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Cantio	--- THE RUNDOWN --- An underground city has been discovered beneath a regular city, and initial impressions of the area were pretty bad. Despite being so close to the surface, the slums were worse than even a regular city's slums thanks to the lack of sunlight and ventilation save for literal sewer grates high above people's heads, questionable water dripped all over the place, and sunlight was merely a suggestion. Cantio had invited Elites to join her in a humanitarian mission to help the people in this underground city out by distributing food, clothes, and medical supplies. They succeeded in not only that, but also discovering that a new mayor had come to power in this underground city by deposing the previous mayor through violence. Stranger yet, the current mayor is also the previous leader of the resistance that had formed some vague time ago to combat the corruption of another past mayor. Naturally, the Resistance has come to all of you for help in ousting this new mayor as discontent among the townspeople grows with none of his promised improvements coming true in the few months since he's taken power. --- THE NOW --- The industrial district is almost as unpleasant as the slums, choked in black smog with the lingering stench of raw meat permeating through every surface. The ground is only marginally cleaner, if considerably more slippery and treacherous with all the oil spills around. Fires belch out of the sides and tops of the many factories, some blasting through grates leading upwards into the slums and others simply sparking oil fires that are (usually) extinguished by the local fire departments. Yes, there's actually fire departments here. It's probably because of all the oil fires. Workers scurry about from place to place to get to and from their unending work schedules at the various factories, stopping occasionally to chat with each other while trains run through the center of the district every few minutes to bring people in, or even take the 'lucky' middle managers back to their homes outside of here. Red and blue color-coded can still be seen and heard getting into territorial scraps every now and then, rarely warranting police presence thanks to one side inevitably fleeing or murdering the others before the cops even get there. Police presence is minimal despite the relatively higher number of police stations in the area. They're certainly outnumbered by all the casinos, bars, and shops in the area, although their size means it might be harder to get in and out unnoticed.
Cantio	The first obstacle in dismantling the Mayor's stranglehold over the underground city has been identified. The Resistance's informants have provided the coordinates of a specific factory in the industrial district that otherwise looks identical to all the other factories in the area. What sets it apart, however, is the rather conspicuous and incredibly green waste barrels lined up neatly by the building. It's not so much the presence of those barrels that's a problem (since those and presumably explosive red barrels are all over the place in the industrial district. Rather, it's the fact that these barrels are actually lined up neatly outside. The Resistance has requested that this factory be shut down by whatever means possible, although there's nothing stopping anyone from checking out or doing the same to the other factories (consequences being whatever they may be). The second objective provided by Resistance intel is merely a rumor, but a potentially valuable one nonetheless. One of the shopkeepers in this region is said to possess incriminating invoices from the new Mayor's office. Retrieving the invoices is optional, but it may help in removing the Mayor from power if a clean ousting is desired. There's also a multitude of other things to pursue, should someone decide to seek out other potential resources that may eventually help with removing the Mayor, or even just entertainment in this underground city. There's bars to get sloshed at, casinos to fleece, police stations and slave markets to gawk at, graveyards to desecrate, and even hospitals and hotels to catch some shuteye in. Cantio, for her part, is working with a Resistance computer expert to plant listening devices around the region. Their goal is to spread a wide net that can help track down more of the Mayor's illicit activities.
Brooklynn Bailey	The industrial district is awful, but it is slightly familiar.  Though this sort of decay is of a human direction, as opposed to the overgrowth of nature and the destruction of the Taboo's in her home.  Barrels are left out that are likely destructive to life.  Worst of all... Slave Markets. Before the walls in Kings, slavers came to steal their people.  She was still too young to do much, but... She walks into the first slave market.  It doesn't matter if it was cages, or if it was chains.  They would break.  She would walk onto whatever bidding or auctioning area there was, and she would draw a spear of fire out.  To every slave she could see, she extends her power out, sharing it with them.  The strength and stamina to fight their oppressors.   "Hear me, those who are chained.  I give you the power and strength to free yourselves.  To slavers..." she says as her tone changes to a commanding one.  "Run or die."
Staren	Ugh, filthy air! Staren really needs to get that part of the spells on her coat working. Just SEEING this place, and the indicated factory, puts her in mind to go through and *fix* all the inefficiencies involved in using and wasting such polluting fuel, but when someone says the words 'slave market', that suddenly becomes more pressing, so she goes there. Brooklynn's already got it handled... sort of.     Staren's not sure how well just this will work long-term. The slavers need to be stopped, and the slaves may be punished or recaptured for escaping once out of the elites' sight. For now she keeps an eye on things, and starts feeling all available data back to the AI in her lab, tasking it to find the connections too subtle for Staren and work out what course of action she and her allies can take that is *actually* best for ensuring the ex-slaves *stay* free, actually free not underpaid or something, and that there will not be any *more* slaving in the settlement.
Persephone Kore	Persephone and the Queen in Veils shimmer into existence: it hunched over so as not to scrape its head on the ceiling, her standing in its palm. I remember how people reacted last time! Robots are scary here. Even ones like my amazing doll! So she dismisses it back to whence it came, floats gently down to the floor, and sets out on foot.      She gives a friendly wave over to Brook and Staren as they free the slaves- You go, guys!! You're doing such good work. But her own attention is somewhere different: on the factory surrounded by green barrels!      The first order of business is to gently dismiss the dangerous-looking barrels. They're all picked up, caaarefully moved away, and placed in a neat little pyramid off in a far corner where they can't bother anybody.      Second: Figuring out what this factory is for! I don't want to destroy anything vital!! Shutting ehr eyes and holding out one hand, she attunes herself to the frequency of its narrative residue, sifting through formative events in the factory's past to try and find the reason for its construction. Or, in other words: "Why are you the way that you are?"      If it turns out to be nothing important, or something she can just ask someone else to replace, the factory is completely obliterated with a terrifyingly gentle touch. Bricks become rubble become dust, peeled away by the force of Persephone's psycho-gravity and spun into an orbital disc around her like the rings of Saturn.      Any people inside, though, are completely unharmed! Haha, of course they are. I could never be that mean.
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki has seen at least two really crappy industrial districts before, and she thinks this one is probably in the running for the worst of them. At least those didn't smell quite like this and have oil spills sitting around everywhere. If the scent when they came down here last time was pretty bad, this definitely forces her to keep her jacket collar zipped and pulled up over her nose and mouth. Wait, those barrels over there aren't /actually/ explosive...are they?     Yeah, nevermind. This place takes the gold medal.     Surprisingly enough, maybe or maybe not, she's not actually joining in on dismantling the factory (or factories). Completely breaking it is something she'd be pretty good at doing, and maybe she'll go help irrepairably trash whatever they have in there that's contributing to all the gross waste littering the place if she has time later, but first, Hibiki is headed to the local shops.     The hamster wheel in her skull has turned enough to think on it, and she does want the mayor to be removed rightfully. No matter what they do to improve things by force, there's a better chance of things /staying/ that way if they do it properly. That might be weird, coming from her and who she works with...but she also knows repeating the mistakes of the past never leads to anything good. They're not going to be here to fix things forever. And whoever takes leadership next shouldn't do it that way if it can be helped.     And getting these invoices will probably help to that end, at least if the rumors are to be believed. She's working off what any Resistance members have been able to tell her and also what she can learn from nearby locals to try and locate the shopkeeper in question.
Hiromi	Hiromi has been invited on a 'humanitarian mission,' which she had initially assumed to be a mission for humans to undertake. On understanding that it was a mission to aid humans, she was much more willing to accept the role, if mostly because it was from an ally in the Concord she had yet to test.     She is far from impressed by the city itself. Prowling along its streets, climbing the rooftops, looking down at the stacked barrels in the factory districts, the murderous fighting between competing packs, the guards(?) who do little but stay just out of earshot of trouble, and hearing of the goals they're allegedly here for, she decides that this place would be better off without very much of anything that currently exists here. Everywhere she goes, she sees filth and smells poison, and she's vaguely aware that human stomachs are much less sturdy than hers. This can't be a good place for them to grow at all, and everyone looks so horribly weak. That proves it. This city should be destroyed.     But she can't just leave all these humans with nothing. Weak pups die when left alone. That's why she'll start by resolving the most fundamental issue, and find them clean water. She starts by 'digging' straight down.     Hiromi strikes the ground with overly massive claws springing from her hands, tearing up asphalt and concrete, destroying pipes and wires, absolutely wrecking anything along the way with about as much thought as one would cut a tangle of roots with a spade, and leaving its debris on the surface. As soon as she hits natural earth or stone, she gives it a stomp, commanding it to flow back upward and cover up anything she'd opened along the way, firming the sides of her tunnel. A second stomp carries her straight down, the ground opening up below her, deep into the earth.     If the water table was just too deep to be easily accessed, she can finish making her well with terraforming ease. In the more likely event that it's easy to reach but fully contaminated, her mission will change to finding its source, and how far 'upstream' the contamination begins. Her sense for buried things, the way she can listen and have the world beneath 'tell' her where to find things, will save her some time in getting there.
Undivided Queens	This is about the least auspicious place one could hope to find even one queen, never mind two. Technically a queen and an empress. Technically not actually a monarch on the first one, but translation, and technically more of a demigoddess on the second one, but also, translation. And yet, they are here because of two reasons: The Concord, and The Mission Statement.     Not the resistance. "Rebellion is just the last recourse of the unserved, you know?" one of them had to say. "Also, they have already won." says the other.     Seilatiya is the more out of place. Even dressing down to something approximating Roma-Japanese informal streetwear, like some kind of yukata with a stolla, she still insists on the white, red, gold motif of the Empire, in all sorts of patterns of trees and mountains nobody in this city gets to see, splashed with shades of pink and ruby to match her hair and eyes. Long sleeves, skirts, trailing garments, a big old sash, and really long princess-cut hair, are absolutely the least safe thing to be wearing around an industrial zone, and none of it is pinned down meaningfully in any way by any of the glittery jewelry that is also incredibly inadvisable to wear in a place like this (save one braided rope bracelet woven into beads and tiny white carvings). Not only that, but mere slightly raised sandals are absolutely not enough for the level of filth here.     Yet, somehow, not a drop of oil or dirt or questionable water seems to cling to her. Drippings from above fall around her. Smog carries on air currents the opposite direction from where she goes. It's like even the puddles don't splash for her. Her attire and general cleanliness make her basically glow, to say nothing of the spherical, hovering stone closely following her, deep red surrounded by gold metallic petals, its surface constantly covered in thousands of ever-shifting runes, which more literally glows. What more figuratively glows is that everywhere around her enjoys a quality of irresistible, even addictive comfort and wellbeing, and everything *about* her exudes irresistible, magnetic attraction. Even hiding most of her face with a decorated fan in courtly fashion, it only dampens her literally divine beauty to a level of red superchat she could swim in.     This time, Isahane seems to be accompanying her, rather than the much reverse way it was last time. Dressed in a heavily cut down top, waist shawl, and proper pants pulled into rope-bound boots, wearing significantly thicker and more treated clothing in white, grey, and green, half of which is covered in complex geometric designs, most of her is theoretically factory safe. Unfortunately, she also doesn't blend, because she is like seven feet of tanned muscle with spookily bright blue eyes and silvery hair, only tied together with lengths of fine chain, and with sharp gunmetal horns rising from her head (one of which bears a gold band). She is chased around by a similar floating crystal, twelve-sided and glittery pale, with silver metallic blades, but unfortunately, her boots are covered in oil and muck.
Undivided Queens	"Please stop running around near the oil. Even you won't fare well if you catch on fire." "Eh? There's nowhere here that *isn't* covered in oil! It'll be fine-- No, actually, I hate it! It's grimy and slippery and all these random fires are ruining my lighting! People won't see my good angles!" "Is that really our first concern? The mayor--" "Comes next! Nobody is going to want to be a mayor of this dump without being corrupt in the first place, yes? That's the only reason to want to be in charge; unless you're me that is~" "But how are you going to--" "Oh come on, like I'd *forget* the sequence for the sterilization --I mean decontamination-- stuff. Now let's see . . ." Isahane makes a longing look at a casino.     Seilatiya, instead, finds a nice, excruciatingly public place, summons the Holy Runecipher before her with a sweep of her hand, and with her eyes roving over the millions of little symbols that appear over only a few seconds, she picks out exactly the ones she wants with computer-like precision, fixing them in place in glowing script that joins seamlessly together. Isahane moves on to pining for one of those bars. After a short while, Seilatiya appears to be done. Laying her hand on the stone, bright ruby light emanates from the Runecipher's core, its petals unfurling and spinning around its circumference, cutting up the air in a way that incidentally sounds close to a flywheel charging.     First, rising out of what seems like pure energy, mote by mote like a voxel builder, an enormous tree, white bark and pink leaves with sprawling branches, grows up forty feet in no time. Braided rope appears around its trunk, which then reaches out to a dozen engraved metallic pylons now embedded in the ground in a circle around it, hung with tassels and tiny bells. An entire garden, modified on the fly to suit Hiromi's choice of bringing up fresh water, spreads out from it like a carpet, blooming up tall, luminous flowers, and run through with decorative paths and small wooden bridge arches over the soon-to-be streams.     The whole thing rises up on multiple shallow tiers of white stone, eventually requiring stairs on all sides, and then that effusively white mineral shoots out across the ground like veins of pavement, winding around factory and hotel blocks and spontaneously forming gutters and trenches as it goes, studded with odd little bronze tokens that seem to magnetize the oil and filth into them, slowly and steadily over even long distances, and dispose of it into . . . somewhere? Meanwhile, clean paths that magically repel the grime rise up an inch and a half from the floor, and from those spring floating lights, resembling paper lanterns with silver frames, strung together only horizontally so that their lines can be festooned with ornaments, exactly at modern streetlamp height.     Counter-trenches funnel that clear water in teeny tiny rivers parallel to the paths all around, separated from the gutters by height, and the garden at the center creates an artificial breeze by way of it seemingly pulling in air and releasing it again, cleansed of pollution, like a starkly literal form of the idea that trees breathe. It'll take a while to really impact the smoggy atmosphere here, but at least where the pair are, it smells like blossoms and fresh air.     "Would you not consider that overkill?" "I refuse to do with just 'better'! These people have gone with 'the worst' for so long, I think they deserve 'the best'!"
Cantio	The slave markets are less of a market in the traditional stands-with-signs sense, and more of a glorified outdoor cage area. People in '''imposing''' black suits and matching head coverings stand guard outside the cages where people with ominous-looking headbands sit, all of them waiting for prospective buyers that may or may not be more merciful than the sellers. There's no actual doors on the cages or tops to actually keep them penned in, though, but the slaves remain within those three and a half walls regardless. When Brooklynn speaks, though, her words rouse something within the slaves and the slavers alike. Feeling emboldened, the slaves in that market start to exchange meaningful glances at each other, as though preparing for something. They're halted, however, when one of the slavers shoots them a mostly-hidden glare in turn while raising an ominous looking remote control sort of thing. There's probably a connection between those two things. The slavers that aren't busy trying to keep their cargo boxes in, however, don't seem to take kindly to her ultimatum. They raise their swords and sledgehammers, moving in threateningly at first and outright swinging if she doesn't step aside. Staren, taking a more indirect approach to solving the issue, will come up with a fair bit of data to consider. The slaves apparently aren't anyone particularly special, just unlucky office workers that happened to fall behind in paying back debts to hotels, to doctors, to the mob, to casinos, or some combination of financial ruin that would lead to their enslavement. Wiping out those debts would help if each system could be found, but actually finding out where that data is stored for each person would be difficult without calling in extra backup from the Resistance or having a big pile of money to throw at freelancers. There's also the matter of the explosive collars worn on each slave, and the detonators held by the slavers in case of acts of rebellion, although those would be fairly simple to hack by anyone with sufficient remote hacking skills and a way to not get caught by the slavers in the middle of working. As for actually making sure the slaves can stay free... That's going to require extra money thrown at the problem and/or a whole lesson in economics relating to how this whole place somehow manages to run on a bacon cheeseburger-based economy. One that somehow manages to import ludicrous amounts of them, even, without much in the way of exports.
Cantio	The barrels are easy enough for Persephone to move without anyone outside seeming to really care about what she's doing. Some of the people passing by do pause to gawk at what she's doing, not too worried about the ominous green light coming out of some of them that's almost certainly of a radioactive variety. Even the few cops that come by every now and then don't pay too much attention, content to leave that matter to someone else. It's not like they're paid enough to get involved in that. Not after they got paid off the last time the Elites were here. The factory itself, meanwhile, has a rather nefarious purpose once Persephone digs deeper into it: It's a Fud processing plant like many of the others in this area. It's not just any Fud processing plant, though, as the barrels were apparently used to test their effects on the end product. Nobody inside actually seems to know why, but the factory itself gives the answer: Keeping people stupid. A stupid populace is easier to control, after all. Luckily, this seems to be the only factory intentionally utilized for this purpose. The rest are pretty gross anyway, but the radioactive contamination in those factories is only incidental rather than deliberate. (It's still unsafe as hell either way.) Sadly, the factory's long life comes to an end, as it just gets freaking obliterated wholesale. Chunks of vague meat splat on the floor as they fall from the conveyor belts and pipelines that no longer exist, confused guards look around as the walls they had been patrolling through just aren't there any more, and someone in a red vest shouts "I'm free!" as he books it towards the giant cargo elevator that leads from the slums to this area. Some of those guards are now chasing that guy, brandishing baseball bats and knives. One of them falls into an inexplicable pit in the middle of what used to the be the factory, but the rest are catching up. He may be in danger.
Cantio	The intel about the invoices is actually fairly straightforward once Hibiki actually tries piecing it together. Even with that hamster wheel, her investigation into the matter would lead her to an otherwise nondescript shop that would look like any other convenience store on the surface: Racks full of cheap sugary snacks, a 'freshly baked' goods section with stuff that's probably only soft because it's kind of soggy, drinks in the back, and a clerk that doesn't look like they really want to be there. Also, some bodyguards loitering inside the store, because this clerk actually seems to know that they have something valuable. They also seem to actually recognize Hibiki, at least in passing, as they greet her with a friendly smile and wave that's just a little too bright to be generic customer service in this dump of a district. Of course, it seems that they only expect her to be a customer here. The invoices themselves could be on the clerk, or they might be somewhere behind the locked door in the back. There's certainly plenty of options to try and find out or to get the thing, and there's no dire time crunch as of yet thanks to the clerk gesturing at the guards to just chill for now.
Cantio	Against all logic, Hiromi's digging actually works. Although the ground of the industrial zone is a uniformly shit brown in color and texture, it gives way fairly easily to her focused digging efforts. Down and down she goes, burrowing through all sorts of packed in dirt, wrecking buried powerlines and cutting off power to one of the nearby factories in turn. It doesn't take too long to reach natural earth, either, as water starts pouring into her hellevator from the sides. The dirt and soil shift, obeying her commands and creating an actually safe delivery mechanism for all that water that seems to be coming from a massive source. Better yet, the water is just clean enough to drink safely, meaning that it's basically immaculate by the standards of this place. She may notice something curious during this whole process, however. There's sounds of people coming from the bottom of that well, just on the other side of the 'wall' that's keeping the water from just outright flooding in. Should she look or peer through any gaps, she'll notice that there's more of this underground city on the other side. It looks almost like a giant public park, as if she's made a well from one of the underground lakes. As that beautifully massive tree sprouts up out of seemingly thin air, meanwhile, it nearly reaches the ceiling of this zone already. There's few people in this district that can actually ignore the sight of the thing (because those people are indoors or something). They gawk at it like they've never seen something so beautiful before, and some of them truly haven't, or at least they haven't in years. 'Whoa, it's like a sun!' 'Like the one in the slums?' 'Not exactly a sun! I said it's like a sun! It's a betaphor!' 'Betaphor what?' 'Betaphor my dick!' Although the factory Fud these people have been eating certainly haven't been doing their intellect any favors, they can at least appreciate the beauty of the garden forming before them, and it certainly helps draw attention to well being created by Hiromi to provide them with the first source of fresh water many of them have seen in a long time. Even with their limited intellect, they can easily put two and two together to make that connection between Seilatiya, Hiromi, and the extremely out of place extravagant garden fountain before them. This is definitely going to help them get recognized around the city, for better or for worse. The rest depends on how they plan to use it.
Brooklynn Bailey	Brooklynn stands firm in her resolve...She can see the speech works, her power is enough to counter something in these slaves...but the device still keeps them in check.  Why is that?  She draws a shield and continues to hold her flaming spear as she points at the man with the device.  The flaming spear directly pointed at him, but not in a throwing position.   All of her focus, all of her effort, everything she has to command others focuses on him at that moment.  "Call your men off, and bring the device for me.  Then try to convince me why I should spare you," her tone is absolute, her voice hints at no weakness.   "The rest of you, I would think twice of drawing your weapons.  I have shared my powers with the rest of the slaves here...so unless you want to show them how powerful they are now, I would instead drop them and leave, you are being granted a stay of execution."
Staren	Staren clenches her fists. Urge. To destroy. Rising.     She could locate all the remotes and target them with missiles. But how to make sure there's no emergency backup? Also, whatever servers track debt data need to be tracked down and destroyed. The ensuing chaos will be... equalizing.     But the plan isn't perfect enough. She takes a deep breath, and instead of drawing her laser pistol...     She draws her Concord credit card. "I'll buy all of them. 10% above list price. Take the deal now, or my friends and I will show you our feelings about slavery violently. You can kill the slaves before we can save them, and maybe you can beat us, but how much do each of you want to gamble YOU don't die in the fight?"     She waves the card and starts counting down. "Take it or you get nothing except maybe death. 9%... 8%..."
Cantio	Brooklynn's mental influence on the holder of the remote works wonders immediately. He steps forward, hands her the remote, and then holds his hands up. "We're just just providin' a service here. They're not gonna pay off what they owe themselves, so they're either stuck being slaves like this or slaves to workin' forever. At least we protect 'em from anyone else that might come after them." The other slavers all nod in (sort of) unison. They genuinely believe this, apparently. With those threats of violence and also offers of money, however, it's the slaves that look conflicted. The fact that Brooklynn's weapon is on fire while Staren's credit card has shiny leterring on it makes it all that much harder for them to come to a consensus on whether they should be trying to remove those collars. "Relax, relax. We'll handle the payments and shit from here. But if you don't like them being slaves... Uh." The head gestures at Staren. "Better talk to her about whether she's keepin' them or not." One thing's for sure: These slavers are eager to get the hell out of here once the payment clears.
Hiromi	Hiromi is likely to be covered in a variety of things on the way down, but she doesn't quite share Seilatiya's feelings about muck. If it's just clean mud, then that bothers her no more than it would any other canine. The city's poisons she'd rather avoid, but if it's in the way, she'll deal with it later.     Once she hits water, she radios in her discovery, retracts her claws to scoop some for a taste, and announces, "Not poisoned." Good enough. She finishes off by digging further down, not minding if she ends up entirely submerged in the process, or has to drive her claws into the side to avoid the water pressure carrying her up.     It may still take some time for Seilatiya to see the water appear, since Hiromi's authority only extends to the movement of earth, and not the water that lays below or permeates it, but the important point is that it's a constant supply. The same can be done again elsewhere in the city, but for now...     Was there already some hidden group, using an underground lake, hiding away this natural resource? Curious, Hiromi pushes her way through the wall, into the park(?), to find out.
Hibiki Tachibana	Huh. She's not sure exactly what type of shop she was expecting to house these incriminating invoices, but a convenience store is a pretty quaint one. Kinda nice, honestly. She might go and buy a few things while she's here. There's no Dorado multiversal card, but she does have some pocket money that may or may not work here.     The clerk recognizing her is an equally pleasant surprise, with her returning the wave with a small smile as she grabs two bags of off-brand snacks that sort of resemble pretzels, she's not really sure, and a single Dewy Mountain. Her plan actually didn't extend to how she'd get what she was looking for when she finally found the place, but after seeing this...     Hibiki steps up to the counter to put her things up for registering. Maybe actually buying something will help with inhumanly straightforward diplomacy, but mostly she's just kind of hungry and realized it after getting here.     "Guess it's hard to /not/ be known a little bit after what happened last time..." She says with a slightly awkward chuckle, before glancing to one of the nearby bodyguards and back with a little more seriousness. "...I don't suppose you'd mind giving me a hand back, too? I'm looking for something that might help a lot." Surely, asking nicely will get somewhere.
Staren	Staren gives the slavers a confused look as they hesitate. "I don't want an accident exploding them. You can take the collars off. ...But if they come with, I'll take the collars and remotes seperately, sure." Hey, free explosives, and maybe information that can be used to mess with other collars.     To the slaves, she says: "You can stick by me if you want, I'll get you out of here. Or you can run. I don't expect you to trust me. If you're one of those 'I can't leave this place it's my home, I need to make it better' types, stick around and we'll see how we can work together."
Brooklynn Bailey	Brooklynn takes the controller from him, and with a bit, more mind control can probably get the simple version on how to use it.  Mostly so she can remove the collars or deactivate the collars.  She cares little if Staren pays the man for his service or not, but her eyes are not happy.  It is clear that if Staren had not saved this man's life, he would have died.   Once the slaves are free, she speaks.  "Free people, I also offer you a way out of this life.  I help lead a settlement elsewhere in the multiverse.  The way is not always easy, and comforts are what you will make of them...however, I vow that none of you will live under the fear of slavery again.  You will be free to contribute to our society as you will.  My people need tradesmen, educated people.  If you fear you have no skill, we'll help you gain a trade..." "Or you can return to your lives here.  Regardless you are free to make your own choices...but if you ride with me, we will be riding to loosen the hand of the current mayor. He is the one who has let this system in which you were allowed to be sold like this.  You do not have to fight this battle either to accept entry to my home." "If you will fight, follow me, if you will leave with me...meet me by the elevator in a day," And with that, she steps down and walks.
Staren	"She's offering a good deal, I reccomend you take it if you want a new place to live." Staren comments, of Brooklyn.
Cantio	Hibiki, proving to be a proper customer instead of just some Elite looking for a bribe, actually gets a heart laugh from the shopkeeper. "Who wouldn't know? You and your friends caused a big stir up there the other day. If you can keep that up, you'd have a pretty easy time getting elected." The shopkeeper pauses, then shrugs and starts bagging up her stuff. "Well, unless the mob gets to you first. I hear they've got someone they're looking to get elected, too, so watch yourself out there. If you're looking for a 'hand', though..." He glances left, right, then gestures at the bodyguards. They move to the windows, conveniently standing in front of them to block anyone from peeking inside as the shopkeeper heads into the back room. A minute later, he emerges with another bag and shoves a loaf of bread in there before handing it all off to Hibiki. "Make sure to eat up before it goes bad. Share it with your friends if you want." The invoices are inside, although they might by a little sticky by the time it goes back. It's raisin bread, and it's actually pretty good.
Persephone Kore	Persephone lets out a little satisfied sigh as the factory's permission to exist is casually rescinded. I'm so gentle all the time! Can you blame me for enjoying the chance to break things a little bit?      That was more than "a little bit", Phony.      The guys pursuing the fleeing slave are easily dealt with, and not even in the euphemistic sense of "dealt with". Phony's wishes can shape the world, so even her stray thoughts and feelings ripple outwards. When she thinks a mildly disapproving hey, stop it! at them, they can feel it in their bones, and resisting is utterly out of the question- her sheer mental presence casually overwhelms the wills of 'normal' people solely through contact, like a submarine imploding at the bottom of an abyssal trench.      Don't say things like that! It makes me sound awful, ahaha.      Her part of the mission solidly done, she gravitates over towards the unbelievably beautiful tree that Seilatiya's raised, settling in to perch cross-legged on one of the lower branches.      "This is absolutely wonderful," she says, addressing Seilatiya mainly. "You said that you imagine these things inside yourself, and then draw them out into the world, right? To come up with things like this... your heart's really beautiful, isn't it? I want to get a better look at it sometime, if that's okay!"      Then, addressing Isahane: "You look like a boyfriend at a clothing store, you poor girl! Ahaha. So forlorn, it breaks my heart. I'm done with my mission, you know! If you want to relax and get a drink...?"      She's being a bad influence. Am not!!
Undivided Queens	"Yes, that's right! It *is* beautiful! And I *am* like the sun itself! Watch!" Encouraged by the admiration of the crowd, Seilatiya is now in Extra mode. Entering another sequence into the Holy Runecipher, the ancient artifact is cast up into the air with a diva flick of her arm, and managing to find clearance above the tree, its glow turns bright, burning gold, and then separates from the stone itself as it comes down. The ceiling isn't nearly high enough to put a real sun somewhere, but the effect is more or less like the sun setting behind that very pretty giant tree from all angles, creating bright light and sun-dappled shade, largely in hues of pink and gold that Seilatiya seems to like.     "Those endless days of wading through oil and mud, eating from cans like animals, toiling day in and day out at these awful factories, never seeing the sun, barely seeing your families; it's all over today! Today, you can have anything you want!" Seilatiya's voice carries from the central, raised area she's created. Having to move her fan in order to make grandiose gestures, she now blasts the crowd with common sense-melting levels of attractive beauty only ever found in very old myths.     Isahane seems resigned to this level of absurdity. She gets as far as "Seila, you're going too-" before being cut off with "Seila hasn't gone far enough~!" The Empress turns back, conjuring up what looks *conspicuously* similar to a microphone stand, even if the head is a chunk of crystal instead of wire mesh. She grabs it in a conspicuously similar way to a pop singer too, but mainly it amplifies her voice so it carries much further. "Come, my new people! Gather at my feet here~! Seilatiya li Gelentia will hear your pleas, and bless you with all that you deserve~! Open your hearts to me, and I will reward you without end~"     Persephone shows up, and her words are one to which Seila nods to with such grace that just the motion of her head elicits an almost audible humu-humu. "You understand perfectly~ You can't really call yourself beautiful unless all of you is, yes? A beautiful person can't neglect their heart or soul either! If you want to be loved, first you must be lovable! So I'm the most lovable person there is~ But even then, if someone's heart is wounded or stained, if they have even the slightest desire to be truly loved, then I will open up the path to beauty for them as well~!"     Isahane gives Persephone an instantly readable 'this is like the fiftieth time so I've just given up on bothering' look. She tiredly rubs behind a horn. "It looks like the people here are pretty useless. I doubt that Isa is in any danger that she couldn't handle herself. I know how this goes anyways. I'll entertain your request." She is, of course, perfectly right about this, but also she'd really just rather crush a brewski with her irresponsible fembro than even bother trying to dissuade Seilatiya from gathering a crowd of simps.     However, Seila's end isn't all, or even significantly, just talk. The people here may be kind of dumb and gross, but even then, she genuinely cares to see to them. When it's evidently so easy, how could she not? They've suffered here for so long they don't even remember what they're lacking, and so it falls to her to look into the crowd she can gather and understand *for* them. With but a glance, she can read a heart's desire. Hearing but a word, she can understand what they truly want. From a face, she can see even the most deeply buried feelings. And with her own words, she conveys such absolute, sincerely heartfelt honesty, such casually infinite patience for their needs, that it feels unthinkably self-sabotaging not to confess. Certainly, a compassionate djinni of infinite wishes; a once in a lifetime event.
Cantio	When Hiromi pushes through the wall into the water, she finds what she had suspected: An entirely new district that's just below the industrial zone. It's actually a fair way down from where the prior zone was, but it's leagues ahead in terms of overall comfort and pleasant... Everything.  Aside from the lack of sunlight, it's pretty much what a decently kept public park would look like: A wide variety of hills and paths to walk on, trees scattered all over the place for children to play on, lakes to bathe or drink that are clean enough that nobody seems to care if they're currently being used for both purposes simultaneously. There's also fenced off areas in the distance and strange caves dotting the landscape. She might even sense a strange tension in the air, as there's definitely a lingering stench of blood in the distance. Not all of it smells human.
Hibiki Tachibana	The mob wants to get someone elected, huh...? That's a new one. She can't imagine who that would be, but anyone trying to gun for that with plenty of support behind them must be something. Keeping that in mind, she watches the bodyguards do their thing, and waits patiently for the shopkeeper to come back out--and she gratefully holds her arms out to take the bag.     The smile on her face comes back, bigger than before. "...Thanks a ton. I definitely will, they'll appreciate it. Promise we'll be careful, too. They're all doing their best right now, I bet." With everything taken care of and fresh (enough) baked goods in hand, she heads on her way back out and casts a wave back over her shoulder as she goes.     "I'll make sure to come back to shop again sometime!" She means it, too. Especially after she breaks off a piece of raisin bread from the inside after she checks inside and stuffs her face with it. That's unexpectedly delicious stuff.     The invoices, and a tidbit they can look more into. Now she can get all of this back to Cantio and spread the good word. The good word, and lunch. She's not 100% sure what time it is when they're, you know, underground. But it feels like lunch.
Cantio	The guards chasing Red Vest are stopped in their tracks by that forceful, yet gentle command to do so, and they find themselves at a loss of what to actually do. They were pretty sure they had something important to do, but... The factory's not there anymore. All that's left is some random bits of machinery and piles of meat on the floor. It smells pretty gross, but there's no 'factory' to keep people out of any more. Instead they just wander around aimlessly, looking for their next job or a casino to blow their hard-earned cash on. With Seilatiya going into Extra mode, meanwhile, the crowd starts going nuts. Figuratively, of course, as they revel in the beautiful sights before them with all that extra room to move thanks to the lack of an entire factory getting in the way. It's actually slowing down production a bit, too, as workers moving from one job to the next find themselves just loitering to see what else she has in store for them, words or otherwise. Their cheers seem to grow even louder when she's 'joined' by Isahane and actually joined by Persephone, the combined mental force having more than enough potential to just turn these people into their subjects if they really put some/any effort into it. The desires of the people, meanwhile, are just as easy to read and hear through the crowd. Most of their desires, sadly, are primarily of the survival sort: Food, money, a stable enough place to sleep. The wounds run deep, and they've been stepped on for so long despite being physically higher in altitude than the rest of the people in this underground city, sandwiched between the cruel surface dwellers and the cruel upper-crusters. Others go a bit further with what they want, actually desiring such luxuries as heat and fans, and there's even a few more ambitious sorts loitering amongst the crowd: Those that want to pull off the ultimate heists, those that want to destroy all technology, yet more that want to eradicate injustice in this place that they call their homes. Theirs are the physically fewest voices, but also the loudest. Despite the beauty before the crowd, though, there's surprisingly few people that actually have more debased desires. That might have something to do with all the radiation everyone's exposed to on a daily basis.
Cantio	With the offer to go literally anywhere else given to them, the freed slaves sound eager to jump on that opportunity judging from how they're already swarming around Brooklynn and Staren while getting those pesky collars off. "Yeah, let's get the heck out of here!" "This place sucks!" "I'm gonna miss it, though." "I want to see who gets elected after all this." "You think they could really get elected?" "One of them might!" "Huh? Mayors can be elected, too?" They might not be loyal to the location at this point, but they're still aligned firmly enough with their rescuers that they could easily be convinced to stay or leave easily enough. Staying would mean still being here, but it would provide Staren and Brooklynn with a reliable group of voters. Taking these people back with them, meanwhile, would mean no longer having them as potential voters/canvassers, but they could be useful to call into another district for assistance if the opportunity presents itself.
Persephone Kore	"I can't imagine anybody wanting to hurt her, anyway," Persephone says, cupping her smiling cheek with a hand. "It seems like the hardest thing in the world, to dislike somebody like that. Thank you so much for being willing to humor me, though! Ahaha."      Persephone immediately picks out the best bar in the whole Industrial Zone- not by exterior or by crowds, but just by mindfeeling where the happiest people are! It is totally absolutely cheating, but it beats Yelp reviews. Unlike Seilatiya, she can't keep the smog off of herself, but she can hover neatly a few inches above the oil and grime all the way there. "Want me to carry you, Isahane?" It's a joking tone, but I really could!      "It's been a really tiring few days. First the whole pyramid thing, then the Ryan Diaz assassination... even back at Sapient Heuristics, I have to act dignified and responsible, you know? It's good to take a load off like this. I'm sure you get it- you do lots of important things all the time."      She politely raises the doorframe so Isahane doesn't have to duck to enter, tilting the entire building a few degrees in the process before carefully-gently setting it back down.
Cantio	"I hear you. Bring your friends by next time, too!" The shopkeeper calls out to Hibiki as she leaves, getting right back to work afterwards. The invoices that were packed under the bread are just what the Resistance needed... Maybe? It's actually kind of hard to tell how useful this might be, considering how screwed up this place already is. Still, the invoices do show a clear connection between the Mayor's office and the surface, and the Resistance Leader emphasized that every little detail helps. Whatever this results in, there's at least enough repeat purchases from the surface for some things called Hypnotize Mark I and Mark II. Also, perfume. The perfume is even more expensive per unit.
Brooklynn Bailey	Brooklynn finally marches off, leading people towards the factory. To a destroyed factory.  "...I see.  I claim victory for us anyway..." she says, bewildered.  "So wait, what was this about cooked food..?" he asks, confused.  What was even going on anymore? Also, Staren is tossed the remote.  It's useless to her, but maybe GIRL GENIUS can figure it out.
Staren	Now they have the remote and bomb collars to examine for future hacking. Good.     It seems there's no particular desire to keep these people here, so they'll be heading to Brooklyn's settlement? Staren follows along with the group of newly-freed slaves, offering to get them medically screened at whatever facility is convenient for the Concord. Not just for their own health, but to get more data about what living here is *doing* to people.     Also, Staren has a question for the newly-freed slaves, since they're no doubt as positively disposed toward their saviors as they'll ever be: "Do you know where I can find hackers that can get us into the government and financial systems here?"     A remote hits her in the chest and falls to the ground with a clatter, she gives a little surprised "Ah!" and then picks it up and puts it in her bag. It's not very dignified.
Cantio	Cantio, meanwhile, has just finished her own work when Hibiki finds her. She's more than happy to foot the bill for lunch, even, because raisin bread alone probably isn't going to be enough between the two of them. She does duck her head down every now and then, though, as strange-looking robots pass through the area as though they're looking for something.
Hiromi	Being satisfied with her wellspring, and putting aside the matter of destroying the rest of the city for just a moment (leaving time for others to transform it into something she might refrain from destroying), Hiromi focuses on the much more immediately interesting prospect. She sniffs the air, sorting through the various scents. Earth, grass, wood... how the trees grow without the sun, she's not sure... sweat, and blood. Blood. She stalks along the park paths, then veers off, zeroing in on the most likely source of danger. That's where she wants to be.     Bathing and drinking at once is also not something that inherently bothers her, though she knows this is odd behavior for humans. Hiromi pauses at the first group of people she finds together, claps her hands together for their attention, and immediately exudes an aura of unassailable Authority, as if she had at once already been standing there, but also had descended through shining clouds, risen through the earth, or appeared from beneath the depths of a shaded canopy. She is the ruler, father, mother, boss, teacher, and god, every figure to whom one owes, willing or otherwise, subservience. She is the most real and obviously important being they've likely ever had the fortune of witnessing.     This isn't overkill because there's no such thing.     "Walk with me. Tell me of the leaders and dangers in this place. Tell me of the paths to the upper worlds. Tell me of your life's worth." That is now their list of priorities. Waiting no more than half a second for a response, Hiromi continues after the scent of blood.
Cantio	The biggest bar on the industrial floor really is something: Arcade machines with only one broken out of five, a handsome bartender with just enough moustache to look sophisticated without being sleazy, and plenty of red-vested regulars without a single person smoking to stink up the joint. Even the people at the pool tables are happy because the roof on this place actually keeps all the water out. Best of all, there's also a sexy piano in the back that's currently unoccupied. Worst of all, though, is Brooklynn getting ditched by Persephone. At least she'll get an answer from a conveniently passing worker who's just as confused by the missing factory as she is: "You lookin' for the Fud factories? Take yer pick. We make all the Fud down here for the workers, and some o' these places even ship the fancy stuff down to Uptown." That sentence makes more sense in his head than it probably does to anyone's ears. Staren's question to the freed slaves, meanwhile, actually gets an informed answer from one of the former office drones. "If you wanna get into the real real systems? You'll need to get to Uptown first. All the offices from here to Downtown are all satellites. We can send payment info that we get from here down there, but that's about all we have access to. If you're looking for hackers, though...? Um..." "Look for the folks in red vests. They really like that kinda fashion, and they usually hang out in bars."
Cantio	Following the scent of blood leads Hiromi through the park and to not one, but three easily identifiable sources. The first is what looks like a military outpost, complete with barbed wire fencing and patrolling soldiers in military fatigues. They seem to be on edge, especially when people with oddly shaped faces and blue overalls wander nearby. When the people in blue overalls draw too close, the soldiers fire on them, but only enough to ward them off before resuming their patrol. The second source of blood comes from the caves. Gorillas wander in and out of it as though they've claimed it as their home, but they don't seem particularly violent or threatening until someone gets too close to them. The third source of the blood is easily seen when someone in a black cloak runs right through Hiromi's field of vision and bites into an unlucky office drone's neck. Apparently, there's vampires down here. When Hiromi asks people of the dangers here, meanwhile, she's mostly just told about what she's already seen: The soldiers' unending conflict with the local cannibals, the escaped gorillas being incredibly defensive of their territory and wildly violent towards scientists, and vampires just being an overall nuisance despite rarely actually killing anyone. Getting to the lower levels (which are apparently the 'upper' echelons of society here) takes luck and money more than anything else. Money to buy your way through problems, enough luck to avoid the mob, and money again to actually secure a place to live in the increasingly cramped uptown.
Hibiki Tachibana	While munching on bread and willing herself to leave plenty for the others, Hibiki does gloss over the slightly messy invoices. She's not the kind of person who'd be able to tell for sure how useful they'd be even the level of jacked up the underground city is aside, but they /do/ look like they're worth the trouble, and that's all she needs.     Especially with the extremely no-good things listed clearly on them. "Hypnotize Mark I and II...? That's a pretty on the nose name..." The mayor really is a piece of work for someone who was formerly fighting to end corruption. Also, what the heck do they even need perfume for? And why does it cost so much!?     ...Actually, maybe it's because the place kind of stinks.     When she finally does meet up with Cantio to enjoy lunch and snacks, with Hibiki more than happy to scarf down more raisin bread when they get more food anyway, it doesn't take too long to explain everything. But she really can't help but ask. "Are those, uh...?" She talks with her mouth full. "What're they ghoin' back and forf lookin' fhor?"
Cantio	Whatever it was Cantio did earlier, it looks like it took a lot out of her! She doesn't even answer right away as the robots pass right by, peeking upwards before shaking her head. "No, I wouldn't make robots so bland looking. I have a certain style for that kind of thing." She snickers briefly, apparently having some flair and style for her robots even if they are on the uglier side. "I think they might be looking for me and the people I was working with earlier." "We've spread some bugs around the district, so we should be able to get some good intel on what to expect on the next floor." She explains, completely unaware of Hiromi's adventures in the park. "Were you able to finish what you were looking to do here?"
Undivided Queens	Isahane's reply to Persephone's offer is immediate. "If I have any less exercise today I may start breaking things just to move about." Her answer to the rest is less forthcoming, though it doesn't require any prodding, gentle or otherwise, to extract. "For you and I, yes. Perhaps the fact that there are those who don't share that feeling is what could best summarize the rot at the heart of these societies. That there are people who can look upon someone who cares for everyone, and who has the power to care for everyone, harming no one, hating no one, and they feel only fear. A fear bordering on madness. That fear isn't for themselves, but for the gulf between themselves and others, as if . . . If it were to shrink and disappear, so would they. And that fear is contagious. The madness is easily spread. Sometimes you can't trust people to accept what they need when it is freely given. They can be made to cower in terror of their own salvation, under any given philosophical guise, or simly the fact it is different and abnormal."     Isahane enters the building with no complaints about Persephone temporarily adjusting its architecture, because now she really really wants a drink. Getting inside, she finds the bartender, strains one of his stools, and slaps an actual handful of solid gold coins (minted with Seila's face on one side and her own on the other if Persephone really pays attention) and orders "Two of everything." She plans to see what doesn't suck on her own.
Brooklynn Bailey	Brooklynn frowns, she was expecting to blow up a factory, but when she got here THE factory was gone, and the rest are food factories...but the smell!  Holding her nose, because even the smell of death is better than this, she walks to inspect one.   Moments later she walks out, wanting to throw up.   Never learn how hotdogs are made.
Cantio	The patrons of the bar glance over when Persephone messes with the doorframe, but nobody's going to raise a stink over it. If anything, they actually seem to perk up when she shows up with Isahane, and the bartender especially when Isahane does THE MONEY THING. She is getting so much booze. It is a dangerous amount of booze. Thanks to her and Persephone's general reputations, meanwhile, he even warns her about the ones that would otherwise harm his regular patrons on more than just a 'strong hangover' level and straight up 'alcohol poisoning' or 'outright paralysis' level. For some reason, though, people keep ordering that stuff.
Hiromi	Hiromi is now surrounded by possible targets of violence, but there's still a need to prioritize. She releases the rando passers-by back to whatever they were doing when they have no further use to her exploration, and have failed to provide any indication of the worthiness of their lives. She watches a vampire attack someone, and keeps watching as it flees again. (It had better, or she's liable to satisfy her curiosity by tearing off its head.) She watches the soldiers and cannibals(?) fight, but has no need for either group. They're a threat to her, nor to anything she defends. Not yet, anyway.     She'd dug down, and found mostly clean water. So... why not do that again? Maybe she'll find further wealth of resources, if these people's wishes mean anything.     Hiromi moves away from the park and lake before she strikes the ground, tearing through, repeating the process of sealing up the hole around her as she descends. When touching natural earth, she can simply command it to move out of her way, but for constructed materials, she has to tear it out with her claws and throw it behind her.
Brooklynn Bailey	Brooklynn, sick to her stomach sends people to meet her later and then walks back into the factory.  She commands every person to leave with her SUPER CHARISMA, and then moments later she is walking out, the Factory on fire. "Purifying flames, sure," She says calmly.  She starts doing this down the entire line of factories.
Staren	Left to follow Brooklyn, Staren takes note of the factories and what they produce so that... whatever damage this does to the availability of essentials can be recovered some other way... and also general tendencies in facotry unsafeness / inefficiencies of fuel and material use, etc etc.     Excuse me, HYPNOTIZERS? Staren grabs a few of those for study in how to counter, that sounds important.     "Man, I look forward to finding out where the servers are and setting you loose." She comments to Brooklyn, as she takes down notes.
Cantio	The factory goes up in flames, and there's not a lot the guards inside can do to stop Brooklynn's and Staren's adventures in arson. They're easily dispatched in straight combat, they don't really have any tricks up their sleeves, and the various flamethrowers and crushing machines in the factories wind up hurting the guards more than they halt the intruders. Really, the problem here is deciding how to handle the firefighters when they show up. They're armed with fire extinguishers to put out the flames, but they probably won't be all that happy seeing Brooklynn and Staren so close to each scene.
Cantio	Hiromi decides to go even deeper, and her path forward is actually considerably harder this time around! It's largely because, instead of the natural earth and dirt of the underground park, she's running into way more manmade structures. Pipes actually diverting fresh-ish and deep sewer water in different directions, more electrical lines that may or may not be necessary for something further below, and eventually... She hits the train tracks. It's similar to the tracks that were visible earlier today in the industrial district, but now she's found the winding path that is the subway tunnels. In the far off distance, she can see what looks like more actual city along with a larger waterway that the train tracks just lead over. Also, there's a train headed her way. This may not be the safest way through the city.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Oh." Hibiki says while leaning back out the way of another incoming robot. She watches it go by, raising an eyebrow while glancing back to the other girl. "They're doing a really bad job of finding you then."     She's also blissfully unaware about most of the utter shenanigans that have gone on elsewhere, and boy, is it going to be an experience learning about them. Annihilated factories and slavery ended in the time it took her to go visit a convenience store. The fact Cantio managed to find out plenty on her own gets an approving nod. They're making good progress!     "Yeah, I think so. These invoices will hopefully help us take down the mayor without needing to do it the same way they did. All I had to do was ask for them nicely, so it seems like people really are rooting for us. Not sure what to think about hearing someone else is trying to run too, though..."
Brooklynn Bailey	Brooklynn looks at the firefighters.  Each and every one of them before in her very off-put way speaks again.  Forcing her charisma again, "Prevent the flames from reaching other locations.  These places must burn to the ground.  The food was poisoned and it is bleeding into the town itself.  My fires will prevent everyone from turning into beasts." Ok so she made up...most of that, but with the power of SUPER CHARISMA nobody can call you out on your bullshit.  "Protect buildings, not the factories."
Cantio	"Hehe... Their firepower is alright, but that seems to be all they really have going for them." Cantio actually sounds somewhat proud as she says that. "Mine can identify the difference between friend and foe, and that's even if I'm not controlling them myself!" Yep, she's seeing that as a contest of sorts between her drones and the local robots. "I hope they help. I know we could just remove the mayor violently, but then... Then it's not really fixing anything, you know? These people need to actually believe things can get better without just... Waiting for someone stronger to kill the last person. If someone else is running on a similar platform, that might be not be too bad." "Well, unless we want that position for ourselves or someone else we know."
Undivided Queens	What Seilatiya learns from the crowd isn't much beyond what she expected. The desperate need for such basic human essentials that permeates their hearts, like a squalid, festering mold beneath the floorboards of this entire society, would be cause for deep, heartfelt pain from her, if she didn't have the solution literally at her fingertips. She nods quietly to herself, closing her eyes to take it all in, process the input, and then begin to fabricate an output. "Infinite woes can only be met with infinite generosity." she says, off the 'microphone', like a personal mantra.     Then, on her radio instead, "Hiromi~i~ If you aren't busy, could you come back? Isa and Phony went off together, so now I don't have anyone to smash things! It'd be su~per convenient if you could throw a bunch of these factories into the garbage, okay~?"     Seilatiya does not have the destructive capacity to actually level the industrial district as it is. She can, however, get to work on the mentally intensive and magically expensive process of laying down what's going to come next. The white roads broaden and join together in regular, radial symmetry, forming concentric circles and branching spokes from the central tree, the source of air and light. They don't conform nicely to the square block planning, occasionally cutting through buildings, but that won't matter for long.     Where habitation is already conveniently placed, the roads spill over into green and flowering dividers, cobble paths, and then up the walls like something infectious, turning crappy prefab materials into lovely hardwoods, white facades, and tiled roofs, with round and ornamented windows and walkway-sized house-round balconies and level-joining stairs. It creeps inside, through the windows and now-sliding doors, cleansing filthy surfaces, springing up cushy furniture from magic voxels, creating tiny bonsai versions of the central garden, in various arrangements, that climate control and circulate air, put long silver chests on carved feet that fill up with cold inside kitchens, silky curtains that magically block out sound in bedrooms, and hanging vegetable gardens overflowing from stacked tiers.     It clearly can't be an automatic process, not just for the fact that Seilatiya is focused on the Runecipher in some kind of hacker-trance, chewing on her lip in an incidentally seductive fashion despite the reality that she's focusing, but also for the fact that little statues, painted art, cozy wall hangings, indoor flowers, elaborate table games, and other such superfluous things appear to be based on personal taste, knowing which heart corresponds to each home.     Where a home is too small, she even manages to shuffle around its floor plan and expand its footage, warping blocks of them to subtly surround commons areas that were previously permanent oil slicks, raising up communal irrigated gardens and water features using Hiromi's new stream. Where amenities she isn't familiar with are, pink runes wash over them like scan-lines instead. Personal effects that have a place in anyone's heart might shift across a desk at worst.
Staren	When the firefighters show up, Staren warps on a hardhat, hi-vis vest, and clipboard with a summary of factory problems typed out on it. Also severe-looking fake glasses. She clears her throat, waves the clipboard, and taps on it. "Safety inspectors. These factories are all condemned for unsafe working conditions, and who does anyone think they're kidding with that 'fud' nonsense?"     She looks at the clipboard. And then back at the firefighters. "Sorry, when exactly is the last time you had all your gear inspected for safety?"     Yes, this counts as honesty. They may not be locally licensed or anything but they ARE finding the factories insufficiently safe for society and immediately levying penalties in the form of fire.
Hiromi	If a city didn't want to be found, then it shouldn't have hidden itself underground in the same sector of the Multiverse as Hiromi. Though she's decided to spare water pipes for the moment, just in case they spill poison into her recently found resevoir, everything else is subject to her unstoppable might.     The same is true regarding incoming trains. With the approaching vehicle, Hiromi winds up a closed-fist strike to hit the moment it comes within range, to counter its whole momentum with that of her strike--     --only to dig in her heels and catch the train with her hands, instead. Without establishing her own forward momentum to counteract the train's, this means she's pushed along in front of it, tearing up the space between the rails and raising geysers of earth as she sinks inches into it. The front of the train bends inward with her hands.     Where this stops depends on whether someone on board pulls the brakes on hitting something. If they do, it ends at least a hundred yards down the tracks. If they don't, it still ends down there, but only after Hiromi lifts the engine up off the ground to stop it from continuing to push her.
Undivided Queens	Using the levelled factory grounds as her start, Seilatiya directs and focuses the voxel wave around it in all directions, clearing the remaining garbage through a system of disposal sinkholes and a temporary diversion of the groundwater. From there, pillar by pillar, window by window, she begins replacing it with an immaculately planned greenhouse complex, with its own glass panels that radiate magical sunlight indoors, designed to exit from all directions onto the road. It even has its own weird chariot-esque mini-vehicles, like a car for two with enclosed cargo space.     Poking around inside reveals that it isn't just an old-fashioned greenhouse though; for all its fanciful looks, and for all the handwave magic that's responsible for where the water and sun and nutrients come from, it's laid out like a highly efficient hydroponics facility, already replete with tools, seeds, and clean suits. There are, beneath it, a series of basement dark rooms, which are all marble tile and heat lamps, with mainly steel and glass furniture. The ostensible purpose of those hot areas is the rather arcane series of tubes and cauldrons and just outright magic rune arrays that allows people to throw substances like meat and salt into them where they'll gradually multiply in quantity, obviating the need for mystery meat and leper mines. It's less meat than people are used to, but it's also not garbage, and comes with 'things other than meat' in great quantity.     Everyone, of course, has a cookbook pop up in a kitchen drawer somewhere. They're all identically thick, pink and white covered, and have egregiously over-present handwriting from Seilatiya in various areas, with extra notation and recommendations. The probable theory is that they're all magical copies of a single book.     At this point, Seilatiya begins to look a little winded, taking a break from her fussing with a celestial artifact to breathe and wipe some unbearably sexy sweat from her brow. "Ah, what was next? Injustice was it? Let's just replace those awful police with something cuter and kinder~"
Cantio	That'll do it for the firefighters. Nobody in this town seems to have much mental constitution, so they buy Brooklynn's commands and Staren's falsified reasoning to shift their priorities easily enough to keep the fires controlled. The nearby buildings are still protected, but the factories go down without further trouble. THat certainly frees up the workers to have some more free time to enjoy the beautiful gardens that have been set up and the cookbooks created in their homes and hotel rooms, although affording the ingredients to use the latter might be something they'll have to worry about once the initial excitement wears off. "Inspections? What's that taste like?" Never, apparently. Inspections don't seem to be a regularly/ever occurring thing down here.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Still enough for everyone around here to hate 'em," Hibiki says after another bite, keeping back a chuckle at Cantio's very obvious competitiveness. The turn on the conversation gets her nodding much more seriously though, looking down briefly.     "Yeah. I feel like...we can do everything we can to make it better, but just taking him down by force would be..." She trails off, not that it's difficult to understand her agreement with exactly what Cantio said there. "...I want to make sure these people will be okay even after we're not here to keep butting into things, you know?"     Hibiki pauses to rub at the back of her neck. "Though I'm still pretty lost about who we're actually gonna put in the position when we get there," she admits. "Maybe if we get to meet them, and see what kind of person they are..."
Staren	Inspections? What's that, can you eat it?     Staren hangs her head and sighs, ears and tail drooping. How could they manage to come up with the one unanticipated reply that makes things even worse?     "Right. Well if you haven't had any inspections until now, your *civilization* fails the inspection and you can expect an audit sometime in the coming weeks." She gestures vaguely threateningly at them with a pen.     It won't mean anything to the random firefighter, but it makes Staren feel a little better, damn it.
Cantio	By the time Seilatiya's done rearranging things after so many factories have gotten leveled, the industrial sector might very well be unrecognizable from what it originally was. It's already smelling better, it looks amazing, and the people are starting to get plenty of free stuff out of it that'll help them improve their personal care skills (especially when it comes to cooking). There certainly won't be a lack of voters for herself and many of the other Elites from those eigible to do so on this floor, even if nobody living here actually understands to just what extent these changes have been made. Replacing the cops, meanwhile, might be even easier than all of the landscaping. Many of the officers had already abandoned their posts thanks to rumors about someone paying them in cheeseburgers showing up in the slums a while back, although the ones that do remain do become extra cute.
Persephone Kore	Phony also produces her Dorado Black Card, holding it out to the bartender with a perfectly innocent eyes-shut smile. What's proper etiquette here? I don't really go to bars! Guess I'll just follow Isahane's lead.      "I'll also have two of everything!"      Oh no, Phony.      She already seems mildly tipsy when she's halfway through her first drink, a colorful and unbearably girly cocktail. That's around the time when the piano starts playing itself- it's not as skilled as the court musicians Isahane might be used to, but like everything Persephone does, it's touchingly earnest. The song has a feeling of bright, clear togetherness; shedding long-carried burdens; the joy of doing something freeing and slightly transgressive.      "I've never met anyone like that," she admits. "Well, maybe a few people, just lately?" That little star... no, she isn't quite like that. She is scared of something, but it isn't that crude. "Nobody I grew up around was ever like that. Nobody at Sapient Heuristics I think I understand how those people could exist... but it makes me sad to think about. Too attached to their own little lifeboats to let us save their friends from drowning."      She rests her chin in her hand contemplatively, closing her eyes for a few moments. She's probably a little flushed, but with her skin tone it's not so easy to tell. "It makes me so happy that nobody in the Concord is like that. It's been amazing, getting to know you all. You know?"      She still only seems slightly tipsy after the second cocktail, four entire bottles of wine, two jugs of "moonshine", and a can of beer. It's not hard to tell that the 'tipsiness' is entirely psychosomatic- Persephone's mind determines the state of her brain, not the other way 'round.      When she opens her eyes, she picks up her second can of beer and holds it out to Isahane briefly. "Hey! My friend Dylan always does this trick with the cans. Let me see if I can..." Assisted by telekinesis, she crushes the can on her forehead and laughs.      ... The can was still full. The liquid inside has probably become some horrifying state of degenerate matter. It vibrates slightly when she puts it down.      Settling back into her contemplative posture, Phony muses: "A lot of people look up to you, don't they? How do you feel about that? Do you ever worry if you're being a good role model for them? Or does it just make you happy that they do?"
Cantio	Hiromi almost suplexes a train. Luckily for everyone on board, she doesn't, and they live to die another day! The conductors are mostly just confused by what happened, some of them cowering in their respective train cars, but they have nough sense to actually pull the brakes instead of just trying to run her over. Good thing, too, because then they definitely would have died super hard. It'll definitely be harder to ferry people between the industrial district and downtown now, which might come in handy down the line if someone figures out who might actually want to escape downtown to get to the industrial district.
Cantio	"Who we put in... That's definitely going to be a concern for later. It's... I mean, it'd be ideal if it was one of us, but I don't who would really be willing to do it. Or, if several are, who's ego would win out." Cantio replies to Hibiki, letting her concerns be heard finally. "... W-well, I'm sure we'll figure it out by then." She doesn't sound super convinced.
Hiromi	Hiromi stands back up out of trough she'd formed in catching the train, brushes the dust off her tail, and heads back to the tunnel she'd dropped down through, making her way up through first it, then the well, not bothering to find and map whatever tunnels people here normally use for reaching the upper (downtown-wards) areas. This means she bursts up out of the well in a huge spray of water, fully soaked, in the middle of Seilatiya's garden. It gets sprayed a second time, because magical drying isn't among her powers.     The Archwolf looks up and down the magical tree, around its ropes and stones, across the garden paths, standing up straight with her hands on her hips. Finally, she nods. It is good. She moves on.     Where once were viciously ugly and worthless 'factories,' now there is burning rubble. This, too, is good. Hiromi finds a good spot away from anyone else, and opens up a pit to stuff the ruins into, walking around and tossing pieces of formerly-a-building in ballistic arcs through the air to land by the garbage burial.
Undivided Queens	At the bar, Isa simply laughs (exactly one very large HA! followed by a number of smaller chuckles) when Persephone just copies her order. She herself seems little concerned by which drinks are supposed to be heinously toxic, save that she goes through them more slowly. She goes through nothing else slowly. "Ahh, damn. Now I just wish I'd brought my own. And my music. Not that this's bad by any shot, but now I wish I could share something. Next time I'll have ta take you somewhere for proper drinking; open sky and all that." Isahane then looks to the crushed can with an expression Persephone can read even without psychic powers; it says: Whatever is in there, I want to drink it. I really really want to drink it., and is merely considering whether this is even possible.     "Mh. Where I grew up, nobody could afford t'be that way. There's not enough t'split for someone to lord over having the most, you know?" The mid-sentence loan-phrase, switching from whatever vulgar/high variants of her language she uses, could only come from exposure to Seilatiya. "But I knew the concept. The old Algwyll. The people who drove mine off all the ancestral lands an'covered it in cattle farms and vinyards."     "Not just that there's people like that in amongst them, but their people to mine. Have so much o'everything that the one thing that the one thing they hate more than anything, more than death, is having less of it. Top t'bottom, afraid of 'only' having as much as the one 'neath them, until even the poorest of them is kept in line by 'at least I'm not an Ilenjeh', and that thought alone, even when they're starving in the cleaned-up streets."     Finishing off a whole jug of something nominally paralytic, Isahane takes a minute to spin her brain back up. It's still incredibly unclear which dialect she likes better, even in this situation. "Of course I think about whether they should look up to me. If you are the type to never think about whether what you're doing is correct, or whether what you have is earned, you are the type to always be wrong and earn nothing fairly. But it's a good thing that they do look to me. As long as people grow up, they will always look to others for guidance, and if you leave that growth to its own, it becomes choked with weeds. To be looked to is to have power. Those who seek power for such small reasons are those who should have it least. If they did not look to me, they would look to someone lesser than me, and likely someone far worse."     "There is no getting around it; in fact, you could say that this is the closest truth that Seila and I share. Freedom of opinion is the greatest con to ever succeed; freedom to make bad choices, freedom to believe false things, freedom to do harm to oneself, these are all false freedoms that befit only one who cannot profit from truth or from merit. When one is better, it becomes their obligation to shoulder authority, of whatever nature, and to allow none of it to those who are worse. Refusing authority is not magnanimous. It is not freeing. It is not kind. It is abdicating it to those who will do harm with it. It is neglect."     She pauses for a moment, then thoughtfully adds. "You could say that the mark of a true leader is that, ultimately, their desire is to become the least competent of their people."
Persephone Kore	"'At least I'm not an Ilenjeh'," Persephone repeats, wearing a distant frown. She's currently sipping a bottle of something that might be vodka or might be paint thinner; she doesn't know the difference, and neither does her body. "And Seilatiya's had to smother that fear. Haha, maybe that's why she's so good at being reassuring?"      Following Isahane's gaze to the vibrating can, Persephone picks it up- with her actual hands, bravely- and cracks the tab. A needle-thin jet of luminous fluid(?) shoots out and pierces the bar's roof to escape. Phony regards the tiny blackened hole in the ceiling with pursed lips for a moment, then shrugs.      When Isahane's brain is properly spun back up, she sits up straight and folds her hands in her lap, holding eye contact with rapt attention. (It's a little strange to see her lapse back into the demeanor of an eager student; the habit is still there, but it's thoroughly impossible to imagine her in any actual 'kohai' role, so it comes off more like a kindly relative listening to you gush about your hobbies.)      "I think I understand," she says slowly, turning the concepts over in her head even while she speaks. If I could save people from their own bad decisions, from their stubbornness, wouldn't everything be better? Like the woman with the robot friend, who would shut herself out of heaven. <Q-Conversation> Ioanna Langstrom says, "If you're offering that power to everyone, and people say no, and the people who say yes still hurt and abuse them, it's not really a choice, is it?" <Q-Conversation> Persephone Kore says, "Ahaha. It is a choice, though." <Q-Conversation> Persephone Kore says, "There are lots of choices you could make, every second of every day, that don't make any sense and would only hurt yourself." <Q-Conversation> Persephone Kore says, "You could poke something in your eye right now. There's no reason at all to do it, but you could." <Q-Conversation> Ioanna Langstrom, dryly, "I already experienced that once."      "When I got to be Sapient Heuristics' princess, I didn't have the choice to abdicate. At least, I didn't feel like I did. It wasn't a question," she says, turning to look past Isahane and off into the blank distance. Her eyes unfocus; her imagination is fixed on some memory or other. "Now, I feel different? Even if there were someone else 'good enough', but still not quite as good as me... I think you're right. Handing that mantle to someone less- less this," whatever she is, "it would be a kind of neglect."      She tilts her head to look back at Isahane. She's smiling again, but the smile is a little bittersweet. The song on the piano stopped at some point, trailing off for lack of focus.      "I do want that. To be the least competent. I enjoy it when people look to me. When I can care for them. When I'm big enough to hold them in my arms and make them feel safe. It comes naturally to me? But caring for everybody, always, like I should... sometimes that makes my heart tired."      She downs the rest of the paint thinner and laughs. "I want to be selfish, you know? I want to be able to care for some people more than others. But only when I'm not needed for something more important than myself."