Scene Listing || Scene Schedule || Scene Schedule RSS
Owner Pose
Lilian Rook     It's scarcely been a day since the massive riot at the Eastern Seaboard Urban Center had been quelled, and more importantly, since Arthur Lowell had set a massive piece of urban geometry, tiled together courtesy of skaianet housebuilding mechanics, orbiting around the inner city perimeter. One nominally meant only to be accessed by the gate-doors set up all throughout the Third Circle refugee area exclusively. 'Since they won't build space on earth, have a place in the sky', or so. And certainly one intended to piss off the better-off people who don't particularly care for the Third Circle too.

    So it's natural, predictable even, that this would be the thing that gets a hard response straight away. Especially on suspicion of the flying Bazaar hosting gates to 'God knows where'. Attempts to plough Urban Center Civil Protection units through those gates have met with stiff resistance. Refugees or not, a thousand reasonably healthy adults crammed into spaces within trivial walking distance to eat ground gate is just kind of not something some police teams can deal with. That leaves the municipal government with the unenviable task of exercising emergency authority to mobilize the handful of local GDF assets that can do anything, and escalate the problem up the chain, apologetically begging the council that operates from the Hidden Continent to do something and also not be mad.

    Of course, the elite amongst the Enlightened have little desire to deal with anyone beneath the most upper class of the Unenlightened, and so the few who've been stuck with it are those with the practical skills and lack of excuse not to who are currently immediately available in the area. It's not a vast or well-mobilized response; it doesn't have to be, presumptive that the 'Extras' don't have any means of dealing with magic.

    The main mercy is that they're also keenly aware that Multiversal Elites are involved, and whom, appearing to hold the nominal social status of (some of) those involved in meaningful regard, and given that only the Enlightened really get the opportunity to take advantage of the Multiverse existing, the council appears to have directed the not-council to take a compromise position and attempt to preserve relations with them while still Dealing With this Problem. So it's not a heavily militarized response either.

    What's happened is that layers of wards have been set up around the flying city block(s) itself, courtesy of the architects (well, three of their apprentices) who set up the Urban Center perimeter in the first place, meant to scramble teleporting and block falling, a few squads GDF jet troopers (the flight units are familiar) have deployed up there to locate and bogard the gates that might lead out of the urban area, a couple of healers have been transported up via flight items to wait on the sidelines, with them a pair of suited 'toughs' (who are not actually big burly men with shades, but c-suite-looking types with suitcases full of summoning gear), an analyst diviner, and Lilian, who has been unofficially (but very officially) Put In Charge of this mess, for knowing the Elites involved, being a Paladins member, meeting the above criteria, and clearly, people betting on 'having an Immune there' being a gigantic dissuasive factor to the opposition.
Lilian Rook     And the first thing she's done is seed the earlier ward work with runes of shadows and evening mists, starless nights and reflective water, deep places and winter fog, to turn the ward bubble into a full on stealth field as well, shrouding the area from external view as more than a foggy marble of space, and more importantly, from scrying and divination. This has done nothing to make people on the ground any less suspicious or anxious, has pleased the Enlightened in management, and made the other Enlightened inside incredibly nervous.

    It is not currently going well. Though the healers and their bouncers are standing by pretty far off, and the GDF troopers seem uncomfortable about responding in any way, or venturing anywhere from their posts, it appears to be Lilian and her auxiliary unit alone currently attracting the most attention. The number of men she has at her disposal isn't anywhere near enough to actually block entry all over, but her presence alone is enough to have congregated the vast majority of the current crowd (that will go outside), if only to see what's going on. Apparently, some sort of verbal fight, by the sounds of it.
Ishirou Ishirou is at a loss at what to do here.  

On the one hand, sure it disturbs the order on the ground /a lot/ but on the other hand, it's a bigger move for those who don't have a choice in the matter.  It's rash and dangerous, but the feeling behind it is real and genuine.  

Right now he was standing in the orbit of Lilian, not saying much but listening as well as he could.  Things were a little messed up, and he wants to have a feel for what people wanted here, and what they were feeling.  That is people who have weapons and power and what they wanted to do.

He also tries to give Lilian a smile and a wave, at least something to know he was here to try and help her with all of this.  Some emotional support in a very fucked up situation.  

Tearing this thing down or warding it up doesn't fix the problem that caused it.  In fact, that floating island is basically a monument TO the problem that is here.  
Arthur Lowell >Arthur: Be responsible

            No.

>Arthur: Alright. Take responsibility?

    That's better. Arthur won't be a responsible guy, but he will *take responsibility*. The distinction is important, almost as important as he tries to look with his sunglasses and his stride. In a way, he *is* important. This is his big fucking mess, after all. After freezing up and panicking in the middle of the riot, he had to do something, and he did something *absurd*. Sburb-crafted structures tiled around barely make a sound underfoot as he walks, not floats, towards the verbal fight.

    He adjusts his sunglasses, a glint running along their length just slightly obnoxiously. He keeps the grin on his face, just shitty and obnoxious enough to be almost a prompt: 'Go ahead, wipe it off me.' He strides through the crowd, and speaks only to them, not to the Enlightened and GDF. "'Scuse me."

    Once he's there, once he's in view, he takes a listen of the argument, standing in very full view silently, practically inviting someone to pull him into this. Go ahead, set the rules of engagement and lay down the business. Arthur isn't afraid. This know-nothing punk, this fucking insolent hooligan who caused a big messy outcome, is here to take the backlash straight on the jaw. Bring your righteous fury, your demeaning sarcasm, hell, slug him in the face if you want. He's not going to hide behind Lilian's far more capable social maneuvering.
Kale Hearthward "Okay, Kale, what have we learned today?"

This is an apostrophe! ... No, just kidding, just a regular soliloquy, in the finest theatrical tradition - albeit for an audience of zero, floating in midair as he is right now, at both a good vantage point of what's going on as well as not actually being overheard. Kale wants to change, but change is hard - not just to endure, but often to have happen. So - find something meaningful in every bad experience, if possible - and staring down that crowd certainly qualifies.

"Being a cop sucks and I should try to avoid working civ justice whenever possible? Maybe. People like actions a lot more than promises? That's a good one..."

Kale's gaze tracks from the city streets up to the floating Bazaar - even stealthed as it is now, the sight of it is still fresh in his mind. "... Lowell should be put in a higher threat level tier than I have him in currently? Also a good one, though less general than I'd hope for."

"... Floating cities are cool? Yeah. Let's pick that one up, along with the thing about actions over promises. And on that note..."

He kicks off from hover into flight mode - and heads into the bazaar itself. Lilian and the others are trying to be the front line of reason - he's going to maybe bank on that not happening (this seems like a particularly unreasonable city), and goes to set up some fortifications where needed, starting with setting up his pop-up mobile base on a convenient spot, and dropping some other useful things in places - triggerable wind spells of various intensities, tokenized boulders that can be quickly activated to block paths, and in general just making sure the group has a secure fallback point here.
Kirishima Despite being largely unfamiliar with the situation surrounding the floating skaianet structure, Kirishima's heard just enough about it to pique her curiosity and attempt to lend her aid in trying to calm down what she can only assume to be the angry higher-ups.

Instead of appearing out of nowhere with a combination of ninja-invisibility and ninja-wind dashing, however, she just approaches the argument like she belongs there. She's even dressed to be unassuming today rather than flashily, less like a ninja and more like an office worker or secretary for somebody between the rather plain button-up blouse and skirt combo with a vest on top.

The Paladins insignia on the ID holder around her neck is the only indicator of who her allegiance is with. She stops by the group gathering by Lilian, nodding at Ishirou at Arthur in greeting before offering the same to those addressing Lilian. She doesn't say anything just yet, however, as she instead focuses on taking notes in a thick binder that looks like it's already loaded with reams of paper already inserted into it that definitely aren't just printed scribbles and filler text to make it look like she's a professional smart person.

In reality, however, the notes she's taking aren't even about what's being said. Instead, she's trying to keep track of the reactions she's seeing from the locals in the immediate area: Who's being more verbally aggressive about the situation, who sounds more anxious about just getting the structure away, and who sounds like they might actually be interested in where the thing goes after the fact.
Staren     Last time, Staren talked way too much with people. But the suggestion was made that she could use this as an opportunity to help.

    And so, she's set up a teleport pad inside if allowed and not blocked by the wards outside... and if not, then a little help from Arthur to gate in and out has allowed her to...

    Make the sky-houses a totally SWEET PAD. Staren's been running her fabrication facility non-stop, and repurposed an unused production facility to make furniture out of plastic, metal, and white-and-black-striped wood. In addition to food, clothing, furniture, appliances, computers, power production, medical facilities, and robot helpers, she's also set aside a portion of the money she'd HOPED to directly give to just... buy stuff the people ask for that would be harder for her to make, and bring it in.

    No armor or weapons, though. At least, nothing designed as such.

    To some degree, she's shown people how to control the robots and send remote requests to the fabbers and Concord personal shoppers (AI supervised in case of anyone trying to hack guns in) so that things can be done on a scale far greater than she can accomplish personally. But her goal is that, while she helps with the technical implementation, the opressed of the city get to make the sky city *their own*. Whatever look they want, and stocked with their needs!

    Needless to say she's probably not kept in the loop of whatever the Paladins or Immunes are doing. She's pretty busy, anyway. And also has probably been awake a bit too much... but if the plan is working, then the sight of peoples' joy at a space they can be happy to live in is enough to keep her going, at least for awhile!
Rita Ma      Somewhere down in the Urban Center, someone who does not appear to be Rita is sitting in a lonely alleyway, eating the last bites of some sad leftover sashimi and talking on the phone in Rita's voice. "Mmm, mm-hmm. That's what Ms. Thompkins said too. But they've got to have backups somewhere, right? ... Mmmm. Well, what if we get Mr. Forte to-"

     Something on the periphery of her vision snags her attention. Her eyes flick to Arthur's floating islands just in time for them to become ominously shrouded in mist and skystuff. Rita's features tighten into a frown.

     "... Yeah. Yeah, I see it too. Call you back, okay?" Click.

     This time there are no men with guns to impede her rooftop journey. She heads for a gate, but then spots the crowd and follows it to find Lilian instead. As she peers down from the edge of a building far above, her eyebrows shoot up. Ms. Rook...! But why is she here? There's not another riot, is there? If Lilian's paying attention, her sharp eyes might just be able to pick out a figure on a rooftop- but then she's gone again.

     There's a flutter of cloth and a thump that nobody hears, lost in the commotion of the crowd. Rita re-emerges on ground level, camouflaged as an Ordinary Sad Poverty Girl, and rubbernecks to try and clue in on the nature of the conflict. She's stressed out for more reasons than one.

     I really, really hope this doesn't go bad. This place doesn't have enough raw meat for me. I'm already hungry enough without people getting hurt...
Tamamo     Tamamo isn't 'a person called in to deal with the mess.' She's more like 'a plus-one no one is effectively able to deny entry,' especially when a crowd is already inevitable. Not even her lack of involvement in the prior issue is enough cause to prevent her from involving herself, now, in at least this small respect. She does watch over Lilian's warding, but there wasn't too much for her to add, there. As expected, there were no mistakes.

    When Arthur becomes notably visible, Tamamo moves over to quietly (though still very noticeably) join him, and say, "Everyone seems to have some concern of safety, and I may share some of these, as this has some amount of that feeling of a populace expanding beyond the walls of their home. This is all well and good, until those walls become necessary, and it is suddenly much less so. Is there some way you might lay these concerns to rest? I shall provide aid in the convincing, if I am able to understand the matter."
Lilian Rook     Kale's intent to fortify points of Arthur's city in the sky with metaphorical blackjack and hookers is not well-received. Not everyone here was there to see him be prominent and offer help. Actually, fairly few of these people were also those people and also around him in particular. He is quasi-mobbed in short order by groups of younger and less world-wise types in street dress who sure are keen on asking him who he's setting all this up for. They've done pretty well to mostly keep pipe bends and wrenches inside their coats for now.

    Staren, however, is having a very novel experience. For the first time in 'possibly ever', pretty much everyone around her is super stoked to have her there. 'Hey, someone's got free food!' 'What like a langar?' 'No it's some catgirl!' 'Wow, totally 60s' 'Wait seriously?' 'Yeah!' 'Home deco!' 'Wait we can *live* here?' 'That's so cool!' 'Hey hey show me!' 'Whoa are those robots?' 'I've never seen one like that' 'How do these terminals work?' 'Okay, I'm never calling catgirls cringe again!' Et cetera. Only a couple of people ask her if she can get things she really shouldn't, and hover around her shadily and incessantly. You know. For protection. 'They'll' crack down any time now. Gotta be ready. A few people injured in the riot are seeking medical aid too. It's a good position to be in!

    And Lilian was, for once, strangely unhappy about Tamamo being here. After letting her supervise the wards, she'd asked her gently but firmly not to come too close when she snaps her fingers to block the external view and the crowd gathers up not far away.
Lilian Rook     Arthur swaggering his punk ass up through the crowd is mostly met with cheers and pushes and more daps and high fives than even he can hope to keep up with, practically surfed to the edge if he allows it to happen. He is currently outrageously popular, though all things considered, if people here were unhappy with him, they probably wouldn't be at his flying pimp castle. It puts him in even closer proximity than Lilian allows Ishirou or Kirishima to be (and closer than she doesn't know Rita is).

    Because that argument a few are listening in on is a bad one, growing slowly more heated by the exchange. There's no particular revolutionary visionary amongst the crowd bearing all of their concerns upon his well-educated back; it's just a chorus of the handful of bravest and most heated voices at the front shooting back and forth with her as about twenty tall and imposingly armed armoured men stand back a half-block's distance, waiting around with considerably more silent discipline than hte police had.

    'No seriously, what gives?' 'What's the problem?' 'Yeah we didn't do shit'
    "You know damn well. You can't be here. This can't be here. Don't be here when it comes time to put it back."
    'Why can't it?' 'Yeah, I'm pretty sure by every bylaw I checked this is part of the city' 'This was like five blocks from where I live, now it's in the sky'
    "I shouldn't have to explain why. You're not stupid. Be an adult."
    'No, you do.' 'Yeah I wanna hear this.' 'If you can't explain it then maybe consider you don't know!'
    "Shut-- You know why I have to be here. Who told me to. I know it feels special to be here. Like you're chosen and god himself came down and gave you the flying land of Israel or something. But you aren't. It's not like rioting--"
    'Protesting!' 'Yeah fuck off I know my rights!'
    "--on the streets. If you want to hole up and have an alamo here, they'll give it to you, and you'll lose, and those people will say good riddance and fewer mouths to feed."
    'Yeah, right.' 'You kidding? I work ten hour shifts six days a week and spend the seventh day decontaminating all day to put that cancer-hazard magic bollocks in their hands.' 'Yeah fuck off, most of us are skilled workers here.' 'Even if we don't get treated like it. They wouldn't dare.'
    "No. You're not. You're not important to them. They got by for thousands of years without you and they'll get by without you again. You know this country's history. You know how kings work. You fucking people worshipped that old bag of a queen like a goddess for--"
'You people?' 'Yeah, got something to say? Huh?'
    "That's not what I'm trying to-- Jesus Christ almighty this isn't hard. This thing is a hazard. A nightmare. It's chaos. It's going away."
    'Seems like the first thing anyone's ever given me.' 'Is that what 'giving a damn' is like to you?'
    "Really? Really? Feeding, clothing, sheltering, educating you, handing out health care and media and all those handouts wasn't enough? What do you want next--"
    'Handouts?!' 'Whoa rich girl on campus.' 'Yeah what the fuck, do you just never go outside?' 'I thought you were on our side.' 'You have no idea what you're talking about do you?' 'I thought you might have been cool.'
    "Stop. Just stop. I can't take this right now. I don't want to hear this rabble rabble rich bullshit. This is about your safety. This is about the way things are and not how you feel. Feelings don't count for shit. Feelings won't keep you safe. Feelings won't stop them from doing anything. Your indignation means nothing. What you deserve means nothing. Trust me. I know--"
    'You know?' 'Trying to level for sympathy?' 'Gross.' 'Pity points? Seriously? That hairpin could pay my entire child loan.'
Lilian Rook     "Don't you even look at it. Fuck you. What are you even going to do in this place to reverse your fortunes? You're not employed. Your debt's not going away. A slightly bigger house? Slightly better commute? This is going to be a drug ring at best and we all know it. The only money to be made in secrecy like this is illegal. The gates all lead out. I know you're going to run away. You're going to take what we've given you, flip the bird and scram."
    'What you've given us?!' 'Holy shit' 'How about I give you some of these hands you bitch!'
    "Considering everything I've given, everything I've put up with, for you cretins, I don't mind if you want to pay me back with a few broken bones."
    'Holy shit!' 'Bitch is crazy' 'H-hey aren't you with the Paladins?' 'Whoa whoa guys stop yelling! You know who she's really with right?' 'Paying your fucking taxes isn't--' 'Shut it! Sorry miss but--'
    "Don't sorry me. Don't 'thank me for my service'. You don't care. You just want things from me. More and more and more and more, forever and ever and ever. You tolerate me while I bleed for you and turn you nose up when I ask you to meet me in the middle. You're all the same. You won't listen to me. You don't think twice about whatever happens to me. Why do I have to care about you? Try listening to me for once in your fucking lives. Get out of here before you get hurt."
    'Fuck this! I'm tired of bending over for you people!' 'I'd rather you do your worst then keep talking to me like I'm some kind of parasite just for living!'
    "Don't tempt me."
    '!!!!!'
Kale Hearthward Well! What have we learned today this time, Kale?
(We'll worry about that later.)

Kale does his best to look disarming and peaceful, in the face of the barely concealed street-weaponry that's arrayed against him. "Please calm down! I'm here to help!"

"I'm trying to set up just some fortification points in case things go south - I'm from the Paladins, I'm trying to keep you all safe in case things blow south. Look - here's my credentials," he says, getting a card out. "Just call that number and they'll verify - well, you wouldn't have multiversal phones..."

"... Look." Actions. Not promises. "What can I do to help? I have some supplies on hand, I can set up some small buildings and fortifications."
Lilian Rook     A young redhead stares blankly at Kale's card and says "Yeah, sorry, I don't have a Multiversal phone. They're prohibited." and then he just as blithely pulls out an obviously heavily modded smartphone, obsolete by this world's standards, with cheap 'radio' transmitted bits soldered right in, and dials up. Right in Kale's face. Most of the group maintains eye contact with him the entire time, through the crackly conversation he can hear a tiny hint of, between 'Mhm's and 'Yeah's and reciting his card number.

    The phone goes away. "Okay. So you're legit. But how do I know the Paladins are here to support us and not the government? You're run by literally 'the Commonwealth' right? Like, look where you are. Prove it. That this is to help us and not prep for riot control and a sweep." He looks up at the stealth field. "This is so they can't see what happens to us, right? Make up any story they want about what happened."
Arthur Lowell >==>

    What can Arthur tell Tamamo here? "We're still INSIDE THE WALLS." He says. "I mean, ABOVE, but IN. And they're LOCKIN' DOWN the GATES OUT, but it's the GATES OUT that are the important part. The OLD BAZAAR was trading with the OUTSIDE WORLD, y'know, I gotta keep it real." He gives her some assured nods, and a wink or two. Such winks are completely invisible behind the sunglasses.

>Arthur: Engage with the stressors

    Arthur starts stepping out of the crowd to speak with Lilian. Hands remain in pockets. The grin remains wide. He'll have something to say, almost immediately...
Ishirou "Stop it, all of you," Ishirou says, actually looking rather upset...though at who might be debatable.  "It's easy to sit there and be angry at her, but she is /here/.  She's letting you take your anger and frustration out on her, and if the worst you get back is some barbed words then I think we're' all better for it."

"Instead of shouting at her about something she has to fix while letting you get the stuff out, instead why don't you start organizing and protesting in the right ways.  Ways that can't be used to silence you for wanting better lives, and not living on handouts."

"That's what you want right?  To live and thrive?  People got into a system and managed to hook you into a thing that's causing you to live like this, with no way out, and to be used as ablative armor should something big come this way."

"Or worse, told you'd be better gone because it's extra mouths to feed.  I get it, it sucks.  Yelling at her isn't fixing anything, it's spitting in the face of the only one /up there/ who gives a shit.  She asked us to come here to try and calm things down, she's asking us to help fix this problem.  So please.."

"Think about, with a clear head, what you want to say to her.  What you want to do going forward, and what we can do to at least eliminate one part of a system that's eating you up and spitting you out.  Stop trying to take it out on someone who's stuck in the same system you are, and just happens to be up a few levels.  Especially when she's trying to help you live."

"I'll take a line, or a group right now.  I'll even answer why I bother caring specifically."
Staren > For the first time in 'possibly ever', pretty much everyone around her is super stoked to have her there.

    What is this. What is going on?! This is awesome!

    It's like a never-ending party. She's happy to teach people stuff and probably talks too long about robots and computers and other worlds and, well, any subject anyone cares to get her started on!

    She's even sympathetic to the people looking for guns: "Look, normally I would. I'm KNOWN for it, or I should be. But this time..." She looks out a nearby window at the city below. "...If a fight can at all be avoided, and I helped get people killed? Someone very scary is going to kill me, and they won't stop until they've figured out the limits of even my immortality. ...It will make them a worse person, too." She looks at them. "You find a way off-world, what you do is in your hands. And if things get that bad here..." she gives them tablets. "Get to the teleport pad and it'll get you and whoever's with you out of there." Hopefully, if it comes to an evacuating-refugees situation, she'll be monitoring the pad anyway, but perhaps the backup plan can give them peace of mind.

    Medical aid is rendered! Robots and micromachines provide first aid... given the circumstances, Staren hasn't had time to devote to any lengthly procedures, but people who need drugs can get a supply anyway. She does mention that the medical technology can do more, and cybernetics and, in general. morphological freedom are on the table in the future... the 'if this place lasts long enough' is unspoken.

>A BIRD IS HERE

    "A little human told me someone's trying to copy my schtick." Staren steps out of the crowd, her clothes having gotten slightly less fancy over time as she doesn't have to worry about looking imposing and cool. The battle labcoat has been swapped out for a sort of labcoat-shaped hoodie, she still has the scarf though, and is maintaining her distinct color scheme with a red T-shirt and long black skirt, with sneakers and knit gloves replacing the usual boots and gloves.

    "Just what *kind* of fortifications are you setting up? If there's *anything* that gets a civilian or a cop killed, you know we're gonna be in a world of trouble with Lilian."

    If it's explained that it's boulders and wind spells... "Well... I guess that sounds good. But they got a point: How do we know this is to help them and not the cops?"

    Also a robot comes by with a box of multiverse smart phones for people, because why not.
Lilian Rook     Staren's talk to her crowd is met with a few eyebrows and 'Immortal?' 'Wait, can't you make me immortal too?' 'Yeah then we wouldn't need to worry!'. Her guileless genuinity convinces the gunrunners (probably the same ones as involved in the UCCS raid when Arthur first created the Bazaar, actually), that she's serious about it, so they shuffle closer and slip her their numbers and a few crumpled bills, as if that meager amount means anything to her. Before she goes off to harass Kale, a lot of her crowd looks uncomfortably in the direction of the other crowd.

    'Someone that scary?' 'You . . . you don't mean . . .' 'Right? There's no way. Haha . . .'
Kirishima Although Kirishima looks mildly annoyed by the way the locals are speaking to Lilian, she can't quite bring herself to snap at them herself. Part of it might be because she sympathizes with them at least somewhat, and part of it might also be because she already realizes that going right into loud and off-the-cuff responses isn't likely to help matters.

Staying quiet and just taking notes on the obvious isn't likely to help matters much, either, though, and she notices a potential angle to work with as the group seems to be riling itself up while Ishirou and Kale probe at angles that might get people to start speaking instead of yelling. "Having more concrete ideas would be a good start. Long-term plans, too, since starting fights half-cocked wouldn't turn out well for anyone."

Kirishima nudges her glasses lightly, almost as if she's purposely letting some ambient light glint off the lenses. "I've been in a position like yours before. It almost went pretty bad that time, too, if not for listening to people with better heads on their shoulders." She glances pointedly at Lilian and Ishirou in particular before turning her attention towards Kale and Staren.

"Fortifying this place could be useful for protecting against a siege, but that should be a last resort than a first. If it looks like they're preparing for a fight, the..." She gestures towards the fancier-looking areas vaguely, clearly losing the word she wanted to say. "... They probably won't consider anything else done here in good faith. Building something that can do double duty for defenses and... Infrastructure?"

That sounds like a good word in her head. "That might be easier to ignore. But regardless. Have you considered dismantling what you can from here and bringing that back home where you might not be painting a target on your back instead?"
Rita Ma      "Stay out of it Rita."
     But I can't. She knows I can't. I care too much about her. And I care too much about these people, too. If they could come to harm... if she could become a person she doesn't want to be... of course I have to be involved.

     Rita weaves through the crowd, aided both by her small size to squeeze through gaps in the crush of people, and by subtly superhuman strength to gently force a gap where there isn't one. As she gets closer to the fore, the words being traded get clearer. They ring in her ears, each one deepening her frown until it's almost a teary grimace.

     "What are you even going to do in this place to reverse your fortunes? You're not employed. Your debt's not going away. ... I know you're going to run away. You're going to take what we've given you, flip the bird and scram."

     Rita's fists ball up in impotent tension as she reaches the fore. Moisture is welling up in her eyes. What feels like a lifetime ago, a boy she knew solved a situation like this with a flying kick. That probably won't work here. Even if it might, she couldn't bring herself to try it. This is Ms. Rook, not some faceless enforcer, even if she's playing the part of one.

     Somewhere in the crowd, she's become visibly herself again. She couldn't hide her voice anyway, even unusually trembly as it is. "Can't you hear yourself? They're treating these people like convenient slaves. They won't let them pay their debts off, but they won't let them leave either." She tries to look brave, but can't; her tone is almost begging. "You've given up so much to protect them. But how can they be grateful for being alive, if they have to live like this forever?"

     She takes a sniffling breath in and clumsily wipes her face. "I know you don't want to do this. I know you don't want to be this kind of person. I want to save you from that! But I only know an ugly way to do it. If there's a better way, please tell me what it is."
Kale Hearthward Kale does not blink when his credentials are verified right then and there. This is in fact what he offered for them to do. He in fact waits patiently for the conversation to wrap up.

OH AND THEN STAREN ARRIVES THAT'S JUST GREAT

Kale takes a breath, and answers the civ first. "I didn't come here to support anyone. They aren't in with the Commonwealth..." He says, motioning back over his shoulder at the city below with his thumb, "... and that means they aren't entitled to any of my help that I don't want to give - and right now that's jack and shit and none. I came here to try to make things better - that's what I always do - not to be some still-winded boot stomping on peoples faces for them. I'm from an empire that actually takes care of its people and all of this... stuff? It offends me."

"You're asking me to prove that I'm here to help and not here to prep for a sweep - did it look like I was prepping for a sweep? But my hands are tied - I can't go down there and just like, throw the first punch. I'm here to help fend the rest of the city off if they try to attack, and I can do a damn good job of it, and I was just trying to shore things up here. I don't have access to Staren's box of infinite goodies or whatever, so I can't just hand free stuff out like that. I *can* lend you my spare phone, and-" he says, reaching into his vest to retrieve it, when the robot with a box of extra phones comes by right at that moment with perfect timing.

"..."

He offers the spare phone anyway. "If you're worried about them coming up with some story about what's going to happen - use the phone to record it. Livestream it. Get it out there so they can't quash it. Hell, I'll help set it up, or if you don't trust me then Staren will do it," he says, volunteering her. "I think it'd be stupid for me to help you with it if I'm only up here to help keep quiet what's going on, right?"

Then to Staren: "It's - wind spells and trigger boulders, and some passive defenses." From context he means fortified outpost buildings.
Arthur Lowell >Arthur: Narrow the aggro as hard as you can

    "MA'AM, ya gotta CALM IT, for real." Arthur delivers the single most high-intensity cluster of antagonizing phrasing he can directly to Lilian, designed to make everyone in the vicinity feel like enough bullying has been leveled at her for a full day. He lets that hang for a second before his smirk lessens and he focuses on talking. He walks past Ishirou, assuming that Ishirou is mostly concerned about the workers and not him. "What's up, Princess Haughty? They got you wranglin' my messes?" He turns to the crowd. "Hey, y'all mind if I take the heat off the NEW TOPSIDE up here? I'mma work some more magic."

    When he turns back, he tries to hide a bit of his words under the noise. "Alright, I couldn't keep it from being a phantom circle problem. Guessing I shifted the heat from *this side* to *that side*. Stop letting them rile ya up, you're getting your ass raided and trolled. And you don't wanna be dealing with this. So I'm gonna try to help." That last part seems to be acknowledgment of a priority.

    His voice raises back to crowd-audible levels. "So hey, I'm the know-nothin' punk. Lay it on me in the simple terms. Maybe we work somethin' out and I can do some work for the workers, and we can sort this out *together* and get a good report for the top dogs. Maybe we punch it out and you can try and set this straight if you're hard enough, my skin is in the fuckin' game here. This about vulnerabilities to attack? The gates off-world?" He turns back to the crowd. "Ain't about feelings, but that doesn't mean people don't *feel!*" He calls out a little. "Pressure's gotta let up somewhere! So," He turns back. "These people want something. They know I can give 'em something! And this isn't gonna go away easy, the Bazaar's back in full swing one way or another."

>Arthur: Can you get the sycophants to feel opportunistic?

    His voice rises to a level that carries to the observing GDF and Enlightened. "I mean, no way they're gonna shove it all back in the ground! They got their brains all swollen on magic and tech! People with a lotta money know what a free-trade zone is gonna do, right?" Enticing? Something that can get filtered to the powers that be? Something to take the heat off? "And you'd have to go through me to give 'em a slice of that pie." Wordlessly: Would it appease Lilian's masters for her to just take Arthur on and return with a measure of free economic zone access as a prize?

    He's sweating a fair bit. His motions contain small winces every time Lilian moves or speaks. He seems... anxious to help. Sort of desperate to find a way through this that takes her out of getting needled by the crowd, as well as getting called in as the one to operate on behalf of the powers that be.
Staren > Can't you make us immortal too?

    "....The problem is, I'm not sure that devoting my time to giving a FEW of you experimental brain implants is fair to the rest of you right now... but maybe one day. We'd also need to get spare bodies set up..." although, she does have a few pre-made, there aren't enough for everyone. "If things get a chance to settle down a bit, maybe we can work something out for a long-term plan, though..."

> Bills and numbers.

    Staren was worried the numbers would be weird to ask for, but dutifully logs them in her headcomputer. She tries to give the bills back if at all possible.

> And that brings us to Kale

    Staren is also wearing the round-framed glasses for the 'cute nerd' look she's hoping to pull off, and has put her hair in a ponytail with locks framing each side of her face.

    Staren listens. "He's right, about getting the word out. Although obviously this world won't care... maybe others will. I've been very careful not to set up any security cameras, but if anything happens while the robots are here I *can* record from their cameras if it comes to it."

    Staren walks to the edge and looks out at the horizon. "...Your country takes care of its people and all this offends you, huh?" Staren looks down at the city below. "...Alright. If Lilian would be okay with what you're doing... fine. No lethal weapons until she okays it."

    Staren turns back towards Kale, and passes Kale a com-unit. "That one's got temporary access codes for my lab in Grand Dorado, where the Concord is delivering anything we had to buy, and to Amalgam colony, where all this furniture and some of the other stuff is being made. It's not a box of infinite goodies. Who knows, if something happens on Amalgam, I'd need elite help to stop it from interrupting this operation. It'd be just my luck if the local Floran tribes choose *now* to make trouble..." Staren sighs. Then smiles nervously. "But hopefully not!"
Kale Hearthward Kale specifically did not say Lilian was okay with what he's doing up here, but he does not correct Staren.
Lilian Rook     Ishirou's pleading proclamation is not met well. Maybe the tensions were already too high for this. Maybe it was always going to end badly to choose the side he has.
    'Form a line? Yeah more like line up against the wall, shithead.' 'You're here to fix it right? So what the fuck are you doing? You're just standing around simping for her and kissing ass.' 'What are you, the shittiest bodyguard?' 'No, really. Fix it then. Go on. Let me see.' 'You don't know anything about this. You know even less than she does.' 'Get out and go back to whatever world you came from.' 'All fur coat no knickers bitches as usual. Talk talk talk, crocodile tears and fake sympathy. Thirty eight years of this shit. When does it materialize? Are we waiting for the big round forty?'

    Lilian turns on him midway through, even. Her fingers are clutched into a quivering fist around a ball of her skirt. From experience, he knows that's the spot on her thigh where either a gun or a wand is. "Don't encourage them to act out, Ishirou. I don't need a white knight, and not one who condones them starting a scene!" The chilling mania in her eyes is unfortunately, recently familiar. Different, thank god, to how she had looked at him on the day she'd started naming him 'Inspector Unit Four', but similar enough to cause shivers. The way she looks at him-- she doesn't hate him, he hasn't 'betrayed her', but she might actually throttle him if he keeps tugging on this raw wound that has only just stopped bleeding.

    It's precisely the mood for her to turn on Arthur when he drops his global cooldown taunt ability. This time she actually does just outright grab him by the collar and pull him up to his toes. She'd be literally breathing down his neck were she not holding her breath. Some of the crowd makes the usual shaky cellphone camera crowd background noises for him. "If they're 'trolling' then they deserve what they're going to get. The problem is that they aren't. I know they mean it. I know they care. I know they want to fight me. I know that if I were as strong as them and they as strong as me they'd have broken every bone in my body by now, because all they want is violence and the only thing keeping them in check is that I earned mine first." A few shuddering, teeth-clenched moments go by, and then she releases him.

    "I don't want to fight with you Arthur. And it won't solve anything. I can't wave a wand and change the law and neither can you. I know you don't respect those, but I have to. There's no point to this thing you've made. It can't be used for any constructive purpose. A free trade zone? Trading what? What work are they going to do here? And they're all under contract anyways. I know the contract rate is abysmal, but what do I do about it? Maybe they shouldn't be popping out children left and right and constantly requisitioning things they can't afford."

    "But they want back the lifestyle they had. Four fifths of them are older than the Onslaught. Anagathics, remember? And they teach the last fifth all sorts of horrid bullshit about how things are now too. The best thing you could do is send them home, surrender this to the council, and try to convince them to turn it into a more lucrative employment zone. Somehow. But you're not going to, because you can't, because they won't go. They don't want 'good enough', they're just angry and they want to spread fear and violence to hurt people back."
Tamamo     "I am not certain that being above the walls is quite as safe as being behind them," Tamamo says, looking something closer to 'worried' than 'convinced' by Arthur's response. "An old bazaar, is it?" She wasn't here for that, so she can only respond with curiosity. She has no choice but to take his subsequent self-assurance at face-value. Maybe he's thought it all out, and is about to explain?

    He does go and give an explanation, and Tamamo is almost distracted enough by Rita's words to not notice the wince. For her part, there's a limit to what Tamamo can say, regarding that growing, darkening argument. There are things she can't say here.

    She can't help but be on Lilian's side, after all.

    "Shouting more loudly will certainly not help," she says, with a tone that carries cleanly, making up for what it lacks in volume with the feeling that her words are worth careful attention, interrupting thought processes from the first syllable. "Forcing another to act as they may, daring they stop you, shall certainly not help here, either. Does every man not have his own pride? Will you gain what you wish by denying another, for any wish but to pit your strength against his?"

    'You'd lose that fight,' she doesn't say, because she doesn't need to say it out loud. The feeling is there, below the level of words. 'Don't make that bluff. If you can't back it up, you're only throwing away what little you have.'

    Lilian didn't want her here. The reason for that is becoming more obvious, but it won't stop her, and she won't hold Lilian's hand and tell her it's all going to be okay, either. This isn't the time for that. Didn't Ishirou have the right idea? Though they're not going for it. She might have better luck, but she won't try it, either. Neither of them can prove what needs proving.

    "What you wish to prove is that your own value, is it not?" 'All fur coat' is only technically wrong, in her case, wearing the coat that Lilian had made for her all that time ago, but it's harder to accuse her of lacking genuine feeling, for reasons one doesn't need to think about, just as it's difficult to doubt she's thought this through.

    "Is anyone here 'a danger?'" Of course not. That's the fight that won't be won. "If one wishes to act within the bounds of civilization, as one who cares for their fellows, then one must seek that acceptable compromise, rather than demand the totality, declaring 'or else.'" Others can talk about what's really deserved, and what's been earned, and what's been bled for, and what's needed or desired or avoidable. She steps right over the fighting words. "Why not, then, prove that what you desire is neither violence, nor chaos, nor a nightmare, nor beyond your station, but something well within your capability? Why not declare, now, that you shall properly plan and deliberate, for the sake of your own safety and that of others, that this opportunity be well used?" Lilian had said there was no purpose for it, and Arthur had said otherwise, and Tamamo doesn't know, but knowing isn't necessary. Knowing comes after taking the time to think about it.

    "You know your rights, is this not so? You know the style and culture of your city, better than I do. I cannot declare what should be done, nor can I listen to your grievances and resolve every one of them. Is that not something you should do, yourselves? To prove that one is an adult is to prove that one is capable of handling responsibility. Is this not simply, then, a matter of proving yourselves capable of responsible organization, rather than fearful chaos?"
Lilian Rook     Another first for people today, Kale's answer seems to satisfy the people he's talking to. He is not being menaced by heavy objects of deniably utilitarian purpose. The spare phone(s) is(are) taken. Someone actually baps his shoulder and says 'You're alright'. Checking the signal however, someone else asks 'You got a way to beam these out of this bubble? I don't . . .' 'Yeah we-- I mean obviously, don't know anything about magic.' Their tone is sort of weird. It's like they're shamefully admitting they don't know how to read. Even though not knowing magic is the norm here. Or apparently any specific information about it.

    Staren still has a weird amount of interest in immortality. Desperate people and all, maybe, but it's actually almost sort of creepy that so many regular people would be so insistent about it. 'How much would it run? Because . . .' 'Yeah the 'gathic rations are just brutal' 'Does it replace those? Or--' 'Shit, then if you moved out, the Antegent can't kill you right? Could make a real town! Free living!' The gunrunners will not take the bills back. It's a pride thing.
Lilian Rook     In the meantime, Kirishima briefly has the attention of the crowd. A few people notice her Paladins pin and shuffle back, pushing some space into existence around her, but not much. 'Don't try to tell me about ideas and plans.' 'You think we're just too impulsive? Like we've never thought anything through?' 'It's not as if you can just google this kind of shit any more.' 'They've thought of everything already. Way before we did. That's the point.' 'So what? Yeah, trying to fight here . . . That's probably pointless. But what do we do then? Just let them take this away from us too? Just roll over and prove we don't own anything? That we won't fight for anything?' 'It has to start with someone sometime. Nothing's changing. Nothing is going to get better if we behave and wait.' 'Bringing what back? To where? Have you seen what it's like in the Third Circle? How jam packed it is with people nobody wants? This is a place to exist, it's not a dragon's hoard.' 'If you know what it's like, what did you do back then? How did you fix it?'

    Lilian makes a weird little sound of strained, 'failed-relief' when Tamamo speaks up. Like she's glad to hear her, but wishes she wouldn't be involved. Or like she wants to be happy, but can't stand to be near her like this. The crowd reacts better to her, as they have no defense against her 'command of attention'. For a little while, Lilian can turn her attention away from the crowd, looking away in disgust, taking deep breaths, and trying to cool herself down, while Tamamo has them. Unless she directly compels them so, they won't become any less upset, but they address her like distraught students being sent to an overwhelmed counselor, which is a considerable improvement over how they were with Lilian herself.

    'There's such a thing as too much pride. Ours has been trampled on by theirs for long enough.' 'Why isn't it fair? Why isn't just how it is when we do it, even a little? Why do we have to be considerate and they don't? Tell me.' 'Were we just not supposed to be born? Were we not supposed to survive? I've never done anything wrong, and neither have the rest of these good people. Something terrible happened to everyone, why is it just us suffering now?' 'What else is there left to do? If I get thrown in jail, so what? If I get killed, well then I guess everyone is happier right? The people who come after me; they'll remember me, when they're not stepped on anymore, because the tyrants knew we're all prepared to fight.' 'Yeah, I can live with that.'

    A little wave of unrest spreads through the crowd at her suggestion. A significant portion want to think about it, a significant portion are too angry and desperate to want to. 'How?' 'Writing a list of intent isn't going to be enough.' 'They'll just take this away in the end.' 'I'm not-- nobody here is an economist. We don't own a factory or whatever. How are we going to compare to whatever model they've drawn up?' 'What do we do without these gates too? They won't let us keep them, if we might 'cut and run' in their eyes.' 'Organization . . . Yeah, that'd be nice but . . .' 'Laws on that too.' 'If we did, I mean, try that, we'd still have to barricade anyways. Get rid of the rats. The ghosts.' 'And fight the UCCS, and the union-breakers, and . . .' 'But that's better than fighting 'them' right?' 'Why do we normal people have to fight each other instead of 'them' at all?!' 'It's like seven thousand to one!' 'Because if they're going to fight us then they're not normal like we are.'
Lilian Rook     And then Rita tearily pushes her way to the front of the crowd. She call's Lilian's name, amidst the bickering and anger. When Lilian swivels on Rita, that frightening, barely contained manic look --that way that what's in Lilian's eyes can be that human eyes can't-- comes with it. And then it softens immediately, dissolving away helplessly to be replaced with tension and exhaustion and strangled pain. "I . . . Rita no. Please. Don't say that. I'm not all-powerful. I can't be everything to everyone. I can't . . . hold all these people. I can do my best and trust that others will handle the rest, and that's it. So what am I supposed to do when they don't? What's . . . Rita what's the point of giving anything up if they won't be happy until they have it all? If they hate you anyways--"

    "No, sorry, I'm not-- I won't put you through that again. You're right. I don't want to be here. I don't want to do this. It's not fair. Someone else should have fixed this. I don't know why good people won't fix it. But it's . . . I'm not crazy, am I? It can't be that unreasonable. It's not like your home. They're safe. They're healthy. They're looked after. And it's not like they'll never see better days. In . . . come on, we can cure cancer, we can treat aging, for the first time there's no pressure. Just live and be patient, while we work things out. And when I'm older, when I can be on the council and make decisions, I'll--"

    And then one of the half opposed to Tamamo yells from the crowd, and it cooks off.    'Yeah and a year of those costs more than a year of post-secondary!' 'It's a fucking trap! You're waiting until we're all goddamn slaves for life! You could do it right now!' 'Yeah sure feels great to be held at gunpoint and told to keep building up debt for existing!' 'I'll feel comforted by that when I'm a thousand years old and paid off what it took to reach eighty, you goddamn criminals.'
    "So don't fucking guzzle them you entitled waste of space. You have five thousand years of cope culture ready don't you?"
    'In other words, 'So die'. That's how it always is, right.' 'You heard it! The silent part out loud! Right there!'
Lilian Rook     "I wouldn't mind, considering how useless you apparently are alive."
    'Bite me you ungrateful tart. I've seen you go past where I work. I know you come to the city all the time. You shop here, you travel here, you have meetings here, you bring your friends here, and you look away from everything happening.' 'You know all your UCM data is public right? I can just check the government website from my phone.'
    "Do it you stupid cunt. I put five million credits into feeding you useless twats in quarter one. And I'm mana tax exempt because I'm using that to kill the fucking Antegent. I--"
    'Okay real nice. Did you know it says here you're the only one in your family who did?' 'Wow. That's embarrassing.' 'Seriously? Wait-- this guy is on the council! What the fuck?!' 'Hey this bird's a shared stakeholder in the damn anagathics company!' 'Lemme see . . . Isn't this one that doctor who--?' 'Who the fuck cares! I can't believe this!' 'Trying to pull the wool on me huh?! You think you're making up for all of them?!'
    "I don't have to answer for them! I don't have to make up for them! I've done everything right! Just because I'm stuck with them--"
    'Oh yeah, stuck with them, must be so bad being raised in a mansion with all the money in the world and nothing to think about save what fucking gala you're going to attend.' 'No seriously, fuck you and yours. I know who buys what from us. Most of our pay where I work goes into everyone's medical bills. What the hell do you people need mercury and arsenic for? What nightmare did you get those plants from? You built your career off of them, and they gave you everything you own off our backs. You're only where you are because people here have died to put it on your desk for pence on the pound and you never even thought twice of where it came from!' 'Eat shit! I'm not your slave! I'm not your maid little girl!'
    "I know you aren't! Because I already have one! And she's the sweetest and most caring person there is, and she's had it a million times harder than you infectious fucking parasites could ever imagine!"
    'Sorry sweetie but she's paid to be nice to you. It's her job. Your parents bought her for you because they don't give--'

    Lilian screams. Her foot smashes down on the pavement, and the road vibrates; cracks spread to the next street over and jagged splinters of copypasted architecture fall from lower walls. It doesn't feel like just brute strength. It's too disproportionately outscaled to the motion. Her hand flies to her thigh, grabbing the black metal wand and aiming it straight at the crowd like a pistol duelist. The civilians fall back, but not as much in fear of the device so much as her voice. The raw pain, the overwhelming frustration, the utterly unforgiving anger in it, that crashes like a palpable rough tide. So much 'hurt' and 'scared' and 'furious' outpouring at once simply hammers down unprepared minds. Even her own men, thirty feet back, stumble in position.
Lilian Rook     Something cracks, and all the truth comes flooding out at once:

    "Then die! I don't care! I hate you! I really hate you all! I wish I could hate you people to death! I'm sick to my stomach of trying to care about you! I'm sick to death of trying to forgive you! 'Just existing'?! Yes! Exactly! I hate you for existing!"

    "It's because of you! It's all because of you! You want to talk about my family?! They're almost all dead and they died protecting you! If you don't like what Alison is doing now, then maybe you shouldn't have used up all the care she had in her heart on you when you were dying in hospitals! If you hate how Matthew allocates your budget, then maybe you shouldn't have taken everything he had with your pathetic greedy helpless worthlessness! It's your fault they're the way they are! It's your fault Bryce is a shell of a person! It's your fault Katrina won't talk to me! It's your fault everyone else is gone! And I spill my blood for you like they did, and now it's your fault I hate you too!"

    "I don't want to hear how hard you think you have it! Almost none of you are my age! What were you fucking people up to in 2030?! 2000?! 1970?! 1940?! We don't just decide culture on our own! You do! That's your fault! Everything we learned, you taught us! You decide what's normal! You decide what's good and bad! And you were awful back then too, in your supposed 'golden age'! You invented this kind of bigotry! You built these ivory towers! You destroyed the planet you want to move to! You designed these politics! You failed in every possible way to make a world that would survive what happened!"

    "You think money is all that matters?! That I have everything perfect because I have a big bank account?! That's all you've ever cared about for centuries! Get a new line! Everything is like this now because you were useless and weak and greedy and lazy and hateful fucking pissants! Even if I was one of you, you'd still hate me anyways! You already decided on your own that people like me shouldn't exist! Why should I give a shit about whether you live or die?!"


    At this point, the tension is so high that the standby troopers, Lilian's and GDF alike, have raised their weapons.
Arthur Lowell >Arthur: What ARE they gonna use this gift for?

    He's looking pretty focused for someone who just got the insolent collarsnag treatment. "That's not our fuckin' *job* though." Arthur wrings his hands a little. "It's *theirs*. That's the thing! That's the whole point. They need something of their own. All their hours of all their days are taken up, all the good city spots are taken up, hell, all the damn heroism's being done, they got nothing to go, 'well at least I have that'... And--"

>Arthur: Can it. Something bad is happening

    Arthur's rambling explanation trails off. Lilian's getting more and more intensification. Things are getting worse and worse. The psychic impact hits him. His sunglasses crack, and he discards them instantly, as he falls to his knees and struggles with the mental weight of the pain. There it is: That human feeling, that human suffering, that human pain. If this were any other time, if it were just him going through this, this would be... perfect. It's that horrible, awful medicine that puts off his mental decay. But it's someone else experiencing it, and he can't abide that. Tears begin to flow down his cheeks as the sentiment overwhelms him. A sob chokes through his chest before he manages to get back on his feet.

>Arthur: This situation needs space NOW!

    He rushes forward, shouting out to the crowd that he hopes trusts him a little: "Everyone back! Back! Get your fucking distance, this is bad!" He pops a couple Gates that should bring people several hundred feet away, in building interiors. He points at people near the frontlines at random. "You, you, you, and you, direct people out of here! Get some space, some distance!" He raises his hands to the crowd, trying to shoo them back. An accusing finger is jabbed at the troops. "*Do not pull those fucking triggers!* Do not take this shit over the limit! You'll hurt Lilian, and I won't let that happen!"

>Arthur Go for the girl. She's the one you're loyal to

    "Hey! *Hey!*" He rushes to grab Lilian's shoulders. He tries to clear his congested throat and wipe away the tears with one hand, the psychic impact still weighing hard on him. "You need space, right *now*. Fuck this whole assignment, fuck everything happening right now, fuck everyone else. You need *out*. Don't let this fucking black hole of a fucked up situation pull you in, Lilian." He looks to one side, at someone who he knows will have insight and can help. "Tamamo!! Hey! I need a good spot for meditative isolation, you and her, *now*!"
Kale Hearthward Kale gets called alright - actually called alright, and not in a backhanded way. This feels like a rarity these days. And things are actually working out the way he intended to?

... Does he finally have his rhythm back?

And Staren gives him a remote control to the warehouse, which is useful - even if all it really adds is Kale being able to direct some of the already-provided resources around. Still. Between that, and the outposts and wind spells he himself has handy, he can finally get back to setting up the fortifications as the group's fall back plan-

"... Hmm? It doesn't connect?"

Kale stops what he's doing, and goes to take a look. "I can give this a shot, but I don't know much about tech..."

He gives it a shot. He's had a good 14 (or 26) months of experience working with his own phone, and he did get those magic lessons at Kamar-Taj, maybe he can figure out how to get a connection outside of the bubble...

<J-IC-Scene> Kale Hearthward says, "Getting some stuff set up up here. How's things down on the ground?"
<J-IC-Scene> Kirishima slow teeth-inhale, long suppressing exhale "Could be better."
<J-IC-Scene> Kale Hearthward says, "Political or physical?"
<J-IC-Scene> Arthur Lowell says, "Psychological!"

... and there's that. Kale isn't... sure him showing up wouldn't make whatever's going on worse, especially if the others are being terse about their explanations, but he'll have to check in later...
Staren Up in the sky...
    o/~ ...people are happy, They love to sing and there is no need for a king~
    o/~ Up in the sky, you just feel fine There is no running out of time and you never cross a line~
    o/~ I never want to die... I wanna live in the sky!~

    o/~ Up in the sky, you can fly You will make it if you try, In the sky, you are far away, Up in the sky, you can sing, And you can do everything, And no matter what they say, it's true: I'll go into the blue~

    o/~ Up in the sky, there's no religion, There are no cars and no phones, And you cannot be controlled, Up in the sky, you just feel fine, There is no money making crime, But a lot of good wine~

    o/~ I never want to die. I wanna live in the sky! o/~

Mood, song. Mood. Anyway: MEANWHILE, UP IN THE SKY:

    Staren gets a lot of questions about immortality. "Oh, I wouldn't CHARGE you for it! But it'll take time, and..." Eventually, though, she realizes something: "Wait. You're not talking about avoiding death in combat, you just want to stop *aging*?! That's WAY easier! A few hours in a tube with the right drugs and nanomachines and you can be whatever age you want! And in the Multiverse, there's various other methods, drugs, genetic alteration... cybernetics... There's probably a way to just... you know, I've got some theories about awakening psychic powers and--"

    "--Wait, did you say move out?" Staren blinks, and stares. "You don't want to stay here?! Well why didn't everybody say so! Alright, how many of you want to leave?"

    Depending on the response, Staren is just going to start moving people to Amalgam right now and then figure out what to do with them from there -- it's got a warpgate, so they can go wherever. If this is more than whats practical with a single telepad, though, she's going to have to call Arthur to ask for help with gates.
Kirishima Kirishima doesn't have a good answer for the people here when they go through the alternatives available to them. "Hmm... No, just letting things return to the status quo isn't a great option, but it'd be the easiest way of ensuring your survival. Whether or not simply surviving is enough, though..." She wrinkles her nose while running a hand through her hair in mild frustration, visibly straining to come up with something and winding up with nothing. Once again, she tries to pick up ideas from what others are saying, but it only gets her thoughts muddied up again.

"There's clear injustice in all of this, even if the intentions might have been honorable at the start. And continuing now, even if it's..." She looks towards the more grounded areas as though that might help her as well, but it doesn't. She looks over as Rita gives those teary-eyed pleas, visibly struggling to restrain something welling up inside her. An urge to yell? To hit something? To just start fighting someone? Whatever she's suppressing manages to get pushed down, at least, when talks start to break down far faster than she could have ever expected.

"L.. Lilian? What-" The guns are raised, and Kirishima moves to visibly stand right in the path of those standby troopers' weapons.  Following Arthur's lead, she focuses on those troopers instead while waving her other hand as if trying to keep their attention. "Stand down! Pull back, listen to Mister Lowell, and do not escalate the situation!"

With Arthur addressing Tamamo to try and get Lilian further out of this, Kirishima approaches Rita quickly. "Rita, right? Can you..." She doesn't actually know what Rita can do, but she's already felt a stirring in her chest from what she had heard earlier. "Can you get everyone to back off? It's like Arthur said. The last thing we need is anyone to start shooting, and I don't know if I can physically move them away fast enough if that happens."

Even before hearing Rita's answer, Kirishima is back to trying to herd the troopers away, making sure that her Paladins identification is on full display as she does her best to bodyblock potential shooting lines through quick, erratic movements to make shooting past her a gamble.
Lilian Rook     Staren's response is in two halves. Pretty much everyone wants to get off the massive cost it takes to afford local, recently available telomerase treatments for ageing, and 'not drop dead of old before they get their old lives back', and a smaller minority are hyped up by the idea of being unkillable and so being able to form their own Satellite Colony successfully somewhere outside the walls, instead of being rolled over and killed like . . . all the last ones. Except Caelton. Where immortality wouldn't have helped really.

    Nobody has any illusions about moving to another world, at least not right now, because, as aforementioned: There's a big fat anti-personal-teleportation ward bubbling this place put down by the emergency team, the existing gates are being guarded on purpose, there are Enlightened staff on patrol in case the situation escalates, and nobody here is actually prepared to go anywhere (and have no intent to abandon all their loves ones and run off with the shirt on their backs).
Rita Ma      For a few moments, Rita looks tearily hopeful. She shoots a desperately pleading glance- pleading for what?- at Tamamo, but doesn't dare to interrupt her to respond in case it proves fruitful after all.

     "Thank you, Ms. Rook," she says with a little shivery sigh that doesn't quite convince the tension to leave her body. "Please. I want to find a future where you don't have to do this. Where you don't have to be the one doing this. Where you don't have to be this kind of person anymore. Let's just go home. Or if we can't-"

     And then there's the bickering, and the scream, and the stomp. Rita flinches, like anyone else would. The only thing halfway obscuring the fear in her eyes is the tears, spilling over her eyelashes and down her cheeks. "Lilian-!! Please...!"

     And yet when the civilians around her fall back, she doesn't, leaving her in what is now the fore. Fear pulls her away, but obligation to Lilian keeps her rooted there. She is almost alone. Her hands are still balled up in little fists by her sides. She is trying very hard to look very brave, and failing. "Miss Rook, I'm so sorry. I meant to make things better, but it didn't come together fast enough. Not fast enough to save you. Not fast enough to save them. I'm sorry it all turned out this ugly. I wasn't good enough, I wasn't smart enough to stop this."

     Though she's too distraught to think so clearly, the troopers raising their guns prompts a near-instinctive reaction from her tentacles. They remember what they did for the snipers before. Invisibly and quietly, they slither towards the guns to glue the triggers in place with a tiny clot of camouflaged biomass each.

     "It's my fault. I messed up. But..." Her eyes meet Kirishima's. She shakes her head a little. The next few words act as an answer to the ninja too. "You know whose side I have to be on. They could be my family. They could be me. If this were anywhere else, if it were any other world.... I have to think you'd know how messed up this all is. But here, it's too close to home. This isn't your heart."

     Her eyes slide from Lilian, to Tamamo, to Kirishima. Her expression has slowly slid from 'distraught' to 'apologetic'. For not stopping this in time? No. She's sorry for things she hasn't done yet.

     "I'll save you from this, Ms. Rook. From having to deal with these people. But I only know one way to do it."

     In the blink of an eye, Rita has crossed the distance between them. The force of the kickoff cracks the ground and scatters dust. A cloaked tentacle wraps around Lilian's wand and wrenches it upwards, keeping it from being 'fired' for just one crucial instant. If Lilian stops then it'll all be ruined, but Rita's hoping she won't have time to. The leaping kick is planted right on Lilian's torso, but Rita's leg is bent; it extends in a shove after contact, bad for inflicting harm but just as well for knockback.

     It's meant to launch Lilian backwards into the Arthur-gate she's guarding. A gate to 'outside', anywhere but here. Where nobody from the Urban Center can see to judge whether or not they've really fought their hardest.

     Of course Rita drops to all fours and pursues through the gate the moment she's landed.
Staren     Staren sweatdrops a bit at the idea of these people thinking they'd be invincible from antegent with her technology. "Now hold on, I've *fought* antegent, this is *not* a guarunteed protection from them! If they wipe out the town then any spare bodies you have are destroyed too! Although, if some of you are up to the job of the Immunes, it might give some of you a second chance if you fall in battle... but even there, I wouldn't be in the least surprised if some Antegent can kill you in a way you can't come back from, or that corrupts your soul or something..."

    She sighs. "Tell you what. If any of you *are* ready to go offworld, I'll find a way to take you. Heck." She makes a show of tapping some AR display only she can see. "There. All the phones and tablets I've handed out are now *one-way* keys to use the teleporter to Amalgam. If shit gets bad... well, at least some of you can get out."

    Okay, that would NOT be a good note to end on. She grins nervously: "But! We have a lot of good people, including Arthur, who RAISED this complex, trying to find a way to keep the worst from coming to pass. If anyone can figure it out, it's them! Once everyone's had more immediate needs taken care of, I'll see about setting up medical facilities for mass de-aging. Maybe I can set up an offworld facility with teleporters, if we need more room..."

    "And, uh, look. Now that you know more about what I can do, feel free to brainstorm that beyond-the-walls colony idea! Just what's needed, what technological capabilities multiversal resources can cover, and how *you'll* handle making your ideal society and protecting it. Okay? I'm sure somewhere around here is a room suitable as a meeting hall..."
Tamamo     The people who come after me; they'll remember me, when they're not stepped on anymore, because the tyrants knew we're all prepared to fight.
    "Would you become a martyr, even without a god for whom to die? I would not recommend this, nor would I guarantee your remembrance."

    I'm not-- nobody here is an economist. We don't own a factory or whatever. How are we going to compare to whatever model they've drawn up?
    "You do not need to! Is it not enough to show that you are willing to sit at the same table, and entertain the same rules? None could claim you rogues, then, and you would have more words than force. What call would there be for 'emergency measures,' without an emergency?"

    The time for words doesn't pass, but the tone of the words changes, then, though Tamamo makes her earnest attempts to maintain her pace, without doing more than redirecting attention. Nothing she's doing now will strike one as unnatural, later. That's important.

    Sorry sweetie but she's paid to be nice to you.
    How dare--

    Lilian's feelings hit Tamamo's mind. She pauses, mouth open, automatically standing still, revealing no more than that she's stunned, though in truth, she's reeling. She has plenty of cures, but fewer preventatives. She's not unprepared, but she's not Immune.

    She's never spoken of what happened in the room with the demon.

    Arthur's calling her. "I'm here!" There's hardly time for words. Those were for him, and for Lilian.

    No one is fast as Lilian, when she wishes to be, and even in simpler cases, Tamamo couldn't beat her, whether by fleetness or 'command,' but she can still attract attention. Hers is a flare of light, visible throughout, though most of it just for Lilian's eyes, a wash of Summer warmth, an immediate presence that drowns out everything else, too dim to see once eyes adjust to her. It's a stark demand, with words to match. "Lilian! Lilian, please, look to me. You only need to look at me."

    She hadn't wanted to do this. It should have been fine to leave everything to her. Somewhere, there was a failure. Was this a mistake? Is acknowledging a mistake, itself, a humiliation? Even if so, she can't bear it. Her pain is too much. The empathic reaction is different from Arthur's, but comes to not dissimilar results.

    "I understand. I know. Even if they do not, even if they will not, even if they cannot, it does not matter." Even if they aren't worthy, and never will be. "I am here for you, and so, lean on me."

    And then Rita happens, though Tamamo has no intention of letting Lilian go.
Kirishima `You know whose side I have to be on. They could be my family. They could be me. If this were anywhere else, if it were any other world.... I have to think you'd know how messed up this all is. But here, it's too close to home. This isn't your heart.`

There's a visible pause in Kirishima's movements when she hears that. She glances over at those angry people, at those that could have easily been filled in with her own in another world, under slightly... Moderately different circumstances, but still cursing those in power over them just the same.

"I... No. I understand. If things were different, if this wasn't..." She bites back the rest of her words, trying not to let further thoughts cloud her mind on what she should be doing, what she could be doing, or who she would be going after if this wasn't Lilian's home.

They're still clouded, but at least she's good at forcing her body to move independently of her misgivings.
Lilian Rook     "What is their job then?! Why do I have to do everything?! Why do I have to take care of them even while they bleed me dry?!" Lilian cries out to arthr. The grip on the two foot metal wand is white-knuckled. The capacitor whines faintly, vibrating in readiness. "Why is everything my fault?! Why is nothing theirs?! They did this! They're the reason I had to go through all of this!"

    The locals are willing to stand down when Arthur jumps into it, because they've been ordered to by people Arthur has never met, but who know how important he is and how much they'd like him at their table. Lilian's squad does not; the one they lower their rifles for is Kirishima, and only once she flashes her Paladins badge. Their unit patch is (actually, yeah, what unit is that?) local, but they are also under the Paladins as well. They tap their visored helmets to radio each other internally, and then begin moving up at a jog instead. The civilians are now terrified by this situation, stumbling back and away as the calmest voices (who are still not calm) on the street are either demanding they get back, or urging them to flee. It doesn't help on the other side.

    "Escalate?! Escalate?! They want violence, they can come get it! They hated me since before I was born! I know they want to! God knows what they'd like to do to me if they had the opportunity! They want to fight, so let's fucking fight! Everyone says I can! I was the only one holding back here! What's the problem if I stop?! Why don't I get to hit back even when I want to?!"

    Tamamo possesses the ability to instantly distract Lilian. It has nothing to do with magic and mental fortitude, and it has everything to do with the pain in Tamamo's voice as well. Even now, it pierces a little hole through her own. Or at least, deep enough into it. Lilian chokes. Furious tears spill out. "I'm so sorry. I told everyone. I warned them over and over again. I can't do this. I shouldn't be expected to do this. I can't be who these people need me to be. Because I can't forgive them. I said that, didn't I? And in the end, I had to do it anyways. It's my blood on the gears. Just like always."

    She doesn't look towards Rita, because she can't look away from Tamamo right now, but she hears her. "I know it's fucked up, okay! I know it's not fair! I'm not perfect! But I'm so angry with people who got to be human for free, and I'm even angrier that it's not enough for them; that they have to take mine too! I haven't done every thing I possibly could, sure! There are ways I could fix this! But why do they get to beat it out of me?! Why is that all anyone every wants to do?! What do I do except be born?! Why do I have to be this way and still have everyone hate how 'perfect' my life isn't?!"

    Under ordinary circumstances, certainly Lilian would do exactly what Rita fears would render her attempt useless. But right now she's almost wholly focused on Tamamo, and she hasn't considered Rita a threat. She doesn't want to stop this situation. Her fight or flight has locked right into fight and the stick has snapped in half. Thus the point at which she reacts to Rita's kick-off is a tiny fraction of a second after she's already in motion; enough to put her through the gate and back on the ground-- coincidentally near to where the riot was yesterday. From the flying island, it's possible to see an explosion of black-gold and a small building block crumbling. Only Rita is there to see the meltdown in person at the moment.
Lilian Rook     Up on the flying Bazaar, the GDF jet troopers do exactly what they were ordered to, and take aim at Rita as she assaults the VIP-- and then find their triggers jammed. It won't take them long to discover and clear it, being far better trained than the UCCS, but enough for her to vanish. The call goes out, and the few they can spare from each gate merge into a new squad that takes off to ground. Lilian's own squad sprints for the gate too, preemptively checking their triggers after just seeing that.

    The crowd that's remaining, at a safe distance, is mostly just stunned and terrified, not to mention still scrambled by the experience of being forced to feel a fraction of what Lilian was directly in their minds. The unrest has even reached Staren and Kale, who were finally getting to close out successful negotiatons, exchanging tablets and numbers, Multiversal doodads and ideas. They mostly look around in panic, and the few who have the wherewithal ask:

    'What . . . what do we do now?'
    'Is she going to be back? Th-that was--'
    'Are we in deep shit now?'
    'H-hey, you guys did this! What are you going to do about it?!'
    'What's going to happen to us?'
    'Do we stay? Go? What's happening?'
Tamamo     Not having any idea what she was planning, nor what it is she was preemptively sorry for, Tamamo still can't help but react immediately with --

    a shift in gravity like the whorl of a solar flare
        burning hot, sudden, insubstantial, yet massive
            hostility like piercing light breaking stormclouds


    -- her attention shifting over and through Rita as she follows her through the gate.
Staren > 'What's happening?'

    "Calm down. There was one explosion, but you don't hear gunfire, do you?" Staren tries her best to find something reassuring to say.

    Saving the people was too much for the AI then. But the situation has changed. Maybe if she asks for something smaller? Staren tasks one of the Concord's top computer systems with: How can I ensure the safety of the flying bazaar?

    While it crunches the numbers, she adresses the--

> You guys did this! What are you going to do about it?!

    She whirls on whoever said that. "/I/ did this? /I/ did this? I've done nothing but help you. I wish I could tell you everything will be okay and that you're safe, but I'm not that person." Staren looks at the nearest window. "She isn't, either. Despite everything, she's strained with everything she has to help you. Unfortunately, she can't let go of this damn fucked up society she was born into. Just as you're not willing to leave it all behind, neither is she. If she turns her power on the rest of the Phantom Circle, what happens? She loses and you have one less Immune, or she *wins* and you have what, a whole *lot* less Immunes, and the only one left is someone who turns out to be unstoppable and has NO reason to stick around and protect the survivors any more?"

    Staren turns back to the crowd, though she can't look any of them in the eye for a moment. "I don't know the answer to that riddle."

> 'What's going to happen to us? Do we stay? Go?'

    "If you wanna go, I've shown you the door. If you don't... Well, I guess you're stuck in the same boat as Lilian. She has the nicer quarters, but if you work together to sink it, or convince her to sink it, no more boat..." She furrows her brow. That was close to what Rita said before, wasn't it? "I don't understand it. This attachment to this world... It seems like your lot here *sucks*. SHE just has a crappy family and watching you suffer without knowing how to help you, but you? What've you got? What is KEEPING you here? This world seems to HATE you. Both the Antegent without... and the rich people within. Why do you stay??"
Rita Ma      Rita barely has time to orient herself on the other side before she's flinching away from the explosion- even if it's safely aimed away from her, things like that are just terrifying. The flinch is followed near-immediately by a bright-hot yelp of pain in response to Tamamo's magic; her hands come up to clutch her head, trying to find whatever's causing that burning feeling as if she could pull it out.

     For just a couple of heartbeats, she manages to keep something like fighting composure; she's postured to prevent them from returning through the portal, and her invisible tentacles weave a hemispherical dome around them that condenses into the appearance of iron, seeming to magically fade into existence. The only light in the enclosed arena, now, is that metal's soft and eerie glow.

     But that fighting tension only holds up under Tamamo's pressure long enough for:

<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "ARTHUR! CUT THE GATE!"
<J-IC-Scene> Arthur Lowell says, "Cutting it!"

     As soon as the gate's gone, she collapses both emotionally and physically, falling to her knees in a nervous exhaustion. She wipes at her tear-soaked face with the back of her arm. A long decompressing exhalation tries to leave her, but it hitches in her chest a couple of times.

     "I surrender," is the very first thing she manages to say, followed a moment later by: "Now you're not the one dealing with them anymore, Ms. Rook. Everyone else will figure it out somehow. ... I'm sorry," she says, and those two words in particular appear to be directed at both of them. "You said last time nobody would accept it if they thought you went easy. I had to get you out of there in a way that wouldn't be 'your fault'."

     A little sniffle, then a small sad laugh. "This was probably stupid of me. I bet there was a better answer. But I wasn't smart enough to see it."
Arthur Lowell >Arthur: Cut the gate, get Lilian her space

    Lilian, Tamamo, and apparently Rita need the space. He doesn't know what Rita can do, but he knows, if anyone can fix this, it'll be Tamamo. Arthur slams the Gate shut and steps up to Lilian's squad. "You felt what she fucking felt!" He yells. "Third Code, give Lilian her *fucking dignity*! Don't turn her pain into some disaster! If someone tries to pull a trigger, slug the motherfucker for trying to make her stress even fucking *worse*! Or do you just not give a shit about her?!"

    He's still swallowing back the intensity of the raw pain and stress that he got hit with, red-eyed, breathing in a more ragged way. "Give her some fucking space with someone she cares about, or fucking go through me, but I'm gonna *help* her." The back of his hand swipes across his nose, and then both fists clench, aggressively, his head jerking between staring at the GDF and the squad.
Lilian Rook     The soldiers, up top, back off as Arthur squares up (and mostly just cuts the gate off anyways). A few seconds later, the ostensible point lead toggles his external microphone on, and says "Cool it Lowell. We know who you are. Our orders were to not engage you under any circumstances, so we're following them. I don't know what the hell that was all about, and frankly, I feel like I shouldn't have seen it, so I'm going to be doing my best to forget about it, but we didn't sign on for Cipher of Swords not knowing any of the details at all. OpDirector Gerart isn't a fool and he doesn't tolerate them either." The situation appears to be fully stalled, with people breaking up and filtering out in nervous confusion, for the time being.

    Meanwhile Lilian, on the ground, lowers the gleam-smoking tip of that wand from the rubbled metro station on the corner, twists the handle to retract its size back to a third in reflex, and then screams (without screaming) up at the sky, sinking to her knees on the cracked sidewalk and slumping over.

    "Don't . . . Don't say 'I surrender'. I told you Rita. That'll . . . never happen again." Her voice cracks. "Please just . . . stop. It's not your fault either. You didn't do anything wrong. They don't deserve you Rita. You've done so much and given so much to so many people, and you've suffered the whole time, right? Don't . . . don't fall for it. Don't think it always has to be girls like us who have to be miserable so everyone else can feel good. We're worth more than that."

    A hoarse little attempt at a laugh follows, and gets nowhere. "Yeah. Well. I'm not going back up. I'm going to . . . think of what I'll say. And what to do next. I don't want to fight with you. All of you. And I think maybe you can do something if I help you instead of using you to keep me away from them."

    Tamamo's appearance prompts Lilian to stagger to her feet, holster the device, wipe her eyes on her sleeve, and then squeeze the fox woman, burying her face in her shoulder. She's whispering something too quiet for Rita to hear, over and over again.