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Owner Pose
White The day has come. Whatever preparations White and her people have been doing in advance of bringing outsiders through the warpgate in proper fashion seem to have been wrapped up, all the "i"s are dotted and the "t"s are crossed, and it's time to get things done.

     This means there's no white-woman magical express transport; folks are given the destination coordinates and left to arrive on their own time, and when each visitor does they're met with the sight of a military cordon aimed outward from around the gate. The backs of some twenty-plus Demon Army soldiers separate you from the gathered citizenry, and this is the first opportunity for it to really sink in that the Demons are nearly indistinguishable from humans. Their hair trends toward brighter colors like blue, pink, green and red, but other than a slightly abnormal level of average physical fitness it seems any other signs are only noticeable to those with supernatural senses.

     There aren't too many observers, maybe a crowd of fifty at most there to express their interest in the activation of the warpgate after it sat dormant for the past several months in the middle of their city, and this is even in spite of how those gathered seem to quietly thrum with anxiety, like the gate's opening is just one mystery too many in fraught times. Between the gate and the line of soldiers, a man and a boy seem to be waiting for each of your arrivals, ignoring the periodic shouts from curious demons trying to ask questions without encroaching on the soldiers.

     The younger of the two, many of you already loosely know; his name is Wrath, and given his horns, his teeth and admittedly even his rather visibly old-fashioned japanese clothing there's no mistaking why he is called an Oni. Though, he's still a teenager, so he might seem a bit babyfaced for the term. Wrath seems calm, if not comfortable, waiting with his arms folded either into his sleeves or behind his head, as he waits for more of you to arrive. He's wearing a pair of full-length katana, one red with a white scabbard and the other yellow with a black scabbard. On top of his head is one of White's spy-ders, the cute little thing sometimes slightly disturbed by Wrath's shifting but not enough to do more than tap him on the head. The older man, on the other hand, only Natsuki may have been introduced to thus far. Fortunately he quickly amends this for each of you; for each arrival, he steps forward to offer a handshake (for the men) or a formal bow with his arms folded behind his back (for the women) and a brisk introduction: "Duke Balto Phtalo." He seems prepared to answer questions if need be, but he has a sort of subdued anxious energy like he'd rather be nearly anywhere else, or perhaps like there's something time-sensitive he's been pulled away from to handle reception. He's quite tall but not as stocky as most of the soldiers, making him seem a bit lanky if not for the way his coat- worn around his shoulders like a loose cloak- obscures some of his silhouette. He has predominantly black hair with a single distinct ruffled white stripe straight through the center from his forehead back, and it aligns well with the deep groove he seems to have worn into his forehead by furrowing his brows too much. He has a thin pair of reading glasses perched on his nose but slid down, and his outfit is mostly white with blue straps on the coat and a blue cross across his chest. A tall black pair of boots almost come to his knees, and he's carrying a leather notebook under his arm as well.
White Once the majority of the planned-for Elites have arrived, Balto takes a sharp breath and checks his notebook once more, glances at Wrath who says nothing back to him despite meeting his gaze instantly, and then clears his throat softly while still side-eyeing the spider on Wrath's head. "The Eighth Commander will be supervising today's endeavor, and I will trust in his ability to convey the details away from the public's scrutiny. It seems that it is the Tenth Commander's intent to quickly handle something afar in the meantime, and therefor she will not be directly accompanying you immediately. Should an emergency situation arise, I believe she meant for one of you to convey it to her through her... Representative." He gestures at the spider on Wrath's head, who lifts her forelegs up in the air briefly.

     "She will however be delivering you to the destination. Please gather around the Commander- you needn't be too close." Balto then elaborates, stepping back a little from Wrath's side while the oni awaits everyone gathering together and adding one last piece of advice. "The Second Commander, Sanatoria Pilevy, should be present when you arrive. These plans outpaced our ability to inform her of your impending arrival without Commander White's intervention, so she may be surprised, but Commander Wrath's presence should avert any reasonable issues; I recommend once you've made contact that you get a firsthand account of the situation within the Fort from her. She was responsible for its current condition, after all." There's a conspicuous *lack* of bitterness in his voice, but he certainly doesn't seem enthused.

After that, there's a moment or two that could be spared on less-sensitive questions, if anyone sees the need while White prepares the remote teleportation.
Petra Soroka     Petra arrives with the two women that she often is accompanied by nowadays; Angela, in person, and Audrey. She's wearing a baseball cap and her black and gold CMU letterjacket, along with the ever-present but symbolically distinct black and gold around her throat, and her transteam gun is just barely visible on her hip beneath the jacket. She is also in the middle of a conversation with the two of them when passing through the warpgate.

    "-- look, I'm just saying, it's *especially* freakish to be *calmly browsing* a fucking pin-up collection of someone you're literally talking to. It's *more* perverse to act unaffected. It's, like, objectifying, to consume it purely as a product, within hearing range, but not actually addressing her while you do it. Literally, bullies do this. *Men* do this, when trying to, like, show an innately culturally supported kind of social dominance over women. If you're not, like, bursting blood vessels so hard you can't speak right, then it's just *wrong* to bring that kind of thing up in the broadband. Do it on your own time. Like, fuck."

    Anyways, this place seems normal. The fashion sense, of brightly colored weapons, stripes of hair dye, coats worn as capes over high-collared uniforms, is all very comfortably City-esque to Petra, so she puts her hands behind her head casually while getting the update from Balto.

    "I'm Petra. I mean, I figure you were told, but I think it'd be rude not to say anyways." She gives a little wave to the spyder on Wrath's head, because that's a friend to her. "I guess I have some questions about the state of the lab and stuff, but probably Sana-- Commander Pilevy's got more info on that. So I'm ready to go."

    Petra communicates this to White by giving a thumbs-up to the spyder.
Kukuru Arriving dressed for work rather than leisure in her sleeker black and purple-ish getup, Kukuru's come here through the warpgate rather than her usual clouds of ominously evil-coded energy (that she totally took to get to the warpgate instead of walking). She takes a moment to really take in how similar the Demons and humans look around here, only remembering to wave lightly at the crowd gathered by the gate with a pleasantly practiced smile to present herself as a non-threat to their and the soldiers' safety.

Wrath's greeted with a friendlier wave, of course, and she's quick to offer the young Oni a little plastic quart packed with what might be a healthy and is definitely a deliciously meaty meal. "He-llo, Wrath~ Ah, I brought some extra in case you and the others haven't eaten enough. Oh, but if you need me to hold these, I can take it back out later."

She pats her jacket pocket, because that is clearly capable of fitting however many of those containers she brought for everyone.

The Duke is greeted with a light bow in return, as Kukuru is lacking a skirt to curtsey with. "Kukuru." The pause. "That's Ku-ku-ru. It's very nice to meet you, Duke~" She greets, offering him the same kind of food-packed quart a moment later. His anxious energy doesn't go unnoticed, though, and her hand goes up instinctively towards his head before she remembers where she is and quickly withdraws it. Instead, she stage-whispers "It'll be okay. We'll have eeeverything taken care of, no problem."

Gathering around to make things easier for the inevitable transport, Kukuru continues to listen closely to Balto's instructions and nods along with what she's hearing. "I'm sure she'll understand once she sees Wrath, mhm. And everyone here's super reasonable, so it should all go really smooth."

The first question that comes to Kukuru's mind and straight out of her mouth as she looks from Balto to Wrath to the Spy-der is "How long do you think we'll be in there? I've got plenty of food ready if we need to be there for a while, but I might need to defrost some stuff if it's gonna be suuuuper long."
Audrey Basque     Having forgotten to ask White if it was still recommended to 'fit in' or not, Audrey opted not to take any chances, and darted to get changed (from the Library, after zooming there to hand-deliver the best calendar ever printed to Angela) into that fancy one-piece dress she wore last time, and which is now more famous for being the outfit she got beaten up by Sarracenia in. But it does fit in! Which might be important still. Or might not? Well, no risks taken, and she wasn't going to just show up in the school uniform...

    Of course, she arrives with Petra and Angela, engaged in what is clearly a losing back and forth with the former.

    "Angela wanted to see! Anyway, it's Library property now. So, like.... it's solved, right?" Pause, and sigh. "Ugh. Of course it's not. No, no, I... get it. Relevance to the discussion doesn't excuse..."
    She trails off, until introductions.

    Balto introduces himself, and Audrey curtsies politely. "Audrey Basque, a friend of White's. Pleasure to make your acquaintance." Sir? Duke? Hm. Soldier or royal first, she wonders...

    But not for too long, because she spends the rest of the introduction period fretting over the Warpgate. This is, so far, a unique chance to feel out and observe a Warpgate that's recently activated, get a grasp on how it affects space on such short-notice, and-- well it's all very boring stuff, surely, and she won't slow the group down over it. But she certainly looks like she'd be ready to stay here if offered.

    "Oh. Oh, sorry. My apologies. I'm ready as well." She shuffles on over to get closer but not too close, as instructed, to wait for White's teleportation.
Angela Angela has explicitly asked Petra about going on this (ad)venture personally this time. And for once, aside from Petra and Audrey, it is just Angela. She didn't bring Roland or any of the Sephirah. Just herself.

She isn't really a warrior either but she's willing, at this point, to do pretty much ''whatever'' to lend White a hand. She gives a nod to Duke Balto Phtalo and introduces herself as, "Angela. From the Library." Her eyes slant towards the notebook and asks, "Are those plans?" She doesn't even say 'The' plans.

But ultimately she turns her attention back to the spider atop Wrath's head and dips her head to it as well, assuming that White is watching through the spyder.

She's a little disappointed already but that's fine. Lending a hand is lending a hand. "I understand. Maximizing the strategic benefit by accomplishing two goals at once is ideal." Or even more, really. "I believe this should be well within our abilities, but I am grateful that backup plans are in place." She considers a moment before adding, "Will you be coming with us? If her agent needs to accompany us directly, I am happy to look after the spider during the operation."

''--It's more perverse to act unaffected.''

"I do not have the ability to burst blood vessels at the moment, but I'll agree I shouldn't have spoken on the matter. It would have better served my goal to not make a fuss while also not treating the subject as 'unseemly'."

''Angela wanted to see!''

"Technically I only asked about what type of calendar it was. I did not ask to see it." Angela corrects mildly. "Besides I'd rather focus on the task at hand right now. We can continue deliberations later if itp roves necessary."
Lilian Rook     Wrath is clearly the protagonist and Balto is clearly the stuffy loser here, but that just endears him to Lilian more, not less. A dual-wielding out-of-place Japanese teenager with his hands behind his head? Untrustworthy. A guy who introduces himself with his title and bows properly for a lady? That's "Oh my." out loud territory. Very nice, White.

    Lilian, having found the instructions perfectly clear, arrives expecting combat, so she hasn't bothered to dress up for the occasion. Armoured and sans sidearm, according to White's request, she's wearing her Ostian scabbard over her back without the matching cloak, given the season. Letting her hand wander to her face tilted into it, Lilian gives the good duke a perfectly warm smile and introduces herself in the "Dame Commander Lilian Rook. Pleasure to make your acquaintance." style. She merely has to shift her fingers to cover up her wanting to laugh at his consternation regarding the goofy little spider. "I understand."

    "Though I'm certain it'll be obvious when we arrive, would you mind informing me how I might pick out Commander Pilevy at our destination?" she says once the very short briefing is over. "Nothing about this operation is unclear to me, but I prefer to err on the side of preventing unreasonable problems as well."

    '-- look, I'm just saying'

    Lilian's eye twitches, but she's sure as hell not about to do anything to admit that this argument about pin-ups has anything to do with her, right in front of a Duke. "Petra." she says, as a greeting in of itself. "I see you've brought your . . . little friend." she adds, glancing at Audrey and not Angela. "I see no reason to wait any further if we're all gathered. I've done my equipment check before even departing." Lilian adds, with an implied 'like a professional.

    In the moments that follow, she watches the crowd rather than the argument. For some reason, the view she gets bothers her.
White Wrath once again is outed as a once-normie by the way he alerts slightly when the words 'pin-up calendar' reach his ears, but he pointedly looks away again almost immediately, wiggling his jaw like he's trying to shake something off of his face. Balto is innocent of the original sin in this case, or he just has a much better poker face, because he manages to respond to Petra without even a hint of curiosity in his voice. "I recieved names and descriptions, yes. I appreciate the confirmation regardless. Commander Sanatoria- she does go by her given name- is... Likely not to know much about that objective."

     Kukuru's friendliness, meanwhile, seems to melt Wrath's armor just a little bit. He unfolds his arms to return the wave a little awkwardly, seems slightly wide-eyed when a lunch is pushed into his hands, and does a little double-take before popping the lid open to lean in and look inside. Afterward, his sharp-nailed fingers keep playing with the plastic tub idly. "Oh... Thank you very much, actually. As for how long it'll take... Well, I'd hope just this afternoon. Wakaba doesn't want to stick you with cleanup, so..." He seems to have storage magic of his own, given he does the same into-sleeve disappearing trick White keeps doing, tucking the container safely out of the way. "I almost forgot what plastic felt like." he admits, smiling just a little bit for the immediate future.

Balto reacts to being handed a lunch with somewhat more confusion, but after confirming that it's just food he hsa a sort of gently wider-eyed surprise on his face for a moment, like he'd expected to be handed a severed head and he's suddenly relieved. "Thank you, Kukuru. I will try to find an opportunity to enjoy it soon." This boy hasn't eaten a full meal since lunch *yesterday*, so he could stand to fix that.

The gathered citizens seem to respond with perplexity when waved at; they certainly aren't reacting to you like celebrities, but at least you aren't apparent threats, and a younger kid somewhere near the back of the thin crowd awkwardly waves back. One of the adults gently pushes their arm back down though, nervous about drawing your attention. None of them seem to know why you're even here, going by the way they look between each other when Kukuru stage-whispers reassurances.

     Audrey's introduction goes smoothly, though Balto does seem to blink in subdued surprise at just hearing the name 'White' by itself, like it's a novel rarity. Which is because it is, actually; normally White is sort of a 'she who must not be named' kind of figure, but that's something you'll learn more as you go.

     Angela is one of those who Balto doesn't seem to refer to his notebook on meeting; he's heard just enough to be confident in recognizing her by proximity. When she asks about the book all the same, he adjusts it in his grip and answers, "My own plans, yes. I keep a rigorous daily schedule, and thorough notes. It is invaluable to me." Angela's disappointment about White not being present seems to catch Wrath's attention more than Balto's, so the oni tries to excuse it on her behalf. "She's in a bit of a hurry today, yeah. She didn't... Actually tell us what she was doing, but she never really just vanishes for no reason, I don't think?" He taps his chin trying to recall a counter-example, and seems to come up dry. "Last time she vanished entirely... That was the time she figured out she could go back to Earth. So that was kind of a big deal..." Then, Balto answers the other question. "My apologies, but I will not. I am... Not a specialist combatant, like the newer Commanders, and I no longer have an army to lend aid with. According to the Tenth Commander, you should be more than prepared for this engagement already."
White Fortunately, Lilian's inquiry is simple to resolve, and Balto seems microscopically relieved by her demeanor, juxtaposed against... Everyone else's. He's much more a military man than a 'gaggle of superpowered youngsters' man, evidently. "Of course, Dame Commander." he mirrors without a hitch. "Commander Sanatoria is a middle-adult woman with a distinct form of dress. Rather than uniform, she favors elaborate dresses and raised heels. Her hair is black, and long, and she pays great mind to her appearance. She should stand out immediately among her army."
White While not projected to address any one of you in particular, Wrath muses aloud while glancing up at the spy-der between his horns wibbling its little legs in exaggerated 'spellcasting' motions. "Wakaba is kind of nuts..." In reality, it isn't doing anything but serving as a way for her to observe the targets, and performing a teleportation from wherever White is seems more elaborate than her usual; there's about a ten second delay in the casting, and a lot more noticeable light-display and glyph-work. The moment of the spell's conclusion is just as abrupt as always, and the lot of you find yourselves in a more open space; near the edge of a clifftop, facing out toward Fort Okun from maybe half a mile away. The sudden addition of a breeze is perhaps a little disorienting, and the air is slightly more humid here. Beneath the cliff-face is part of a forest, but it's clearly worn down by a mixture of past logging and more recent *stampeding*. The fort itself is fairly large, constructed up against an opposing cliff across from where you're standing and elevated somewhat from the center of the pass inbetween, allowing it to watch over what might be the only reasonable wagon-worthy path for several miles. It's built with stone, smoothly melded together into single pieces with magic after construction to seal everything together, and overall the shape is quite geometric and neat compared to hand-built fortifications. It's large enough to have a modest courtyard within the center, and the outer walls are double-levelled with parapets for the topmost row of defenders to cover behind, and arrow slits beneath for the second row to fire out from. The problem, of course, is self-evident. Even from afar you can see numerous bipedal creatures moving, climbing, leaping and crawling over one-another like insects within the fort, covering the structure's walls and filling the courtyard so densely that it's like trying to observe what a swarm of ants is engulfing.

     On the other hand, behind you and down the cliff a little ways you can see an encampment. Enough large tents for maybe fifty people to share, an active cookfire, some tables field-built for things like cartography and recordkeeping... They've been settled in here for quite a while now, and a few of the soldiers, armored with some steel plating but never full plate armor, are only just taking notice of your appearance. They don't have to raise the alarm before their Commander is coming out to meet you, and Wrath naturally steps out to meet her in turn, prompting a shift in the woman's expression as she tries to quickly mask her reaction. "Goodness. Commander Wrath, was it?" As if she hadn't remembered. "What a... Sudden appearance you've made. Those people behind you, are they-"

     He interrupts her gently, with a raised palm and a slightly tired expression, and she takes to the signal quite quickly despite their apparent lack of comfort with one-another. Once she stops, he speaks, seemingly trying to speed-run the conversation. "Hello Second Commander. These people are friends of the Tenth Commander." Sanatoria tries, and fails, not to wince. "We are here to deal with your mess. Would you-" This time, she interrupts him, sounding a little noticeably aggrieved as she interjects "What? There's no need for that, we've been making steady progress without taking any losses! Given one more month, it will be handled without-" But, Wrath sighs, and this once again halts her momentum. She doesn't seem like the type to be a doormat typically, but she seems scared of agitating the younger boy she's talking to, and keeps letting him speak. "This isn't negotiable Sanatoria. It's getting done today. I'll be taking command here; please just brief us on anything that's happened since your last report."

     She bites her lip for a moment, but recovers quickly and resets to what might be a comfort-posture; one hand on her hip, one playing with a lock of her hair.
White "... Very well. Aside from brief encounters with human scouts, the Second Army has been focused on the fort- and those Anogratches- exclusively. When members of the horde have roamed outside alone, we've used Salacious and status-condition magic to capture them, or lured other monsters to kill them for us. The horde remains stubborn about making a nest of the fort, and they might have anywhere from five hundred to eight hundred members inside those walls. We theorized the use of poisonous gas might be effective, but since the fort isn't an enclosed space it seems unlikely we can raise the saturation high enough before individual deaths trigger the Revenge skill, and thereby cause them to swarm out toward us."
Audrey Basque "I see you've brought your . . . little friend."

    Audrey opens her mouth, in a way that is so entirely predictable that she's about to say something a bit huffy like 'I am literally taller than both of you', but something miraculously stops her and she just closes her mouth and half-sighs instead.

    "Miss Rook."

    Nailed it.

"We can continue deliberations later if itp roves necessary."

    "I can't imagine a context for it needing to be discussed again," Audrey says, a bit naive in her ability to believe this is somehow the last of it.

Teleportation + view of the fort.

    The fact it takes longer than usual is hard to miss for Audrey, not even because of her familiarity with the magic but because she's seen White perform it enough by now to pick up on that. She'll have to ask later.

    "She wasn't kidding about the swarm of monkeys..." she observes, plainly, at the ridiculous amounts of them present. "No wonder they used them to overwhelm this place.

"The horde remains stubborn about making a nest of the fort, and they might have anywhere from five hundred to eight hundred members inside those walls."

    And then they get a number!

    Audrey squints but remains silent at the sight of Sanatoria and her... clothing choices, focusing instead of-- poison gas? That sounds... practical, but a bit horrifying, in the sense if those were people instead of 'monsters'...

    On the other hand it'd certainly be effective.

    "I could make it an enclosed space, but... surely there's a less... what word am I looking for." She considers, and settles on, "War-crime-y, solution. Sleeping gas, instead? Or we can just lure them away. From a vantage point I could easily displace people, or the beasts themselves."
Kukuru Hearing Petra and Audrey as they come in talking about some kind of calendar, Kukuru lets out an intrigued noise before quickly clamming up and trying to look like she wasn't just eavesdropping on them inadvertently. Hearing that Angela has it in the Library only serves to pique her curiosity further, and but...

"Angela's right, mhm." She affirms, going just a bit more stone-faced when she realizes she's just revealed herself doing that. "... And he-llo, dears! Oh, this job should be easy and breezy with all of us helping out with it. And-oh, Lilian's joining us, too? Wonderful, wonderful." She claps her hands together pleasantly again. "Aaah, it's so nice knowing White has this many friends going along..."

Sighing in relief and looking across the group in heartfelt appreciation, she soon turns her attention back to Wrath and Balto. Their surprise and confusion at getting the food draws out an amused little giggle out of Kukuru, and it takes quite a bit for here to resist the urge to muss up their hair. She's aware enough that they need to look respectable before their charges, after all!

"Just the afternoon? Oh, that's a big relief. Hmm... I'll see about the cleanup after we're done, though. Lots of hands make lots of..." She starts trying to sound wise, pauses upon confusing herself, then taps her chin. "Easy... Hands? No, that's not it..."

Just her luck, then, that there's plenty of other information to listen to and forget about all that. Hearing Wakaba for the second time today, Kukuru considers asking Wrath about her, but she doesn't quite get the chance to. She only gets to utter the start of her question with a light "What-" before the teleportation spell brings everyone to the clifftop facing Fort Okun.

"-is...? Oooh. We're here!" She announces excitedly to the gathered Elites, then squints slightly upon seeing all that movement inside that doesn't resemble the Demon Army nor the humans from earlier.

"Lots of strange little things over there..." She comments instead, turning around with a curious eye towards the unfamiliar voice. Like before, a pleasant smile crosses Kukuru's face as she approaches the Second Commander with a packed food quart from seemingly out of nowhere. "He-llo, Sanatoriaaaa... I'm Kukuru." The pause, again. "That's Ku-ku-ru. It's nice to meet you~ Here you are, aaand..."

Even as she's offering her that quart, Kukuru's mind is already glowing with praise waiting to be let out. "It sounds like you've been doing a really good job keeping your troops safe, mhm. It's good to see someone that cares about their friends like that."

The information about the Anogratches, meanwhile, has her mind wandering in a completely different direction. "A nest, huh? It really sounds ike there's a whole bunch of them... Mm. Mm. Oh. Do you need them gathered up for anything? Or can we take some back with us?" She asks while glancing towards the Fort, actually looking thoughtful and intensely focused for the first time today.

"If there's that many of them around, then we've got a loooot of work ahead of us. Lotta culling to do, but if we can do it without poison or making their deaths slow..." Kukuru trails off for a moment and closes her eyes, breathing in deeply while counting off on her fingers.

"If they're that big... That could enough food for months if we can get it all frozen fast enough." Kukuru concludes, turning to Audrey with a bright smile. "Oh, sleeping gas sounds good. Then we can drain aaaall their blood or take their heads off one at a time, and they won't swarm with their... Skill?"

That last part earns Sanatoria a confused look from Kukuru. "Do you think that'd work?"
Lilian Rook     Lilian likes straight-backed and by the books men like these. Forcing men to care about rules and appearances is a sort of tempering process that refines the male species from toxic slag into something worthwhile; which Lilian does not say out loud because Petra would instantaneously agree with her. "Thank you for your time, Duke Balto. I'll take up no more of it." she says, nodding out of contentment. "And, though I hope you'll forgive me saying so, I'll do what I can to keep this lot from adding to your schedule later." She also likes schedules. Not that they're exactly useful to her in the same way as they are anyone else.

    Given the ten seconds of spellcasting, Lilian rests her chin between her finger and thumb, and thinks out loud, "Raised heels and long black hair, though? For a military commander, that's--"

    Oh, everyone's there already. Lilian freezes mid-sentence, looks around with a slightly dazed expression, and mistrustfully tests the ground with her foot; which is about the funniest possible thing to see her doing since, from the outside, she ostensibly does this hundreds of times a day.

    'What a... Sudden appearance you've made. Those people behind you, are they-'

    Lilian opens her mouth to reply, pauses at Wrath's interruption, and feels her enmity spike into the orange zone instantaneously. She feels such a specific way about this that it's actually more trouble to identify and not less. She isn't even hiding her stare from anyone but Wrath himself, and only because she's standing behind him.

    Whatever's happened between them, something about the way they interact makes her blood boil.

    'This isn't negotiable Sanatoria. It's getting done today. I'll be taking command here'

    "Is that so?" Lilian says; blandly remarking on it like it's so obvious as to be nothing, unless you're looking directly at the place where her lip curls and shows her teeth.

    '... Very well.'

    "Dame Commander Lilian Rook. My apologies for the abrupt intrusion; we were informed of very little regarding the ongoing operation, so I hadn't meant to take you and your men by surprise." she says, as if that is remotely the issue. "If there's anything you'd like to put in a report, or rather, a word you'd like put in with the Commander when we're done, I'll be happy to hear it." says Lilian, vividly flashing back to what she'd told Vertin the other day about hard workers.

    'War-crime-y'

    "Basque. Go home." Lilian snaps. "This is a war, these people are soldiers, this is a military installation, and the enemy is a gaggle of animals that certainly aren't covered by any rights or chaters that I know of." She rolls her shoulder to angle the strap of her scabbard and pulls up on the end with her other hand, slipping it from her back to her waist. "Reflect on the fact that you recently suffered a crushing loss to an elderly amateur because of that soft attitude."

    She's already thought of a dozen way that she'd make use of Audrey's magic if she just took command as usual, but Lilian can't even bring herself to suggest one. "We'll assume the worst case and plan for eight-hundred hostiles. I'm not thrilled about the sort of mass firepower it would require to make any of this expedient. As the local expert--" she says, to Sanatoria and not Wrath, "--I'd like to ask you. In your experience, or at least estimation, how do the anogratches typically behave when they can't ascertain the cause or direction of death of a given individual?"
Angela "Hello Dame Commander." Angela says, dipping her head to her as well slightly before turning her attention back to the duke, whom she seems to approve of because he bothers to make a schedule. "Proper dilineation of time for tasks is very important. I am glad to know you keep one. It is a relief to know I am working with individuals who prepare properly." She is carrying a book herself, though she doesn't confirm that's also a daily planner. Because it isn't. Angela keeps her daily planner in the Library and right now it's largely perfunctory. Angela doesn't forget. She wasn't allowed to. But she hopes to change that.

Then she shakes her head to Wrath. "I hardly expect she would just skip out for no reason. But the best way to keep an important plan unknown to the enemy is to only tell the necessarily involved people. Sometimes that number is one. And sometimes what is need to know is not the whole story either, though that comes with its risks."

She hesitates and then nods back to Balto, briefly distracted by Kukuru saying she's right because she doesn't actually know what Kukuru is referring to.

Angela's shock at being suddenly teleported completes itself before they actually arrive. She has some sudden concern about the influence of teleportation on her proximity to Petra in the intervening non-space so she gets to think about that for a while while her consciousness is slowly transported from one location to another. She exhales a bit of 'finally' when she's finally in position, instinctively moving closer to Petra.

Angela considers the benefits and negatives of being mean to Sanatoria but ultimately elects to table the matter and take a more diplomatic approach. "I am certain you would have no issue handling this situation. No doubt circumstances have changed to necessitate it happening today--hench the extra support." She pauses and then adds, "I am Angela of The Library. This is Petra, and Audrey, who work with me."

Audrey makes a suggestion but worries it's too war-crimey and Angela turns to face her even before Lilian tells her to go home.

"Audrey, I would encourage you to see this as an opportunity to 'toughen up' some. You have tremendous power so I suppose it is natural to hesitate to use it but I encourage you to activate your hidden bully arts in this case considering the ultimate stakes of the situation."
Petra Soroka "No, no, I... get it. Relevance to the discussion doesn't excuse..."

    "No, no, you're missing the point. I'm saying that relevance doesn't matter because--"

"I see you've brought your . . . little friend."

    "Ah--" Petra immediately cuts off from talking with Audrey and doesn't bother to pick up the conversational thread again, turning around to give her full focus to Lilian instead. "Well, uh, sure, she tags along, but she'll probably be pretty useful for something like this. I mean, technically, she's my employee in the Library, so anything good she does should be credited to me and anything bad she does is her own fuck up."

"Commander Sanatoria- she does go by her given name- is... Likely not to know much about that objective."

    So if she's never been into the lab, and White is more familiar with it despite not being the one actually assigned to deal with the fort right now, that probably makes Sanatoria a tiny bit of a fuck-up, comparatively. Petra internalizes this almost-certainly-unfair assumption about someone she hasn't met before and packs it away while the process of tiny spider remote teleportation goes through.

"Wakaba is kind of nuts..."

    She'd rather talk with the protagonist-coded dual-wielding oni teenager with his hands behind his head than the stuffy loser! Even though her opinion of Wrath isn't very high. Considering his issues alongside Sophia's, and White's increasingly odd personality, and what Petra knows of the other reincarnations... she has to wonder whether *any* average modern person suddenly ripped away into a bizarre fantasy world would gain some kind of personality defect like that. That, in some way, there's a nugget of traits like these that exist in every person, and being in a world with exaggerated conflict and exaggerated stakes massively amplifies it, turning people into dynamic characters in proportion to the plot surrounding them. Given her own history as an Elite, that same theory could apply to *Petra* too.

    "How long have you guys all been here? A decade or two, right?" She asks Wrath while White's glyphs form around them. "Isn't that enough time to have, like, totally overwritten your knowledge from before about people? Especially now that... you know, White's doing bullshit like this. Like, she is kind of nuts, so-- why still 'Wakaba', like she's still a classmate? I don't know, I'm just... like, curious about your perspective on that stuff. White's talked about it, but she's, uh, very practical about it."
Petra Soroka "We are here to deal with your mess. Would you-"

    The combination of casually cutting Sanatoria off and then assigning offhanded blame makes Petra wince a little at Wrath. Her gut intuition lights up a confirmation of her earlier assumption, that Sanatoria is a comparatively lower-caste Commander among the Demon Army. The fact that she's a beautiful evil-looking woman with tall heels and slutty dresses means that this probably wasn't *always* the case, though, and instead, this is the result of Wrath being a bastard fuckboy elevated too high, or because Sanatoria's suffered some pathetic loss recently.

    In the end, though... Petra doesn't care enough to make an opinion of her on the spot. The people to care about in this world are White and Sophia to a lesser extent, and even though she already doesn't like Wrath, he's closer to being relevant than Sanatoria is, so unless he gets more annoying, Petra will just ignore this dynamic.

"When members of the horde have roamed outside alone, we've used Salacious and status-condition magic to capture them, or lured other monsters to kill them for us."

    "So you've got a whole bunch of them held captive so that you can kill them all at once? Are they somewhere that, like, when we attack the fort, is secure enough that they wouldn't be able to get buffed up by Revenge and attack the camp from inside?"

"War-crime-y, solution."
    Petra rolls her eyes along with Lilian. "God. Grow up. Get your head out of that Call of Duty-ass terminology and focus. These are fucking monkeys, are war crimes aren't even that big of a deal."

    Petra, unlike Lilian, is very willing to think about how to utilize Audrey's powers. While looking over at the fort in deep thought, she sighs slowly and absentmindedly says, "This is so much easier when they don't adapt to whatever you killed the last one with."

    "Anyways, I think the biggest problem is that a billion fucking monkeys-- or, well, eight hundred monkeys-- is so many of them, and since there's so few of us compared to them, we'd just be fighting constantly at max intensity while they constantly replenish. Any of us except maybe Audrey could handle, like, a dozen angry monkeys at once, but doing that eighty times in a row, or suddenly having twice that number if we're pushed into a bad spot, is a lot harder."

    "So... we can try baiting them into swarming us by activating the Revenge skill on purpose, and then I'll have Audrey loop the courtyard so that they can get into it but not leave, to pack them all together at once. And then we can just go wild, right?"
Audrey Basque You have tremendous power so I suppose it is natural to hesitate to use it but I encourage you to activate your hidden bully arts in this case considering the ultimate stakes of the situation."

"Basque. Go home."

    Audrey deflates, for a moment.

PHONE: Petra Soroka says, "You can't even work yourself up to have a conversation with her without deflating after a sentence."

    And then takes a deep breath.

    "I understand. If it's just a gaggle of animals, then just say the word. If you think poison gas can handle this then I'll isolate the fort once it's deployed. And if that's off the table, I can think of plenty of alternatives. I can lift or warp them up and drop them away from the fort in a pile, and we'll sort the bodies after. I could crush or flatten them, but that's going to get really messy really quickly."

"...and then I'll have Audrey loop the courtyard..."

    "Sure. That won't be hard, especially if the range their skill triggers at is large enough. If it's not, I can make multiple loops and link them, so everyone rounds up their own hundred or two and I'll make them converge."
White Wrath reacts to Petra's earlier questions with a sort of casually contemplative interest, like his own thoughts aren't quite solidified and he's trying to be both polite and candid. "Should be about fifteen years now, yeah. And I guess you're right, but..." He rotates his hand around the wrist like he's trying to shake the words loose. "... We never really talked, before. I mean, she didn't talk to *anybody*. Ooshima asked her out one time, but only because he knew she'd turn him down, and she knew why he did it and got annoyed. That was the most anyone knew about 'who she was', back then. I guess... It's really hard for me to tell if she's actually changed that much, or if she was always like she is now, on the inside, right?" It doesn't sound like he's satisfied with that as an answer though, and Petra's particularity-of-interest seems to make him feel like it's important somehow. "... I guess I'm kind of hoping this was the 'real her' all along. A few of us got to be more 'real' after being born again here. Sophia really hated her old life, so she gets mad if anyone uses her old name, and especially her nickname. But Wak- Whi-... She doesn't seem to care. I think she likes different names from different people, sometimes."
White Audrey's contemplations on war-crime reduction against monkeys makes both Wrath and Sanatoria turn to look at her exclusively, each of them wearing the strongest poker face that they can muster and likely only making the sense of judgement worse! But, it's only for a moment; Kukuru's lunch delivery seems to take Sanatoria completely by surprise. For one, because she doesn't know it's even food at first; she points at herself as if asking if it's actually for her, before delicately taking the quart container like she's expecting it to be a very strange piece of acryllic artwork. Fortunately, it doesn't take too long for her to figure it out, and she seems somehow personally flattered, hand-over-chest and all. "Well, isn't this different."

She spends a fraction of a second turning her gaze toward Wrath as if to make it a silent 'Why don't you treat me this nice' kind of stare, but thinks better of it just before she can be caught beefing with a teenager and instead pans that gaze out past the group and toward the fort.

     Speaking more productively about Audrey's thoughts, Sanatoria wonders aloud, "It's quite a large structure, you know. Even if it looks small from here, and even if you're quite the talented Earth Magic user, that would be a significant effort..." She, of course, doesn't know anything about your skillset, so she's making educated guesses. "Assuming you could, we have four- no, five people here who can use Poison Magic, and it isn't their favored type. But perhaps we can figure something out."

     Kukuru's question about taking them back with you seems to puzzle her even more, and she's only just beginning to ask what you would want to do that for when Kukuru talks about making them into food! The thought makes Sanatoria cover her mouth firmly, as if to hide the urge to retch, but once the shock passes over her she oh so politely notes, "They are... Technically edible." There's an unspoken 'but' there, but she doesn't want to discourage you after all. "Unfortunately, 'sleeping gas' isn't something I know that we can create with the men I have here... Perhaps if we had more poison-specialized soldiers, but that's not typical..."

     Wrath, for better or worse, can sense nasty stares quite well. It's a developed survival mechanism for him, after loosely co-habitating with Sophia for so long... But it's still a new experience to be catching heat from older women he barely knows, and he's quickly working through the process of figuring out what went wrong in his head. Lilian's 'is that so' wins a modest backpedal from him. "In the official sense, anyway." He doesn't seem to really *want* command, so it's easy to hand off- as long as it's not to Sanatoria.

The offer to convey a message to, presumably, White seems to immediately repel Sanatoria's interest like the idea might burn her to entertain it, and for just a moment she thoughtlessly covers her face behind the food-quart she's holding in lieu of something like a folding fan. "... That's quite alright, thank you Dame Commander. I apologize for my unrest."
White Fortunately, Wrath doesn't have any interest in pretending to be a superior expert (getting the briefing from her was part of the plan too), and Sanatoria spends just a moment putting her thoughts together before carefully answering. "Unfortunately, there is no 'confusing' them. The Revenge skill determines the cause of death, and secondary fatalities from things like drowning, falling or collision are attributed to whoever might have engineered the relevant circumstances. The only reliable misdirection seems to be causing someone or something else to deliver the killing blow; for what it's worth, damage caused before the moment of death isn't relevant, except for when death is caused by something other than a creature's attacks. Their own personal awareness and sensees are irrelevant, unfortunately."

     Petra's questions about the captured monkeys, on the other hand, are met with a guilty squirmy sort of frown from Sanatoria. "Unfortunately no... The captured ones were only relocated to keep them from attacking our men, or wandering deeper into the Demon Realm. A single one's mistaken death means a swarm, and neither my forces here nor any town between here and the Demon Lord's Castle would be able to handle this many of them at once, and neither do we have the food or facilities to keep them caged. If we starved them, or they died resisting captivity, that too could trigger Revenge if the conditions were just poor enough for us." She's so busy being worried about that, that it takes her a moment to properly register the plan Petra is proposing.

     Even Wrath is looking a little like he wants to be nervously tugging at his collar, but it's not *so* bad if he reminds himself who all is here and what he's heard of them. "I guess that's a good way to make sure there are no stragglers. If our formation is good and we don't trip each other up, anyway. D'you feel good about that idea, Dame Commander? I only have scraps of what Wakaba has said about you ladies to make expectations with."
Kukuru "I encourage you to activate your hidden bully arts"
"Basque. Go home."
"she'll probably be pretty useful for something like this."

"Oh, that's a good idea... It's important to get more comfortable with your specialties so it doesn't feel so..." Kukuru starts suggesting to Audrey with a slow nod, pursing her lips slightly in thought when she sees that deflating. In her view, encouragement doesn't seem to be working, and Lilian's tough love doesn't seem to be working, so what other approaches are there?

Kukuur's going to have to keep that in the back of her mind while they're all working on this beast problem. It takes a while longer for her to remember to finish that thought from earlier, but she finally remembers for once! "So... Strange. It's all for the good of everyone here, you know? You're strong enough to get through that, I know it."

Maybe something drastic.

Sanatoria, meanwhile, gets a quick nod from Kukuru at that questioning look. It's not the first time Kukuru's confused someone with a food delivery, and it certainly won't be the last. "I made plenty for... Well, not everyone, but at least for our little group here." She explains with a chuckle, then claps her hands together a second later after Sanatoria tells her that the Anogratches are technically edible.

"Only technically, huh...? Hmm. Well, once we're done down there, there might be even be some for the troops iiiif I can make it work." Indeed, even Kukuru has her limits when it comes to preparing something edible, but she isn't quite discouraged enough to give up on it without trying yet.

"If we can't do sleeping gas... Hmmm. I guess poison gas would be safer for us, even if it'd be a waste." Of a potential food source, but she doesn't feel the need to spell that out.

"The Revenge skill determines the cause of death"
"we can try baiting them into swarming us"

"Aw... So they'd never understand the appeal of a murder mystery. That's a shame." Frowning a little at that, Kukuru's mood lifts right back up when she hears Petra's plan involving Audrey's abilities. "Oh, that sounds like a wonderful idea. And while they're getting tired running around..."

Taking out a pair of metal claws the size of her head, Kukuru puts one on before drawing a big circle in the dirt with one of the claw tips. "We could drop sharp stuff all over them, cut them up from sides, maybe stick some knives in the ground from them to get cut on while they're chasing us... And then they'd bleed themselves out without us having to try so hard."
Petra Soroka "... I guess I'm kind of hoping this was the 'real her' all along."

    This is the single most interesting answer Wrath could've given her, and Petra's intent in continuing the conversation rises past idle curiosity and into genuine interest. She tilts her head and focuses her attention on Wrath, trying to prod at whether that kind of opinion was a fluke from him or not.

    "I was actually thinking about something similar to that. That is, like, before, something as trivial as asking someone out and getting turned down was an important conflict, right? Slapping someone would be practically unbelievable. Believing in something different from one of your classmates would mean, like, an argument at most, or more likely just sort of ignoring it and not bringing itup around them. But here, it's all so much more dramatic, right? Arguing with someone means probably ending up fighting them. There's a war going on, and your beliefs matter for the sake of the entire world."

    "So I wonder, isn't maybe *everyone* more 'real'? Maybe White's the one who understands that the most, since she knows that there's no point in compromising with yourself when they ways that you are matter so much more to the world around you. And maybe the more noncommittal reincarnations are the ones who don't want to think about that at all, since it's scary."
Petra Soroka     There's nothing Petra wants less than to eat these horrible things, but that's Kukuru for you. Poison gas along with Audrey is theoretically viable, but Petra doesn't feel confident enough in relying on the abilities of just the locals and Audrey to advocate for a plan that essentially writes herself and Lilian out of it. Maybe that could result in the funny scenario of however many hundreds of remaining monkeys chasing after Audrey specifically to kill her, but Petra would rather that doesn't happen.

"Unfortunately, there is no 'confusing' them."

    "I think that's probably more convenient than it is a problem. Er-- well, it'd be really convenient if they were super easily confused, but I just didn't think that'd be possible at all, or else we'd mix up a spritz bottle of the ant pheromone that makes you smell like a murderer and drop some chemtrails on them until they tear each other apart."

"Unfortunately no... The captured ones were only relocated to keep them from attacking our men, or wandering deeper into the Demon Realm."

    Petra narrows her eyes, and looks away from the castle to glance at the rest of the landscape in the other direction. "Wait-- are they still part of the 'swarm' though? Do they have infinite range monkey-telepathy? Like, if we kill all these here, is that going to cause some random wandering monkeys to go nuts and start killing the people around them?"

"I only have scraps of what Wakaba has said about you ladies to make expectations with."

    "So, uh--" Petra glances aside at Lilian. "I've got a couple reasons for suggesting biting the bullet and doing it all at once. One is that Lilian is really strong in bursts or in, like, intermittent fights, but a constant swarm of monsters for hours is sort of the worst possible scenario. Another is that if they're all lured into an open space, I can scale up my attacks way more compared to if we're just plodding around in the hallways. Audrey's magic is kind of arbitrarily effective as long as she can see them, and Kukuru can way better spot-target ones that slip through if we're all fighting in the same area. So, that's my suggestion."
Lilian Rook     "One with a survival instinct. How interesting." Lilian says, nonchalantly, to nobody at all, about nothing, when Wrath hastens to clarify. Surely these two things are unrelated events that randomly overlapped on the temporal axis. She's partially just relieved that Kukuru giving the beleaguered and underappreciated (her automatic and unfounded assumption) commander a tub of food has worked out well, though. Seeing Sanatoria actually stop herself short of harassing Wrath because she realizes how stupid it'd look makes Lilian want to give her a double thumbs up out of pride. She has to settle for a smile instead.

    'Assuming you could, we have four- no, five people here who can use Poison Magic, and it isn't their favored type. But perhaps we can figure something out.'

    "That was my second question." Lilian sighs. "If you had more than that, you'd already have divided them into ten to sixteen groups, sealed the exits, and gassed them simultaneously." she says, assuming a significant degree of competence and ruthlessness that must surely because she heard the word 'demon' at some point. Probably. "What about water magic? How quickly could your subordinates fill that courtyard to an eight foot level? And how many would it take. I have a modest command of elemental magic myself, more so of the 'engineering' persuasion."

    She snickers at 'sleeping gas'. She wasn't going to say it, just in case it was really a thing here, but now she gets to say, "What, like from movies?" at Audrey, dripping with contempt. At least she's backed off tellin her to leave now.

    '... That's quite alright, thank you Dame Commander. I apologize for my unrest.'

    Lilian raises an eyebrow, but leaves it. "No need for apologies. I'll just tell her that you were doing a good job." she says.

    'The Revenge skill determines the cause of death'

    Lilian sets her jaw and presses her lips together.

    'whoever might have engineered the relevant circumstances'

    Her lips twitch towards a frown.

    'damage caused before the moment of death isn't relevant'

    Lilian's eye twitches again. The frown habitually inverts into a forced smile.

    'Their own personal awareness and sensees are irrelevant, unfortunately.'

    "If you'll politely excuse me for just a moment, Commander." Lilian says, gesture-implicitly curtsying herself out, just to disappear the next moment. Someone with particularly sharp hearing might hear her, further down the cliff, her voice unfortuntely carried far by the chasm, screaming at the top of her lungs. Bits and pieces of "Loser loser loser--!!" and "--suck my D you--!!" and "--take a fucking shower femcel!! This is why nobody--!!" filter over in foggy refrain.

    Lilian reappears in the group at the end of the minute, clearing her throat and exhaling. "Thank you for waiting." she says, as if she just put someone on hold.

    'D'you feel good about that idea, Dame Commander? I only have scraps of what Wakaba has said about you ladies to make expectations with.'

    "Personally, I'd prefer to kill four hundred of them myself, have dinner, then kill the other four hundred tomorrow, but if it has to get done today, I suppose there's no choice." she says, shrugging at the absurd comment with a salaryman-like lack of self-awareness. In fact, she looks at Kukuru for the murder mystery comment as if she were the freak saying strange things.
Lilian Rook     "Petra." Lilian is looking at her, which means it's time to give orders and expect everyone to arbitrarily follow them. "Organize transport with the others for any of Sanatoria's men who can use water, earth, and poison magic. Take them to an upper gantry in the courtyard; using Silver is fine. They'll cooperate with me to seal the ground floor exits and remove all handholds from the lower walls, which I'll alchemically transmute to brass to prevent any possibility of scaling it."

    "In the second phase, you and Kuru will work to displace or restrain any wandering anogratches without triggering their Revenge skill so that we aren't interrupted, whilst Sanatoria's men and I fill the courtyard with contaminated water up to a height where they'd have to swim. Once that much has been accomplished, I will deliberately neutralize one of the hostiles, take position at the ground level, and allow them to swarm me, before which you will organize for Sanatoria's men to be returned unharmed."

    "Once enough of them have entered, I'll activate a high-factor time magic array over the area that should, alongside the poison, cause them to tire and drown almost immediately. We'll hold position until all hostiles have been neutralized and the area has been secured in this fashion." Lilian concludes the talk of precisely engineering a mass slaughter with the random attributes on-hand as though she were giving directions to a neighbouring town. "As long as you don't land a killing blow, they should remain wholly fixated on me. Utilize your abilities and make use of Kukuru's at your discretion."

    "Oh. And Basque can find a way to make herself useful, as long as she doesn't get in the way."
Audrey Basque "It's quite a large structure, you know. Even if it looks small from here, and even if you're quite the talented Earth Magic user, that would be a significant effort..."

    "I can handle it, but if your poison users aren't even specialized in it. then I can't compensate for that. So--"

    Well, so, sticking to Petra's plan is probably better. If they had a specialist she'd feel a lot more confident in the idea.

"We could drop sharp stuff all over them, cut them up from sides, maybe stick some knives in the ground from them to get cut on while they're chasing us..."

    "Once all of them are running around the same loop I can shrink it, pull them together into a ball and..." She makes a clapping motion, like that's enough of a statement without describing the act. "Between everything else everyone can leverage, it won't be hard. Just messy."

"Audrey's magic is kind of arbitrarily effective as long as she can see them..."

    "Going full-scale *is* something I've been curious to try. There just hadn't been an opportunity yet. I may not be a duelist but leave battlefield manipulation to me." Just puff your chest a bit. It won't kill you.
    But don't fuck it up.

"What, like from movies?"

    "They mentioned status-effect magic, so I wondered if they have area variants of all of them. Apparently just poison." With a sigh, she admits: "But yes. Like in movies."

"Oh. And Basque can find a way to make herself useful, as long as she doesn't get in the way."

    Oh. We're back to not-war crimes.

    "I can help seal the exits and curve the walls inward so scaling them isn't an option even if they stay stone, and I can supplement your array with increased gravity so swimming is all but impossible for them-- and exclusively them."

    That much she's definitely sure she can't mess up.

    "I could also shrink the fort interior so there's less space to fill with water and poison. I'll fix it after, if so."
Angela Angela gives a singular nod to Audrey.

She looks towards Lilian as she starts to give orders to everyone. She waits for it...

Waits for it...

...She hangs her head. "I will accompany Petra." Angela says. "So she doesn't die."

It's fine. She's a very capable AI with tremendous power and skill and an incredibly capable mind. She doesn't need direct orders. Thise is just Lilian acknowledging her skills. It'd be nice to get to follow Lilian's commands sometime, though. She's seen how the Agents take to them so fondly so she has to assume there is something special about following her orders. Maybe once she doesn't have to be practically on top of Petra to avoid killing her, she'll get an opportunity to try it out.

"I should be able to make use of Audrey's spatial manipulation still. But first--"

She draww out a page from her book and clenches it in her fist until it vanishes into her body. A pilot suit ripples around her shortly after.

"With Audrey's ability, it ought to be easy to keep them away from each other though I haven't tested the full range of the spatial warping."
White It's maybe a little weird how easily Petra is baiting Wrath with this line of conversation while it lasts. "Yeah. Stuff people used to believe means totally different things now, even if they still believe it. I think Shun, Ooshima, and them grew up close enough together that they basically kept all of their same relationships mostly, and they were living good enough lives that they didn't really have to think about how things had changed, for a really long time. I don't want to hold it against them but... It's like we don't even speak the same language anymore." He lets out a morose sigh before absentmindedly reaching up when he feels the spider drumming on his horns, hand-wrestling it like someone might with a pet rat. "Wakaba never tried to tell me or Sophia what her life was like before we met. I know she was a monster, so she grew up really fast or something and got settled sooner than the others did, but I'm just kind of guessing it had to really suck too. But she just... Doesn't bring it up. Everyone else is yelling about stuff, and she's just... Not. So, maybe she feels more at home here than the rest of us..? Actually, has she ever talked about it with you guys? She seems way chattier when she can type."
White Wrath has the humor to chuckle a little at Kukuru's murder mystery comment, but it doesn't take him far off track. Sanatoria hears out Petra's plan-laying with a pensive attention, handing her Kukuru-lunchbox over to a soldier as he approaches and directing him to put it down for her without her leaving the conversation. "Fortunately- in a manner of speaking- Revenge is specific to an individual. Anogratches can be violent without its activation, but once Revenge triggers they will specifically seek out a single culprit, or a small group at most, to the exclusion of anything else. If something blocks their path, they will batter it down with their bodies if they can, or climb over it if they cannot. So the concern is not that triggering Revenge here will madden other Anogratches against uninvolved people, so much as that if there are any Anogratches outside of the fort within a day's travel or so, they will also rush here to join the fray. I wouldn't think of Revenge as part of their swarming behaviors; it's like an invisible marker placed on the killer that activates Revenge in any Anogratches near enough to reach them without dying of exhaustion from the travel. More or less."

     Wrath hums briefly, but nods along as Petra elaborates on the idea, and admits "That might help me too. I can handle myself well enough in the melee, but... Well, for shorthand, I'm a demolitionist. Being able to use exploding swords without taking out the walls would be a big help. If not, I'll make due with Genbu and Suzaku, I can still cover an area with them." He taps one of his colorful katanas with his palm. Wow he really is all-in on that Japanese aesthetic huh? It'd be kind of awkward if he weren't Japanese. "I know Wakaba asked you to go without a few things," he says seemingly to exclude Sanatoria by not specifying, "So if it'll help, I can loan out a magic sword or two. They're pretty user-friendly."

     Back to Sanatoria, she fields Lilian's questions with an ongoing sort of regretful pensivity, very actively projecting the 'wish I could say yes' aura of a customer service veteran. "Most of my men are only lightly trained in magic, since this was a partial deployment originally. Most of them can use three elements of first-tier magic, and around half of them have another type they can use, primarily first-tier Healing or Heresy magic. Water magic specifically... Maybe ten men. Filling the courtyard might typically be more the realm of a low-grade Grand Magic... However, many among the Second Army do possess the Stealth and Odorless skills, so if you need the area manually prepared in advance, that should be quite tenable."
White Lilian's brief departure is abrupt enough that Sanatoria and Wrath both startle a little bit, instinctively concerned at their inability to track the assumed movement. The echoing tantrum goes unchallenged, like neither of them can quite believe it happened, or perhaps like neither of them can feel any possible gain from bringing it up, so both of them almost trip over each other to carry on with the conversation as soon as she's back; they both even try to stop and let the other speak first, but Wrath is more stubborn so Sanatoria goes ahead. "... It's a shame then Dame Commander, I'd quite prefer taking my time, myself."

     Fortunately she also catches on to the order-giving cue before long, and calls one of her men over. "All three per man? We have two capable of this, but-" It's at that moment that Wrath interrupts her again, but this time to be helpful! "Water is one of my weaker elements, but I can use Second Tier Earth Magic. I have a few magic swords of either type as reserves; pick another six men, or so." The little "Oh." Sanatoria replies with feels not unlike the tone she used when given a nice lunch to go.

     Alongside Wrath, he opens a vaguely geometric-themed spatial pocket and starts retrieving weapons by the fistful. They seem stylistically a little 'experimental', made in various shapes and sizes but generally trending toward the shortsword to arming sword range, and he picks out two apiece for each of the chosen soldiers. Given they're offered in pairs of 'one that's vaguely blue' and 'one that's vaguely brown or orange', it's apparent he's giving them a variety of elements. The soldiers themselves seem to primarily be quite average-sized men wearing dark metal breastplates, shinguards and bracers, and their original arms were small shields, gladius-like swords and moderate-length spears, so the slightly thicker blades of the elementally infused swords lead to a lot of careful examination and turning-over to adjust to. They look uneasy due to the short notice, and there's plenty of looks thrown at the Elites for being Strange Outsiders, but news seemed to spread quickly about the names you're using as authority, so none of them are nearly so bold as to demand answers directly.

     For what it's worth though, Wrath is still pretty empathetic, and seeing Angela's head hang sees him fish around in the spatial rent again and draw out what looks like a two-handed club, a little bigger than a baseball bat. It's inlaid with something green and shiny. "Umm, here. It casts Gale Breath when you swing it downward. If you need to uh... Push the monkeys around without killing them by accident, just... Try not to hit them directly. Or throw them off something too high up." It's not good to exclude women from sports!!
Kukuru "Loser loser loser--!!"

Kukuru's not too worried about Lilian disappearing so abruptly after excusing herself, more just relieved that she warned the group before doing so. What does get her raising her head, however, is hearing those distant shouts waaaay over in the distance. That heightened hearing sensitivity catches it all, and her poker-face is nonexistent as she smiles while trying not to look a little worried about the outburst.

"So! Aaaah hmmm hmm hmmmmm. Do youuu have any favorite foods? Or Ariel's, for that matter?" She asks after turning to the Commanders, purposely droning and drawing out her noises to try and cover up at least a little of all that shouting.

When Lilian comes back, Kukuru lets out a relieved sigh and looks off to the side for no apparent reason. "Oh! Welcome back, dear. Aaaah... Hmm."

"have dinner, then kill"

Kukuru's desire to butcher one of those apes grows even more. She won't know if they're truly workable unless she tries, but... Sanatoria did seem pretty apprehensive about eating them earlier. Would Lilian be the same? Petra? Audrey? It wouldn't be right if she was the only one eating these things herself.

"you and Kuru"

Kukuru's smile dope-i-fies just a bit more at hearing that shortening of her name. It really is that simple sometimes.

The planning
"Going full-scale *is* something I've been curious to try."

"Oh, that does sound really good... Mhm, mhm, a long fight would be worse for us than for them, and squishing them all in after getting their numbers down could wrap things up really fast." Kukuru replies with a quick nod, humming softly and clearly pleased to be considered in the planning phase for a specific specialty. She's also not exactly shy about hiding her approval for Audrey showing a willingness to go bigger with her abilities.

"If I can stay somewhere high, I could watch for anyone escaping real easy, mhm. Oh, and if it looks like too many of them are drowning, I could even scoop them right out." She wiggles in place like she's swimming with just her waist, then pantomimes picking something up just by pinching it from above. "I'm really good in the water, you know? And I can fix us right up if anything happens, too, but there's still only a few of us and so many of them, so finishing this fast is deeefinitely better."

Apparently, Kukuru isn't counting any of the worn down soldiers in her assessment of their numbers either.

"I will accompany Petra."

Not missing a beat at Angela's slight slump, Kukuru nods approvingly before snapping her fingers. "Keeping Petra alive would be preeeetty important, mhm. If she's busy directing, then she might have trouble seeing anything sneaking up on her. And then if you can help Audrey manage the space, too... It's gonna be so much easier for us to reach wherever we need to. Maybe it'd even be easier to fit all ten thousand of them in there before you two scrunch it aaaall down." She claps her hands together similarly to how Audrey did, but with those metal claws making a slightly unholy noise in the process.

She also glances over at Wrath when he offers Angela that club, smiling just a little more at the gesture.

"if there are any Anogratches outside of the fort within a day's travel or so, they will also rush here to join the fray"

"If that's the case... Hmmn. Well, maybe it'll be easier to see them coming from thaat far away once we're not fighting all the ones inside. And..." She starts, pauses, then takes a bottle out of her pocket that couldn't have possibly fit it inside to just take a long sip out of it. "If we want to be reeeeally sure they aren't anywhere in the area, we could even keep a few around to kill after the nest is cleared and draw out any stragglers, or anyone that escaped."
Audrey Basque "I know she was a monster,"

    Audrey blinks, despite her best efforts to stay focused on the task. White's list of titles certainly implies... Some Stuff, but come to think of it, she didn't mention much of her origin to her except... that she wanted to be able to eat sweet things?

    Something to ask her about.

"within a day's travel or so,"

    "It shouldn't be too hard to defend the fort for a day's time after this then. I can-- set up a perimeter, afterwards, along with whoever else's got relevant magic. Traps and such. Or we can just engage them as they show up. Hopefully there's not too many. I could also try to divine the directions they'll come from."

    Well, now she's definitely trying too hard to be useful.

"And then if you can help Audrey manage the space, too..."

    "Luckily, Angela's pages seem to grant some amount of understanding of how the magic works, so I know we could work together without getting in each other's way to shuffle things around faster. We can also use it to get soldiers places faster, or out of harm's way if it comes down to it."

    Among a dozen other applications.
Petra Soroka "Everyone else is yelling about stuff, and she's just... Not."

    This was already a trait Petra-- and more importantly, Lilian-- had observed about White, but having it reiterated so clearly from someone who doesn't have the level of insightfulness that Lilian does makes Petra's opinion of White increase by another notch. On his last question, though, Petra tilts her head and asks one back to him. "What *is* the Labyrinth, actually?"

"Personally, I'd prefer to kill four hundred of them myself, have dinner, then kill the other four hundred tomorrow, but if it has to get done today, I suppose there's no choice."

    As if this was Lilian's genuine suggestion, Petra immediately volunteers, "We can split it!" When this turns out to not actually be Lilian's plan and instead she has a different one, Petra readily drops her previous suggestion without even acknowledging it, replacing it wholly in her mind with Lilian's approach.

""Organize transport with the others for any of Sanatoria's men who can use water, earth, and poison magic."

    "Got it!" Petra snaps into a goofy little salute, and gestures to Kukuru and Angela while turning towards Sanatoria. "So, once Commander Sanatoria's got them separated out, Ange, you can use your page from Audrey to pinch together space to funnel them over there quickly. I'd say Kukuru would do that fine, but we'll probably need a ton of high-speed teleports in order to retrieve the anogratches outside the castle, so we should conserve her energy."

    "Audrey should also get over there first thing, since she can hold all of them inside the castle while everything's getting set up-- *and* then after Lilian kills one of them, she can loop the water around so that even if they have some bullshit Swim skill they won't get to her before she finishes her array."

    Petra squeezes Angela's hand surreptitiously, attuned enough to her emotions to understand the reasoning behind the brief slump. "Ange, you're with Kukuru and me for, you know, obvious reasons. Do you have an EGO for Void Dream? I think our plan will be to rapidly teleport to the stragglers, disable them, then teleport again to drop them into the castle where Audrey and the soldiers guarantee they won't escape."

    Petra wiggles her finger around, and a liquid ring of morphmetal forms around it. "If you don't, then our best option's just stunning them until I can grab them with the Silver, and then running away after dumping them, which will probably be fine. I mean, they're monkeys."

    Petra concludes her subcommander role with the third phase plan just including herself and Angela. "And then you and I will use my transteam rifle and that club to pin down any of the ones that don't drown in the initial activation. Alright?"
Petra Soroka "It shouldn't be too hard to defend the fort for a day's time after this then. I can-- set up a perimeter, afterwards, along with whoever else's got relevant magic."

    Petra squints at Audrey. "What? I've got classes tomorrow. I'm going to be in bed at ten tonight. Like Lilian said, if we were going to take two entire days, then she could've done it herself."
Audrey Basque "Audrey should also get over there first thing, since she can hold all of them inside the castle while everything's getting set up--"

    "You just want to see me getting chased around... but yeah. No avoiding going inside for some of this work. I'll be fine." She will totally, absolutely be fine. She kind of has to be now!

"What? I've got classes tomorrow."

    "So do I! Well... ideally traps would do the job, and these people can handle a stray straggler or two besides?" Audrey replies to Petra, "But if it came down to it like... surely we can work something out. If their aggro range is a whole *day* we can't really avoid having to think about it though."

    Please let there not be another several hundred of those things just hanging around within a day of the fort.
Angela Angela doesn't really have any interest in the reincarnator's past lievs. they were just students weren't they? If she were to look at it from Petra's metrics, many of them probably weren't even alive until they died. It doesn't seem like Sophia or White are particularly interested in it. Is Wrath different? He seems a little melancholic about it. Angela fundamentally needs to feel both useful and competent so she is compelled to try and speak up on the matter since her composition is about 7/10ths visual novel.

''It's like we don't even speak the same language anymore.''

"I understand the feeling. I have plenty of memories of my father being awkwardly sweet and thoughtful but our different lives led is to very different conclusions about the world and what we--and I--are owed." She considers briefly suggesting to Wrath that he should just kill them but remembers at the last moment that murdering them isn't actually helpful at the moment. Maybe once the world is saved, Wrath can murder them later? She sets aside the thought from now. The mechanics of this world are complex enough that she is hesitant to suggest any sweeping scheme or plan relative to those that actually have to live here. She knows from experience the pull and complete ineffectualness of the idea of 'find a better world'.

"It would be inappropriate to speculate too much, but finding yourself reborn in an underground lair full of monsters, cruelty, and death is bound to be a struggle. She speaks through her actions more than words and I feel this is one of her admirable qualities." Of course the implication that Wrath hadn't outright said is that he also had a difficult life. "I don't know your life but I suspect if you didn't have your own, you wouldn't be here either. I ... appreciate that your band has found common ground despite that. In my experience, suffering does not improve one's character at all. Only looking directly at yourself can do that. Perhaps your situations encouraged you to do so but it is not because of whatever pain inflicted upon you that you became better people but because you made use of it to open your eyes. That means there's no guarantee that Shun having a harder life would have changed him to be able to understand you. What's more likely is that you two never had to discuss these sorts of things in your prior life."

''The baseball bat.''

Angela frowns. It's one thing for Petra to recognize a moment of weakness--they're sisters and she knows her better than anyone else. If Wrath noticed it, though, that means it was either obvious or he's more perceptive than she thought. And she already thought he was fairly perceptive.

"I see." Angela takes the club and then draws a page out of it as well--it vanishing in a little puff of light shortly after.

"It seems you have excellent vision, Wrath. I will make use of this."

ANGELA HAS GAINED THE ABILITY TO PUSH MONKEYS!

''Petra's plans!!''

"Understood." Angela squeezes Petra's hand back to reassure her she's fine. "I have Void Dream, but I should be able to push everyone together, particularly if I use the bat in conjunction with the... galebreath bat." She is using the actual bat rather than the page she drew from it so she's not innately intuned with it but she figures swinging a club down can't be that hard.

But Petra has a further idea and Angela more hesitatingly nods. "...YEs. I should be able to manage that. I haven't done it before but my arm won't get tired from swinging it so I can make use of it as many times as neccessary."
White Wrath answers Petra plainly, "Well, the Labyrinth is... For one, the only land-bridge between Kasanagara and Daztrudia. Those are the only two continents anyone's told me about, so it's a big deal. But there's three stratums to the labyrinth, and the bottom stratum has the strongest monsters in the world because it's where the-" He pauses, waiting for Sanatoria to be distracted organizing her men before leaning in a little. "Where the System's Core is." He straightens back up. "So it's basically right in the middle of the known world, but it's dangerous enough that just crossing the upper stratum between continents is only done if you have a really good guide, or you're at least a decent fighter. It's usually managed on both sides by different nations to prevent unauthorized passage, too. I still haven't been there, but I think Sophia went there with Wakaba once or twice? Wakaba or the Demon Lord definitely know it best though. Or... Uh, Commander Black, but I don't know if you'd be able to get him talking."

     Angela speaking to him at length seems to mildly surprise Wrath, but he listens, and it's clear he's thinking about what's said. Maybe it's just the aura of melancholy he seems to have, but he does seem to take what's said to him seriously. "... Yeah. You're probably right. I remember there were lots of times before where he didn't seem to get where I was coming from. I guess it's easy to forget stuff like that, since... I do still miss those guys as friends. I don't know if it was just because it was easier back then, though. I hope not." His attention shifts though, following the page drawn from the weapon with relatively innocent curiosity and checking the weapon's charge level to make sure it hasn't been drained, but finding nothing to criticise even if it's a little less juiced than when he handed it over. "... It's nice to put it to words, kinda. Thanks." he says to both Petra and Angela. It's not like the boy's going to find a good therapist out here, so the best he can hope for is brief chats like this really... And who else is he supposed to go to for that here? Sophia would probably pick on him, White might not say anything, Merazophis is already working triple-duty and even mentoring Kunihiko and Asaka in his spare time. And Ariel, well...

It's hard to talk about what makes you sad with someone who's got it even worse, right?
White Fortunately, the plan is quite solid. With multiple teleporters to help people get into position or gather the monkeys into place, plus the sheer degree of terrain manipulation at your disposal it already would have been feasible to simply lift yourselves to a high place and make them climb up to reach you while you push them down over and over, but the method you end up with is significantly less... Gory, at least. The eight man team appointed by Sanatoria and equipped by Wrath are significantly more confident in their projected lifespans after not just being armed with magic weapons (usually the kind of thing reserved for the wealthy!) but also witnessing the logistical and rule-bending abilities you casually put into action before the moment of truth. Casual teleportation, material transmutation, each one a shocking blow to their established common sense, so their hesitancy and nerves start to bleed away in short order the more you make good on your claims.

     Once the plan goes into practice things move pretty quickly. From their heightened position, those soldiers use a mixture of self-cast chanted spells and carefully directed magic-sword spells, managing their MP levels to avoid zeroing out too quickly, and synchronizing with one-another naturally to complete multi-step tasks in more abrupt fashion, especially when it comes to reshaping the interior walls and blocking the entrances with Earth Magic; it takes multiple spells, typically several subsequent uses of Earth Spear sealing off passageways like stony teeth before being melded together into a single rough piece. Then, it's onto the comparatively less instant process of trying to steadily fill the entire courtyard with poisonous water. The blue-tinged magic swords are used first due to the sheer amount of water it will take, firing off repeated low-grade attack magic into the ground in a way that turns the dirt into mud in a heartbeat but slowly manages to accumulate.

     The Anogratches aren't completely oblivious to this happening, though. Kukuru, Angela and Audrey's relocation efforts and spatial warping go a long way to making it more challenging for the monkey-monsters to close distance on any of the participants, but some still manage to come dangerously close in a hurry given the number and spread of them throughout the fort. Wrath and Sanatoria naturally settle into positions near the assistant-soldiers, providing suppressive magic for those afar with spells like Stun Bolt and Shadow Sink respectively, or carefully disabling the ones closer to them with Jinx Attack and the Salacious skill. Despite posing as a swordsman, Wrath seems quite well qualified as a mage, using abridged incantations without fatiguing even while fending off hammerblows and wild haymakers now and then with the back of his hand or the side of a single blade. He doesn't look *comfortable*, but he's calm and doesn't lose focus even as his breathing hastens. Sanatoria is evidently not his equal as a combatant, but she uses a wide variety of skills together in a way that makes it less common for the monsters to get within attacking range of her compared to Wrath, which is exactly how she prefers it. All in all, there are no issues there that last more than a moment at a time.
White The experience the rest of you are having isn't exactly pleasant, but for most of you it isn't all that dangerous most of the time either. Anogratches have blessedly little nuance; they act exactly how they look, and that means leaping, bounding and wild arm-swinging with the occassional bold attempt at a bite if their arms are restrained. Their strength isn't anything to laugh at- most unpowered humans and frightened Audreys would end up with broken bones trying to block their punches head on- but in packs this dense their sheer murderous desire gets them tangled up on each other just as much as it lets them surround you. Plus, their legs are kind of short, and they don't ambulate very well without jumping, so small movements during their swings will frequently entirely remove you from their range, and they can't properly lunge to compensate. After the first wave of surprise-arrivals drop on top of your group from the cliff against the back of the fort, there's not much left for them to surprise you with. The toxic mud pool rises, Anogratches are physically, magically, spatially or comically hurled from the parapets into the darkened water, and before much longer Lilian moves the plan ahead with a clean and easy simian execution. In a heartbeat, every single one's attention visibly shifts to her, whether she's in the water, flying over it, or whatever else. Their leaping is impressive for how small their legs are, but Lilian is agile and skilled, powerful, and can handle the stray grazing impact now and then. Plus, she's weapons-free on killing them as they approach her if needed, and having to leap at her to reach her makes their movements ridiculously linear, to the point that she barely even needs to actively try in order to slash them. Like this, she probably gets through a few dozen more of the creatures on her own by the time the toxic pool is filled to the level she wanted, and a concerted effort from the various teleporters, Petra's silver bindings, or sheer brute force is sufficient to throw many of the monsters down into your trap.

     Once Lilian engages her time-manipulation and accelerates the rate of fatigue and the progression of the relatively weak poison, the results are a bit horrifying. Anogratches keep trying to claw their way up the smoothened walls of the courtyard or leap off of each other up at Lilian, only to fumble and fall right back in among the masses. Perplexingly, the Anogratches seem to sink when they die rather than floating, which actually proves to be helpful in a sort of morbid way. It means they have nothing to hold onto to stay above water without wasting energy, and nothing to use as footing for even a poor lunge... So their fates are more or less sealed. It's just a matter of kicking the rest of them in as quick as possible, and after toxifying or drowning the majority you've quite genuinely filled the entire pool from bottom to top with their corpses, even after the soldiers (plus Wrath) pump some extra water into the pool.
White From there, there's around eighty of the things left, some angrily standing on top of their heaped up dead buddies in the courtyard pool, some climbing up from the outside of the fort to attack you. After confirming their numbers, Sanatoria launches a small fireball into the air to signal her other forces, which sweep in from the outside of the fort in three-line formation to start opportunistically picking off the remainder of them. Sure, Lilian could have handled the rest, but it's the thought that counts right? Once the fight becomes a little more free-for-all and basically just cleanup duty, Sanatoria takes a step back to check with her men and organize a basic spear-line along the walls into the courtyard, dealing with the survivors standing atop the filled pool. Another of the walls, Wrath pushes his way over to the edge of and cleaves apart a few of the creatures with fairly little effort and a single blade (he's definitely better than he seems), then leans over the side to sweep his red blade neatly sidelong. A loud, billowing wave of fire rolls down the side of the wall and wipes out the group there, and with the blood scorched off of his blade he gives it a slow wipe across his arm before sheathing it. The other two walls are left to the elites, who are more than well-enough armed to finish off the last fifty or so in short order when they're all coming up the walls from limited angles.

     When the numbers deplete to near-zero, Wrath raises his voice a little to announce "Final cleanup! If you're heading home, leave the last kill to someone else!" so that nobody has to find out how far Revenge can really follow them by accident. He speaks briefly with Sanatoria, giving her good news as well as bad news; she is to be left in charge of this fort for the time being, pending new orders. However, her forces are also in charge of cleaning up the corpses... She's simultaneously disgusted and seemingly relieved.

     Finally, that leaves the lot of you who aren't headed home early to find the lab you'd heard about. It'd been maybe two hours of work overall, if kind of tiring for some, and the spider on Wrath's head helps him find the spot by pointing like a tiny dog; behind a number of kegs is a hidden door built into the stone wall in the fort's larder, operated by a switch inside of one of the kegs after removing the top. The stone door slides on a sputtering magnetic track, the power to this site clearly on the fritz even at its entrance. Of course, because it's Potimas's lab the switch is trapped with a tiny needle and a poison injector, but Wrath just seems to take being poisoned with some annoyed swearing, five or six weak healing spells, and a few seconds of shaking his hand out like it's somehow going to make the poison fall out.
White The lab-site is probably larger than you'd expect, but not large enough to be one of the elf patriarch's military production facilities. The entry hall has a single automatic turret, but the low power levels make its motor incredibly slow to track you, and just about anyone with a moderately strong projectile or enough speed to reach it promptly can disable it. There don't seem to be any other defenses, but the entire place looks like it's from a totally different *genre* of world, one where you'd expect to see lightsabers or space-ships instead of swords and spells. Near the front is what looks like a high-tech kennel for... Well, if not people, something at least human-shaped. Tall reinforced glass tubes connected to gas-venting pipes and what looks like a remote manipulator arm, grimy from the passage of time. You don't see anyone (or anyone's remains) in them at least, so it seems this site might have been abandoned quite a while ago now.

     The next room over has a series of flickering, near-dead monitors along the walls, an operating table in the center, and some kind of vat in the back that looks like a jumbo-sized home aquarium. Anyone with some reasonable tech expertise and a half-hour to burn can probably figure out how to pull some of the remaining data from the computers, but the drives have clearly already started to go bad, and some of the data is inevitably lost. Given how the System accelerates the decay of most forms of data storage, even written word, that actually seems to imply this lab was being used not *too* long ago... Maybe 20 years ago, tops. In the backmost room, There are numerous sealed glass and steel containers, containing what *used to be* live organs from various creatures, primarily monsters but also humans. One drawer-cabinet that used to be refridgerated has numerous labelled DNA samples from species like goblins, taratects, and dragons, that have all certainly spoiled.

     By the time it's confirmed that there aren't further defenses and he's done leading the walk-through of the lab with his blades readied, Wrath seems quietly irritated and disgusted. Seeing as it's part of the arrangement, he doesn't object if anyone intends to take something from the lab, but as soon as that's done he plunges Genbu's blade into the generator in the storage room. A few jolts of magic lightning, coupled with some aggressive metal-rending gouges and a good hearty RIP from the wall seem to more or less confirm that it won't be operating again any time soon. That's one less tick drinking the planet dry, and one more dot on the map painted in Demon colors. It's progress, even if somewhat ungratifying.