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Lilian Rook	All assembled should at least know that there is something wrong with Lilian. Not in the sense of what had happened last year; a coming to head of everything that already was. It could be said that this is merely the last aftershock of that disastrous conflict, resolved in every other way, but responsible for that final push into London that unearthed that which shouldn't have been.     But in every tangible way; in Tamamo's examination of fate, Arthur's consultation with deep time, Xion's brush with the other side, Persephone's read of narrative, and even by the local girls themselves, in Lilian's own instincts and Sakura's cryptic knowledge, it seems only like an inevitability, pinned fast into destiny, that had been accelerated by the Nobody's need to know.     For very few in the know, there is one available option Lilian has considered to try and do something about this, but at best, it seems to her like flipping coins with fate, until even she is reluctant to try. Tamamo has worked herself to the bone since then to author her own alternative, and Lilian is willing to give it any shot. However, for this step, Lilian herself cannot be there. For very good reason.     This requires venturing all the way out into the uninhabited backwood islets out in the far wilderness off the coast of what might properly be called Scotland in vain. It requires journeying far from any Warpgate, benefited only by the small mercy that so few people ever lived anywhere near here that half of the territory is largely unchanged from the turn of the century, and seldom accompanied by meaningful Antegent threat. It means finding a completely different gate into the Otherside than the one used by Tamamo and Xion in days past, piercing the veil into the deep world on the other side of reality from the British Isles, and entering what was once called 'The Land of Shadows'. And Lilian cannot --or properly, should not-- go back there. Not after breaching contract before.
Lilian Rook	The journey has to begin at the start, following in the footsteps of an ancient Gaelic hero. It starts on the edge of a vast plain that certainly didn't exist prior to crossing the threshold, stretching far away into where the sea of Earth had once been. The smell of salt and the sound of waves is replaced with wet earth and the rustle of dense vegetation, but somehow faded, muted, to the point of being experienced as 'a memory of' in the moment. Colours are muted. The air heavy and hushed. A bleach white sun burns in a cloudless silver sky.     The steelbrushed air faintly glitters as if a million motes of dust refused to touch the ground, their miniscule light and shadow almost like film grain. For miles and miles ahead, there is only wet, thick, skull white clay, stalks of grass like gently rattling iron blades, and the odd splotch of ancient blood or bleached bone lost between them. The air ripples as if overheated, though in truth it is unpleasantly lukewarm-cold.     Though Lilian cannot be here by contract, she has chosen to replace herself, at Tamamo's problem-solving discretion. The bunrei has a significant connection to call upon, from her efforts in Japan, and has chosen to use it. The way her, unmarked on any map and unrecorded in any text, has been found with ample help of Sakura, that ever-so-helpful, precariously tiny girl who lives on the mountain, surrounded by armed 'friends', and who had known all about London and its dire secret. Even having removed most of the ostentatious ornaments and dressings of station she is always seen with in her little sanctum, she looks woefully out of place actually out in the field, yet couldn't look any more excited.     She has, after all, pleasantly informed Tamamo and all listeners that nobody knows she is here yet, that she had Lilian spirit her out under sacred pinkie swear, and that there will probably be hell to pay if anyone ever figures it out. She had insisted on being here in person, though. Even if she could use her startling clairvoyance to see everything going on, it'd be useless if she couldn't communicate with people in a different part of reality.     "I assure you, this is certainly it." she declares, softly and proudly. "The place that was once called the 'Plains of Ill-Fortune'. I think I can see why!" A nervous laugh follows. "But, umm . . . apologies, but I haven't been able to see anyone ever go here, so I don't know what's so misfortunate about it. Please be careful!"
Ishirou	Ishirou is here because he wants to help his friend, who is...well there is something happening and it's...well he's not sure.  It's caused strain, it's caused problems.  If it's related to this place, then he feels slightly responsible for suggesting she go through with this.   Ishirou knows the exact moment they cross over, having senses in tune with things related to all sorts of phenomena.  Once over the shivers, a chill going down his spine.  The sun is a bright white, the ground being bone-colored, and barely anything living here.   Ishirou however, takes a breath.  He tries to center himself and then returns to a smile as he looks ahead.  His scanners go out to a wider range to get a feel for the land around them.  The initial scan is looking out for any dangers, weird land features besides the ones they're looking for, or anything out of the ordinary.   He also scans for a direction to go.  Though forward may just be that direction.  "Yeah, we're definitely on the other side," he pauses, "I mean..." he looks at the ground.  "Might be because there is no color here?  That's pretty ill-fortuned?"
Kale Hearthward	Kale is not the most observant person. Something being wrong with Lilian - that much was clear, but *what* and where in the progression it was, and with most people seeming to not want to talk about it, and- ... It was easier to pretend that what he did figure out wasn't there, really. He thinks. Something being really wrong with Lilian, that she herself can't fix, is... ... A complicated thought. Easier to just put ones head down and let other people figure it out, till a concrete plan of action is formed. Crossing over is unsettling. Kale has his own set of finely tuned senses, but unlike Ishirou's, they're entirely within the realm of the mundane - so all he knows is that the sights and sounds are different, without any intrinsic feedback as to *why* they are. "If I was to take off and scout, would I even see anything..." he says, peering off into the distance. "Air here's not great quality, either..." He takes off - not going too far, just a few feet up, and does a visual scan to complement Ishirou's scanning scans. He doesn't go further or higher, though, not yet knowing what's out there that he might end up attracting.
Cantio	Cantio isn't someone Lilian might consider a typical friend, and vice versa. Occasional collaborators, certainly, possibly even rivals, but to call them friends would be too much of a stretch. There's a level of begrudging respect, at least, and that's enough for Cantio to want to see just what's been going on with Lilian once again. Plus, she's on decent enough speaking terms with Tamamo. Probably. Heading to designated location outside of Scotland, Cantio's dressed in her adventurer-ish best with a thick purple shawl on to give her a little more warmth against the sorta cold sorta-not weather. Sakura is an unfamiliar face, and Cantio greets her with a polite dip at the waist before keeping her eyes peeled on the area around the group again. Even without visible Antegent around, there's still enough of that looming background danger that she's not quite willing to drop her guard yet in the uncomfortable atmosphere of what she can only assume is that other side. "It doesn't feel 'good' to be here, so that's one for the... Um. Ill-fortune column?" She furrows her brow, then shakes her head. That one sucked even by her standards.  She joins Ishirou's scouting efforts by sending out a drone of her own, keeping it hovering mere inches off the ground as it plays decoy in the the immediate area right ahead of where the group comes out of.
Tamamo	Should Tamamo have explained more about what they're doing here? Possibly. Is she going to? Not so much, probably. Just knowing the depth of concern that had started her on this question, the place to which they were going, and the one for whom she's doing all of this was still enough to get this much support, to which she is grateful. "Thank you for coming, though I would be remiss in not speaking to the caution we must show, considering our destination. It is a land much hidden from my own view, as well."     A place untouched by the Sun, it's all the better that they have Sakura to help them. Tamamo stays near to her, one very properly dressed Japanese (fox) lady to another, stopping just short of fussing, yet still giving the distinct impression of doting by proximity alone. Maybe that's just the interaction of their respective mature and innocent auras at work.     "To proceed carefully is all we might do," she says, though in fact, she's repeating her usual readings, attempting to divine some sense of pathways and significant connections, now that she knows they must be closer. "I know that we seek a wheel, but knowledge of this land's gods does not weigh heavily within those most distant memories, of that prior age, that I retain. I must apologize, that I shall be so unhelpful in that respect, as one far from home."
Trudy Grimm	For as lowly as she insists herself to be, Trudy has made no secret of her respect for Lilian. If nothing else, the knight has worked hard to be where she is. And the young necromancer always enjoys having someone to talk to who actually gets the stranger aspects of ritualistic magic. And maybe also someone who actually makes her look like the wretch she always calls herself, by comparison.     So if something is actually troubling this woman, it's only natural for Trudy Grimm to step up and do something about it. Crossing over prompts a shiver, but more of excitement than anything else, and the girl trots a few paces ahead from where the group has appeared. Leaning forward, she shields her eyes with one hand, though it's more for show than necessity as she gazes off into the grainy, dusty distance.     Even the Grimoire, hanging at her side, seems excited. It jerks and shudders in its binding, only calming when she places her free hand on it and turns around. There's a big smile on her face, "Everything's desaturated but that's not the reason. No, it's a land of ill fortune because thousands of people have died here. Possibly millions. Not all of them people; some of them might have been gods or giants." All said with a smile, "All of that across..." Glancing up, she touches a finger to her chin, "Probably a few thousand years? It feels like a battlefield where the battle hasn't properly stopped yet; and might never stop."     Turning back away, she speaks up, "Would any of you guys care to pop up and have a chat, if you'd like a break from haunting it?"
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki was, of course, not there for the events of London herself. Nor does she have an especially great idea of the details of everything that actually went on there. She was aware /something/ did, of course, but it never seemed like the kind of thing she should just go and ask about. But that's fine, she doesn't need to. There are a couple things she absolutely does know for sure, after all.     She knows something /is/ very wrong with Lilian. She even got to see and hear a good deal about that firsthand during the swimsuit reveal at the party on Secundus a short while back. She knows that Lilian - and Tamamo, right now - need help doing something about it. And she knows that she considers Lilian a friend. That's all she needs to be willing to help, no questions asked.     She does NOT know Sakura, at least not personally. But considering a certain red-haired associate of hers who definitely does, she might as well be friend-of-a-friend level, at least in her mind. Also, she's endearing. Like, really seriously endearing.     Crossing over to here is...unsettling. Not just from the sudden shift in atmosphere, but from the oppressive and dulled environment, stretching on as far as she can see. "...Yeah, I think I can see why too, and I don't like it either," she notes flatly, holding a hand up over her eyes to gaze into the steel gray sky, before facing forward. Good thing she has a jacket for this odd cold. "But nothing for it. Thousands, possibly millions..." There's a grimace at what Trudy says.     "...I think I'd prefer if they stayed that way." Yeah, she's going to be on guard the whole time they're here. Like Kale, she takes a more mundane approach to scanning ahead, moving a short bit ahead of the group on the path ahead to look across the horizon and try to pick anything at all unique apart from the wasteland-like sights. As she does, she calls back over her shoulder towards Sakura.     "Any other names this place has that we should know about? Super foreboding ones?"
Rita Ma	Roughly as tiny, and only a bit less precarious, is Rita Ma. She is at least sort of dressed for 'an expedition'; she'd rather die than wear pants, but the little brown jacket she's got looks vaguely outdoors-y, and goes cutely with the pleated red skirt.      Before crossing over the threshold- something that's likely to cut down on cell phone reception pretty badly- she makes a call to some Watch experts. Based on the mythology, what kinds of obstacles and threats should she expect? This is a pretty big-name place, right?      "Hi," she says to Kale. It's tense but not hostile. "You must really care about her too, huh? ... Well, good luck." Their last meeting, at least, probably left them on slightly better terms than typical.      Despite everything, the occasional ancient bloodstains and bone fragments visibly give her the shivers. Rita hugs herself and pointedly looks away from them, eventually giving up on looking at the ground at all. When she steps on a bone precisely because she's not looking, she jolts and yelps.      Eventually she awkwardly gravitates near Sakura and Tamamo, being the apparent resident Lilian Understanders. "It's okay, Ms. Tamamo. Thank you for... for taking such good care of Ms. Rook. Of course we'd want to help."      An uneasy silence follows. Nothing really prompts her next words; they just bubble over when she can't hold them in anymore. "This has been really hard on her, hasn't it? The thing that's wrong with her body. She seemed really happy, for a little while, and then... now she's under a lot of stress again. It's not fair, that you could fix yourself in one way and have it come back in another."      That's probably not the most accurate read, but it's Rita's read nonetheless.
Candy	The growl of Candy's archaic four-stroke motorcycle is absent from these islets. Once he crosses through to the Otherside, so is he, in a way.      Dressed as he normally does for cooler climes, Candy's got a deep pocketed motorist's long coat, scarf and newsie cap in matching earth tones, to go along with his usual rustic outfit.      "We will be," he says to Sakura. Reaching up for a turquoise ribbon holding his hair in a ponytail, he flicks it, and smiles at her.      "And, just in case..." He takes a moment to survey the horizon. The plain looks like it goes on for pretty long. Wide, open sssspace--you might sssee danger coming from far, but the idea is sssstill to move.      Candy, after a moment of brow-furrowed peering into the distance, suddenly finds himself holding a man-portable, pan-magazine LMG, with a wooden stock and a bipod attachment. "You want a piece?" he asks her. "I figure you're probably carrying already, but you never know."      After that's settled, he ends up filing in next to Ishirou with a smile."Hey," he says with that same dopey smile, aptly demonstrating his mastery of the art of conversation.      Glancing over to Tamamo, he waves, standing on his tip-toes and holding the LMG steady with one hand. "Don't worry, Ms. Tamamo! If that hero got through all this, so will we!" Candy smiles brightly. "Right?" he says, gently nudging Ishirou with his elbow, before resting both hands back on the gun again.      As his allies have mostly taken care of pre-emptive scouting, Candy's instead trying to stay on overwatch. It doesn't look like there's anything on the horizon yet, but those bloodstains didn't come from nowhere.
Xion	'Save Lilian'. Well, that premise wasn't strange. 'From something that she chose'. Difficult, but doable. 'Go back to the isles that she escaped from'. Worrying, but possible. But it wasn't a solo crusade, or a theft of hope from the jaws of need. It was... A big operation. Tamamo had arranged all the pieces this time, layers and weights and knowings and all kinds of bonds. The victorious won the war and then fought it. So... The premise wasn't a strange one, but it was one that averaged down the risks for tying more people up in it. Xion begins 'unpresent' and then starts 'being present', hopping out of Ishirou's shadow while Rita crunches on bones and falling into lockstep like she had been there the entire time. Which is good, because her outfit is extremely un-sneaky. In a cowled black hoodie and black leggings, both with glow-in-the-dark skeleton bones cartoonishly pasted over her close-in dark outfit. In the shadows and ancient dust and blood, she has a peculiar unsunny glow - one that switches to a pale white when she is not occluded from Tamamo. Unfortunately, she has several prompted dialogues to work through. "Wow. Back here. This place..." "It's good that everyone's here!" "Wow, there's so many people who all care a lot." "Isn't it actually really magic that Lilian could count on so many people who want the best for her, and agree on what it is?" The last one might not be as true as the Hero of Everyone's Hearts hopes.
Lilian Rook	Cantio's drone, close to the ground, hovers into the tall grass, and is immediately sliced to pieces. It falls into the clay in neat chunks, and is quickly sucked under without a trace. Oh. "If I may offer a suggestion, I believe that may be more to do with its reputation of ill-fortune." Sakura softly interjects, side-eyeing her and Ishirou. Hibiki has plenty of time to not walk right into the grass after it. Getting up close, she can see what looks like the faint marks of an old lightning strike at the edge, where the ground has been turned to black mineral glass, and flakes of ancient flash-dried clay.     Kale taking to the sky finds that as he goes up, the air around him gets rapidly colder, and it also gets very difficult to breathe. There's a faintly foul smell in that shimmering 'heat' haze, but it's tertiary to the fact that it feels like he's trapped in a car with the exhaust circulating back in. At least nothing flies out to attack him.     Ishirou's scan indicates that an extremely powerful leyline goes straight forward here, all the way into what blurrily looks like a forest of some sort on the very edge of his sensors' range, on the far horizon. His scan also very helpfully concludes that the grass is metallic and ridiculously sharp, the ground is a quickbog of sucking clay, and the fumes released from it mix with the respiration of the unnatural grass to create an inert, poisonous gas byproduct above. Fun. There are, at least, no threat signatures living in the area. That doesn't really seem possible at this stage.     Trudy has her pick of old bones and old ghosts full of regrets. She doesn't even have to walk into the grass to call one up. A bleached and ageworn skeleton magically drags itself out of the muck, pulling with it a bog-preserved spear and shield, its painted markings worn away. Flickering ectoplasm creates the blurry visage of a burly young man in fine mail and with a strangely painted face, but his voice is unsteady and ephemeral, without body or character. "What need has a witch of a warrior of Erin?" he asks, blandly morose.     The Watch comes in clutch for Rita, but with the rather large caveat that there are a lot of versions of this mythology and that most Earths didn't record it very well. The rendition is extremely foreboding in its complete form. They've apparently already bypassed the first step of this whole pilgrimage, but most of what she can be told about the plains of ill-fortune are the same as those discovered by the group so far, save that countless warriors have died along the road and are known to haunt it. Allegedly the hero Cú Chulainn crossed it with the help of a divine artifact that burnt the plains ahead of him as he walked.     Beyond it is 'the Glen of Peril', apparently populated by ferocious creatures and malicious spirits that prey on travelers. Beyond that is 'the Bridge of Leaps', which is, alternatingly told, a literal physical bridge that is built so that it is impossible to cross on foot, or a metaphorical bridge that cannot be crossed without requisite bravery. Theoretically, the ultimate danger should be a mythical warrior queen that all warriors of the isles feared and respected, and came all this way to beg her to train them. But her castle is at the very, very end. Tamamo, being privately familiar with the legend from her prior research, needs little context for her divination to find that the oddity Hibiki has stumbled on is the very beginning of the pathway once walked by the hero in olden times. It has since, however, completely liquefied and grown over once again. Tracing it is no safer than walking anywhere else.
Lilian Rook	Sakura stares at the machine gun wide-eyed. A five foot nothing of a yamato nadeshiko waif, her mouth opens a little bit when Candy offers her a weapon, and then no words come out for a second, before she apologetically bows her head and says "Thank you very much for your generosity, Mister Estevez, but I really wouldn't have any idea. I've never used something like that before." She shakes her head to Hibiki. "None that would matter. The tradition of warriors died off many centuries ago in this land, and the telling was all but lost to the arrival of the Christians."     She dutifully hovers around Tamamo, possibly out of familiarity, probably out of like and comfort. She is, after all, technically living on Tamamo's land now, and made all sorts of 'new friends' because of it. "I can at least assure that, even should the gods themselves be figments of humanity's wishful thinking, the wheel itself does exist, at the very end of this path, left abandoned for no way to reclaim and return with it." She smiles wide when Tamamo thanks her, even as part of only a general address. "I must thank you even more. There is so little I can do from my usual place. This is the first time I have ever left so early. It feels wonderful, to finally be able to help with my own hands."     Her smile falls and hardens, just the tiniest bit, when Rita speaks up. "It's never easy. That girl was always the most susceptible. It's always turns out like that for her, in the end. But I want to believe that can change. Even just this once. I really need to hope. Things are different this time. She has you."
Tamamo	<J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Ah, it may be necessary, as well, to mention that there is good reason for Lilian's absence, and that the Shadow is likely to be unwelcoming, should she notice our presence." <J-IC-Scene> Hibiki Tachibana says, "...Is it gonna be the 'try to add us to that thousands if not millions count' sort of 'unwelcoming'?" <J-IC-Scene> Trudy Grimm says, "It's best to be careful, either way." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Well. I'm here all the way." <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "I am not so familiar with this particular Warrior Maid, as greatly famous as she may be. At the least, I lack that personal connection, and so, I can hardly guess the extent to which her ire might reveal itself. She has less legitimate grievance against any of us than she would for Lilian, but even were this not so, I should caution that she is quite rightly known for her great prowess, and I know her to be one with all the harsh strength of a warrior's mind." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Warrior maid..?" <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "I speak of the one known as Scathach." <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "It would be quite strange to say 'you are welcome' for only this, Rita, though I shall accept these thanks. I would rather say, 'of course.' In no future would I be the one to forsake her. What presently occurs is... complicated in its nuance, but it is with all due consideration that I have made these plans. It is a difficult thing, but it is not a thing that cannot be helped." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "You're right, Ms. Tamamo. I guess I should say..." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "'I'm glad that Ms. Rook has someone like you.'" <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Aha... now, for these words, I do thank you. I am glad, as well, to see so many upon whom may be counted to support her -- and myself, I suppose." <J-IC-Scene> Cantio says, "She really gets into a lot of trouble, doesn't she? At least it keeps things interesting." <J-IC-Scene> Sakura says, ostensibly in response to Cantio, "Those caught up in grand fates usually do. And she is more tangled up in time and destiny than most." <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Ah, Mr. Candelario. I have not yet had occasion to mention this, however... do you recall of that issue for which you had invited myself, and others, to speak of, over a meal?"
Trudy Grimm	When those old bones rustle to life and haul themselves free of the morass, Trudy claps her hands together once with a broad smile, "Welcome to the land of ambulation once more, great warrior!" Immediately she lowers one hand, settling it on the anxious Grimoire while the other gestures, "Overcoming obstacles will certainly still come down to our ingenuity, I suspect. I will only ask you to show the way, and perhaps share with us a story of two of your doubtless many adventures."     Hand lowering, the witch adds, "I'll understand if you'd rather not. This is a journey that claimed your life, after all. But perhaps this could also be a second chance for you to see it through. Few men get to try twice, you know?" She ends that with a wink. Her free hand lifts, resting upon her breastbone, "Trudy Grimm, a witch of some repute, ill or otherwise. Will you serve as our guide in these lands, Warrior of Erin?"
Kale Hearthward	> "You must really care about her too, huh?" "... I guess the same, for you, if you're out here," says Kale. He's not entirely happy that she *is* here. He is still of the opinion that it'd make his life, and the Paladins relationship chart, a lot easier if Rita would just... stop showing up for whatever reason. Not for her to *die*, exactly, the Rita-Kale social link is at least out of that particular range of negative level values, at least. If barely. Kale goes up. Then he comes down. High flight isn't going to be an option, apparently, as he is not any sort of penguin. "If you're handing out spare guns, I'll take one," he says to Candy after coming back down to near-ground-level, bets hedged on if he'll actually get one. And - razor grass! That sucks for anyone who doesn't have always-on flight, huh. Tamamo says she's got some solution, though, so Kale holds back a bit, waiting to see what she has before he starts offering to carry people and/or carve a path.
Cantio	"I-it's not that I want what's best for her. I just... Want to make sure more problems don't happen around her, that's all." Cantio protests with a light grunt, immediately trying to clear up any misunderstandings the Hero of Everyone's Hearts might have about her reason for being here and likely failing terribly at it. She scrunches her face slightly when the feed from her drone cuts out abruptly, looking over at the tall grass and only catching that part where it gets sucked under by something hiding further within. Instead of chasing after it, though, she keeps her distance and instead listens to Sakura's warning. "It might have that kind of reputation, but I wonder if that's really because of anything involving fortune or just..." She gestures at the drone-shredding glass and the sucking clay. "... Everything just kind of being awful in general. Living here does seem to be a pretty good way to keep people from finding you if you can handle it, though." <J-IC-Scene> Cantio says, "She really gets into a lot of trouble, doesn't she? At least it keeps things interesting." <J-IC-Scene> Sakura says, ostensibly in response to Cantio, "Those caught up in grand fates usually do. And she is more tangled up in time and destiny than most." "I wonder how much of that is because of what she does and how much of it is because of... Erm. 'Fate.'" Cantio sounds a little skeptical when she mentions fate, furrowing her brow again as she considers the razor-like grass. "I guess it could be a combination of both, but that feels... I don't know. Dismissive?" There's an uneasy tone in Cantio's voice, but it's not a judging one. Mostly, she just sounds confused. What's less confusing is Tamamo's plan about clearing the grass and Trudy's guide to show them the way, though, and Cantio assembles her sword in her hand while watching and listening for how to proceed next. Cantio's got the sword, she's got the lasers, but she's holding back to see just what it is Tamamo has planned and how to make sure it works.
Tamamo	"It appears to me as if we have found the path. The poorer news is that it has become overgrown, to the point that no path exists. It is merely a direction that shall lead us along that ancient trail, and so, arrive at our destination, should we contend with every danger between here and there." Tamamo speaks of what she's found, and is confirmed from every other angle. There's no easy way through, but someone has been through here, before. Heat of a Sun god led them through.     Well. She should be able to do something similar, if she exerts herself. She doesn't have to do it alone. Rather, it's only a potential option because there are so many here to help her.     Digging into her voluminous sleeves, she begins retrieving thick stacks of talismans, works through the knots of red twine. The first stack she divides, shuffling them together with selections from the second, then arranging them into smaller bundles, one for every other member of the party -- herself and Sakura excluded.     It's a simple application of her powers, really. The one half of each package contains energizing blessings, to keep people going for long periods, letting them do what should be exhausting yet remain at peak condition. The other half is heat and flame, blessings that infuse the user's weapons and attacks with a bit of that Sun aspect, and allow them to hit wide areas of razor grass and clay, if they weren't able to otherwise.
Kale Hearthward	"Oh, fire and sun powers..." Kale grasps the talisman firmly, seeing what all he can 'pull' from it. "Oh, this'll be... new, but I think it'll work," he says. The wind mage hovers over towards the front of the party, takes a deep breath, and then just starts breathing a wide cone of fire across the path ahead, to add to whatever other fire attacks others are throwing out.
Cantio	Tamamo's plan is talismans! Cantio stares at the stacks curiously and takes one of them with a quick nod in thanks, then gets to work hacking away at the grass with her beefed up sun-sword. She swings it manually for a good while before remembering that she doesn't actually need to do that. Once that happens, it's just a matter of splitting that sword apart into multiple smaller swords and letting them carve a path forward like a squad of floating flaming lawnmower blades! Maintaining them all for so long is still going to need a lot of energy, though, so Cantio gladly takes those endurance-bolstering talismans to keep the pace up.
Ishirou	Xion pops out of his shadow.  Because he didn't see her coming, it spooks him and he jerks back.  Then when he sees it's her he sighs... "Please don't scare me like that!" he says, holding a hand over his heart.  Candy gives him some courage, and he nods once him.  "Hey yourself.  If I'm distracted, sorry... a lot of things to keep my eyes on to help keep everyone safe...or safer?  None of us are safe here." Ishirou nods to Sakura, "Hmm...let me see what my research brings up about this.." he says, tapping into the POD to get what information he dug up about the lands here.  Probably should have tagged that sooner, but he was more worried about what was on the other side rather than about here.   Ishirou does at least run a holo overlay of the Leyline as he can detect it so that people can see it.  With that, Ishirou deploys what people would often refer to as power armor.  He floats off the ground now, as flight suit pieces attach to it from his dimensional pocket.  He doesn't go zooming off, rather wanting to be close to the group (and Candy.) Tamamo provides protection, and Ishirou takes the talisman from inside the power armor.  "Thanks as always!" he says with a smile.  He also turns towards Sakura.  "Yeah...she's got a lot on her.  She's...very important to me.  So I'll do what I can because she lets us lean on her, ya know?" Ishirou sighs, "I do wish it was a little less scary...but I guess nothing worth doing is easy."
Candy	"Oh, yeah?" says Candy to Sakura. "Maybe me and Irish teach you sometime," he says. "For now, if there's something you need, and you got nothing close by, you just gimme a holler, ah?"      Of course there's... only so much guns, or weapons of any kind, can do here, if the sight of that grass' hidden lethality is any indication. "Oh," he says sourly. "So that's what's unlucky about this place."      Candy's peering intently at the grass, pacing back and forth impatiently. How're they going to get through here without having to second guess the elements and nature itself? Trudy's success in asking for help breaks him from his pacing with a relieved smile.      "I sure do remember," Candy answers Tamamo. "That was a good day."      Kale gets a nod--"Here you go," he says. "Seems like your wheelhouse." Kale is given a submachine gun, with an unusual but decidedly effective curved magazine, and a sturdy, utilitarian frame that suggests a society taking its early run into industrialization. "Safety," he says, holding it up for inspection, "Fire selector, release. It climbs a little, but you look like a strong guy," he says with a flutter of his eyelashes.      It's well-suited to hit and run tactics, chambered for a relatively powerful cartridge, and the mag size is enough for several such passes.      Accepting a talisman from Tamamo, Candy grins and affixes it to his LMG. Biting his lower lip, he takes to clearing the razor grass with a stream of lead, the weapon's rattling retort joined in concert by the hiss of flame. The gun is part projectile weapon, part flamethrower at this point.
Xion	"You know, it's a great thing that Tamamo is here." Xion observes, thumbing one-handedly through her phone as she searches down 'legend of Cu Coolayn', autocorrects her creativities with language, and starts reading about... "Wow, there's a lot of interesting information on the Talk page. . ." She starts scrolling. A frown begins. And scrolling. More frowning. And-- Xion puts her phone back in her inventory and expels a low sigh. "So... you don't want what's best for her? C'mon, Cantio - Is this Land of Shadows really the place for doubting you want to help?" Ishirou's back-jerk causes Xion to jerk back in momentary lock-step, stuck like a shadow to the silhouette of the armored hacker, grinning with her blacklight bones. "Sorry. You were a really convenient person I knew would be here, you know? You're consistent in 'wanting the best', without even starting in on a denial. You'd doubt if what you want is the best best, but not that you want it. That's important! Someone who acts." Accepting a talisman two-handed, with the solar energy of the tag washing her glowing bones to a bleached white of paint on cloth, the noirette Nobody pauses by Tamamo as she's asked about: <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Merely from curiosity, Xion, what impression might you have had of Scathach, if any?" "Well. . ." Xion lifts a hand to her chin, the tag held in her fist as she follows. "If I was thinking back to what we were doing, and what was done, then I would say that Scathach is a 'craftswoman', an artisan, someone who worked with a shaping tool. Lilian gave herself to the Lady of this place to be worked, and then, we came and took the project away, convinced the 'material' of its worth unworked. But cuts were made, and the process of shaping and heating and cooling had begun, so..." "Unfulfilled. She was unfulfilled."
Hibiki Tachibana	That drone sure did just get sliced into a thousand chunks and vanish into the ground. Hibiki, only a few meters away from that, stops mid-step and takes far more tentative ones as she draws a bit closer. "Seriously, razor grass, clay that looks like it'll swallow you up..." Squint. You have got to be kidding. "That looks like a burn like lightning or something scorched it over..." And glassed it.     "I don't even want to imagine this place when it's storming." If this is the state the plains are in normally, that just has to be miserable.     Tamamo confirms that the path the legendary hero once took is now an utter mess, but she also has ways to help get them past it. A bundle of talismans is taken. "This is...oh, I get it. Thanks, Tamamo. Helping open up a path is something I can definitely do." One conveniently shortform transformation later - which she was probably going to do anyway at risk of her normal teenage girl legs getting chopped off before she can do anything about it - and she's able to contribute to the clearing efforts.     In the form of the occasional punch forward while walking ahead, sending ahead horizontal plumes of flame to burn away bladegrass and heat over the muddy, quicksand-like clay. While she coordinates with Cantio, Kale, and the others on that, she comments back towards Xion and Sakura both.     "Everyone's here for a reason. And we're absolutely going back with that wheel. ...I'm glad, too. That so many people are here for her sake." Even Cantio, who really could have gone either way. She's privately happy about that. "I've been through too much involving her to not wanna help. And...I wanna make sure things change, too."     Hm. "...I know being able to do something to help someone you care about with your own hands feels good, too. Thanks for helping us out here. If it wasn't for you and Tamamo, we wouldn't have the chance to do anything ourselves."
Rita Ma	"Yeah. Especially after... that," Rita says to Kale. She looks downcast. "It's partly my fault, so of course I want to make it better." That, too, may or may not be factually true.      'So early. 'Always'. 'In the end'. 'This time'. Rita dimly begins to understand. A sad, sympathetic expression crosses her face as she listens to Sakura. Then 'She has you' punches her in the gut. It's meant in a general sense, but she can't help but take it in the specific one.      Rita's face tenses, pulled between a half-dozen feelings at once. 'Guilt' and 'pain' predominate, with 'gratitude' lying a long way beneath. She crosses her arms- no, hugs herself- and looks away a heartbeat later.      "Yeah. She has us. ... Thank you for helping, too, Ms. Sakura. There's a really heavy weight on you, isn't there? I appreciate you not giving up."      She takes Tamamo's talismans, mustering up a smile of gratitude that's sunnier than she really feels, and starts helping to clear the path with simple flaming punches and kicks. It's a small contribution. The others have this under control, and she doesn't feel like sustaining the morale hit of using her other abilities right now.
Tamamo	When Kale thanks her for the extra elemental offering, Tamamo says, "Oh, I have a few others, as well, but in this case, 'heat' does seem to be what the land most lacks. Lifelessness walks in hand with cold. You are welcome, of course."     A few moments later, she says, "Merely from curiosity, Xion, what impression might you have had of Scathach, if any?" It was with Xion that she'd visited, before, even if they'd had little opportunity -- and little wish, perhaps -- to exchange words with the mistress of that place. It is, mostly, from what she'd had Lilian do that Tamamo's most recent opinion of her formed.     'Unfulfilled. She was unfulfilled.'     "Ah... yes, this does have a ring of truth. In her place, would I not feel the same? To have something valuable taken from me, after I had invested my own efforts, yet before my work was done, and then to be left alone, once more. I would not be satisfied."     Tamamo says nothing about Candy offering Sakura a machine gun, trusting the girl to know well enough whether she would be safe to even touch one. After that trust is validated and she politely ignores the phrases 'first time' and 'so early', Tamamo responds to her 'hope.' "She does have me, and I shall... oh, but now is not the time for oaths and promises, beyond the ones that have been uttered."     'It feels wonderful, to finally be able to help with my own hands.'     Despite the utter dreariness of this Land of Shadows, Tamamo's short laughter is light. "Truly so, is it not? To aid one's beloved with one's full effort, I can remember no greater, singular feeling than this." After a thoughtful moment, eyes gliding up and to the side as her head tilts just so, "Perhaps one or, scantly, two, yet these are merely close beside." Turning again to Sakura, "Or is it just some little bit different, for you?"     'I sure do remember,' Candy answers Tamamo. 'That was a good day.'     "We shall be revisiting the topic, soon. This is but one step of preparation toward that end." Tamamo says, adding, "I had thought it a matter beyond present need, and yet... as one might guess, to hear me speak of it in these circumstances, I have been proven wrong."
Lilian Rook	Trudy's semi-resurrected companion, for having another shot at existing, doesn't seem terribly enthused about the prospect of being a guide. He doesn't so much as return her greeting at first. "I am gravely sorry, but if you need one to show you the way, you will likely find none here. Those of us who perished here at the second step of the trek are unfit to guide the living. There is little I can tell you but the sorry state you see before you." When she brings up the idea of 'getting a second try', however, his visage firms up a little, becoming readable enough to see half his conflicted expression. "Very well. Even should my lord be long gone, I would at least wish to know what it would be to be worthy of the name."     "Everyone is the architect of their own tales, Miss Cantio. Most of what befalls us is by no design of the heavens, but made up of all the myriad small moments we never see in their entirety." Sakura replies. "But the world has a tale too. Moments that no one set in motion have conclusions too, over spans of time too long for humans to see, except in hindsight afterwards. All of us suffer troubles of our own making, but some of us must bear the choices of the wheel of fate as well. That girl is bound to it tightly, just as I am." She thanks Candy ever so politely. One would never guess that she intends to never touch a gun in her life by demeanor alone.     When Tamamo's magic starts laying into the grass, a couple of things happen. One is that the fire alone only turns the metallic blades molten hot on top of everything else. Another is that the resonant aspect of the sun, placed over the amplifying leyline and the mythical imprint of Cú Chulainn's journey, draws out the magic's utmost intensity even from the form of a talisman. Lingering traces of solar divinity infuse the flames even when used by the others, turning the grass to white ash and blowing it away, laying tracks like cracked concrete through the clay. It isn't quick, but it's safe.     One more thing is that this immediately disturbs and destroys a great many hidden remains, and thus immediately raises a forest of no doubt angry ghosts from the hellswamp mud of death. As they approach the group, armed even in death, the resurrected warrior speaks to them in a dead tongue that the Understanding no longer translates. However, one can hear the name 'Erin' in it, giving some context as to why the angered shades stand down, part across the path, and even form up ranks. They must have all come from the same place, long ago, and this journey is their unfinished business.     From here, it's an uneventful journey; just as well, for it always is when the hero has cleverly prepared himself. There's time to talk along the way, even as a black smudge rises taller on the horizon as the group goes, steadily ploughing through the sea of blades and bones. Sakura sticks close behind Tamamo, but has to hustle a little bit to keep up with the progress at times. She has the telltale look of someone who isn't used to walking long distances, but is really doing her best. "No, I'm sorry, but if it wasn't for you, then all I could do is wait behind closed doors until it's already too late, yet again." she says to Hibiki. "This time around, I want to be able to help her carry it. I want to help all the other girls, but her especially. She was always the one who never had help"
Lilian Rook	Quietly, with great contemplative forethought, she speaks up to Xion as well. "I watched, you know. I had to know what happened. Scáthach is not an irrational woman, I think. I don't think that she would act out in blind anger. But you are likely correct, Miss Xion. According to myth, the contract was a year and a day for the Child of Light, but Lilian's bargain for a mere month satisfied her. She saw something in her. Something that she wanted to make of her. An exception she hadn't made for anyone in a thousand years. I doubt she took kindly to your spoiling of her work."     Sakura's laugh in reply to Tamamo is far more awkward than the bunrei's. The girl is no good at hiding her feelings at all. "Beloved is . . . of course not in the same way as you, Lady Tamamo no Mae. But I do love her, in a way. Since before she was born. But more than you, I think, I know the frustration of wanting to help, and being unable, too well. There are so many burdens for me to lift, but the ones that matter are always beyond my reach."     Her voice cracks faintly for Rita, and just for a moment, the tiny girl hurrying along after Tamamo slows her pace and speaks with a kind of uncanny exhaustion, deep and crushing and buried like leaden poles all the way into the core of her bones; far too much for any girl of her age. "I appreciate your thanks, Miss Ma. But if I could give up, I think I might. I'm the only one who doesn't have a choice. If I give up, nobody else will be able to keep fighting. Even though I understand why they need to protect me . . . I would do anything to share their weight."     The the ancient path through the Plains of Ill-Fortune is cleanly retraced in full. The blackness on the horizon comes into focus as the rising of the earth, high into the bigger cold, its tops shrouded with silver fog that blends in with the steel sky. Down its middle is a narrow valley, cramped and serpentine, choked with a forest of deathless trees as overgrown as can be. The wet, green-black bracken doesn't catch flame easily. The trunks and branches are petrified with immortal age, and as one enters, the boughs seem to soar endlessly into the sky and never stop, blocking out the sun. It's as though one shrinks with every step. Knife-like thorns protrude from every other surface. Treacherous roots and strangling vines, steep drops and jagged rocks are plentiful. One can barely see thirty feet through the foliage, and a sort of choking pollen settles immediately in the lungs for daring to breathe the air.
Lilian Rook	The ghostly warriors name this as the Perilous Glen, however their guidance comes to an abrupt end of its usefulness as they do as ghosts do and just start phasing through the forest, marching ever onwards. Chasing after them is possible, but probably pointlessly risky. The glen only goes in one direction, and the narrow walls make it hard to really get lost.     What's more problematic is that scans start picking up life signs and heat signatures all around. Rustling bush and flashes of motion are hard to spot, but constant. At first, only a black crow or a pale and sightless deer. However, before long, the party is under attack.     At first, what comes out to meet them are gaggles of squat, small, hairy and vicious humanoid creatures, all long arms and skittering legs, wicked claws and crooked sharp teeth and manic burning eyes. Opportunistic. Sneaky. Hitting and running like wolves. Attacking blindspots and jumping down from above. They're persistent and surprisingly difficult to kill, only giving up once most of their number are slain.     Next, a stampede of what first look like coal black horses, only to reveal themselves as merely horse-shaped blanks in the light, of twice the size and thrice the swiftness. They race the trail left behind to run down travelers and grind them to dust beneath entropic hooves, bringing a wave of miasmatic death with them as they pass. They are unable to enter the trees, and heard in advance by the sounds of their galloping.     Finally, a clearing occupied by a circle of massive, hideous monsters, roused from moss-covered slumbered and unearthing themselves from watery bogs with titanic sluggishness. Cyclopean eyes, great serrated maws, grasping tendrils and great weapons of rotted iron.     It goes on like this. One could hardly wait for the bridge at the end.
Cantio	"Moments we can't see... Hm. There's definitely a lot about her that I've never seen, and stuff about me that she hasn't. For all I know, maybe the stuff between us is shaped more by that than we'd expect." Cantio replies to Sakura with a thoughtful look on her face. "And... Yeah, that makes sense. Calling it fate, though... I don't know. It makes it sound as there's too much out of our control. Too much that we can't rely on outside of ourselves or what we already know." She pauses, then sighs lightly. "Maybe that's why she's always... It always feels like she's looking for more. To offset whatever fate might throw at her next. Too many expectations from everywhere." Cantio grumbles, then lets out another frustrated noise when it starts to feel like she might almost be sympathizing with Lilian again. "Nn... Of course I want to help! It's just that helping Lilian..." Cantio answers Xion with another noise, clearly distressed by this semi-new feeling. "It's not that I don't want to help her, but it's not that I've forgiven or like her or anything like that. I just... It's complicated." Even she doesn't sound like she's sure what she's thinking. Hibiki's contrasting answer, though, does help Cantio clear up her thoughts a little bit. "With all the stuff she's gone through, it... Yeah, it'd be better if any changes that do happen are for the better." A beat, and then she hastily adds, "For us, I mean! 'Everyone here' us, not 'especially her' us or... Wh-whatever." It's probably a lot clearer to everyone but Cantio at this point. She still can't be honest with herself there. Thankfully, the path forward is relatively simple, if a bit long. Cantio's good at making sure nobody falls behind, glancing back every now and then while lighting the way with her drones when it gets dark or sending them ahead when there's traps to uncover. The guidance of the spirits convinced by Trudy to give it a second shot means she can even take a breather at times, although reaching the Perilous Glen and seeing why it's named such gets her right back on edge. Keeping her sword parts in their detached form, though, gives Cantio an answer to the hairy creatures that arrive to harass the group. Rather than trying to chase them down or counter their charges, she simply settles into a defensive, yet unarmed stance. It's certainly not a martial artist's stance, but it's one intended to focus most of any damage she receives to her limbs and stop such attacks from reaching her head or body. When something bites into her, that's when the sword parts start firing their laser-y death. There's no need to time a counter if it can happen as she's getting bitten! She's not quite so reckless when it comes to dealing with the horses and the giants, though, opting instead for the tried and true strategy of just blasting the everloving shit out of them from a distance. She might even try kiting the stragglers into the group with her lasers if a more patient approach is called for by the group.
Kale Hearthward	Kale takes the offered SMG, holding it professionally. "Thank you kindly," he says, going to engineer a makeshift back-strap from the spare cloth he has on him. He manages to fit it in snugly between his two swords. "Never know when you need a spare..." 'Never know when' turns out to be not that long after, as the increasingly horrendous air quality gets to him. He makes displeased bird noises as he settles back into the ground. "Think I could get one of those purify talismans too, please?" he begs Tamamo, slightly muffled by the hand held over his beak. Even if he gets that, he's at a disadvantage - the need to purify all of the air circulating through his system in order to cast properly, and the multiplicative air intake with each new spell or weapon he activates, means he has to ration his power. Hence, the timely chance to employ the SMG. "Ammo in, safety off, trigger discipline..." he says to himself as he aims and fires. While his skills clearly lie with swordsmanship - he's not a bad shot, especially with Candy's QOL magic infusing it. His aim is a little bit rusty, but that turns out not to matter shortly - - once he's got the hang of the gun, he starts lining up strafing runs, using his speed to get in close, target areas to just blanket in gunfire as he passes, and then get back out of range. With enough bullets, aim becomes an art, not a science.
Ishirou	"Oh uh.." Ishirou speaks to Xion.  "Thanks.  I'm still figuring that stuff out but I think it's better to move than to sit there and second guess yourself.  Mistakes are to learn from, right?"  Ishirou looks at Sakura and how she cares about Lilian.  "I'm happy to hear that, miss," Ishirou says to Sakura. "I consider her a good friend.  She helped me get out of something really bad." Ishirou turns toward the ghosts before they approach, concerned about the dead men that seemed to be angry about their actions in burning down the grass.  Taking a breath, he watches but it seems that they're less angry once the skeleton Trudy brought back has words.  Well...that's good!   Towards the forest is where things really get bad.  The ghost walk-off, which leaves them trying to keep up, but being made out of flesh and blood is dangerous to one's health.  That and Ishirou felt like sticking with the group.   However, life signs start showing up and Ishirou's head raises.  "Incoming guys," The crow or the sightless deer are first, but Ishirou wasn't talking about /them/.  The little monsters are terrible.  One gets on the back of the flight unit and he's spinning around to launch it as it's bashing the unit with a rock or something.  He flings it off with high speed and maneuverability...which causes him to get stabbed by a tree.  "I hate this place." The Horses come next, and he tries to fly up.  He gets stabbed by many trees this time.  However it does help him avoid the stampede, and he throws a rope down for others to try and help climb up to avoid being stomped, by those who couldn't fly.  "I really hate this place." Then finally, as he settles back down from that come the massive hideous monsters.  The surprise of their rising up gets him and he backs into another tree, being hit by another sharp branch.  "I..this...sucks so much.." he says and holds a hand out towards the closest of the massive figures.  He attempts to biohack it, and try and turn it on its nearest monstrous creature.
Tamamo	Tamamo affords Sakura with a warm smile, no matter how awkward her laugh. "Oh, do forgive me for teasing you, just slightly. I know it is different for each of us, yet I appreciate your care for her, all the same."     'There are so many burdens for me to lift, but the ones that matter are always beyond my reach.'     Solemnness returns with her nod. They continue on.     Though one could say that her own powers are at work in the solar flames that burn away the grass, in a more immediate sense, Tamamo leaves this business to everyone else. She looks overtly concerned as the ghosts rise up against them, and can't quite catch, but is relieved at the results of the speech that causes them to step aside.     At the Glen of Peril, things would just be awful if Tamamo wasn't constantly wearing a minimum of six inches of heel, raising her above many common things, fields of thorns, included. The damage to her footwear will be more easily remedied than tearing her flesh would be, primarily on account of her great supply of magic being coupled with a low tolerance for pain.     Miasma, at least, is something she can handle rather easily. Not just for Kale, but for everyone, she passes out purification talismans, sweet-smelling pouches, and even small, jewelry-sized boxes of herbs with the instruction to place these over the tongue, and breathe without swallowing. Multiple layers of defenses, including prepared, invisible wards around her person work in concert to keep out malevolent influences.     They're not quite so good at physical attacks, on the other hand. The creatures might carry curses with them, but the horses themselves are too physical, from this land's perspective, to be so easily blocked. Others will need to do more of the heavy lifting, there. Tamamo tries more to keep herself out of the way. She has the agility, at least, to try and take to a tree to avoid being trampled.     She can even take Sakura with her. She's not the strongest here by any means, but seeing the indoors princess struggling, Tamamo lends her a hand, asking, "Will you not lean on me? I would be comforted, if so."
Trudy Grimm	With the others clearing the initial path thanks to Tamamo's talismans, Trudy brings up the middle with her new, bony friend. The talisman she was given is tucked into the Grimoire like a bookmark; not yet to be used.     She feels a bit of pride in her fortuitous luck when the Warrior of Erin defuses the ire of further ghostly warriors who take issue with all the fire and burning. She even tries a bit of small talk with the Warrior himself; asking him about who he was and what he's done before finding his end here. The reason Trudy refers to these undead as her 'cute friends' is pretty clear from how she's making this effort just to know him.     Plains give way to forest and she goes quiet here with all the ominous noises. She collects the Grimoire, drawing out a rune from its pages; X-shaped, Gebo, the Gift rune. Forcing this downward, a circle of additional runes materializes in a sickly green color. Most notably, the runes Jera, Nauthiz, and Hagalaz line its rings. Earth, Necessity, and Air.     It's right about here that the little trolls start their waves of attacks; and Trudy relies on the Warrior to protect her as she runs through her ritual; spreading a curse through the ground that rejects the little monsters' presence. Friction dials down for them, causing falls and slips and upsetting their movements as they dash in and out which should hopefully make the little gremlins easier to contend with for the others.     When it comes to horses, her only choice is to stay out of the pathway; climbing Ishirou's generously provided rope to avoid a tramplin', "I'm not much of a fan, myself. But it's still kind of exciting, no?"     Big figures gives her pause; though, and she draws another rune from the Grimoire. In her free hand she produces a green gemstone, pulsing with an internal light. This light fades into a flame, feeding into a new circle of runes; the X-shaped Gebo, accompanied by both Thurisaz for Protection and Uruz for Power. When the circle around Trudy's feet expands outward and fades; those in the party receive an enhancement on both their strength and their endurance.
Candy	"Sure," says Candy to Tamamo with a small smile. "She's a real good friend. And I'm starting to see you that way too. You send for me the minute you need me, ah?"      Cutting through the grass is slow process, but it's better to be slow and safe than fast and... on one's way to meet Trudy.      Past the grass, and into the petrified forest, the RM20 isn't cutting it. Examining the gun in his hands, and pocketing Tamamo's charm, Candy does away with the LMG--it simply vanishes from his hands as abruptly as it had earlier appeared.      Reaching up to the turquoise ribbon holding his hair in a ponytail, he unties it. The glammer dispelled, Candy now holds the Turquoise Mandate, a greatsword-sized, elaborately inlaid enchanted macahuitl. The weapon's knapped obsidian teeth gleam in the dim light filtered through petrified trees.      Candy makes use of it, and of Tamamo's blessing. The razor-sharp obsidian teeth are aided by gouts of pressurized, sun-boiled water, essentially making the weapon into an impromptu saw. He takes advantage of the weapon's reach, and his magical imitation of Lilian's strength, to hack apart those thorns and vines in an equally patient advance. Soon, it becomes apparent that light will be a serious problem.      For this, Candy conjures a crate of bulky, but high-powered flashlights, shaped so that they rest in pockets or clip to clothes rather than in the user's hand. By this point, Candy is starting to tire--not only physically, but, if his expression is any indication-- Danger! Danger! Boy's breathing, restricted!      Mentally, as well. Coughing, he manages to spit a "Fuck that," and a second crate is conjured from a thrown playing card. Air filtration masks, that look like they came from the frontlines of some god awful trench. They'll do the trick for anyone that needs them, though.      Onward.      Candy, faced with the first wave of attackers, seems as though space just can't decide where he should be in his fighting. What would be lethal blows are mitigated by near miraculous positioning, turning into bruses, cuts and scrapes instead. His allies receive help in the nick of time as he flickers through the darkness, the jerky movements of his flashlight's beam giving him away. The macahuitl's edge is used to mangle limbs and attack from advantage, prioritizing glowing eyes that appear near Candy's allies.      Already sweating by the time the horses arrive, he engages them at range instead, blasting scalding clouds of steam at them with one hand, and sending crescents of roiling flame with broad, skillful strokes of the Turquoise Mandate.      By the time the giants arrive, Candy's chest heaves with exertion--if it weren't for the temporary alterations to his stamina, he'd probably have gased out much earlier. Fighting past the fatigue, his strategy there is to harass from afar with razor-sharp playing cards, then look for favorable punishes against his towering, waking opponents on attempted counterattacks.
Hibiki Tachibana	Forcing a path through, slow as it might be, works! It also rouses the dead from their slumber of untold years. Hibiki immediately settles into a stance that says she's entirely prepared to defend against them if necessary, though thanks to Trudy's erstwhile companion, she doesn't have to - slowly sliding out of it, she returns to neutral and gives a surprised blink. "...Wow..." Glancing to Trudy, she gives a nod of approval, and the way forward is made. "Uh...thank you, too." She offers somewhat awkwardly, but genuinely, to the warrior of Erin while moving ahead.     She's used to walking a whole lot thankfully (and Tamamo's talismans help besides), and she tugs on her scarf some while replying to Sakura as they go. Something about what she said seems to strike a chord that gets her both uncharacteristically contemplative, and looking a bit sad. "...Yeah. She hasn't. I understand." There's silence for a few moments, before some energy returns to her voice and her face. "Then we're all just going to have to do our best to help her, together. Burdens are a lot easier to deal with the more people helping you lift them, right?"     The slight smile she flashes back to her - and also to Cantio, at her tsuntsun routine - doesn't get to last too long. The Perilous Glen is perilous indeed, and the environment itself is rough and painful to help force slash burn a relatively clear path through. It's dark, drearier than even those gray-skied plains, and she's glad she has a muffler to help filter out some of the air, until Tamamo lends a helpful hand again.     In fact, she's /almost/ glad when something as comparatively simple to deal with as an attack comes. Elbows, knee strikes, and hooks are used to send them flying back into the darkness of the trees. She takes mounting scratches and gashes here and there, but she can deal as long as she's wary, though no small part of her focus is on making sure none try to go for Tamamo and Sakura more than her herself.     The horses are worse, and she applies more plumes of sun-aspected flame through punching the air, to try and burn as many as she can away before they can bring that haze of doom close. And there are still monsters past them? At least they're physical and don't seem to have any weird gimmicks. She can apply her trademark problem solving tactic.     Hitting them really, really, REALLY hard. What's she going to do for whatever's after /that/, though? She'll just have to work something out. She takes it back. Maybe just dealing with a crappy forest would have been better.
Xion	Granted a burned-safe passage by the sun itself, Xion walks along, almost-blithe, a member of a huge party of resolved warriors on a deliberate and heart-full quest to accomplish a task. In terms of legends and leading storylines, this sort of operation was set for success. The more she thought about it, though, the more Zexion's lessons on the patterns came to the fore of her anxieties. "Now, Cantio, it might be important for you to dispel your worries about this one. At least, for now, focus on the fact that you're here, that success will win you praise..." Xion hangs on that, chewing on her bottom lip on the path of light rendered substantial (ly slowly) by the sun's burning light. It'd be rude to look at Rita, but she's thinking it loudly, a wavering, a trembling. If there was a good path to take, the right path would be a high road of heroes, of a grand fellowship of companions -- oh that's another bad story. The collection of knights of the Round Tab-- oh that's another bad story. Perhaps the thirteen ron--... Xion stops, on the path, and balls up her hands. Sakura drops the 'I could see you', and Xion's building-up of worries about the path of boon and bond companions gathering up to accomplish one grand task as a collective with certain members wavering in spirit evaporates. "Huh? You could? Wow, that sounds like--" She pans away towards the Murder Forest Full Of Welsh Warrior Ghosts and summons her keyblade to hand. "Oh dang, the ghost warlording is FIERCE today, haha, wow, can we get back to that later?" She mashes X (pronounced Skip) through, a deep anxiety transferring in purpose into violence against giants. "Oh no! Ishirou! Watch out for that tree!" It's so much more preferrable than going over the details of her feelings that night, especially on the topic of 'a voyeur', that she's almost not mad when she also gets stabbed, by the same tree.
Lilian Rook	"It's in our nature, to want more." Sakura says to Cantio. "It's that very want, that yearning for a single pure wish, that made us who we were. What made the world choose us. And offered us, and only us, the Buddha's spider silk." She doesn't elaborate on who 'we' are.     She giggles more easily for Tamamo now that the moment has passed. "Oh, I don't mind at all. Only Saeko will ever talk to me that way at home. The others, for all their many virtues, are perhaps too careful in their ways around me It's refreshing to spend time with such honest people." She sighs a little weirdly for Hibiki. "Yes. That's absolutely true. Three girls should not have to carry the world between them. If only I could make it four, I would be happy."     "The fact that you all came along . . . I don't know what happened this time, but I'm glad beyond words. Haha . . ."     The Glen is well-named. All things considered, better than the Plains. This surely is a place that only the hardiest warriors could possibly cross, and only those skilled in more fields than head to head fighting too. Tamamo's purification is amply enough to purge poison from the air and Candy's respirators are just fine at keeping it out of the lungs in the first place, though the filters clog up and degrade rather quickly. The wards are sorely needed, as a pervasive atmosphere of layered curses and foul fortune, leading one astray into suddenly having wandered into precarious circumstances, are thick in the air.     The creatures are, at least, nothing beyond the ability of half a dozen veteran Elites to handle. Though tough, aggressive, seemingly fearless, and difficult to track through the forest, they are susceptible to bullet and blade and fist and magic, and seem to have little concept of guns and lasers in the first place, failing to react with appropriate defensive instinct when levelled against them. Trudy turning the forest against them soon loses their worst pursuers, whilst Xion, Hibiki, Kale, and Candy handle the bulk of pulverizing the enemy, the former two especially for the group miniboss battle.     Sakura appropriately takes Tamamo's offer. The fact that she seems to have no combat skill whatsoever to lend the group is terribly expected. The fact that she has ample, and for those with the requisite senses, shockingly potent, magic to help out after the fact is a little bit unexpected for those who are not amongst the few who knew already, but her rushing out from hiding in the spots of calm to tend to wounds and battle fatigue with healing and protection should be a welcome surprise. She joins Ishirou in pointing out enemies ahead of time, and allows the group to get the drop on several of the more menacing monsters of the glen. The fact that she never once shows so much as a shred of anxiety, however, even when hurrying to Tamamo's protective summons, seems almost creepy.
Lilian Rook	Still, it's a relief to fight one's way out into the sunlight again. It's hard to believe that muted, leaden, pale-and-shadow world could feel welcoming, but the relative gap between the oppressive glen and the open air is enough to trigger a reflex to stretch legs and breathe deep all the same.     The valley opens out into terrain that, for once, isn't nightmarishly threatening. The earth gently continues to rise, then plateaus out into a flat peak perhaps half a mile across. Pale earth is sparsely decorated with the muffled shades of grasses and wildflowers and studded with moss-coated rock formations. The dull roar of the ocean can be heard from not far away. Below, to be precise, if one advances, because moving forward any further reveals that they are atop a stupendously high cliff --far higher than any point of the isles in the real world-- overlooking a winedark sea A jetstream current winds between the cliff and its nearest neighbour, accelerating the water into frothy bedlam against the jagged rocks far below.     Far, far away, ahead in the same direction the party had traveled this entire time, stretches a suspended bridge of simple plants and braided rope. Its length is so fairytale absurd that it should certainly snap under its weight, and even the sea breeze is enough to set it swinging and creaking menacingly. Most of its boards are outright missing. The slightest step onto it is amplified into an enormous wave along its entirely length that rebuilds back. At the other end, almost misty on the horizon, is the black face of a mirroring cliffside, like a small mountain jutting from the sea. Atop that, a dense forest all down the back slope. Rising above that, the foggy image of an ancient castle, its gates drawn shut.     There are the ostensible remains of a camp on this cliff, but they must be unfathomably old. By now they're mere patches in the dirt that once suggested near-permanent habitation, grinding weight, and lit flames, littered with a few rusted weapons and animal bones. Trudy's friend stops and stares in mournful silences. "It was once the hope of all warriors with fire in their belly great enough to seek the Shade to come this far. To join the host of acolytes and seek to prove their bravery. To earn their way to crossing the bridge, to study under the Shade, and return home a mighty hero. A legend worthy of their king's grandest treasures. Few ever made it, but until one makes the journey, how can they know? Though I am dead, I at least have some idea of the measure of a man who could come this far; and barely an inkling of the woman whom I once naively thought I would impress."     There's no need to search around the camp. Sakura points immediately to its far center, where a mound of white ash that once laid at the bottom of a permanent, massive bonfire had cemented under the weight of remains over it. Though buried, anyone can feel the warmth radiating from it as they come close, and those who can sense magic can certainly see the core of radiant energy slumbering within. There is, thankfully, no need to cross the mile long bridge. Only to walk up and claim their prize.     Until a black spear falls from the cloudless sky and crashes into the earth like a lightning bolt, blowing ash and dust. The angle it embeds itself in the Earth is so shallow it must have been thrown without a trajectory at all, but merely by sight. From the opposite cliff. Impending motion. They won't be alone any longer but for a second.