Scene #7618: Oni Party Crashing

Owner	Pose
Hiromi	There is a name for this place, but its name means The World, as so many do. Even joined to a wider world as part of the lands of Summer, no change in language has yet been made. Pronounced carefully, the word is closer to Gaea, so that might do, if one needed it. In the distance, every way but north, the land is heat-blasted barren, scorched dry, yet more than that, it shows the signs of upheaval, with very, very young mountains and chasms, packed together too densely to stay as they are for the geographic long-term. The ground is more flat and stable, rolling hills and terraced farms and clay brick-walled villages, as it gets closer to the cliffs surrounding the central plateau. Winding paths carved in stone go up its sides, spotted with carved gates and pillars. The closest village is hidden by its walls, but as the sun sets to the west, it's only from on high to the north that one can see light flickering down. Hundreds of fires float in the sky from flying lanterns, their tethering lines nearly invisible. The city up there must take up the entire plateau, given how there are buildings visible all along its edge. Green tiles on sloped roofs, walls painted like the same bands of sunset. Stars, lanterns, and bonfires -- from the number of smoke trails just visible in the sky, they've lit quite a number of the latter. Hiromi is here, standing in her humanoid form, as those other members of the Concord (and a few others) have already seen. She hasn't brought anyone else with her, but has chosen to wait, arms folded, near the warp gate, looking up toward the top of the plateau. "'Haiki.' A name given, there." She gestures with her chin, up the cliff paths. The other areas around here are not, apparently, important. "Need lifting? I 'have room.'" If someone gives the right (wrong) answer to that question, they'll find she knows a quick, exciting way to reach the top.
Persephone Kore	Persephone walks through the warpgate- strangely, not floating or teleporting in via mech. Walking is a habit I haven't broken yet! All the lands of Summer trend towards toasty, but she's bundled up in a sweater, draping texture-knitted shawl, and comfy arm-warmers in bold colors despite the climate, with not a drop of sweat on her to evidence the mistake. Only when she comes up beside Hiromi does she start to float, if only by a foot or two- presumably so she won't have to strain her neck looking up. And also because I'm used to being the tall girl! You and Isahane are completely cheating. It's okay if I at least even things up, right? Her expression is a gently marveling smile- first at Hiromi, even though they've already met (I've seen the sunset lots of times, too! You're just so 'real', it's amazing!), and then at the city in the distance. "Those things up there," she says, pointing at the fires in the sky. "What are they?" She doesn't wait for an answer: without even a gesture, one of them is pulled down towards her as if by a gravitational tug. The string is probably snapped in the process. Oops! But they're like kites, with fire inside? That's so amazing! "I could float up, but I never learned to hurry," she warmly admits after scrutinizing the captured flying lantern to her satisfaction. "I'm not usually in a rush. So show me your way! If it's no trouble, haha."
Undivided Queens	Seila and Isa currently need no particular description for the fact the two here have met them before. Isahane is wearing only a minor variation on the same thing, having sandals and some leg ties now. Seilatiya has stripped off a, singular, layer, making her look somewhat less empress-y and somewhat more princess-y, in that same difficult to place vaguely east-Asian-y very slightly Roman-y way. This does nothing at all to help with radiating extreme supernatural beauty waves, only somewhat affected by her constantly waving a gold-edged fan in her face. Isahane seems content to just be mildly sweaty-- oh no. "Isaaa, it's hoooot." "I know." "Carry meeee." "That doesn't change it being hot." "Stingy." "You already have everything. How can someone be stingy to you?" "Fiiiine." There is one more salient addition to the way they'd been seen last. Isahane 'bears' (in the sense that the way it floats closely behind her, almost attached to her hair, gives the impression of being personal equipment) a glittering twelve-sided spherical crystal surrounded by a flowering array of metallic silver 'fins' like blades. Seilatiya has a somewhat larger, and intensely glowier, perfect sphere of deep pink-red, its surface playing host to thousands of tiny runic figures constantly shifting over it, surrounded by golden metal like petals. This is relevant, because with a sweep of her hand, Seilatiya conjures it out before her to float at eye level. Staring into the impossibly dense and constantly changing script, she pokes it a few times in different places, causing chunks of script to freeze up and glow. But a moment later, the stone radiates intense, cherry petal light, and an entire chariot, unnecessarily exorbitant in size with a palanquin roof, soft mats and Chinese cushions, and silk curtains, materializes on the spot. There are even animals to draw it, though rather than horses, they look like some horse-sized, mountain goat-like . . . creature? No doubt infinitely better for those rocky trails. Seilatiya climbs the steps immediately, and reclines in the shade with a glad little sigh. "Isa, come on in~" "I'll walk." "Oh don't be mad; I wasn't being serious." "I'm not. I just don't want to caught be lounging on a cushion when something inevitably happens. What if I break that thing?" "Oh well. More room for me!" Seilatiya then sprawls out in a way that would look lazy if it weren't somehow agonizingly coquettish, like she can't even flop down without it being accidentally alluring somehow. "It definitely looks like there's some kind of celebration going on. But it's getting to sunset now. We should hurry." "Or a witch burning!" "Where did you even read about that?" Seilatiya shrugs. The animals begin moving on their own, so she gets to shrug while rolling past.
Hiromi	"Lanterns," Hiromi answers immediately, not because she can see that far easily, but because she clearly has already seen items like this, before. Once Persephone gets one to examine, she may notice that it was fortunate she grabbed the whole thing. It's mostly made of paper, the construction so light that the bottom could easily have torn out before the line snapped. Just the natural heat of the air around its fire keeps it floating, and very little keeps it from burning up. There's something drawn on the side, but it's an abstract ideogram with no clear meaning. Seilatiya has chosen the comfortable route up. That's going to take longer than the exciting way, but they'll arrive at the same place, and at least the view of the ground slowly receding and the rows of stone carvings are nice. This route doesn't look wide enough to have seen a lot of traffic, but there are tracks conveniently positioned to either side of the steps for a cart's wheels. On foot, it's just lots and lots of stairs. Isahane's worry proves needless, for the moment. This area is unguarded. Persephone has chosen the exciting route. Hiromi grunts an acknowledgment, reaches into the earth, and pulls up a conveniently round boulder, substantially larger than she is, and not wholly plausible to have been hiding right there, nor to have such a convenient place from which to hold it with one hand. Of course, it is and it does. Hiromi spins around once, shot puts the boulder in an arc toward the city, grabs Persephone, slings her over one shoulder, light as a feather, and jumps after the shot. One would expect, from the forceful feeling of acceleration and the rapidly receding ground, that the land behind Hiromi's feet should have cracked, broken, collapsed, or cratered. Instead, it's the opposite. At the moment she leapt, a stone pillar rose beneath her, adding to the force of her launch. She catches up to the boulder, plants her feet on it, and rides it as it crashes into one of the outermost buildings, driving through the brick walls, but parting beneath Hiromi (and above her, Persephone) like semi-rigid foam. Hiromi then sets Persephone down.
Hiromi	The city has the impression of a place that has lost its name. There are signs of battle everywhere, from wrecked gates, walls, and partially collapsed buildings, to piles of bodies and discarded weapons. The bodies are humanoid, but mostly gray, hairless, anywhere from four to twenty feet tall, and covered in lines like darkened gold, mostly ruling out having actually been human, even before getting to the bit where the expected smells of rot and death, which should be overpowering in the vicinity, are totally absent. The weapons are mostly pole arms, only some of which are bladed. All are fanciful enough to be parade items. But those are the poorly lit areas. The places with living people are centered around the many bonfires, and a few places with artificially lit fountains that shoot up streams of water in complex patterns that slowly shift, moment by moment. There are humans, but from a distance, one might take a moment to recognize them as full-sized (at least upwards of five feet) while also having the party-goers in view. Ranging from tall to gigantic, from red-skinned to blue or green-black, one-horned or two, they're definitely oni, and there isn't a single one that isn't eating, drinking, both, or about to. There aren't too many humans enjoying the same. Most of those are leaning just out of sight around building corners, sitting in the dark somewhere, or running around refilling tables and stirring massive cauldrons of unidentified food items. While some take large, shallow bowls to fill from these, other oni reach directly into the boiling water to grab chunks of something that's apparently very tasty. Somewhere, musicians are playing strings, though only passingly well. The general line of supply for the party, which stretches down city block after block, heads toward the palace at the center of the city. These are only the outlying fringes.
Staren	Oh no, it's hot! Downside of switching from environmental body armor to enchantments -- Staren hasn't got the temperature control feature working yet. But that's okay, maybe? Clothes are pretty versatile. Seeing the others heading on ahead, Staren stops for a moment. She puts away her coat, zips off half the legs of her pants, and undoes her scarf, re-tying it to put her hair into a ponytail so it's not warming her head as much. Under the pants were calf-length socks which may or may not be a fashion crime as far as she knows. Now slightly more prepared for the heat, she hops on her broom and rides it towards Hiromi and Persephone. Once she lands, she asks softly, "So... you said there was going to be a party, but... it kinda looks like the only party here is the onis celebrating conquering the city."
Persephone Kore	"Aw, it's like a tiny hot air balloon! Haha, I love it so much. It's okay if I let this one go free, though, isn't it?" It deserves to live out the rest of its days in nature. Now severed of its guiding line, the lantern is released from Phony's telekinetic grasp and lazily drifts up into the sky. She waves it a warm farewell, but... That symbol piques her interest. So before it can entirely escape, she tunes herself to the frequency of its cognito-narrative residue, trying to psychometrically uncover its reason for existing. If the question she's asking were put in words, it would sound like: "Why are you the way you are?" No sooner has she gotten her answer than she's put on the Hiromi Express. Her hair is blown back and messed up by the howling air resistance; her shawl is ripped right off her shoulders to flutter in the wind; her eyes are open wide in obvious childlike awe. She's barely processed what happened by the time they set down. "Oh my gosh! That was amazing, Hiromi!! Can we do it again when we leave, please? Haha, I was barely even ready to enjoy it." She telekinetically grabs the shawl from hundreds of feet back and pulls it back around her shoulders. Her hair is smoothed down again to its normal slightly-messy state, but not telekinetically; more like the unnatural warping way that an AI transforms one image into another. Not much could dampen her mood after something as fun as that, but the nature of the celebrations- the city being ruined, the piles of gray-skinned corpses- do lessen her smile a bit. This isn't the kind of fight I like. A struggle for power in absolute terms, not a fight between friends- I can't stand that at all. I'm no good at it. But, maybe we don't have to intervene at all? As the party presumably heads towards that palace in the distance, she focuses on the feelings and intents of the city's inhabitants- the oni, but the humans especially. Whatever happened here, how do they feel about it? What do they plan to do after the celebrations? Is this just the replacement of one oppressor for another?
Undivided Queens	Seilatiya, for riding that absurd imperial chariot/palanquin, seems to find simple lanterns and stone sculptures inordinately fascinating along the way. It's sort of touristy, but sort of anthropological too, and with a distinct bent of trying to imagine the person behind the piece long before she has the necessary cultural grounding to make it more than an idle musing. Near the top, however, Isahane's nose twitches, and she departs a ways from her partner to scale the rest of the cliffside to the plateau with a handful of powerful, bounding leaps, her sandals working just fine to navigate the rocks with more goat-footed sureness than the mounts could possibly provide-- on in fac tprobably a real goat. This gives her time to check the scene before Seilatiya arrives. Enough to scout around the bodies, prowl around the buildings, assess the battle damage, and get a line of sight on the celebration. She returns just in time to catch Seilatiya at the gate, who has stopped for obvious reasons. "Oh my. This is terrible. I thought there was a celebration here? How out of hand can a party get?" "Don't do that. You know this is the site of a battle. From looking at it, these were the defenders." "Well, if they aren't buried, that means they lost, didn't they? So why is there a party?" "The conquerers themselves, no doubt. No, not a conquest. Pillaging. A ransack of the city. I see humans as well, inside. Reduced to servants for the time being. I don't know whether they lived here, or were brought with the invaders." Seilatiya sighs out all of her breath at once, all of her good mood evapourating. One leg at a time, she steps down from her ride, and moves closer to Iashane's side. She looks down pityingly at one of the grey corpses, folding her fan away and leaving it on top of the mass, unburied grave. "I wish you could have lived in better times." she says. "Or at least for a day longer." "It's possible these are defense creatures. 'Golems' or such." "I know. But that music is so half-hearted. It's sad." Isahane stares for a moment, then decides against telling her what she'd smelled. "Come. And stay behind me." She stops only to pick up one of those polearms; specifically the largest twenty foot specimens, slung over her shoulder. When they catch up, Seilatiya's first question is "What is an oni?" However, Isahane seems intent to barge the fuck on in. Strutting right into the firelight, she snags one of the oni-sized dishes, slams its liquid contents back all at once, and then boots the table over, throwing the empty dish down so that it breaks. "What're you cheerful about, huh? You're up to your knock-knees in bloody corpses, yeah? Happy to pack on the stones? I wouldn't be. You fat fucks look big enough to me. Any more and your bones're gonna crack from under all that blubber and smug satisfaction, yeah? This party is shit. You're shit. Try again." The Multiverse doesn't really care, but she is speaking a different language now.
Hiromi	Landing out at the edge of the city-party means nothing immediately happens to anyone there, and the same is true for approaching by the normal route. This place isn't "defended" in the sense that a city could be. Staren asks a question, and Hiromi answers. Yes, they're celebrating. She did say that, though she hadn't mentioned 'what' they were celebrating, or that the ones celebrating were oni. "Words" must be to blame for this ambiguity. The topic of a side being 'in the wrong' is brought up. Hiromi says, "'Wrong.' These are not my pack. Not yours. How can they be wrong?" and then answers her own question, "Impose your law with your own strength. Earn the right of judgment." The last phrase hits the mind with multiple layers of meaning, making clear that one taking these steps out of order not only cannot practically impose a penalty on either party, but that a decision on 'who is wrong' is premature and irrelevant. 'Judgment' includes the decision itself. This extra precision in meaning, operating at the prelingual area of the mind, doesn't manage to carry over into the radio chatter. Persephone reaches out to feel the lantern, and the feeling of the character is 'hope.' Someone was expressing hope for something, and then let that hope fly to the heavens. There isn't enough of a trace left to tell what that hope was for. As long as she doesn't get too close, or walk out into the light, stealthily reading some minds is pretty easy. The oni aren't thinking about much beyond the current party. The expected surface thoughts of joy, hunger, restlessness, and the comfort of strong alcohol are all there. None of the ones in sight are thinking about the city's future, except for what entertainment will come later. (They don't know, but look forward to it.) The humans are more varied, with some only able to think about their current work, others practically asleep despite their eyes being open, and a few, fear-filled people are praying to dead gods for deliverance. Very definitely dead gods. Isahane finds a number of other curiosities about the bodies. Not only do they not smell like rot, but they instead have a complex aroma of spices, mostly overlaid with what could be a vegetable oil, which has begun to go rancid. Some have had their limbs broken, and the stumps do not bleed, but show broken metallic connections. Though the metal components appear either wholly constructed or implanted, their skin appears ordinarily human, if unusually colored. Some are statuesque and muscular, while others are quite fat and muscular. The twenty-foot polearm she selected proves that the defenderes were not just large, but very definitely superhuman, above their size. The thing is massively heavy. The blade is mounted for chopping from a fair distance, but has a long enough point for a good charging thrust. There's a feeling of some magic-adjacent energy in it she could easily trigger, electrical in nature, affecting the area around the mounted blade. It doesn't have a mechanical trigger for that, but an inclined warrior picking it up can instinctively figure out how it works. Seilatiya asks a question. Hiromi is able to answer it with a single word-that-isn't-a-word. "Oni." Ogre, demon, cruel and strong and violent, or cruel and strong and cunning. The not-word carries shades of additional meaning harder to decipher, connections to other concepts that are more tenuous than identified. Hell, punishment, unchained spirits, kidnapping, hunger and consumption. Isahane tries the drink. It's extremely strong. Unlike the music, it's good. Surprisingly good. Some true master must have made the drink, and only the drink, such that the plainness of the bowl it was poured into does it a disservice.
Hiromi	Isahane taking a drink causes the nearest, very drunk oni to laugh. Kicking over the table gets the kind of pause of someone waiting for a punchline, and hers is to pick a fight. It's only after that the red-horned beast, ten feet of muscle-fat and clawed fists, notices her picked-up weapon. That causes something to click, and the oni goes straight for it, not her, no longer laughing, to drag it off her and giving a punch like a speeding truck, its speed only strengthened if she takes it while resisting the disarming grab. He probably couldn't think of a good comeback, anyway.
Staren	Staren looks at Hiromi. "That's, uh... that's how we usually do, yes." She nods. Then pauses as her mind finishes processing the additional meaning. "...I see. If only everyone had to earn it, the Multiverse would surely be a better place. Would that I knew what qualifies as imposing law properly..." She clenches a fist. "I don't need to rely on my own strength anymore though. I have the Concord." Then relaxes. "It may be academic anyway. Let's wait to hear what Persephone finds out..." Her ears twitch at the sound of someone starting a fight. Staren sighs but is already putting her coat back on and closing it in a practiced motion, then making sure she can reach her pistol through a slit in the coat. That done, Staren makes like a platformer protagonist, wall-jumping up onto a building to get the high ground and spy on how this fight is going.
Persephone Kore	Persephone, unfortunately, has no sense of subtlety or danger whatsoever- even if her mind-reading doesn't require her to get close at all. Sorry, I've never learned to be on my guard! There's no need to be when I can tell what people are thinking, and nothing can touch me. She's likely to be spotted pretty rapidly, and it's impossible to dismiss her as "just another human", either- my aura of sincere, gentle warmth permeates everything around me- my wishes can shape the world, so even my feelings ripple out like this! But however hard she is to ignore on foot, it's only multiplied when the Queen in Veils materializes around her. At thirty feet of pearl-white plastic, the fanciful titan-doll towers over the buildings- and probably most of the oni, too! A beautiful flowering meadow spreads outwards from its feet, reaching easily thirty yards across and trailing persistently behind it as it walks. She can't rebuild the buildings, but she can make this place look less decadently ruined! Maybe it's in synergy with the terraforming, or maybe it's just the equivalent of projecting her voice, but that vast aura from earlier intensifies, too, radiating out even further than the flowers do. It's a warm disembodied hug; it's an infectious smile; it's a gentle hair-ruffling and a sincere promise that everything will be alright! I really, really mean it. The Queen in Veils halts just a little bit behind Isahane, safely out of reach of her polearm's backswing. "Isahaneeee. Did you want to handle these yourself, or is it okay if I help? Haha, I don't want to steal your fun." If Isahane assents, she'll pick one of the largest ones arbitrarily and telekinetically fling it thousands of feet off the side of the mesa, without even the dignity of a gesture, like a child throwing a toy. It has the dainty-condescending feel of pinching something between forefinger and thumb. Even against monsters like these, her violence is infused with too much gentleness to kill, but an impact like that could crush the will to fight out of it- not to mention the long climb back up.
Hiromi	Persephone mentions being carried again. Hiromi wuffs a "Yes," sure, that's no problem, she likes doing that. Whether 'moving her body like that' or 'carrying people off' the not-word doesn't specify. (It's both.) Staren mentions the Concord. Hiromi has less of an understanding of the organization as an organization than Staren does, but nods. "Pack strength." That's probably clear in its meaning on its own. The architecture here, even where the city is badly damaged, provides a lot of varied platform levels. Climbing past all those hanging eaves would be a frustrating nightmare, but wall jumping largely avoids the issue, and nets Staren a good view. Getting a few stories up, the city spreads out in all directions. There are lots of other lit areas, proceeding radially from the central palace area. As is usually the case, so long as she doesn't do anything to attract attention, no one looks up. All the interesting things they know about are on the ground, after all.
Undivided Queens	For whatever reason, it seems that Isahane finds the obscene heft of the weapon reassuring. Like she might have been put off if it was sensibly constructed to be lightweight and flex properly at that length. She, of course, has her own weapons, but for some reason she insists on using this one. Meanwhile, Seilatiya's already nervous and reluctant half-smile falls off her face when Hiromi explains further (on several levels at one). There's a soft little "Ah . . ." and several seconds of dark contemplation, where it seems like she's staring through the ground. Then, she looks right back up again, slamming both hands against her hips. "Well, whatever! We'll do it your way, Hiromi!" She glances back towards the smoke. "Isa is already doing her thing anyways. It's really hard to stop her when she gets like this. So I won't~ Hee~" She begins 'running' towards the mess, in as absurdly dainty a sense as someone can run, in sssssome kind of footgear that makes elegant little clack-clacks where she walks. Isahane, at the party, reveals at least part of her preference for the ridiculously oversized polearm, over twice her already imposing height. When the oni reaches out to grab hold of it, Isa's gripping arm shoots forward, dragging the polearm several feet down her shoulder so this his meaty palm grabs the blade instead. Using the newly available length at her soulder, she grabs the haft with her second hand, and lifts the entire thing up with one forceful shove to meet the oni's fist with the metal length between her hands with an adequately bone-shaking clang. This would of course drive all the force directly into a human and pulverize their legs, but it seems for Isahane, through whatever technique, most of the force travels down and through her without unsettling anything, cratering the earth beneath her feet almost exactly as if the oni had punched the ground instead. At the same time, she electrifies the blade-end of the polearm where the oni's grip is, and then pulls up the other end, where his fist is, with a bellowing heave-ho, to turn the ten foot demon all the way over her head, and perform an impromptu lever-based suplex, his head into the ground. Then, she yanks back the polearm, probably cutting the hand off in the process. Brandishing it causes blood to spray into the cauldron food; probably on purpose. "That all you got? You ravaged this place with that level of strength, and you're proud of yourselves? No wonder; you're sitting on your fat asses instead of training! Come on then! I'll give you the beating you shoulda got for poking your empty heads out of the mud! Courtesy of all those fine corpses you all made! Can't say yours won't stink to hell though!" Isahane wipes her brow, flicks off a few droplets of sweat, then braces the polearm against her body like the world's most oversized jousting lance. "Fighting is what parties are half-for." she says, switching back to a more official-sounding version of her language, giving off the impression of a high/vulgar split. "I wouldn't get in the way of your fun." Then, she picks one of the blue bastards this time, crouching down like she's about to begin running-- and then a pair of bone-white wings covered in swirling green designs tear from her back, and propel her forward like a gunshot with a single thunderclap beat in time with her ground-quaking lunge.
Undivided Queens	Back in the land of sane people, Seilatiya has clambered her way to the top of the tallest building she can find that's still within easy view of the procession, with her face to the sun and her back to the end of the supply line. Even on a purely mundane level, her dress reflects the sunset, and her jewelry glitters and sparkles, creating a sort of glowing corona that makes her stand out on the horizon. On a level beyond that, she's put that floating stone high above her head, where it creates its very own stage lighting visible for a good mile. This is so all of the humans her presence naturally attracts will look towards her at the same time, see her clearly, and implicitly give her their adoring trust, directing all of that misplaced hope towards herself, and projecting her own feelings of care for these people out like a palpable spring breeze. "Everyone, please! Come this way! Your prayers have been answered; your Holy Empress is here to save you! Everything is fine now! Believe in us!"
Staren	Welp. Apparently this is a fight now. And Persephone starts off strong. Staren kind of feels like that makes it time to ready an impressive weapon! And studying and replicating Silver's purifier beam has led Staren to prepare just the thing! She holds up a hand and... a magical girl staff warps into it! It's pink, and gold, with bits of wire and jade attached to it connected in something vaguely reminiscent of an electric device but not following any laws of electricity. The tip of the staff is set with fire opals, the settings of which are connected to the wires and jade. Staren holds it high. "People of... uh, whatever this place is called! Fear not! The Concord is here to put a stop to your opressors!" She swings the staff around to point at the onis. "Monsters who prey upon people! Who do nothing but consume! Your time has come! The tables have turned! Let's see what good your might is against THIS!" Staren shifts stance, holding the staff as if she's making a thrusting attack in the direction of the nearest oni. It's a tradition to call your attacks, right? Staren tries it out for effect: "DESICCATE THE SUPERNATURAL!" A wide beam of pure white light fires from the head of the staff, Staren's coat and hair fluttering in the wind as if from a backblast. And any oni it hits... the magic blasts the water out of their bodies, generally being unpleasant and causing a lot of tissue damage and potentially withering a creature to a husk in seconds, thus the name! Staren looks suitably impressed at her handiwork, then thinks about asking Persephone for a recharge, but It Doesn't Work That Way. The expression on Staren's face shows that she didn't really think beyond how to fire it ONCE, since it's just a prototype. "uhhhh..." She cycles through other weapons trying to find the appropriate level of force to fight oni with, but doesn't bother to actually call the attacks 'laser rifle', 'M72 LAW', or 'particle beam'.
Hiromi	If Persephone hadn't already been spotted, the Queen in Veils would be. It is, definitely, bigger than the biggest oni in sight, and as tall as the highest rooftop Staren can easily reach. Taking time to get higher, as Seilatiya does, winds one up next to rooftop spires of probably decorative purpose, that incidentally serve to reduce visibility between different sectors of the city. Hiromi had described the oni as 'hard,' and difficult to change. Trying to do more than read their thoughts finds a therefore predictable resistance, if only enough to make their psychic presence unpleasantly prickly, or with a sense like a foul, bitter taste, discouraging further contact. This defense mechanism might work well on someone focusing a direct connection to take control, if they were much weaker than Persephone is. Since she's not doing that, she just has to deal with a dozen varied types of vague unpleasantness for all the oni in range. The effect does seem to work, as no one attacks her. Even when she picks up and throws one of them, only that particular oni is significantly, immediately bothered by the attack. Not just flowers, but a meadow begins to appear. This attracts Hiromi's interest, for unspecified reasons. She feels the earth beneath the flowers with her feet. This is important and useful in some way. She only stops to watch the oni get tossed off the cliff. The reactions to Isahane, followed up by Staren, are a different story. One oni gets flipped, and when the massive pole-axe triggers its effect, it's less 'electrocution' and more 'flesh-disintegrating ball lightning.' That hand is wrecked into a bloody mess. Her lunge into a smaller blue oni, with the extra force of her suddenly deployed wings, catches it off guard, with a very satisfying impact to its impalement, like crushing through armor. The smiths who made this thing weren't messing about. Given that its previous wielder was killed, this should also be taken as a warning. Staren's speech attracts attention. Wholly violating magical girl tradition, one of the taller oni begins climbing up to reach her before she's even finished, putting one hand on the roof and vaulting up. It still gets hit by the beam, and falls back off again, hitting the ground with a crash that raises a dust cloud, twitching and gasping before it makes it to a barrel-like jug and starts drinking like a fish. Or rather, they'd all been doing that already, so it's basically the same. Several nearly-human-sized oni caught in the same blast seem to be down for the count, instead, though it's hard to tell if they're just knocked out by the effect or unable to reach alcohol. One might wonder if drinking very strong alcohol is a valid method of rehydration, but given that all of the oni have lived this long, they're probably fine like that.
Hiromi	Losing one hand isn't enough to keep the red oni down for the count, but when it starts getting to its feet, Hiromi is already there, saying, "Looked fun," sweeping the oni's legs, grabbing its good arm, and taking three steps into a long toss that sends it spinning through the air across about five city blocks, scattering blood all the way. It crashes into the harder walls of the palace's outer area, and collapses to the ground. A few seconds later, it stands up a second time, wobbles for a few seconds, and then breaks into a run to get back to the fight. Hiromi appears pleased with this. By this point, Seilatiya has reached an appropriate perch, and made her plea. It is immediately effective. Though hiding in the background, scattering at the outbreak of a fight, the humans of this place had been waiting with their only hope being new, stronger gods defeating the ones who had defeated their old ones. And here are a collection of massively powerful individuals who fit the bill, and one is even acknowledging their prayers. Some of them would be inclined to trust those words even if they hadn't been backed by her incredible presence. The only ones who hear her and don't respond are the ones who take it upon themselves to spread the word.
Undivided Queens	Whether or not Isahane's goal is 'slaughter and drive out the oni to save the day' or 'get into a huge fight and get really drunk' is actually hard to say. She can't be oblivious to the fact that her weirdly one-sided suplex didn't actually break the oni's neck, and yet she finds time, after skewering the second one, to grab a smaller jug, and begin tipping it up. "Fine stuff though! Wasted on you lot! How about you hand the rest over, yeah?" She's holding on to it. Realizing she can't manipulate the polearm properly like this, she lets go of it, and then her floating gemstone blazes with light, glittering particles bursting off of her other arm, which is now clad up to the shoulder in engraved steely armour. She rolls her shoulder, booze in hand. Seilatiya is meanwhile showing as many people over as she can, interrupting the supply line to send them backwards. She doesn't really know what's at the end, but presumes it probably can't be good. The Holy Runecipher rises high into the air, and shines like an itty bitty sun, helping alleviate the growing darkness from the setting sun and guiding over who might as well be refugees. She has a plan for what to do with them, but that comes later. For now she calls out, "That wand is so cute! Adorable! I love it! Bring it over here cutie!" to Staren over the radio, lamenting their lack of means of recharging it.
Staren	Staren is... concerned that the big oni wasn't taken out. But as she readies a rocket launcher, chatter comes over the radio about how amazing she is Seilatiya calls her cute again. What is this weird feeling... O-oh well, time to think about that later, for now...! Staren stuffs the launcher back in her bag and just activates the Fly as the Eagle enchantment built into her coat, picking up the staff and flying over to Seilatiya. "I uh... thanks. I'll have to make the final design more efficient, or come up with a sort of ammunition-like storage device..."