Scene #7624: Chessnut Island 2

Owner	Pose
Brooklynn Bailey	For those, not here last time, but are here now... Welcome to the remains of the old world. The warp gate you will come out of leads to a city made out of apocalypse shelters than a city. It's dirty, though cleaner than others. Farther out you can see the fallen remains of the statue of liberty lit up because someone is using it as a shelter. Walls made out of beaten-together metal, recycled concrete, and burned-out buildings protect the city. This is only where people gather up. With travel time you will end up on... Chessnut island. Here one of Brook's scavengers was shot dead, but thanks to Kukuru they were brought back to life. The other was taken hostage, likely to later use to force them to give up their life-saving drugs. In the old governor's mansion, the group lays in wait. The offer only had come a day or so hence, so right now is a tense air. It is why Brook leads the assault. Her own forces have lined up to try and surround the mansion, something the Cultists had not counted on...being found out. "My forces will keep the cultists from escaping and worry about our own...but we should deal with the Vice. A lot of life-saving medicine is in their hands..." she says, with an edge in her voice. She does not believe that mercy has a place here, but she has also suffered much at the hands of this leader. Despite everything, the Leader has finally stepped out. On one hand is a pistol, holding it haphazardly. He's shirtless and /deathly pale/ with long blonde hair running down his back. He has a pair of torn jeans and a good pair of boots on his feet. The fight is joined, but how you choose to engage is obviously up to you! Brook is a bit more direct though, standing in the middle of a battle and raising a spear made out of the fire. All of her allies, including you, gain her strength and resilience, her ability to regenerate from health, and resistance to any form of control. "Let's bring an end to this," she says, pointing the spear at the leader. Someone who she does not even know the name of. The man himself laughs, a bit unhinged. "Just a waste of time, young lady...you should live in the moment. The past is too painful, and the future only gives us death..." he says, shooting himself in the head with that pistol. One of his own drops is dead. He is fine... "Hurt me all you want...I won't die. The rest of them..? Too drugged out to care. As long as a single one of them lives, I am immortal...and I'll bring them salvation. A quick death, and no pain while they live...so stop struggling!"
Featherman Neo	Featherman Neo is here. He has a wrapped package slung to the side of his belt. As the group begins the fight, Featherman Neo does not draw a single weapon. He seems to just be standing there. He doesn't say anything, yet. Because he has questions, and only the Leader's mind can provide them. He knows enough to start, but before he can begin, he needs the rest. What is your name? What do you personally think could save you from your current fate? *What could drive you to choose to indulge in fighting Taboos over pure hedonism that wastes away other humans?
S6	-AREA MAP COMPLETE- -DYNAMIC SCANNING MODE.- The boxy droid known only as the POD clicks a few times, then extends a small cylendrical antenna. Beside it, Striker Six simply...stands there. The gunshot when the Vice murders (by proxy) one of his followers is acknowledged only by her head snapping in that particular follower's direction, the most faint of noises, the vague downturn at the corners of her mouth. It's tough to tell behind the 'visor' she wears, so similar it may be to a blindfold, but her gaze does settle on the Vice once more. Her head turns slowly back to him. -ALERT. A MURDER HAS OCCURRED.- "I see," her voice comes out quietly, but firmly. Halos of golden light form, shedding off in showers of sparks as twin swords materialize just behind her shoulder. Her usual sword, curved and shining silver, but also something altogether new. This second weapon is sword-like with a distinct hilt, straight, but without a distinct blade. In fact it looks more like a trio of triangular rods pressed together in some sort of modular connecting framework. But S6 doesn't reach for either of her weapons. Rather, she lifts her right hand up, fingers straight. A golden halo of Indan runes encircles the Vice's pistol. Her fingers curl inward, toggling the safety, before she wrenches back suddenly in an attempt to yank the firearm right out of his hand.
Kukuru	For Kukuru, trying to save everyone in Brooklynn's group would be ideal. Saving everyone that's not in her group would be far less of a priority, but she can sort of remember somebody mentioning not to just exhaust the leader's supply of bodies despite his willingness to use so many hostages. That stays the green-haired woman's hand briefly as she slides her claws on one after the other, strolling along without an apparent care in the world to stand besides Brooklynn and facing him right then and there. "So... Um. Hey. I just wanna make sure." She speaks in a slow, pleasant-sounding tone that makes it sound as though she's not quite awake despite clearly paying enough attention to speak. "You won't die if there's any of them still alive, right? But if they're all dead, then you would die?" She furrows her brow, looking rather skeptical of the leader's strategy. Most of it is genuine. A small part of it is an act, largely because of being told that there's some kind of plan and, apparently, an intent /not/ to kill everyone. He doesn't need to know that, though. "So if that's the case, what stops you from dying if we just kill everyone, then? That's... Kind of a really bad plan, you know?" Still talking as slowly as ever, Kukuru yawns as she starts walking forward slowly. Everything she's doing and saying is so slow. Most of it is to just run the clock down. "I mean, you gotta have some kind of backup plan, you know? I can fix them afterwards, anyway, and I can just... Not fix you. Besides, not everyone's... Um. You know... What's the word?" She snaps her claws not unlike someone snapping their fingers, but there's a terrible metallic screeching each time she does it. "The... You know! When someone wants to not kill people because it's wasteful... Wasteful? No, that's not the word, either..."
Katt	Katt may not have been here before, but she has at least some experience with demons in the form of people. One of them tried to have her killed as part of a show. And while she puts herself at risk every time there is a show, he tried to do it with poison, as part of a prayer or an offering to his god. She's still a little sore about that. And maybe she seems to see a little of that here. Katt is also on the battle lines. She has a staff with a cats-paw top that has blades where the claws should be and not much else, but she doesn't need anything else, really. "Can't hurt you, huh?" she says, and then shows a little bit of a grin. "That's fine. Just makes it a challenge match!" The others are talking. Katt instead starts to lope forward, toward the leader, switching from a walk to a run. It looks for all the world like she's about to charge him, though there's enough cultists that she's actually spending about half her time dodging them, forcing her to take a zig-zagging path. She has a plan! Presumably! The grin suggests she does, even if Katt isn't known for much more other than hitting things.
Staren	Staren steps out of the warpgate... and is soon given pause when she sees where she is, eyes widening. MAD HAVEN. Haunted by the angry ghosts of those who perished en masse when the apocalypse flooded the city, all who go there are driven to madness the longer they stay, IF they can even survive... Staren shakes her head. She deploys drones, automatcally scanning and mapping the area and watching for unusual sensor readings. Several of the drones surround the mansion, floating in the sky, giving Staren a tactical aerial view. As the Vice(?) gives his ultimatum, the thought that all these people WOULD be easy to kill occurs to Staren, but... perhaps they can do better? Staren keeps her distance. She warps in micromissiles that seek out groups of cultists far from melee and explode not with force but into clouds of gas to keep them too busy blinded and coughing and choking to fight. Closer targets she has direct LOS to are shot at with some kind of nonlethal stunning energy bolts. She's trying to get a feel for whether such measures can indeed take down most of the cultists, which will make finding a plan to save them much easier. "You're wrong, you know!" Staren calls out over the sounds of battle. "The future is not one of death. So sayeth the Concord. So say I!" She points at the Vice. "Why are you hoarding medicine for use in a future you don't believe will come, anyway?"
Mack	"Pacifistic?" comes a rough-voiced reply to Kukuru's ponderous dialogue. "Heroic? Unwilling to treat people like collateral damage?" The squat, scrap-sheathed figure was not at the edge of the combat zone before. Rattling, clanking, jingling and scraping, Mack limps his way forward, closer to the man who uses the lives of others as ablative armor. Amber rings glow beneath a shadowed brow in place of real, true eyes. Layers of burlap covers most of him, save for the chrome hand clutching the walking stick made of tarnished scrap and capped with a jutting piece of yellowed bone. It looks like some neo-primitive's idea of a spear. Honestly, it goes remarkably well with the rest of the place. Mack stops, avoiding getting within arm's reach of any of the cultists. He looks like nothing more than a hermit who has gotten involved in something deadly serious. His optics sweep the field, while subtler senses thrum beneath his ugly hide. "Maybe you ought to get outta Dodge, friend," Mack calls. "Just skip town. Maybe live on a nice, isolated little ranch. Ever think about how many folks you could get away with quietly feeding off of when all eyes aren't on you? Ever think about what kind of good you might be able to do with that trick of yours?" His hand tightens on the rough metal rod. He leans more heavily on it. "No," he mutters quietly. "You never do." Mack clears his throat, then coughs. He sounds sick. There's a little edge of pain to his words. "Gonna give you one shot, friend. Just give up what you've got, and come along quiet-like, and we'll work it all out together."
Brooklynn Bailey	Featherman reaches out, hoping against all hope that there might be some humanity in this man. There might be a small dialogue in TOKU space, where everyone is normal, and then gets mirrored for some reason. Light gets played around with, that kind of odd place where Featherman asks his questions. "Mercedes Valente." "I don't know..." The last question isn't directly answered. Featherman gets to see it, with his own eyes. Mercedes is a doctor, he is helping people. That's what he did. That day he was at the office, as the ritual of ascension might have been that day, but...people still got sick. Things...changed...the sky fell, humanity reached too high, people died instantly in his office, others started to...change...eating the people who died. Merging into bodies, indulging in whatever sick games... You can see him running home, gun in his hand he had picked off an officer who died in his arms. He busts through the door of his home...and see's a sight that would break him. It wasn't his wife who had changed. His son, baby son had mutated, taking on aspects of a glutton. His wife, still somehow alive with tears down her face watches their son eat her alive. The screen goes blank, but two loud bangs are heard. "Back up plan..? Nope...we lived for years in this place..." he throws his hands up towards Kukuru. Looking out over the ruined city is...certainly heartbreaking if you had ever been to New York. Buildings are burned out, parts of the city overgrown, monsters festering where they can. "This is hell, this is our purgatory. If they die, then I'll make sure my people are happy, and not in pain. If they die, then they get to be /free/. I will gather more, and do it again...we will live in bliss before they die." "If you think you can stop me, then go ahead...I too welcome to see the gates of heaven. Or I guess in my case hell. Any place has to be better than here..." Katt's plan gets her close to the ring leader, he does not try and run away from her. The cultists, however, all try and protect their leader. Makeshift weapons, clubs, axes, a large inanimate rod, all are swung at her, but if she can get through them? Well, he's right there. S6 and Staren get a nice map of the area. In fact, they can find several people tied up in the nearby house, in a separate room. Drugs are stockpiled in the basement. There are cultists down there, but a token defense, most of them are here now fighting for their leader. The runs grab the leader's gun, attempting to pull it back. However, his face grows...demonic for lack of a better term. His head snaps forward, eating the runs and grabbing his gun back, before holding a hand out towards S6 and attempting to use those same runs to drag her into a nearby group of his people. Missiles land in the same cultists, and while S6's maneuver wasn't successful, it DID keep him distracted. When the cultists go down there is a small flash of energy, like a spell breaking. It seems that people were correct...they have to be willing, and you can't be willing while you're unconscious. A crooked smile returns Staren's question. "Do you know what an opioid is? They're great fun to share across the commune. If we have the drugs we get to enjoy them...and others can not use them either. Death comes for us all just a little bit sooner, and those who are desperate to be rid of the pain come to me." "Leave? Why? There is nothing for me out there, nothing for anyone. The whole world is like this city...the only exception is that larger beasts roam out there than here so far as we know. Besides...I would like to die in the same place as my family."
Featherman Neo	"Doctor...is this really medicine?" Featherman Neo fires out, suddenly, straight at the Leader. "You're Doctor Death, if it is. Slow euthanasia. But you're not a monster, no matter how much you believe it. Vice doesn't make you bad. Virtue doesn't make you good." He clutches the package, but doesn't remove it from the belt just yet. Featherman Neo keeps speaking. "You must want better for these people. You're a doctor. Have you looked into the Taboo? Have you decided to indulge against them, instead of in your fellow man?"
Kukuru	"Pacif... No, no, that's not the one. It's when they fight, but they won't kill anyone during it because... Yeah, that's the one." Kukuru lets out an affirming noise, turning to Mack and raising her claw's thumb-equivalent in approval. "But yeah. That's the... Um... What I was trying to get at. I think. Maybe?" She sounds like she's already forgotten. At least she's getting more insight into the leader's plan! Or lack thereof, even, which ends up getting a disappointed sigh from Kukuru once he explains it. "That's not really much of a plan at all, no. It's kind of... You're young. You're young. That's normal at your age, I guess." She clearly has no idea how old he is, but she still sounds disappointed more than anything else. "I know things can get pretty bad out there, but stuff gets better if you try. Getting hooked on drugs like that feels good for a while, but it just hurts you more later." As Kukuru goes through an unprompted anti-drug PSA, her tone wildly contrasts her physical movements. After seeing how S6's stunning missiles worked, Kukuru herself disappears in a swirl of darkness. She reappears moments later nearby the leader and the middle of a crowd of cultists, and then she just starts swinging. Thankfully, she's using the back of her claws where it's far blunter, but still just as heavy and concussion-inducing with her sheer strength. "And when you start doing that to the point that it's hurting everyone else, then I guess that just means... Um." Featherman Neo speaks, and it sounds as though he's trying to appeal to the leader's better nature. She pauses after another swing to stroke her chin, holds that claw out, and.... Gives him a thumbs up. Then it's back to swinging (the back of) those claws around to try and knock out as many of those cultists as possible, all while letting her nanite-enhanced healing weather all of the blows and slashes that might be coming here way.
Katt	Katt is not a visitor to TOKUSPACE. She doesn't have any special knowledge. But she doesn't need it. This particular approach is where she's at her best: direct attack into a bunch of relatively untrained goons that are trying to beat how down by volume more than skill or strength? She's not that worried about that. The harder part is going to be not hurting any of them very much. Katt spins her staff like a helicopter rotor, deflecting several weapons coming down for her at once with loud clangs, evading others with fast footsteps. Her reflexes are absurd. She leaps backwards from a more powerful blow from the rod, not landing on her feet but coming down with the butt of her staff half-buried in the ground and the staff itself pointing straight up; she hits it with most of her weight at the top and one extended leg, absurdly balanced as the whole thing tilts back under her weight, then forward as she kicks off the ground as she uses it to vault over some of the cultists. She comes down on the far side of the group, spins, makes a face at them as she swings her staff low to sweep the whole front rank and maybe interfere with the attack on S6, and then runs toward the leader. She's fast, and she's clearly preparing to just... Well, she won't use the word, but she's going to pounce on him, bowl him over and roll with him, if nothing stops her. She's almost as skilled without the staff as with it, so grappling non-lethally (it is painful, though not particularly damaging) is definitely something she knows how to do. Hands on his shoulders, legs in the small of his back, her lying down and lifting him overhead. It's a safe place to put him if she's got the strength advantage - the question is whether she can pull it off. She's a little worried about his ability to bite, though. She saw that. Nobody's supposed to eat runes. And she doesn't know what else he's going to turn into. "How about you STOP killing people and sit DOWN for a minute? There's plenty of stuff out there! All of us came from out there, right?"
Staren	Staren would be glad she can't read minds. Fortunately, she can't, so she doesn't know what she's missing out on. Staren's face falls and her ears splay at the word 'opioid'. The cult leader sounds like someone they should just kill -- but that's the one thing they apparently can't do. Sensors find hostages; perhaps working to free them would be a good way to spend her time while Featherman begins his plan to circumvent that immortality. And then she hears a voice, and a way of speaking, and turns to stare at... okay, there's no face, but she barely ever saw the face, anyway. "Mack? What happened to your armor? You followed me through the rift?!" She hurries over, concerned at how weak he looks without a powered exoskeleton. "But now you're trapped here... I guess you can see I wasn't crazy about being from the future, and the warpgates, and the factions... oh, right." She shifts, and the form that... no one here has actually seen except Katt, stands there, although perhaps others have seen the catboy in old recordings. "Shapeshifter. It's me, Staren!"
S6	S6 had considered her choice of action to be relatively tame, especially considering the actions taken by some of the others who have aligned with Brooklynn's goal. She expected perhaps some resistance. Some strength to resist the pull of the VRCS on his weapon. Literally eating the VRCS targeting rune; that's a new one. When that same rune ring forms around her, she digs her heels in to resist it. Her sword flips down, driving itself into the floor beside her for her to grab onto while her heels drag furrows in the floor amidst showers of sparks. -ALERT. UNIDENTIFIED VRCS INTERFERENCE.- -TYPE S6 VOLTAIC BATON FULLY CHARGED.- Reaching up, she collects the second weapon she carries, giving it a sharp snap that prompts the three triangular rods to separatate; exposing a glowing blue core crackling with electrical charge. Her hesitation is very brief, her thumb teasing a small flower-shaped metal charm hanging from the hilt by a chain. She then releases the weapon to the runic rings of her VRCS, the weapon sweeping around her in a wide, crackling arc while she recovers her footing.
Mack	"It's okay," Mack half-asides to Kukuru, possessing the voice of patient understanding. "Take your time." It's not like they're in the middle of a combat zone or anything. "Plenty out there. Maybe not here, on this world, but listen -- I'm from around here. Not here here, but here, in the future, after things've gotten..." 'Better' is a strong word that Mack would not want to pull out to describe the state of Madhaven. He opts for, "...more stable. Lived in Harlem most of my life, even! So I understand that you wouldn't wanna go anywhere. There's nowhere like home, right?" Tap, scrape. Tap, scrape. Mack advances, slowly but surely. Someone addresses him. The voice is familiar. One of his implants pings briefly, alerting him of the presence of a friendly network device. He twists his too-long neck, the hint of a sunken, sickly face framed by fragments of chrome peeking out from under the burlap. "Oh, yeah. So it is! Good to see you again." He smiles an ugly smile. "The ol' brainputer tells me you're probably not a demon in disguise or one of those androids. Look, long story short, I thought maybe it was a good time to make myself scarce after that whole thing with the Shemarrians. Left most of my gear at Castle Refuge. It's a longer story than that, but --" Mack gestures. The combat thing, right? Right. He takes another step forward. Several cultists get in his way. Mack grunts, making a dismissive gesture with his free hand, and the air between him and them flexes and abruptly snaps back. Invisible telekinetic force sends drugged-out minions sprawling every which way, letting him limp towards the ringleader. "You've got to let go," he calls. "Bad things happen. It's a world full of sacks of crap, but we've got to use what we can find for fertilizer, or it's never going to get cleaned up!"
Staren	One of those androids -- Staren thinks briefly of Adam. But smiles at the recognition, although he looks briefly confused at the last part of the story, before nodding. Of course. Combat thing! Staren forwards the map data and hostage locations to Mack, with an indicator of where he's going, and then runs as if going to get something around a corner or other obstacle and A Perfectly Normal Cat pads across the battlefield. It must be someone's pet, since a little scarf has been tied around it's neck, but it's just a Perfectly Normal Cat. It's not even worthy of the obvious attention it might draw, for having that scarf or suspiciously clean fur for an apocalypse... well, okay, it IS a cat. Anyway, barring any challenges, it tries to sneak into the compound and make its way to the room where people are tied up. If there are few enough guards Staren thinks she can take them down with shock weapons, she'll transform and do that, then cut the hostages free. "Are you able to fight? Or do you need me to escort you out of here?"
Brooklynn Bailey	Featherman addresses the Doctor in the real world, this...the very word catches him off guard. Being called Doctor like this..? How long had it been? Emotions spread across his face, the old memories he had, that he tried to bury. "What...could I do? People suffering, dying...I did not get blessed with the power to stop the madness...only to give others the same feelings I do. Euthanasia might be a sin, but it is better that I carry it out...don't you understand? If they kill themselves by their own hands...then they can not see heaven!" he shouts at Featherman. "I...can take that from them...I can give them a peaceful end." "My power doesn't work on the Taboo, they are not willing..." he says pointing the gun up at Featherman, clearly disturbed. Faltering..? "Take that box away from me.." This is followed by Kukuru's use of the back of her shield on the people. He looks disturbed by this. He can't help them like this...! "It's not like /that/... You give the dying patient something to make their pain better. We're all doomed...all of us..." Hostages are easy to find thanks to Staren, which in and of itself is an easy one. At the same time, S6 responds to her situation with a wide swing from her backup weapon, which does the job. The cultists smacked with it go down immediately, unable to stand up to the stunning force of the weapon. "Stop it!" he cries out, holding his head in both hands. No no no...he has to help these people...he has to! Katt immediately tackles him to the ground, the gun that he's had clung to for so long hits the ground. The force is enough to take it out of his hands. He glows a darker color again, trying to use the borrowed runes to snap it back. He tries to use the gun's back to hit Katt across the head, aiming to try and get him off of him. "Back!" he says, trying to point the gun to his own head. Click. Nothing. In the exchange with S6, the runes had managed to hit the release for the magazine, and in the confusion, he had not noticed. He pulls the trigger a few more times confused. Mack's words cause him to nearly tilt out manically. "Let go...LET GO!? I will /never/ let go of them...even when I burn in hell for my own sins..." He reaches into his pants for another clip... Elsewhere, Staren wonders by people too doped out to do anything. They were only guards in the barest sense of the word. Getting into a room, many of them are tied to chairs, or to a bar. Once freed some of them are clearly not fighters or had been here too long. The missing guard grabs a nearby metal pole. "I'm with you."
Staren	It's almost disappointing how easy getting past the guards is. Staren warps in food and water, and lots of forcefield projector discs to distribute among the rescued so a stray shot won't take them out. The guard is additionally offered some light armor and a quickly-demonstrated shock staff and/or a gun. If Staren's drones see a clear path out of here, Staren asks the guard to take the others that way (handing over a tablet and glasses that can show the path, hazards, etc). If there isn't, she says "Wait here. Gather strength, I'll be back soon." And then cat-stealths her way to where the drugs are. Plan: Stuff as much of the supply as she can into her bag. The inside is roughly the size of a closet, and she's using only a small fraction of it now that she can warp in spare gear instead of carrying tons of extra guns just in case.
S6	Striker Six straightens her posture once the mirrored VRCS relaxes its grip on her. She releases her sword, which pulls itself free of its own volition and returns to its place across her back. The Voltaic Baton sweeps once more, coming to rest in a position where she can simply wrap her fingers around the hilt. Its own VRCS runes dissipate in a shower of golden sparks. Lifting it, she points the crackling weapon direclty to the ringleader, the Vice himself. "I have taken precautions to enable me to oppose the threat you present with a minimal loss of life." Sweeping the weapon aside, she approaches with quick steps, her heels clicking with the sound of metal on concrete, and her voice has an edge unfamiliar to those who might know the android battlemaiden, "How is it that a /weapon/ can care more for these people than a human such as yourself, so eager to sacrifice them for your own selfishness?" S6 is actually angry. It grows more obvious the more she talks, though she's clearly struggling to keep herself contained. At least she still has the Voltaic Baton in her hands and not Virtuous Contract, which still floats peacefully behind her left shoulder.
Featherman Neo	"But you did. You did get blessed with the power - the power to fight for a better day." Featherman Neo isn't afraid of the gun. He knows it won't ever be fired on him. For one reason. As he slowly unfurls the package and begins to open it, not yet revealing its contents, he speaks. "Doctor, you've already given up your Hippocratic Oath in your own way - you're harming these people through indulgence. You may not be able to cure the Taboo, but you can fight them off. You can indulge your hunger in their destruction. You can change your fate." "Or you can destroy it, and I'll leave. I'll let them tear you apart. But is that what they would want from you?" The package is lifted up, revealing an old, worn, blood-stained teddy bear, the blood dried from years of leaving. "If you hate your past so much, destroy it right now, Mercedes Valente! But if you have even a shred of hope for the future, even a chance of redemption, you'll falter." Featherman Neo looks on, standing tall. "I cannot save you." "I can only help you save yourself."
Mack	Ping! Mack's heads-up display notifies him of the newly-received data. He makes a quick note of it -- don't do anything that would draw attention to the captives and the rescue -- and keeps on keeping on. And keeps on saying the wrong thing. "Fine. If living and dying with your own misery is what you want, then we can work with that, too." Mack extends his free hand again, face briefly becoming an angry scowl. He stops himself, fingers tightening into a fist and then uncurling with an exhalation. Doing something awful to this man won't actually help right now; he might as well be pummelling his hapless followers instead. He needs finesse, not brute force. The others seem to have the 'wrestling him into submission' part well in-hand, anyway. (In... paw...?) Instead of engaging in the time-honored tradition of the PSYCHO CRUSHER, Mack splays his fingers and sends out tendrils of crystallized force. They snake through the air with a barely-visible ripple. Being armed is a problem, so he does his best to make that not longer a thing to be concerned with, the half-dozen individual forks of telekinetic power effectively turning out the cult leader's pockets (and the lining of his clothes) and absconding with whatever they find. (The odds of him accidentally swiping something from Katt's inventory is non-zero.)
Katt	Katt's plan... actually sort of works? This isn't quite a first but it's certainly a nice surprise. She brings her foot up to try to reflexively kick away the pistol but doesn't manage it before he uses the runes to snap it back to his hand. Ordinarily Katt would hurt him to avoid getting hit with a bludgeon like a pistol whip. She actually starts to do so, digging her nails into his wrist, until she remembers that he can just pass it on to someone else. She switches, at the last moment, to trying to twist with him in her grasp, using her flexibility to advantage. She still can't avoid the blow but she can make it hit her shoulder instead. It thumps against it, hard enough that her entire arm hurts, but she hangs on; it helps that she still has Brooklynn's blessing. Still grabbing the man, she tries to roll onto her back, lifting the man up so he has no leverage, her hands on his shoulders and her knees in the small of his back. It has the benefit of, if she can manage the grip, stopping him from shooting himself in the head (though can still fire elsewhere, she just can make sure she can't lift his arm high enough to point at his own head). She points him, more or less, in the direction of Featherman Neo and Mack, so he can see and talk to them while being held off the ground. "I hope you know what the hell you're doing," she mutters. If she can hold him down while this works, she looks good - but if it fucks up, she looks bad.
Kukuru	"What about fixing the patient?" Kukuru asks in a very matter-of-fact manner, all while approaching the doctor once more while Katt jumps onto him. "I mean, I'm a medic, but doctors can do way better with... You know. Actual training and surgery or whatever to make them /stay/ alive. All that kinda stuff. But if you're doing this... Um." She glances around, only battering people that are actively approaching her now rather than goinga fter them. Eventually, she turns right back to the doctor. "Who's this really helping at all?" S6's question even has Kukuru jerking the thumb-equivalent of her claw back at her. "See? Even..." Kukuru pauses awkwardly. "... She knows the difference, and she's calling herself a weapon. That's not too good to say of herself, either, but that's something we'll talk about later." S6 gets a scolding look from Kukuru at that bit. "I mean, I was supposed to be smarter when I got stuff put into me, but all it did was make me better at doing stuff out here instead of behind a desk like I wanted. I could've stayed home anyway, but now...?" She gestures around at Brooklynn, at Katt, at Staren, being relatively careful about not smacking anyone in the process.. "I never would've met my new family... Um. Extended family if not for that. And you can, too, if you just figure things out instead of hurting other people over it."
Brooklynn Bailey	Staren goes to smuggle drugs. Certainly, nobody finds this ironic. However, she can put the drugs away, better to make sure those get to safety because right now the doctor is unstable. Who knows what he might do. Strangely, Staren will find that the drugs aren't just thrown around in bags. The room that they are held in is like a doctor's office. Things are placed in need order, instruments are clean. Hell, there is even a picture of the man, looking much younger with a woman holding a small child. It seems that despite his words, in his own sanctuary he can't get away from the past. "Selfish...?" He says, angry. "Selfish!? LOOK AT THIS WORLD! LOOK AT IT! The reckoning happened because of man's sin, and we're stuck here. Horrors unimagined...the only thing left are the sheep, and the monsters...I couldn't live with being a monster, so I tried...I TRIED! Those people didn't deserve this world! They deserve paradise...so I will give it to them!" he screams at S6. Followers are mostly down, or being taken care of by Brook's people. The woman herself watches this...her face a frown. She didn't know, she couldn't have known. When this happened she was only a few years older than the man's child. Katt positions the leader in a lock towards Mack and Featherman Neo. Mack robs a poor crazy man of all of his possessions, including more rounds, a few bits of medicine, and a wallet. Inside are very old bills, and a picture. The same picture that Staren sees now. To Kukuru he speaks, trying to be defiant but clearly losing this fight. "What if living with the disease is worse than death? It can be mercy...for those who don't know who they are, while their family watches them forget. People who are in a coma who will never wake up...those of us in purgatory?" "If I can't heal them...then I could at least help them pass. To the garden of Eden...they wouldn't have to worry about suicide! I would do it...I would bear the sin..." Featherman addresses the man again, he winces at the name he is called, but he can't look away either...because Katt has him in a hold. Those words hammer him. He starts to argue back, but the words are caught in his throat. The bear... The bear...! He remembers it. He bought it for his son, he gave it to him when he just came back home. His words are swallowed back, if Katt lets him out of the hold he crawls to the bear and takes it. He stares at it before slowly bringing it to his chest and breaking down into tears. Featherman sees one more thing. The man walking out of the house after the two shots. He wears a blank expression. The expression is unchanging as things change around him. As people gathered around him. In all of this time, he never greaved for his loved ones. He threw himself into his work, into thinking he was saving others. The remaining cultists lose their 'zap'. He could share the pain with them, but he refuses to do that. He sobs, holding the blood-stained bear to his face.
Featherman Neo	Featherman Neo allows him to take the bear, if he's released. He keeps speaking. "You have the power. You may have to re-earn these people's trusts, but if you do, you can lead them into a new path. Or you can go out on your own, and use your abilities to destroy Taboo, keeping people safe and creating a new paradise through action. I won't decide for you where to go from here. That's your choice." "But, for your sake, you should go up."
Katt	"Hey!" Katt yelps, when telekinetic tendrils try to grab her stuff. Most of her stuff is not in a position to be grabbed, but she did drop her staff to get the leader in a lock that requires both hands and both knees, so Mack now has that. "I want that back!" she yells, past the leader. Katt holds the man (doctor) in an uncomfortable, almost painful lock. It puts her in the position of control, because she doesn't want him to flip out and start killing people again. But eventually even she can feel the difference in the way he's resisting, or not resisting as the case may be. After Featherman shows the bear (which she can't actually see because the man is in the way). After the others - S6, Kukuru, Staren - drop or at least disable the rest of his gang. Katt's knees stop being pressed into the man's back, letting him get his feet on the ground, and a moment later she rises too. She never quite releases him entirely but she does move with him, mostly keeping one hand on him in case he tries to run or attack someone. But he doesn't. He's crying. Katt mostly feels awkward at that point, and she does let go, taking half a step back. She wipes her hand on the side of her leg. "Where did you get that?" she asks, nodding toward the bear. "...hey, where'd Staren go - oh, there she went." Katt looks at Mack again. She holds out her hand. She expects her staff.
S6	"This is not mercy," S6's voice still has that paper-thin rationality over her own fury, barely contained. The points made by Kukuru and Mack seem similarly unsuccessful, but when the Doctor reacts to what Featherman has produced, she stops. The way her head turns towards him also puts her face at an angle, making her look quite confused-- because she is. Her gaze returns to the Vice, her jaw setting and the part of her face that's visible growing tense again. Her hand shakes, easily noted by the weapon she holds. She does not see the memories the others do, but she has some inkling of what this means to the man. A remnant of a precious person. S6 tilts her head down, letting out a long, slow sigh. The shaking stops. She releases her weapon and the VRCS catches it, swinging the Voltaic Baton up to rest across her back where the triangular rods close around the sparking core once more.
Mack	Mack does not even bat an eye at his robbing of a crazy man. His telekinetic lashes send the bits of ammo, drugs, and mementos hurtling his way. He stops them abruptly in front of him, letting the sum of it hover in a loose cloud near his left shoulder. The unexpected addition of a much larger staff takes him by surprise, and he accidentally whaps himself upside the head with the thing, underestimating its size and reach in the heat of the moment. There's a small, "Ack!" from the impact along with a dull, hollow 'clonk.' He shuffles closer. He just holds the extra staff with his other hand, apparently not really needing the gestures to control the telekinetic cloud of stuff moving with him. He hovers (figuratively) nearby, sort of awkwardly, unsure what to do at the sight of a sobbing man clutching a bloodied piece of his memory. Mack passes the staff back to Katt without comment. He gives her a vaguely apologetic glance.
Kukuru	"If it's really that bad? Then that's for them to decide. Not for you with the... Braining thing." Kukuru gestures vaguely as she says that, sighing lightly while she slips those massive claws back into her pockets (somehow). "Them, their families... It'd suck for them to choose that, but it'd suck even more if someone made that choice for them." Eventually, it appears that the doctor has finally broken down, and the hold on the cultists disappears. Kukuru squats in place besides the man identified as Mercedes Valente, then reaches for his head. It's a comforting touch, one not unlike a mother would place on an upset child to try and soothe them from whatever nightmare they might be having. A subtle murmur is even placed into his head, repeating quietly rather than invading and replacing thoughts outright: They'll be okay. You'll be okay. After a while, she gets back up, circles around to Featherman to pat him on the shoulder with a gentle shake and smile, and then she beelines for that cultist that died at the start of this whole thing. Yes, Kukuru's going to just try and raise them from the dead. No, she has no idea what actually killed them or what ill-effects this may have once they're back up.
Staren	'Smuggling' is only a thing when you have governments strong enough to say it is, so, not on most of Staren's home planet. Staren finds the office... weird, but at least it's organized and evil to loot. Kind of does make it feel like SHE'S the drug dealer robbing a hospital, but like, she just talked to the guy in the picture, and clearly... the apocalypse has done a number on him. Healing his heart, if it can be done, is a job for someone else, though. She forwards the recording of the office to allies, though. Perhaps it's useful information. Staren sneaks to an unguarded door or window to wait near until she feels like making an exit. For a moment, she focuses her attention on what's going on outside, watched through the drones... Oh. Well. She's extra glad she didn't kill anyone now. Should she go out and say something...? Nah. The others are better. There's a mess to clean up, while the doctor is indisposed. The cultists... addicts? She can see what state they're in with her scanners and begin treatment, when things can be helped immediately by administering drugs, or making notes for the doctor when it requires something more long-term. Given how this resolved, she suspects he'll want to improve their health.
Brooklynn Bailey	Featherman Neo speaks to the man, it's hard to know if he's listening, but I think we all know the answer. (Yes) S6 is very upset, and it's not like everyone else wasn't succeeding, it was an investment and an effort...someone desired to see the good in someone who almost looked entirely like a monster. It takes strong hero energy to go with that. Kukuru's comforting was probably very good for him right now. Also, as a bonus, reviving the cultist wasn't so hard. They had only been dead a short time, and there is no more connection on them either. However, the cultists are going through some sort of mental withdraw, physical withdraw would be impossible. Mercedes is going to need time to be more consolable. It's probably good that they're finally letting it out. Brook leans back, frankly surprised and feeling like she learned something today. In the deepest darkness, there exists a little light. Silently she reflects on this because as Charity she should have been the first to think of it. But she had only thought of her people..? Or did she think that death was more of a mercy? "I think we can find someone to help them. Not here, but maybe in the Concord," Brook says softly. I will let him choose his own fate afterward though, but..." she says looking at the doctor, "Whatever your crimes my people could use a doctor. Or at least someone to train one." RECRUITMENT GET: Doctor Mercedes Valente Cardinal Vice of Gluttony