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Kayoko Kirenai	Another question about Kagoshima's mysteries is answered simply by the passage of time, without needing to do anything. Meika's birthday passed, and despite Chevalier Vermillion being gone and Meika herself-- for some definitions-- being shuffled away to the Eastern Seaboard Urban Center, the 'sickness', as Flamel described it, lingers in the city. Trying to link it to Kayoko specifically instead is similarly inconclusive: her presence at the site of the blades was *why* it happened, in the most immediately available sense, but not 'how'.     Searching for the source is an infuriating series of return visits to Kagoshima for Tamamo and Flamel. Threads of fate and psychic traces disintegrate when gripped too tightly, gesturing in frustratingly vague directions; trains of thought wander, confabulate, slip away, helped considerably by saying them out loud to another person to externalize the inconsistencies. The other thing that makes tracking down the source of the haphazard memory alteration effect difficult, understandable in retrospect, is that the narrative epicenter isn't *in* Kagoshima, but right outside.     The harbor of Kagoshima is more subdued than it has been on any of your previous glimpses of it, though industry and shipping only ever truly stop in the most apocalyptic scenarios. Kayoko is here, looking exactly the same as normal with her monochrome school uniform, besides the fact that rather than being accompanied by Meika, she's invited the Magical Girl of Love to come along, when on the earlier mission she hadn't. The reason for that is probably obvious, which makes it equal parts pitiable and contemptible that she still hardly speaks to the other magical girl despite tending to stick nearby her.     Taking the small scale ferry that the Elites rented across the bay-- rather than anything like flight, teleportation, personal vehicles, and so on-- there's a twenty minute stretch of traveling where they have nothing to do besides talk and observe the scenery. The sun's oppressive heat is only barely fended off by the striped tarp over the back deck of the ferry, with the humid air keeping the majority of it buoyed around. In one direction, the cityscape of Kagoshima shrinks away, though it'll still be plenty visible once they've disembarked on the opposite shore of the peninsula they're headed to. The sea air carries the scents of salt and marine rot, occasionally swept away by wind, along with the sharp, jarring stench of sulfur.     Sakurajima, the volcano that's been looming on the horizon every time you've been to Kagoshima, lies a short distance by water away from the city, a conical volcano surrounded by green, with stripes of clouds crawling close to the ground and a small town nestled at the base of the island. Right now, heavy grey smoke is pouring out the top of it and dropping a shower of ash-trailing debris onto the island below, accompanied by the gunshot-like sound of explosions echoing across the water, spaced minutes apart. It's an ominous portent that it chose today to erupt, when that's the direction that all of Flamel and Tamamo's sniffing pointed them in-- but not altogether uncommon, as the ferryman explains.     Conveniently, with most of the population of the town evacuating the island during the eruption, it's the perfect opportunity to rule out 'anyone in the town of Sakurajima' as the source of the magic. It's also never shifted locations, any time they tried to triangulate it from the city-- which might be the oddest part, because it suggests that either the 'origin' and 'actor' of the blades are different, or that whatever is causing them is entirely stationary. Either way, once disembarked, the plan is to search for locations outside of town that could potentially host something, or someone, magical.
Kayoko Kirenai	Kayoko acts somewhat directionless, even more than usual for her, when letting the other Elites figure out approaches and potential hazards and so on. It's not because of being harder hit by the magical obfuscation, this time. Hands folded together on her lap, gaze directed vaguely in the direction of the peninsula but skimming the surface of the water rather than watching the eruption, she fidgets with the hem of her skirt with nearly imperceptible twitches of her fingers.     "... Not to be... contrarian, but I'm not sure I understand what the point of unraveling this will be. We know it wasn't-- Vermillion, at this point. It's not me, or Love or Justice, of course. I don't know what changes, or can change, no matter what we find. I don't know what the next step is." Kayoko blinks and takes a small breath, straightening up in her barely-cushioned ferry seat. "If it's something that helps explain or fight the Temptations, of course it's worth it, but... as far as I know, there's nothing besides the monsters themselves."     Kayoko turns her attention approximately towards Lilian, not able to look her in the eye. "And, um... thank you, Dame Commander. For doing what you've done to help give Meika structure after all this." There's something she's not quite admitting to there, and the name change in how she refers to Meika is tangible. "I'm sorry for causing you trouble, before."
Tamamo	With the town evacuated, the only difference in Tamamo's appearance is that she hasn't put up her sight-baffling charms to feign 'normality.' That is, she looks just the same and there's no difference in how she's remembered, apart from the memory of her 'having looked like someone unremarkable' sticking to her prior appearances. Any dissonance resulting from this is, of course, not her problem.     She's fine waiting, really. She has a lot of patience, and maintains the appearance of having even more. Twenty minutes is enough time to put out a picnic blanket, sit with her legs under her, and have tea. Lilian is invited to sit as she'd like, along with anyone else who would like some. She's carrying more than the one thermos.     'I'm not sure I understand what the point of unraveling this will be.'     "Such is the nature of any mystery, that we will not know the reason for its existence until it has been recovered. To leave it be may be permissible, though this would provide us no benefit, and may allow steps be taken without our knowledge. You need not worry yourself over the reasons, Chevalier. Merely think of this as our... due diligence. Tea? There is ice, if you prefer." It's a mystery where she keeps it. Somewhere in those sleeves? She has to roll one up just to pour.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	Jeanne's arrival at the ferry leading out of Kagoshima is notably more muted than usual. Normally, she, Ritsuka, and Mash would be chatting it up about something, but it's just her minus the others today. Dressed in the usual black and blue track-jacket and coat combo, she's had enough time prior to getting onto the ferry that she shows up with a see-through plastic bag of assorted soda cans bearing images of mustachioed singing cacti, boxing kangaroos, and bears in beach gear holding watermelons. She doesn't say anything about sharing them, of course, but she does set them aside on a nearby table or something conveniently close enough that it'd be hard to ignore them shifting a bit every now and then with the movement of the ship. "If it turns out to be just like any other Temptation, not much." Jeanne answers plainly while staring out across the water with a disinterested look on her face. She pauses to just stare at the volcano that's the subject of today's outing, stealing occasionally glances at a 5-yen coin in her hand, then at the bag of sodas to see if any of them have been touched yet. "The bunrei's got the right idea. The fact that there's a mystery to be unraveled at all should be plenty of warning signs already, and not in the sense of telling us to stay away. We'll be lucky if it really is nothing, and if..." She pauses to consider just how badly this could go for the girls if it really did involve their church and those creatures that had been found tracking them last time. Sure, it'd be satisfying to herself to know that she was right, but... Jeanne lets out a conflicted grumbling-ish noise, then quickly turns her gaze back upon the volcano. "Anyway. If we're lucky, it really is just nothing. You can pray for that, can't you?"
Hibiki Tachibana	It visibly hasn't been an amazing time for Hibiki lately, and that can only be because of the event that is Meika's birthday coming and going looming over things like an unseen shadow. She could never be counted among Meika's friends or confidants, of course. It's just that, after their relationship ran the rollercoaster from decent to bad to really bad to sort of recovering again, it's extremely difficult to not have the expected kind of thoughts creep up.     That there was more she should've tried to do, that she should have spent all her time investigating Kagoshima with Rose, that she should've tried to be around her more, even if it wouldn't be remembered. How much she might've actually been able to meaningfully change doesn't really play into it.     Now that they're here though, in the shadow of Sakurajima as the city grows more distant, some clarity pushes through the familiar fog of listlessness. What she has to do now is... uncover what's going on here. Why what happens in Kagoshima-- in this world with Temptations, happens in the first place. Because until they know, it'll stay a world with more girls that'll end up in situations just like Meika's. Like Kayoko's. Like Love, who swore to protect the city all the way until she dies...     "As far as you know," Hibiki repeats Kayoko's words, in a more matter-of-fact tone than anything else, her eyes on the high peak of the erupting volcano. She reluctantly accepted tea from Tamamo when the offer was put out, although she's too restless to do anything but stay standing. "But there's so much we don't have a clue about. Whatever we find here will help us see what the next step should even be."     Seeing Kayoko in this state, with Love filling in and still hardly being spoken to... she's not sure how to feel about it. It's just another unsaid reason why the path to a real improvement needs to be found. Even if Meika is able to get her memories back eventually, one way or another... it won't mean anything for how things are here.     "...I'll turn that mountain inside out if it means finding something..." Hibiki murmurs under her breath, focused on Sakurajima itself again. Though after that, it's the Magical Girl of Love she glances at - quietly gauging how she's doing today.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	After suffering from the heat in her full pantsuit last time she was in Kagoshima, Madeleine's dressed down quite a bit. Black tank top and cargo pants, matching hiking boots, fingerless gloves and spiked bracelets. She looks like she just walked out of a punk-rock show. Instead of the unwieldy double-bass bag which contained her spear last time, she's carrying a long, slim case shaped a little like an extra-extra-wide coat hanger, which likely contains her weapon in its bow form. She has, however, remembered the sunglasses this time.     On the ferry, Madeleine seems antsy. Her eyes rarely stray from the volcano, except when she's pacing back and forth across the deck. She doesn't even sit down for tea, or Jeanne's drinks - but she does unconsciously stand away from the latter, unsettled by the assortment of brightly colored cans.     "I don't know what changes, or can change, no matter what we find."     "Hibiki has the right of it," Madeleine says. "We're going to find whatever or whoever's doing this, and if it *is* a who, we'll give it what-for. It's about sending a message to whatever power is behind this, even if it's acting through some kind of underling."
Flamel Parsons	"Something is sick." Flamel intones, still on a rather serious tone. "Sick enough that it's leaking out, sick enough that it's even infecting you. We don't know what good it'll do because we don't even know the scope of the problem. It's affecting your ability to see, it's affecting the Cherubs, it's probably affecting the Refulgence. And it's not healthy for the source either. It's a psychohazard so, guh, so *strange* I can't even assess the size of it. It might not even be a problem we can assess as scoped. For all I know, this is the tenth time we've done this."     Somehow, the shape of this paranoia is entirely different from the goofy conspiracy theories. It's the paranoia of a man who has gone through something similar to this before, and can't abide it happening anywhere else. "If it turns out to be harmless, or nothing... I'll make it up to you, okay? I'll owe you a big, big favor, and you can cash it in as ruthlessly as you like. But I have a feeling what we're gonna find isn't *nothing*, and the last time I visited a mountain with a lot of memory gaps, it..." He shakes his head and grits his teeth.     No MIB suit today. No goofy gear. He's wearing what looks like a tactical turtleneck, barely passing for civilian gear purely because of the absence of a holster and the fact that the things his pockets are loaded with are more benignly psychoactive.
Angela	The Magical Girl of Love is wearing her magical girl uniform! Because she's a magical girl. She's a magical girl. She's a magical girl. She's a person too. She's not a monster. She prayed and it didn't work but that might be because that's because she's a bad person. She did a lot of murder after all, that's just true! Maybe it's all her fault that Meika lost her memories. Maybe it's all her fault that Kayoko and Meika had that big fight. She chose to come to Lobotomy Corp. She brought up the idea of saving Courage. She has Meika's hairtie around her wrist. She has Meika's earpods and music device tucked into a pouch. She even stole her job. It's hard to not think thoughts like this. She thinks back to what Qetra said. Maybe letting the snake win more is the only way to banish them. But letting it win means not being good any more right? It's so confusing. She doesn't want to make Kayoko any sadder. She's all she has left. She wants to help. SHe wants to help. She has no idea how she can help. She's not an investigator. She can shoot lasers. Bu she can come along when Kayoko asks. That's how she can help. Meika's gone and will never talk to her again. She lingers by Kayoko uselessly. She isn't sure she agrees with Kayoko's estimation that it no longer matters. Maybe it can at least help Kayoko. "I don't know either... But if we find the truth, maybe we can do something for the future." She says, smiling like she cares and believes it. Her smile manages to brighten a little at Tamamo. "Tamamo, thanks for coming to help. May I hug you?" She (Love) looks like she could use the hug more than Tamamo probably needs it. Love is doing her level best to seem Normal but she's a sincere person at heart and is really bad at pretending, unfortunately. ''I'll turn that mountain inside out...'' "If you need help, let me know. I am still good at blasting!" Love says. That's all you're good at. ''Something is sick.'' What's the point, Vermilion's already gone forever. "Yeah, I hope we can find that something today. Maybe it needs some medical attention. IF someone needs medical care they probably need all kinds of help."
Sarracenia	% Sarracenia is once again here, and once again in her best approximation of a normal non-royal outfit. She's in a red sun dress this time, an attempt to keep cool since they are headed toward a volcano. She still has on leggings, this time striped red and black. And she still has on black gloves reaching up to above her elbows. Her hair is done up in a sporty pony tail. Her crown is still on her head. Accompanying it is an accessory she has not worn before. A rust red metal lotus with white ceramic outer petals and a silver stem. It has been pinned in her hair by a sturdy metal barrette.      She takes some iced tea when it is offered and offers a quiet, "Thank you..." to Tamamo. Tamamo was generous enough set out the refreshments, after all.      She listens to the others, nodding in agreement at the reasons to investigate. She remains standing like Hibiki. There's too many people here once again that would be just as happy if she died, some that said nothing when she was shot for no reason other than existing, and one who did the shooting. "If we can help heal that sickness, there is no telling how many we will end up helping in the end. It may help you, Kayoko. It may help Meika somehow. It may even help all the magical girls who have been forced into forgetting an important part of their lives." she says, face half hidden behind her tea, which she is holding in both hands.
Tamamo	'Something is sick.'     "All the more reason for a healer to attend." Tamamo's a cheating a little in calling herself that, considering that healing falls below certain other talents, but it's true enough in that she is very good at it. It doesn't even matter that much if the subject is 'a living being,' all told.     Depending on what they find, she might still prefer to excise it.     'For all I know, this is the tenth time we've done this.'     "...hm?"     'Tamamo, thanks for coming to help. May I hug you?' She (Love) looks like she could use the hug more than Tamamo probably needs it.     If Tamamo's surprised by the request, she doesn't show it. "Oh, of course." An instant decision, intuition processing a need before the conscious mind can reach it. It doesn't matter so much to Tamamo whether Love is a magical girl, but it does matter, at least a little, that she's at least a bit like a lost child.     Of course, she knows about the murders. Tamamo had been the one to insist Love become aware of what she'd done. But then... whose hands are left unstained? Comparing body counts is uncouth.     The hand she reaches out looks immaculate, of course. The space to her side is open.
Flamel Parsons	"...hm?"     "This thing, whatever it is, whatever the sickness is, it makes it nearly impossible to remember it. We only *barely* know about it, because some of the Immunes from Lilian's world are trained to recognize memory-altering effects, and because it's somehow *not* respecting the immunity of people who are supposed to be immune to it." Flamel explains. "Even the direct servants of capital-G God can't store direct memories, as far as I can tell, or they're locked in a layer so deep I couldn't find it when I was ripping up the floorboards in the mind."     "We have no guarantee we're going to remember anything we see on that mountain. And the only guarantee we have that this hasn't happened before is that it was so unlikely to have happened in the first place."
Lilian Rook	'I don't know what changes, or can change, no matter what we find. I don't know what the next step is.'     "That's often how it is, in our line of work." is most of what Lilian even says to Kayoko on the way over, and even then she is clearly being selective by who she includes in 'our'. "It's the most difficult part, too. When you don't know what the next step is, you can finally be blamed for failing. Once you've shown a willingness to try, you can be blamed for all the times you don't do anything. There's very little training in the way of 'what to do when there's nothing to do', and it's difficult to learn in the field."     'If it's something that helps explain or fight the Temptations, of course it's worth it, but... as far as I know, there's nothing besides the monsters themselves.'     "I'd never say that I envy your work, so please understand what I mean by it when I say that your role naturally wouldn't equip you to understand why this is important. Even if this winds up being completely pointless, it's worth the time. On the day when young girls don't have to fight Temptations anymore, there will be a lot of pointless exercises that went nowhere behind it."     'And, um... thank you, Dame Commander. For doing what you've done to help give Meika structure after all this. I'm sorry for causing you trouble, before.'     Lilian looks at Kayoko with a slightly more intense permutation of the look she's been giving her since arriving at the ferry. It's hard enough to read that it's probably distressing for someone who needs to be able to hyperscrutinize the adults around her. The only real tell is that it got stronger when she used Meika's name. "I'd be a poor adult if I couldn't do that much, and a worse Paladin." she says. "One of the most important things I believe in is that you should never let someone spending themselves for you be a mistake." She turns to look out over the ocean skyline again. "I forgive you. And I'm forgiving Meika, too."     She gets tired of watching the way that Kayoko ignores Love eventually, and succumbs to the lure of picnic, proviso sulfer smell removed. Sipping tea and sneakily feeding Tamamo onigiri by hand seems more entertaining than a ferry ride to an empty town.     'Tamamo, thanks for coming to help. May I hug you?'     Lilian looks to Tamamo as if either soliciting or giving permission, then nods vaguely towards Love (her mouth is full) as if Love were at all asking her. Long enough to swallow, later, she says to the 'magical girl' (catching up? an idle thought from earlier), "You're correct. No one ever needs 'just' a doctor." and then, lowering her voice slightly, "That's why Meika is where she is now. I know it's hard right now, but please try to be patient. No matter how right it feels, the spiral never makes anything better."     Looking over the top of her thermos, Lilian watches Flamel for long enough to make up her mind about what speed he's running at right now. "I sincerely doubt I've done this before, Parsons, but if it really worries you that much . . ." Lilian says it like she's patiently managing the irrational delusions of a man she always has to deal with, but the reality is that she's never entertained him this far before; not nearly so seriously as bringing out her smart device, shielding the screen with her hand by habit, and texting something to someone unknown with a serious expression on her face. "Now we'll known for certain, when we come back."
Kayoko Kirenai	"The bunrei's got the right idea. The fact that there's a mystery to be unraveled at all should be plenty of warning signs already, and not in the sense of telling us to stay away."     None of the assurances that a mystery inherently demands answer for its existence quite land on Kayoko the right way. She looks off the side of the boat, towards the volcano, and tugs at the blue ribbon holding her ponytail over her shoulder, adjusting the amount of hair back and forth.     "If it turns out to just be another Temptation of some new kind... then we just fight it and everything is fixed. Yeah. It doesn't matter if it fights other Temptations, if it's one itself. They have all kinds of powers, so... it's possible." She doesn't sound optimistic about it-- not about not believing it's true, but that the option being true isn't even a good thing, despite being the simplest. "Anyway. If we're lucky, it really is just nothing. You can pray for that, can't you?"     "Um," Kayoko starts to answer Jeanne, turning her head to face her and slowing piecing together her words, but she's interrupted by another explosion from the volcano. The gunshot shockwave across the bay, faintly echoed by reflecting off the city, startles her belatedly, half a second after it actually happens. "There'd be no point in praying for it if I just wanted it to happen. You're supposed to pray to show your devotion, not just... ask God for favors."     She starts to say something else, then hesitates and changes tracks midway through. "If it just turns out to be nothing at all, then-- then... that's convenient." "We're going to find whatever or whoever's doing this, and if it *is* a who, we'll give it what-for. It's about sending a message to whatever power is behind this, even if it's acting through some kind of underling."     "Well, we *know* what's causing all the problems. It's the Temptations. And they exist because of humanity's sin. And as for magical girls..." Kayoko's expression briefly flashes to stricken embarrassment, realizing the association she's accidentally drawing before saying it, but she can't just stop in the middle of her sentence. pansi(33,"... We just do that. It's natural, so 'fixing' it is, um, presumptive.")] "For all I know, this is the tenth time we've done this."     Kayoko runs a finger along the neck strap of her camera, glancing around but especially at Lilian. "The idea of a Temptation that affects Elites... it's scary, but we can't rule it out, right? We barely understand why they don't affect you; the first time you visited was the first time we had any confirmation of it." That psychological horror is exactly what every other civilian in Kagoshima goes through, though. "I don't know either... But if we find the truth, maybe we can do something for the future."     "We'll have to report it to the Holy Refulgence, at least. Maybe they'll have ideas." The possibility that it's *caused* by them goes unspoken, because of course it does. That's not even an option to Kayoko. "Or they already know, and it's just not something they want to tell us for whatever reason... though Spot would've mentioned something if that was it, I think. Spot?"     Kayoko looks around-- physically moves her head to look around-- for where her Cherub went, and purses her lips when she can't find the garishly clown colored humanoid wretch. "Where'd it go? I'm sure I had it when we were at the harbor... but we're too far for me to see the city anymore, so I don't know."
Kayoko Kirenai	"Tamamo, thanks for coming to help. May I hug you?"     Kayoko startles a little bit when Love gets up from her seat to give Tamamo a hug, and after an appropriately mature length of pause, she slowly gets up too. "Um, I'd appreciate tea, if you're offering, Miss Tamamo. Thank you." "On the day when young girls don't have to fight Temptations anymore, there will be a lot of pointless exercises that went nowhere behind it."     Lilian can tell, with a brief glance at Kayoko's mind, that she doesn't believe it'll ever happen. Not that she's alone in that; Kurokawa expressed the same before. "You're right, Dame Commander. There's no reason not to try other than justifying inaction. And that doesn't suit heroes."
Kayoko Kirenai	The boat lets you off at a smaller dock, rather than at Sakurajima ferry station, given that this is not the official Sakurajima station, and because the facility is only operating in one direction due to the ongoing eruption. Being almost outside the town-- not that there's much to the town, squat buildings sparsely separated by stretches of tall grasses and trees, and that's the densest section of town-- means that there's no prying eyes to stop Flamel from setting up his equipment, and nothing to stop Tamamo or Lilian or the others from freely casting their magic. It feels like night and day compared to the stifling streets of Kagoshima; it's practically relaxing.     A team of Elites this large doesn't really have to worry much about the mundane threat of getting pelted in the head by a chunk of pumice blown from the ash cloud by a gust of wind. The ground shakes occasionally, and the smell is intolerable to the point of feeling mildly dangerous, but there's no pyroclastic flow threatening to sweep over them, no matter where they wander around the base of the mountain. The typical frustrations of trying to catch the metaphorical (or in Flamel's case, literal) signal of the source, but there's no rush for time. Whether this is the first time they've been around here, or the tenth, they don't seem to be actively pursued by anything.     In fact, after a little bit of time prowling the trails around the volcano, they notice something: there aren't any Cherubs on this entire island. Not even ones out of sight, as Kayoko confirms, scanning the area as far around them as she can. Whether this means that the Holy Refulgence doesn't have eyes on them at all right now, or that they have such a concentrated central eye that the Cherubs are unnecessary or all gathered there, isn't clear.     Narrative dowsing eventually, inevitably, as the sun sets and the edges of the hazy ash cloud are limned in orange, along one of the tourist hiking paths, and then just a slight distance off it, tromping through the foliage to be confronted with nothing. No, wait-- there's a cave, leading into the side of the volcano, but it stops a few feet in, so even though it looks perfect for some kind of ominous lair, there's no room for one. Blinking and focusing, looking at it again, there is actually a path deeper, but it just seems like it'd be dangerous, what with the volcano erupting, and possibly unsteady walls--     Oh, this is going to be really obnoxious to walk through. Every inch of the cave is steeped in the effect, requiring constant vigilance and communication to push forwards and stay focused on reality.     Right as you step into the cave, though, you suddenly notice the five foot long blades stuck in the trees behind you. Were they there before, and you were just too focused on the cave to notice? Were they intended to cut *you* down, and somehow missed, or were deflected with pure habit and gut reflex, and then confabulated as appearing randomly? Kayoko almost walks directly into one, but it vibrates with a sudden tooth rattling and makes her jump backwards, giving her the extra seconds to stop and put her hand out to fix her distorted perception.     "... I-I don't like this. None of what's happening lines up right. Not for a Temptation or anything else."
Angela	Love glances at Kayoko--but Kayoko gets up too and she seems to take that as permission. And Lilian's own words, of course, as permission--but there's a general sense that Chevalier Love seems to be looking towards Cobalt for cues--less emotional cues and more objective based cues. Before she can acually hug anybody, Lilian responds first to something Love just kind of threw out as a throwaway optimistic line to try to keep her own spirits up as much as anyone's and it is a surprise to hear someone--anyone--respond as if it was something real. By the time she recovers from being stunned to hear it, Lilian lowers her voice and says the rest. ''I know it's hard right now, but try to be patient.'' Oh no, oh no, the Commander noticed-- Remember! You're a magical girl! You have to be a good example for Junior Chevaliers everywhere Love swalows and says, "I know, I'll try harder, I really admire how you are so good at controlling your heart." Maybe a hug will help. Hugs always help. It does feel so right to collapse and scatter herself on the rocks of emotionally devouring herself like a snake eating its own tail, but at the very least NOW isn't the time for that. Sarracenia isn't wrong that maybe it'll help that it might help SOMEONE. Maybe even Kayoko. And if it helps Kayoko, then... She cuts that thought off before the color fades and instead takes Tamamo's immaculate hand and hugs the bunrei. "I know I'm doing badly right now, but thank you for giving me a new fate. I want to believe it leads somewhere better than this someday, ubt at least I ... I know when somehing sucks now, thanks to you. I can do badly and have it have meaning thanks to you." She says softly. Love startles when they nearly run into some spikes. She hadn't noticed. Not even her tongue sensed anything coming. She sticks it out of the air with a snakelike habit and--nothing. "Oh that's ... that's really spooky isn't it?" She asks of Kayoko. "We might be under attack but we can't even be sure. ... Heck, we might even be being protected right now, and we wouldn't know that either."
Tamamo	Lilian feeds Tamamo. All is well.     'Um, I'd appreciate tea, if you're offering, Miss Tamamo. Thank you.'     "Mhm." It was an open invitation to the group, and Kayoko does get her tea poured. It's outrageously high quality, for what that's worth, to be something brought along in someone's picnic supplies. Still, she might want to avail herself of the sugar, unless she's the type to insist on the 'adult' taste of refraining from sweetness.     'I can do badly and have it have meaning thanks to you.'     Tamamo pulls Love in for a hug with one arm, and pats her head. Being that close to the bunrei is like entering a little field of Summer, though that might be more comforting if they weren't already heading to a volcano.     "We cannot yet speak for the results, but I have heard the efforts by your words. It is well to continue striving for a beautiful future, is it not? Even when it is difficult to see how one's present path may connect from here to there."     Moving on to the island, it's back to searching for threads of fate--     But first, Tamamo passes around a few charms to be stuffed into people's pockets. They won't do anything about memory alteration, but they will do something about purifying one's breath, and guarding against heat, both being more solidly within her purview.     ...five foot long blades stuck in the trees...     "Oh, hm. This is a bit concerning. Surely, this was done by... no, we still cannot find another, particular actor responsible for it, can we? We can only say that something has occurred here, and it is... unlikely to be only 'that we have arrived.'"     If she had prepared shikigami, this would be a very convenient time to use them. Instead, Tamamo makes an attempt not to trust her eyes. Her ears are more sensitive, by some measure, with hands held up to cup against them -- but without expectation of there being motion to hear, she moves on to the magical option. A few passes of her hands, a little sparkle in the air of esoteric energy condensing into the visible spectrum, some muttered words that are spoken too quickly to think it was a single tongue speaking them, and Tamamo adjusts her range of sight.
Hibiki Tachibana	Seeing Love like this is equally-- no, more painful than Kayoko, she thinks. She knew she was carrying aroun the ribbon, but the earpods and all... well. There's no need to read her mind to get an idea of how she feels. That makes it hard to hide her slight surprise and subsequent thankfulness for the moment there with Tamamo, enough to get rid of some of the shadows over her face.     If you need help, let me know. I am still good at blasting!     "You'll be the first person I ask," Hibiki nods to Love, actually entirely genuine. That also happens to be the only thing she's good at too, so they'll be together in not really having any use at all for the investigation part of things. "We're in this together, yeah?" In both the stated sense, and all of them here.     Sarracenia gets a somewhat complicated glance after, her non-royal attire coming second to her senses than her general demeanor. "...You're here, Sarracenia," she says in that matter-of-fact tone again. "To do what you can and help. Focus on that. Hang onto it."     Well, we *know* what's causing all the problems. It's the Temptations. And they exist because of humanity's sin.     "...Maybe." That's all Hibiki says on that particular subject, but the squint on her face doesn't show her to be very convinced. She also glances around for Spot, and her expression shifts back towards narrow-eyed suspicion when the little creature turns out to be missing.     ...     And once they've made landfall and are proceeding ahead on the volcanic island, a certain fact sure hasn't eluded her. "There aren't /any/ Cherubs here. Maybe they're all afraid of the place, and Spot's not any different." As they go, something hits Hibiki, and she questions out loud. "Where's Drop now, anyway? What happens to a Magical Girl's Cherub after they come of age?"     Not long after that though, it's into the... cave? No, it's too shallow to be... oh, it goes deeper. Only a little bit though-- should she punch a way further in? ...Hold on...     "Ugh. I hate this... can I just close my eyes and try and feel my way in deeper? Would that help?" She holds her head, intent on trying to focus as much as she can, when she stops and looks back over her shoulder at the embedded blades. "... ...Maybe not. But if it doesn't line up with anything you know... then that has to mean we're on the right track."     Before they go any further, she fishes out her pendant and clutches it tight in her hand. "Something with this many layers of protection, done on purpose or not..."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	"We just do that. It's natural, so 'fixing' it is, um, presumptive."     "*You* don't 'just do that'," Madeleine retorts. "Flamel found nothing wrong with Meika or her powers. Something is doing this *to* you. We're here to see who's really responsible." The huntress accepts a charm from Tamamo, glad to receive anything that might better prepare for what awaits.     Madeleine can struggle to pay attention to what's real at the best of times, and these illusions, or memory-traps, or *whatever* they are, are really messing with her. When she spots the heavy blades embedded in the trees around the group - *after* she passes them - she snaps open her bow's case and straps the contained quiver to her belt. Then Drogrung, blearily opening its single eye from what must've been a nap, shifts from bow into spear, popping up into Madeleine's hand as it grows.     The huntress slings the case back over her shoulder, but pauses before entering the cave. A quick scan of her surrounds, with a little double-checking for memory holes, will tell her all she needs to know about whether anyone - or any*thing* - else has been this way anytime recently. Once she's satisfied with her survey she enters the cave, one step at a time, spear cautiously tilted forward.
Flamel Parsons	"The idea of a Temptation that affects Elites... it's scary, but we can't rule it out, right?"     Flamel shakes his head as they get off the boat. "I think we can. The only evidence we have of it is something attacking a Temptation. Whatever it is that's carrying this sickness, it's a third party. It's affecting Cherubs, Mahous, definitely the Refulgence, outside Elites... It's probably even affecting itself. Whatever the Carrier is, I'm not sure it'll remember anything. *Anything.* I don't think even a Temptation that 'forgot' its allegiance would kill another. They're all of a kind. Nothing is made to kill itself."     "Now we'll known for certain, when we come back."     "You'd think. But antimemetics can travel on a lot of pathways... I appreciate it. But I don't think anything will tone my stress down all the way, not until we have this solved."     His scanner comes out of the pocket, eventually. It's something he's made, himself, for this specific situation, so chunks of it are clear and other parts are bare wire. Four pieces of artificial occular matter taking a region of a robotic eye, each hooked to a piece of miniature artificial posterior superior temporal lobe and some memory clusters, looking for neural inconsistencies in linguistic memory transcription. A sort of psychic self-check device, meant to alert someone to the most common antimemetics.     It looks, admittedly, a little gruesome.     "Something with this many layers of protection, done on purpose or not..."     "I don't think it's layers. I think it's saturation. We're walking through one long, solid collection of residue. Whatever's sick has made a home here, and whatever sickness it has is psychically oozing. Don't hold it against whatever we find. But don't stop giving *everything* a second glance." When he notices the blades, his breath freezes. "Everything. No matter what."     At one point he walks into a wall, now habituated to disbelieving them, before he corrects himself. Now, in one hand, he holds the detector. In the other... a bright red washable marker. He makes a deep and intense resolution. Something he plants far down in the soil of his mind. He pulls up one sleeve, pops the cap of the marker off with his teeth... And counts in tallies. How many people does he see? No, not names, not faces. People. How many people are here? How many people are here?     One. Two. Three...
Sarracenia	Love gets a hug from Tamamo. Sarra is in an odd mood lately, and a she can't help a slight smile at the earnest Love and the gracious Tamamo. She does not say anything, though. It is too likely that it would ruin the moment. She got enough of that at Meika's campfire party. So, she just watches.      Which could easily be taken as staring at Love and Tamamo.      '...You're here, Sarracenia, to do what you can and help. Focus on that. Hang onto it.'      Sarra flinches lightly when she is spoken to, having been somewhat zoned out. She blinks, then nods. "I am. Otherwise, I would not be here at all." she says in a similar matter-of-fact tone. She blinks again, then sighs softly. "But...thank you."      'I know I'm doing badly right now...'      Sarracenia huffs softly. "You are not doing badly if you ask me." Which Love didn't. "You are doing your best dealing with a hard situation.      When they reach the island, Sarra is quick to start walking but slow in her movements. And even slower when all the smells start to get to her. She makes a face and pulls out a rag to cover her mouth and nose. "No wonder whoever or whatever is here is sick. Can you smell all that? Not to mention that icky smell out on the water. This whole area smells bad!" she says as she follows those with narrative powers.      When they finally reach the cave, she's one of the last to recognize things, often not realizing until someone else points them out. The blades though, even if she does not recognize them first...she moves to take one like she did last time she was here and wraps it in a cloth to protect from the sharp edges. She even tries moving one close to another to see if the increased humming happens again, though she does not touch them together this time. She just brings it with her, unsure of how it could be helpful but certain that it will be somehow.      Then, she realizes how it might be. "Hey...if I hold this out in front maybe it will resonate with these anomalies? Or maybe point us in the right direction? Like one of those signal detector things?" Perhaps it is her use of power ups that makes her so willing to touch strange objects with unknown powers.      Whether the others agree to the plan or not, Sarra starts using the blade like a blind man's walking stick. Holding it out in front of her, waving it back and forth slowly, trying to feel things rather than see them. "I do not mind going first as the...what is it? A...canary in a mineshaft?"
Ritsuka Fujimaru	"For all I know, this is the tenth time we've done this." "Now we'll known for certain, when we come back." "They have all kinds of powers, so... it's possible." "If we've really been doing this for so long, then all the more reason to root it out." Jeanne comments, pausing before adding an annoyed "again" at the end and snickering briefly despite herself. "And... Uh. You. Flamel. Do hope she doesn't take it out too roughly on you if it turns out to be nothing at all." The short laugh that follows, just like Meika's tone, makes it pretty clear that Jeanne doesn't expect this investigation to turn up nothing after all. "There'd be no point in praying for it if I just wanted it to happen. You're supposed to pray to show your devotion, not just... ask God for favors." Jeanne doesn't reply to that right away, distracted as she still is by the sound of the volcano bursting again. It doesn't startle her, but it does interrupt her thinking long enough that there's a just-too-long pause before she lets out a grimacing sigh and deflates just a bit, finally snagging one of those kangaroo soda cans for herself. "No... No, I suppose not. I should be thankful prayers don't work out so conveniently. If they did, I wouldn't even be here today." She pauses again to pop it open, then cracks a wry grin at Kayoko. "Lucky you." By the time the boat reaches the dock, Jeanne's done with her soda and possibly even asked from some tea from Tamamo just to know what it tastes like. She doesn't have much to contribute to the actual investigation compared to the actual experts, but she does try and pull her own weight checking the area for the Cherubs that aren't there for some odd reason. It's somewhat comforting, at least, but... Disappointing? Disappointing. There's a cave, at least, and Jeanne almost misses it when it looks like there's nothing worth finding in there compared to the danger that's... Wait. She's not a coward. She should go into the dangerous cave. A few steps can't hurt, and she heads in long enough to realize that there's nothing interesting inside, but then she sees the blades in the trees. "Odd. Were these here before?" Jeanne asks to nobody in particular as she draws out her own ominous-looking sword out of the air, holding it near her ear to listen to it before trying to listen to the tree-blades in comparison. She opens her mouth briefly when Sarracenia takes one as a walking stick, then shrugs and holds her sword next to one of the blades to see if that does anything odd before moving along besides Hibiki. "If you want to walk into a blade coming out of a wall, go for it. You there." Jeannepauses, then just gestures at Sarracenia and projects her voice a bit so it's clearer she's addressing her. "If the sound changes at all, speak up. Do take care not to explode too quickly if it does."
Kayoko Kirenai	"Flamel found nothing wrong with Meika or her powers. Something is doing this *to* you. We're here to see who's really responsible."     Kayoko bristles at Madeleine while stomping tall grass off the path down so that it doesn't stain her uniform, not that it would show up either way. "Mister Parsons is *helping*, but he's not an *expert*. He isn't a magical girl. We've lived it, we-- I know how it works. The Holy Refulgence knows how it works. Maybe there was nothing wrong with her just because that's how it's *supposed* to be. It doesn't make *sense* that anyone would be 'doing' this. No one's our enemy but Temptations." "Where's Drop now, anyway? What happens to a Magical Girl's Cherub after they come of age?"     Kayoko squeezes her thumb in her fist. From her tone, it's obvious that something about what she says makes her unhappy, but her expression doesn't give any clues as to what. A bit of mind reading explains that it's 'resentment'. "Drop has been around the city. I haven't followed-- followed it closely. I don't know what it's doing now; I don't like looking at it."     This isn't a cave tourists are meant to be wandering around in. There's plenty of those, usually the ones with signs outside, the bigger ones having small gazebos outside for guides to lecture in, or placards talking about the unique qualities of the cave. This one has none of that, just a narrow crack for the entrance and an uncomfortably stooped path to walk, gradually opening up into wider gaps that wind around at sharp, claustrophobic angles.     Closing her eyes, Tamamo hears it first, the grinding of rock-- *metal* on metal, sliding rasps of friction smooth motion, like swords from metal scabbards. Accompanying it is the circuitous ebb and flow of resonant humming, struck tuning forks warbling in pitch. As the group gets deeper in, there's a subtle shift in the tone, getting higher pitched in irregular jumps. Surprisingly, though, there isn't magic radiating from *everywhere*, just the blades of course, and pinpricks shifting and glittering within the walls, like tracked termites.     Sarracenia grabbing one of the blades and holding it up to another has the same result as before, with a tooth rattling hum that gives everyone, especially Tamamo, a headache. It's a good bet that the magic would be discharged again if she did, and she doesn't need to be shot at the very beginning of a mission. Holding it out in front of her is actually a fairly good plan, except for a some slight flaws. It's not exactly 'drawn to' anything like a magical analogue of a magnet, but the humming peaks and fades in ways that seem relevant, warping as she swings it around. It's also an uneven path to travel on for so long, so a walking stick is really useful. Before long, once she gets into the rhythm of using it to feel out the path forwards, the blade itself slips her mind.
Kayoko Kirenai	Like Flamel discovered before, the patchwork memory wiping of this particular sickness is sketchy enough that a civilian with enough drive and curiosity can force their way through it with some success. Anti-antimemetic routines, constant vigilance, and shifting mindsets can help offset a lot of it, but bumping into walls is dangerous when there's so many stalactites hanging from the ceiling and jagged split rocks threatening to cut anyone who presses themselves too tightly against the wall. Conveniently, though, when he bumps into the wall, there just happens to be smooth stone there!     It's when he pulls out his improvised antimemetic gizmo that things turn worse. A pair of stalagmites-- *blades*, jut out of the wall to either side of him, just barely not bisecting Hibiki, the points centered on either side of the device. A moment later, a boom delayed like the blood of an iaijutsu strike in a movie roars through the cavern, and the device is cut to pieces in a dozen angles at once. Sarracenia swings-- she had to have done that, right? The blades collided, and she was holding it, so-- swings the harvested blade she picked up at a stalagmite, and a sonic boom rips it out of her hand and chips rock away, only leaving shallow lacerations on her-- and everyone else's-- clothes and skin. Within the wall, exposed by the chipped away rock, are patches of scale-like segments of that same pure metal, shifting like muscle. Looking back towards the entrance, they might have been exposed this entire time, or there might have been more attacks earlier that peeled away rock and they just slipped out of memory.     There's no real attempts to block the Elites from rushing further in after that, besides needing to squeeze between the extended blades. They're not abruptly decapitated by the appearance of a razor edge at neck height, or walled off by psychohazardous prison bars, but it takes a few seconds for Tamamo to notice another thing that changed. After the sonic boom, there hasn't been any noise at all from any of the blades, or from deeper in the cavern. It's gone tinnitus-silent, almost like the way Meika would mute the normal volume of her movement, but feeling more like the stunned moments after shouting or firing a gun.
Kayoko Kirenai	There isn't much more to go until reaching-- something. Not only difficult to put a name to because of the way your eyes slide off of each scintillating edge, but because the glimpses of the cohesive whole line up to nothing comprehensible either. A cavern opening lined and filled with sharp edges, shifting amongst themselves like fluid particulate, pockets of density and sparsity. Blades end to end, jagged and erratic, gleaming only with whatever light the Elites brought with them and utterly unfriendly to touch, they spring from walls, the floor, hang in clusters of edge sliding soundlessly against edge.     It's possible to walk into the cavern, ducking through gaps in the metal if you feel safe enough to, but it's unclear what you'd go *towards*. There's no one in the chamber.     Hemmed in by the metal blades, any movement of the epicenter-mass is like waves in a pool, or waves in a crowd, or waves in the air-- any movement is like waves. Bounded in reach, anything too far from a medium to pass through becomes just a momentary splash outside. But- as the clustered blades move, just for bare seconds, be it from dancing glimmers, gaps in the metal, or raw overall form, like cloud-watching and seeing things that just aren't there-- the pressing paredoilia in the magical metalwork draws out ephemeral ideas of blinking eyes, the sharp flash of lightning, a cornerned dragon's snarling teeth. Like holding water in cupped hands, there's no core, no proper form to keep a mental grip on, only slippery confabulations that exist in echoic memory.     Kayoko is still having more trouble than anyone else keeping a mental grip on any of it. One slice through the side of her uniform drew spots of blood, and she hasn't noticed it to be able to hear it. She takes careful steps behind the others, picking her way through on a hazy gut feeling of what seems dangerous, and somehow manages to not be sliced to ribbons even while wincing uncomfortably.     "What... is any of this? There's..." Kayoko's hand vaguely drifts down her side, catching on the torn cloth and startling. "My-- my uniform's torn? There's some... an enemy? If we're being *attacked*, there's an enemy."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	It's tough for Madeleine to keep track of her injuries when *losing* track of them is part of how she's able to heal so quickly - for all she knows, the blades littering the walls lopped off a hand and she just squeezed it back onto the stump and forgot. Many cuts are avoided; surely many more are simply accepted as a matter of course, if they're noticed in the first place at all. She does, however, notice the scaly metal under the stone wall. "This place feels... alive," she remarks. "And these blades are like, an immune system. Trying to repel us."     When Madeleine enters the cavern, shifting blades around her on all sides, she does not hesitate. She raises her spear aloft, pointing straight up, and brings it down, hard. Steel-capped wood crashes against stone once, twice, three times. "OY!" the huntress shouts as Drogrung screws its eye shut in discomfort.. "We've found your little hideaway and it's time for you to come out! Flamel probably won't even let me kill you if you show yourself," she snarls.
Lilian Rook	'The bunrei's got the right idea.'     "Don't pretend you don't know her name. I'll kill you." Lilain says far too casually.     'You're supposed to pray to show your devotion, not just... ask God for favors.'     Lilian glances in a weird direction, and says in an equally weird tone, "Perhaps I should start." without sounding committed.     'We just do that'     Lilian looks at Kayoko with exactly the sort of puzzled-uncomfortable expression she should expect. "Well, I suppose everyone sins, so . . ."     'it's scary, but we can't rule it out, right? We barely understand why they don't affect you'     By then, however, Lilian is already too distracted to fully parse out Kayoko's exact meaning, no matter how obvious it is. "There's no need to understand it. I don't think enough like a human being to count. Isn't that good enough?"     'There's no reason not to try other than justifying inaction. And that doesn't suit heroes.'     Lilian wears a faint, approving smile over her tea. The fact that Kayoko obviously doesn't believe it is irrelevant.     'I know, I'll try harder, I really admire how you are so good at controlling your heart.'     "Chevalier Love." Lilian suddenly sets her tea aside, putting it down with a quiet breath out. Looking at her clearly, Lilian says "I'm not. So please don't praise me for it. What you're doing is more mature than what I am; I'm only asking you to be patient with my bad habit." Closing her eyes for long enough to change moods, Lilian goes back to nursing her drink. "Plus, I'll look very cool when you see Meika again." she says, tonally attempting to laugh, and attempting a little harder to believe it.     On the island, Lilian waits for Tamamo's talisman with a level of certainty that borders on silent, whiny impatience, making no attmept to hide how relieved she is to be able to breathe without experiencing nausea. Despite becoming recently famous for going toe to toe with the legendary Red Mist, Lilian harbours absolutely no greater intent than before on presenting a 'tough' facade at litle annoyances like this; voluntarily tolerating shitty conditions to prove something was always Petra's arc, not hers.     'You'd think. But antimemetics can travel on a lot of pathways... I appreciate it.'     "Oh, don't worry. You can stress as much or as little as you like. This just alleviates mine." Lilian says, breezily, walking the trails with full confidence now that she's not tasting rotten eggs constantly. Who could have even mattered enough to text anyways? Tamamo is right here, Satsuki and Arina are already known to be partially affected by the new abnormality, and there's no one in her limited inner circle who should be able to do anything without being here.     She does, indeed, let her hand hang near her thigh holster when Sarracenia picks something up, and watches her very carefully as they all walk. Lilian pays less attention once they're well underway, because she's seized instead with the thought of how much this actually makes her training relevant.     As she ducks branches, walkswide around little divots in the trail, and brushes past old stone without touching, old mnemonics and the texture of half-remembered drills fills her head. Two core facts; both must be true for either to be true. Why are you here, and how did you get here. Pace your breaths to a regular rhythm, and note when you have too little air. What do you want? Why? Why really? Why did you say the first thing instead? is her original. So was 'confabulation is the devil'.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	Jeanne still has her sword. She doesn't remember taking out any of her spears, but she has her sword. She sees Sarracenia with a blade, and she tries to remember if she had seen the princess holding that before. Does it matter? Flamel makes it sound like it's better if she doesn't try to. Did he say that before? It's getting too foggy to remember who said what at this point, and just trying to hear anyone is unpleasant enough. Jeanne slaps her sword against the sections of wall she can that aren't covered in blades, weaving through them like they're just part of the scenery. That's normal, isn't it? They were always there, right? It's easier not to think too hard about that and just keep moving forward instead. Why is she in this place, anyway? No, she just knows that she's moving forward, and there's more of those blades around. Jeanne feels a light draft, and she looks down at the minor cuts all over. She hisses lightly at the feeling, even if she can't remember getting cuts like that today. Was she careless when she handled th....? "My-- my uniform's torn? There's some... an enemy? If we're being *attacked*, there's an enemy." "You're here, you're right now, and there's someone sick and something hurt in front of you! Look at it! *Look at them!* What can we do to help? What can we do that's kind? What can we do that *cures?!*" "Who is them?! I don't see a..." Jeanne grimaces as she feels more of that painful draft along her sides, but another moment of itching and stinging helps her focus at least somewhat. There's... Teeth? No, fangs. Eyes? None of it is clear, but it's distinctly there, and Jeanne forces herself onwards even with the looming threat of those blades. "You! What are..." She can't remember what she was supposed to be saying. Jeanne can't even remember who told her that she was supposed to say anything at all, and she just keeps staring ahead while trying to decipher who or what she's even looking at. A person? A thing?  Why's she even staring at this.. That? This face in the first place? Whatever the case is, staring must be important judging from how desperate Flamel sounds to make sure she's actually doing that. Jeanne scratches her arm idly and winces at feeling an unfamiliar cut, then narrows her eyes to try and make sense of that face she's seeing. "You... You there. What the hell are you hiding from?" Jeanne holds up a hand to beckon the unrecognizable face over, then notices the sword that's already in her hand. Without missing a beat, she flips it around to point it downwards, then sheathes it smoothly in a way that was totally practiced a while ago. "Whatever it is can't be any scarier than I am, so come on out already."
Angela	''I'm only asking you to be patient with my bad habit.'' "I'm not sure I get it," Love admits. "But I'll try my best!" ''Plus I'll look very cool when you see Meika again.'' "Gosh, like--more than normal?" Love asks, eyes wide. But you don't want to just leave it up to others. You want to help. You need to help. That's how you feel alive. That's how you feel real. That's how you find meaning. Chevalier Love is being told by Flamel that fighting isn't the answer here. She doesn't really know Flamel but she isn't sure throwing out a laser is really the key anyway already. For starters, she's having a hard time knowing what to throw a laser at and even if she can kind of figure out that they're under attack (suddenly appearing wounds. Kayoko! Kayoko is in danger!). Hibiki nearly got hurt too, right? Or were those blades already there? They're too close. The explosion is too loud. She steps forward. All she can really do is do harm. ''If we're being *attacked*, there's an enemy.'' "Maybe." Chevalier Love admits. She sets down her staff. There's one clear way to decide whether this is an actual threat or not right? If she decides now to not defend herself if something comes after her, then that will prove it. She sets down her magical staff and i just kind of floats some distance away behind her and she crouches down, trying to make herself smaller. She closes her eyes, thinking. Can whatever his is even understand her words? If the cherubs fear whatever this is, can she really say that it's bad? They're so mean, if they're afraid--it's hard to think of the source of that fear as ''bad''. Of course there are plenty of people here who are afraid too, so maybe it's something ongoing to reflect on. "Okay!" She says. "Listen up, Junior Chevalier...Brass? Spike? Um, I don't know. I am Chevalier Love and... and if you're in pain and you're trying to tell us about it, I'd like to listen." She bobs her head. "It can be tempting to hurt others or say mean things to people when you aren't feeling well, or even cry when you are sad and you aren't doing good. After all, it's a lot harder to be nice when you're feeling sick or sad. The good news is, tears can really help us communicate that we're unhappy so others can come help us! I learned that from a movie." She bobs her head. "So don't feel too guilty if you're just trying to tell us you're hurt, I imagine if you're hurt and it seems like nobody can hear at all--your instinct is to yell louder, even if it's with your spikes! But we're not your enemy, I think. Flamel says you're not our enemy and he seems like a smart guy... And he's from the government! So I don't think he'd lie about that." She rocks back and forther from the waist up. "Anyway, the important thing to do when you're hurt or sad and don't know what to do is to find the people who will help you rather than trying to get it from people who won't--it can be tough to know which healers actually want to help you and which just want to kind of ignore you and send you on your way, or do the bare minimum--just seeing you as a 10 o'clock appointment rather than someone in need of help." She is quiet for a moment and adds, "So I'm here. If you need to carve it in my body, feel free. Justice carves herself all the time, so I don't think it would be that bad. I've decided I'm not going to avoid getting hurt, if this is how you need to tell us you're sick." She is quiet a moment and then adds, "I don't know if you can understand me, but Chevalier Love says--you can trust us!" She holds her fingers out in a peacesign over her eye. "I'm ... Chevalier Love by the way! That's me. The third person stuff is just for effect. Sometimes I'm a monster too sometimes, but my friend taught me that that's okay. We should be who we want to be."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel approaches. He says, unbelievably tensely, "Not an enemy. Please. Please. *Not an enemy.*" His body leaks soft white light from lacerations. "Someone, something, sick. Sick, sick, this is sickened and poisoned and trying to stay safe, however possible, from interlopers that could make this worse. I have to find out how, I have to know what caused this and what can cure this."     He doesn't remember them and he's not trying to recall the source. It's a distraction. A way of rationalizing and justifying. No more rationalizing, no more justification. This is a sickness and he has to confront it directly. "They're going to forget themselves. It's going to become so sick it won't know what it is or know it's forgotten. Maybe that already happened." He makes a brief noise of strain and panic. "We have to find out what we can't remember."     He cuts connections in his own brain. He reaches into emergency control panels inside himself, hard-airgapping his prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, setting the reconnection on a deadman's switch. He slams a mental fist into the SCRAM on his own long-term memory encoding, sending it into a sleep-like reboot. He disables his blink reflex, and his eyes tear up. He takes off his sunglasses. And he looks into the center of the unmoving-yet-moving mass of blades, eyes wide, feet moving one in front of the other. The mountain of metal moves around him and he moves within it, and he refuses, absolutely refuses to rationalize away whatever he sees.     He speaks to himself as he walks, offloading a memory of sorts to his linguistic centers. "You're here, you're right now, and there's someone sick and something hurt in front of you! Look at it! *Look at them!* What can we do to help? What can we do that's kind? What can we do that *cures?!*" He rants, softly, under his breath. "The poison drips from the body, and it seeps into the people and the memories and the world. I know it hurts people, the same way an infected patient out of quarantine hurts people. We won't beat this by fighting!"     He doesn't know what he sees. He won't remember, and he knows that without recalling it. But he is a Psychonaut -- bred, born, and built -- and he is made to solve these pains as long as he can recognize them. "You're a good person. If you're a good person, you don't need to plan, or remember, or anything. You just need to see. You'll know what to do. You won't be able to not do it." He says. To himself. Entirely, completely, to himself.     He looks, as hard as he can, with every psychic sense and every part of his vision. "I want to help you. I want to help everyone. I need to cure this -- this sickness, this illness, this poison." He says, no matter what he sees or doesn't see. He reaches into his pockets, pulls out a small door, and plants it on his forehead. When it opens, brilliant white light spills out. "Something to know. Something to understand. Plant it in my mind. Or take what you need." No hesitation. He has the support to return to wellness, and this, whatever this is, doesn't. No demand of a specific way of explaining the need. No constraints. He lets "nothing at all" freely dive into the inner workings of his mind and plant, there, whatever they or it believes is the right thing to explain -- or, to take a piece from his mind that it needs to live or cure itself.     He cannot understand the scope and nature of this sickness. But there's one thing that's not known very well, yet learned every day, by healthcare providers: When things get unclear, the patient knows what they need best of all. And the only thing you can do is trust them, to give or to take whatever brings them health. And things, now, are the most unclear they've ever been.
Lilian Rook	However resilient, even Lilian walks with Night Mist drawn. It's easy to imagine that she simply expects combat; or might just be nervous; but keeping it constantly ahead of her, tilted to cross her body, means that it makes contact with nearly any blade before she can; and Lilian both knows the feeling of steel striking hers far better than she knows the sight and feel of a cave, and trusts that one sense above the others.     There's little she can do about an invisible sonic boom, triggered by someone else by surprise, except swear furiously when it shreds up clothing worth more than anyone present could afford with a paying job. The urge to punish Sarracenia for fucking up is overwhelming, but fails to materialize. She can glower at her all she likes, but Lilina unfortunately knows that it wasn't actually reasonable to expect different. She must. She has to. A touch of magic to her thigh and her upper arm clots the superficial cuts in short order. A look over her shoulder confirms that she'd been standing in front of Tamamo at the time.     But when they arrive in the cave epiceter of it all, and as the sound goes out, Lilian finds herself mesmerically drawn towards the sight of it.     Not any one particular sight. Somehow she knows better than to search for it. Her gaze defocuses.     What she's seeing in front of her is like coral and smoke. Like everything and stars. Crystal and nothing. Lightning and thunder. Severing and joining. To her, paredoilia looks §like§ §us§.     Lilian lowers herself slowly to one knee, touching skin to stone-- metal-- something-- with the poise of trying not to take someone. Staring indeterminately into the mass, she says, in ordinary words and dreamy cadence, nothing at all important. Her own exact voice, but different, has already spoken without speaking a word yet, §<<Don't <look at/engage with/decide for> <I/Us> like 'that'. <You/This> are already <mutually incompatible> with <all else under heaven/but this>. Reply. <I/She/We> are already <tidally locked/drawn and bared/your problem now>.>>§
Sarracenia	The princess gives Lilian a side eye glance as she notices the reach. She can't quite help herself and moves the blade toward and away from another blade a few times before they head in. But, she does not touch the blades together. Not at that time, at least.      Sarra is just walking along after a while, swinging that walking stick back and forth, using it to climb when needed. She has a cloth around it, but after a bit she forgets why it has a cloth around it so she takes the cloth off. She ends up with cuts on her hands. She figures it is from rocks and so takes a green mushroom. The cuts return. "Ugh. Where do these keep coming from?" she says as she continues using a green mushroom every now and then.      Like Kayoko, cuts keep appearing on her. She doesn't know where they are coming from, and she isn't really aware she has been cut until she steps or bends and something hurts. She gets freaked out every now and then. "Who is doing that?!" she exclaims. Then is walking calmly again as she forgets.      Flamel pulls out his gizmo. Sarra's walking stick swings that way. She yelps at the boom and the new cuts, her sun dress tattered leggings tattered and cut and like a disaster survivor's rags.      'Princess Sarracenia, why would you swing it there? That is *exceptionally* dangerous, as you can see.'      "How did a walking stick do that? I thought only the blades did that?! Wait...did I have one?" For a few moments after the burst and the exchange, Sarra remembers that she was holding a blade. That's where all her cuts came from. That's what was resonating as she walked. "No wonder it was humming like that as we walked!" she exclaims.
Sarracenia	If not for Flamel, Sarra might just immediately be lost in what she forgot again. But, he is shouting at them. Keeping them in the moment. And if there is one thing Sarra is good at, it is being impulsive and in the moment. She pulls out her hammer, something she is sure she could not possibly forget. She holds it in front of her like a shield, and presses forward. The solid metal head clinks off of blades. The metal scales leave her wide-eyed. "Are we inside of the thing?!"      Sarra's mind can barely hang on. She has a strong will but that is about it. Stubbornness keeps her moving forward. She refuses to stop. Just go forward. Keep going forward. "Just...keep going forward!" she starts shouting. It's all she can think of to keep some form of direction in her mind.      She ducks into the cavern. There's no one here. Sarra is tired of that. "There is -something- here!" she shouts. "Whatever you are! We are here to help! You are sick!" She can't focus on anything. Her eyes wander. She almost forgets that there is something here.      Madeleine shouts at the thing. "Kill it? Kill what?" Sarra looks where Madeleine is looking. Those imagined images flash through her mind again. She is ready to hit the nobody with her hammer.      Love...Chevalier Love makes her speech. Sarracenia's hammer is dropped. That thing won't help right now. Why was she even carrying it? "Yes, you can trust us!" she exclaims, following Love's lead. "And I am Princess Sarracenia! I just want to help!"      There's a moment's pause before she blinks. "Mushrooms!" She gets enough of a reminder of sick and injured people needing help that she just reaches into her bag and starts throwing green mushrooms into the nothing that isn't there. "You! You will feel better with these!" She squeezes each one before throwing it, so whatever they hit should get doses of healing energy. She has no idea if this thing can even be healed in that way, but it is all she can do and all she can remember to do. "P-please! Feel better!"
Tamamo	Tamamo scolds Sarracenia for causing the blades to explode, destroying Flamel's strange device. Why would she do that?     ...why would she do that?     She wouldn't do that. Someone wanted to destroy Flamel's device. Someone did so, and then--     The sound had stopped. She'd heard it, then stopped hearing it, after it reacted. Something -- someone, acted, to destroy the device.     Tamamo doesn't know what the device did. She assumes it did something and was related to the reason they were here. Why were they here?     'Merely think of this as our... due diligence.'     Yes, that's right. It would be negligent to leave such a thing, when they had the capacity to help.     'What can we do that's kind? What can we do that *cures?!*'     Something scraped Tamamo, so sharply that she barely noticed. It's tiny. Trivial, really. All the same, she withdraws a slip of ink-scrawled paper from a pouch, tearing it to activate the healing magic stored inside. It would have hurt worse if it had been less sharp but, importantly, she has practically nothing of a sworsdman's resilience to pain. She counts the fifty-three pieces of paper stacked in the pouch.     It's all the more important that she keep a hold on Lilian's clothing, pinched from behind as she walks, given this. Whatever she's forgetting, she knows, Lilian will bear through it. Tamamo, herself, couldn't have become an Immune. Lilian will protect her -- and nothing in her sense of touch is being fooled. She runs a hand over Lilian's back, just to be sure.     Yes. It feels exactly as she's memorized it. There's no way she'd forget that, even if it's hard to keep her mind on why she'd be carrying an uneven number of talismans. She had to use one -- and it's easiest to blame Sarracenia for it. Or was it Flamel?     'If you're a good person, you don't need to plan, or remember, or anything. You just need to see. You'll know what to do.'     "I am Tamamo-no-mae, a healer," she says, to someone who is almost certainly there, "though it is difficult for me to see. Might you please make it somewhat easier? If you cannot, I will understand, but you know -- it is obvious, I am sure -- that it is safest to help with that which can be seen. I would not wish to accidentally harm."     She's not looking for something invisible, though the 'center' is a tempting target. She looks up, around, trying to take in as many of the blades as possible. It's easier if she tries less hard, somehow.
Hibiki Tachibana	Drop has been around the city. I haven't followed-- followed it closely. I don't know what it's doing now; I don't like looking at it.     Oh, she doesn't like that.     I don't think it's layers. I think it's saturation. We're walking through one long, solid collection of residue.     "So there's just so much of it, we're practically wading through it? I guess that makes sense, if we're at the source of... whatever all of this is supposed to be."     Hibiki sounds uneven, unsteady as they push their way further in. In equal measure, someone like her who is prone to both acting without thinking and also devolving into /over/thinking has trouble getting through something like this - but if nothing else, she has drive in spades, and that's enough to force herself to keep pressing onward.     At least until a pair of stalagmites? nearly cut her in half, her cognition shifting in real time with the adrenaline as she recoils from the deafening boom followed by the clatter of Flamel's device. "The hell--!?" In the muted silence after, her mind reeling, she's struggling to comprehend exactly what happened with Sarracenia swinging, the blades making contact, the--     Out of all of Flamel's rambling, his words about only looking at what's in front of them ring.     "Whether you did it... or you didn't..." Hibiki breathes out in Sarracenia's direction, before glancing to the metal exposed beneath rock. "...It happened. We're fine. Instead of thinking about it, let's... let's just keep going." Don't think about it. Don't worry about it. If scratches pile up, that's fine. If wounds rip themselves into her, that's fine too. They're indelible proof something happened-- and nothing will stop her from 'turning this mountain inside out'.     Further in, in the cavern lined with blades, Hibiki... can't focus. She only knows, that despite every invisible effort to make it seem as if there's not... something that can't be so easily perceived, but has to be there. She promptly decides to not try, and not think.     "...No matter how much this entire place is trying to turn us away... you're here, aren't you?" Something halfway between unsureness and hopefulness creeps into her voice, before she swallows and steadies it. One step forward, then another, regardless of the bladed edges filling the space. "I don't know things ended up like this... and I don't need to hear it. I just want to help."     As much as she'd like to imagine closing her eyes would help, it won't. She wants to see that subtle shifting in the metal, those movements so easy to construe as anything else. "Everyone here does. Maybe you're hiding from something... or maybe it's that you can't help but hide. But we came to find you anyway. We're doing the best we can to not forget... for a lot of people. For you, too. We're here now, and not going anywhere."     Her hand comes forward to open air, palm turned sideways. The gesture is clear. "I'm-- Hibiki. I want to know more about you. See you. If I can."
Kayoko Kirenai	"We've found your little hideaway and it's time for you to come out! Flamel probably won't even let me kill you if you show yourself,"     Madeleine's shouting first elicits a whine of distortion, blades folding into themselves to condense in bristling metal pockets around the cavern. Slamming Drogrung into the ground echoes once, twice, then the third time the butt of the spear stops early with numbing recoil, caught at the peak of its arc by a new shelf of rock. It feels like getting the door slammed in her face.     There *could* be someone hiding behind the pulsating tides of steel. Or behind one of the fake walls of the cavern, but there's no other visible entrance or exit. It isn't that deep of a cave at all, but this seems to be as far as it goes. <J-IC-Scene> Madeleine Cadrasteia says, "Flamel, this thing is *killing children.*"     Lilian alone, by some quirk of intuition, can interpret the following ripple of interlocking metal spikes and plates as a 'flinch'. The mess of blades all around the room goes entirely still when Kayoko reacts to what Madeleine said too, taking a step back and grabbing the camera around her neck. "I don't know if you can understand me, but Chevalier Love says--you can trust us!"     Throughout all of Love's speech, the blades stay still, coating the interior of the cavern in a gleaming metal exoskeleton. After her final exclamation, there's a ripple of motion, a tiny rasp of sound let loose from the self-silencing that it seemed to have been doing, but even then there's no language to be gleaned from it. Does a sine wave of jagged edges count as 'understanding' Love? It's a little heartbreaking, to get almost nothing in return for pouring out her heart like that.     Sarracenia's mushrooms are swallowed up by cracks in the cave floor, vanishing without touching the-- scaled metal flexes and relaxes, outgrowths of sharp edges drifting their centers of density closer together for a brief moment. Out of the corner of your eye, for a fraction of a moment, the impression of folded wings strikes you, but looking at it directly there's nothing that evokes it.     It's refreshing, it feels like the *right* thing to do, that everyone after Flamel's incoherent rambling explanations chooses to express kindness. The proclamations of their intent to care, the fact that they're trustworthy and here to help it with whatever's causing it to leak disease everywhere, despite the alien incomprehensibility of the shapes within the cavern; all of that, so deeply ingrained in the Elites' standards of interaction that despite only having spottily continuous memory they default to it-- and there's *no* response, despite everything. Maybe there isn't really anything to reach out to-- it's just a fucked up steel growth, after all.
Kayoko Kirenai	§<<Reply.>>§     The instant Lilian reaches out, she hears it. It-- *she*-- has been responding this entire time.     Words pour through Lilian's mind like blurry recollections of dreams; focusing on any one point loses grasp on the others. She can understand her language, but there's still a gag jammed between her teeth, a black bar over her eyes, speakers blaring at maximum volume to scream over her voice. She isn't the *source* of anything besides herself: the metal is real, the form of sharp edges and humming noise is real, tearing apart the Temptation was real, everything else is <having no child rather than a daughter>.     The outpouring of emotion feels numbed and glazed over by tinnitus Lilian doesn't have. Horror and shame at Madeleine, choking tears at Love, desperate yearning for all the others declaring their intent to help, loneliness and guilt and w nt t lk K ok and shock at the existence of other people like her.     Most of all, what she communicates is that she *can* understand it all, and that she *can* respond back, without an unbridgable gap of entirely alien intent. This shape being the way she is is *not* why no one's minds can wrap themselves around her form or her words. She's a sick patient, but the disease isn't transmissable-- it's poison.     Whoever the poisoner and whatever the antidote, she desperately needs treatment of some kind, and when Flamel's mind offers it, there's a metallic hum high pitched enough to shatter glass, and she accepts it.