatum, destroyed a courthouse, and rescued a local resistance leader (not necessarily in that order). There'd be some effect here, as a result - the empire either backing off or doubling down, maybe, but right now there's neither. There's a few more soldiers out on the streets than there were last time, and a few Wanted posters put up with badly drawn caricatures of Watch elites, but that's about it. It's like the Empire is being aggressively passive with their response - or lack of response, really. "We will not be intimidated by the likes of you," the Gale Empire seems to be saying. "We will not be stayed from our course. You have no power to change the actions we are undertaking here." If you'd like to prove the Gale Empire wrong, the floor is yours. (Or if you'd like to do something else, something quieter, that's also available. Make your move.)
Selene	The last time she was here causing Problems on Purpose, Selene had her face painted up in a way that might be incredibly offensive to any actual rooster-people of this world. She's here again today to cause more Problems, but this time... Actually, she's wearing that same face paint. It's more intricately done than before with little details filled in that she had missed last time due to doing it on such short notice, and she even has a crappy Halloween store beak on to really make it stand out, but it's still probably kind of in questionable taste. At least she's not wearing her Gengar as a fatsuit this time around. Instead, she's just milling about, taking note of the soldiers on the streets and their lack of overwhelming presence. Instead of just starting a fight right off the bat (and also keeping her bat tucked safely away in its ball), she's instead got a black cat with orange markings perched atop her head, napping the minutes away as she approaches one of those guards and points at a poster, deliberately aiming at one that might even look like her. "Hey. Hey. What's with the signs? Did something happen?"
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Bercilak isn't with everyone else. Not just yet. The roar of the Wraith's pulse detonation engine hasn't been heard in town, though the mountainous region outside Camembert Way has had its wildife disturbed for the presence of the very same. After a flyover in search of a mountain suitably close to the Way, yet uninhabited by any military base, the Green Knight touches down and begins his work. This is going to be involved work--a two-stage plan that will grant the Resistance a place to meet away from the gaze of the Empire's spies, hopefully also to gather their strength and strike. When the bike sets down, the rider isn't clad in his armor, and the axe, though necessary to his work, isn't called forth just yet. First, his sleeveless shirt, bearing a cigar-smoking skeleton with some sort of targeting assist over the right eye, is removed. Then, materializing in a minute pulse of blue light, a pair of earbuds for some Tunes. As a popular heavy metal group serenades him about silver mountains, Bercilak begins the work of creating a home-grown wilderness, careful not to create any species of tree, grass, shrub or other flora which he hasn't personally seen on his previous visits. He starts at the base of the mountain, giving it a thickly forested surrounding that encroaches towards the Way. He is methodical and patient in his work, however long it might take--this first portion of the first prong of his plan involves making this new wilderness both flush with the outskirts of the Way, and sufficiently wide so as not to create suspicious bottlenecks for those leaving the town for this newfound wilderness. It may take him a while to do this--that's fine. He's huge and green and even a crude depiction of him is hard to mistake for someone else, he suspects. The next step of the plan, however long it might take, is to give one of those unoccupied mountains a windward side, lush with concealing greenery--and then, under cover of that greenery, hew, with powerful strokes of his axe, a cavern fit for a resistance cell to safely meet.
Hibiki Tachibana	LAST TIME, ON BREATH WEAPON: The Watch saved Derek's father and an important resistance figurehead, but Hibiki didn't come out of the engagement entirely satisfied with what happened. Corbina's final moments weren't those of the woman who was going to grind them into the dirt for the sake of her Empire, but...of someone who was fighting against that declaration of war and the threat to protect the things important to them. That's how she took that shift in her determination. Whether that was true or not, it didn't really feel right after all was said and done. And that feeling hasn't exactly left. She's had to do quite a bit of thinking, with a push from a certain mysterious stranger. Exactly /what/ she's going to do is still something she's not entirely sure about it, but today's the day to figure it out one way or another. Depending on the Gale Empire's response to what happened before... Hibiki wasn't particularly expecting them to hardly have one at all though. The thought of them not learning a single thing from that is one that leaves her looking almost aghast noting how little has changed in Camembert Way, while staring at a very unflattering poster of herself put amongst a few of the others. "That's it...? Are they asking to be hit even harder than before?" It gets under her skin for two reasons: the Empire isn't taking them seriously at all, making them either supremely confident or supremely shortsighted in her eyes...and because it really does make it feel like their enemy from last time fought to the end and died so violently for nothing. Fists clenched, she turns away from the building their faces have been plastered on and marches down the street. Heading in the southwestern part of town, the only place of import she could be headed towards is the Sturdier Sword Inn. And she's not taking any real care to lay low on the way either. Hm.
Xion	While Bercilak used his grand abilities as the Green Knight to establish the rolling sun-dappled hills that spread out below an abbey at the foot of a mountain (or something), Xion (Mouseterious Heroine X) had joined Hibiki on more 'recon' in the city. It felt like window-shopping, voyeuring in on something, starting fourteen episodes into a season and shouting at the screen. Confusion. A lack of response. A show of strength? Xion hated it. Sullen, Great Mouse Detective Xion droops at Hibiki's right, arms crossed and sour. "Do we just... start throwing more hands? that's crazy, right? Is it... can it be fine to let it just snap back like a rubber band? It's fine for our goals but..." "... it sucks." She tisks.
Kale Hearthward	"Nothing happened, just some never-do-wells from out of town, causing a disturbance," says the guard... ... pausing as she looks from the poster to Selene. "... Sir - er, I mean miss, sorry. Miss, I need you to come with me, please," says the guard, in a tone that suggests that saying no isn't really a long term option for Selene. Bercilak starts his work. (Side note: there in fact isn't any wildlife.) He gets a good chunk of the way into his plan when he overhears someone during a break in his soundtrack, fortunately out of line of sight of Bercilak. "It's somewhere around here, I'm pretty sure," says a voice. "The disturbance - we need to bring the instruments out here, triangulate and see if we can pinpoint it down." "It's probably just an airship engine misfiring, I'm telling you, but fine - we'll go get the instruments," says the second voice. On further investigation, it turns out to be a crocodile and an otter, both wearing mage robes with no insignia. Back in town, the Sturdier Sword is still the site of both mildly unclever innuendo as well as the makeshift HQ of the occupying soldiery - and there's a few of them milling around. ... Most notably, the hyena officer, in uniform with their weapon of choice (a boat oar) strapped to their back, leaning against the front wall of the inn and watching the clouds go by. They seem to be waiting for something, content to just stand there and wait for it to happen.
Hibiki Tachibana	Part of Hibiki wishes she was off in the verdant green forestry that Bercilak has made and set to work on, just so she wouldn't have had to come across this. But that'd just be putting things off, really. Even if it has her looking no less downer and full of just as many if not more bad vibes than Xion right now. Her lips are pursed tight, and remain so while she slightly turns her head away from the other girl. "...No, it's not fine. Just because it 'works' doesn't make it right. I'm not--" She tenses up visibly. "I'm not letting this escalate into an actual war because they're too proud to face what happened, or just being idiots who don't take a threat seriously, or whatever it is. We came here to help people who need it. Not...that." She winces, shaking her head. "What the hell did Corbina even die for if this is what happened...?" She sounds equal parts despondent and pissed off, finally looking back to the Great Mouse Detective after squaring up her shoulders with a furrowed brow. "So I'm going to try to get them to listen to me. I'm going to try to talk to Liza, too. I'll find a way to make it work out." It's difficult to tell if she's sure of herself or just trying to be hopeful about it. Maybe both. But as they start upon the Sturdier Sword Inn proper, with the building coming into sight, she doesn't stop walking despite the troopers about. Hibiki is intent on going right up to the very familiar hyena - albeit with a silent swallow hard to see with her jacket drawn up - to stand a decent distance away and await some kind of acknowledgement, whether from them or some of the other Galers.
Selene	A saner operative would take the guard's statement as a potential threat, something worth avoiding in order to avoid getting stabbed a lot or trapped in some weird place. Selene, however, sees a ticket right to the inside of wherever it is the soldier wants to take her. With a belt full of balls, a fanny pack full of chemicals, and a vague phantom force filled with weird... Whatever it is Samhain's made of, she braces her hands on her hips, then squawks incredibly loudly. Just once, thankfully. It's distressingly accurate, though. "Huh? Oh, yeah, sure. Where're we headed? I gotta get to the market before my moms get back, because I told them I'd only be out for a little while before picking up some stuff for lunch even though neither of them know how to cook and the last time I made something, we all got food poisoning because I thought it was fish sauce and not actual poison." She's also not going to be shutting up any time soon. It's almost as if she's doing this to make sure everybody knows exactly where she is and which way she's going.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Voices? Bercilak pauses his Tunes and grins. These two... don't have any obvious insignia on those robes. So maybe they're not Galers. But they still warrant watching, and with at least a token measure of subtlety. The axe disappears. For as much as it might help, his green hair and skin also shift to a more human pigment. There are, after all, no naturally-occurring humans here, much less 7'6" ones, green or otherwise. And that mohawk is pretty distinctive, no matter what color it is. The shirt stays off--the particular Energy of it would be a dead giveaway even absent everything else. Keeping distance between himself and them, Bercilak waits for them to head off in search of 'the instruments,' following signs of their passing rather than attempting to keep them in his field of vision. With no wildlife to speak of, it should be fairly simple to follow the path of flattened undergrowth and snapped twigs. Where are these instruments being kept, and are they, or their containers, marked with any kind of identifying insignia, where the mages' robes aren't? More importantly, if he can also manage to wait out and track down the location of this alleged 'disturbance' by the signs of their passage, then can he rule out whether his work is the disturbance?
Xion	Stewing on it next to Hibiki, Xion retains and redoubles her sourness, bouncing off the grumbling blond's wavelength like a megaphone crackling against her nerves. Her foot taps quicker and quicker and quicker, an impatient tic becoming a furious stamping. She wants to pop off, it's an invitation to pop off. To scream, to shout, to demand they stand-to or heck off. Exhaling sharply, Xion de-inventories a candy bar into her paw and unwraps it gingerly, jamming the whole thing into her face and chewing. From sullen to neutral to 'just had a candybar', her mood stabilizes. "Whatever. They're probably just waiting for the attack, right? It's--" Xion gasps. "Oh wait. I can just listen to their hearts, and find out!" Grabbing Hibiki's hand suddenly, Xion -- follows the blond right towards the Hyena at the Sturdier sword, hand in hand, awkwardly transitioning from about-to-lead to being-led in a cloud of confusion. When the pair slow up to watch, Xion extends her senses outwards, to take stock of the heart of the oar-wielding hyena.
Liza Grier	>"That's it...? Are they asking to be hit even harder than before?"< "Yes." This is Liza's unflinching assertion, to Hibiki or the rest. "Doesn't matter whether they respond with media control or militarization. Censoring it, denying it, sweeping it under the rug, or blowing it up, grandstanding, and spitting fiery dogma. The idea is always the same. If you cut it just a tiny bit, the organism bleeds, but then scabs right over. If it felt real inconvenience --real pain-- from an injury that small, it wouldn't be as big as it is." "But more important is making sure that everyone knows it isn't injured at all. If someone stands out and makes more effort than everyone else, but it looks like it doesn't make a dent, it's often more effective calling out and threatening anyone who sympathizes. 'Your efforts won't matter, so don't think about it. You'll just get hurt'. The passive, silent version of that line you always hear. 'We don't negotiate with terrorists'. It means 'You can't make us change. We refuse. We'll sacrifice any number of people to avoid reconsideration.'" She's already shown up in her combat suit, of course. She'd made her intentions perfectly clear. "That discomfort you're feeling. It's because Corbina died for nothing, and you know it. It feels wrong seeing what loyalty to the machine gets you. It's because loyalty to the machine is unnatural itself. And because the machine can't change without breaking, you break it. And because the people addicted to it will die for it, you kill them. This is the reward they signed up for." "So, are you gonna be a problem? Or are we going to do this?"
Kale Hearthward	The hyena glances over at Hibiki. There's a flash of recognition - and then no sudden moves. It's like they've spotted something elusive and flighty, and don't want to scare it away. (It being Hibiki.) The hyena feels... resigned. Resolute. They don't want to be here doing this, and they are not entirely certain about how well they'll survive the day, but this is their duty. Things were fine till the Watch showed up. Now Corbina's dead, they might have been declared war on, they're not getting enough support from the top while simultaneously being told to deal with it. But she still has to be here, and still has to go through the motions, and maybe she can find solace in taking out a few of the multiversal invaders if she's going to go down swinging here. "That's my question," says the hyena, finally, not having overheard all of what Liza's said but hearing enough of it. Behind them, the patrol's bringing Selene into the inn. One of the rooms looks like it's been set up as a sort of makeshift cell - though the room next to it has been turned into a sort of makeshift workshop, in which the mouse from the courthouse is busily working on some sort of suit of armor. "Gotta ask - before we get into it - you actually declaring war?" the hyena continues. "Because that's not the sorta thing you say to, y'know, a conquering empire unless you actually mean it. Because it might get taken literally." She stands up straight, and digs in her pocket, pulling out a pair of flares. "I've made it easy, even - red one's your ticket if you're being literal. Blue one's if not. That's the one condition I've got to fulfill here, then we can get to beating each other to death."
Kale Hearthward	The instruments are back in town, so it takes a little bit. The instruments are a bunch of spinning whirling alchemical things - the sort of stereotypical mage instruments one would expect. "Not getting an active signal anymore," says the crocodile. "I'm telling you, it was an airship misfire," says the otter. "It was too close to the ground for that..." says the crocodile, poking at the whirling thing. The robes are unadorned, but the folding table that they've been set up upon bears an orchid insignia.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	An orchid? Doesn't look like Gale stuff. Or, for that matter, anything he's seen of Quicknest. He's... pretty certain that they're talking about his landscaping. Ordinarily he'd strike up a conversation about that exact thing, but the nature of the project means a little discretion is in order. "O, shit, I am sorli," he says, stepping out of the dense brush once the two mages arrive back at the Spot with their instruments. He suppresses the upwards twitch of his mouth at the utterance of those words. Clearing his throat, he gestures towards the Wizard Tools. "Hath I tostourbed thee?" There's a polite pause--though it might be somewhat lost, given by a shirtless man in the woods. His eyes flick purposefully towards the insignia on their tools. "I ofhered thee unk bothe journeien hither, and awened I thou might hath ben diswaried, sinnes thou biseme not of Gale ne Quickrest." There's a circular gesture with a thick finger, indicating the forest in a general sense. 'Are they lost' is the vibe, but 'where are they from' is the implied question.
Kale Hearthward	"Orchidmeadow Mage Academy - neutral in all this, though technically we're from Quicknest?" says the crocodile. "Like the country? That's a fascinating accent, by the by..." "So it's just some random multiversal. Mystery solved, can we go back now?" says the otter. "'Just' some random multiversal - come on, how many 'random multiversals' have you seen?" "Five. Tourists." "Well, now, here's your sixth - more interesting than a tourist, I doubt many tourists are shirtless in the woods." The crocodile approaches - smiling a smile that shows off too many teeth. "I'd love to see... whatever it is you're doing, take some more readings, maybe have you sit down for a few questions, run some tests, maybe have you speak in front of my class, keep a few hair and skin samples to run some more tests on - you know, nothing really major...?"
Selene	And so, the rooster-painted lass is brought inside! She lets out an unmistakably immature snicker as she realizes that the guard's brought her to the inn rather than a real prison, although she doesn't elaborate on why. Instead, her mind is soon occupied with drawing a mental map of the place as she goes through it, taking particular note of the cell and the workshop with the familiar mouse in it. "Hey. Hey. So where're we headed, anyway? Do you know if there's any good sales around here? Or special weeklong events? Because now'd be a pretty good time for sales to get rid of old stuff if there was some kinda disturbance. Did they hit any of the good shops?" She doesn't actually wait for the patrol's response to her stream of consciousness bullshit, though, instead doing a hard turn towards that workshop. She doesn't try particularly hard to get away from the patrol if she stops the rooster-masked, though, more or less acting like an easily distracted teenager on a field trip who would much rather look at anything but what the tour guide is trying to show her. If she can get to the workshop, though... "Hey. You in there. Is that a robot or is it some kinda weird cyborg armor that doesn't really do anything cool on its own without a pilot? Because if it's the second one, I call first dibs. You gotta get someone like me on it so you'll know for sure if it'll work for what you need it for, right? Right." More stream of consciousness, but with a hint of... Optimism? Threats? Dealmaking? It's not entirely clear from that perpetually eager grin on her rooster-patterned face.
Kale Hearthward	"It's the empy - it's a Breath Weapon, technically a breath armor, with the new duplicate user interface on it- running Shell Game and Ground Hater and I'm figuring out if I can cram a third one in there or not - the lab tests work and I'm compatible, but it hasn't seen actual combat yet, and the Watchers might be here at any moment so not really in the mood to let anyone else 'test' it, sorry..." She turns away to grab a tool from a workbench, turning her attention away from the suit of armor. It's mouse-sized, so it might be a little tight, but Selene might just be able to get into it before the guards catch up to her or the mouse realizes what's happening.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Bercilak grins right back at the crocodile. "Thou'rt som-whatli fair fetured thyself," he says, running a hand through his mohawk and giving the both of them the Look. It's fun to throw the academic types off. He leans against a tree, arms crossed, glancing between the two of them. "I profren a covenant. I shalt sware ani questioun either of thee shalt ofaxe," he says, listing off terms with his fingers. "I shalt sheu thee unk bothe what-sum-ever thy ofaxe. I shalt speke bifore thy studients. Thou may unk bothe hath thy saumples, and may e'en enjoie my yefts as thine own. Ak..." The finger-list stops, and his eyes glance between the two mages to ensure understanding. "The bettren of thy scolerli craft shalt hath prisinge. If thou lest to ilern, and ilern thou shalt--thanne the prisinge is thy neutralite. Not thy scole's neutralite. Thine." A quick dart of an extended finger between the two of them. "It shalt be the loialte of thee unk bothe to a cause of my chesing--and shouldst thou either ifail, thy saumples shalt astrue thee and thy scole alik." "Art thou unk bothe greed with that?"
Hibiki Tachibana	Despite the seriousness of the situation, there is still the faintest wisp of awkwardness following her as well when she inadvertently steals Xion's dramatic moment of marching them forward. She does take her hand quite firmly nevertheless once she's determined to be the leader. Though it doesn't really last that long once Liza intones as they reach their destination, and the officer says her piece right after. Her expression grows heavy and she doesn't respond to either of them immediately, her attention shifting uneasily between the two of them - and then to Selene, who's getting led off in the not-so-background. She'd be a lot more worried about that if it wasn't for the kind of ideas Selene was coming up with before involving getting into places. Like warehouses. And city halls. But if things here did get messy, and she was inside when it did... No. She won't let that happen. Metaphorically picking herself up, but also clenching her hands tight again, it's Liza who she decides to face. "/Yeah/, it's because she died for nothing. I'm pissed off nothing has changed and it doesn't seem like anybody cares - especially not you, using her like...like an example. And from the way I'm hearing it, you already knew it'd be like that!" Despite her assertion that she was coming here to try and make things settle down, there's a flare of her temper that she can't keep restrained. Which she apparently realizes a moment later, going from fierce and straightforward to gritting her teeth and casting her eyes off to the side. "...Turning this into a real war is just going to make more situations like that. People dying when they don't have any reason to. When they don't need to. It's not like the Empire is one big, evil machine. When she went down fighting, it was to protect what she cared about. Just like the resistance here fighting for Camembert Way." Hibiki's voice drops into a low murmur, but by the end of it, she's managed to stare back at Liza again not with loads of anger, but resolution. "As long as you're treating them like things to hurt the whole more than living beings, then we're not here to make things better; we're making things worse. I know we can figure something out without needing to make a lot more Corbinas. /Without/ executing anyone else. If you think that makes me a problem, then I'm going to be a problem." There's a bite that comes back to her voice, before she turns to the hyena. "...Even if it doesn't seem like anything has changed here. You knew her, didn't you? Even if it's hating us, you have to care. And I'm sure you're not the only one."
Xion	With Hibiki being Player One, Great Mouse Detective Xion is dragged along more like a fretful doormouse in a Disney production. A wide-angle shot, a jog through the city, and Liza's cutting voice. It's all - almost - too much. But the Hyena presses on the topic. "A real war? That's what you think you're fighting? That's what you're ready for? Does it make you feel better if it's a real war that we say it is?" Extending a hand, Xion reaches for the flares, across the distance, and purple motes-and-twinkles begin to eat away at the objects, the red one first. Because Xion fully intends to Inventoryize, at range, the two flares. "You're already at war with these people, taking from them, tearing them apart, taking things they need to live and shelter they depend on. There's no 'oh are you ~newcomers~ fighting against us offically', I'm not here to fit into your boxes. You're here to take things from people. We're here because that sucks. There's no color of flare for that!"
Kale Hearthward	"Sorry - what did he say?" says the otter, having lost track around 'prisinge'. "We agree to abandon neutrality, us personally not the school, he answers our questions, otherwise his contingency spell blows up in our face - which sounds fine to me," translates the crocodile. "Agreed!" he adds, eagerly. "I mean - I'm kind of invested in not getting pulled into this and keeping the school from getting pulled into it. You do you. I'm going to go before I learn something I'm going to regret," says the otter, turning and leaving. "... Your loss... but... Alright - what do you have?" the crocodile looks like he's about to burst with excitement.
Liza Grier	The harsh static that comes from Liza's vocalizer --something she refuses to fix-- could be interpreted as a cough, a dry laugh, or some kind of electronic growl, though in no case is it pleasant. "Is that how it is? 'We're big and you're small, so don't think about it?' You're proud of that aren't you. Not that you're strong, because you're not. Not that you're right, because you're not. But because you're part of something big and strong enough to make the things you don't like go away. Let the 'conquering empire' smooth out all the wrinkles and you don't have to think about it, huh?" If she hears Hibiki at first, it can only be the cause of the ramping, heated static inflecting her voice. The sound of thought-gears clicking and revving into a second drive train. Red thoughts. "And by 'part of' I obviously mean a disposable tool. Fit to be thrown away like you never existed, the instant you fail. Like Corbina. And exactly like you deserve. And when it's all over, they'll damn your name for supporting evil, just like they were always against you; like you were in control and they were helpless to stop you. That's what you are to them. And you're even less to the people you're marching on the backs of." That gauntleted hand drops on top of Hibiki's head. Contrary to how patient she'd been before, Liza's grip is there to turn the girl's gaze forward again, instead of looking away like that. "Nothing changed because the people who have to don't want to. It's not these people's job to change to suit you. And you have all the power in the world to make it stop. Any time you want. Fighting doesn't make you big. It doesn't make you brave. It doesn't make what you were fighting for worth anything. Because before all this even began, one day you decided you'd swear to kill whoever you were told, and here you are. And since you're so proud to kill for your Emperor, you can die for him too." And now she's at the point of turning Hibiki to face her, in as much as there's anything to look at but the glare of optics under the shadowed face of her helm. She definitely heard. "Dying while believing in an evil machine doesn't redeem the evil machine. And it doesn't redeem her. You fought them back then, you fight them now. You can go ask the Emperor in your teary little voice to please politely stop. But you know as damn well as I do that this will go and go until there are no more Corbinas to make." "So what's it going to be? Are you going to cave into that conditioned, brainwashed thing you call a guilty conscience? Are you going to fall in with them because you don't like how it looks when the establishment gets hit back? Or are you going to finish what you already started? There is no other option. This is how it worked for Quicknest, and now it's how it works for them." Weirdly enough, when she releases, and lightly shoves Hibiki aside, the red leaves Liza's tone for a very short while. "Ignore the kid. If she's too scared of you then she doesn't get to vote. Do whatever you need to. Call up your Empire, so you can all die alone together." "Same deal as she had. You've got two minutes."
Selene	"Breath armor? Oh, like the.. Uhh. The thing! Blowing really good." Selene waves vaguely as she speaks as though that'll help either of them understand what she's talking about, pausing briefly to eavesdrop on the conversation going on about wars and flare colors and being problems to some degree. Could she become a problem right now? Definitely. Should she? Not immediately. No, even Selene's got something else on her mind as she turns her attention back to the mouse mechanic, furrowing her brow at the mention of 'Watchers' and cramming things into the armor. "If you can't fit 'em in normally, what if you just make two of 'em a disc or something? So you can have the main one in the armor's main blowhole, and then the other one gets switched out if you think you need to be really good at blowing stuff down or blowing it up." She's totally saying blow on purpose, but it sounds like some part of that might actually make sense in Selene's mind despite the way she's saying it. As she speaks and the mouse turns away, though, Selene sees an opportunity. "That way, you've always got one good main loadout, and then you get the side deck you can swap the gimmicky stuff in to counter your hard counter instead of having to worry about building two decks..." Should Selene actually manage to get enough of herself in, she just starts moving. Where? She's not sure. The exit sounds like a good place, especially if it means regrouping with her allies when it sounds like THINGS might be going down. She also starts blowing on everything, apparently taking the 'breath' part literally and trying to figure out if she's got super fire breath or something with that armor.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Bercilak gives the otter a wave as he leaves the forest. The towering woodsman watches him leave. When it's just the Green Knight and the crocodile, and the otter is safely out of sight, he pushes off of the tree and extends his hand for a handshake, silently and expectantly waiting for that gesture to be made before he shows anything. With the covenant made, he begins. First, his skin returns to its startling green coloration, as does his hair, his irises an alarming shade of red. Turning his back on the crocodile, he extends a hand. Into his waiting grasp appears that massive bearded axe, constructed rapidly in a wave of blue light. Resting his free palm against the trunk of a nearby tree, he makes a clean, precise one-handed swing. His hand thuds against the ground, and when he turns, red musculature is already entwining around the bones which sprout from the stump at his wrist. "Cacche," he says jovially, making a low arcing 'serve' to toss the severed hand the crocodile's way with the cheek of the axe. Next, a tuft of his bushy green beard, which regrows just as rapidly. As for what he's doing... "Bifore thee and thy frend journeied hither, I awened hit necessarious that theim who obsist the Empire shouldst a heding-place hath. I would dight it todai--but it biseme mine labourage is not so prive as I ithought." There's a pause. "Wel-come to the Resistance, swich-wise," he adds after the fact with a toothy grin of his own. The edge of the axe is gently pressed against the roots of a tree. Crawling up the bark, there sprouts from root to stem to leaf to bulb, a smattering of wild orchids.
Kale Hearthward	Hibiki brings up Corbina. The hyena's face ticks downward in a momentary frown. "Corbina... should have run. It was an ambush, outnumbered, she felt she had to make a stand, I suppose..." "... But she didn't die for nothing. We're not gonna be pushed around, and - if she died to make that clear, then I'm gonna find solace with that. We poured one out for her already, me and Hazelthistle, I'm done mourning her and I'm here now." "What we care about... you think we aren't here to make things better? Like we'd conquer a country just to grind it into the dirt?" Hibiki's scored a point here, though, with her words. The hyena startles when their flares are taken. "What - Hrf. If I don't send a response, they're going to take it as 'real war'." Xion can tell that the hyena is speaking the truth. She can also tell that, yes, her words are sinking in as well, even if the hyena doesn't want to give them a verbal response. It looks like she's being swayed... at least somewhat... And then Liza speaks. The hyena's face gets gradually - and then not-so-gradually - darker. When they speak, they're specifically addressing Xion and Hibiki, not Liza. "Yeah. You want to know what's best for the people here? Not having all of you come in, start declaring what's evil and what's not evil and throwing your weight around while deciding what's right. You can call yourselves good - whether you are or not, doesn't change that the next outside group that comes through might be more interested in burning the place to the ground than talking, or turning everyone into robots, or vampires, or whatever else is beyond these shores." "Unfortunately, to build ourselves up to the point that we can stop them some people need to give up their homes, or get out of the way, or just stop interfering. Does it suck? Yeah. I'm not gonna deny that, here, you and me. But it's for the long term good." "But - fine. I'm tempted to say fine, report back that the presence here is overwhelming, order a full permanent withdrawal - let you deal with defending this place - or let them come begging for us again." "As it stands - we're leaving. On our own terms. You don't get to dictate those terms - none of this two minutes bullshit, or the decision will become a lot easier for me to make." Xion gets a particular bit of insight at this point, also.
Kale Hearthward	"Wait, what - don't!" says the mouse, turning, startled at seeing what's going on - but it's too late, and Selene's in the armor. Inside, it seems like an otherwise normal set of plate mail - aside from a bunch of wires running around on the inside of the armor, and the 9-segment LED display in a corner of the helmet, like a poor man's HUD. It reads, rapidly scrolling through text: DUPLICATE USER INTERFACE ACTIVE INTERLOCK DISABLED 1-SHELL GAME >2-GROUND HATER< 3-ERROR 4-ERROR CLAP HANDS TO CYCLE There's also a nozzle - like the mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument, at close enough mouth level that she could blow into it. The guards are gathering, trying to pull Selene out of the armor, or at least blocking her from getting outside. It's not a mecha, just a normal suit of plate armor, albeit one just light enough for Selene to move around. Meanwhile, Bercilak makes his demonstration. The crocodile flinches back when the cut is made, and then when it's thrown he almost misses, fumbling it before catching it. "Catch? What am I- oh, right, the sample, thank you." "... The resistance - oh, dear. Well... still worth it, for a chance to learn these things..." He examines Bercilak's new hand and the flowers closely, impressed by both. "Where did you learn such magic?"
Xion	Waves of feelings crash into the rock of Xion's psyche, a weather vane in a tempestuous pressure differential. Between the raging heart of a teenager, the fury of the bold and red, or the raw nerve needs of the hyena across from them. Xion closes her reaching hand, the purple motes leaving the blue flare and fading away. Apparently, Xion understood the hyena needed that one still. Even if she didn't like it. "Liza, they can't all leave in two minutes. If they decide to go, that might..." Her tone falls, but her expression -- her eyes do not. "... A lot less people will be hurt. And that's a win for us too."
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	"Morgana le Fay," answers Bercilak truthfully. "But one might ilern withoute mesures as drastik as hers. 'Tis nanytes, ywis--liti devyses, in mine blod." He presses his thumb against his index finger to demonstrate. "Come! I shalt sheu thee mo--we must dight the heding-place, for what is to come. What is thy name?" Bercilak shoulders the axe and travels through the woods with the newly recruited crocodile, venturing to the mountain with the newly made windward side. Tapping a thick bicep, he attempts to explain the source of another of his unusual abilities. He opens his mouth. Then closes it. Is he really struggling to describe cybernetics after such a succinct explanation of nanotechnology? "Mine bones, muscles, fleshi parts al, hath been chaunged; ah... reposen with devyses dight for the ilk-same purposes. Thurgh that, and thurgh mine nanytes..." He hefts the axe, his hands taking a wide grip on the weapon as he digs his heels in and stances up for a swing. The blunt heel of the weapon is driven into the side of the mountain, hollowing out the beginnings of a cave with the first swing. This might take a while. But it's pure brute force--so as long as he's careful about where he swings, hopefully no more curious mages will come to visit. "The nanytes art muchly liti," he further clarifies. "Oversmal. But whanne-so multitudinous liti wights labour togeder, marvilouse things may itide." There's a gleam in his eye, and a sense that he's not just talking about nanites with that statement. "Doth thou perpend?"
Selene	It's just like Selene always...! Actually, she wasn't really sure what to expect beyond 'an interface' and 'something to blow on'. she has enough time to read the HUD as it shows up, but she can already feel the guards trying to pull her out and stop her from getting outside with this prototype(?). "Don't worry, it's fine! If you wanna make it foolproof, then the first test is making sure some kid can't fall into the driver's seat!" She lets out an excited whooping noise as she claps her hands repeatedly times, watching the HUD to try and get it to SHELL GAME while jogging around in that suit just to make things a little harder for the guards to buy herself a little more time. "But come on. There should be some kinda password at least, you know? Otherwise, you might get some weird stuff going on like... Uh..." She doesn't finish that sentence, instead just moving onto step ??? of her plan: Actually doing something useful for the Resistance. Maybe. The armor could be useful, after all, although she doesn't have the physical aptitude to fight off the guards for long. What she does have, however, is various methods of cheating! In this case, trying that one weird thing with the photo frames again. As Selene struggles with the guards, a large photo frame forms on the ground beneath her while a similar frame appears on the outside wall of the inn just beneath the roof. "Hands off, or you're gonna really wish you didn't have hands at all!" The armor'd Selene blows into the nozzle to see what that does, and then the photo frames activate. She falls right through the one below her, the brief burst of speed from going downwards through the ground-frame launching her horizontally out of the wall-frame to give her a potential head start on escaping! Aside from the fact that the frame is still there and could just as easily be used by those guards, but can they really trust this weird magic photo frame pulsing with weird dark energy? (Yes, if they're not intimidated by it.)
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki listens to every last word coming through Liza's helmet, including the ones not directly aimed at her--though there's little difference when she's made to look forward, not that she fights against the grip at all. Her face tightens into a grimace-- And then she /is/ speaking her way. Staring eyes to helmet, her own expression is much less hidden as it steadily shifts from frowning to snarling, teeth visibly clenching more by the sentence. No more Corbinas to make. That conditioned, brainwashed thing you call a guilty conscience. Call up your Empire, so you can all die alone together. But you're not really upset that they died. You're just grieving that you couldn't save them. She doesn't realize she's been nudged back until several seconds after the fact, remaining where she ends up with her gaze cast at the ground instead of Liza. She looks like she's about to lash back with much more than just a light push until the hyena's words hit her, and get her to stop short. She starts saying something, gets it caught in her throat, and several seconds pass before anything else comes out. "...That doesn't make stepping on all of these people to do it right either. When has long term good ever been an excuse to do things you know that suck...? If you're here to make it better then why does it have to even be this complicated, damnit...!" With how low her voice is, it's difficult to tell if Hibiki is speaking to them as they prepare to go or just venting to herself. But she at least understands that trying to push anything else right now is going to lead to the opposite of what she wants. After a much more obvious swallow than her earlier one, and straightening up to a proper stand after being slouched over for half of that, she speaks back towards Liza with a lot less tact than Xion. "I'm not scared of them, or you. Don't talk like having a conscience is a bad thing--I'm not /falling in/ with anyone, I'm doing what I think is right." There's an almost-wince that strikes her, like she remembered another especially unpleasant thing, but it's gone after a moment. "...Whatever happens, I won't let there be any more Corbinas. Not in the future and not right now." She won't stop them from leaving, and she won't let Liza stop them if she tries either.
Kale Hearthward	Bercilak leads the crocodile into the hiding place. The crocodile listens. "Small devices, alright... and... devices inside your body, tiny ones? That sounds so fantastical... how do they get them into you?" He asks a lot of questions along those lines. "Yes, yes, I understand..." Selene gets clear of the guards via jumping through a portal, and ends up back on the streets as the nozzle does its thing. The 9-segment led display starts scrolling with new words: INPUT ACCEPTED ROUTING THROUGH DUPLICATE USER INTERFACE DAMPENING BREATHPRINT - ACTIVATING COMPENSATORS The armor whines, hidden machinery in the metal activating. Something seems to break- some gear slipping off of its track. BREATH WEAPON SHELL GAME ACTIVATING And then Selene's consciousness splits as the armor duplicates itself, taking Selene along with both copies. For about thirty seconds, she's three identical people, each wearing an identical suit of armor, all of which are still the same person wearing the same armor. And then at the end of the thirty seconds, two of those disappear, leaving just the one (and not the original one, either). The armor's LED display goes dark and it doesn't respond to further blowing-into. Something seems to be broken.
Selene	Without realizing it, Selene's finally gotten the opportunity to experience omnipotence! Or... Three simultaneous vision angles, at least, as she and her and herself all start running (or just kind of briskly walking because all of her are kind of tired) away from the inn to escape any guards that might still be in pursuit. It's a trippy experience, but all three of her actually seem to adjust to the motion sickness fairly well. It's not until two of her disappear that she finally buckles, the darkened display and the sudden return to normalcy giving her quite the pounding headache. With few other options left, she finally opens up one of her Pokeballs to get her green plant lizard thing out, then climbs atop the giant flower on its back to ride it to safety! Safety, in this case, would some kind of Watch or resistance safehouse. Somewhere she can take a nap and drop off this weird armor, at the very least.
Liza Grier	"You are the outside group, shithead." Liza doesn't particularly seem to care whether the hyena is talking to her or not. "Tell me one more time about how I can't know what's best for people and how you do. Tell me, soldier, how you know all about what's best for people. How you killed and conquered for the best. Tell me how you exist to stop violence." "Even a child can tell you that conquering is evil, theft is evil, homelessness is evil. And they'll tell you that war is evil too, unless it's 'the good guys'. And you're the ones telling them who's good now. The more bullshit you need to spin to explain why black is white, the more obvious it should have been. You're the pillaging, burning, murdering outsiders. How about you protect these people from your Emperor." She unlimbers the C-20r and swings it up into a hipfire posture in the blink of an eye. There's no way she could possibly miss from this point blank distance, but it also hasn't been two minutes. She trains it on the hyena while Hibiki pops off. "That thing you're feeling isn't a conscience. It's programming. And you need to grow out of it. Don't sympathize with the trained killer who died for the sake of imperialist pride. If you can't handle it just because you know your enemy's name, you don't belong here." Xion does have a point, in terms of the fact that the enemy is actually content with pulling out instead of coming right at her. "You get two hours. You don't get to leave whenever you feel like it; two two weeks, two months, two years; 'your terms' are whatever you can pack up and haul out in that two hours. You're free to stay, but if you're not going to fight, that's your running start." That's probably as much of a concession as she's going to make, while her tone can remain stable. "That shouldn't be hard, should it? You've nicely set all your shit down in someone's inn, and the airship's right there. Give a long and hard fucking think about whether any of these people will pour one out for you."
Kale Hearthward	The hyena looks *very much* like they wants to try to punch Liza in the face, combat suit or no combat suit. They settles on ignoring her, given that the only other alternative in their mind right now is throwing down. "... Your ideals are gonna make you fall flat on your face, kid," the hyena says to Hibiki as they take the blue flare back from Xion. "Pack it all up and load it all up, we're leaving," she barks at the nearest soldier. Just then the mouse comes running out of the inn. "They took the empy," she calls to the hyena. "... Tch. Can't be helped." The hyena disappears into the inn, the mouse trailing after them. And one hour and fifty five minutes later... they're gone, the last Gale Empire airship lifting off from Camembert Way.