Scene Listing

||

Scene Schedule

||

Scene Schedule RSS

Owner	Pose
Strawberry Princess	It is noon. You have arrived by boat to the most desolate place on Earth.      The southern shore of England is faintly visible on the horizon. To those with sharp vision, it looks somehow blackened. Dull, heavy clouds are gathered above it, though perhaps that's nothing new.      Aside from the taciturn crew of the small vessel, two magical girls in their mid-teens and Director Velt are present. The latter is a crisply-dressed woman in her forties; she is tall in a way reminiscent of the absent Strawberry, but somewhat less so.      After a short conversation with a member of the crew, she turns to you. "This is as close as we're getting," she says in a Slavic-sounding language. "Our first plan was for Pearl Crown and Ruby Crown here to teleport you in, but they're imprecise on destination. Arthur Lowell will be gating you to, and from, the Crater's vicinity instead. Teleporting directly into it would be unwise; it might put you in immediate danger. The Crowns will give you an escape route if he is... incapacitated."      Her slightly bitter tone suggests that 'incapacitated' is pure euphemism here. The two magical girls with her know it; they look nauseated just being near the place.      "Now, please prepare the portal, Arthur," she says. And to the rest of the group: "Are there any final questions or preparations? You are going to be in very dangerous territory momentarily, and you can expect interference with long-range communications. From your arrival point, try to head due north."
Kale Hearthward	Kale gets up at the bow of the boat, peering out. He's staying ground-bound for the whole trip, so as to not attract attention, but it's made him antsy. "No questions - I'm okay on my preparations, I have all my gear ready, I know the plan - get in and get out and don't engage," he says. "I figure I'll handle chipping off the core fragment with Periactus once we get there, if nobody else has something that'll work better," he says, reaching back and patting the handle of the drill sword (in its dormant state) attached to his back. "And - unless it interferes with the tanuki magic, I can handle carrying it out."
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: Be on a boat     Arthur regards Velt. And for a moment, he examines her dimensions. His foot fidgets oddly, like something's on the edge of his mind. He works his cheek. But no realization dawns. Whatever's almost there, it never arrived.     "Yeah, IF I get my ass SHREDDED TO DUST, there's plenty of CONTINGENCY, for real." Arthur rambles as he limbers up his arms and fingers, then begins to cast a Gate. One end is here, the other on the island, and just for another party-member, one at a distant shore that he's already prepared. All of them look the same, though: A sort of vivid green spirograph carved in glowing lines in space, which teleports on contact.     "We hit the ground, and I'm BROOM ROCKETING *RIGHT AWAY. If you aren't the running kind of dude, ya better GRAB ON TIGHT, or grab my *ONE* EXTRA SEAT, but you better not take it slow. We gotta *move*. DON'T rubberneck shit with FIGHTING THE TERMINARCH, there's ZERO GAIN and HELLA LOSS for it."
Seras Victoria	Aboard the ship is... a coffin. Painted on this coffin is a cutesy little bat logo with a Banner of 'Hellsing: We are on a Mission from God'. Paladin associates delivered it to Director Velt and the crew saying it must be brought to shore before being opened.     Every now and then, whines and snores come from it. There's definitely someone in there...     Along with the coffin are several carry cases full of weapons and supplies. They're rather heavy, and are meant to be delivered as well.
Ishirou	On the boat, despite the trip and its seriousness, Ishirou was actually rather upbeat, which has been something he's been a lot of as of late.  He's been peering over the side of the boat, using his scanners to take a look at ocean life.  Despite his uh...experiences with some ocean...things, he rather still likes the ocean.  On the surface, it's either calm or very rough...but beneath it's even more complex.   When things are ready for them to actually deploy, Ishirou is there.  He's already suited up in his 'power armor', the AVCS (Advanced Variable Combat Suit.) This is likely the first time some people have seen it.  But in this mode, it's more like power armor, though if asked he indicates it has various modes and attachments. "Man...is England messed up in every magic-focused world where it appears?  Is this like...Japan being the place nobody wants to talk about in them?  Sorry, off-topic."
Tamamo	Tamamo-no-mae is present in her full battle gear; she'd call it 'witchcraft-user's clothing' the other day, and it wouldn't be particularly identifiable as 'battle gear' to most, but most people aren't magical girls. The heavy-looking robes and long sleeves hide her hands, one of which becomes visible only as she pulls the sleeve up, just enough to reveal a stack of paper talismans. The designs on the paper resemble long, leafy plants by a water surface, though they're abstract enough to be any of a long list of things.     "We have made adequate preparations, I think." She nods, with a small smile, to Pearl Crown and Ruby Crown. "No further assistance will be needed, I expect, but to have a plan for that 'just in case' causes us no harm."     The talismans are offered to all others present, "In case of any malady that should befall you, whether it should slow, or halt, or endanger."     To Arthur, "I am not the swiftest runner, though I would like to say I am light on my feet, as needed. As to our need for relocation, at speed... there are several options." She looks, with significance, toward Lilian.
Lilian Rook	"Honestly, Director, I'd rather you not have even come this far." Lilian replies, just a little grim herself. Her serious tone, filled with gravitas and effortless authority, is functionally for show. She knows exactly how this will go. "I'd like it if Miss Ruby and Miss Pearl would prioritize exfiltrating you in event of danger. I may not be Lowell, but I can exfiltrate this group in a hurry and I know the isles like the back of my hand, so even if we're cut off, we can lay low off the mainland for a while." She favours the two magical girls with a mature little smile. "I've been trained plenty for the eventuality of returning to base or awaiting rescue in hostile territory." And then she glances over her shoulder. "We've all been, to some extent."     Arina and Satsuki are on the boat with her, sticking together and watching the discussion unfold with crackling nervous energy. All three are dressed in their Immunes gear with their usual personal additions, the thin lines glimmering faintly with magical energy already circulating. "Ah, don't worry Mister Lowell! I won't allow that to happen to anyone!" Arina pipes up. Satsuki snorts just a little at 'tanuki magic', and then says to Ishirou "I think it's just always messed up, right?" She looks to the back of Lilian's head for confirmation. She shrugs.     Of course Lilian already has Tamamo's talismans. She's unfolded her wand, examining the black metal and gold spiral point, though it's mostly just for the sake of implicit camaraderie with the mahou aboard. "Night Mist has proven to be especially effective against Endlings before. I haven't looked into why, but it'll serve us as an impromptu purifier blade if needed. Still, the more the better I think." she says to Kale.     "However, my first priority is going to be in managing the indirect threat once we make landfall. Our enemy, should we be unfortunate enough to encounter it, is obnoxiously precognitive, and out all of us, I believe I'm the only one with experience in competitive combat precognition." Of course, she'd only tried it once with Gilgamesh, but in theory . . . "So I'll need a lot of attention to spare to cover us, should the mission suddenly become exigently time sensitive."
Trudy Grimm	Accompanying the random coffin is perhaps half a dozen knights in full plate armor. The armor has seen better days, though. Cracks here and there, hints of corrosion on the edges, feathers and livery tattered and ragged. Men who've seen action countless times, by the look of things. Bits of green crystal poke out of assorted gaps in the joints and some of the holes or slits in their helmets, a telltale sign of who this group is affiliated with.     Said person sits on top of the coffin; the self-proclaimed 'witch of no import', Trudy Grimm. With the Grimoire resting at her side and her legs folded one over the other at the knee, she simply listens intently to the exchanges going on around her.     Though when the moment comes, it is her knights who pick up that coffin to bring ashore, along with the other related cargo. At least that much is already taken care of.
Cantio	Cantio is here, too! Somehow, she's gotten word of today's excursion into the former United Kingdom and joined up with the group, looking as healthy as she's ever been and armed with a heavy-looking attache case slung over her shoulder. She's dressed in her usual white and purple coat dress getup, opting for ease of movement and large pockets to store even more things rather than visible armor or anything along those lines. "Avoiding contact could be tricky, but I'll have contingencies prepared for that, too." Cantio flashes Arthur a brief smile in affirmation at that, then takes a talisman from Tamamo with light nod as well. "I'm pretty quick on my feet, and I can afford to send some decoys out to keep attention off of us if we start drawing too much of it." She replies with an affirming nod to Lilian. "... Within reason, of course." She adds with a cautious glance at Kale, then chuckles lightly at Ishirou's comment before realizing how dark that might sound and pretending to clear her throat instead. "What is it that we're going to be looking for to the north? Old artifacts, strange formations, c..." She pauses briefly, mulling over the best way to ask a potentially sensitive topic before looking over at Velt specifically. "... Colleagues' belongings?"
Strawberry Princess	Director Velt eyes the drill-sword approvingly, but then arches an eyebrow. "Unless it interferes with the what?" One of the mahous looks mortified: "Ms. Velt, please don't ask." "Ah, is this a 'youth' thing? Very well."      The coffin, after some initial curiosity, is largely politely ignored on the journey over. In the absence of anyone else to carry it, the crew draws straws, with one disgruntled-looking burly sailor being the one designated to heave it through. He smiles smugly at his fellows when Trudy's knights take care of the coffin instead.      To Ishirou's scanners, the ocean life seems strangely barren here. There are fish, but only perhaps a quarter as many as there should be, as if the land's malady extended to the sea as well. "There are many reasons not to discuss Japan," Velt answers Ishirou evenly. "Just as England has earned many enemies." A little pause. She turns her gaze to the horizon. "Not that even they deserved this fate, of course."      The Crowns look significantly relieved by Tamamo's reassurance, though they politely decline her talismans. "One way or another, we won't be setting foot out there." "But please do be safe, okay?"      "We're outside their maximum recorded attack range by one-third, Ms. Rook. That's why the boat's stopped here," Velt replies crisply, but with a grateful smile. "They've made no recorded forays into the Channel since the original was destroyed. But, if it comes to that, Ruby and Pearl are quite up to both. They needn't move with their passengers."      For their part, the two teenage mahous gravitate towards Arina and Satsuki, making quiet small talk. They've been identified as the closest thing to a peer group.      "At least one fragment of the original London Terminarch's core, to be retrieved from its corpse in the Crater," Velt answers Cantio. "And absolutely nothing else. There are no secondary objectives. Get in and get out. The longer you linger, the greater the risk."      The Director eyes Arthur uneasily, in turn, as he stares up at her. No matter what he says about his age, sending someone who looks like he does on a mission like this sits poorly with her. "Haste is of the essence, but I suggest not flying high," she answers. "The cover only goes up so far." She politely steps away from the portals as they open, as if nervous something might come through from the other side.      And when the group steps through his portal...
Strawberry Princess	The city is utterly bleak. Despite the time of day, the dark clouds blot out nearly all sunlight. The ground is soot-black and crunches underfoot; the cold drizzling rain is black too, carrying granules of glass that prick and scrape exposed flesh. Even now, a decade later, nothing grows here. Velt had assured you earlier that radiation wouldn't be a concern, if you were fast. It doesn't feel like that's true: tingly needles gently prickle your skin, ionized pinpricks of light sparkle at the edges of your vision.      Iron melted and flowed into the streets to clog the gutters like water, where it still gleams. In most places, only concrete remains, scorched and broken into gloomy jagged obelisks that stand as gravestones for buildings.      Strangely, wedges of the city are relatively preserved; still bombed-out, but with two or three standing stories, metal merely drooping and sagging like candle-wax instead of liquefied. It looks as though each individual preserved wedge was 'downwind' of something huge that absorbed the blastwave for them. One can guess what.      Over the pattering of rain, one can hear far-off thundering thuds and an eerie crooning not unlike whalesong. Multiple sources are singing in harmony. The ruined city blocks line-of-sight like a forest does; thousands of obelisks and skeletal ruins together conspire to limit vision to a few hundred feet.      Flying above them is doable, but perhaps unwise. In seeing, one could also be seen.
Strawberry Princess	More pressing than the artifacts of the bombing are the artifacts of the magical war that led up to it. Forming a circle several hundred feet around, a wreath of curving lasers almost like lace fills the air densely.      Picking one's way through the laser lace requires implausible agility- or a very keen eye, to trace back the lasers' tangled threads to find the best place to dam the energy's flow. Blocking it can only provide a brief opening, however, as the dammed current of magic eventually burns through nearly any obstruction.      The area is densely littered with hanging slivers of frozen time, too, where one can glimpse untarnished metal and green grass from the city's past. These are particularly dangerous hazards: whatever brushes up against them cannot move, potentially snaring clothes or limbs like a bear-trap. Dispelling them or overwhelming them with massive force is the only path to freedom, once snagged.      Finally, flickering ghostly images of an unfamiliar seventeen-year-old mahou flit through the air- residual illusions, slowly decaying. The look on her face is one of panic. Following one, like a malign will-o'-the-wisp, will only lead the pursuer into the worst of the obstacles.      There is no mistaking that the barriers and snares which now hold the party in, were once meant to keep something out. They've portaled, by chance, into the site of some coven's last stand. A broken wand lies in the ash nearby; tiny scraps of colorful fabric flutter in the breeze. Bodies burn, but costumes don't.      As Velt had said, there's nothing to do but press northwards. Veering off-track will only increase the odds of someone getting spotted.
James Bond	EARLIER ANOTHER LONDON     "You'd better be back soon, and in one piece," says Alec. "I can only cover for so much. And you know she's going to be looking for an excuse to reassign me somewhere else. A 00 on glorified guard duty..."     Bond, packing a change of clothes on top of 'the essentials' stuffed into his duffel bag, offers his response. "I'm not asking you to stick your neck out for me."     "That's exactly the problem. It's like you don't care if she cuts you loose."     Bond zips the bag up in one terse motion. His mind drifts back to the pack of Lucky Strikes he'd found, in that strange, prophetic dream-place. The feeling he'd felt holding it, looking at the tire tracks imprinted on its flattened form.     Bond pulls him close. "I care about you. And me," he quietly, belatedly offers. "And getting us out from under this life."      "And you're going to do that by stealing from deadly monsters?" The other 00 agent sighs, squeezing him gently. "Well, if you're going to go, at least take my watch," says Alec leaning back and unclasping it to give it to James. "You... overpowered me and took it on your way out," he adds with a grin.      His flight through the city is fraught with stopoffs around blind corners, dips into crowded public spaces, minute changes in his appearance, gait and clothing to throw off tails, until he crosses through the warpgate.
James Bond	NOW LONDON (TERMINARCH)      Bond answers Velt in the same language--or a very close cousin. "He won't be," confidently replies the rogue agent, shifting the duffel bag. To Arthur, in English, "I'm fast enough, but if it's all the same, I'll ride shotgun with you, Lowell." He takes a protective talisman from Tamamo, nodding graciously. "Until I'm needed on the ground, anyway."      Bond adjusts his windbreaker, checking the shoulder holster fastened to the polo beneath is secure. With that done, he'll hitch a ride. Through the portal, Bond's eyes narrow with focus.      "I can handle extraction of the fragment, if you can get me within jumping distance."
Seras Victoria	Once trudy's knights carry the coffin and its cargo through the portal and open it up... Seras sits up with a drowsy groan, shielding her eyes from... what she THOUGHT would be the noonday sun and yet...     "Is.. isn't it noon?" She stands up and steps out of the coffin, brushing off a bit of dirt that clings to her outfit and legs and looks around...     Absolute wasteland. "This... I heard it was a mess here but what..." The rain, the soot, the dark and bleak landscape... a horrified shiver runs through the young vampire and she quickly retrieves her backpack of supplies and assembles the Harkonnen. Hopefully she won't need it. Hopefully.     Still, walking around like that is ungainly-looking. Seems highly awkward. Even though, after a thankful smile to Trudy and her knights, and with a mournful sweep of attention across the ruined coven's remains, a very disturbed and disheartened Seras takes a few moments to study the patterns of the sweeing lasers and then... once the pattern's deduced, she bolts through it like a living gale and hits the ground running... only to nearly start chasing what she, in just a few missing heartbeats later, realizes is a ghost.     Gulp.     "Just... what.. WHAT.. really happened here...?!" She's never seen such devastation. It's straight out of an apocalypse movie, if not much much worse. "How many... how many were here when the bombs went off...?!"     Even if they find this supposed core fragment, it's not going to reverse this situation. Nothing will.     All she can do is move on ahead. Cautiously, trying to use wreckage and scraps of remaining buildings and fixtures as cover...
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: No flying high. They have purifier beams.     "Yeah, no prob, V." Arthur gives a quick nod, still focusing on the Gate. "I'll run low hover." He captchalogues Tamamo's talisman, limbers up at the neck, and summons his broom. "Let's drop, boys." He and James are, of course, the only ones. >Arthur: Press north     Arthur only has a few moments of hovering to assess the situation. The lurching in his stomach, the stress in his gut, make him know that if he lingers too long, he'll find something charred and tragic, still clutching a wand. "Hittin' NORTH!" he calls out, slamming the throttle on his broom. He'll swing low, burn hard, and widen his eyes. That cage of projectiles, swirling indefinitely... no, better not try to rush through or block it. At this range, he can cast Gates fast. "Hold on!" He burns a few quick turns, the bristle-thrusters of his rocket broom ejecting portal projectiles. He has to swing them around the wisps and time-shards, but he should be able to land one on a decaying building's surface north of here, and one on the burned crater they're at.     If he can do that, he can make a quick dive into the Gate -- and offer the others a way out of the cage as well, all assuming nothing barrages either side or interrupts it. Gotta press north from here more...
Cantio	Primary objectives are confirmed, secondary objectives are unconfirmed, and a plan is laid out. Cantio fights the urge to take a deep breath or sigh or anything that might indicate she's nervous as they're about to head through the portal. Instead, she opts to hide her anxiety to hide it behind a hum that's just a little too confident to be convincing. She's getting better at lying to herself, at least. As she disembarks with the group, her attache case falls apart ahead of time to minimize time wasted later. The pieces reassemble themselves into Cantio's sword, anumber of small drones, and a conspicuous brick made of formerly floating bits hanging off the handle of her weapon. That extra weight helps keep her at least a little more focused on the task at hand, although she still spares a moment to look ahead a little more just to make sure she's not running into any obvious dangers. As Cantio starts hoofing it at a brisk pace, she has to keep reminding herself not to get distracted. The preserved city slices are concerning, but unlikely to contain anything of value. The lasers, curious as they are, also don't strike Cantio as something worth poking at considering how much more likely it is she'll just get injured trying to maneuver through them. The slivers of frozen time, however, give her reason to pause. "If we're hurrying back, these could... I've got it." Brimming with confidence for once, Cantio directs her ability to accelerate time towards a cluster of those frozen slivers to try and pull them back into a more normal flow. Should that work, she'll start clearing more of those time slivers, prioritizing those in the most direct path towards the north in order to create an easier path of egress once the crew has to retreat.
Tamamo	Though the talismans Tamamo has already distributed will do wonderfully against sickness and poisons up to a remarkable level of severity, they aren't intended for active purification of one's surrounding, and the coughing risk is only moderately mitigated. At Kale's polite request, Tamamo goes searching inside her sleeves for something, and comes out with a small piece of white paper, folded over on itself, as one might for keeping a powder contained within what had been a single square. She offers this to him with, "Chew on these, first, should you need to breathe deeply."     Inside the origami-esque paper pouch are a few pinches worth of something that smells, for the most part, like basil. It doesn't particularly taste like anything, beyond that.     In a moment, she steps through the portal.
Ishirou	Ishirou smiles at Tamamo as she gives him the talisman.  "Thanks, this will be very helpful there, more than likely.  Especially if things go...south." Not that he thinks they /will/ but it's always safe to have reasons why it might.  He nods to Satsuki, "Seems to be...it's nice when it's not though!  But still.." he sighs.  "Oh, I was taking the measure of the local wildlife in this area.  It's definitely massively depopulated here.  Only a quarter that should be." He scratches his head, "It's likely not going to get better, it might indicate an ecosystem collapse...assuming it isn't already happening."  There is a pause, "Though given what's on the mainland, I doubt it's as much of a concern." Across the field it...well it was hell on earth.  It was a different hell than Lilian's England, but still a hell nonetheless.  Arthur and Lilian's voice snaps him out of it, as he was already looking at the last stand remnants.  He takes a breath, and then the armor has a flash of light.  This attaches the flight suit components to it.  Going underground might be dangerous, especially in a cityscape like this, so staying up and increasing his speed to the fastest he can is his only play. He flies forward, using his sensors and enhanced senses to get a judge of the timing before making fast reactions to avoid the field that blocks their path north.  He also makes various visualizations on people's HUD's as he makes his own way, aiming to help others and their path forward.
Trudy Grimm	On the other side of the portal, Trudy's knights set the coffin down. One raps on the lid, then steps away. The entire contingent then swiftly sinks into their shadows and disappears. The work of their mistress, no doubt. Trudy is changing up her roster; from the same dark portals, a half dozen tall, gangly men in long military jackets and mud-caked boots. Clad in metal helmets with hoods and accompanying gas masks; the Soldiers she had fielded previously will make better for a defensive role than Knights.     As with the Knights, the Soldiers' uniforms are not pristine. Ragged edges, tears, even the odd bullet hole with crystal protruding from it. Faint green light glows behind the lenses of their gas masks, cracked or scratched or broken and filled with crystal growth. All but two of them are armed with battle rifles; the latter two toting a heavy machine gun and the telltale projection nozzle of a flamethrower.     "It's a warzone," Trudy answers Seras, "I'm not sure what you expected." She closes the Grimoire with a light 'thump' and gestures with her free hand, the Soldiers taking up defensive positions and advancing North cautiously. She does pause by the burned wand and clothing, though, free hand tapping her chin. After a moment, she calls out, "If you're lingering here, would you like to join me? I have lots of cute friends who could keep you company, it must be lonely here by yourself."
Kale Hearthward	@Tamamo: Kale eagerly takes the offered charm(s). "*Thank* you," he says, with extra emphasis and sincerity. He goes to attach the charm securely to the hilt of his sword, mostly just for how nice it looks there. @Cantio: Kale narrows his eyes, but lets the comment pass without comment. @Velt: "(I should probably find a better term for that,)" Kale mutters to himself. Before going through the portal, Kale pre-casts his usual set of defensive and contingency spells, weaving knots into the air currents and tying them off tightly instead of letting them unravel. "Okay. Ready." He kicks his heels together, activating his jet boots, and goes through... ... and is immediately grateful all over again for Tamamo's charms. "... Didn't need another reason to want to stick around, but I've just found one," he says, covering his beak with his hands. He ascends a bit - balancing the advantages of getting some height with the increased risk of being seen - and starts keeping his eyes peeled for whatever threats might start approaching the group as they go...
Lilian Rook	<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "The only relevant combat power we have comes from those who can guarantee a one hundred percent 'certain-kill'. All others should be dedicating themselves to either mobility and reconnaissance, or to rear support and emergency defense." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook slightly offmic, "Satsuki, Arina, respectively those." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "My recommendation is that Hearthward and Ishirou handle travel and recon to extend our early warning range and acquire visual on items of opportunity ASAP. Tamamo and Grim should likely focus on supporting the group as a whole and maintaining area control; ingress, egrees, defensible locations. I'd like it if Lowell were to join me in secondary aerial recon, but should push come to shove, I'd like his cooperation in eliminating necessary targets. Victorias, you'd know best. Cantio . . . do whatever, just don't get in the way." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Get someone on that fence. I'll handle the shards. There's no utility to us maintaining the integrity of this position. It didn't help the ones who built it."     Lilian steps out of the portal. Breathing in inadvisedly deep of the ashen air, she closes her eyes, furrows her brow, and holds her posture rigid whilst Satsuki and Arina fan out next to her, the former removing the yumi from her shoulder and moving quickly, whilst the latter pulls down her mask and extends her cane. "I've seen a nuclear crater before, like in the videos, but . . ." "Nothing like this. How much did they . . . ?" "Look there though." "Don't. Haven't you ever heard of a blast shadow? It's like the clear spot a person leaves on a wall. But a monster." "O-oh . . ."     They glance back a few seconds later when Lilian isn't with them, instead, stooping down to pick up the shattered pieces of a wand. "Commander?" Satsuki inquires with no further words. Lilian slips them into her hardcase along with a scrap of uniform. "Did I tell you to stop moving?" "No ma'am. But does this mean we should be looking out for--" "No. Focus on the strategy." ". . . Understood."     The two move on. Lilian looks to Seras forlornly. "Try not to think about it." she says. Then, "This thing shot down a third of the missiles aimed at it. It'll shoot you too, from about a thousand different places, if you get too high. The three of us are trained in stealth operations, so we'll handle establishing direct visual. Arina." "Y-yes Commander?" "You stay grounded and relay to Ishirou. You can all hear that, right? Enemy is active and mobile; ostensibly random patrol, but I'd like Ishirou to crunch it for patterns. Satsuki, with me." "Roger!"     Lilian, first, feels compelled to do something weird. Laying her fingers on a shard of congealed time, and experimenting with its exact opposite concept. It may be necessary later. From there, she and Satsuki relocate to the upper floors of the cityscape, at its intact wedges, to have a proper view over the wasteland all around. As promised, the two are, specifically, fairly skilled and well-equipped to avoid notice by weird monsters, and know how to obscure visual and muffle their magical profiles. They attempt to spot from there, and feed the infor to Ishirou, so that he can populate an initial map and ideally track by sound from there.
Tamamo	Tamamo withdraws, without having any place from which it would be sensible to have hidden it, a paper umbrella with a solid, wooden shaft. It unfolds to reveal branches covered in white blossoms over a cherry-pink background. It doesn't look particularly sturdy against black rain, but seems to serve her well enough, for the moment. "Oh, dear."     She is immediately distracted by the remains, but Lilian is already picking them up before she can reach them. "Ah, you are right, of course. We should not cease our advance. There are no 'secondary objectives,' as Ms. Velt put it." It's easier to say that after the remains are put out of her sight.     Seeing no one else yet tackling the laser fence bramble, Tamamo approaches the intangible obstacle, and takes a few moments, and a few passes of relatively mundane magecraft with muttered incantations and inscrutable motions of her free hand, to search for an origin point. If she thinks of it as a lingering curse -- as her own offensive magic is most easily describes -- then she can dispel it with an appropriate counter-curse. If there are no such elegant solutions available, however, or if the breaking of its origin point would not be swift enough, she has another method of dealing with these sorts of battle remnants.     Calling her mirror to her side, it appears from nowhere. She sets herself as if to receive a blow, makes the appropriate signs with her hands, recites words from memory, of which the clearest to be invoked is sunless, and interposes her mirror with the lasers.     Rather than blocking, or even reflecting, as one would expect a mirror might, this is a technique solely for absorbing energy, the not-quite opposite of her most frequent blessings. She can think of how to release the energy at a later point.
James Bond	"Bedlam 7 and Bedlam 6 on station," says Bond over the tacnet, keeping a grip on the broom despite the quick turns. "Tally on LZ, attempting approach, vector one-eight-one for twenty."      A moment of frozen time nearly yanks him off the broom by the tail of his jacket, but his white-knuckled grip instead tears the garment from his body, revealing the shirt and holster beneath. Ducking his head under a frozen laser, he locks eyes on the spot Arthur's eyeing for a portal.      Standing atop the broom, he angles Alec's watch upwards, at the lip of a neighboring building. The moment Arthur drops that portal, Bond leaps off of the broom, arms held up as his momentum swings him halfway up the wall.      Pulling the cord tight, "Bedlam 7, payload away," he announces, climbing up the side of the building with the aid of the grapnel cord. Barring any spatial or direct interference, his goal is to get atop the building, through that portal and concurrently, into the crater.
Strawberry Princess	Both Cantio and Lilian discover, on attempting to force accelerated time on the frozen shards, that they obediently 'fast forward' to dissolve back into the present. Flutters of colorful cloth are visible within, then glimpses of huge and glossy limbs, then a bright flash and a puff of smoke- and finally, where time-frozen grass once stood, there is now mere ash and slag, like everywhere else.      There are, indeed, a lot of magical girl spirits here that could potentially answer Trudy's call. Most of them seem strangely unwilling to return from the other side, but one in particular seems more receptive than the others, if she can sense such things before reanimating them.      In many places the combination of the laser-lace and the time-shards make forward progress largely impossible, at least without ascending to a very visible and dangerous height. Cantio's (and possibly Lilian's) steady clearing of the shards gradually lowers the difficulty from 'unreasonable' to merely 'challenging'.      Tamamo finds that it isn't close enough to 'a curse' to break that way, but her mirror serves quite nicely. The sheer total amount of energy in the wreath relative to its flow at any one moment means it would take quite some time to empty completely, but her interrupting the flow in such a way makes about half the 'threads' disappear downstream, further simplifying traversal. This allows Ishirou to zoom through with a few close calls and Trudy's soldiers to locate easily limbo-able spots.      Lilian and Kale's reconnoitering reveals a truly grave situation. Titanic creatures, larger by far than any buildings that still remain, dot the horizon. The nearest ones are within half a mile, their features clearly visible. Data on their movement patterns is forwarded to Ishirou, awaiting his analysis.
Strawberry Princess	They seem to float like enormous jellyfish, occluding enough of the horizon to be disorienting. Their apocalyptic gravitas sends a chill down the spine. Their bodies are like the paper fortune-tellers that children fold on playgrounds; symmetrical, polygonal, shifting flowers. Dozens of massive humanlike arms erupt downwards from their blossoming jaws, striding along the ground, hanging limply, or imitating meaningless gestures.      They are glossy-smooth like pomegranate seeds, as Strawberry's clones are. But rather than being red-pink like hers, they are every color of the sunset: blue fades into red, to a near-black purple. Each one is surrounded by a faint cyan aura so enormous that the edge is only readily visible by looking up. Fine, interlocking lines are barely visible crisscrossing the bodies of the nearest ones, as if they were assembled out of puzzle pieces. Brighter cyan-tinged 'spotlights' of some kind emanate from some of their open palms, sweeping the surroundings back and forth.      Most pertinently, a pair of them are alarmingly close to where Arthur's Crater-portal terminates. There's just enough time to warn him before something horrible happens; James Bond just might have the stealth chops to get through and immediately duck into cover, but the loud boy on a broom certainly does not. One of them even seems to be moving towards the portal lazily.      Arthur can, at least, offer the less-acrobatic members an easy shortcut through the weakened laser wreath. But if the Terminarch clones really are drawn to open displays of magic, teleporting directly to the Crater is going to be tough.     It isn't a long distance to walk, but the two 'guard' clones at the Crater's edge stalk the perimeter lazily. Each of them has nearly a half-dozen of those cyan 'spotlights'; they're obviously magical, but their effect is unclear. They sweep among the skeletonized buildings, illuminating nooks and crannies and casting long shadows from every concrete monolith and scorched facade.      It's only a few hundred feet left to the Crater, but the city was pulverized finer and finer the nearer one gets, until dust is all that remains near its cusp. Cover is thinner here, but it's also essential. Intuitively, being caught in those sweeping spotlights means discovery, and discovery means almost certain death.
Ishirou	Ishirou is pulled into a vertigo-inducing front scrolling minigame, forced to avoid dangerous hazards and deadly 'instant death' areas.  Thankfully, his allies are working on hazard reduction, making his quick maneuvers tight, but doable.  A laser singe as opposed to losing half of his machine, and narrowly avoiding being caught in a time field, as opposed to having to lose a piece of the flight unit.   On the other side, he dives for cover, after getting some air.  He sees the dangerous jellyfish creatures and notices the similarities between them and Strawberries' clones.  He's not sure what the technical term is.  In his position, he can do the following. Start running the data and analyzing the clones better.  He also runs a scan of the underground.  How much of it is collapsed?  Is it usable?  Are there any dangers if it is?
Lilian Rook	All three of the Immunes women make noises of variegated dread in near-unison. Arina lets slip a little whimper from behind her mask, Satsuki gasps sharply, Lilian breathes out slowly through her teeth. "I'm not certain what I was picturing." she says. "But it wasn't this." Her eyes track the roving spotlights. Satsuki's are too. "How long have these been here?" "Nearly twenty years." "And this is . . . all they do . . . ? They're still looking for humans. People. Why? Just to kill them?" "Why? Is that new to you, Oda?" ". . . No, it's not, Commander Rook."     Down below, Arina breathes in all of a sudden and pings the emergency alert. "Mister Lowell! Quick! Your portal! They can sense magic! Externalized arcana! They're coming for it! Don't let them leave!" Lilian slides from her upper balcony position, through a gap in a collapsed rail, and comes back to Earth like hail drop. "Arthur! Close the portal! Recon, do we have a sewer system intact? Metro? How bad is the collapse underground? We don't have a solution for hauling everyone over all that open ground without being spotted, without using externalized magic, unless I literally carry you all there. Support, can we figure out their sensory range? Fire up a magical flare and leave a decoy somewhere. Something expendable. Draw them away. I'll secure an exit. Arina, over here." "Commander? Oh, I see! Veles and Alexandra! Tsarista of water--"     Lilian is setting up her own fairy circle solution inside a building in the laser-protected zone to replace the portal. It is vastly less convenient, but she can easily conceal its magical signature and physical presence. At the very least, it'll be an easy beacon for Arthur to portal to, being a dense cluster of ontologically significant spatial geometry.     She's hoping they can find alternate routes or set a decoy, otherwise it'll be her turn to focus exclusively on probabilistic future modelling and simply hope everyone can follow her directions fast enough to slip between vision cones based on perfect knowledge of the next thirty seconds.
Strawberry Princess	The underground, according to Ishirou's scans, is mostly collapsed but safe- at least, from the Terminarch clones. They'd never fit into a metro or down a manhole cover, but he is detecting fairly alarming magical energies down there- residual effects from magical girls, most likely. Still better than taking their chances with the monsters.      There's no tunnels that would get them all the way to the Crater's interior, but there are some paths he can locate through a nearby metro station that would get them close- a lot closer, and a lot safer, than sneaking by the clones the hard way.      Analyzing their movement patterns is easy, but exploiting what he finds would be hard. There's no succinct way to describe it. They don't have a hivemind anymore, but they move in synchrony like flocks of birds or schools of fish, keeping a constant distance from the others to avoid covering the same ground.      If there's any consolation in that, it means that unless they're being actively drawn to something, the party's unlikely to be pincered between two of them at once.
Kale Hearthward	So far... so good? Slow progress, definitely, but it can't be helped. "- Contact." There - off in the distance... ... No, not even. That's not 'off in the distance'. That's off in the 'way too close'. He pushes the little button on his radio that'll forward what he's seen/seeing to Ishirou, as usual, and then drops to the ground. At this point, the benefit from being up high is *far* outweighed by the heightened risk of being seen. He's still plenty mobile, this close to the ground - he's dependent on Ishirou to let him know if he's about to cross paths with one of the spotlights, but otherwise he should be able to get some better on-the-ground data for planning the group's movements from cover to cover...
Trudy Grimm	The witch hums lightly; those who declined are best left to rest and she finds nothing strange about such reluctance. They would certainly be unhappy if she called them up. But reaching out has pulled up at least some interest. Trudy claps her hands together once, eyes closed with a genuine (if shark-toothed) smile on her face, "Delightful. You girls, please rest well. You've done so much, I won't force you to do more." One eye opens, "You, however... If you really do want to join my menagerie..."     Those hands unlace and she reaches up, touching a finger to her lips in the spirit's direction, "Please stay with me while I find the right place to take care of you."     When Lilian asks about sewers and Ishirou begins scanning them, Trudy's Soldiers move into action. The surface metro entrance he pings, currently blocked by rubble, becomes surrounded by troops. Rifles are shouldered and the gaunt figures start moving rubble aside. Before long, the crumbling stairwell is clear enough to traverse, and a handful of the grim troop venture down, rifles readied.     Probably best to lead with the unit that is technically expendable because they were already expended.
James Bond	"Careful, Lowell," Bond hoarsely whispers, emerging on the other side of the portal. A fluid roll carries him out of the illuminating cones cast by the clones' open palms. "Spotlights." It passes over the blown-out section of wall against which Bond is pressed. He waits until it's completely swept, before peering into the glass of Alec's watch.      The face flips over into a reflective surface, which Bond then uses to check corners and behind him, from the relative safety of cover. "Two around the perimeter." He can't do something that'd potentially be lethal--good as he is, Bond can generally guarantee kills on non-precogs only.      Watching the reflections on the watch's flipped surface, Bond searches for a pattern, and hustles to the next furthest bit of cover the moment he's got a clear path towards the nearest cover. He starts out rather conservatively. Bombed out office buildings, crumbling flats, burnt cars and low-standing remains of walls are all given equal preference.      But cover grows less plentiful, the closer to the crater one gets. It'll require more creative thinking to guarantee he stays out of sight cones. Lilian can handle sample recovery. Arthur and Trudy might have a distraction.      "If you're coming from below ground, I'll let you know when they're not looking. Then, do what you're going to do."      From spot to spot, Bond rotates, always keeping ahead of the lazy patrol, providing regular updates on their positions.
Cantio	With a path more or less opened through the frozen time shards, Cantio can breathe a little easier knowing that retreat is a far more practical option. She still controls her breathing, of course, since she's not about to let herself look like she's actually relieved by that when so much of the mission is still in the air. If nothing else, it means there's no hitch in her breathing when she sees the giant jellyfish-like creatures in the distance. With them loitering so close to their destination, meanwhile, Cantio has to double back just to find enough cover where the city hasn't already been pulverized to dust. While an alternative approach is sorted out and the movement patterns of the jellyfish are analyzed, Cantio does a quick once over of her drones to see which one might be the most suited towards decoy duty. Eventually, Cantio picks out two of the drones with the wider mouths, conveniently designed to indicate the better-than-standard speakers she's crammed into the things. Trudy sends her soldiers out to start clearing the rubble, and Cantio piggybacks off that to send her own drones out to the northeast and northwest. They avoid the most obvious search patterns initially, only stopping once they're a fair distance away from the metro and the location of the undead soldiers. Once the jellyfish are alerted... That's when Cantio's drones begin hollering. The one to the northeast remains in place as it yells with that telltale peaking tone at its loudest volume, and the one to the northwest keeps running further ahead. With any luck, that might help identify the jellyfish's patrol priorities without too much risk.
Seras Victoria	Bereft of much more direction in this hellish place, Seras decides to go with Trudy's knights and help them clear the path and start moving through the underground. As it turns out, this is a case where her prodigious strength is very helpful. She can easily hoist huge chunks of rubble and push them all over the place, then travels along with the group, her Harkonnen loaded but safety still on...
Strawberry Princess	Trudy's soldiers take little time to make the metro staircase traversable. They reveal something haunting, perhaps even moreso than the surface.      Liquid metal cascaded down the stairs years ago to freeze in wax-like drippings. Unlike on the surface, where nuclear fire reduced all remains to ash, there are shattered skeletons here; enormous claw-marks are etched in the walls where some copy of the Terminarch (perhaps even the original) shoved its arms inside to crush the people hiding within.      There are shattered, crystalline fragments of Terminarch-stuff on the floor too, where one of its limbs was destroyed. It's not hard to guess by what; the lingering sense of magic here is strong.      That, and the glowing brilliant shapes scattered around, are a solid clue.      These magical creations look like fragments of the sun (or searing plasma, for the less poetically-inclined) roiling and seething inside translucent forcefields that keep them stable and give them shape. A dozen of them, scattered around near the pieces of a Terminarch's shattered limb, take the form of swords, axes, spears, or clubs.      Further down the tunnel, space has been twisted and rearranged by a different magical girl to cover their retreat. It's as if there are invisible portals serving as the walls of a baffling maze; attempting to walk straight down the tunnel will put one back where they started as soon as they run into one.      It is possible for a large enough number of people to brute-force their way through it, given time, but clever solutions are possible as well.      Past that is one more obstacle, erected by the same plasma-working magical girl who forged those radiant weapons: a simple wall, made out of ever-hot plasma sandwiched between two forcefield panes. Breaking it is easy, but a moment's thought would indicate that doing so carelessly will release its fiery contents in a lethal explosion.
Ishirou	Ishirou relays the information he manages to get out and takes a side-eye at the creatures.  Those things were...absolutely disturbing and he hates how they move.  So...natural yet obviously /not/ natural.  It's that uncanny valley effect.   He dives off the side of the building and does a quick burst to meet people by the entrance of the metro he pinged and follows along with the rest as they arrive.  He does stay near the back, aiming to give advance notice of anything dangerous coming for them, but also trying to get a better feel for this place. His sensors attempt to peer ahead, though it'll take time for him to process solutions.
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: Exit the fence already!     Arthur's gate past the barricade works, at least! He's going to need lower hovers and inconspicuous gates though. Short range, direct-fire, and brief, maybe only two at a time. He cuts towards where Trudy's clearing the entrances, following James' advice on maneuvers. When he makes it, he stops abruptly. "Yo, your stop my dude. I gotta go sling that sun." Once James is clear, Arthur slaps down a Gate near the work zone and then takes off. >Arthur: Make that distraction. Keep it sustained so it lasts until the tunnel's end, and gives them a minute to get from the exit to the crater's edge!     He keeps low, hanging near the street and maneuvering mostly around the magic minefield as he charges up something heavy and magical. It takes the better part of several seconds before it's ready, and then another several seconds to maneuver up and briefly above the skyline. When he deposits the payload, he's gotta get away FAST.     A small sun, a dozen feet wide or more, is disgorged, fully formed. Spewing starlight bolts in all directions, the heavy shot simply drifts above the skyline, moving slowly towards and then over the crater -- dense enough for visibility and magical senses, but still fundamentally fluid enough to hopefully endure some of those purification beam shots. If you don't look too close, and are also *very* stupid, you could mistake it for an attacker.     Arthur breaks off and turns hard, heading straight back towards where the tunnel systems are being breached. If they can get through and *near* the crater edge, hopefully by then the monsters will have run after the shining hazardous magical beacon and given them an opening.
Kale Hearthward	Kale has string. "Take one," he says, passing out balls of nice thick, durable string, each a different color. He gets a set of tent stakes out and hammers the end of each string into the ground at the entrance of the maze, to keep them anchored. "There - and keep an eye on Ishirou's map. If you run into someone else's string where it shouldn't be, then either you or it is getting moved around."
Tamamo	Tamamo is not, as it happens, especially perturbed by the shape of the patrolling enemies. Their size, on the other hand, brings her to frown, recalling something about these beings presenting danger in proportion to their size, unlike many other creatures. <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "If there is a worry of one of the enemy absorbing a star, perhaps it can be made to travel up and away, such that they may find difficulty in chasing it. Are you able to redirect these stars, Mr. Lowell?" <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "If you require some assistance, I have ample reserves, and an affinity to the task."     Though he seems, for the most part, fine, Tamamo still seeks out Arthur to hand him a simple, sun-themed talisman. This is an easy one, given her nature. Adding that talisman to anything will give it 'more energy,' even to a person, but it's especially effective on powering up suns.     Being neither particularly speedy, nor at all stealthy, Tamamo heads toward the underground path, letting Trudy's soldiers lead the way. She looks carefully at the contained plasma-formed weapons, but ultimately leaves them where they are. She looks with greater care over the human remains, but she'd had her first, sharper reaction to death earlier in the day, and this time, she doesn't stop as long. If she can find a wand, perhaps, or a piece of jewelry, by way of memento... spirits tend to dwell more easily, in those. But she can't stop now, only to gather bones.     The invisible portal maze is something actually easier for her than the laser lace had been, and she calls a halt out toward the one-lens corporal, as they approach it. Carefully, she steps forward, and begins tracing, in her mind's eye, where the magic begins and ends. "Here, here, and there..." She doesn't have to understand all of it. So long as there's a way to avoid stepping into it at all, she only has to chart that out. Where there is no such option, she can toss one of her talismans through, and see where it ends up.     The plasma field is a more concerning obstacle. "Well, now. I could attempt the same as before, but the risk of explosion is somewhat greater, or rather, the risk that I would be unable to contain it." She'll take a minute to think about it.
Strawberry Princess	The spirit Trudy's called out to does, indeed, follow her. Without being given more substance, something so ethereal can't really be called a ghost, but- perhaps spurred on by her promise- it manages to do that much.      Kale and James Bond both derive the same conclusions pretty quickly: the two Terminarch clones circling the crater do so counterclockwise, remaining on opposite sides from one another unless drawn to something.      Since the group is approaching from the south, this means that the danger is least when the clones are at east and west, and greatest when they're at north and south. But even that isn't an enormous consolation- the searchlight beams' range and unpredictable sweeps mean that the window of opportunity is only relatively safe, not absolutely.      Cantio's two drones attempt to draw attention. Again, it's Kale and James who get the front-row seats: within two seconds of the first drone making noise, the nearest Terminarch raises a hand and fires a blindingly-bright beam of energy the diameter of a house at it without even turning, rattling the ground with its thunderous roar.      The drone evaporates nearly instantly, like a droplet of water that's fallen into a hot pan. But the Terminarch clone just keeps firing, and nearby clones also briefly halt in their patrols and focus their beams on the same point one by one. It is overkill a thousand times over.      The other clones finally cease firing, one by one, and resume their normal patrols. The first one to be alerted approaches the site of the destroyed speaker-drone, glimpses the sprinting drone in one of its spotlights, and fires again, obliterating that one in turn and causing an identical chorus of overkill intersecting beams.      Arthur's diverting sun elicits a similar response- the Terminarch clones are, in fact, very stupid, and don't hasten to take cover from it. Its nonsolid nature means it takes longer to destroy than Cantio's machines did, but something funny happens with the bolts it casts off- wherever they strike the clones, the jigsaw segments on their shells glow for a few seconds, and then fire the bolts right back in a delayed reflection to add to the weight of the assault.      Eventually, even a sun is destroyed. Following the origin of its magical signature, one of them fires a beam at where Arthur was when he released it, but he's long gone by now.      It's eerie, in a brainless kind of way, how smoothly they resume their normal patrolling patterns after something like that.
Strawberry Princess	Tamamo finds someone's necklace, and a different skeleton's dented wedding ring, but those are the effects of civilians. No magical girls died here; the pair responsible for these weapons and traps seem to have gotten away, escaping along the same route the party now follows. One can hope that they left this awful island before the bombs fell, had uneventful careers, and retired into happy lives. Statistics are against them, but one can hope.      Kale's brute-force approach would succeed eventually, but Tamamo has a cleaner solution before he can make it all the way through: her magical senses find the path swiftly, and his string marks the safe trail for all to follow.      That leaves only the plasma field. How troubling.
Seras Victoria	Skeletons. Skeletons everywhere. Seras flinches while walking past. This is all far, far too much...     But she stops near the strange plasma-weapons. The brilliance is off-putting for a creature of the dark like her, but Seras skitters closer to one of the plasma swords and hovers a hand out near it.     If it radiates heat and was used as some kind of flying weapon, she won't go any further. But if it seems safe to touch in those sealed forcefields, she'll very carefully poke one with a pinky to see if it's REALLY safe to touch..     And, if it is, she'll grab a club, reasoning that it'll be more manageable than weapons she has no real training with.     This tunnel is 2Spooky. Almost like something coul jump out at any moment...
Cantio	Cantio's drones get obliterated much faster than she had expected them to, and the overkill overlap has her sucking in a breath anxiously. It certainly helps illustrate how important staying out of those spotlights is. The reactions to Arthur's sun strikes, meanwhile, have her trying to make heads or tails of what she's seeing. Alas, the delayed reflection doesn't make quite that much sense to her just yet. She can still take advantage of the distraction to get into the tunnels, at least, and she ducks a bit further in her sprint to the metro when she feels those shots at where Arthur had been earlier. Once underground, Cantio catches her breath before getting a closer look at what's in the tunnel itself. She fidgets uncomfortably despite herself, staring right at those claw marks and the skeletons left behind. Fighting the urge to back away, she squats by those fragments of Terminarch-stuff and collects it into one of her drone's head-storage compartments, then gets up to check out the magic shapes scattered all over the place. "They fought hard here. It's..." She doesn't finish that sentence, having let her mouth run faster than her head in trying to come up with something vaguely reassuring. Cantio absentmindedly brushes a hand against one of those glowing weapons while Seras does her own tests on how much those things might burn her, then continues on down the tunnel until reaching the maze of portals. Kale offers string, and Cantio purses her lips briefly before taking it with an acknowledging nod. "Good thinking. Unless there's something actively cutting these apart as we go, it shouldn't take too long to figure out our way through this place." And so, Cantio takes advantage of that string as well as Tamamo's directions to keep moving forward, eventually reaching the plasma wall and taking note of the very real risk of just blowing everything up if it's handled carelessly. <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Now, as to this wall, I am not quite certain as to how it should be most safely removed." <J-IC-Scene> Cantio says, "I could... No, no, even getting some distance wouldn't be enough if it explodes. We need a clear path, not a buried one. Hmm." Time to start thinking.
Strawberry Princess	Ishirou's scan reveals no further magic obstacles past the plasma-barrier. The tunnel hits a cave-in dead end in a few hundred feet, but by that point it'll have put them just about on the Crater's cusp. All that'll be required then is to blast through twenty feet of earth, straight up, to make it to the surface again and-      ... Actually, that part will probably be hard to do stealthily. Unless the two Terminarch clones guarding the Crater are pulled away somehow, most methods of tunneling through that much dirt are liable to draw their attention.
Trudy Grimm	When called out by Tamamo, the Corporal stops immediately and raises one hand off his rifle. The other Soldiers simultaneously stop, raising their weapons and scanning their surroundings. While wary of the floating weaponry, they pay the items no mind when it becomes clear they aren't an immediate threat. The squad does have some experience with Tamamo due to prior missions, at least, and she likely recalls how responsive they are to threats. Led by the Corporal, the troops do follow Tamamo through her maze solution, fanning out when confronted with the plasma wall to investigate the surroundings while the Corporal himself stands beside the goddess.     Trudy trots along in the shadow of the party proper, accompanied by her unseen friend; strictly because she has rapidly decided that being a distraction in the way she'd planned is Not Going To Work; having seen the reaction those things had to building-sized chunks of London around Cantio's machines. Doing this underground-- sounds like a much better idea. Which leads Trudy to descending that molten staircase into the Underground in a bit of a hurry. At least this place has plenty of bones to work with; the Grimoire floats up and she snatches it, the buckle unfastening and the book flipping open as she crosses what's left of the boarding platform, "Alright, this'll have to do~."
Kale Hearthward	Kale follows Tamamo, string in hand. The plasma field is... ... Probably better off having someone else handle it. Kale would probably electrocute himself, or worse "This isn't really the best time for it, I know," he says to Tamamo. "But - for all the time we've spent together, it just occurred to me that I haven't really gotten to know you?"
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: Keep it together     No, fuck off. Arthur's gonna wobble and stumble and struggle his ass straight into skeleton hell. The man with the *worst* reaction to corpses is just gonna keep reacting that way. He swallows down stress, nausea, and anxiousness. He struggles, for a second, trying to keep ahold of himself.     It takes him a bit. He has to avert his eyes from the corpses. Corpses. Not bones, not skeletons. These are corpses. He has to avert his vision from the blackened, charred bodies. He follows Tamamo's safe path quickly. And right now, he has to charge up much, much longer than before. He'll have to try that technique *much* faster, and more precisely, as soon as the tunnel exit is going. If he can get to the end, and fire that blast, hopefully it'll freeze them up and create the openings Bond is looking for. >Arthur: Get to the end of the tunnel. Fire the distraction.     *Really* gonna need that sun talisman, though. He grips it tight.
Ishirou	The scans are complete, and thankfully with his update of the map and people's effort, they can get through the maze...but the way forward is blocked by both a laser grid AND the blockage ahead.  The laser field he's not sure about, because he only avoided them last time...but this is a wall. The path ahead is a different matter, and they need a solution the moment Bond tells them they're far enough away.  He takes a breath because he hears Arthur having a hard time.  He looks toward Arthur and tries to put on a smile. Thankfully Lilian has a solution.  Okay good, then he just needs to worry about getting to the crater.
Strawberry Princess	Examining the plasma barrier's surroundings isn't terribly fruitful- it's just a metro tunnel, and the barrier has expanded to perfectly seal against the tunnel's walls. It looks airtight. Conversely, one could assume, excavating the walls or floor around it could provide a gap to squeeze through, though it'd likely take some time.      Seras discovers that, indeed, the radiant plasma-weapons are completely safe to touch- as long as their contents remain contained. It might occur to her that, if she swings the club hard enough, it's liable to rupture in her opponent's direction, creating a powerful but risky fireball directly on top of them.      Which would imply that the spears are intended to explode inside their target. Ick. Judging by the crystalline fragments lying around, it must've been at least a little bit effective.
James Bond	<J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Is the Crater edge cleared? Because getting out of here is going to be loud." <J-IC-Scene> James Bond says, "They stop moving to fire." <J-IC-Scene> James Bond says, "There's no such thing as completely safe, with how many spotlights they've got. But..." <J-IC-Scene> James Bond says, "With something they'd really have to chew on to be rid of, we could stop them with relative blind spots between us and extract the sample." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "My burrowing form can really only dig me out..." <J-IC-Scene> Trudy Grimm says, "I'd really like to be more certain that the curses would be effective on them before I try one, given the reaction I'd have to contend with if they did not." <J-IC-Scene> James Bond says, "The sun worked quite well." <J-IC-Scene> Arthur Lowell says, "Yeah... They focused on the distraction *until* it was gone, then they went after me." <J-IC-Scene> Cantio says, "I can move through things, but it's slow and not really suited for getting anyone else through. Maybe... They did seem to slow down when the sun hit them with its things." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Let us know when they're drawn far enough away or this is going to be baaaad." <J-IC-Scene> James Bond says, "I will." <J-IC-Scene> Arthur Lowell says, "Ghhh. Might have a weird time making another of those, for-- ghhh."     Bond frowns, watching the patrol. He's gotten used to the pattern, now. Knows when to move, even if that doesn't guarantee he'll make it. There were a few close calls. Moments where the twitching of a hand almost gave him away, or where some meaningless gesture made him take a false start. It's tense, but it's doable. But they need that sun. <J-IC-Scene> James Bond says, "What's the hold up, Lowell?" <J-IC-Scene> Arthur Lowell says, "Lot of skeletons down here." <J-IC-Scene> James Bond says, "What?" <J-IC-Scene> Arthur Lowell takes a few weird, shaky breaths, and audibly swallows. <J-IC-Scene> Arthur Lowell says, "I'll get it together. Gonna need that sun talisman though."      Firmly Tamamo's area of expertise. Bond vaults the same blown-out window he's vaulted twice before. Lands in the same way, tucks and rolls. It's just as much about keeping vision on the clones as it is about staying out of theirs. Admittedly, getting into the place from below and quietly is going to be an issue. Or, it was, until Lilian speaks up. Good. "Rook," he says through the tacnet. "Let me know which end you're coming from, when you're ready and I'll give you the go-ahead once it's clear. Lowell. Once I give the go-ahead, you've got 20 seconds to get that sun out."      Bond waits, then, until Lilian gives the go ahead. Then, until the clones reach the eastern and western portions of the crater. "Move."
Cantio	Cantio continues wracking her brain for solutions as she keeps hearing about the difficulties being faced above ground, grimacing after a while as nothing hits her head just right. "This is a real tough one. If we can't blow it up, then maybe we could go through...? No. That's still exposing us to all the..." She grumbles and gestures at the plasma wall again. "And teleporting won't work if I can't get one past this to begin with. Then... Dammit. I'm supposed to be smarter than this." She lets out a frustrated noise while looking ready to throw her hands up, then pauses for a long while as she stares back at where she had come from earlier in the tunnel. "But if I'm not smart enough now, then..." Cantio starts murmuring to herself, waving her hands vaguely sa if psyching herself up before finally snapping her fingers and turning away from the wall. She looks around as if waiting for someone, then jerks back briefly when someone abruptly steps out of a conspicuous glowing hole in the wall. It's an older woman with hair slightly paler than Cantio's with white streaks in it. She's wearing a sterile-yet-old lab coat with a a proper dress shirt, slacks, and safety goggles, and she hands Cantio a boxy device* that looks suspiciously like one of Cantio's drones, but shinier and with an ominous white stone in the middle. "Push the button, shove it through the forcefield, and don't look directly at it." She warns, then steps back into the glowing wall hole. Before heading all the way through, however, she pauses to look around again, snorts once, then disappears while leaving Cantio looking rather dumbfounded. "I... Think we've got something now." Cantio announces, clearing her throat before approaching the plasma wall and pressing the box against the forcefield. She inhales sharply, presses the button, then holds her breath as she shoves that box right on in and backs away quickly while keeping her head turned away to only watch it from an angle instead. *It's a plasma neutralizer! It's definitely not the sort of thing Cantio's smart enough to come up with or design now, but she'll figure it out in another decade or three.
Lilian Rook	Lilian remains on the surface to coordinate the next step of the plan. The two prong operation of gauging the Terminarch's magical sensory range in the open whilst moving the large pack of Elites underground was hers, but even she winces at the sight of it. The way the clones don't so much as show the slightest interest in chasing a disturbance down to examine it, like a guard with a suspicious noise, but instantly, thoughtlessly, obliterate it from existence, firing at whatever makes sound-- literally and metaphorically.     "So in the end, what they do is very simple. They don't want anything. They don't think. They look, and then they kill. That's it." she mutters to herself. "Satsuki. Coordinates. Arina, synch visuala and time extraction with my go. We only have a short orbit to do this." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "I can get you out from underground quietly." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "I can get you out from underground quietly."     Once the group is past the plasma field, Satsuki holds up a hand to wave off Arina, crouches, and then disappears with a little backblast of air and scattered shadows. Arina says "Here. This is where we'll leave. Please wait for the signal." very pleasantly. She produces a little glowing something or other from her satchel and throws it out onto the metro floor, then paces around it twice decanting a thin trail around it in circle. On the surface, Satsuki emerges from the streaked shadows of a frozen sprue of once-molten iron from where fire once splashed over the edge of the crater, remaining carefully prone, unbreathing, power suppressed, in a concrete trench, pinging Lilian with a direct laser transmission; the Terminarch has shown no awareness of wireless transmissions.     Lilian, by herself, can handle getting to the group without any issue. She responds to Bond with "Topside. One hundred thirty seconds, synchronized." and then takes off fast on the ground, hustling through the ruins in a state of semi-trance, weaving in and out of building-husks and warped shadows as if following a walkthrough and narrowly avoiding the fringes of search beams with oblivious quasi-confidence. Getting dangerously near the crater, she watches the rotation of the horrifying behemoths, waits until one passes just over Satsuki's location in its orbit, and then decides it's been your turn for turn for twenty years, bastard. I'm taking mine.                 -----[stop]-----     Lilian sprints the rest of the way to the intersection point between the two groups, running right through the eerie ghost-glow of a spotlight while it doesn't count and still shivering in skin-prickling reflex anyways, feeling the invisible ping to her bravery score. She's been sure to save up her resources so far, and so she has ample time to waymark the destination; runes of dreams and the lunar eclipse, morning mists and long shadows, indicating a direct path where there is none, and by doing so, making it reality. She covers them over with concrete rubble and iron dust, marked in the shade of buildings and emanating only a trickle of magic straight down, away from sight.                 -----[start]-----     Satsuki blinks the clear through Bond. Arina silently gestures. A circular section of ceiling, directly corresponding to Arina's circle on the ground, now technically doesn't exist. It's an intangible falsehood, easily passed through by anyone who can go straight up. By coordinating with Bond, if they're fast, Lilian should have given everyone just enough time to leg it into the crater before the western clone orbits around to the exit point.
Strawberry Princess	The act of pushing the box in creates a little plume of plasma that almost singes Cantio's fingers, but a second later, its effect takes hold. The plasma rapidly cools, shifting from a brilliant fiery orange down to a dull dark smoke.      The forcefield- being purposefully fragile- cracks on its own from the sudden shift in pressure, falling to the ground in glasslike shards. From there, it's a simple walk to the end of the tunnel, where it's blocked by a cave-in underneath the crater's edge.      The thumping footsteps and soft crooning of the Terminarch clones patrolling above can be dimly heard, now. But when Lilian shapes the ceiling to be intangible, Bond has ensured that they're in the furthest possible point away in their patrols, and Arthur's planned diversion- when he throws it- can keep them there just long enough. They show no signs of detecting the subtle magic in play.
Tamamo	What Tamamo says over the ring and necklace aren't 'prayers,' exactly, but they serve a similar purpose. There are rites that bring peace to the deceased. There are, likewise, rites that encourage spirits to inhabit objects, that would otherwise contain only the faint imprints of memories and the premature beginnings of tsukumogami. She can take these and put them to rest some distance away.     "It is so," she says to Kale, "that we meet in terribly busy circumstances, that time in Kamar-taj excepted. But oh, have I done something surprising? I would be glad to answer, should you have questions for me. To speak of nothing is one manner in which people come to know of one another, but such is difficult when one's mind is full of 'something.' To speak of that which does take one's attention, or to which one's attention can be focused, remains an open course."     That said, things are still happening. At the plasma wall, she looks for a gap, but there is none. If only she could just reach 'something' over to the side. Then she could...     Someone else appears, and hands Cantio a device. Tamamo stares a moment, then looks back to Cantio, and again to the newcomer, and back to Cantio. She says nothing to either, though she does look away when the device is used.     Instead, she asks Arthur, "Are you quite alright? Ah, no, I suppose you could not be, though the poisons of this place be kept in abeyance." About to say something else, she instead leaves it off with, "Let us hurry, then."
Ishirou	Cantio does exactly as he suggested...except even more so.  She goes so far outside the box that her future self developed the solution and gave it to them.  Well, to her...and then the laser array was gone.  "Wow...that was really cool!" Ishirou says, very much awed by it. Of course, then they have no time to sit as the ceiling above the blocked tunnel becomes intangible, and Lilian accelerates their temporal speeds.  Once more, Ishirou flips and turns more into a jet than a humanoid power armor, blasts out of the underground, and then sticks low to the ground to move towards the crater's edge and their goal. He also throws every active sensor on that he can.  He needs to know where every one of those things is, what's around them, and any other dangerous things they didn't see.
Trudy Grimm	This will have to do, Trudy decides. With the Grimoire open, she skims through the physical remains and then enacts the rune of Eiwaz; Death. A circle of construction runes spreads out from a point in front of her, drawn in vibrant green, circles rotating in multiple directions. One by one, each layer locks in place and the center becomes a shadow-black void. Her head tilting, she calls to the ephemeral spirit, "Well, go on. Make your new body a good one~."     The Soldiers meanwhile step back and observe as Cantio works out a solution to the plasma wall problem. At least two turn towards Arthur when he joins them; al though Trudy's minions are typically not 'obviously' dead, concealed as they are in bulky clothing and masks as they are, the way they move is still a specific sort of jerky and unnatural.     When the barrier is brought down, the Corporal raises one hand, then thrusts it forward. The entire unit of undead troops move forward through the breach with weapons at the ready. So far they have not had to use those guns, but the danger rises with every step closer to the supposed core of this long-dead Terminarch.
Kale Hearthward	"Have you done something surprising? ... It feels like nearly every time I meet you, you have some new facet or trick?" says Kale. He watches Cantio warily. He's startled when Future Cantio(?)(???) shows up. He *almost* doesn't look away in time. "Right... um, let's make some time when we're *not* direly busy to talk," says Kale to Tamamo. "Not about anything in particular, just... nevermind. We'll talk." He gets moving. <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Come on. Move it move it." He gets moving moving. Kale kicks his jet boots on, tapping the heels together to activate them, and draws his sword, keeping it gripped at the ready as he moves. No more obstacles. Straight ahead to the center of the crater, now. As he jets forward, he brings his sword up to his beak, holding it as if it were a musical instrument of some sort, and breathes, sending just a bit of magic-laced breath into the turbine embedded in the hilt. The turbine spins. The sword unfolds - and spins, picking up speed. "Now let's break that fragment!" He calls over his shoulder, as he rockets towards the center...
Tamamo	After the wall is down, and as the moment Lilian specifies comes closer, Tamamo just has to wait for Arthur do his part before she can go up through the intangible, illusionary exit.     "Be unworried. This much you can do, and though it may not be 'easy,' it is a thing to which you are well-accustomed. And for all other parts, you may leave those to the rest of us. Ahaha," the tone of her laugh carries that specifically, precisely aimed directionality of being 'at herself,' "but do forgive me, if you needed no encouragment, Arthur. I may over-worry on some matters, myself, being the sort of woman who is prone to such foolishness." How much of that humility is politeness is an impossible puzzle, but she still makes it sound sincere.     Once it is that very moment at which they're to move, Tamamo simply jumps, nearly straight up, with impressive leg strength, and balance on the landing.
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: Are you quite alright?     The question from Tamamo causes a very specific response. Teeth clench. Cheeks tug hard. He forces a grin. "Better than the alternatives." He manages to says in a tone halfway emulating his usual bullshit. He has to swallow hard. He's sweating, a little, and pale. His magical energy wavers slightly, though he grips the talisman all the more and stabilizes it enough. >Arthur: Launch the distraction     As soon as it's possible. Things are intangible now... He starts his 'launch sequence'. "It's fine, Tamamo. Worry whatever way ya wanna." No 'Tammy' this time. He takes one deep breath, and mutters, "The problem is the bodies. The corpses back there. I won't... I don't get over that. On purpose. But this, it's the best I can hope for. Can't just let that run past me." He takes off, a rocket blast that curves the new sun at the distraction point and then gets him in a mad dash for the crater's center, with the others. He stumbles only a little bit.
Cantio	As the plasma turns to smoke and the forcefield shatters, Cantio finally gets a chance to see what her future self pulled off. A second later, she lets out another frustrated noise. "Darn it, I should've taken a closer..! Wait. No, no time." She sighs lightly, still looking troubled despite otherwise handling that issue. Between Ishirou sounding impressed and Kale commenting on her new tricks, though, Cantio finds her coming back again even as she nurses the singes on her fingers. Tamamo's lack of verbal reaction isn't noticed, luckily. "Really? Hehe... Thanks. You mentioned different angles, and I figured if I couldn't figure it out now, I'd just..." She takes a bit to come up with something smarter-sounding, then gives up and just admits it. "... Cheat a little now and figure it out later." At least now she knows she'll figure it out sooner or later. Judging from the look of that other person, probably very later. With the ceiling turning intangible and everyone getting that bump in speed through Lilian's time wizardry, meanwhile, Cantio doesn't waste another moment wallowing in the tunnel. She waits for the signal from Arthur before launching herself upwards as well to close the gap to the core fragment they've been inching towards this whole time.
Strawberry Princess	Trudy's ritual bears fruit. The spirit draws itself together, formless void condensing into something solid. Bones assemble themselves into a framework- the smaller ones are being used, Trudy may note.      But before its full form can be revealed, a costume unceremoniously snaps into existence around it- a red cloak hemmed with faux ermine, a blue tunic over nonfunctional chainmail, a scepter and an undersized crown. The rest of it remains shrouded in darkness, indistinct. It looks to be only twelve or thirteen, maybe.      The figure looks down at its hands, as if it can't believe it's solid again. Once the shock has worn off, and its shoulders have shaken with emotion: "Thank you. I didn't think I'd really..."      He speaks with a boy's voice, not a girl's. "My name's First Regent. I... I heard what you're doing. What you're going to do. I can't go down there with you, even though you've..." A little shudder. It sounds like a psychological 'can't'.      "I know it's a lot to ask. I don't know how long this is for. But do you... think you could tell my mom that I miss her? I didn't get to say that. I can give you her phone number, I think."
Strawberry Princess	Descending into the Crater- it is capitalized for a reason- is like entering a new circle of Hell, somehow impossibly bleaker and more alien than all the other environs the group has crossed thus far.      The Terminarch clones do not enter the Crater of their own volition. They barely bother sweeping their spotlights over it; partly for the bank of dense fog that has settled over it, partly, perhaps, on the assumption that nothing human would ever venture there. For a decade, they've been right.      Metal has sluiced downhill into its perimeter, giving it a gleaming rim. Astonishingly, the original Terminarch that lies at its center was not completely destroyed.      Its limbs are visible first, as the group approaches through the fog; humanlike hands, right down to the fingernails. Its clones were made of the same glossy-pomegranate pseudocrystal as Strawberry's duplicates, but the original is something else entirely. It looks to have skin, real human skin. The hands are all right hands, and they are all identical; they are, specifically, perfect xeroxes of one young girl's right hand in particular, at massive scale.      They are red inside where the shrapnel has gouged them, but they have not rotted, and they do not bleed.      Black sooty rain has pooled in the crater, forming a new, inky lake over which the fog hangs. The crater is shallow, so the gradation from walking to wading is slow. Here, one begins to glimpse the geometric angles of the main body; on the clones these are crystalline also, but on the original they are metal, dark gray but fine-grained like steel.      It feels otherworldly, and shiver-inducing, but there is no danger here. It is dead, well and truly. Through the fog, one can dimly glimpse a giant and guttering light forty feet off the ground, all the colors of the sunset. That must be its shattered core. Here it was, at last, dealt a mortal wound; so vast that the bomb merely made a crater in its side, rather than destroying it completely.      A voice calls out from the fog, before you can ascend to reach the core. It's a girl's voice. "Are you real? Are you real people."
Seras Victoria	Coordinating with the others after deciding to hang onto the club, Seras rushes ahead to take advantage of the opening secured for everyone and so down, down into the horrifying crater she goes, trudging through the muck and down the shallow incline. Though the gathered pool of rained-out gunk is GROSS, it's not running water. Still, she stops upon laying eyes upon the gleaming core and the inert, dead abomination that dwarfs it laying here in a tangle of arms. Far, far too many arms.     "I can only imagine what my Master would make of this mess... huh?"     Seras perks up, tilts her head this way and that. "After seeing all this, yes, but slightly regretting it." She answers back. As warm as her response is, it is of course, just a little hint sarcastic. "Is there really someone alive out here...? Or... are you a ghost?"
Tamamo	It is, initially, extremely concerning. First, for the massive corpse, with its massive hands, and its flesh that does not bleed. The certainty with which Tamamo can tell that it is well and truly dead assuages this. They are here for its core, which she takes to mean its heart, but that does not mean it beats.     It's startling all over again, then, to hear a voice. There should be no one here. Nothing at all alive. If there is, if this was simply an unknown, then it could not be a human. None could have survived, this long, if they were human. Had one done so, they would have sought to escape, their quarry having been defeated.     The question, then, returns. 'Is it dead?'     Which?     "I am Tamamo-no-mae. Though I do recall having died, I am quite alive, and quite real, at the moment." She'll save her full introduction. "Are you among the living, or among the dead? In either case, I shall grant you aid, if it is your wish."     She strains her eyes to see something other than fog, and her ears to hear. They're quite good ears, in expected proportion to their size. It would be somewhat easier if she didn't find it necessary to avoid stepping in the clearly tainted water.
Trudy Grimm	"Please keep in mind," Trudy states conversationally, "This is not a resurrection. You are not alive; I'm a necromancer. I have put your spirit back into a body and animated it." Flicking some fingers, "And maybe some customizing, that's easy enough." That same hand lifts up, resting underneath her chin, "As for how long it lasts; that's more or less up to you. There's a reason I ask first. I'm a 'good' Necromancer; I don't force the dead to do my bidding. You're here as long as you're willing to help me-- help us. And you're free to go when you want to." Her eyes close, "Although you are somewhat tied to me as a result. Again; not a resurrection."     "I understand not wanting to help us *here*, though," Trudy drops her hand to her side. The other closes her Grimoire with a thump, "This place has rather traumatized you and I won't force you to face it." The witch grins her shark-toothed grin, "First Regent, thank you for trusting me and answering my call. I'll tuck you into my void space with my other cute friends. You'll be safe there; I'll pull you out when we've left this cursed place. Then you can make that phone call yourself."     She gestures, drawing out Regent's shadow into an inky pool of void even as the runecircle fades, large enough for the magical boy to slip out of sight.     And with that handled, Trudy has some ground to make up, trotting down the tunnel, following Kale's string and the distant updates of her Soldiers. The ticket out is gonna be where everyone else is, after all, she doesn't want to be left behind. Not especially considering she feels like she's found someone very important.     Up at the front, as the Metro tunnel opens out into the Crater, Trudy's Soldiers promptly fan out as they descend the crater wall at a quick pace. Once it's clear the crater floor is flooded, though, they slow down so as to minimize noise; their guns held up and at the ready. The Corporal leads the formation at the very front. He raises his hand to stop his troops when Tamamo starts addressing the voice; it's possible he and the other soldiers might not have heard it through their heavy headgear.
Kale Hearthward	Kale rushes in, drillsword drawn. He stops short, for a moment, when a voice rings out. "..." For a moment, aside from the dull clamour of Periactus as it idles, and the faint roar of the jetboots as he hovers in place a few inches off of the ground, Kale is silent, looking around, and then returning his gaze forward. "... It's another trick. Some echo of the terminarch, some... defensive system, or bit of magic gone awry. It's trying to slow us down." He keeps moving, athough a bit more slowly and cautiously, Periactus held a bit more defensively, but still moving.
Ishirou	This horror show only gets worse, because it is also /almost/ familiar.  The suit flips around at the center of the crater and returns to humanoid mode as Ishirou hovers above the ground.  His eyes look at the dead monster left behind, what makes it worse is that it's all...hands...all right hands.  All right hands of a little girl.  That hasn't decayed even though it's been dead a long time.  It makes his stomach turn, but he turns towards the core. That was what they were here for, right?  Though before he can act on that, he hears the voice.  It's from the fog around them, and it asks them something only a human could.  Is it one of the dead...?  He pauses and lets Tamamo start to interact with it.   Instead, he tries to pierce the fog and look for the source of the voice, trying to figure out where it is coming from, and if it is human.  He also turns the sensors towards the monster with his hands, just in case it's not as dead as they are lead to believe.  Why is someone here.../here/ of all places?  What is going on? It makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: Regard a hand     Arthur looks at one of the mess of large hands. He ponders it, in what limited way he can in this state of disorientation. Again, something nags at his mind. Again, something pokes and prods and bites at the assumptions he's made. What *is* this, exactly? His face twists up a little.     "Why does this make me..." He starts, wincing midway through. "Why does this feel like ectobiology?" >Arthur: Are you real people.     Arthur's eyes go wide when he hears an unfamiliar human-like voice. He whips around, trying to identify the source. He hears Kale's assessment. "Probably." And despite that, he heads straight for the voice. "I'm gonna spring the trap. Hey! Is there a survivor? I'm real, I've got a way out!"
Cantio	The lack of further lasers heading anywhere near the group has Cantio finally relaxing for the first time in what feels like forever. It's only a small bit of relaxation before she touches back down in the Crater, but it's still something considering what everyone's just been through and likely to go through next. The sight of what's left of the original Terminarch has Cantio tensing up again, naturally. The human yet not human appearance of the whole thing from its unbleeding skin and flesh to its too many hands gets that visceral gut-churning reaction going, and the shift in the ground beneath her feet isn't even noticed in the meantime. Her attention is grabbed by the voice from the fog, and Cantio has only seconds to weigh her options before Seras and Tamamo address the voice. That confirms to Cantio that she wasn't just hearing things, and that there really is someone or something speaking to them. She just doesn't know who or what the source of the voice is yet, and that's enough to get her to hold back on replying. She even holds back on replying to Kale, although he does get a nod in agreement as she continues to advance with far more caution than before. Her sword is still held at her side, and she keeps her eyes moving to try and give herself just that much more time to see if anything's coming for the group.
Lilian Rook	Lilian hovers around the perimeter of the miniature bridge of shadows she'd made, watching each individual Elite come up, but she doesn't breathe a sigh of relief until Tamamo is through. Briefly, she considers closing it up again, then says "Mark this spot on your tactical maps. This will be our immediate fallback if gating out turns out to be untenable."     Arina comes up from the tunnel shivering slightly. Satsuki puts her hands square on her shoulders and keeps talking to her while Lilian is busy, until she stops. "Do we tell--" "No. Not now. She doesn't have to-- Later, once lives aren't at stake. You heard what Strawberry Princess was like already." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook|Arina says, "Ahh . . . this is so nerve-wracking. I'm better trained for search and rescue, not secret agent things." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "All the more reason to get used to them?" <J-IC-Scene> James Bond says, "You're doing well." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook|Satsuki says, "How many mahou were involved in this campaign? To think that they still barely prevented anything from happening . . ." <J-IC-Scene> Trudy Grimm says, "Too many for me to count in the time I had. Only one decided to end her rest early. The others...I think it's a well-deserved rest." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook|Arina says, "S-sorry mister Ishirou. I know our unit is to be used 'at discretion' as part of the Paladins auxiliaries, but I really hope to do more helping people, and less of 'this', in the future." <J-IC-Scene> Arthur Lowell makes a weird clenched-chest sort of noise. <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook|Satsuki says, "Sorry, Lowell. It's just . . . It's rare to see where the heroes *lost*, isn't it? It feels like it's important to . . . absorb it. While I can." <J-IC-Scene> Trudy Grimm says, "It is important to see this kind of thing." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook|Satsuki says, "This is the kind of world you and the Commander live in, isn't it? But we just joined this year." <J-IC-Scene> Trudy Grimm says, "Although I don't think they 'lost', so to speak..." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "They lost. Otherwise, the nukes wouldn't have dropped." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "It's-- This isn't something you put on children. No matter how grown up they are."     "Lowell, get a fix on it, in case we can't gate all the way out at once. It's not as if leaving the door open behind us will help the enemy at all. Grimm, if you can scatter your cohort out to skirmishing distance, that'd be helpful; the only thing we can really do to slow down an unforeseen attack is to give the bastards more targets to chew through first. Hearthward--"     "Oh that incorrigible showoff idiot! Let's pray his weapon isn't enough of a signature to draw them into the crater. Visual cover, now! Into the fog, double time!" Double time, apparently, includes Lilian guaranteeing Tamamo's proximity and safety, as the non-flier she considers the most valuable by far, by simply taking her with her in a modified version of her usual carry, back braced under one arm so she can have the hand free for her wand, like a soldier carry would free up a weapon. She's fine with wading thigh deep into inky, polluted water with her combat skin on, as are the power suited pair following her (actually, Satsuki just kind of performatively walks on the top).
Lilian Rook	So it's a lot to say that she nearly drops Tamamo anyways when she hears that voice. Lilian's fingernails dig in enough to cause discomfort even through clothes. Her shoulders tense and square up as if she'd just felt the Terminarch's spotlight on her back. Her mind races, all the way back to those parting words she'd shared with Director Velt the other night. The fact that she has to play the rock to the junior Paladins might all that keeps her in place.     "That depends on who you ask." Lilian replies without missing a beat, cool and effortlessly unconcerned. "We're alive, it's 2022, and here at Velt's request, if that answers your question. Retrieving the Terminarch's core is about to save a lot of lives, and prevent these sacrifices from ever playing out again. Is that good enough for you?"     §Please no. No no no no. Don't be her. Not her. Anything but that. Please, let it be anything else. I'll fight the Terminarch. I'll fight ten of them. Just don't be what I hope this isn't. I know you've always hated me God, but this is going too far.§     She motions for the others to keep going. Satsuki nods and disappears in a burst of wind again, parkouring the Endling's corpse in only spare frames of visibility, racing up to secure the core. Arina follows behind her at a distant ghostly glide, the more reluctant by far. "If you have any last words or wishes, now is the perfect time to get them out." Lilian forces her feet to move through the slop, one step at a time, trying to focus on her gait and nothing else. "Otherwise, please just let us-- let me do this for Strawberry."
Tamamo	Tamamo is saved from tainted muck by a one-armed bridal carry, an advanced technique only available to the strongest knights, though it does require she tuck her legs in, and gather her long sleeves up in front of her.     She winces at the grip that follows the voice calling out, and shifts her own, stabilizing hold, one arm drawn around Lilian's shoulders. <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "No, there were the... frozen moments in time." <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "It is not impossible, for something to be 'still here.' However..." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook audibly trying not to choke, "Please Tamamo. Don't say that. Don't speak it into existence." <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "One frozen would not react to our presence. What we have found here, I do not know." <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Do you, Lilian?" <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "If God ever had any mercy for me in store, no, I don't." <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "That deity you may have, perhaps, cursed too many times to ask favors, but I shall do as I can, instead." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "He's cursed me enough that he owes me."     "Well, it could not be all so bad," she whispers, very softly, "or else, I would not have stayed."
James Bond	Bond isn't needed for sample retrieval--but presumably, they're going to leave this place by gate, When the distraction is made, Bond takes advantage. Dress shoes never seem to disturb the rubble strewn about the area, nor do his movements belie how quickly he's actually moving.      When he crests the lip of the crater, he makes it down gracefully, as little sliding as possible to keep it quiet. He disappears beneath the curtain of fog, just in time to hear Tamamo's assessment.      "What do you mean you don't know?" He stands, frozen, then, when he realizes the trap Arthur meant.      He thinks, to himself, before he can stop himself--that he could clear the distance between them easily enough. His finger brush dangerously close to the combat knife sheathed at his thigh.      But what good would that do? If it is a trap, it's one that's already gone off.      "Well, what about it? Are you alive?" He doesn't see how. Radiation, food scarcity, the ever-present clones. Unless... Unless there's magic at play. A special ability. But it'd have to be a pretty spectacular one, wouldn't it?
Strawberry Princess	"No. I'm not a 'survivor'." The girl's voice buzzes slightly, as if it were being made by something vibrating rather than a proper throat. She laughs darkly; a little too darkly for her seeming age.      "I thought this must be Hell. After everything, to find myself back here... it couldn't be real, right? But if you haven't died, then I must be alive too."      Another despairing laugh bubbles over. "That's bad. That's really, really bad."      Tamamo's ears pinpoint the voice's location, but Kale runs into its source first. On a flat rock that stands above the water's surface, right next to the Terminarch, there's a little tent. Past the tent's open flap, one can see a pillow, a stuffed animal, a little collection of books, a hand-cranked flashlight.      Next to the tent, looking to have just emerged, is a fifteen-year-old girl. Or, rather, the eidolon of one; facial features smoothed over, skin and clothes all the same undifferentiated crystal-glossy blue. She wears a pretty costume and a little tiara. In her hands is a slickly dangerous wand, made of the same stuff as the rest of her. It implicitly menaces anyone who tries to advance further.      A subtle, invisible pulse of magic washes over everyone present. "You mean you're here to make Strawberry less special," she says to Lilian, her voice defeatedly dull yet caustic at the same time. "I know what this is about." How could she possibly know that?      "But that's not the important part. You know who I am, don't you? And you'll tell Strawberry. And she'll come look for me." Her voice trembles subtly, though she tries to sound aggressive to distract from it.      "I don't know why I got a second shot, when nobody else did. Our Terminarch sure doesn't owe me any favors. But I deserve it the least of anybody. 'Blueberry Princess' is someone who should exist only as a memory."      "I'm awful. The worst. And everyone knew it. Everyone but her. There's one person in the whole world I tricked into thinking I was good. One person who can remember me and think good things." She sounds on the edge of crying now. Her wand lifts to point, not at the party, but at the Terminarch's core above- a hostage threat against the mission objective.      "You know, when I thought I was dead, it was such a relief? Because then I knew I'd never have another chance to ruin it. Strawberry would love me forever. And here you are. To make me ruin it again."
Lilian Rook	§What did I do to deserve this? I've been good, haven't I? I've tried so hard. Is this because things were finally going well? Is this karma? The pendulum swinging the other way? Is my balance just meant to be negative, and it has to equalize whenever it gets close to positive? I hate this. I hate this so much. I should never have come here. I knew there'd be a risk, but not of this. It's not fair. Why did this have to happen to me? To her?§     Lilian draws in a deep, steady breath. It rattles a little on the way in. "Arina. Satsuki. Pull back." A pause. "Commander?" "What about the core." Lilian's voice jumps sharply. "I said pull back! Secure our exit!" The two already halfway to the core hesitate, then comply immediately, soon disappearing into the fog, only present as tactical positioning blips.     Lilian wades up to the point she can put Tamam down on dry, grainy gunmetal land. The faint wash of magic prickling on the back of her neck makes her bristle up like a cat. It's nothing at all like what happened in that pyramid, but it's exactly the same. She knows it. The held breath comes out all at once between her gritted canines. Lilian grips her wrist, trying to find something that isn't there, and is forced to turn around and look. To acknowledge the reality in front of her.     "Special? Strawberry doesn't want to be alone. I know you look up to her, but between you and I, Blueberry, we both know where being 'special' gets you." Lilian forces her own shoulders down, her fingers to relax, through sheer power of will. "It's been a long time, Blueberry. And for most of it, she didn't even get to be Strawberry. You don't know how it's been. You've never even seen her new costume, and . . ." Deep breath. In. Out. Every muscle clenched at once, held thirty seconds. Release. Slow heartbeats. Eyes open.     "Nobody should go through that, Blueberry. I've seen what happens to the other girls when they go a little further than you went. I know what that's like. Maybe you don't care about any of them, but Strawberry does. Don't . . . don't make it sounds like we're here to hurt her. Be as petty as you want, but you know I only want to make her happy, don't you?"     "We don't know each other. We've never spoken before. But I know you know. And you know I know. The way she talks about you. The way she talks about me. A girl so dumb and helplessly sweet that she could really think of either of us that way. Neither of us could ever bring ourselves to break her heart, could we?"     "But it's not like we've never met, is it?" Lilian looks up, slowly starting to march forward, despite the leveled threat. She isn't afraid of Blueberry pulling the trigger. "Whether or not I tell her . . . Well, it's not as if I was resolved to. I've been wondering, all this time. Why you lied to her on Samhain. Strawberry didn't get it wrong. That was you there, wasn't it?"
Lilian Rook	Lilian's feet find one of the Terminarch's lifeless arms. Sickly black water drips and pools in her wake. Liquid filth sliding off of her, tainting her path, in all too appropriate allegory.     "Maybe I'm the last person who should be judging, but maybe I'm also the first, Blueberry. She's doing her very best to move on, little by little, but I know a part of her is still in London. I can't forgive someone who would hold that girl's heart hostage for such a selfish reason as that. Do you really believe all of that? Is causing her pain the really only thing you can foresee? I'll accept it, if you really mean it. I'll lie on your behalf. But I won't lie to her unless you really believe it."     "From one girl to another, who didn't deserve a second chance, if you expect me to believe you, you have to believe me too: we get them for a reason. If the center of gravity is anywhere between you two, she has just as much power to fix you as you have to ruin her." A beat. "No, she's not a little girl anymore. I think she definitely has more gravity than you."
James Bond	"Put the--" What is that going to solve? Here, in the ruins of London? Against an eidolon. Bond stops himself, and stops himself again when he reaches for the cigarettes in the pocket of his polo.     Blueberry's story slowly saps all of the unspoken threat from him. He takes a seat on a bit of wreckage that pokes above the polluted water, glancing over at her as she holds her wand high. This is going to be hard. But it has to be done. "I don't know that there's a reason for any of this. Maybe R--..." This isn't the time for that.      "Maybe Lilian is right. But I do know how it feels when you're poison, and people put up with you because you're useful. If you're lucky, you find somebody that doesn't catch on."     He doesn't know if eidolons see in the way that people do. He didn't even know they talked, before now. "That must be what it is, right?" He asks, maintaining eye contact. His cold eyes soften into something human. Fatigue. "Because if they really knew what you were, they'd abandon you, like they should have from the start. Keep you at arm's length. Talk around you, not to you. Withdraw--like everybody else."     He smiles tiredly. "That's what makes Strawberry special. Isn't it? So much that you'd break your back trying to keep her from finding out how things really are. What you're really like. Just for a chance to be near somebody who thinks that you're good. Just to feel what that's like. While it lasts."     "And now, here you are, in Hell, being given a second chance. I know what that feels like, too," he says. His eyes, in that moment, look haunted. Shaken. "Terrifying. Like any moment, the floor might drop out from under you. Like you're some... small squirming thing, being stared at through a microscope. And maybe even like you're being punished," he intones, staring for a moment into the middle distance.     He'd love to be anywhere else but here. To open up like this, to bare himself so completely, so soon after being at his lowest... it has to be done. He steels himself for the final stretch. "For what it's worth, you're wrong. She isn't special because you fooled her. Or because she didn't know what you're like. She probably knows, maybe even better than you, and she loves you anyway. And that's terrifying, too. But it's also special. And there's nothing in the world that can make it less special."
Tamamo	Tamamo is set down. She stands where she is, hands together in front of her, again hidden by her seleeves. Bells make slight sounds as her head tilts, taking with it her golden hairpiece, a layered flower surrounded by butterflies.     'You know who I am, don't you?'     "I do not," she answers. She knows a name, and a magical power, but that isn't the same as knowing someone.     ...then I must be alive too.     That's bad. That's really, really bad.     'Blueberry Princess' is someone who should exist only as a memory.     You know, when I thought I was dead...     ...Strawberry would love me forever.     "Ah, I see. You are one who longs to join the host of heroes. Those who have died for righteous causes ever earn the right to be exalted, without consideration of their faults, protected by the shadow of their deeds. It is an enticement more ancient than you know, and a powerful one, that calls the young to war." Even through the fog, Tamamo's golden eyes shine.     "You wish for death. The solution, then, is simple, no?"     They hadn't found a survivor.
Ishirou	The pieces of how she was here are set into place, but HOW she is here... That isn't entirely clear?  Maybe it was the monster?  Maybe it was the source of their power?  Maybe it was somehow the Americans again?  Blueberry being here, and only having heard of her in passing and not knowing much about her, to hear she is...well to hear it from Lilian.  No, it makes more sense now, why Strawberry is attached to her.  Well, not as it was before... Though she immediately talks bad about herself.  That same feeling he got to see in Lilian being reflected here.  Except that Lilian wasn't fifteen.  Is she still the same age..?  How is she the same age?   So many questions, but right now Ishirou knows that asking his questions to fulfill his endless curiosity isn't something he should do.  He speaks to Lilian over the radio, which seems to (at least in his eyes) pull her out of the well she was about to fall in.  To Blueberry, he can't think of anything to say right away.  How do you...?   "I felt pretty awful about myself too, but she was always the one telling me I was real.  A person, even when I refused to believe it myself.  We're not all perfect, ya know?  But...I think I do like that about her, is that she inspires me to be better, and inspires that in others too.  Even if her eating habits are...questionable." Lilian orders her students back...so does that mean the core recovery is left to them?  Or perhaps she is who they need to save.  Well, Lilian had the right idea, and the ability to fight her properly, so all he needs to do is catch up to that, and support her.
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: Get into it     Who is she? What's her deal? Arthur's mind races. He tries to grapple with it. The Terminarch had three powers. The eidolons, the time, and the armor. Is she the armor one? No... the time one? Shit. Shit, she *is*, isn't she, she's got no armor on and she's-- well. She's like this. She doesn't ask questions, she makes statements. Because... she already asked them. Didn't she? That's why she knows about the purpose of the mission.     A Time-aspect with an ability like this is very nearly his perfect counter. It's going to be some of the most brutal it's ever been. So before she gets her hooks in, he makes one single and simple decision: He will become her friend, and get her out of here. He decides this absolutely and firmly, and decides that no matter what Time-Travel Passwords or future-secrets she hits him with, he's going to do it.     "Hey." Arthur crosses his arms. "What's up. I'm one of Strawbs' pals, yeah. I've endured the guilt-kindness big-sister act, I've endured the *fucked up cry-brink shit*, I've endured the **princesswich**. And what a coincidence, I'm also a huge fuckin' asshole." He takes a step forward and jabs a finger forward accusingly. "Check it. Solidarity. Camaraderie. That means you, and me, we're gonna be *best pals*. And *best pals* get their *buddy* out of danger and problems, and *after that* you can ghost your gal, fine. I'll get ya set up somewhere nice where you can have jerk digs like me. Just two real shitheads, going on the real shithead escape quest. Did you know that she keeps doing the *big sister* act at me? God, she sure knows how to pick the *most awful people* to care about."     His teeth grit wide, in a shitty grin. "People like the guy who's gonna yank her old pal off of beast island, tell her he found bones, and then deal with her cry-brink, if you really want that. But you and me are *bee-eff-effs* now, and that means nobody getting left behind. Pack it up, blues sister, today you're moving out courtesy of Arthur Lowell's Asshole Moving Services."
Trudy Grimm	As requested by Lilian, the soldiers that Trudy deployed spread out more; they already had fanned out, but now opt to put more space between themselves, likely in consideration of the House-Sized Laser that the witch had observed earlier. They don't seem particularly concerned about this nasty water, being what they are, but their movements are still slow to minimize splashing and making a ruckus.     This doesn't stop the Corporal from raising his rifle when the Eidolon first reveals herself, followed by all the other soldiers in his contingent. The HMG-carrier hefts his weapon up and slots the belt into place, then clicks it shut. There's the telltale hiss-click-fshhh when the flamethrower trooper's pre-igniter clicks on, producing a tiny flame at the mouth of his weapon.     This readiness relaxes only somewhat when Lilian approaches the blue crystalline figure, barrels lowering but still readied.     It's about this time that Trudy emerges in the Crater proper, descending as quickly as she can safely descend, although pausing at the edge of the water that has flooded the center. Furry boots and this-- aren't a good mix. Her shadow darkens, distends, and vomits out bones into a lattice-- forming a little ivory-white bridge that she crosses in her approach while staying dry.
Seras Victoria	Seras is in the deep end of out of her element. Magical girls? Apocalyptic threads to London? Events that have clearly touched the hearts of everyone here but she hasn't heard anything about it at all and can only piece together things by listening to what's already being said?     She opens her mouth to speak and her voice cracks. A few moments of quiet follow. But then she ends up staring at Blueberry's strange, ghostly form.     "I don't know who you are, and it's not quite the same, but I've been somewhere close to that. I know what it's like to feel inadequate, that no matter what you do it's not enough to be pulling your weight. That, even if people look at you and smile, it's not because you're good at what you do, and more because people look at you like you're a clumsy but cute little kitten."     "And that was after years of people trying to point me at other lines of work. There was always this wonder. Maybe they're right. Maybe I shouldn't take up my father's career. They said I wasn't suited for it... for any number of reasons. But it was the only thing I wanted and I could tell, the well-wishing they gave me was exasperated. They didn't have any faith in me, and I still don't know if they really did know better than me."     She lowers her head now, adding in a lower tone, "What I DO know is that, as frustrated as I am that nobody believes in me or has anything sincerely great to say, I know those people... most of them... even the grouchy ones have good sides. Even monsters can have hearts. I've been surrounded by so many people that have some core of good in them that I cannot bloody believe that only ONE PERSON in your life cared about you being around. Do you really think that most of the people you've known REALLY thought you weere so terribly awful? Because I'm unwilling to believe people are THAT terrible."     Her shoulders sag in the next few moments. "But it's really hard to tell what others are thinking. So, if you were so convinced that you're awful and worthless to begin with, it's too easy to project that on anyone you meet. To think that, 'I really am awful, and it must be so obvious to everyone else.' Miss Blueberry Princess, you're being WAY too hard on yourself."     She raises her head with eyes full of a bit of hope. "And, in case it wasn't obvious, this place is abysmal. Why don't we get out of this Hell together and talk about the mess somewhere nicer?"