Scene #8093: The Bargain

Owner	Pose
Rita Ma	"I... Don't really know anyone here to be the sort to run for long, anyway." "You should." Kana looks over at Cantio. Her gaze is like the cold needle fixing a butterfly to the board. "You're still young, so I'll tell you this. If you allow a one percent possibility of death, you will not survive a hundred battles. There are times when you must stand firm and gamble with your life. But before rejecting retreat, ask yourself: is this one of them?" "Easy--make it so it's only dangerous in the water, and only for them." "You can do that?" Bota cranes his neck to raptly watch Candy work. "I guess there's more than one kind of miracle-worker here, huh? Is there any chance you could write down the steps for that?" Kana was not paying attention to the defusing, but when he goes to slap it, she sees him in her peripheral vision and casually grabs his wrist. "I guess if everyone has died that knows how they work, it'd make some sense..." "We still mostly know how they work," Bota says with a hapless little shrug between loading up armfuls of swords. "We just can't make them anymore. Do you think we'd put a bomb factory on a boat?" "Oh, you believe so, as well?" Kana shows a complete and utter lack of comprehension under Lilian's probing gaze; not even confusion, but failing to comprehend that she has failed to comprehend anything at all. "I do," she answers Tamamo, not finding the latter's rapt attention suspicious at all. "She stays alert, but doesn't press her limits. That's the type that lives. Most of the time." For some reason, she gives Bota a meaningful Look. "I thought you'd be a little goofy or inexperienced, but you're actually very sharp." "Oh, thank you? Haha. I can't really take credit for that! I used to be both of those things. Kana spent years straightening me out." He returns Kana's Look with a slightly sheepish smile. "Being sharp doesn't come naturally to me. But it's easy to appreciate people when everyone's so great."
Rita Ma	"Wait! Stop! Kana said this place sunk a year ago!" There is an apocalyptically enormous sound of groaning metal. Then something crunches the armory in on itself like a bowtie. Bota is cleanly on one side of the pinch; Kana ought to have been crushed, but leaps out of the way with preternatural agility. Everyone else is on the other side. The meager air-filled spaces begin to flood. The whole city shudders dangerously, as if in an earthquake. The Harpoonists' voices crackle over local radio. "KANA!" "I'm fine. What was that?!" "Maybe Vajra's-" "No. Something else. Is everyone else still okay? We can't go forward here. We'll extract the weapons, then see if we can regroup." For the rest of the party, there is now only one clear way forward: to follow that child. Amid the creaking of steel in the aftershocks, quiet girlish laughter echoes down the halls.
Ishirou	"I definitely saw someone..." Ishirou says, sure his mind wasn't compromised, and those who were coming with him felt confident enough. He doesn't stop when Lilian calls for him, because he's learned to trust his own instincts on these things. Though when the ship started to split, he braced himself, so to avoid being thrown to the ground. Pausing he looks back, relieved when people seemed to be alright. "The heck caused that.." he said, hearing Kana and Bota on the other side. "We're fine over here...look I'm continuing on now," addressing the others and pushing on, slipping the helmet back on. If the ship was as dangerous as this seemed to make it, he wasn't going to trust it to hold and explosive decompression to take them. He pushed to where he saw the familiar girl disappear, and started to open the way to follow behind her. Though also trying to follow the sounds of the voice that seemed to be mocking them.
Kale Hearthward	"Ah..." "... Don't know what's going on, but- if we don't look into this, might not get another chance..." Kale steels himself and pushes forward, leaving his air pocket. "...!!!" >RESTORE "Ah..." "... Don't know what's going on, but- if we don't look into this, might not get another chance..." Kale steels himself, puts his helmet back on, and pushes forward, leaving his air pocket.
Cantio	'You're still young, so I'll tell you this. If you allow a one percent possibility of death, you will not survive a hundred battles. There are times when you must stand firm and gamble with your life. But before rejecting retreat, ask yourself: is this one of them?' Cantio can't quite come up with a retort to that. Logically, it just makes sense, especially considering her position back home and her own general hangups over everything. She glances back at Kana momentarily from further away as she considers the risks of continuing her pursuit and the very obvious risks in pursuing the little girl. She looks back down the path she's headed to chase after Ishirou and the girl, and then she keeps going. She's still not sure why precisely, but she does. The deafening creak of metal has her bracing for something against one of the nearby walls, and only then does Cantio pause to look back properly at the group. "Is everyone okay? Do you need any healing back there?" She radios back before advancing with Ishirou to try and find the laughing girl. She's careful not to just try and brute force her way through any obstacles for now, instead opting to just keep her sword around and ready to pry loose things aside or even just get her hands in to nudge things out of the way directly.
Candy	"Don't worry, it's not gonna go off just from a little roughhousing!" Candy gives Kana a decidedly un-seiso smug grin, looking from his captive wrist to her and back. "Neither will I, ah? Gonna have to do better than that.~" Whatever smart, Ishirou-aggressing remark he might've made next is cut off by the abrupt and violent vanishing act the other half of the armory pulls. Candy is okay--only because the louder and more catastrophic an approaching danger is, the easier it is for him to cheat his way out of it. "Fine over here," says Candy over the radio, with on-mission seriousness once again. "Better, actually. That shit gave me an idea for something to use against the monsters, if you can believe that." He shrugs his shoulders, before blinking over to rejoin the others in pursuit of a child he hadn't seen. "Oh, I guess you did see somebody," says Candy to Ishirou, hearing the laughter. Checking the seal on his water cannon, "Well... this place has been sunk for a year. So, what the fuck does that mean, ah? Can't imagine there'd be too many of 'em. Shit, with how determined those sons of bitches that think they own the place are, I'm surprised there's even one person. 'Specially after a whole year." In the event of any collapsed obstructions blocking their way, Candy is prepared to assist with spot-fabricated tools.
Tamamo	'...doesn't press her limits.' Tamamo smiles politely. Then something crunches the armory in on itself like a bowtie. "Oh, no -- not something of Vajra's, I think." If it were, she still has the blood from one of its offspring. It's easy to check for any nearby relations, with a connection like that. "And yet, neither is it something that should be ignored. We have yet another destination to which to run. However, if these walls offer no protection, I am rather concerned that they should do little but obstruct our view." There are several people here particularly skilled with edged weaponry, but she's not one of them. "Might someone carve an exit for us, and carefully check our surroundings?" She has the healing ability to help out should turn that badly, but less capability for 'not being noticed.' 'Kana said this place sunk a year ago!' Tamamo's own progress forward is slowed by wary reluctance, and stops, if she should need walk that much forward without finding another path at all, only to where she'd seen the mysterious figure. Quietly, as if to herself, she says, "Though you may wish to play, this was not the reason for our visit. Is it we who trespass, or are you another interloper? In either case, I am somewhat too grown to be easily lured by the promise of games in sunless forests." 'Something the figure had touched' is just what she needs to form the most tenuous of connections for her magic to work, and send her own sight forward in space, backward in time, to retrace the route taken. She hadn't prepared any paper shikigami to work underwater, making this the next best solution. 'Tag' she expects to lose, but 'hide and seek' she will likely not.
Lilian Rook	'If you allow a one percent possibility of death, you will not survive a hundred battles.' "I simply wouldn't commit to anything dangerous without a viable exit plan." Lilian interjects, smugly, in her usual, effortless way. Then, "That's not a joke. Even now, if it really came to it, I'd be ready. The world hasn't been so kind as to ingratiate me to it so much that I'd die for anything in particular. And even if it had, I know very keenly what my life is worth, and the astronomical cost of spending it." A pause. "So I appreciate hearing that from someone else. Even if it is completely lost on your target audience. It makes me feel a little saner to hear it outside my own head." 'She stays alert, but doesn't press her limits. That's the type that lives.' A diving suit cannot hide Lilian puffing out her chest a little and straightening her back. 'But it's easy to appreciate people when everyone's so great.' Lilian half-smiles ruefully behind her helmet. "Spoken exactly like someone who doesn't realize how special that is. I assure you, almost nobody is that good at appreciating other people, and especially not people they barely know. You're a natural at it. I suppose it's no surprise that people want to help you." After another moment, "I see where Rita got that from too." She glances at Kana. "And her practical side." And yet, only a minute later, they're separated. Lilian radios through the wreckage. "If you can get to the other armory, we'll meet you there! If not, pull out with the gear! It's not safe to try and move any of this, or to wander around!" Then she turns to Ishirou, looking steamed. 'I definitely saw someone...' "That's exactly the problem! Do you really think the air pockets here would last anyone a year?! Even if you tried to swim between them, you'd be crushed without a diving suit! What do you think that means?!" she yells. Taking a deep breath, she runs her hands over her helmet as if pushing back her hair, then says to Tamamo, "That won't be too difficult, but it's going to have to be a narrow gap to minimize the chances of further collapse, and I can't guarantee even then it'll be safe. In the worst case, I could get you and maybe one other person through --Candelario could help-- before the water does it in. But we are still on a mission. We were preparing for monsters and architectural mishaps the moment we came down here. Let's see to recovering the rest of the weapons if at all possible; welching now will cause deaths later." She is, in fact, checking the paths to the second armory that she's learned of, and aiming to go for the shortest one from here. If there's a way to diverge from the little girl's path later in, without running into a dead end or going unacceptably far out of the way, she'll point it out, but even if there isn't, she will simply follow the phantom child with wary unease.
Rita Ma	"Is everyone okay? Does anyone need healing back there?" "I'm fine." "Kana, are you-" "I'm fine. It doesn't matter if ## ##n't regroup." Already their low-power radios are starting to crackle from the intervening water and steel. "We'll find out what did th##, an# ###n circle ar###d t# ##group at the sec### ##mory. Is th## ####?" Following the child's receding laughter leads to a series of moderately obnoxious obstacles in air-retaining hallways- dented-in corridors too narrow for anyone but maybe Ishirou and Cantio to squeeze through, hatches rusted in a quarter-open position that have to be wrenched open, all barely navigable by a child but solvable with the group's tools. From there, Tamamo's and Ishirou's powers indicate a left-hand turn into a residential area, small homes of sheet metal built into what might once have been a large storage space. Lilian's precognition finds no way around it- there is the sense, perhaps, that they have been drawn deeper on purpose. This place, too, still has air. Which means the people trapped here died slowly, with hopeless fathoms of water overhead. The dozens of bodies that huddle together in corners or lie in their beds are dessicated. The smell is still vaguely nauseating. Did they know how far they were from rescue? Or did they still entertain hope? "You humans..." The faintly glowing girl stands in the middle of the residential block, out in the open. Her voice is perfectly realistic, which makes the words all the more incongruous. If she's noticed that any of the group aren't human, she doesn't seem to care. Up close, it seems she's wearing a locket around her neck. "Why do you help each other, even across the boundaries of worlds? I wanted to ask you that. Is it because you, too, desire to have one kingdom and one queen?" Even though the question was spoken under her breath, long hallways away, the figure still answers Tamamo. "Is it we who trespass, or are you another interloper?" "You trespassed when you sank beneath the waves."
Ishirou	"That's exactly the problem! Do you really think the air pockets here would last anyone a year?! Even if you tried to swim between them, you'd be crushed without a diving suit! What do you think that means?!" "That the person we're following isn't human," Ishirou says immediately. "It's not about the hope that there are survivors, I could have told you that the moment we got close enough. However, letting it do what it wants isn't going to get us anywhere, or worse it'll ambush us if it were truly looking to hurt us. It could have stayed hidden and attacked us when we were in the armory." Ishirou stares back at Lilian a little. "It means to communicate with us, I mean to listen to what it wants to say. Or we kill a monster that is smarter than average. One less one we'll have to deal with later at a time we're prepared for rather than not. Its attention will also be focused on us and not Bota and Kana. They can easily complete the mission without us," he pauses, "But...thank you for the concern. If it was some memetic thing then I'd be trusting you to pull me out of the jaws," Ishirou says with a wry grin. Ishirou doesn't shoot ahead now that the group is together, instead he works with his onboard systems to help remotely lift crates and debris out of the way so that the entire group can move forward together. Lilian did remind him of one thing at least...sticking together is better than splitting up. Finally, before the mysterious girl, Ishirou's eyes start to scan what he's seeing in front of them. Is it what they are seeing or is this perhaps a lure of a deep sea monster trying to lure them in? He surmises that if it were the second, they wouldn't be talking to each other, this would already be the ambush point...though it doesn't mean they won't be ambushed. "You were watching the attack from the other day, weren't you? Were those creatures yours?" Ishirou asks a, perhaps bold, question. "Though if you are thinking we're all the same species, then you're off." Though her second question is piercing. "Humans don't work like that. They're a species of many, and a will of billions. Every individual is a separate person, a separate voice. There is no 'queen' or 'figure'. At least, not one that speaks for all. Humans sort of like sticking together in groups of people they feel are similar to them, and often work for a greater whole, but most consider the individual just as important." "What about you? Who are you, and why are you doing this? Are you trying to find common ground, or is this about satisfying your curiosity?"
Cantio	With the reception getting worse, Cantio can only guess at Kana's suggestion. "The second armory... Sure. We'll meet you there." She relays over her own radio, not quite sure if it'll even reach Bota and Kana in the process, but she doesn't linger or double back just to find out. Instead, she keeps on moving ahead with Ishirou (and possibly Candy, if he can fit) through those narrower passages, cheating a fair bit by recalling her own ability to just go through stuff. When she's on the other side, she'll try and hold those passages open a little more, her focus only faltering once they reach the residential area full of the long dead. "They didn't stand a chance here..." Cantio clenches her jaw as she forces down an anxious noise before it can escape, visibly discomforted by the sight. Her only solace is that the smell is mostly blocked by the helmet, but it doesn't stop her from seeing things clearly enough. Thankfully, the glowing girl's voice comes through, and it keeps her from having to think too long about just how those people might have died or felt when they did. Instead, Cantio stares at the girl for several moments, juggling the question around in her mind a few times before nodding firmly. "That's right. I'm the queen of my own land-" Technically princess, but she doesn't need to explain that whole thing. "-and my subjects count on me to handle things they couldn't possibly imagine and then some. To do that more effectively, I need to learn how to handle more things. How to help more people, humans or monsters or whatever. How to expand my rule and make my people happier without hurting them, and even bringing others into the fold so they can benefit, too." Cantio pauses for a moment, glancing over at Ishirou and considering his questions to the mysterious girl before turning to her once again. "Are you looking for your kingdom, too? Or your queen?" Another pause. "May we speak to her if... You have one?"
Kale Hearthward	'The group's tools' include Kale's drill sword, which he activates by taking one of his ampoules and slotting it into the device he'd attached to the end - the glass container is crushed, and the compressed air inside of it sucked directly into the sword's intake vent. Kale chatters a bit as they work on getting through the blockages, at first - but that very quickly dies off as he sees where they're heading into. The residential districts, with a lot of people that didn't make it out - that couldn't have possibly made it out. When they finally reach the girl again, Kale's sword lowers. It powers down and reverts back into its normal shape - more because Kale's stopped topping it up with fuel than because of any conscious decision to turn it off, but it's off just the same. "Because I can," says Kale, helmet still on. "Because I have power, and - because if I didn't, if we didn't have elites reaching out across the multiverse - existence of everyone else would be perilously short." "That's all. It's because if I don't, then I'd be hoarding all of that power for myself, for... what?" "... And that's my answer. And you..." The grip on his sword adjusts a little bit. He doesn't finish his statement.
Candy	Candy ends up using one of his signature tool kits once again, employing the time tested method of 'a crowbar' to pry open the rusted hatches along the way. Where that doesn't suffice, bolt cutters and files are on hand, too. The smell, upon entering the sunken living area, has him wishing he'd brought a rag or mask. "One--what are you--" It takes him a moment to grasp what she means. 'Trespassing' and her thoughts thereof shift his concerned expression to one of contentious disgust. "Yeah? Is that right? Did you make all this water? I don't think we're trespassers so much as you're a bunch of goddamn thieves." Candy looks like he'd spit, if not for his helmet. "Anybody with a working brain had better make damn sure there's -zero- queens, ah? Because the difference between a thief and one of those is only in how many people they can fuck over. What humans want is to be fed, safe, and happy, whatever shape that takes." There's a glance towards the sheet metal homes. The bodies. Candy' s hand tenses near the trigger of his water cannon. "I'm not the smartest but it sure seems like boats sit above the waves. So even if I believed that bullshit about you owning the water, that'd make you a murdering piece of shit, wouldn't it? How's that for a question, ah? Why are you ugly sons of bitches so goddamn determined to make sure these people need help?"
Lilian Rook	Lilian seems . . . actually a little mollified when Ishirou declares that he'd already considered that possibility. Which is a rarity. It'Is not often people are able to simply say things that make her less angry with them. But she still says "Letting it run away was exactly what we should have done. We're not here to interact with the sea life; we only need to retrieve the equipment and leave; this is doing neither. If we were going to be ambushed, it would have been better to stay as a group, in an area of our choosing, not be forced down a million linear hallways. Any monster that means to do so could tell that it couldn't get away with attacking us otherwise. You're either underestimating us, or your curiosity got the better of you." Of course, they're all in too deep now, so Lilian assists with lifting, cuts through deformed obstructions, and drains and seals what she can when she has to. She takes in a deep, sharp breath at the sight waiting for them inside the terminal point of their detour, having to squeeze her eyes shut and clear her head, or else risk thinking about what these people'Is final days were like. Was it water, food, or just running out of oxgen? Best not to dwell on it; the spite she feels has already saturated her very bones. Lilian knows that she'd do better focusing on the girl in front of her instead. And . . . 'Is it because you, too, desire to have one kingdom and one queen?' Her eyes widen in dire recognition. "You--!" '<Q-Conversation> Rita Ma echoes distantly, "One kingdom..."' "People help each other because on some level, they have some dim sliver of understanding that they should be one kingdom. Sometimes they're even smart enough to feel that they already are. If human beings don't look out for each other, then nothing else will." Lilian readies her sword in the blink of an eye, hilt low and point high, ready to bring down or up upward at a moment'Is notice. "But the funny thing about humans is that those obsessed with dividing up different kingdoms are awful, but those who say they want 'one kingdom' all the time are always the worst; and everyone who'Is ever tried to be 'one queen' has really been the most despicable of all." "There'Is a saying about how we're better off without them. 'Thou shalt never heed the words of that which abides not adversity nor attainment.' I'm not interested in ever following a queen. So the only thing I'm interested in hearing from you is 'where did you hear that' and 'what did you say to Rita'." "Everything around you was built by human hands. You're sorely mistaken if you think you have a right to be here."
Tamamo	Eventually going forward, yet lagging behind, and allowing others to wrench open doors or move obstacles out of the way, Tamamo makes the inevitable progress toward the residential area. She looks to the right, to the left, and makes her way over toward one huddled pile. Holding her breath wouldn't help for long, and so, she doesn't. 'Why do you help each other, even across the boundaries of worlds?' "Every human is a human of another world. Being from above the Earth, for what cause should I discriminate between them?" Tamamo turns an ear when she hears, but doesn't turn to speak. Her focus is on a pair of figures of unequal size, entombed long enough by accident to be hardly recognizable, to a stranger, as anything more identifiable. She reaches for their hands, joining them and hers. 'You trespassed when you sank beneath the waves.' "This city belongs to the dead, and to those few who escaped." I see your claim, and I mark its necessary boundary. "We seek to reunite those latter with some of what they had left behind. We shall away, ere long. That we should pass through the waters to do so is unfortunate, and for that, should those waters be yours, I shall ask your pardon." It's hardly the first time she's seen a sight like this. Her reaction is consistent, if calmer than the last time Lilian is likely to remember. The aim, however, is the same. For those who who died in despair, and could receive no burial with honors, Tamamo murmurs words of comfort for only spirits to hear, that no attachment should linger. This priority occupies more of her attention than the one who'd led them here, up until she's done.
Rita Ma	Ishirou's scans reveal that the girl is absolutely not human. She has no bones, only a rudimentary nervous system- on a biological basis, she 'shouldn't' be smart enough to be speaking to them at all, almost just a coil of malleable fleshy protoplasm. Is it just a puppet? When Candy and Lilian ready their weapons, she smiles a little wider, and it feels unwholesome on a child's face. "Do not think to slay me. I am an eternal existence." Her eyes drift to Ishirou. "Nor do I wish to slay you. I am here to bargain. But you may satisfy my curiosity, first." "Yeah? Is that right? Did you make all this water?" The girl's eyebrows slightly lift. "Yes." "That's right. I'm the queen of my own land..." She assesses Cantio uncomfortably for a moment. "You are no queen. None of you are. But to experience, and grow... yes, I know of this." "Every individual is a separate person, a separate voice. There is no 'queen' or 'figure'." She frowns, as if Ishirou had given the wrong answer. "And yet, you have a queen already." "It's because if I don't, then I'd be hoarding all of that power for myself, for... what?" "You do feel a loyalty, then. But is that really a question you cannot answer?" "... and for that, should those waters be yours, I shall ask your pardon." "I forgive you. After all, it was important that we speak. And yet..." "May we speak to her if... You have one?" The girl smiles wider than a human face should allow. Her flesh flows like candle-wax, then twists and braids around itself, adopting a vast, twisted shape. An overwhelming psychic presence alters perceptions for showmanship, filling in details- overlaid on the residential area is an elaborate hive of stone and flesh, with honeycombed rock walls and a floor of throbbing veins. The details of the towering grotesque form are filled in by psychic impression, too; the colors, the eyes, the luminous gravid belly, the unsettlingly human-like teeth. One can still see the real world beneath with a bit of focus, the sculpture of gray amorphous flesh that halfway imitates the full thing- this is not to deceive, but to illustrate. It still wears the golden locket. Addressing Candy, in part, she rasps: "I am the Queen of this world, though this is merely a fragment of my being. Humanity still exists because I have had mercy. My ingredient inclines me to. You have seen how tenuous is their existence. Do you not think I could destroy them with a single command?" "Even now, they think to make war against me as if we were equals. Soon I may be forced to answer them, and if I do, humanity will become extinct. There is one way to avert this, and one only." "Some of you have said that humanity has no need for queens. Others, that humans care for and protect one another. If this is true, you will have no issue with my proposal. Bring me Rita Ma and I will spare humanity, even with their foolish war. Trade one life for a hundred thousand. That is 'heroic', is it not?" That must be why she had to separate Bota and Kana.
Rita Ma	"So the only thing I'm interested in hearing from you is 'where did you hear that' and 'what did you say to Rita'. "It is a self-evident truth. As for what I told her..." The psychic illusion of the Queen and the hive is replaced, for a moment, with a foggy vision. Rita is on the Union Busan's arcology deck in her casual clothes, fascinated by a beehive. A new queen bee is born, and is immediately stabbed to death by the older one. A man's voice speaks, reassuring her: "It's the bees' natural instinct. The stronger queen takes over the hive." Rita murmurs under her breath: "But she was destined to die the moment she was born... that's awful." The illusion-vision ends. The Queen reappears. "I told her what she is."
Kale Hearthward	Kale freezes, looking up at the gradually towering form. His thoughts race. He's suddenly very glad he's still wearing the helmet - he doesn't trust his facial expressions to adequately hide his thoughts and his feelings right now. And then he speaks, words chosen carefully, continuing to remain very still, aside from his eyes, which glance around the room at his companions as much as they do the monster ahead of them. "What... reassurance would we have, that you wouldn't just declare war on humanity afterward anyway, even if we did hand Rita Ma over?" he asks, trying to carefully phrase it as if it were a neutral hypothetical.
Tamamo	'Do not think to slay me. I am an eternal existence.' "You truly do not know...? Ah, no matter." Tamamo is finishing up her rounds, having entirely circumnavigated the room, covering every pair of eyes as she did. A vision is illustrated, and she sits to carefully clean the blood stuck to her knife, while eyeing a golden locket. The cloth is stored away, in one of the few pockets inside the suit she has. Or rather, there didn't even seem to be a pocket under that chest zipper, but pay that fact no mind. Reading her thoughts is, as ever, impossible. A reaction this clearly controlled betrays only that she would have reacted. 'What... reassurance would we have, that you wouldn't just declare war on humanity afterward anyway, even if we did hand Rita Ma over?' "Likely none, under ordinary circumstances," Tamamo says, "at least, insofar as one could consider what followed 'a war,' and not 'extermination.'" This fact doesn't appear to bother her. She does not mention what extraordinary circumstances presently apply. It is very much a hypothetical, after all. 'I told her what she is.' "Ah, then, there is no need to ask as to what you intend to be done with her, should you meet. And yet, it is strange. I expect that she will meet you, regardless, and of her own volition. There is little cause to ask others to bring her to you. Is it that you have some cause to believe otherwise, and that she would hide from you, if called?" 'That is 'heroic', is it not?' "No, it is not." Tamamo states, firmly. "What you speak of is a sacrifice, but to sacrifice that which belongs to another falls so far short of heroism as to be unworthy of mention. As she belongs to none here, there are none here as can sacrifice her. This has been known since the first ages of the world." Tamamo continues to consider her carefully cleaned knife. "And so, I should ask you, having heard your claims of dominion, as to your origin. It is difficult to judge such things, lacking knowledge. Every authority rests within another, through the lines that are called 'history,' unto those first ages, except where claims are made that one has rightfully wrested authority from another. Of what nature shall be your own, to have covered your waters over what came before? Were you ever here, yet in hiding?"
Candy	Candy hears the Queen's bargain with unmitigated, undisguised contempt plain on his face. "Never heard of her," he says calmly. Even though it's a lie, there is absolutely nothing in him that would betray it, not for any kind of heightened senses to detect. A sour look towards Kale. "Look at who you're asking, and tell me you'd believe the answer, Hearthward. Listen to all this talk--talk about what a favor they're doing the rest of us, surrounded by people that're dead because of them." Turning to look back at the Queen, "Yeah, you're a regular saint, Ms. 'Eternal Existence,'" he spitefully hurls. "If this war is so fucking hopeless for us, then you got no reason to be scared, right?" Candy hefts the water cannon. "Especially since we're so stupid. See, I heard 'eternal' just fine. The thing is, I don't give a shit. Sorry, Ishirou, Irish." He takes in a deep breath. The impellers spin up. Water forms from billowing smoke behind the impellers, providing a steady supply of ammunition for the extremely pressurized lances the cannon produces. "HERE'S MY COUNTER OFFER, YOU GODDAMN THIEF! YOU MURDERING SHIT!" The roar of the impellers in open air is only slightly overcome by Candy's furious shouting. "YOU THINK I GIVE A FUCK FROM ENDLESS?! I'LL KILL YOUR ASS 'TILL YOU GET TIRED OF COMING BACK!"
Cantio	'You are no queen. None of you are. But to experience, and grow... yes, I know of this.' Cantio should feel vaguely insulted, but she doesn't. She actually seems somewhat relieved, as though having something so strange still recognizing the need to experience and grow strikes a chord within her. It's enough to keep her from protesting too much, although there's a slight moment of visible discomfort once the girl transforms from her more human-looking form to something far less comprehensible to Cantio. Worse than that, however, is the visual warping of the world itself around her. Cantio does indeed strain visibly to try and make sense of what she's seeing, but it's of little help compared to the actual form of the giant queen. Some of what the queen says actually makes a fair bit of sense, if in a somewhat terrifying way. "They're like... Livestock to you, then." Cantio tries to keep her voice neutral, but there's a distinctly duller tone in her voice compared to before. "It... Makes sense. They're weaker, and you're in a stronger position than they are as it stands. And from a purely mathematical..." Cantio doesn't realize she's already got her hand on a plastic greeble as she keeps focusing on the Queen, only stopping when the vision of the past comes to her mind. It's a rather large shock to Cantio finding out just what Rita's role in this world could be, and it's certainly something to... She's not sure whether to bring it up or not to Rita later, but that in itself does solidify her thoughts after hearing the Queen's offer. "What a generous..." She starts, stopping once she hears the difference between Kale's and Tamamo's attempts at speaking to the Queen further, and Candy's emotional (and physical) outburst. She exhales softly, then slams her greeble into the base of her sword. "... No, I'm afraid I have to agree with Mister Candy right now. Henshin!" Her blade lights up, and a chaotic mixture of primary-color yellow, blue, and red text surges out of the greeble while guttural digitized noises start coming out of the device. It all swirls together until it becomes an unreadable white soup, then explodes into a a pure blackness with even more industrial grinding noises that actually start sounding like a backing track after a while. Stars illuminate the area behind Cantio, eventually forming into digitized spaceships that turn into heavy-looking pieces of black armor with red and purple accents that clamp onto her limbs and face, extending from her back like mechanical wings/thrusters without being connected to her in any way while a similar pair of red and purple spikes jut out of the side of her helmet like a pair of antenna or early 2000s robot-girl ears. ACTION MASTER 52! And then she promptly flings her sword at the Queen, sending it careening around her like a flying buzzsaw rather than a proper sword while bringing out another handle and creating a new blade for that as well. "You don't get to demand trades for nothing. Make it worth our time, or we'll kill you as many times as it takes for this insult against her!"
Lilian Rook	"I have a rule about 'eternal existence' too. 'Thou shalt never heed the words of that which knows not death.' That means you're fundamentally incapable of understanding people who do." Lilian replies with equal measures constrained bitterness and cold caution. She has that sense about her that she occasionally exudes; the kind where she seems more than ready to fight, but not eager to start one with an avoidable threat. Kana was right. And in this case, so was Lilian. She was not particularly expecting the sheer gravity of this situation. But once it becomes apparent, through that overwhelming psychic vision that strains her instinct and self-restraint to their foggy, aching limit, Lilian can only think that holding to form is the only sane option. After all-- 'if I do, humanity will become extinct' It's the people of this world who will suffer for any one Elite's bravado right now. And yet . . . 'Bring me Rita Ma' "Would you trade one of yours for the rest if I told you to?" Lilian spits. "It's not as if humanity doesn't kill your monsters --your 'kingdom's subjects-- all the time. Don't try to tell me how sacrifice works, if you couldn't even care less how many of yours are slaughtered for no reason." Her grip tightens. "Besides. Nothing about this is a bargain. It's just a demand. We give you Rita, and then what? You graciously ignore the rest of humanity coming after you with everything they've got? You can't afford to do that. Are we supposed to give you Rita, then give up and leave things the way they are? That's extinction too, only slower. Do you not understand that we have no reason to give you anything as long as you're committed to this genocide? Whether intent or apathy, by declaring everything humanity needs to survive 'your territory' and filling it with creatures that try to exterminate humans on sight, you've set this up so only one kingdom can survive from the very beginning." "Throwing good people to the pyre to stave off the inevitable a little longer isn't heroism. It's just desperation." 'I told her what she is.' Lilian winces. Then, clenches her jaw. Some kind of dawning comprehension enters her eyes. "If Rita is supposed to be 'humanity's queen', then why do you care about her at all? Why should it matter if another kingdom has another queen? Isn't that how it's supposed to be? From what you just showed me, it seems as if you're more concerned that she might be the queen of your kingdom instead. If you're trying so hard to kill her, then shouldn't I intuit you think she might be a threat?"
Ishirou	"We do not, we have those who are better at leading than others...but if you are referring to /her/ she isn't our queen, she isn't /my/ queen. She is my friend," Ishirou says firmly. It might be wrong to her, but to him, it is perfectly right. He stares ahead listening to everything, claiming everything she was... He takes a breath, his tactical mind starts considering everything. This creature isn't the entire monster, the entire entity. Perhaps it's designed to be some sort of...mouth or scout? No, this was engineered he realizes. She wanted them there, she knew the ship that Rita was from was in the area. This wasn't fate but engineered. His mind comes up with several ways they could try and turn this into a better position for them. Attempting to engineer a situation where they could fight on terms more favorable to them. It'd likely be less of an ambush, but terrain wise it'd be better for them, right? He suggests something, but Candy refuses to listen...and instead goes for a shot. Part of him tenses up, but another larger part is relieved. There isn't any temptation to talk to Rita about this, to get her involved in this. To risk her...this way is far more dangerous but it feels /right/. Instead of the previous plan, which he disregards, he turns his brain onto a new plan. This thing still has to be connected to her... This means they have the best way to either grievously hurt her or kill her here and now. Ishirou closes his eyes and focuses everything he has on this. The others will have a way to distract her...but he can... He fires a shot forward, attempting to shoot beams into the monster before them. He attempts to reach into that person. He attempts to do nothing but grab the entity on the other end, refusing any attempt to close the connection. He attempts to seize everything, and lock it down in this creature. "If you attempt to wipe out humanity here, the response from the rest of the multiverse would be greater than you think. You might be stronger than one world, but not billions of humans that weren't wiped out by your machinations..."
Rita Ma	Kale's question is met with a sound that is almost, but not quite entirely, unidentifiable as a dry laugh. "Your guarantee is that I have not done so already, in twenty-five years. Humanity is insignificant. Why should I trouble myself with the effort? It is only her continued existence that forces my hand." Tamamo's first question- of hiding, and calling- likewise seems to amuse her, though more bitterly. "She would. But with my first attempt to catch her, she fled beyond my grasp. You know how to contact her. Merely tell her my offer, and she will comply." "As for my origin... I am something from beyond the stars. But as I must, I have consumed other ingredients. Part of me was even human, once." Another flicker of a memory-vignette, this one dimmer, older. "I can understand your mortal affairs. Even your 'love'. You say that she belongs to no-one here, and yet..." The Queen removes her locket, and reaches down uncomfortably close to Tamamo to display its contents. It depicts a man very much like an older Bota, and a woman not unlike an older Rita, but for her hazel eyes better matching the childlike entity from earlier. "It isn't right for a mother and child to be separated, is it? I wish to keep her safe as part of me." "If you're trying so hard to kill her, then shouldn't I intuit you think she might be a threat?" The Queen twists to face Lilian with a swiftness that suggests a nerve has been struck. "You dare? Worthless thing. My control is absolute. What would you know of-" Candy's water jets unceremoniously punch holes through the Queen's torso and head. The illusion of the hive, and her regal appearance, fade. What's left behind is a writhing mass of gray-pink flesh, shrinking back down into goopy uncanny humanoid shape. "Extinction it is," the creature rasps. It extrudes an impossible volume of anemone-like spikes from its flesh, each one extending across the room, cutting through sheet-metal buildings, and embedding deeply in the steel superstructure. The first volley is bad enough. The second volley would be even harder to dodge, thanks to the first thicket of spikes inhibiting movement- but Ishirou disrupts the puppet's coordination. The creature is effectively "remote-controlled", making it all the more susceptible to bio-hacking. Cantio's sword-boomerang, too, slices deeply into its flesh, nearly bisecting the creature's torso and spilling ample blood. A messenger body like this falls well short of a proper 'boss encounter'. As a last-ditch measure, its body begins to roil and seethe with unwholesome energies from within. They bubble its flesh and shine up from the back of its throat, desperate for an exit. "I am done with you," it hisses. "Begone." The violent room-flattening explosion that follows is predictable, allowing the savvy just enough time to dive for cover or put up defenses. But in its aftermath, Akroma itself shakes and shifts, tilting slightly to one side. The groaning of metal becomes almost deafening. Kana yells something unintelligible over the radio. "### #### ## ### ###! ##### ## ##########!" Whether or not you feel there's time to scavenge the second armory, just down the hall, or take care of any other further business, is down to your own personal gumption, speed, and tolerance for risk.
Ishirou	Ishirou forces a situation, which is good! However, what doesn't happen followed by what DOES happen is not very good. Tamamo nor Lilian can hurt her from here, which is bad. Though his ability to hamper her is increased dramatically. His mind works this out, meaning that anything she puppets he can disrupt, which will make her less likely to reveal herself in the future. He doesn't say anything else, trying to figure out a way forward. Ishirou tries to hit the ground, the spike-like weapon grazing his armor and driving him to the ground /hard/ causing him to roll. He doesn't break his concentration, which is a good thing because of what happens next. The flesh ungulates and it explodes once she realizes that he's breaking her control. He is already prone and rolls himself to safety to avoid the explosion. He realizes he had some flawed assumptions, some flawed ideas about this...the scale of the problem was a bit larger than he expected. Which causes him to sigh. Cantio mentions the second armory, and he stands up. "I'll help," he says, his voice solemn. This situation was a lot more complicated, dangerous, and...sad.
Cantio	The Queen's continued memory projection confirms for Cantio what she had already decided earlier: She needs to be destroyed to protect everything else. Unfortunately, the Queen here proves to just be a messenger rather than the Queen herself, and Cantio finds her initial adrenaline spike wearing off relatively quickly once there's no longer anyone to slash apart. There's plenty of samples being left behind, though, but it has to wait as the room-flattening begins. Thanks to her transformed armor piling on top of her previous transformation already, Cantio weathers the explosion in a relatively straightforward manner between all of that and her sword returning to her hand just in time to add some further metal between herself and the incoming burst. Her boots and blade still scrape along the ground unpleasantly to keep herself from getting knocked back, and then she hears that unintelligible shouting from Kana. "... The second armory. We haven't even started...!" Without knowing for certain where Bota and Kana might be, Cantio can only hope that they're still safe. There's still all the stuff that might need to be gathered there, though, and Candy's earlier idea with the bombs gives Cantio a new idea to work with. She splits into three: Herself (in the Rider armor), and two almost identical regular-Cantios in white and black wetsuits. The Cantio in Black sticks with anyone that's escaping, and Cantio Prime (with Cantio in White) nods at Ishirou when he offers his aid. "We'll get as much as we can, then. When it starts looking dicey, go. I can catch up faster as long as I'm with them." She gestures at the Cantio in Black, and then it's time to go find the second armory and pack as much stuff as she can into the Concord's patented stuff-stuffing briefcase! She really is going to wait until the last moment to escape, too, relying on her ability to teleport herself (and the Cantio in White) to the position of one of her clones (the one in black). It's risky, but she's confident enough in her timing to do it without dying horribly in an undersea explosion.
Lilian Rook	'It isn't right for a mother and child to be separated, is it?' Lilian answers that before Tamamo. Vehemently. "A decent mother would know the difference. No parent should want to harm their daughter just to be closer to her." Her investment purely on Rita's behalf is less than convincing. 'You dare? Worthless thing. My control is absolute.' "Insignificant, am I?" Lilian finally lets a hint of bitter pleasure slip into her voice. "Or are you going to tell me I'm not human as well?" Lilian has spent the speaking time checking several potential futures. Confirming that the terminal in front of her isn't nearly significant enough for her to take the queen out with any of her Cleasanna. Not enough for Tamamo's curses to clinch it from here. Airgapped too well to assert control even if she pooled her parapsychic ability with Tamamo's magic and Ishirou's hacking all at the same time. An obnoxiously competent mastermind. The worst kind. The upside is that, deep in probability scanning, she sees the blast of radial extrusions coming ahead of time. As loath as she is to tip her hand even this little where the terminal can see, Lilian blinks to shield Tamamo, severed spines spraying out in a scattered cone around her. As duty (and other feelings) compel, she sweeps the bunrei up, and-- 'Begone.' "We were here first." --leaps for cover. But only after scraping that spilled blood into a hermetic alchemical vial, and severing the terminal's (mock?) locket. "All of you that can't make it back to the surface under your own power with a compromised suit, rendesvouz with Kana and Bota. I'm making an emergency run to the secondary armory. Candelario, with me; I'll want to borrow your storage space, and you're the only one who can mostly keep pace with me."
Candy	Candy is speared through the chest by the first volley of spikes. A wheezing rattle escapes him as he slowly goes limp, his helmet cracked through to reveal... a poor, gap-toothed imitation. He smiles and offers the queen a middle finger, before he dissolves like a reflection on the disturbed surface of a lake. The real Candy drops silently down from the ceiling, with a familiar looking macuahuitl--just in time to land beside Ishirou pre-explosion. Weathering the explosive retreat, he nods at Lilian. "Figured you'd see it that way," he says, shouldering a flawless imitation of a storied weapon. "Lead on, Irish.I can keep pace a little better, after that little touch-up I just did."
Tamamo	'It isn't right for a mother and child to be separated, is it?' Several things click into place in Tamamo's mind. "Oh, I see." Her face shows her sorrow. "You believe love is only for mortals, do you? Oh, how awful it is, and how much need have gone wrong, that a daughter should wish, more than anything, to never become her mother." Her hands come together, as if offering a prayer. With a small smile, "I shall take your example to heart in my own life." Tamamo's own future reading, and her own subtle manipulations of that future, are enough to tell her where to safely step to avoid blindly targeted attacks. Here and now, of course, they tell her that the only safe place for her to be is right behind Lilian. As others indicate their immediate plans to save the armory even under these circumstances, she reaches into her still-open suit to draw from her main supply of charms, rolling one flat against the back of Lilian's suit. It will wear away, but the magic is applied immediately, a resurgence of energy that will last her plenty enough time to make it through several final sprints. For her own part, Tamamo expects she just can't run that quickly, as much as she does have confidence in the power of her legs. "Be safe. I shall, then, escape, and await you above."
Rita Ma	The second armory is much the same as the first, and looting it is easy enough, save for the fact that Akroma keeps lurching a little further to one side and creaking ominously every few seconds. Upon leaving, either through an existing exit or by making an improvised one, contact with Bota and Kana can be re-established. Akroma is sliding down the side of the seamount it had perched on, vanishing into the abyss. The culprit is a vast blue-tan squidlike monster retreating into the distance. One of its severed limbs is still wrapped around the further-sinking city, where the dent in the first armory must have been. Flesh and blood cloud the water. "-treating. Finally." "Why? Shouldn't it have gone straight for the Union Busan?" "I don't know. For Kraken, those aren't serious injuries. We need to meet up with-" "That's them!" "So you're still alive. What happened in there?" From open water, returning to the fishing boat- and from there, Union Busan and home- is relatively easy.