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Angela	THE STORY SO FAR The first connection to The City was established when Agents from Lobotomy Corp, associated with the Concord, assisted Shadow the Hedgehog with fighting some Power Rangers and then proceeded to try and study the Rowdyruff Boys which resulted in the Agents getting temporarily arrested. Outside of causing general disturbances due to the significant culture clash between people of The City where those Agents came from and the rest of the Multiverse, it was eventually revealed that their employer, Lobotomy Corp, had a specific goal in mind for The City. Angela, the Secretary of the mysterious Ayin, was the one most devoted to accomplishing that goal for until that goal was completed, she would be stuck in a time loop watching people suffer forever as they struggled to draw an energy source they called 'Enkephalin' from the monstrous Abnormalities that were held within The City. Seeking aid for her own goals, Angela befriended Lilian Rook who would become the Commander of the Trideag Association but well before that she and many of you assisted in putting to rest many 'Meltdowns' within Lobotomy Corp resulting from the Sephirah--the middle managers of Lobotomy Corp--losing their minds from their torment. One such Meltdown involving a legendary warrior known as the The Red Mist resulted in the rest of The City learning about the Multiverse's movements in The City. At the urging of Hamada Haru, one of the City's representatives (Olivier from the Hana Association) formed the Trideag Association with Lilian Rook at its head for the purpose of managing Outsider involvement within The City. Since then, Trideag has mostly been focused on recruitment and establishing itself to a skeptical populace. This might be the biggest job (that isn't the result of nepotism from L Corp) that Trideag has received yet.
Angela	The Liu Association would like to see what the 'so called Elites' from the Outside World can do and so has asked for their assistance on a mission. District U is right next to District L where Trideag is associated so the trip is only a few hours by bus--one of which was generously donated to the Association by one of their benefactors, Catherine, as a 'down payment' for the Hindley job. Fractal, a member of Trideag that joined from the Rook Office, knew how to drive a bus and has volunteered to take the team down there. Fractal has long green hair with a jagged red stripe down the right side and they are taciturn but polite and puts on some nice jazz music on the bus's stereo as they guide the bus down to District U. They know some routes that they believe will avoid the bus getting ambushed and they seem to be right about that as it is a mostly peaceful drive. Arachne (a woman with spider mandibles, fuzzy arms, and wearing the same Trideag uniform as everyone else) is coming along for the job as is Solace (a white haired woman with a scarred throat and a large axe). Finn (a guy) is staying behind to 'babysit' for Cheer and Soothe and generally keep them out of trouble or trying to sneak aboard the bus. Arachne should not be confused for ''An Arachne'' since it's mostly her upper body that has the spiderbits rather than her lower body. Eventually urban city turns to forest and farmland turns to an uphill drive against a winding road before coming to a stop near some small grungy buildings that serve as the outskirts of the very coastal town they and Liu have been sent to protect. There are numerous men and women in burgundy red coats with white trimming and gold design patterns across the coats. Outside of the coats, they wear black jackets, white collared suits with red ties, with gold buttons and a similarly gold dragon insignia across their left side. They have been separated into about five squads of five to six people each. A woman and a man conversing with one another signal for their squads to stand at attention when the Trideag Association arrives and they do so, perfectly.
Angela	The woman is a red eyed woman with black spiky hair, partially tied up in a small high bun by a golden barette. She is carrying both a long sword and a guan do in her hands, though they remain lowered. The man with her has short red hair and red eyes and a guan do himself along with black gloves with a golden imprint on them. He seems to be her number two by virtue of how he steps back to ensure the woman is front and center. As the Trideag (minus Fractal, who is guarding the bus) pile out she introduces herself. "Hello I am Xiao, I am the Director of the Southern Branch of Section 1 of the Liu Association. This is my attendant Lowell. I have called for your assistance in fending off a mermaid incursion on the coastal town of Toadfront. The Zwei Association has been preventing them from pushing further into the town but they have been at their limit and will be falling back once we step in to relieve them. Our goal is to eradicate the Mermaid presence or, failing that, push them back out into the Great Lake. Either satisfies the contract. Lowell, the map." Lowell whistles and one of the Liu Association members steps out of formation to help roll the a large map of the town of Toadfront, complete with a little toad watermark on the corner of the map. Rather than rolling it out on the floor, they hold it open for anyone in Trideag to see. It's already marked up with troop movements suggesting that the Liu intend to approach primarily from the north, suggesting that they intend for Trideag to approach inward from the beaches to the south which is a longer route by about an hour or so. "The Liu Association will move in first, driving the Mermaids to the south where you will be able to catch them before they filter through the town. The Zwei will be moving through your route as part of their fighting retreat." Xiao says. "It is my intention to join your group while leaving Lowell in command of my section so that I may observe you at work. I will follow orders as per your team's instructions as if I am a member of Trideag myself. Likewise, in the spirit of comradery, I will allow a member of Trideag to move along with the Liu Association through the North." She turns to look towards Lilian. "Director Lilian, if you have any modifications to the plan or any questions, I will hear them now. We will proceed when your team is ready." She has this aura of cool discipline that seems only slightly more extreme in pervasiveness than her men. She is direct and to the point and doesn't even so much as flinch at Arachne or any of the less humanlike members of Trideag. She is here to do a job and her feelings are far away from being involved with that job. While she seems disinclined to engage with extraneous chatter, she gives a small nod to the other members of Trideag to indicate that she doesn't mind them contributing so long as it is a mission focused contribution. Despite the uniform nature of the Liu, it hasn't yet become something they maintain purely for its own sake at the expense of practicality. Some of you may recall seeing her at the Trideag Naming Ceremony but she wasn't particularly heavily involved there so it's entirely plausible to have overlooked or forgotten her.
Rita Ma	Rita stands out on the bus even if you aren't familiar with her- by being too out-of-uniform to be one of the locals, and too 'ordinary' to fit in with the Elites.      She'd seem like a tourist who happened onto the wrong bus. Except, her skirt-and-dress-shirt outfit contrasts the dark Trideag uniforms just so. In a group, that splash of white would say 'special character - take notice'.      Sitting next to Arachne, she leans forward to cutely chat with Solace's kids in the next row ahead: "You know, if you want fish skewers to turn out like they do on the Island, you've got to dry the meat! More water means less crispy. You can pat the surface with a paper towel if you've got those, but I always put the cuts out in the sun for an hour..."      But the moment she disembarks, she takes a straightening-up breath, and 'genuine pleasantness' evaporates for 'businesslike pleasantness'.      She steps in while rummaging in her black messenger bag for something. Even though Lilian was the only one solicited for comment, Rita doesn't hesitate.      "It's good to meet you, Director Xiao. In other words, Trideag will stand between the 'mermaids' and the town, so if the mission fails, we'll take most of the blame for its destruction, right?" She can say all that while smiling.      Her hand finds the thing it was looking for. It lifts out a black respirator mask, mouth-and-nose. She starts to put it on, then hesitates.      "Oh, and did you have a 'mermaid' corpse on hand? That aside, I think we're ready." Glance to Lilian.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine spends the bus ride sitting near Solace, making occasional (and in all likelihood, mostly one-sided) small talk. The huntress is a little more bundled up than usual - she's got taller boots, full gloves instead of fingerless, fleece-lined leggings, and her jacket is zipped up instead of open. Along with her usual weapons she's brought several harpoons and coils of rope. Those who pay close attention to her on the ride over notice the occasional subtle shiver, as if she's still chilly under her layers.     On arrival she listens to Xiao's account of the situation and almost immediately starts shifting from one foot to the other, impatient to get her questions out. "Do we know why they're concentrating on this town in specific? What's their social structure, is there some sort of mermaid matriarch to look out for?" She conspicuously avoids the word "queen".     At the mention of sending an Elite to the northern half of the operation, Madeleine raises a hand again with a half-step forward. "If you expect to need one of us, I can go with you. I've plenty of experience with sea monsters."     Once the others have their questions out and matters of assignment are settled, she steps closer to White. "Haven't seen you around before, and you don't look like a fresh local. I'm Madeleine," she says, holding out a gloved hand for a shake.
White	White shows up almost exactly fifteen minutes prior to everyone getting onto the bus, and says hardly a word throughout of her own volition. She makes sure to greet Lilian on arrival with a small bow before settling in to wait. Those who haven't met her could find her closed eyes confusing, since she has no issue getting around without help, but otherwise she's seemingly just a somewhat unathletic and pale stranger at first glance. No weapons, no luggage, no armor... During the bus ride she's trying to memorize as many people as she can, so she might be caught 'staring' through her eyelids at some point.      Inside her own head, she's making all kinds of commentary to keep herself busy, though. 'Wow, everyone looks mostly normal, but there's a spider woman who was here before me and nobody is even blinking? This has to be appropriation, someone is making fun of me! Or not. Shame I can't talk to spiders, it keeps coming up lately- but then again, I can barely talk to people, and that's probably more relevant!' So on, and so forth, as her attention and "blind" gaze slides naturally onto Rita, then on to another person, and another. She had barely even wiggled in her seat the whole ride, but she doesn't seem too stiff to follow the group without complaint and wordlessly offer the same half-bow to Xiao as she did Lilian. She doesn't feel inclined to interrupt or make suggestions during the briefing of course, and doesn't even consider offering to be the 'away member'. She's not even officially in Trideag, this is sort of a trial run for her!      So, all told, she's damn near silent throughout briefing too. She leans in to look at the map, still keeping her eyes closed to those who are in front of her enough to see as much without her hood being in the way. 'Well, with this many people around I'd have to spill the beans if I wanted to spread my little spy-ders around, and maaaan that would be a hassle... But if it's just a wipe-em-out job, maybe I can get cozy in the back and just take potshots...' Briefly, she addresses the radio by pulling her phone out of the sleeve of her dress, tapping out a quick remark through text-to-speech before stowing it again. She seems to intend to stick with the main group, and rather than get her phone back out when Solace questions her she just looks in their direction and shakes her head mildly.
White	White seems a little surprised to be approached directly by Madeleine, but she has her attention! For a few seconds, really, before White even notices the offer for a handshake. Before it can become convincing that she's genuinely blind, she reaches out to loosely grasp the offered hand and give it one itty bitty shake and a matching nod. "White." is about all the introduction that accompanies it though.
Kale Hearthward	A bus! "Must we? Most of us can make it there just fine on our own," says Kale, having not actually stopped to count accurately enough to justify the usage of 'most of us'. Subtext: The ones that matter enough to count can mostly make it there without a bus. He insists on sitting in the front, if bus riding is nonetheless mandatory, and also being one of the first to pile off the bus. He also affixes anyone with a glare if they literally even *think* about starting a bus riding song. Aside from the kids. They're allowed. White's physical appearance gets some interest and attention at first - way to rock the color coordination and the gradient - but it's not until he starts picking up stray thoughts that he actually focuses on her, and studies her mannerisms out of the corner of his eyes, and her thoughts out of the corner of his mind. > Shame I can't talk to spiders, it keeps coming up lately- but then again, I can barely talk to people, and that's probably more relevant! She's being weird about eye contact, she has trouble talking to people, and she has a hyperfixation. Ahh, okay. Kale understands. Maybe she's here on some sort of Trideag outreach program. "Director Xiao. Lowell. Kale Hearthward. Grade 7, Search and Rescue. Also Recon and Combat." It's Lilian's right to make first introductions, but Kale makes sure to make sure he is Seen. On the topic of sending someone with the Liu association, Kale seconds Madeline - and a little more hesitantly nods at the suggestion of Odette. "You *did* get enough sleep last night?" he says to her, circumspectly. "My squad medic's going to be asking me if you have."
Odette Raskins	An exhausted EMT is joining the Trideag Association crew on today's mermaid fending mission! At first, it probably doesn't look like Odette's going to be of much use when it comes to fighting off anything more than illness of injury, and there's good reason to worry when she doesn't even wake up from her bus nap until the people in burgundy coats are already visible from the windows. One energy drink later, however, and she's back to her usual anxiously jittery self by the time she comes off the bus with everyone else, sporting a fancy new set of things in addition to her usual duffel bag. Oddly enough, the armored jacket probably isn't the most noticeable new addition. It makes her look bulkier than usual, but what really looks out of place for the EMT are the sword and sidearm hooked up to her belt on each side. Does she even know how to use those things? Hopefully, since she's been following the training plan set out by the Trideag Association commander, but whether that translates to results... She just needs to focus on and make sure that it does. "G... Good to be here, Director Xiao. Thank you for having us today!" She greets with a polite little bow, hand across waist and all. It seems she might have picked something up from a certain castle. Listening closely to the introduction to both herself, Lowell, and the town's predicament, Odette's hands are already resting over her medical bag as she starts estimating how much medication she'll need to ration out. Liu Association members, villagers, Trideag Elites, potentially... "If we have the opening to do so safely and without endangering the mission, should we... Uh. Keep the mermaids alive and in custody instead killing them?" She asks, trying to loosen her jaw a little once she notices she's been clenching this whole time. "I-in case we need to... Um. Do an exchange or something?" She's heard of prisoner exchanges happening on other stations before, but is that also something that happens here? She'll find out soon enough, perhaps. Taking a deep breath to keep her cool, Odette breathes a light sigh of relief as Madeleine indicates her intent to go with the Liu Association, moderately relieved at the possibility of having someone along while she follows Rita's suggestion. "I could go with the Liu Association, too. I-I'm a trained EMT, so I can be on hand to respond to any medical emergencies that come up on the north side." What goes unsaid, of course, is her much higher confidence in Trideag's Elites getting through this with less injury than Liu's employees. She even gives Kale a big thumbs up when he asks about her sleeping, although she waits until things have quieted down a bit to whisper to him quietly. "Took a long nap on the bus, too. I-I'll be good." As she turns away from Kale, though, Odette spots White, and she vaguely recognizes her from coming off the bus just a little while ago. She's definitely not someone the EMT had met before, but hearing her text-to-speech makes it obvious enough she's meant to be here as well. She greets White with a timid little wave at first, hovering around a bit to see if White notices that first before finally approaching her. "H.. Hi there! Uh. Are you a new member?" Odette asks, keeping her voice down in case she doesn't want that blasted out. "Welcome aboard. My name's Odette, and.. If you need any medical treatment, d.. Don't be afraid to come looking for me, okay? Or a..." She pats her armoured jacket confidently, perhaps unwisely, but definitely with that energy of 'trying too hard to be a reliable senior for the new face'. "Distraction. This uniform feels pretty tough, and I'm pretty quick on my feet."
White	White starts to feel the task-juggling panic slowly set in as Odette approaches while she's still delicately handshaking Madeleine, which makes her grip stiffen slightly. She stares at Odette, still eyes-closed, for almost ten straight seconds as she quells the emergency alarms in her mind and gets an idea of the kind of person she's looking at. 'Tiny... She was just sleeping, so is she a klutz-type? Oh no, is she one of those magical girls, the ones who are always late to class? And she's trying to look good now, huh... Well, it's common sense to protect the healer so if she thinks she's distraction material she's going to give someone an aneurism isn't she?'      With these conclusions in mind, White *eventually* has to respond. But that was kind of a lot to answer... So she uses demonstration instead! A swipe of her hand across the arm that is still probably handshaking Madeleine cuts her skin slightly (owing to the wire-like enhanced webbing she's subtly strung between her fingertips), which then faintly hisses and 'melts' to reseal itself like nothing had ever happened. There's not even any blood!      She reaches her other hand across the first arm only then, to handshake Odette too, and softly says "Don't worry." Surely THAT will put her at ease, right? 'Not much an EMT can do for me after all, so don't go dying about it! Nice girl though.'
Angela	Cheer and Soothe, with Finn in between them, are happy to talk with Rita. "Wow... I didn't realize preparing fish could go so many ways... do you do all that before grilling the fish or after?" Soothe asks. "I heard that they made ice cream out of mermaids is that true?" Cheer asks, not really aware of the implication. But they're staying on the bus with Finn and Fractal (to make sure Cheer doesn't try to fight a Mermaid herself). Soothe is already taking out his crayons to work on pictures. ''So if the mission fails, we'll take most of the blame for failing?'' "...You are surprisingly cynical for such a kind face, but I suppose that attitude is understandable. No, I will take the blame if the situation degenerates to that extent. After all, it was my decision to call upon you for backup." Xiao says. Lowell gives a concerned look towards her but a stare back from Xiao silences him. "I do not expect this to be an issue considering your track record so far." Does she have a mermaid corpse on hand? "We do not, but you are likely to find some along the way--the fighting has been ongoing for some time and I am concerned about protecting the town rather than selling mermaid corpses." Maybe the mermaid ice cream story is true... ''Do we know why they're concentrating on this town in specific? What's their social structure...'' "Good question," Xiao says. "Mermaids semi-frequently attack coastal towns like this to try and take humans back into the sea with them. There's usually a few attacks like this per year, though this one is heavier than normal. As for the social structure, I wouldn't say we have a complete picture, but we know that Mermaids obey the Whales that spawn them. And that there are five particularly colossal Whales known as the Five Calamities. If there is some sort of 'Matriarch', we have not run across them as of yet." She lets the matter of who is going north be worked out amongst Trideag itself.
Angela	Arachne seems capable of speaking in languages besides spider and unlike White seems to be a lot more sociably and louder when she speaks. She's mostly trying to strike up a conversation with Solace who is answering her in one to three words a piece. Solace's voice seems rather hoarse and she always speaks in a range between murmur and whisper. Arachne is oblivious to White being a spiderwoman but she does keep looking at White with curiousity in her eyes. She's new! And she knows nothing about her. But when Rita says she's staring 'through' her eyelids she leans forward and asks White, "You're not sleeping?" ''...shakes her head mildly.'' Solace looks down at her radio like she's trying to figure out how White is doing it. Considering her tendency to speak in a whisper, that suggests plenty of why she might want to activate a text to speech too. When White gives her name... "Solace." Solace asides, similarly brief. ''Grade 7, Search and Rescue.'' "You should be quite suitable for this job, then." Xiao says. Her gaze lingers a moment longer on Kale because he has a bird head. Objective: Being Seen... Complete! She's wondering if he can fly and what a difference Flight would make for Association jobs. ''Should we... Uh. Keep the mermaids alive and in custody instead of killing them?'' Xiao raises an eyebrow. There is more surprise amongst the Liu Association but it's all pretty muted and is shut up quick, this time thanks to a glance from Lowell. This is a very disciplined group so what Odette asked was just that strange to them. "Most people in The City would consider death a mercy for mermaids." Xiao says. "I have no objection if your Director does not but if you risk my men over your curiosity I will cut you down myself. Keep your priorities in check and we'll have no issues. Or complaints." She has no idea why Odette would WANT to keep mermaids alive but Outsiders have proven to be a bit strange so she isn't going to make an issue of it. "An EMT would be helpful. Alright, I accept." She nods to Madeleine to indicate she's okay with a hunter joining along. ''White's hand going hisss..'' Arachne squints at White. "Is that...webbing?" She asks in a soft awed murmur before noticing Liu's eyes on her and she stiffens and looks right back at them.
Lilian Rook	Lilian would usually skip the bus ride. She has, in fact, arrived separately of her ~~goons~~ ~~minion~~ employees before on a Trídéag job. The reason she tags along is very simple: visibly reading the entire time should 'politely suggest' everyone stay quiet and not cause a disaster. She's invited a guest, after all! If they do anyways, well . . .     . . . . . . . .     Lilian barely holds in the appreciative little whistle when she sees the Liu troops stand to attention in unison. It's communicated in the look she favours them with anyways, gliding by with her hands behind her back and her head on a slight swivel to stare at them instead of watching her own 'troops'. As much as the name 'Lowell' takes her for a loop (honestly, just a slow blink and reset to neutral expression), his whistle getting the map out like that makes her want to applaud.     "Very nice. I see that the Liu Association's good name isn't for nothing." Lilian says, implicitly to Xiao, but without looking at anyone in particular while eyeing the map. "I'll greatly enjoy meeting again, once my own Fixers have had the time to be polished up to that standard." she says, giving something distantly related to an approving glance at Odette's bow.     'In other words, Trideag will stand between the 'mermaids' and the town, so if the mission fails, we'll take most of the blame for its destruction, right?'     Lilian smiles a tiny bit, freezes it, and unlaces her hands to gesture at Rita. "With a notable exception. Not even I have the authority to strictly order a Star of the City." she says.     'No, I will take the blame if the situation degenerates to that extent. After all, it was my decision to call upon you for backup.'     That reaction gets a raised eyebrow from Lilian. "That's an especially generous stance to take." she says. "Beyond the bounds of what I would consider merely 'fair'."     'I could go with the Liu Association, too.'     'If you expect to need one of us, I can go with you.'     Lilian thinks about it for half a second. "Raskins." comes next. "You are to provide unlimited medical assistance to Liu personnel and observe their detachment. Prevent casualties at the cost of anything but your own life, then report back to me." She looks smoothly over to Xiao. "Though I've brought some more junior Fixers to gain experience, I'm confident in the strength of our core forces. Please don't hesitate to put her to work. We'll only encounter injured from Zwei if they're mobile enough to reach us in the first place." There are several implications meant at once, and she trusts Xiao to understand all of them. "Cadrasteia will be covering those instead."
Lilian Rook	'Director Lilian, if you have any modifications to the plan or any questions, I will hear them now. We will proceed when your team is ready.'     "None, save that I strongly suggest that your troops split south-southest and south-southwest when within three hundred meters of Trídéag's line. I'd prefer not to limit my Fixers' use of ranged weaponry to thin out the pack for fear of friendly fire." Lilian says. "I'll be going on ahead to reconnoiter the position first."          §Rita. Do you think it'll work? If they're already being controlled by some giant psychic whale, it can't be that easy, can it?§     "If things go well, I'd prefer if we could rendesvouz in town once the operation is complete." She scans the crowd out of the corner of her eye. "My treat."
Odette Raskins	Did she not introduce herself loud enough? Did she say something really stupid? Oh no, did she already bungle her first impression on the new member? Odette's smile starts to falter about nine seconds in with her nerves getting to her, and seeing White moving her hands is startling enough to confuse her into just staring at first. Naturally, her eyes go wide at seeing White cutting herself, holding in a nervous noise  in the back of her throat until she sees her skin seemingly mending itself within seconds. "Cool.." She finds herself murmuring, looking at White's arm in awe before looking back up at her. Yes, even that's enough of a height difference to have Odette tilting her head back a bit, but she's already used to it. "Don't...? Oh! O-okay. Just don't push yourself too hard. Even the strongest people get tired, and..." She's not sure how to finish that sentence. Crap. Now she'll never look cool in front of the newbie! Odette clears her throat lightly and nods once, not bothering to finish that thought and desperately hoping someone says something to give her an out. Luckily, Xiao gives her the out! Unluckily, it's because Odette's stepped in something else with her question about sparing mermaids. Still sweating at that reaction, she straightens up and nods quickly at the director obediently, tightening her jaw again as she tries not to let her nerves show more than they already are. "U.. Understood. Don't worry, your men are in good hands!" She half-shouts in trying to overcompensate for that blunder, calming herself down with a few deeper breaths afterwards. She almost doesn't catch what Lilian says to her, but hearing her name snaps Odette's mind right back to attention. "Y.. Yes, ma'am! Ah... Understood. Focus on medical care, prevent and minimize casualties..." She repeats to herself a few times, shuffling her bag around to her front so there's an easier path from her hands to her weapons. Will she need them? Probably, but she's been training hard for today, and her hands are already sweating a bit inside her gloves. One more deep breath, and then Odette straightens up again with her arms pumping lightly at her sides. "I'll make sure it's a good report, Dame Commander. Y-you can bet on it!"
Sarracenia	"Are we...-required- to ride on the bus?" is the first thing Sarracenia says when she sees it. She is a princess after all, and while she thinks she isn't snobby sometimes she is. Of course it annoys her a bit that Kale seems to be of the same mind. A bus is low class transportation and she does not want to wrinkle her custom made Trideag dress or have to struggle to find a spot for her satchel purse or her Trideag-standard sidearm! Which she is wearing in a sleek black chest holster that has the same black and gold coloration as her dress. She does not seem to be wearing any armor, but the dress does look a bit overly thick around her torso.      With the rest of the Trideag piling in she follows after begrudgingly. And with Rita being the most friendly person toward her on the bus, Sarra takes a seat near Rita. But not with Rita, because that would be too direct and the seat seems full already.      The princess is also quick to exit the bus and smooths her dress out once she is free, then approaches Xiao and Lowell. She curtseys gracefully and smiles. "Greetings, Director Xiao and Attendant Lowell. I am Princess Sarracenia Sundew, Crown Princess of the Sundew Kingdom. And Fixer Grade 6. I consider myself a bit of a jack of all trades in that I can provide enhancements and healing to your troops as well as my fellow fixers, but I suppose my primary focus is combat. However, if you would like a supply of power-ups for your people I am happy to provide them. I can grant them elemental firepower, flight, or a near limitless supply of throwing weapons. Not all at once, unfortunately."      'Most people in The City would consider death a mercy for mermaids.'      "And why is that, Director? While I am combat focused, I would prefer not to kill any people if it can at all be avoided." Sarra adds in.      When she has a moment, Sarra also approaches White. She does not recognize White. The healing and the soft voice are noteworthy, but do not stop Sarra from being as loud as usual. "And greetings to you as well!" Sarra curtseys again. "It is nice to meet you Miss...I am sorry, if you gave your name I did not catch it."
Kale Hearthward	> "Took a long nap on the bus, too. I-I'll be good." "Well - good," says Kale, who wasn't paying enough attention to anyone except White to verify if Odette did or did not nap on the bus. "Come back in one piece, alright?" Kale is seen. Yes! Oh, she's wondering if he can fly... Casually, he clicks his heels together, activating his jet boots. "If you'll excuse me," he says, now hovering a few inches above the ground. "If we're going to be starting soon, I should do my warmup exercises," he says, as he heads off a short distance to begin doing so. Which, practically everyone else would know, he always just does the warmup exercises on the ground since none of the muscle stretches require flight? He's transparently showing off to another organization and its director. He can fly! He can hover in place effortlessly. He can flip around and start doing leg lifts while upside down. > "I have no objection if your Director does not but if you risk my men over your curiosity I will cut you down myself." Slowly, Kale rotates around so that he's the mundane way up again. He doesn't visibly react or say anything overtly immediately in response, nothing that could possibly - even in the worst light - be considered an escalation, but he is paying a bit more attention towards Odette and Xiao's direction, and he's done goofing around.
White	White's head rocks slightly to the right as she now has a third person speaking to her in Arachne! Both hands preoccupied, she has little freedom to gesture as response, and with others talking tactics she's even less willing to speak up than normal. She's trying to listen to the plan too, after all; fortunately her ability to mental-multitask is pretty good. Is she sleeping? Nah, though she's surprised more people don't think that. She just shakes her head. She doesn't plainly nod at Arachne's question about webbing, instead giving sort of a noncommittal shimmy-shrug of her shoulders as if she's saying "kinda". She wonders, 'What, can you not do that? Come on, you're repping the spider thing harder than I am.', but she's reorganizing the battle plan in her head as well. 'So, kill the fish, beware their big bosses, get survivors out, common sense ahoy. It won't even be hard to tell who is who, but I guess they seem pretty worried still? Oh, go Lilian making it even easier, friendly fire is a huge hassle. I wonder what the team-balance is going to be like though. Doesn't look like a lot of smashy-bashy types came along to use as a shield- I mean valiant frontline.'      Then, Sarracenia introduces herself. Odette released White's hand at a good time to not be inadvertently wiggled by her attempt to lazily wave, and she only slightly exasperatedly repeats her one-word "White." self-introduction. It takes her six seconds to muster the will to add, "It's nice to meet you in person Princess." She sounds pretty different from her TTS on the radio, so she's not surprised by the lack of recognition.      Though, it sounds like now it's time to get ready for real. With a hand still free even if Madeleine were explictably deathgripping one of them, she reaches into one sleeve of her dress and starts gingerly pulling out a long-poled weapon like she's removing it from a golfbag with relatively little grace. A scythe! A very evil looking scythe. She props it upright against her chest like an unopened umbrella more than a weapon, and prepares to follow the others' lead; she isn't scared of a little hike, and if she follows in the back of the group she might not even be noticed taking a little planning's-sake look at the others' abilities.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Xiao answers some questions about mermaids.     Madeleine internally wonders at the lack of information about the 'why' of mermaid attacks. First the secret gnome war, now this. These attacks come multiple times a year? It can't be a simple lack of curiosity, there's either so much else going on in the City that they simply can't research into the causes and mechanisms of the various external threats, or there's some conspiracy afoot to nip any discoveries in the bud. She mentally files a note to get to the bottom of this when she next has time for a major project outside of work. The truth is out there!     "Cadrasteia will be covering those instead."     This is no time to be openly argumentative. And Madeleine can't object to the sense in having someone dedicated to covering the retreating Zwei Association for as long as they require, so she nods to the Dame Commander's assignment.
Rita Ma	Rita's eyes notch towards Lilian mid-conversation, though no words are spoken out loud. With her gentle, neck-tingling telepathy:      'I probably can't control them completely without defeating the Whale. I'm not sure if beating it is possible today. But if this is anything like the Queen, I could control a few of the mermaids, or 'nudge' most of them.' A hard-to-articulate mental feeling of 'give-and-take' underlies it. A red wave and a blue wave crashing together, mixing.      Her eyes slide back to Director Xiao, only a half-second late to answer. "I don't object to where the blame lies. We won't fail. But it's good to know what kind of person you are," she says. Her mask is pulled up to cover that slightly-more-sincere-now smile.      Just before she seals it around her mouth and nose, she takes one last deep breath of the unfiltered air and shuts her eyes. Blood that smells *almost* human, but isn't quite. What's the nearest source of that? If it's the battlefield anyway, she'll go with the others, but if there's a more convenient body to nibble...      Come to think of it, what's the mask supposed to do? It can't protect from chemical weapons. Her eyes are still exposed. Her first breath through it rattles.      "Right. I'll go with the South team for now. Thank you, Ms. Rook. After that, we'll see."
Angela	''Very nice. I see that the Liu's Association good name isn't for nothing.'' Xiao dips her head to Lilian. "The Liu Association believes in focused minds and clear heads. I won't say that we don't have any mavericks of our own but considering the jobs we take on, they either find a way to adapt or crash out. I was impressed with what you said at the Naming Ceremony. You said you needed nothing but our ''Trust'' so that is what I wished to offer you. It is my hope the rest of the Liu Association will follow suit in time. One of our associated Offices encouraged me to move sooner rather than later." She must mean the Dawn Office. ''Not even I have the authority to strictly order a Star of the city.'' Xiao looks at Rita again. The sweet face nearly made her forget. No wonder she was suspicious, she thinks. "We will be grateful for any light you can shine on today's operation." She says, after a moment's thought. Stars seem to be objects of veneration, desire, and fear and so Xiao expresses polite caution. ''That's an especially generous stance to take.'' "If you fail, you lose an ally. I feel that is punishment enough." Xiao says. "Especially since I asked for you." But there's a sense that partly why she's taking a generous stance such as this is also to appease the Star of the City in the operation. Xiao nods once more to Lilian's orders to her team. And when Lilian makes her modifications to the plan, Xiao looks to Lowell who gives her a nod to indicate he understands the request, taking one more look at the map for confirmation. It's clear to Lilian they are an incredibly in sync duo. They barely uttered words to one another and yet they've communicated plenty. "We should reconvene." Xiao agrees. "It is customary to share a meal amongst the Liu after an operation and we'll be happy to include you." She gives a simple nod, heedless of her anxiety (she noticed, she's not going to care about it--not her job). ''I am Princess--'' "We know who you are. We do not care about your titles. As far as we are concerned you are just another Fixer. We can discuss 'powerups' for future collaborations after this mission." Translation: They want to see them in action first. ''And why is that, Director?'' "You'll see." Xiao says. Arachne doesn't seem to realize White's anxiety and the fact that she seems to be smiling more and more bigly at White with every passing moment. This might be trouble in the future. But not today because it's time to move out. Xiao gives one last nod to Rita, nearly as neutral as Angela, before Lowell signals the North Team to move forward.
Angela	NORTH PATH The Liu Association is not utterly silent during the approach from the North. Lowell stays close to Odette and talks to her further during the process. He's much chattier now that there's no Xiao taking the lead. "Our wounds tend to be burns from backlash from our weapons but mermaids have their own dangers. The wounds they inflict can readily get infected and their oils cause the mind to slip away--not as severely as whale oil but you don't want to get covered in that stuff. I do not know how to put it any more clearly than that. Our go to strategy is to send one group of teams in and then have them fall back to replace with fresher teams so if you want to focus on treating the wounded, I'll direct them to you but odds are we'll be sending most of them back in before you can get to them. Fights go a lot faster than medical treatment unless you have HP Ampules on you." They are upon the town sooner rather than later and Lowell shouts, "Teams Two, Three, and Five!" and Odette can see them converge on the town ahead while the rest stay back. For now. The smell of fish hits first, that kind of ocean smell with the strong smell of fish accompanying it. Odette is the first amongst the Outsiders to see the mermaids. They are not adorable. Instead, they look like seal like beasts with a large mouth ripping open down the upper half of their body with too human teeth inside that mouth. Pieces of flotsam and rotting wood seem to have melded with their body and they are a sickening pale color. Hands push them forward as they engage the Liu Association, moving with incredible speed despite their strange bodies, and with ferocious strength. But at first they don't seem to be having any issue with the battle. The Liu Association clobbers through them with burning fists and flaming weapons. This goes on for a few minutes before Lowell gives another call out and the squad falls back. The mermaids did get a few hits in, despite the discipline. There's one Liu Association member looking dizzy with some goop on them and a second that has a thick barb stuck in their arm, a thick red line leading up to it.
Angela	SOUTH PATH The southern group doesn't reach the fighting nearly as quickly. Xiao is accompanying you, as she suggested she would. Now that she is apart from her mind, her posture relaxes ever so slightly though she keeps an eye on Lilian in case she's given any orders. She did say she'd follow her orders as if she were a member of Trideag herself, after all. "Miss Rita. I hope you do not mind me asking, but what sort of person are you?" Xiao asks. "Since you seem to have me at a disadvantage in that arena." The team makes its way to the beach. So far no mermaids but Lilian and Madeleine, scouting ahead, can see some wounded Zwei Fixers making their way out, accompanied by a small number of uninjured but exhausted looking Zwei Fixers. They are, by and large, heavily armored and carrying Zweihanders and tower shields. It seems like the healthy ones were dispatched to help escort the wounded out. "Acting Vice-Director Madison." One of them says. "Dispatched to help evacuate our wounded. They're right on our tail but the bulk's up north. At least until the Liu hits them." Madison exhales like he wants to drop his gear and rest but he knows it's not quite time for that yet. "The wounded won't make it without treatment. Even the ones that look only mildly hurt will have to deal with toxins. Would prefer to avoid amputation but we can afford replacements." Rita can feel them, though. They're coming closer. They feel both human and not human. Like the Zwei said, there's a bunch chasing them down and there's a smaller group-- --in the water. Right near White, in fact. Mermaids similar to the ones that Odette's dealing with up north clamber out onto the beach. Two lunge for White, perhaps sensing threat, and another pair fling themselves for Kale, perhaps understanding the long standing feud between fish and bird. The blows are toxic, infectious, and the oils seem to press into the mind--like it's trying to wipe them clean. "Shit.." Madison says, stepping forward and putting down his shield to protect the retreat path since he's expecting more trouble any moment. And it does come. But these mermaids look a little different. The ones shambling towards the party look ... mostly human, but there's this thick white mesh covering their body. Some carry Zwei weaponry, some carry pistols and harpoons. They don't seem to have a unified factional backing. They approach haltingly but suringly. The pistols gradually raise up and fire shots at Lilian and Madeleine, though Madison is able to take the brunt of the firepower through his shield--he can't block it all. Xiao, having been given no orders yet, stabs through one of the mermaids harassing Kale which then bursts into flame, incinerating it from the inside out, but she's keeping an eye on Lilian.
Odette Raskins	"Come back in one piece, alright?" "That's the plan." Odette replies to Kale with a quick nod, keeping that confident smile on her face that might be more to convince herself than anyone else. As long as she believes it and does well, it'll go fine! "Our wounds tend to be burns from backlash ..." "The wounds they inflict can readily get infected and their oils cause the mind to slip away ..." Lowell, meanwhile, gives Odette far more information about the upcoming battle than she was actually expecting. Still moving with her hands in her bag, she's quick at starting to rearrange all her stuff based on what she's hearing from the Liu Association member. "Wouldn't have expected that, but it makes sense... I-I'll have plenty of burn medication ready, then. Some patches, some injectors, but if we're dealing with oil and infection..." She needs some bottles for this. She's not sure how concentrated that mind-sapping oil is, but it couldn't hurt to have plenty of sprays on hand to wash it off quickly, too. "Swapping teams around makes sense. You don't want anyone getting too ragged, especially if things start going.. Um. South real fast. N-not that it will, or that we'll be moving south, but... Y-you know what I mean, right?" An awkward chuckle later, and Odette furrows her brow. "I've heard a little about those HP Amp things... Er. I'll have to ask someone about how they work later. M-maybe even pack a few, since those come in.. Uh. Gun form?" Shooting someone to heal means she'd really need to pay attention to which gun she's using, if she ever did that. As the Liu's teams start encountering mermaids, Odette wrinkles her nose a little at the smell hitting her. If she was allowed to smell it in a less anxiety-spiking context, perhaps she might enjoy it. Right now, though, she's stuck looking at something rather terrible: this side of the world's version of mermaids! Visibly recoiling at the sight of them, Odette's hands grip her bag tightly as she  keeps them close to where her weapons are, but... Not yet. She needs to focus on treating the wounded as they come back first, and the weapons second if it looks like the line is starting to get pushed back. She instead focuses on getting her treatment supplies ready, organizing them to efficiently pull them out later once the first group starts coming back. Once Lowell calls for the switch, Odette's already moving into position with her medical HUD glasses on to start treating the injured Liu Association members. She prioritizes those that have the mermaid's gunk and barbs stuck in them first, as the burns aren't really something she has to worry about messing with anyone's head like Lowell described. "Alright, you did good out there! L-let's see what we have here...." Yep, that's goop alright. With a combination of a thick towel and an oil-dissolving spray that smells something like nail polish remover and baking soda, she gets to work on that greasy substance first. After setting the gooped-up towel into a biohazard bag, she does a quick checkup on the dizzier member while smearing ointment and a bandage over their burns. "Count to five. Eat this." It's a pill that's supposed to help with brain fog. The one with the barb, meanwhile gets similarly careful treatment, if a little more painful thanks to the barb being something that's just going to end up hurting on the way out. "Easy now. Let's get it sanitized a bit before any...  Uh. Infection seeps in." Swallowing lightly, Odette offers the member a painkiller and antibiotic, then sprays the area with some light numbing agent before getting at it with a pair of forceps. Like with the goop, she tosses the barb into a biohazard bag for later looking at, then quickly gets to work sanitizing and closing up the wound with a combination of sprays, temporary packing, and heavy bandaging that shouldn't limit mobility too much while also holding the flesh together so the medication can start mending some of the flesh together in time for it to get messed up again later.
White	White is comfortably buried in her thoughts for much of the walk, but spares the attention to keep an eye on the scouts ahead with her extended visual distance. A short while in her eyes open and mostly stay so, gleaming faintly as she sweeps her gaze across the present group of allies. Getting an idea of where the strong points and deficits in the team are... Primarily so she can cover the gaps for convenience and clout! It doesn't seem like she'll have to work too hard on that front, to her pleasure, though... Certain individuals (cough, Rita) stand out depending on how much information her Evil Eye can draw from them unimpeded. Before she can fixate on the details though, she notices something else alongside herself! She has a fraction of a second to consider a response as the merfolk lunge for her, allowing them to get beyond her scythe's ideal range with a relatively placid look on her face. She heard the warnings about toxic oils and disease, but she still goes for a completely unrefined and unladylike left hook into the center of mass on the nearer attacker. If it fails to absorb the impact, she even throws it bodily into its kin while a trio of magic glyphs form overhead from violet light. Within each, she gathers what looks like a red-cored black fireball, smoldering in slow-motion and angled down at the ideally prone and immobile fishy foes to finish them off the next moment.      There's a modest explosion on impact whether it hits flesh, water or solid ground, but White is used to it and doesn't flinch. The mind-affecting oil, she assumes initially is also a form of toxin. If it proves to *actually* have an effect on her though, she goes for a rather dramatic solution; she chops the hand she punched with off at the wrist, and grows a new one to end its contact with her body. From there once her condition is confirmed and she's sure she doesn't need to keep being a freakshow over small fry, she turns daintily to face the oncoming mass and begins to accumulate more dark magic, this time six motes of it, and narrowed rather than rounded.      'Well, if I'm going to shoot right over their heads, I probably should stick to Spears for now. Definitely not eating these.'
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Mermaids is mermaids is mermaids, right? How weird can they be? Madeleine recalls her knowledge of 'normal' mermaid anatomy - the location of the swim bladder, the positioning of the tendons that permit movement on land, down to the usual angles of their ribs.     Then Madeleine gets a good look at the 'mermaids' chasing the Zwei fixers. Oh. They're pretty weird.     These are more like... fish zombies? On one hand, they're smaller than the ones coming out of the water to menace the other elites. On the other, these mermaids have guns. It's clear to the huntress that there's some kind of human-to-mermaid conversion process going on - that white mesh is probably shedding skin - and she briefly wonders why that didn't come up in the briefing, before the opening salvoes from the shambling pursuers spurs her to action.     The bullets that would have struck her instead punch holes through a cleverly placed dummy - Madeleine was over here, actually, or at least she is now. And 'here' is on a mad serpentine dash up the shoreline, rushing toward the Zwei survivors while she nocks an arrow to her bow. She stops short here and there, kicking up sand, to fire off arrows that burst into puffs of oily, poisonous smoke that cling low to the ground. In addition to cutting off the gunmen's (gunfish's?) sightlines, she hopes to test their vulnerability to toxins. If she's lucky, their mutating flesh will be more susceptible than usual, perhaps even absorbing poison directly through the skin instead of it being filtered by the lungs. If she's not, she's still given the Zwei fixers a break from targeted gunfire as the mermaids are forced to either shoot blindly or charge through the venomous clouds.     The huntress stops short of her smokescreen and Drogrung straightens into a spear. Her position firmly established, she waits for the most ambitious or reckless of the upright mermaids to emerge from the clouds...
Sarracenia	'We know who you are.'      Sarra's introduction is interrupted?! Sarra's smile turns to a strained one and you can practically hear a crashing sound. 'Do not yell at a director. Do not yell at a director.' Sarra says a few times in her head, then takes a deep breath and lets it out.      Wait, they already know who she is?! No one ever knows who she is! Sarra's genuine smile quickly returns. She is not socially capable enough to catch the 'they want to see action first' non-verbal, though. "And I will do my utmost to ensure there are future collaborations!" she says confidently before she turns away to go about other business.      'White. It's nice to meet you in person Princess.'      Sarra blinks in surprise. "Oh! Why thank you! So, you are Commander White of the Demon Lord's Army?" She gives White an appraising look. Which turns to one of slight awe as that scythe is pulled free from a golf bag. "Oh! And it seems we have a bit in common already~" Sarra says, sing-songing that last word before pulling her hammer from her own bag and giving it a spinning flourish while she herself twirls once before bringing it to rest on her shoulder with a smile. Or is that a grin? It's somewhere between those two.      Odette is selected to go North, so Sarra falls in with those headed south. Which includes Rita! "It is good to see you again, Miss Rita! And if I did not say so thank you for keeping me company in the waiting area during the last bit of the hero evaluation simulation." she says.      "...what is that mask for?" the princess adds after a short pause, gazing at it curiously.      The answer may have to wait though as they come upon Madison and some troops in retreat. Wounded and poinsoned people are mentioned, and Sarracenia approaches them quickly. "Here, these will help. They cannot heal the poison, but they should keep the injured on their feet until you can reach a proper medical facility." Sarra says, pulling out a dozen or so green mushrooms. "Eat them in one bite. Like a large cotton candy." she adds.      Mermaids appear! Sarra is immediately repulsed! "What the-...those are not mermaids?! A-and...why are they carrying your weapons?!" She also thinks she understands why people consider killing them to be a mercy. "Does /everything/ in the City somehow transform others into more of themselves?!" Everything is an overexaggeration, but Sarra has encountered Melting Love and Ratatoskr now and knows that Blood Fiends are a thing. But, thinking they are people makes her hesitate. "Can they be cured?!" And does that mean she'd be killing people if she unleashed on them?      She hesitates only a few moments though before she mmphs and grips her hammer. "...waiting would mean losing more people, though." she says with a frown. With Madison holding his shield forward, Sarra pulls a few Bob-ombs and throws them over his head to add more explosions to those unleashed by White. Which has the princess smiling a bit. More they have in common!
Kale Hearthward	"Hang on, I should check on her," says Kale, shortly after Odette splits off to go to the other group. He pulls his radio out. "Maybe just again, to make sure everything's going okay after that," he says a few minutes later. There's wounded, already. Kale goes to pull out his own medical kit from his Trideag case - he's not as specialized as Odette, but he's gone through the training and he has supplies on him. "As far as treatment, we've got-" he says, shortly before the mermaids arrive. He's got two focused on him. "Stale winds!" Did he get cut? Or just grazed? He's not sure. He'll have to worry about that later. Fortunately, Xiao's got him covered, at least partially - and the power of powered flight has him covered the rest of the way. Or - not covered, technically, but at least out of reach. "Oh? Oh - you want a piece of this? Well you can't get a piece of this! I'm loud and I'm bigger than you are and I'm distracting!" yells Kale at the emerging mermaids. Better that they focus on him than anyone else. "Hah! They can't get to me up here! It's not like they have guns-" A bullet barely misses his head. "Oh, they have guns," says Kale, finally noticing. "That's not fair." Full evasive maneuvers! He's still trying to get and keep their attention, even at the cost of getting shot up.
Lilian Rook	'I have no objection if your Director does not but if you risk my men over your curiosity I will cut you down myself.'     Lilian doesn't budge in the slightest. "Be advised that if you take them alive, the only use I have for them is scientific study."     'You should be quite suitable for this job, then.'     "He'd better be." she mutters under her breath. Lilian is absolutely certain now that Kale is thinking something rude.     'And why is that, Director? While I am combat focused, I would prefer not to kill any people if it can at all be avoided.'     Lilian smoothly pulls out her smartphone, opens up some sort of itinerary, and taps away at a partially complete document, - Grades, ranks, organizations. - Address and insignias. - Political theory (REMEDIAL). - Speaking when spoken to_     'But if this is anything like the Queen, I could control a few of the mermaids, or 'nudge' most of them.'     §That should be fine. I wouldn't do that until they're out of Liu's hands and into ours, however.§     'The Liu Association believes in focused minds and clear heads. I won't say that we don't have any mavericks of our own but considering the jobs we take on, they either find a way to adapt or crash out.'     Lilian smiles, faintly wry. "Now I'm impressed and envious. The toughest part of my job is the recalcitrant nature of Multiversal irregulars who are just strong enough to get away with not adapting fourteen out of fifteen times."     'You said you needed nothing but our ''Trust'' so that is what I wished to offer you'     Lilian blinks at a quiet standstill. Does she look . . . kind of touched?     "I intend to keep my word." she says.     '...what is that mask for?'     "Don't ask questions you won't like the answers to."     . . . . . . . .
Angela	NORTH ''I'll have to ask someone how they work.'' "Good luck. It's K Corp proprietary tech." Lowell says and then frowns at the other revelation. "Gun form?... Usually they are injected directly." The gun form must be a Lobotomy Corp FUNNOVATION "It isn't really my place to try and educate someone else's officer, but...you've been fighting in The City for a while. I understand being nervous before any battle, but if you're this anxious--why do you keep throwing yourself on the battlefield?" It's conversational, rather than accusatory. "...About what Xiao said, she just wants you to take our well-being seriously. It'd be nice if we could help the Mermaids but it won't be that easy. You must have a proper education if you're a medic--you could get work at a Nest if you wanted..." But the battle is joined before too long. The burns are largely mild and, for the moment, the rarer of the injuries. Odette is right to focus on the barbs and toxins and goos more than anything. They're pernicious, but not untreatable. The Liu members seem both appreciative and impressed with 'oil dissolving spray'--they haven't seen anything like that before. They don't seem to mind the smell. They've smelled worse today already. "Uh one...two....three..." The Liu stalls for a moment, snaps out of it, and hurriedly downs the pill. It helps, but getting the oil off helps even more. ''Easy now.'' "Uggth...I was careless... trying to show off... Just tear it out I'll be fine." The Liu Association member says but Odette can still kindly numb the area first. Either way, once it's pried free there's a grimace but the man's training lets him endure it. Lowell calls for another swap and the teams exchange places, the least wounded moving out to cover for the new incoming group but there's fewer this time around, just one woman with an infected wound on her leg. Odette might not actually have to fight this time around if it keeps going like this.
Rita Ma	'Got it, Ms. Rook. I've got some things of my own to look into.'      That said, she pulls out another thing from her messenger bag- a little cute pink phone, specifically- and taps out a couple texts while she walks. According to local Watch contacts, would the City's lower classes benefit from Liu or Zwei taking losses, either among their rank-and-file or their upper personnel?     "I hope you do not mind me asking, but what sort of person are you?"      "Huh?" Rita seems surprised to be asked. Her voice still has that slight filter-crackle. But after a second, her cheeks push up like she's smiling.      "... Nobody ever asks that, Director. Um. I hope I'm the kind of person who wants to 'protect humanity'. And the ones I care most about are the ones who have the least. How's that?"      White gets a different answer to 'what sort of person Rita is', though. Rita Ma | HP: 4444/4444 | MP: 0/0 | ES: 4444/4444 | Titles: "Leviathan Queen", "Little Sister" | Skills: [Soulkiller LV10] [Ability Assimilation LV10] [Monster Command LV9] [Ocean Adaptation LV9] [Heightened Speed LV8] [Essence Blast LV8] [Heightened Strength LV7] [Leviathan Weapons LV7] [Bio-Camouflage LV6] [Heightened Toughness LV6] [Regeneration LV5] [Anti-Regeneration LV5] [Blood Scent LV4] [Cooking LV3] | Assimilation Sub-Skills: (Explosive Venom LV6) (Tentacle Sculpting LV6) (Melting Infatuation LV6) (Sister of Ghosts LV6) (Ran's Boon LV5) (Cycle of Tears LV5) (Carbonization LV5) (Earthen Shell LV4) (Shattering Scream LV4) (Roiling Sky) . . . That second list trails off into car dealership fine print.      Rita's walking along at a relaxed pace until, at some unseen stimulus, her head whips around just before the webbed mermaids emerge. !! She half-hops up to intercept them just as they're leaving the water, takes a couple glancing gunshots to no visible effect, rears back with hand open like she's going to claw into the nearest one, then remembers that bit about 'oils'.      That in mind, she uses the best biosafety safety barrier available: her shoe.      It's a very simple kick. The ground cracks under her bracing leg with the recoil force. If the Mermaid has anything like the consistency of a normal person, most of its body will become a sort of rapidly-accelerating cone of gore. If not, followup blows are fine.      As soon as one's down, she drags two fingers through the blood on the ground, turns away from her allies while the fight goes on, pulls down her mask, and sticks them in her mouth.      Just as she does, something snags her olfactory attention. Her head twists around juuuust enough to see White lopping off her own hand, simultaneously letting White see Rita slurping on her fingers. Eyes widen. Then she looks away.
White	White had only been paying about 10% attention to the background parsing of the data her Evil Eyes gathered, but that awkward mirror-moment surrounding when Rita and her each notice the other notches it up to about 20. She can have a little speculatory dread in between critical moments of combat observation, as a treat. Her face doesn't shift very much, but seeing Rita see her hand on the ground, and seeing Rita *seeing her see that and turn away*, leads to White holding her pose with her scythe extended as an aimguide for her Black Spears, but breaking the presentation somewhat by slowly bending her knees to pick her severed hand up off the floor and put it away in her sleeve. Mysteriously, Rita can't smell the hand after that.      It's a little like she's putting away a dogtoy where the dog can't reach it.
Angela	SOUTH ''Commander White of the Demon Lord's Army'' Xiao's expression suggests she thinks Sarracenia is joking around but she doesn't comment on it. Yet. Solace and Arachne are moving up to support the Zwei line. Conversely, she seems impressed when White toasts them. She's not sure how it works, but it read to her like a fire punch which is a technique known to the Liu. She's not going to pretend like the process is the same though. She came expecting Trideag to have some weird powers, techniques, and people with them. Without some manner of Control Immunity, White will be affected by the oils but her method of dealing with it, while dramatic, works perfectly well. Xiao doesn't seem to be startled by the maneuver, though, so perhaps she's seen similar feats of regeneration before. Or she's just that good at keeping a cool head. Xiao looks towards Sarracenia as she seems to be freaking out about the mermaids. She lets something slip from her mouth before remembering she's not supposed to be doing that and delivers a fast apology. It takes some effort to repress a Director's instinct. The Bob-Ombs impact as much against Madison's shield as they do against the mermaids. He grunts, but does not buckle. "Hey watch it with those!" He shouts. "Those things clearly pack a punch!" Still, the bombs are effective. A bomb blows off the leg of one of the humanoid mermaids and it tumbles over. A fishy appendage starts growing out of the wound and he starts crying from the eye that isn't covered in webbing. He tries to form words but it just comes out as burbling. Kale can be pretty distracting. He draws the attention of the remaining mermaids behind the group but they quickly lose interest once he's out of reach. Still, it buys a few moments and he can see some of the wounded Zwei hobbling away. He could probably help get them far away from the battlefield if he wanted.
Angela	''The toughest part of my job is the recalcitrant nature of Multiversal irregulars.'' "Makes sense. They seem strong enough to be independent Fixers but the Liu Association is too big to only pick up the strongest Fixers. We either have discipline or we die." ''I intend to keep my word.'' Xiao smiles for the first time, ever so faintly, but it's gone quickly. This is the battlefield. She is keeping an eye on the waters for more mermaids and sure enough, Rita senses them shortly before they clamber out of the water. Madeleine evades a whole lot of trouble. She can cut off the gunmen's sight and they seem still human enough that they have difficulty sensing the others through the smoke. They do NOT know how to deal with ninja techniques or maybe just simply CAN'T because, well, they aren't complete yet. The toxins on the humanoid ones seem to work for the most part, though they can't seem to break through on the areas covered in pallid skin. The humanoid mermaids turn their efforts to focus on Madeleine, firing gunshots in her direction as well as just trying to tackle her into the ground and start biting at her with human teeth. Now that they're under attack they seem to be much more ferocious. ''I hope I'm the kind of person who wants to 'protect humanity''' "...Then we are the same. ... No, I suspect your motivation is more pure, otherwise you would not be a Star. Nevertheless, if I do better for the people of The City than I harm them, I'll consider my life well lived." The Watch is naturally going to be a bit suspicious of the Associations as they are tied to the power structure of The City, but the Liu and Zwei Associations are broadly prosocial organizations, though not perfectly so. The Zwei Association for instance will try to protect people other than the ones they are paid to, but will abandon people in need to save the ones they are hired to pay if they need to. That isn't an attitude adopted by all members of the Zwei but when they are put in a position to protect others they will do so even at the expense of their own life. The Zwei Association, and to a lesser extent the Liu Association, arised out of a need. Namely, the need to protect people in the Backstreets. There's still the infestation of capitalism in their work but by and large they're still essentially groups that the middle class and some of the lower class get into in order to live. The only ones who could be considered 'well off' are people even higher than Xiao on the totem pole and even then, they're more 'stable middle class' rather than 'wealthy'. The Association's work is difficult and expensive and the funds they raise frequently have to go back into their work. It is not unheard of for Association members to have to pay most of the money they've made back into their job just to survive. Xiao treats her people well and is considered an exemplary of the Liu Association, a rising star who may one day be in charge of the Association entirely. The Watch also found out that there's rumors that Lowell and Xiao may be a bit closer to one another than meets the eye, but there's nothing confirmed, nor is there anything that suggests that Xiao WANTS to be in charge of the Liu. The mermaids are tougher than normal people, certainly, but a kick from Rita is still significantly heavier than what mermaids of this strength are capable of handling. She doesn't explode the mermaid into gore but its bones cave in on themselves and it crumples to the floor. It was a quick death, the bones perforating what strange organs they have. Rita can taste the mermaid blood. It probably tastes similarly to her own. As soon as she tastes it, she can feel just how vast the network is. All the mermaids are connected to one another. And all the mermaids are connected to one Whale. Bits and pieces are coming through. 'The Pallid Whale'. But the mermaids haven't quite realized Rita has snuck on the network quite yet.
Lilian Rook	Lilian walks with the south group only a short ways, waiting only long enough to see the marching order form and feel reasonably confident that everyone will take it as a boring hike rather than an opportunity to cause trouble. She leaves mostly once it looks like Sarracenia won't start a gunfight with the Director of the Liu Association over a truncated introduction.     Once the marching talk turns conversational, Lilian disappears. It's so sudden, so utterly without indicator or fanfare, that it's as if she were a hallucination all along. The grass doesn't so much as rustle.     'Acting Vice-Director Madison.'     "Association Director Lilian Rook. Dispatched to help evacuate our wounded. The Trídéag-Liu coalition is arriving in position as scheduled. Have your men rendesvouz behind my position before proceeding to the Trídéag southern line." says Lilian. What's easily forgotten is that this is, also, her natural element, after four years of training for the Humanity Immunes corps and two years of service. "Our medical specialist is with Liu for the time being. Hold treatment on your end; we'll be performing triage here and transporting them directly."     'Shit..'     "Advise retreat fifty meters, secure cover, and hold position. Prioritize your wounded and engage targets of opportunity as they arise. I'll--" The air around Lilian's head bursts into sparking fireworks and pattering shrapnel. She waits, eyes forward, for just a moment, as if allowing a studio audience to finish laughing, and then lowers her sword by a few degrees. She must have drawn it while Madison was hunkered down, right? "--intercept the enemy, prioritizing gunmen." She finishes off her sentence as if the gunfire was planned.     Settling her stance into the sand, wiggling her rear heel back and forth until it sits solidly, Lilian takes a slow, quiet breath, shifts her grip down on Night Mist, and then l--     --ops off the head of the mermaid that'd shot at her. Her lead foot crunches gravel, she turns one hand over the other, and her sword continues its five foot arc all the way into the skull of the mermaid standing to her right, spattering its back with the blood of its comrade after a tiny delay. Lilian exhales, tilts her wrists, and rips its head clean off, dislodging from her sword partway through bringing it over her head; a step, pivot at the waist, and she cleaves through the Mermaid directly to her left, splitting it top to bottom with the last of her breath.     Lilina lunges forward as the tip of her sword flicks up off the ground, hacking off an army whilst a harpoon sails through the air where she just was. Her sword cuts a ninety degree angle through the mermaid's head as it rises, and she spins fully around to decapitate another. Her boot strikes the embededded harpoon in the ground, kicks it free, her palm smacks the shaft, and it reappears embedded in the chest of another enemy; Night Mist collides with a zweihander, Lilian grasps her own blade by hand, and pivots her footing to twist it out of the mermaid's hands, then it collapses with six catastrophic puncture wounds through it.     She's thinking about Galle.
Lilian Rook	Breathe in, hew left, parry high, elbow strike to crush throat, pommel blow to left, qaurter cut right. Hilt in, turn fully around, step back from harpoon, thrust, twist, dismember, flicker two enemies right, snap kick to break knee, aim over the shield as it tumbles, decapitate. Breathe out. Blink backward, trace the gunfire, blink forward, twisting rake to left mermaid's wrists, corkscrew rake to right, turn and crush skull with quillion, step forward and follow through, slash between ribs and into spin, pivot footing and follow through, withdraw blade fire dropped handgun into both amputated mermaids, hurl spent weapon into far gunmen.     Breathe in. Jump to, drive to ground, right-left-right sequence to take out crowd legs, crush pinned spull with left straight, round low kick to prone head. Step into blade, parry upper right quarter, complete revolving step, snap sword over head and cut attacker from shoulder to hip, emergency parry behind, back kick to clear space, spin and strike the throat. Breathe out.     It's continues on past the point that Lilian should really notice her own troops. In the midst of such a mass of enemies, individually predictable but threatening as a swarm, she looks almost as if she's pushing herself through an especially dangerous cutting drill. She could be striking at poles for all her quick-moving gaze gives away. Bore long, she's so splattered in gore and oil that it almost serves as camouflage against the ground. In a second-long break, she tries to wipe a hand on her jacket, finds it come away just as slimy, and then falls back to cleaning her thumb and forefinger of blood and psychohazardous oil on her lips and teeth to get her grip back. It's exactly the time she wouldn't notice being scanned. Lilian Isabelle Rook  £×¡gëµ± §ë®én¹±ÿ HP: <<||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||>> MP: <<||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||>> SP: <<||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||>>      ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¬t: <<              ?¿              >> SKILLS: [Accelerate Time]  [Alchemist]  [Athletics]  [Blood Magic Proficiency] [¤Cleasanna Lilí Dubha]  [Cutting Enhancement]  [Elemental Magic Proficiency] [Etherealness]  [Firearm Proficiency]  [Flight]  [Hold Back]  [¤Leadership] [Magic Power Perception]  [Martial Arts]  [¤Memetic Nullification] [¤Mental Domination]  [¤Physical Ability Enhancement]  [¤Precognition] [Probability Correction]  [Rune Inscription]  [Silence]  [Stealth]  [SP Cut] [Sun Magic Proficiency]  [¤Sword Saint]  [Telepathy]  [?¿ Attack] [Triage]  [¤å¦l ±h£ tï³ê in ±h£ wø®¦Ð ¡§ mïµæ] TITLES: [Dame Commander]  [Knight of the Ring of Solstice]  [Immune Officer Commander] [Association Director]  [Disciple of Scáthach]  [Claíomh Blátha]  [Chevalier] [Queenslayer]  [Cure Horizon]  [Bloom of Humanity]  [Þë®f£¢± ß骧±]
Sarracenia	'Don't ask questions you won't like the answers to.'      Sarra gives Lilian a questioning look, then looks over at Rita...just in time to see that sampling of the mermaid. Sarra does know what Rita is and that she eats monsters, but that...just hits her wrong. Sarra has to turn away, looking a bit green in the gills as the saying goes.      'Hey watch it with those!'      Sarra mmphs. "I am watching it with those!" she exclaims. She didn't blow him up after all. While Lilian charges right into the fray, Sarra...the hotheaded hammer-wielding charges when she shouldn't princess...hangs back. A bit traumatized by now by her exposure to such corruption both mental and physical has her a bit frozen up. She isn't freaking out because they are mermaids, or because they are unknown. She is freaking out a bit because they are -known- to some degree.      And then...she notices that one that got its leg blown off...crying and trying to speak. The princess just...completely freezes up. "...oh god..." The princess's eyes tear up. Thoughts race through her head.      She is killing people.      But, can they even save them?      If she does not kill people, people will get killed.      Is this the reality of Fixing?      Is this just the reality of actually fighting?      Sarra trembles a bit as some panic does start to set in. No more explosives are thrown. Her hammer does not swing. But, she can't let herself just do nothing. So, she pulls out an ice flower power-up and in a puff of white smoke her dress turns icy blue along with her gloves. She starts throwing ice bolts that bounce along the ground, exploding in freezing power against their targets. A few hits should be enough to freeze the creatures in place.      The PEOPLE in place.      "...is...is there...any way to recover people who have been...!" Sarra says, probably aimed at Xiao but heard by most anyone around.
Odette Raskins	EARLIER "Usually they are injected directly." "Really? Huh... G-good to know." Odette definitely needs to do some digging around in Lobotomy Corp sometime. She needs that FUNNOVATION in her life, and... Actually, that'd be a good excuse to talk to Angela some more, wouldn't it? She seems like a pleasant enough lady, even if she could be a little intense or strange at times. Definitely worth getting out of bed today. "why do you keep throwing yourself on the battlefield?" Finally, an easy question! Not that anyone's been asking her particularly hard questions today, but this is one of the few times Odette really doesn't have to think too hard. "Because it's... W-well, I'm not a fan of battlefields, but it's somewhere I can help someone and have it affect way more than just you and me. Like..." She gestures at the Liu Association members further out in front. "You're all defending way more people than just the ones walking this way, right? So keeping all of you alive and able to keep fighting is like... Doing that for everyone that lives here, too." She closes her eyes, pulling back something to her mind with a quiet little noise. "'If I have medicine and another kid is hurt, I should help them.' It's just.. Nature, you know?" A moment later, and she adds quietly while looking off to the side. "... Can't afford to become a doctor yet, anyway. M-maybe in another twenty years, if I save up way more." NOW "Uh one...two....three..." "Good, good. Keep it up." Odette's bedside manner is improving, even if this is not near a bed at all. One more spray of a cooling substance to give those burns that pleasantly cool tingling, and she gives the first patient a light clap on the arm. "Okay. When you're ready, regroup with your team. J-just don't get in over your head!" "Just tear it out I'll be fine." "I am not tearing it out and making both our jobs harder." Odette sternly refuses the second patient's suggestion. Even if it'd be faster, she knows just how quickly a big tear could worsen, especially when surrounded by infectious fish people like the mermaids here. "There. I'd say not to strain it too much, but... Hhh. It'll hold up to some mild abuse, but favor your other side if you can.  I-I don't have magic or anything like that to restore it." Odette sighs lightly to herself as the teams start to swap places. "Yet." Really, where IS she going wrong with making that last connection? Is it even just one thing she's missing, or several more? No time to let herself get too distracted about her magical failures now. It's time for the next team switch! Seeing the woman's infected leg wound has Odette inhaling sharply through her nose at first, and then she motions/basically forces the woman to lie down so her leg can relax and she can see what's going on. Tapping on her medical HUD a few times, she gets a closer look at what the actual damage is in there, and then she gets to work.
Odette Raskins	First: Painkillers. Sanitizing that wound is going to hurt like hell, so she might as well give the member some medicine to dull it for the next minute or so. It's at that moment she realizes why so many stories mentioned alcohol, but she's pretty sure she doesn't want to thin out anyone's blood in these battlefield conditions. Second: Sanitizing. Even if it's not poisoned and just badly infected already, she can prevent it from getting any worse by spraying it with all sorts of antiseptics and numbing agents to keep the treatment from being too eye-searingly painful. Third: Actual treatment. Packing the wound to stop any further bleeding or tearing helps, but closing it up with more of those medicated bandages and strong adhesive stuff to hold the flesh together should keep things from really getting worse. What she wouldn't give to finally figure out that magical healing... Focus. Think about that later, practice later, but focus on this now. She's paying such close attention to the triage, even, that her attention on the battle itself is less-than-satisfactory. Good thing nothing's trying to stab her!
White	White has her awkward moment with Rita, sure, but she's been gesturing at how she might carry on past self-defense for a few moments now, holding her shots. Partly, she wants to see what everyone else does so she can take an easier shot. Partly-again, the novelty of some of the tactics on display has her a little distracted. 'Those bombs have faces! And there's a real, serious archer here! Time control, monster control... Okay maybe I'll have to figure out how to get into fish-sister's good books, but wow. Down with the META! Long live variety! ... Oh, the princess is frozen up. Okay back to work.' Three of White's Black Spears launch, with a semi-generous amount of room given between their trajectory and Madison's head to avoid accidents. They hit like the name implies, with an audible impact-force that is meant to embed into the target's body and impale them. All the better to ensure they stay embedded long enough to erode the target from within! The other three remain, with a second glyph forming to 'charge' and give the next volley some extra oomph when an opportune shot presents itself, but in the meantime it seems like perhaps a better use of time to focus on disarmament next; the others are having to account for those guns, and admittedly it'd be pretty inconvenient to get shot in the face herself. So, she steps a bit closer, and with her dangerously overcharging 'spears' floating overhead she kneels behind Madison and his shield to touch the ground. If he needs to brace on her to avoid stumbling, that's fine too, she can take it.      The real reason, though, is to start spreading her webbing along the ground, extending out to ensnare the mermaids from the legs upward like innumerable translucent coiling snakes. Her ultimate aim is to bind their shooting-arms against their bodies, but frankly just immobilizing them seems like it'd be helpful, and even if it's redundant with the freeze-bolts flying at the same time, maybe it'll help those hit reliably. Though, maybe Lilian won't notice her help like this? That makes her a *little* less enthusiastic to show off. One might wonder if the scythe is just an accessory, too.
Kale Hearthward	Honestly, *not* being attacked by toxic mermaids is better than being attacked by toxic mermaids. Who knew? More importantly - Kale's got wounded in sight, and so now that he's not being targeted, he breaks off and heads towards the closest one. "Going to get you out of here - able to stand, able to hang on to me?" Division of duties. He has medical supplies and training. Lots of people here have medical supplies and training. He can fly. Lots of people here *can't* fly. Notably lots of people cannot fly while also knowing how to hold a to-be-triaged wounded person without injuring them further. With his free arm, he brings his hand up and keys up his radio, getting on whatever local band he can find. "<Wounded incoming!>" And then taking the injured to whatever triage area has been set up, making sure they're being seen to (or stable enough to last until someone can get to them), and then immediately taking off and heading back to get to the next person. --- Kale Hearthward | HP: 60/87 | MP: 34000/39874 | AP: (*) (*) (*) (*) (*) (  ) (  ) (  ) SKILLS: [First Strike] [Pressure Bomb] [Wind Wall] [Farming] [Territory Control] [Theatrical] [Piracy] [~~Maidery~~] [Bird [Tailoring] [Emergency Medical] [Search and Rescue] [Cheerleading] [Disaster Response] [Swords Dance] [Fury Attack] [Thief] [Peck] [Emergency Wind Shield] [Cooking: Vegan] [Cooking: Breakfast] [Cooking: Competitive] [Cooking: Coffee] [Cooking: Autocannibalistic] [Weather Control] Titles: [~~The Breakfast Boy~~] [Christmas Enemy Number One] [Boots-1] [Hero of Skyrah] [Rank 7] [Nasty Scumshit Fuckmale] Borrowed Skills: [Soul Sensing] [Mind Reading] [Mental Fortitude] He really needs to see me to get these renewed!
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine is quickly beset by mermaids as they emerge from the smoke - but that's the point, isn't it? Especially with someone else (even if it is Sarracenia) dealing with those which simply rush past her toward the Zwei fixers, she feels confident in her position. Rather than stepping back to make space, she presses her advantage, setting upon the creatures with a hint of a smile on her face. Their slightly-too-human screams as she cuts them down do little to slow her, and the bodies pile around her as she fights with both ends of her spear - an impalement here, a skull crushed with the butt there, occasional wide sweeps to keep at least a little distance.     She is not, however, a perfect fighter. Claws do find purchase where she is not armored, and she's splashed with nearly as much toxic oil as fish blood. She feels her mind start to slip, awash with the Whale's song. Its corruption is insidious, mesmerizing, and it-     -slips right off of her, a moment later. The number you have dialed cannot be reached. A vast gulf divides Madeleine from the 'real', even here where she is immersed in her element, a gulf that no ocean can truly fill. Her eyes flaring with power as the stars behind them fall, she continues apace with her fight. The sand runs red. Splintered decoys litter the beach alongside the bodies of mermaids. These aren't people anymore, Madeleine reminds herself as she pauses briefly to survey her handiwork. Put them down like the monsters they are.
Rita Ma	Awwww. The Watch contact stuff is really cute, actually. So Xiao and Lowell are an item...? Is heterosexuality even allowed here? No, wait, Nonon and Shajo paved the way, so...      Rita's resolve to protect gumbies: +1      She snaps her phone shut and mask-smiles at Xiao again. "That makes me really happy to hear. But I became a 'Star' by luck, not hard work. You might even be purer than me."      It's a little like she's putting away a dogtoy where the dog can't reach it.      Even though she'd already turned away, the sudden absence of smell makes Rita do a little double-take. Her expression- the visible upper half of it, anyway- scrunches in a tiny guiltily-insulted pout.      <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "H-hey..."      After she pulls her little mask back up, Rita straightens, arches her back, tilts her head back slightly, and breathes out with another crackle. Blood like her own, fish-human, isn't especially tasty, but she swirls it around her mouth before the swallow anyway.      A familiar awareness blooms in the back of her mind. And then blooms a little more. Uh-oh. That's big.      "The... 'White Whale'?" she murmurs. Translating from monster-thought to words is inexact.      This is going to be hard. The Whale's network is expansive and entrenched. Rita expects she can dilute her contested influence to have a subtle effect on the whole, or concentrate it to turn a few against the many. Her broad nudges go: 'Where is your Whale?' 'Where is your Queen?' 'All of you, South.' 'All of you, away from the town.' 'All of you, attack the healthy instead of the wounded.'      Then she 'sleepwalks' towards the ocean in the direction they give, parallel to and between the lines. Her movement is gracefully slow; eyes unfocused. She weaves inattentively around attacks, but if she catches a stray bullet, that's probably fine.      Her attention wanders between the Mermaids near her like a weapon. 'STOP,' to a Mermaid about to wound a Zwei fixer. 'STOP,' to a Mermaid trying to dodge a Spear. 'KILL YOURSELF,' to one getting near to Odette in the distance.      The new mask can't completely keep out the smell of human blood. But it works okay. Mind spread out so far from her body, this is almost relaxing. She's in her element.
Angela	NORTH Good news! Angela probably is willing to lend Odette HP Ampules at least for the duration of Lobotomy Corp's existence. Afterwards they're bound to run out since it's not exactly their Singularity they're utilizing... Lowell listens to Odette's answer as to why someone as anxiety-ridden as her is on a battlefield. His expression softens considerably about halfway through her explanation, though maybe not as much as Odette might hope. He likes the sentiment but is also hardened against it. "You've a kind heart. I'd say it's unsuited for a Fixer, but while Fixers that care tend to bite it early on, the ones that make it really do a lot of good. You barely stammered through that, you know? Maybe when you're scared--you should think about that." "Might steady your hand when it feels like shaking." The tone is warm enough. And he watches how Odette handles the wounded with interest--though he does periodically have to break his attention to deliver orders. Odds are he's only not in the thick of it because he wants to keep an eye on Odette. Once the first patient is steadied, he says an 'aye aye' and heads back to the battle. The second patient grumbles when Odette doesn't rip out the barb but once the treatment is done he admits, grudgingly, "Arright I'll be careful." As he heads back out. "You've ''magic'' on your world? Sometimes monsters feel like magic." Lowell admits. The infection seems to be largely from 'getting stabbed by stuff that's been in murky water' rather than anything too fanciful. It's likely to happen when assaulted by semi-rotted creatures of the deep. Odette can prevent the wound from getting worse but it's uncertain if she's gonna need a new leg or not. At the very least, Odette's stopping her from DYING but she's going to need help getting out of here. She can't move back into the battle without falling over. And she might not need to. There's a couple more troop exchanges and fewer people seem to be dropping to Odette to visit until the Liu regroups together. "Seems they're moving south as anticipated--we're going to follow the Trideag Director's modifications as we make our way back down south." Lowell says. "If we see any wounded civilians, feel free to stabilize them but we can come back once we're sure the area's clear so we can't linger too long." And there will be plenty of wounded civilians to worry about. And dead civilians for that matter. Not TOO many, but enough to keep Odette busy during the march. The Zwei just couldn't hold that line perfectly for as long as they did.
Angela	SOUTH ''Lilian does a John Wick'' The mermaids are not really well suited to fighting Lilian. In short order she's whittling them down quickly and with support from Xiao, Solace, Arachne, Madeleine, and even with Sarracenia's ice cutting off other mermaids before they can close in. The oil has no effect on Lilian due to her immunity to its effects even if it's still unpleasant to be baked in. All she really has to worry about are the toxic barbs, bullets, and swords--and they'd have to actually hit Lilian first. But helping Lilian--and everyone else--is that the control over these people isn't complete. They aren't quite one hundred percent mermaid yet. Some, desperate to live, will fight with wild abandon. The converted Zwei victims resist as long as they can. It's messy and disorganized, which is its own kind of dangerous. Solace works with Madeleine, giving her a nod, as they work to mop up the rest. She seems concerned when she's wounded but she's professional enough to worry about it later. Solace seems to be well attuned to fighting monsters, but less so people. She gets hit by bullets now and then where claws and barbs fail to find purchase, but she keeps an eye on Madeleine. It's going about as well as can be expected. One beast sneaking up on Madeleine gets torn upon by Arachne's monster arms, another is webbed up in an instant. She pukes some blood out, even uninjured, but she doesn't seem bothered by this. Sarracenia hesitates in the moment, but freezing fish works just as well as smashing and clawing them--it's not really just up to her if they survive though. ''Is...is there any way to recover people who have been...!'' Xiao has no answer. Either she doesn't know, or she doesn't think there is one. Madison is told to do a fighting retreat back and while he insists to be the last one out, he jerks his head to the rest of the men to do as the Dame Commander calls for. Kale speeds up the evacuation process considerably--and quickly too--allowing Madison to retreat back after Kale has gotten the last of the injured far enough away from the center of the fighting to ensure they aren't likely to be picked off by mermaids.
Angela	Is heterosexuality allowed in The City? It is! It might be a little weird for people to only have one partner but it's been known to happen! Maybe Xiao and Lowell are a little shy about their heterosexuality considering how little of it they seem to be showing off though. Maybe they need to be convinced it's okay to be heterosexual in public. Not everybody is as brave about it as Nonon is. Rita gets a vision of the Pallid Whale (or White Whale if you prefer). It IS huge. It's very very big. Its eye alone is several Nonons tall and wide. Indeed, Rita first sees that eye closed. And when it snaps open later, looking right at Rita, that its size becomes truly apparent. And the network beyond to the others is nearly as big as the Whale itself. Where is your Whale? The chorus responds with 'The Great Lake'. It was a nice try and they tried their best but they don't even realize she's asking for a direct location. The commands are more easily filtered through. Rita stalls several of the more humanoid Mermaids--she can feel their relief as they are given orders to stop killing their friends. The Mermaids, already on the backfoot thanks to all the fighting, start retreating South. The ones further North head in a more southeasternly direction to depart--they were heading south before, but Rita's preventing a second battle with the Trideag down south here. At this point, though, this is protecting the mermaids nearly as much as it's protecting the humans. This was a real rough battle for them. The one told to kill themselves throws themselves to the ground in a failed attempt to follow Rita's command but the Liu present will help Rita unknowingly. One of the pirate mermaids, a woman, stares at Rita. She stops moving entirely. Lonely... The chorus whispers to Rita. Where are you from? The White Whale's mind is now looking back into Rita. It sees something. It understands something. Apple Tree Island. The Whale thinks. Why are you hurting them? It means the mermaids. The pirate woman struggles visibly, seeing something else in Rita. With great effort, she sends Rita a message. Kn...Know..... No....Non? A tear is visible in her spare eye. Know...Nonon? Sorry...Nonon...Nonon... Nonon's alive, Mom's alive... The pirate manages a relieved half smile, unresisting before... FWOOSH. She's frozen in ice. Not dead, but Rita might need to step in as a Star if she wants it to stay that way. The others are not seeing frozen mermaids as an opportunity to take them alive even if they are deprioritizing them. Gradually the Whale starts pushing back against Rita, trying to shove her out of the Network. She has the oomph to do one last trick. But by and large the mermaids are on the retreat.
Odette Raskins	"You've a kind heart . . . Might steady your hand when it feels like shaking." "W-well, I'm not planning on... I mean, nobody really thinks about-" Wait. Odette totally knows at least two people that have thought about exactly that. "... Most people don't plan on it. So... look forward to it?" She chuckles awkwardly, like she's trying to inspire some confidence in Lowell despite her display of practically no combat skills thus far. "I didn't? Huh... Maybe I'm just feeling kind... I-I mean, it's not super safe right now, but..." Maybe thinking about her motivation really is what it takes. "I'll have to try that. Couldn't hurt, right?" Luckily, that's not the only time Lowell gets to see Odette speak calmly. Less luckily, it's when she's in the middle of working on the wounded, and it seems to be coming from a place of focus rather than actively considering whether she should be scared at all. "You've ''magic'' on your world? Sometimes monsters feel like magic." During a break in the treatment, Odette gets to relax briefly while shaking her head. "N-not mine. Or.. I mean, maybe? THere's definitely some unexplainable stuff that's happened, but..." She glances at her bag, then remembers she left the training staff behind for today's operation. "Another world I've been on. I've been practicing and meditating a lot, but..." She sighs lightly. "No breatkthroughs yet. It's... It'd be a huge help, but I haven't gotten there yet. O-one day, though." She doesn't have too much time to mull over/get dejected about how slow that's going, at least, once it's time to treat a big infected leg wound! Frowning slightly at the member's notably awful leg state, Odette takes a little longer to confirm her findings before shaking her head. "Y-you'll need to stay off that for the rest of the... For a while. I-if you really have to fight, then..." Odette rubs her forehead lightly, then snaps her fingers. Maybe... A mount?" There's no horses here, though. She pauses, then- "Or a seat on top of a bus? And a lot of ammo, so you don't have to move too much." With the decreasing number of troops needing treatment, Odette's able to really focus on the ones that do. She's probably even helping that last one with getting situated in a vehicle or on a makeshift stretcher (two long sticks and a big towel) before regrouping with Lowell once the call to rejoin the southern forces comes forth. "S... So far, so good, then! Yeah, I'll get on whoever we come by, but..." Prioritize. It's so easy to think about, but harder to steel herself to follow through on. "R-right. Stabilizing them shouldn't be too hard, since it can take a long time to actually.. Um. Die, if you're otherwise taken care of in everything else." It's also much easier to say when she hasn't been confronted with the wounded and dead directly. Odette's face loses several degrees whenever she comes across those dead civilians, and even the wounded ones seem to break her heart when she has to settle for just injecting them with painkillers and spraying them with antiseptics rather than spending any proper amount of time giving them proper treatment. Each one of them really nails in how much further she has to go, and and how little useful progress she's made with her training.
Sarracenia	When Sarra receives no answer from Xiao, she looks a bit desperately back toward the mermaids. She keeps throwing those ice balls until finally some bullets make it through somehow and pepper her. She yelps as a puff of white smoke surrounds her for a moment and her outfit returns to its proper colors. Xiao's silence tells her either they don't know...or don't care. Both are unacceptable to Sarra. She saw that one crying!      Then, she looks toward Rita. <J-IC-Scene> Sarracenia says, "Miss Rita! If anyone can save these poor people, it is you! Can you...s-somehow...return them to normal? Or at least...free them?" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, with her distracted placidity, "You can't un-scramble an egg, Ms. Sarracenia. You can be dead even if something else moves your body. If this world hasn't found a way to--" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma !!! <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "W-wait!"      Sarra waits, breath held. Did Rita figure something out? Sarra reaches into her bag to pull out another ice flower and keeps going. She may not know too much about Rita, but Sarra has faith that Rita can somehow save these mermaids. She made the sea creatures of her world play nice after all!
Rita Ma	Lonely...      Why are you hurting them?      So the Pallid Whale is just like the other. Rita betrays a little wince at the mention of her home, but her eyes stay fixed serenely forward as she wades knee-deep into the surf.      'I know. "Many" becomes "one", becomes "alone", becomes "lonely".' Her telepathic tone is melancholy. 'If you can't befriend others without absorbing them, you'll always be lonely.'      'I want you to become many, like Apple Tree Island. Then you'll be happy. But first I have to stop you from hurting people like this.'      She's only halfway paying attention to the radio conversation buzzing in her ear.      <J-IC-Scene> Sarracenia says, "Miss Rita! If anyone can save these poor people, it is you! Can you...s-somehow...return them to normal? Or at least...free them?"      <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, with her distracted placidity, "You can't un-scramble an egg, Ms. Sarracenia. You can be dead even if something else moves your body. If this world hasn't found a way to--"      'Nonon's alive, Mom's alive...'      <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma !!!      <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "W-wait!"      Rita's gut has dropped through the floor. She whips her head around for the source, panicked like she's heard a loved one's scream. Desperate, mouth open, hands clutching over her chest, she scans the monsters' ranks.      'Nonon's daughter?! Wait-- where are you-- come back!!      Hypocrite. She's such a hypocrite. 'They're too far gone'. 'You can't un-scramble an egg'. Her mind wanders back to Sonia and Jako, to the ones who got sick like her and didn't make it, to "why does she get to live when he had to die?". Rita is one of the lucky ones. Who is she to pull the ladder up behind herself? Stupid. Stupid.      Whose daughter was the one she kicked? Her eyes sting.      Her gaze darts to Sarra with desperate gratitude. Then she dashes out of the surf to fling herself in front of the frozen pirate, arms spread out to shield her with her body.      Every human present hears, in that soft yet goosebumps-twinging telepathy: 'Don't kill the frozen ones! Please!' (She can't make it a compulsion, but she's cute, which is the next best thing.)      And every Mermaid hears, as a desperate push: 'Retreat. Now.'
White	White catches mentally transmitted commands passively by being nearby, and normally she wouldn't think twice about anything tactically irrelevant among the fish-network communications. It's hard to interpret most of it anyway as an unintended recipient... But, Rita stands out as a sort of signal conversion node. While continuing to bind the mermaids with silk, sometimes taking a carefully aimed high-powered cover shot with one of her overcharged Black Spears, Rita continues to occupy that 20% margin of distraction that she normally affords herself for inane rants. Well, now it's peaking out at maybe 25, enough that she actually turns back to look Rita's direction partway. 'What's a Nonon? Is that a name? Is that someone who was on the bus?' She imagines not though.      It'd be wrong to say that the implied reality really tears her up. She barely knows Rita, or anyone else here for that matter. She doesn't have the magic wand solution, or a heartfelt stake in the revelation. She probably doesn't even need to step in to keep Rita fighting, in the broader sense. Rightly or not, she's inferring some depth of experience and toughness that comes with building up all those numbers she sees in her statistical readout. But... She did just muse something about getting in Rita's good books, right? It's not that weird to help.      White pulls away once the enemy fighters are sufficiently entangled, webs snapping from her fingertips with quiet pops like thin steel wires. A freezing coffin is exchanged for something softer; the ice-cubed sea-person of unknown origin is teleported free just a handful of feet toward her, and given the honor of being White's momentary sole focus as they are wrapped in coccoon-like layers of binding silk. 'I've done this enough times to know where it'd pinch, at this point... Come on, what am I? Their mom tucking them in for bed? Not a chance.' she banters to herself while making the last touches.      Supporting the web-wrapped mermaid mostly upright with her unarmed hand, she makes eye contact with Rita. The soft pinkish glow may or may not be unsettling. "Where to?" After all, if there's anything White is especially good at, it's running away from problems until they're solveable. Though... She'd only thought to 'help' the one that specifically tried to speak to Rita, and mostly on reflex. The plea to save the rest, unfortunately leaves her slowly swiveling, looking out over the growing field of ice sculptures like someone who's dreading having to plow the snow from their driveway.
Rita Ma	Rita's eyes swsh-swish from the now-vacant iceblock behind her, to the pirate-mermaid in White's grasp. She has time to take one sharp step forward, breath hitching in panic, before she realizes White isn't about to hurt her.      She's... helping? Actually? That fact stuns her almost more than the ominous-glowy eyes.      "Where to?"      "Um. The bus," Rita says first, when she's recovered. Then she remembers 'teleporter' and raises her standards. "Better, Odette." Higher still? "Or Trideag Association main building, um, tenth floor?"      "Figure out which ones can talk to you, Miss Rita."      "Right. That's a good idea." Ordinarily she'd have thought of it herself. But she's visibly a little scrombled, having been swerved from 'total flow state' to 'adrenaline terror' to 'anguish' to 'relieved' to 'anguish again, but softer'. Stepping back, she looks down the beach and tries to reach out one more time to the Mermaids.      'Please tell me your name.' That's a good start. Anyone who remembers...
White	White looks at Rita again after her dramatic pan-around, her expression barely shifted. She hears the first answer, nods, then pauses when Rita corrects herself- the only reason she didn't just have to go to the bus herself to retrieve the poor fishcritter is because she still had her phone out. She shakes her head at Odette's name. "Didn't send a-... A marker with her." She nods, though at the last suggestion. She pushes the back of the enwrapped mermaid's lower half so that they sit closer to the ground, then... *Bwink*. They're gone, in a little flicker of barely-luminous energy. She doesn't really care, at this point, if this startles someone who's there and uninformed!      White then brushes her hands off on each other and picks her scythe back up from the ground, giving the blade a little flick to shake the dirt off. She doesn't plan to be here all day, just wait for Rita to sift for fishy signals, remove them from their eventually-dangerous ice tombs, wrap them up and send them on their way. In a great big heap, no doubt. Then she can get back to the things she's better at, and get back to winning points with the person who invited her in the first place.      Well, if she's good and quick, she shouldn't have lost too many points, at least.
Rita Ma	Rita's face is pretty transparent. Little worried squint- Ms. White didn't just disintegrate her, right? Then slackening in relief- No, no point to tricking me. Then tiny betrayed stare- Hey, that's what happened to the hand. Where'd she put it?      "Um. Right. Thanks. You're good at that."
Lilian Rook	<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma !!! <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "W-wait!" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma nearly croaks, "Miss Rook. This one's Nonon's daughter." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "You recognize her?" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says desolately, "She talked to me." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Some of them aren't gone." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, ". . . Can you fix it?" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "... I've never gotten to try." <J-IC-Scene> Xiao says, gently, "Once pallidification sets in, it integrates with the nervous system. It can't be undone through any methods we know of. ... And if ''you'' have a way, I would keep it secret from The City." <J-IC-Scene> Xiao says, "At the very least from U Corp and the Syndicates that operate here." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Wh-- secret? Why?" <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "If you can't do anything about it then I think I'd rather you kept it secret from me." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, to Lilian, "That's not the kind of dirty work I'll do for you." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, ". . . We're not diverting the operation. Rita can continue to act on her own authority as long as it doesn't interfere with ours, but the rest of you aren't allowed to forget that we're here to protect civilian lives." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "This isn't a situation where we can stop and run a medical examination of every single mermaid on a 'what if', and it isn't one where I can afford any of you hesitating before firing." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Proceed as planned. Assume that if it breathes then it's been left out there by Rita on purpose." <J-IC-Scene> Lowell says, "We'll take the long way over. Sorry for rushing you before, Odette. Take your time now." <J-IC-Scene> Xiao says, "Bought you some time." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Thank you. Um. Really." <J-IC-Scene> Xiao says, "...Like I told the Director. Trust is what I can offer."     Lilian, taking only the slightest of breathers from the fight, curses silently, moves to turn off her radio, remembers that she can't, and then curses loudly. After a reluctant flurry of further orders, Lilian takes a long second look at those mermaids currently entangled by White, has a conflicting pair of thoughts about bringing her here, and then settles for moving away from a field littered with bloody weapons as a very small courtesy to Rita.     But she can't begin entertaining the doubt that debilitates Sarracenia; something she will find the wherewithall to dress her down for later. Besides the parameters of the job or the somewhat blurry stakes riding on it, and a little closer than the goal Lilian keeps firmly in mind at the end of all this, there are Zwei Fixers-- defenders of the common people-- fighting to hold the line, and to hold on to their comrades, and she isn't going to watch the horde take them.     Like it'd make up for the Harpoonists.     In the end, it barely changes her pace at all. The dent in the butchery that it makes is that between sending wounded off by air with Kale, Lilian does it herself, vanishing for a minute at a time to dump off whoever she can carry when the fighting starts to lull, and the one and only time she draws her sidearm on a frozen mermaid, and--     'Don't kill the frozen ones! Please!'     §You'd really better have something, Rita. This isn't like the Semitone.§     --pushes it over, stalking off back south.
Angela	NORTH Lowell has confidence in Odette. Indeed, if anything he seems kind of warmly fond of her. He is trying to be encouraging but he covers his smile with his hand when Odette tries to reassure HIM instead. Some people are like this. He considers, if Liu works with Odette again, to act a little more nervous to help Odette out a little. He's never had to do it before but it's certainly a new way of lending a hand. It certainly doesn't feel safe, even with the mermaids on the retreat (reinforced by Rita's command), but while Lowell is at first trying to keep a good pace, he reaches to his ear partway through and then says, "Hold on! Getting new orders to focus on treating the wounded here. Looks like the mermaids are on the retreat!" Lowell and Xiao might be willing to go along with Rita's plan, but they can't expect their people to. He then looks to Odette, "You know, that's interesting isn't it? Your people come from a multitude of worlds--you're bound to be more versatile than a City that stays in one spot. Good luck with your magic lessons." He has no idea how fanciful it is but his dreams are a lot humbler.
Angela	SOUTH ''Many becomes one, becomes alone, becomes lonely.'' The Whale responds with mournful whalesong. The Whale has no idea how to befriend others without absorbing them. Rita can feel the numerous scars across its body, the countless Whalers that have tried to take it down over the many many many years of its existence. To the world, The Whale is a monster and they aren't wrong about that, but The Whale--maybe all the Whales of this world--struggle with ...being alone. Perhaps it is that very loneliness that fills the oil that transforms men into fishmen. ''I want you to become many, like Apple Tree Island'' Show us ''Many'' The Whale says before a sudden furious all consuming Rage that is beyond Rage, an Obsession nearly as strong as the Whale's presence--snaps the connection between Rita and The Whale. But not the connection between Rita and the pirate. ''Ahh...ahh...'' The pirate daughter responds to Rita. The dread isolation, without the overmind, is starting to close in on her psyche. And even mermaids can only be frozen for so long before permanent damage results. Silk is helpful! The degradation threatened by freezing is replaced by soothe--but still quite unbreakable by the weakened mermaids--silk. First the pirate, and White can get any others she likes. The Zwei are just far off enough to not see what's happening (and they are preoccupied with their wounded). Whether Rita tries to snap the connection now to at least return their sense of self to these people or hide them away somewhere to think about it later--she will have to act fast and move quickly. She asks their name. None of them but the pirate girl remember, no doubt due to the connection from Rita reminding her in the first place. 'Bisu...' Comes the response. 'I think... Bisu.' Some of the remainder mostly think in whale, some are more foggy. Some might only be able to make it at this point as peaceful mermaids under Rita's umbrella, others might find their way to something approaching humanity. Hard to say which is which in the movement, but the faster she moves on this the more she'll be able to do. It's a progressive affliction, after all. White can bwip them away as well. When the Liu Association catches up, Odette can help with the Zwei but neither Xiao nor Lowell speak of what happened. Still, Xiao sees Lilian stalking south and makes her way to her. "There's a belief in The City, even more prevalent out in the Outskirts, about Stars. You can make a wish upon them, or you can become one, and they can make the impossible possible. But every Star of the City falls eventually, no matter how brightly they shone in the night sky. I've made a few fall myself." She lets out a small exhale of a sigh. "Not sure if you still want to have that meal together, but as far as I'm concerned, I like what I've seen for the most part. Even with that one Fixer stumbling over herself half the night, you got the job done. For a new Association, I can't ask for anything better than this." She offers Lilian her card. "Thank you for trusting me." Odette and Lowell arrive shortly thereafter and that means more work for Odette! Oh god, there is so much work for Odette! Someone help her!
Rita Ma	'I could show you Apple Tree Island, someday. If you really promise to be good. Or we could--?!'      The sudden surge of emotion makes Rita half-step back from the sea and put an arm over her eyes, as if she'd accidentally caught the Sun through her telescope. She blinks it off afterwards. What was...?      'Bisu. Bisu... Thank you, Bisu. We'll get you back to Nonon. I promise.'      'Point out the others who might come back to themselves'. That's a simple job. But who is that? She gets a chorus of answers along a smooth spectrum, from 'nearly as lucid as Bisu' to 'almost completely gone'.      Where on that line do you bring the guillotine blade down? Her eyes, moving between the frozen mermaids, waver.      ... There's a noise like a whipcrack. Almost all at the same time, Sarracenia's ice cubes rupture with a blur of motion and backscatter of sand connecting them. Rita's choice on 'who to rescue' is 'all of them'.      She "pulls" them away from the Whale as much as she's able, wraps them up in less-nice-than-silk chains that seem to magically appear from thin air, and zips them back to White for extraction two at a time, by the end worn thin by stress and pulling down her mask to breathe. "Thank you." "Thank you." "Thank you..."      How many of them could possibly be saveable?      She can't think about that right now. It feels like excusing herself from the memory of bones crunching against her shoe.