Scene #9406: The Reverberation Ensemble

Owner	Pose
Angela	Since the Watch along with the Yurodiviye and Blade Lineage have agreed to work with The Thumb, skirmishes with the Kurokumo have remained consistent as they've been concerned that the Watch and their affiliates were trying to steal their place under the Thumb. By and large these skirmishes were more set to undermine The Yurodiviye/Blade Lineage's efforts in the City rather than to try and crush the organization or push them out. Aeng-du suspects the plan is to disrupt their operations enough that the Thumb will question the ability of the group to fulfill its promises and turn on them. But it hasn't been working and so it seems inevitable that a larger assault is inevitable. According to the Thumb's rules, getting involved in what should be a conflict between two subordinates should be handled by the subordinates, if they are forced to interfere because it drags on too long they'll consider it an act of rudeness towards the chains of authority that bind the Thumb. According to Kurokumo custom, a letter of challenge from Sayo (Kurokumo captain and leader of the Kurokumo's efforts here) was delivered to the Faded Print. A final battle to determine who will be the enforcers in charge of enacting the Thumb's vision will be held the following day at 6 AM. The Kurokumo like to get up early. Bearing down for a long day of fighting seems like the only thing to do for it but the long fight never comes. As the Kurokumo clan marches up down one street, another group moves to intercept them right outside the Faded Print's doors. It's a much smaller group though it's likely to draw the eyes. One member is a walking bipedal shark with a massive meat tenderizer in her hands, a chef's hat on her head, and a large always smiling mouth full of shark teeth. Then there's all the other mouths across her body that have mouths, including across her hands, forehead, and tail. She's wearing a black suit with a blue tie, black slacks, and dress shoes. There's a strange pattern around her left arm of a blue stylistic pattern of what look like gusts of wind or perhaps waves. With her is a woman in a similar outfit but instead of being some kind of large shark person, she simply has a a black wolf's head atop her shoulders and a pipe in her mouth. She has long black hair going down her back, a gold necklace around her neck and a pair of gold rings in her ear. With little fanfare, it's this wolf woman who rushes the Kurokumo and starts beating the shit out them with her fists. As the Kurokumo recover from their initial shock, the shark woman starts to move forward to lend a hand but the wolf woman waves a hand over to tell her that she doesn't WANT help and, as it turns out, she doesn't really need it. In about a minute, the wolf woman has subdued the Kurokumo contingent including its leader, Sayo, who she ends up planting a foot on so she stops struggling and trying to stab her. "Sorry for interrupting." The wolf-headed woman says. "But boss says they're our next target." "Hey! The boss said not to call him boss!" The shark-headed woman says. "We're a team of equals he said!" "Greta, you just said--" "GA HA HA! Oh no! I messed up!"
Petra Soroka	In addition to the shark and wolf, there is a third, most frightening beast of all: a white woman. When the other two move to intercept the Kurokumo clan, there's a flash of metal in a second alleyway, before a sustained storm of quicksilver droplets rain laterally across the column of Syndicate yakuza. While they're being bombarded, another figure steps out of the alley in the middle of their formation, joining Tanya in incapacitating them with her own black weapon. A few minutes later, when the combined efforts of Tanya's fists and the spear-wielder have flattened the entire contingent, the Silver accumulates back together into an amorphous blob floating in the air, and it's possible to get a view of the person accompanying Tanya and Greta. Petra, wearing a nondescript black suit without the blue whorls on the shoulder, pants, a little out of breath while tying up her scruffy blonde hair into a short ponytail to keep it off of her sweaty neck. She hold her glassy black spear against the morphmetal beside her, and a wavering hand reaches out of the reflection to take Pillar of Creation back into storage. "Hey, Tanya, I'm pretty sure I counted fifty-three on my end. They didn't have more than a hundred here, did they?" "Hey! The boss said not to call him boss!" Petra pulls out what looks like a packet of cigarettes and slides one out with her thumb, but for whatever reason she puts it into her mouth without lighting it. Several seconds later, there's a crunch of her biting down. "That's, like, an ideological goal, Greta. Not a rule, really. You've gotta internalize it, not just parrot it for it to count." She crunches again, and the-- evidentally candy-- cigarette gets shorter. "I can't imagine he'd be upset, though." "Anyways," Standing over Sayo as well, Petra reaches into the jacket of her suit, shuffling around for something. "You're a captain of the Kurokumo, right? Obviously, Tanya here could kill you now, but--" Pinched between her index and middle fingers, she halfway slides out a few red letters embossed with gold around the edges, before suddenly looking up and around, alarmed. "Wait, where are we, actually? Are there more of them coming?"
Odette Raskins	"A final battle... A-at what time?" Odette's used to getting up early, but she hates it so, so much. She's used to working weird hours, but knowing she'll have to be awake at the crack of dawn to handle triage probably immediately still rubs her the wrong way. It's doubly annoying knowing that there'll be plenty of Kurokomo members that she'll have to treat, too, being the ones directly responsible for her having to be up this early. She's in the middle of downing an energy drink by the time 6AM rolls around, going through her medical case to make sure she has all her medicine and supplies ready before heading out to... Not fight the Kurokomo? No, it looks like someone else has gotten to/through them first, and the EMT just blinks slowly in utter confusion as she watches so many of the allied Yurodiviye/Blade Lineage/Watch foes getting beaten down without any of them having to lift a finger. The tension in Odette's spine only increases more as she notices that the shark and the wolf aren't dressed like the Kurokomo, and she almost wants to head right back inside to let this whole whatever-this-is blow over, but... "Wait, where are we, actually? Are there more of them coming?" A recognizable voice! One that even has Odette visibly relaxing once she confirms the source of said voice. "Oh! Hello, Petra. You're at the Faded Print, a community center in the City." She pipes up helpfully, gesturing at the doors before stifling a yawn into her Company-EMT jacket sleeve. Clearly, she's been up for a bit already, and the energy drink can isn't helping as much as she'd like. "Do you want to come inside and get your-" She pauses. Shark and wolf. It's safe to continue. "-bearings together first? You and... Um. Miss Greta or Miss Tanya, was it?"
Father Berislav	Father Berislav likes to get up early, too. Knelt in his room by the window, hands clasped together, head bowed, he utters a prayer. The letter of challenge lies opened and face up on his nightstand. A photo of a married couple smiles over the top of it, beaming down on Berislav. The groom has a familiar, warm and almost beatific quality to his broad smile, the bride has stunning white hair that stops just past her shoulders, falling in equally familiar locks. "For deliverance from all danger, violence, oppression, and degradation; for the absolution and remission of our sins and offenses; that we may end our lives in faith and hope, without suffering and reproach; defend us, deliver us, and in thy compassion protect us, O Lord, by thy grace. Lord, have mercy. Let those who seek you, or a deeper knowledge of you, be found by you. For our enemies and those who wish us harm, and for all whom we have injured or offended, I pray to you, O Lord. Lord, in your mercy, guide the people of this City, and of all its nations, in the ways of justice and peace; that we may honor one another and serve the common good." Eyes shut, his brow furrows. "...Amen," he utters, sighing as he rises. He's quiet, coming out of the old hostel; with the floors redone, it's easier, since no one board particularly complains all that much. The gun is much heavier in his hand than his footfalls upon the floorboards. He exits the Faded Print, right on time... to see that he's actually just a tad late. Sorry for interrupting, but boss says they're our next target. "On the contrary," says Berislav. "I'm very pleased to see members of the community taking an active part in its defense." "And I'm very disappointed that you Kurokumo are still trying to tear down what love has built," he adds coldly, looking Sayo in the eye. Obviously, Tanya here could kill you now, but-- "That's an excellent point, Petra," says Berislav beamingly. "And what a pleasant surprise it is to see you here! I'd like to piggyback off of that, if I may. I'm more patient than G," he says, his sunny disposition gradually fading like a cold front blowing in. "But not so much that we don't get along. You've made yourselves enemies of the City's exploited, and you exult in it. My first encounter with one of you was hearing the revels of someone who took a sickening glee in breaking the bones of the poor and scattering their defenders. I haven't forgotten that. Oh, yes, for a time, my hands are tied," he says, twirling the revolver before stopping it to swing the cylinder open. Six bullets clink into his palm, but only five sink into the orange tear that opens up beneath them. One remains, which he chambers, spinning the cylinder and clicking it back into place. "I can't send every Kurokumo to meet Christ without angering the Thumb. Not right away. You're the proven asset, but the jury's still out regarding our congregation. But every little failure like this loosens the knot, doesn't it?" The cylinder slows, and his thumb sets it to spinning again. "You never sent letters before. If you care what happens to your friends, you'll let this be the end of it. Because the moment you loosen my bonds enough..." Berislav stops the spinning with his thumb pulls the trigger. The hammer falls on an empty chamber after a heavy click, and he seems entirely unsurprised. "I'll send any Kurokumo who won't renounce your wicked predation on the weak to their final judgment." "Greta and Tanya, wasn't it?" He is suddenly, chillingly more polite, back to the tone he'd used to greet Petra. "I'd like to know what you're going to do with them, if you don't mind sharing. Is this a... happy coincidence, or a gesture of goodwill?"
Tamiel Luxis	Batten down the hatches, close the windows. Secure all loose ends. Tamiel's shadows are there to help with any errands that need doing, in the preparation for a seige. Meanwhile, Tamiel herself sat down in the front room, a map splayed out in front of her, finger tracking the progress of the Kurokumo. "Over a hundred strong, I think..." She said, unevenly. "I'm not seeing a lot of firearms...But they look like professionals...It looks like you're right...They're trying to chase us out with one last push..." She can't help but shudder, in the atmosphere, the rising tension. The promise of violence, slowly but intractably approaching. But, she kept the feed of intel coming. "They're rounding the bend here..." She paused, suddenly, head turning to the side to look at something through the walls. Some of the shadows peeking over rooftops had caught sight of something...else. "...Wait...There's three...Others?...Unconnected. I don't know if they're hostile...They don't look like Kurokumo, but they're on approach...I think...Two of them are Distorted? They're on intercept--" Her eyesflicked back to the map, as she redoubled her focus. "--They--the Kurokumo--are almost here--Won't be longer than five minutes..." One by one, the shadows doing errands around the faded print sank into nothing, and Tamiel clutched hold of her quarterstaff. She grabbed a fistfull of shadow, and curled it around herself, like a blanket, until it resolved into her costume. For having seen her coming, Tamiel still isn't expecting their final deliverance from their labors to come so easily--or so cleanly. When the Kurokumo's final rush are broken at their very doorstep, Tamiel jumps down from the roof, landing with uncanny slowness. Up close like this, she recognizes Petra--but not the others. Not the Distortions. She convinces herself to stop holding the staff in front of her body, and instead plant it at her side. "Welcome to the Faded Print," she says, almost on autopilot, for a moment. "I don't...Think it will be a problem, that you got them before us." But, it's not really up to her. Nonetheless, she can't help but let some of that relief bleed into her voice. She looked, deferentially, to Berislav, chewing on her lip.
Rita Ma	Rita hasn't been the most involved in the Watch's more direct efforts with the Faded Print and Blade Lineage, but she's easily pulled in when they need an unspecified-but-probably-large amount of violence done. They can't be held liable if a Star is a little too rowdy on their behalf. (She has lots of talents, Rita mentally insists to herself, as she walks. It's just that this is... one of the less replaceable ones, right?) What does Rita wear when she expects to hurt people? About her usual. (Don't worry about that.) The clothes are fake regardless after all; if it could just as easily be anything, it might as well be familiar. She sits at one of the Faded Print's tables uneasily until that bit before 6 AM, when her eyes widen and she jolts upright as if she's shocked. "Blood." Then she's gone, and the next time anyone sees her it's outside on a nearby rooftop, overlooking the three figures. She expects to skulk and observe; instead shock punches her out of her stealth. "Greta, you just said--" "Greta?!" comes from a couple stories up. Rita leans over the roof's edge, eyes wide. "Ms. Greta, the chef? Did- did one of the whales get you? What happened?" A chef's hat and a name, evidently, are more identifying from above than scruffy blonde hair. But that doesn't take her too much longer. This time recognition doesn't come with a perky startle. Her stomach just turns a little. Rita drops over the edge of the roof, crunches the ground, and trudges towards the three (maybe she should be wary they're hostile; but Greta's there, and they've just helped out). "What do you have her along for?" she says, already tired- advancing on Petra but addressing Greta. Surely the blonde girl is a moral contaminant on the cannibal shark-chef and not the other way 'round. Her tone's already tired-driven. "She isn't good for you, and I don't know why she comes around."
Liza Grier	Liza never defends anything from anyone. Not for a long time, anyways. Her ability to fight a pitched battle at a set location at a set time against a massed enemy assault is entirely derived from thinking about what she'd personally hate having to deal with as an attacker. An early morning isn't an issue with warning, seeing as she typically has enough stimulants in her bloodstream to kill someone anyways, but, for once, she finds herself having to choose which corners to cut before a deadline. That Berislav spends this time uttering prayers doesn't seem to bother her. She has no idea if she could actually instruct him how to help with putting together explosive ordnance anyways. Let's just consider it mental prepwork. The end result is that the area around the Faded Print is now host to 'just enough' bombs (remote, rather than triggered, since Liza doesn't want them disarmed and also doesn't expect her allies to memorize them all) to be genuinely threatening, concentrated in one direction so that two main lanes towards the building on one side are almost suspiciously clear. The 'suitcase' autoguns in the windows aren't that subtle, but they're mostly there to keep hypothetical attackers occupied for a little while with advancing, because Liza has wedged herself between the top floor and rooftop access, using a narrow ventilation window seven feet off the ground to sight through and deploy her merry bag of telecrystal bullshit. And behind that all, her ultimate trump card, the most powerful tactical asset she can call upon, is already deployed in the field: her girlfriend. Though, not getting to use any of it now is kind of fucking annoying. She has to remind herself to not get mad about avoiding the scenario she wasn't fully prepared for in the first place. It's just so upsetting when you go through all the effort to set the table and everyone's allergic to the food. The minute the two parties clash with each other, Liza moves from actively hovering her fingers over a makeshift detonator board rigged to an old fusebox, to watching for stragglers who manage to slip away. When Tanya and Greta's group just clobber the entire enemy contingent, she shifts her stance again to get a foot up against one wall, her back to another, and the muzzle brake of her rifle resting on the concrete window-bottom. An otherwise invisible laser dot sparkles on the outside of the Silver sphere as it moves from Tanya's head over to Petra. "I should have just pulled the trigger on you the first time." The radio receiver stuck into the closest remote bomb pipes up in atrociously low audio quality. "Ignored all the crying and snotting about the narrative justification for me blowing your head off and just done it without thinking. Whatever luck got you into a suit won't get you out of this a second time."
Angela	''I'm pretty sure I counted fifty-three on my end.'' "...Forty Seven. But I got the boss, that's worth a few extra." The wolf-headed woman, presumably Tanya, says. "But she's right. No reason to make a big stink of it. We can choose to call him whatever we want, we ain't forced to." Odette offers to let her IN which is a bit of a shock to the wolf woman and she looks down at the trounced Sayo like she's digesting what to do with the question. She didn't come here to talk with these guys, really, but they're here and she's here. "Looks like we stumbled upon some Yurodiviye, some Blade Lineage, and some allies of theirs." Tanya says. She hadn't actually run into Berislav before. Or Tamiel. Or even Odette. They just missed each other after the Black Silence's rampage. But her gaze turns up as she smells something up there. And, more relevantly, hears a familiar voice. Ah, Tanya thinks, it's her. She didn't have this snout of hers in their first run-in but... Tanya doesn't aggress on Rita immediately despite trying to kill her the first time they met, but she's watching her as she hops down. ''What do you have her along for?'' "RITA!! GA HA HA! So it is you! Nah, the whales didn't get me. I've been thinking about what you told me and then one day I walk in on my fellow Chefs devouring one another, any other food--they just lost interest in it--and afterwards, I was thinking about flavor and I heard a voice and I ended up like this! Crazy world, huh?" She seems like she's always smiling being a shark but the energy in her words suggests her soul is smiling too. "I was thinking about what you said about billionaires, and it made total sense, then I was like 'but there's not a lot of billionaires, they're such a tiny portion of the population, how are we gonna make proper cuisine when it won't even fill our stomaches, but I figured it out! We'll just make EVERYONE Billionaires, and then everyone'll be equal and we can eat to our hearts' content! GA HA HA!" Tanya exhales some smoke, "Sorry, she's a bit of an idiot, but I had a revelation too. Comradery, solidarity, they don't mean jackall if you don't got the strength to protect it. So thanks for the help." ''What do you have her along for? She isn't good for you, and I don't know why she comes around.'' Greta seems confused and looks over to Petra for a moment and then waddles back to facing Rita. "Well I'm not gonna eat her. She's part of the team!" She seems to have misunderstood what Rita was getting at when she said Petra wasn't good for her. "I don't have beef with her. We've had drinks." Tanya says. "What's your beef?"
Angela	Sayo is not particularly invested in getting involved in that conversation. She has given up on escape but seems to be considering her options. She stares balefully at Berislav as he approaches with the gun. Like certain other Kurokumo agents, she's able to put on a brave face with ease. That brave face shifts into a flinch when Berislav pulls the trigger--because like other Kurokumo agents, that instant before death is on the way is bound to make even the ones that tell themselves they are ready to face death in the eye twitch. But when she realizes she's not being killed yet, she exhales out a low breath. "It's customary for the Kurokumo to send letterse of challenge to a proper showdown. It seems like you're not interested in the ways we do things, so what do you want?" This question might be for the room rather than just Berislav at this point. Lots of people seemed to have business with her than what she came prepared for but Berislav has a question for her captors. "Oh well--" Greta is happy to answer the question. "We're gonna--" "You gonna get in the way if we say?" "They probably already know," Greta points out. "Honesty's the best policy, GA HA HA!" "They're talking about murdering our teammate here." Tanya points out in return. "Then let's just clear the air!" Greta says before looking to Berislav. "Hey pops!" She might not quite realize what Father means here. "You just said what kinda people they are, so we're gonna send 'em at the Library. Better than just leaving them to rot in the streets right?" She says this like she's saying it's best to make use of the whole kurokumo to be enviromentally conscious.
Petra Soroka	"...Forty Seven. But I got the boss, that's worth a few extra." "Then you should've made that part of the rules before we started! Besides, even if she counts as five, I still--" "Oh! Hello, Petra." "Wah--!" For some reason, Petra startles at the sound of Odette's voice calling out to her by name. She whips her head around, eyes wide and on edge, but blinks in confusion when she sees who it is. "Oh... you? Then why do I still feel like there's something dangerous...?" "You're at the Faded Print, a community center in the City." Well, Petra can read between the lines easily enough. She's even worked with the Watch in this District before, and specifically refused knowing where their local Watchtower was so she could avoid any future problems coming from that brief alliance. Mostly, Rita and Liza-related problems. She starts to sweat again, cold, rather than from the heat of exertion. "And what a pleasant surprise it is to see you here!" Petra smiles, both genuinely and in relief, at Berislav. The morphmetal blob beside her that was tensing into ferrofluidic spikes relaxes and smoothes over again, still turbulent underneath its quicksilver surface. "Happy coincidence on my part at least, though I don't know everything that their--" A little lighthearted smirk. "Equal-within-the-organization-companion knows, really." "But I, uh, guess it was inevitable. You guys have been clashing with the Kurokumo for some time, right? They're kind of a notoriously dogshit Syndicate in the area, at least, in terms of the ones that don't just fall apart from overextending themselves with some psychotic bloodbath. I've got my own work I've been doing to try to keep the District... decent. It's complicated, but I--"
Petra Soroka	"What do you have her along for?" The butterflies of nerves and broken glass finally flutter in her stomach, causing Petra to skip frames and flicker backwards several times the instant she hears that underlined 'her'. In flash-step repositioning, her hand is out to the side for the Silver, but she closes her fists and manually levers her arm back down to her side into a nonthreatening position. Petra sighs, tense, exhaling some of the energy that made her flight instinct shoot into overdrive at Rita's voice. "Look. I-- I'm helping. I didn't know you were here. You wanted these people gone too, didn't-- didn't you?" "RITA!! GA HA HA! So it is you!" Petra looks between Greta and Rita with a bit of confusion, which fades away after just a second even though she doesn't know why they know each other. Greta just seems like the kind of person Rita would know, honestly. "... You've met?" "I should have just pulled the trigger on you the first time." Petra's stomach drops and her face goes pale. Surprisingly, though, Liza Grier doesn't spark the same panicked psychic reflex that Rita did. Her Silver does immediately twist and flatten to shield her off from the direction of the Faded Print, and she routes her escape in her head without taking it just yet. Belatedly, to Odette, she giggles nervously. "N-no, I'm pretty good on not coming inside." Hidden by the Silver, Petra takes a steadying breath, and then a second. This isn't some random assassination spot in the middle of nowhere, and she isn't the same person she was nearly two years ago. She readjusts her hair, relaxes her stance, and splits the Silver into slats so that she's visible between them without fully exposing herself. "No. I'm not the organization's enemy. And you don't want to be mine. We're working towards the same goals in the City at this point, and I don't think this will be the last time we cross paths." "They're talking about murdering our teammate here." "Mm. It's alright. It happens." Petra shakes her head, implicitly encouraging Greta to speak and Tanya to stand down. "And Greta's right that they can at least guess." Petra tilts up her chin, looking across the Watchmen and lingering on Berislav for a moment before looking at no one in specific. "At this point, everyone knows the rumors that the Library needs to consume people to grow. I've been working with the Reverberation Ensemble for several reasons, but one of them is that we're both interested in seeing that happen, and by working together, we can make sure that the people taken by it are also the ones who deserve to be assassinated anyways. I don't really have any aspirations of 'fairness' here, just making the District more liveable."
Odette Raskins	"I'll send any Kurokumo who won't renounce your wicked predation on the weak to their final judgment." Berislav knows just how to put a shiver through a whole lot of spines, doesn't he? Odette's even pumping her fist a little at her side at that last bit, although she's (mostly) careful to try and keep her little excitement reflex hidden for when it feels like nobody's looking directly at her. She almost wants to follow that up with something, but visibly struggles to come up with anything cool and closes her mouth a few seconds later. Instead, the EMT settles for nodding firmly and squinting at one of the downed Kurokomo members disapprovingly as though that might intimidate them (next to Berislav). "Wah--!" Has Odette ever heard that noise from Petra before? Maybe, but not because of something she's personally done. It's a new experience for sure, and she looks off to the side briefly to stop a grin from forming before turning back to Petra. "There was going to be some kind of dangerous... Stuff, but it looks like you've already got that taken care of. Thanks!" She's tired, but she can still feel grateful to Petra, Greta, and Tanya for defusing that before she'd have to get involved herself. "We'll just make EVERYONE Billionaires, and then everyone'll be equal and we can eat to our hearts' content!" Odette suddenly feels less confident about inviting Greta in, even before she's confirmed the meaning of her words. "Um... Right! I think. Er. I mean ,there's... Lots of bad people around, so I guess that'd give you some more options...?" She guesses, trying not to sound too nervous even though it's really obvious that she is. She doesn't want to get eaten, after all, even if she isn't a billionaire! "Comradery, solidarity, they don't mean jackall if you don't got the strength to protect it." Tanya's saner and easier to understand, at least, even though what she's saying gets an uncomfortable noise out of Odette. It's not like she has much room to speak there, considering her lack of strength compared to everyone else around here. "She isn't good for you, and I don't know why she comes around." "I should have just pulled the trigger on you the first time." "N-no, I'm pretty good on not coming inside." "Sh... She is? You should? You are?" Odette looks from Rita to Liza to Petra in yet more confusion, pausing for a moment to think about what could have someone as nice as Rita already sounding so weary around Petra, and for someone as devoted to change as Liza sounding so ready to kill Petra as well. It doesn't take long for her to sort of understand, but she's definitely missing some context there. "Sh... She's helped us before with the enkephalin stores, and repair funding for the City?" She tries to offer some helpful context even with her own lack of context, rubbing her neck awakwardly while still glancing between Rita and Liza to try and figure things out. Luckily, Greta's asking the big question, so Odette doesn't have to! "we're gonna send 'em at the Library." "At this point, everyone knows the rumors that the Library needs to consume people to grow." That, finally, gets Odette to feel a little less enthused about what's going on. "That's real? Oh. Uh. Then..." She casts another uncertain glance over at Berislav and Liza, rubbing her neck briefly while not-so-subtly hoping they make the decision on what to actually do.
Rita Ma	Greta's 'ga ha ha' tugs Rita into a faint smile, even as she eyes Berislav sideways for his 'what-a-pleasant-surprise'. "everyone'll be equal and we can eat to our hearts' content!" The taller (tallest) woman's misapprehension of her point makes her a liiiittle queasy-dreading, but as long as she's working towards equality, that's probably a good thing, right? It's hardly the most urgent misunderstanding. She stops in her weary-threatening advance, maybe fifteen feet away from Petra, to the Silver-shield's side. Cloaked tentacles are reaching through the air towards her but don't make an overt move. "I guess the Light works in funny ways. You know, Ms. Greta, I talked about 'justice', right? But when you make a fairer world like that, lots of things will taste like justice. Not just people. It's nice," she tries. But that's as many dice as she's willing to throw at that, with Tanya(!) and Petra(!!) standing right there. She isn't moving to stop them from taking those people, but- "Why are you working for the Library now? That's a surprise." "We're working towards the same goals in the City at this point..." Finally, begrudgingly, she gives her attention to Petra more directly. "I'm not opposed to Ms. Angela and the Library, Petra. I'm opposed to you. She'd betray other people to save her own life. You'd betray them just to..." The words tangle up between Rita's chest and her throat. She doesn't know what she's saying until she says it. "... Just to buy the one person you can finally believe would never hate you, I guess." She realizes how stupid and messy that is to say in front of a wolf gang leader, and a shark cannibal chef, and the mob lieutenant that the gang leader is currently stepping on, and a revolutionary priest, and her current girlfriend, a second after she says it, and crosses her arms over her stomach before looking off to the side. Her next words are meant for Tanya and Greta, subdued and worn-out again. "I don't want a fight with you. But if you don't get rid of her, you'll regret it in a year. Ask anyone but Angela."
Liza Grier	'I've got my own work I've been doing to try to keep the District... decent. It's complicated, but I--' "I don't fucking believe you." It's a pretty simple thing to hear in an argument, but it has a slightly different effect when harshly crackled from a radio transceiver embedded into a war crime just out of sight. It's ridiculous, in that it's coming from an inanimate object that isn't an imposing intercom or broadcast tower, and thus at least tonally close to a serial killer who was at one point in your house. "You don't give a fuck about anything but feeding that thing. The fucking Library. I know already you had your big chance to keep anything 'decent', and you fucking blew it with a backflip and two middle fingers to everyone lower on the ladder than you. You think I wouldn't hear about it?" 'At this point, everyone knows the rumors that the Library needs to consume people to grow. I've been working with the Reverberation Ensemble for several reasons, but one of them is that we're both interested in seeing that happen, and by working together, we can make sure that the people taken by it are also the ones who deserve to be assassinated anyways.' Liza is probably laughing, but the distortion between her helmet and the receiver itself only really being suited for IED detonation, not to mention a concrete wall, just makes it a harsh blast of screeching static that rises and falls like a laugh. "Damn. I should have figured that you'd turn out exactly the same as everyone else like you ever did, but it's something else to see it myself; that girl lying in the mud trying to make sense of why she's gonna get killed, turned into a grown-ass woman with a nice formal suit and smiling powerpoint about how she's harvesting people ethically and who deserves it while standing right between her fucking bodyguards." "Like a caterpillar into a butterfly. Nature is amazing. Or maybe more like a maggot one more fly swarming around the festering carcass of civilization." She's probably just trying to unsettle Petra when several red hot bullets hit Petra's silver shield. Petra can tell by the size and force that they aren't from the anti-materiel rifle she has on her. It's still not very fun to be shot at while hearing a radio doing its best impression of a murderer laugh. '... Just to buy the one person you can finally believe would never hate you, I guess.' "Yeah. Actually, there's a question on my mind." says Liza. The refractive sparkle on the silver means she has an IR sight up again, moving between Petra and Tanya on patrol. It doesn't sound like she's just trying to be supportive of Rita. "How'd she buy you? She's a carbon copy bureaucratic killer who thinks she's the only one who gets how anything works. You two working for the Library too? No that's obvious; you're out here harvesting souls and all. I mean why are you letting her lead you? Don't tell me she's for moral guidance."
Petra Soroka	"I'm not opposed to Ms. Angela and the Library, Petra. I'm opposed to you." Petra already knew that. It still aches to hear a bit, but this was one of the reasons why Petra was able to oppose Lilian at all: taking on the mantle of the person at fault for it all in Angela's place, sin-eater. Rita especially has made it clear before. Petra winces, but she opens her mouth to respond smoothly before being cut off. "I--"} "Just to buy the one person you can finally believe would never hate you, I guess." She flinches. Her words die in the back of her throat, with whatever neutrally practical response she was intending to say vanishing from her mind entirely. There's no quick retort after that, just a tight swallow, a flicker of her eyes looking away, and a jagged roll of motion across her Silver. When she gets her voice back, it's low and plaintive like she's desperate for something abstract that isn't here. "... Why are you the one who always makes things so personal? I've got my priorities. I've never done anything besides stick by them. When I need to do something, I do it, and then I do what comes next. Why don't you understand that?" Her eyelids droop, shuttered sullenly half-closed. "Sue me for wanting one. Obviously there isn't anyone else. Not anymore." "But if you don't get rid of her, you'll regret it in a year. Ask anyone but Angela." Petra raises up her eyes, from where she was half-focusedly looking across the ground to see if she could track the vague electronic impulses through her Silver to where Liza's bombs are. Rather than looking at Rita, she looks at Tanya. "In a year, this District is going to be so different that no one here will stay the same. All anyone can do now is fucking, jostle for positioning. They know that. Everyone does." "You don't give a fuck about anything but feeding that thing. The fucking Library." Petra folds her arms across her chest, glaring in the direction of the Faded Print. She's obviously got something she could say about that, but whatever it is, she doesn't. Instead, she just responds, neutrally but not judgementally, "Obviously you heard about it." "Like a caterpillar into a butterfly. Nature is amazing." It's impossible for Petra to keep from flinching when several bullets from Liza come flying at her, but as much as she can, she minimizes it to a blink and a twitch. The slats of Silver protecting her jitter in illusory-smooth motion like distortion on an old TV, blocking the bullets with a shower of sparks. She flinches again, belatedly, as if that hurt her like she was punched. Through the Silver, she tries to make approximate eye contact with wherever Liza is, chin up and fingernails digging into the cloth on her bicep. "I've killed more Wing CEOs in the City than either you or Rita have. With any luck I'll kill more. This is my fucking turf, you know; no one's operated here longer than I have, and my plans don't involve letting this place stay the exact same way it has been." Not moving her stare away, Petra says aside, of the Reverberation Ensemble, "They're not working for me, or even for the Library. I have an agreement with their boss. He had a line I liked, about 'agents of staticity', and... he's got a pretty good reason to want this place to be better, and it's one I sort of owe him help with."
Father Berislav	Looks like we stumbled upon some Yurodiviye, some Blade Lineage, and some allies of theirs. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Tanya, Greta. I'm Father Waters Berislav. I run this little hostel as my way of introducing and nurturing decency and kindness in the City." We'll just make EVERYONE Billionaires, and then everyone'll be equal and we can eat to our hearts' content! GA HA HA! Berislav's pleasant smile waits expectantly for something that will make that statement make sense to him. Comradery, solidarity, they don't mean jackall if you don't got the strength to protect it. So thanks for the help. That one does draw him out of confusion, at least. "That's a very important lesson to learn. I hope that your instruction wasn't as painful as mine," he says with a sigh. It seems like you're not interested in the ways we do things, so what do you want? "You really don't know," his tone suddenly taken aback as if the answer should be obvious. He wheels around, everyone else present fading into the background. "You either didn't listen to what your friends told you, or they heard and didn't listen, or... you think that there's some secret message. Your souls are so poisoned by sin that you can't conceive of a world where people don't need to be beaten into shape." "Let me make it clear for you, then: I don't care for the way you do things because they're cruel and perpetuate cruelty. Your people attacked a Devyat courier bringing vital supplies to the Trideag Association, only because you thought he was associated with us. You constantly sabotage our operations and giddily stamp out anyone who'd dare to give a voice to the people you've huddled together in fear." "We are all born with grace, from the dirtiest and poorest to the most successful. If you have nothing else in this life, you have that. And you people throw it away, because you're afraid, and you want everyone else to be, too. In God's name, I want you to stop that!" It's only then that he remembers himself. "...I want you all to change, and I want you all to mean it. Before you roll your eyes at me, before you say that I'm insane, ask yourself: is that radical? Or is it the City that's radical?" Better than just leaving them to rot in the streets right? "That depends largely on the answer to my demands," says Berislav, "And on what happens to them there. I don't really find prisons to be an effective impetus for change, socially or individually." I don't really have any aspirations of 'fairness' here, just making the District more liveable. Berislav nods. "I see. Thank you for your honesty, Petra," he adds. "And for your clarity. I'll give you the same: I admit to some concerns--" He sighs sharply when Liza pulls the trigger, but continues nonetheless. "--about the layers of abstraction involved. I worry that it might divorce you from what you're doing, in time. But here, today, I don't personally take issue with taking any Kurokumo who won't stop abusing the poor to the Library."
Angela	''Then you should've made that part of the rules before we started!'' "Isn't the boss usually worht more?" Tanya asks but seems content to leave the point. There's bound to be another competition coming up. She can lick her metaphorical wounds until then. Despite the argument, there's an utter absence of heat. ''You've met?'' "We both have! Rita was around my old stomping grounds, cleared out a cheap chef, then I brought her some food and now we're buds!" This seems to be Greta's take on what happened. "Was it really a billionaire?" Tanya asks out of morbid curiousity. "Nah, it's hard to find billionaires in the backstreets." ''It's alright. It happens.'' Tanya, who still has some of that Middle blood in her, seems like she's about to argue but she stomaches it down. It's ridiculous to crack your knuckles on behalf of someone who'se telling you not to. "Yeah! It's the taste of JUSTICE, I know you like it too, even if you're not chowing down quite so literally, heh!" Greta is still amiable. She's positively inclined to Rita enough that she's assuming the best here. Tanya is a little more cautious, but also not hostile. Odette backing off means the two of them are shifting their attention to the Rita and Liza. Sayo, as she's hearing the drama between Petra and Rita, neither whom are people she particularly knew before today, is considering asking Berislav to try his luck a second time with that gun of his. She was just doing things the way the Kurokumo have always done it and now she's caught up in this soap opera with a gun to her face in a humiliating position! She grits her teeth on the floor there. ''When you make a fairer world like that, lots of things will taste like justice. Not just people. It's nice.'' Greta can't frown but she stares at Rita for a long time like she's trying to digest Rita's words. "Huh... So the palate expands in all directions you're sayin'? Maybe I gotta follow you around for a day and see what justice looks and smells like." But they're both getting warnings about Petra. It's strange to be getting warnings about Petra when you're people who have been just high enough up in Syndicate society that usually you were the terror people were meant to be afraid of crossing. They exchange looks. Animal heads are more difficult to read than human heads but it's clear they weren't expecting this sort of conversation right now. ''Her fucking bodyguards.'' "Hey. You want to duel her? I won't get in the way of that." Tanya says. "We're here as members of the same team. We aren't her bodyguards. ..." She jolts suddenly when bullets strike Petra's shield but when violence doesn't immediately occur after that, she relaxes. "Gonna take a while to get used to this." She mutters. "Anyway, she's your friend. Enemy. And I've learned my lesson about picking my fight with her," She nods towards Rita. "Without a plan. Though I do want a rematch someday." Greta cackles, "She's gonna kick your butt! Didn'tcha see the video? She went toe to toe with the Red Mist!" Greta cackles before answering another question altogether. Why they're working with the Library. "I'm not the science type but the Reverberation Ensemble want to make a community for Distortions. Petra says if the Library gets enough Light, the Voice will get louder and it'll be easier to Distort. And that'll mean the 'suffering' required to Distort will be lower, and that means the Distortions'll be more stable. Something like that! And it'll make me closer to my goal too! Everyone's more equal!"
Angela	''In a year, this District is going to be so different...'' "That's true," The former agent of the Middle bobs her head. "It's already changed so much I barely recognize it. And everybody's just been posturing. Imagine when the first bomb drops." She might not be aware the area has been mined or she might've used different wording there. ''I've killed more Wing CEOs...'' This draws Greta's attention. The shark twisting her whole body to look at Petra again, still smiling. "How did ''that'' justice taste?" She can only imagine. A Wing CEO is certainly in the realm of billionaire. If not trillionaire. Some of the trillionaires might have to give up some of their money so that they are on the same playing field as the billionaires so that they can all be eaten appropriately. ''I hope your instruction wasn't as painful as mine.'' Tanya shrugs. "Lost my entire ''flock'', Father. Least the ones I was looking after. But it's pointless to compare suffering. The winner of the suffering award doesn't get a prize." Sayo listens to FAther Berislav. It's better than listening to the personal drama, if only barely. "I don't know which is more radical." Sayo says. "But we're fighting you because you'ree a threat to our position in the Thumb's hierarchy. We lose that, then our own Syndicate starts to fall apart. You were joined with our enemies before we knew you. The Blade Lineage struck us first. You can say it's for justice, but we didn't seek out this war. We know how much power we had but your new friend said it herself, without power solidarity is crushed. And we don't have that kind of power or I'd be standing on your back. Until your ''change'' feels real, you're going to have to step on a lot of backs. I see a few strong people in your group, but I also see quivering cowards too afraid to speak their minds without your consent. How am I supposed to believe in this ''change'' of yours right now? Especially while you're vying for a spot with the Thumb?" She doesn't seem to recognize that was a decision made to buy time rather than a true goal of The Watch here. ''On what happens to them there.'' Neither Tanya nor Greta have been to the Library but Tanya does have an answer. "They get an opportunity to go after a book they want. Nah, it's more like the book they really need, the book that's made for them--and if they win the fight, they get to leave with it. If they lose, they become books and their Light is harvested. Back to the City, eventually. Basically, a fighting chance to turn around their fortunes. I can't argue against a fair fight. Maybe it's brutal to the rest of the world, but for the City it's fairer than you can expect anywhere else." She pauses. "'Cept maybe a couple other places that popped up recently."
Tamiel Luxis	Tamiel visibly shrinks back, as the tension continues to ratchet back up, pulling her staff back between herself and the three interlopers, her shadow ducking its head behind her as if sheltering from artillery fire. She wasn't...Fond of the woman who'd tried to designate her as the Playbrick Cuck, but the idea of everything here curdling and falling into an offensive with someone she'd worked with before was-- --Well. She wasn't eager to see it happen. Her eyes darted between Berislav and Rita, and Liza's bomb, chewing hard on her lip, fighting back the panic of 'mom and mom and dad are fighting!' Eventually, she swallows, hard, before she turns to regard Greta and Tanya. They, at least, felt like something that she could engage with without brushing the wings of something dark. "If you don't work for the Library...Is there anything you can tell us about your 'boss?'" She forces her stance up, a little taller. "...It's one thing. To scoop up people who are hurting others. And. I'm grateful you're picked up people who I know are making the District...and us bleed..." "If I'm right...To become like you are...You had to go through something. Some kind of deprivation...Until the zeitigeist of the world answered your prayers. You must have been lacking...A lot." She chewed on her lip. "...But. It would be easier to know what kind of relationship we could have. If you told us."
Petra Soroka	"In God's name, I want you to stop that!" A man-- even Berislav-- raising his voice causes Petra's head to whip around, but that makes her remember that there's a whole Syndicate captain flopped on the ground watching her bicker with the Watch like bitter exes. She sighs and swipes off a sliver of morphmetal from her shield with two fingers, flicking it down in a dagger through Sayo's clothes to pin them to the ground. "We're kind of getting sidetracked. I don't want her to get away because we were distracted by melodrama." "--about the layers of abstraction involved. I worry that it might divorce you from what you're doing, in time." "Mm." Petra makes a noncommittal noise, drawing out the stack of red and gold invitations. On them, written in Angela's hand, is a block of text, if anyone cares to look closely at them. She drops the Invitations to the ground, nudging them towards Sayo's hand with her shoe. "If you run, you'll die before you get two steps. Take that and survive a bit longer, or," A little reluctantly, she looks over to Berislav. "Or convince Berislav here. That's all you're getting now." "Rita was around my old stomping grounds, cleared out a cheap chef, then I brought her some food and now we're buds!" "That's good," Petra says, dully and a little bit knowingly pointlessly. "You're a good friend to have, Greta. Who doesn't love knowing a good chef?" "How did ''that'' justice taste?" Petra thinks back on the moment where she dropped Ayin's body to the ground in Angela's office. Thirty minutes before, Cinder's last words came through the cell door before her heat dissipated. Thirty minutes after, Petra declared war on Rita and Lilian. She stays silent for a bit, until eventually deciding on the only response she has. "Like ash, I guess. But it felt nice to swallow." "I can't argue against a fair fight. Maybe it's brutal to the rest of the world, but for the City it's fairer than you can expect anywhere else." Petra shrugs at this. She's made her opinion on fairness clear. Even in the City.
Rita Ma	"We aren't her bodyguards. ..." "I've learned my lesson about picking my fight with her without a plan." Ah. A little change in the social texture. Rita doesn't change her posture right then, but it matters that if she came to blows with Petra, it wouldn't turn the Ensemble against her. Not immediately anyway. "I've got my priorities." "That's a lie," Rita says dully. For the rest of it: "I'm almost-" Liza's here, after all- "the only one who feels normally about you. Even Ms. Rook doesn't. That drives me crazy. Does it drive you crazy too?" "... the one person you can finally believe would never hate you, I guess." "Sue me for wanting one. Obviously there isn't anyone else. Not anymore." "Rita is here, and you're still alive, aren't you?" For a few seconds after Berislav's voice chirps in her ear, via local broadband, Rita thinks really hard. If I haven't tried to hurt her, Rita thinks, I must not hate her, huh. Is that true? When I saw her at Trideag, why didn't I? I threw Dr. Foid against that wall, and you could say he did less. What kind of person even am I, if I can't hate her? There's just this... hitching feeling in my chest, and... A couple more seconds pass. A tentacle constricts around Petra's throat from all directions like a lasso, shimmers into pallidly inhuman visibility, and lifts her off the ground to start squeezing. "I guess you did make sure of that, Ms. Petra."
Odette Raskins	Petra isn't the only one flinching from what Rita and Liza say. Even though Odette isn't the target, she can still feel some level of sympathetic pain just from hearing all of that. She doesn't even know what to say after all that, either, as some of that information is new enough to the EMT that she looks towards Petra in confused disbelief, like she's hoping for her to defend herself in some way. Liza firing those bullets around Petra is almost a relief to her, just so that there's some kind of ambient physical danger to justify feeling this tense. "Just how many...? Nn. Is killing all those CEOs worth.. Um. However many people died already from what happened?" Odette asks, not sounding particularly judgy as she does. She really doesn't know what the answer is, and she's looking towards Rita, Liza, and Petra to try and get her head straightened out about that. "I want you all to change, and I want you all to mean it." "I also see quivering cowards too afraid to speak their minds without your consent." Hearing Berislav explain what he wants to see to Sayo and the Kurokomo is quite the relief, at least, largely for giving Odette something more obviously prosocial to latch onto. Getting shot point blank also, weirdly enough, winds up refocusing the EMT on actually putting her thoughts out instead of just letting them stew in her gut the entire time. "Father Berislav's giving you a chance to do better, Miss Sayo. You and the Kurokomo, all together. If he didn't care about you or the City, he wouldn't be... He wouldn't be doing things this way if he didn't think you could be saved, too. Sure, we're... He's using power to make it happen, but it's like you said. It has to be this way so the change does feel more real. And..." Odette gestures at Sayo, then at Berislav. "This is as real as it gets, right? And all kinds of big changes like this start from the bottom up, and.. Um. This could be a turning point for all of you just as much as it is for us, so... Think about it, okay?" She gives the leader an awkward smile, shuffling over to lean in and lower her voice a smidge. "And then you'd really be screwed if he stopped, because then Miss Liza and Miss Rita would be after you, too." "Petra says if the Library gets enough Light, the Voice will get louder and it'll be easier to Distort." "W... Wait. Isn't-er. Isn't Distorting what caused the...?" Odette's face goes slightly pale as that topic comes up, recalling all too vividly what she had seen in the aftermath of the Pianist. Greta's comments about the Distortions' potential stability doesn't reassure her much, and Odette looks between her and Petra slowly while continuing to process all that. "What about just.. Um. Not making the Distortions easier, though? I mean, you've seen what happened with others that went haywire, right? Is more of that risk really worth it, if it means.. Um. Way more of them with a chance of going haywire? It sounds way more dangerous than just..." Odette trails off. She doesn't actually know what the alternative would be, if the Distortions are already happening anyway.
Liza Grier	'... Why are you the one who always makes things so personal?' "Yeah? What is it instead? Just business?" There is one bomb about twelve steps ahead and two to the left of Petra. On the reverse corner of a steep curb drop. The number of them besides that is 'a lot'. Not so much of a net as to constitute a minefield, but enough that there aren't any gaps to just slip through. If the Kurokumo mob were to just charge straight through at a couple of points, they'd lose a meaningful-but-not-large number of people, which means she has something she can use on the spot wherever they detonate. 'I've killed more Wing CEOs in the City than either you or Rita have.' "Yeah? How did that turn out? " Even through such shitty audio, her tone is unmistakably sarcastic. "We both know you want credit for killing whoever's mean to your friends-- and not even until after you kissed the boot for years-- because you think 'Rita's super into murder! Maybe she'll like me!' It's fucking embarrassing." 'I have an agreement with their boss. He had a line I liked, about 'agents of staticity', and... he's got a pretty good reason to want this place to be better, and it's one I sort of owe him help with.' "We can all tell you learned how to talk the way wannabe protagonists like. You're doing it right now." Liza says. "Dropping a few smug little lines with grandiose buzzwords sprinkled in and jerking yourself off for opportunistic shit that fell in your lap while you were coasting in a straight line. You're dressed and stanced like the enemy while you do it, because that means power and prestige, and not even thinking about how totally delusional you sound while you speechify how the little guy has to punch up." "So I don't fucking believe you. You'd have walked away if you were serious. Your plan is to figure out what kind of fucking around that makes the audience clap and that's it." 'We're here as members of the same team. We aren't her bodyguards.' "You're big tough guys in suits standing on either side of her after beating down her enemies. Are you actually that stupid? Whatever you think you're here for, that's what you're really here to be; she'd be running as fast as she fucking can if you weren't here." 'I guess you did make sure of that, Ms. Petra.' The ambient radio crackle cuts out abruptly. Liza's swapped channels.
Angela	''Is there anything you can tell us about your 'boss?''' There is a small pause before answering, even from Greta, but ultimately she decides to just go ahead. "Well he's not our boss, exactly! Like he says, we're all equal, but he's a Color! The Blue Reverberation. That's why we're the Referberation Ensemble, cause he formed the team! We got the matching outfits because that's how teams work." There is something else she COULD say but even Greta knows to not throw all the cards open-faced on the table just because you like your fellow players. "Lady, they're your enemies too. We're here to do a job." Tanya says, but she's getting agitated. This is a woman who prides herself in strength. If Petra hadn't told her to cool down, she'd already be fighting. "If she really wanted to hurt you so much, why's she still telling us to back off when it's her throat that's being crushed? If we were just her bodyguards, this'd already be a fight." She ducks down to pick up a rock. Just a normal rock. She starts shaping the rock with her bare hands. Smoke starts billowing out between her fingers. "Don't think the Blue Reverberation wants her dead. Colors might not mean quite what they used to, but you know what that means right? If you don't like her enough to work with us, then you can just use us for your own goals while we do the same. What kind of war are you bearing down for here today? Maybe you should've iced her then, but that was yesterday and this is today."
Father Berislav	How am I supposed to believe in this ''change'' of yours right now? Especially while you're vying for a spot with the Thumb? "By looking at what we're doing," he says, sidestepping the issue of his motives for joining the Thumb. "And at the success we've had in doing it. At first, people came to this place for food and drink, for treatment from me or Odette. But I can see the change in the faces, little by little. I see the fear of uncertainty less and less in the tired eyes that stop by here. I see people stop by on occasion for Tamiel's sweets, or hoping Liza will be tending bar..." "Outside the hostel, you've largely seen yourself. The Yurodiviye can be bolder, now that the Blade Lineage is working with them. We know what it is we're trying to do, and we know it isn't trivial. So, whether you believe in it or not, I can't really agree that anyone who works towards it with us is a coward, even if they are afraid. It's normal to be afraid when things are uncertain. To strive for goodness anyways, I think that's what courage is."
Father Berislav	Of course, something else rather distracts Berislav, and it's Petra at the mercy of Liza and Rita. I really wish this would stop happening. That it wasn't happening right here, right now. I thought I could guide her to it, but I wasn't direct enough. If I don't fix that quickly she may die. <J-IC-Scene> Father Berislav says, "...I see I'll have to cut to the chase. I remember that you and Rita were good friends, once. I was so happy for you, that you had a friend like Rita. She's such a good person, isn't she? So, even if it 'had' to happen, to choose Angela over her must have hurt you very badly, and it hurt Rita, too. If you want Rita to be one of those people again, you need to say so, while you still can." <J-IC-Scene> Father Berislav says, "Rita, Liza, I'd appreciate it if she has the chance to." <J-IC-Scene> Liza Grier says, "Giving her the chance before is why everything's so fucked." <J-IC-Scene> Liza Grier says, "I gave her a chance because Rita cared about her and all it did is burn her and everyone else." <J-IC-Scene> Liza Grier says, "Sorry but she's had one." <J-IC-Scene> Odette Raskins whimpers uncertainly. <J-IC-Scene> Tamiel Luxis says, "A-ah..." <J-IC-Scene> Father Berislav says, "And I appreciate that, Liza. If that won't sway you, she clearly has a level of access to the Library that none of us can compete with, unless we accept an Invitation. I'd prefer not to throw that away." <J-IC-Scene> Liza Grier says, "You'd really rather walk into their pre-prepared death trap than find our own way in later?" <J-IC-Scene> Father Berislav says, "Petra is our way in." <J-IC-Scene> Liza Grier says, "If I didn't know better I'd say you were getting cold feet." <J-IC-Scene> Liza Grier says, "But I do know better, so I'm just gonna say that you're stuck in the same loop as everyone else, trying to fix her or redeem her or whatever, forever and ever and ever while she ruins everything." <J-IC-Scene> Father Berislav says, "I don't want to redeem her, or fix her, Liza. I fundamentally don't see her as the same sort of person as the ones we fight, despite her best efforts to convince the both of us of exactly that. I just want her to have the chance to ask forgiveness of someone she cares about." <J-IC-Scene> Father Berislav says, "You give gardeners of sin five minutes, don't you?" <J-IC-Scene> Liza Grier says, "Not because I think they're actually going to give it up." <J-IC-Scene> Liza Grier says, "They don't. Ever." <J-IC-Scene> Father Berislav says, "You have her at gunpoint in the middle of a minefield while Rita has her in a chokehold. If she doesn't 'give it up,' how far can she really go?"
Petra Soroka	"That drives me crazy. Does it drive you crazy too?" "Obviously. I've said so too." Petra's dull response is leaden with tension, and it feels like it falls flat the moment it comes out of her mouth. Nothing she says really seems able to tilt the scales either way with Rita, aside from leaving and letting the tension stick and suffocate, or eventually exploding. "Yeah? What is it instead? Just business?" "It's-- fucking--!" Petra grits her teeth, glaring in the direction of the bomb emitting Liza's voice. "God! It's fucking principles! I hate this fucking trolley problem bullshit too! But I'm sticking by my fucking answer! The people who died to the Pianist, they died because some of the Light got out! Not because of me! Not because I tried to stop it! I don't like how anything's turned out either!" "We can all tell you learned how to talk the way wannabe protagonists like. You're doing it right now." Petra makes an aggravated noise, spiking the Silver out around her. She starts pacing, around Sayo on the ground so as to not get too far away from her target, with her shield following her. "Come on! Are you even listening to yourself! Fucking abstract pointless childish posturing! You of all people should fucking get when actions matter, and I'm trying to do them! I have been! And I will, even if you people keep throwing a fucking hissy fit at me and making it harder for me to help you with your own mission!" "You'd have walked away if you were serious." She comes to a stop besides Sayo. "I had a goal in coming here, and it wasn't just to fucking talk. I didn't even know you guys were here. If you won't let me take her, I'm not going to fight you; I'll just leave. Fine. If that's the way it is." "I guess you did make sure of that, Ms. Petra." Just then is when Rita's cloaked tentacle slips around Petra's neck and tightens. She flickers, but she's already caught, and her feet leave the ground helplessly kicking. For all of the weapons at her disposal, Petra is unarmored once the invisible tentacle slipped past her Silver barrier-- with Liza's gun trained on her, and explosives and invisible tentacles all around, just cutting through it with the Silver won't work either. She gasps and tries instinctually to pry the tentacle away from her throat, and while a rapid flicker of desperate attempts to survive rush through her brain, she ends up locking eyes with Rita.
Petra Soroka	There's a throb of psychic energy no one here has felt before. A bubble of something intangible that collapses around Rita, cavitating in a shockwave of absolute emotional nothing, a dizzying flood of derealization that leeches the color from the world and the light from people's eyes. For everyone except Rita, and then a beat later, like a ray of sunlight off the moon, Petra too. And then everything's back to normal for just a moment, before the Silver floating around Petra explodes. Tendrils of metal, razor-sharp and whip-fast, erupt in every direction to pry Rita's own tentacle away and shove everyone else away from where Petra drops to the ground. The Silver tentacles thrash around uncontrolledly, breaking the asphalt of the street and scraping the facades of buildings, possibly detonating one of Liza's bombs on impact or batting one of the downed Kurokumo members away. Petra staggers and sucks in a breath, fingers touching her throat. Her pupils are unnaturally constricted, darting around wildly while her hands move to clamp over her mouth, and the tentacles block any attempt to get closer to her. <J-IC-Scene> Father Berislav says, "...I see I'll have to cut to the chase. I remember that you and Rita were good friends, once. I was so happy for you, that you had a friend like Rita. She's such a good person, isn't she? So, even if it 'had' to happen, to choose Angela over her must have hurt you very badly, and it hurt Rita, too. If you want Rita to be one of those people again, you need to say so, while you still can." Breathing erratically, Petra's eyes unerringly find a tiny scrape in Berislav's skin where one of the Silver tendrils grazed him, and after several effortful seconds, she shakes her head, once and then twice. "I-- of course she's a good person. I don't-- it isn't possible for us to-- to stay friends. Apologies aren't sincere if they can't change the past. I don't believe in-- forgiveness. Or redemption." She's emotionally off-kilter in a way that's strange even for someone who's just been throttled while at gunpoint on a mindfield, and she's visibly having difficulty keeping her thoughts and words in order. Despite just having said that, Petra's gaze twitches back over to Rita, and then there's tense few steps backwards where she looks like she's trying to manually realign her jaw to speak properly, after which she blurts out some confused, halting words. "I'm sorry, Rita, I-- you've made your point. I'll-- mark this area-- to not come here."
Angela	Sayo listens to Berislav. And then she exhales. She is just one sword amongst many in the Kurokumo. She was left with the elder's sword to follow his will while he was incapacitated. She imagines the war that will follow, if she follows this man right now. She imagines the potential. A new strength for the Kurokumo. Or the end of her clan entirely should they fail. An element she is considering is that it feels like a fight's about to break out right here. "Alright." Sayo says. "I see your point. Joining with you could be a new beginning for us, though I'm just one captain of a larger a clan, here in this place something new could be built. May I address my people?" She picks up the stack of invitations and Tanya, reluctantly, removes her foot off her back. The Kurokumo Captain straightens her back up and turns towards her beaten comrades. "...There are two uncertain futures before us. We can try our luck against the Library, or we can surrender to the mercy of the one they call the Mad Father. We only have two paths of courage to choose. An unknown of danger, or an unknown of philosophy." She glances towards Rita holding Petra by the throat before looking back to her people. "...I swore an oath to the elder. And to the Thumb. You didn't, you swore an oath to me. I am releasing you from that oath. You can come with me, or you can stay here." Petra's shockwave knocks a downed Kurokumo agent over towards her but she just sort of lets him continue to lay there as she turns back to Berislav. "This is the best I can do for you." She says. And as it turns out, it's not nothing. Out of the Kurokumo that choose to go with her, it's only a few. Gin, and another man Berislav hasn't seen before, and a few other men and women. The rest crouch down in surrender, leaving themselves at the Father's mercy, and his people, willing--at least--to maybe see what's going on here. It probably didn't help that the alternative was expressed as 'maybe live a little longer'. The Library is an increasingly scary place. Rumors are that even the Liu won't approach. Tanya doesn't get to do whatever she was planning on before Petra makes her call clear. Tanya says, "Alright. If that's how we're playing it. You want to talk to us alone--well, get ahold of Greta and she'll set it up." Tanya says. She grabs Greta by the hand and starts leading her away. "Well I think I got along with them pretty great!" Greta says, teeth glistening.
Liza Grier	'It's-- fucking--! God! It's fucking principles! 'You of all people should fucking get when actions matter, and I'm trying to do them! I have been! And I will, even if you people keep throwing a fucking hissy fit at me and making it harder for me to help you with your own mission!' "What fucking principles? What fucking action?!" Despite using no different words the massive increase in agitation in Liza's voice makes the gear shift clear. "You want to talk about actions? You betrayed people to join the Watch, then betrayed the Watch because you got bored, and then you betrayed Rita after she forgave you anyways! And now you're prowling the backstreets in a fucking suit, farming people like livestock for your boss, and you want to talk to me about action and principle?!" "So if we're at how only actions matter, and not talk, then here's the deal: You betrayed everyone who ever trusted you, betrayed the person I trust, and now you're talking about how you've got it all figured out and everyone else is the problem. So eat shit and die. You're a fucking disease, and if Berislav's own messiah came down here right now and forgave you, I still won't until Rita does. I thought your one good thing was you were supposed to understand how to pick a fucking side and live with it." The alternate band ping is simple: <Tac-Watch> 3 Liza Grier says, "Lift her up." The explosion of motion isn't a good answer, even if an unintentional one. The nearby bomb responsible for broadcasting bursts into flames, but can't detonate with an electric impulse, partially obscuring the Reverberation trio with greasy smoke. A half-inch hole is punched through the pavement near Petra, barely more than that far away. The tiny radio transceiver is wrecked, so there's no way to hear Liza get angrier. 'I don't-- it isn't possible for us to-- to stay friends. Apologies aren't sincere if they can't change the past. I don't believe in-- forgiveness. Or redemption.' Fifty yards away, Liza racks a bolt, lets a thumb-sized casing roll down the stairs, and cycles vision modes in her helmet. 'I'm sorry, Rita, I-- you've made your point. I'll-- mark this area-- to not come here.' And then swears at herself the moment she feels the urge to wait for Rita to say something anyways.
Father Berislav	I'm sorry, Rita, I-- you've made your point. I'll-- mark this area-- to not come here. The shockwave blows his silvery locks violently to one side and sets the length of his cassock to whipping, but the man himself is unmoving. Berislav releases a held breath. "Petra..." Liza will probably open fire. That's fine. She does, he doesn't flinch. May I address my people? Berislav nods. This is the best I can do for you. "Thank you," he says. "The City has hardened your hearts. But underneath the calluses there's still something worth preserving in each of you. I appreciate that you're all willing to explore that. As you saw today, our work isn't safe just because it's a mission of love. No, love needs to be tended to and cared for, and kept alive, and that takes effort." "For you, it'll be harder than most. Many of the people that you'll be helping will know your faces. They may be slow to trust. They may feel anger towards you. Confess your sins to those you've wronged, and one day, when they're ready, they'll forgive you. Hold your sin inside you in silence and you'll never know peace." "I'll see to it the Blade Lineage and the Yurodiviye are made aware of this. In the meantime, I'd like you all to accompany me on a kind of... walking sermon. There are some passages I'd like to read to you all, some things around the neighborhood I'd like to show you, and I'd only ask that you reflect on them when you take your rest for the evening."
Rita Ma	Liza Grier says, "Lift her up." Liza Grier says, "If she diverts any morphmetal I'm sure I can get an APF through." Rita Ma says, "... You're really sweet to me, Ms. Grier." When Rita says that, does she mean 'I don't want Petra to die', or 'I need to do this myself'? It's all mixed up together in an ugly swirl of 'if this isn't going to be done, I need to be the one who doesn't do it'. Either way, the top of Petra's head doesn't quite clear the silver barrier. The choking is sort of half-hearted. The half-heartedness stops the second Petra pries herself free. Rita's eyes widen; the limb that was gripping her snaps to a viper-striking posture along with others still-hidden, her hand glows white with an awful energy, and-- She's [dangerous/like me], so I have to-- There's a little flinch as Rita has to question why she's more willing to attack her own reflection. "of course she's a good person." Ouch. Rita's stomach turns. She sucks in a deep, tight breath. It's so rarely that she grits her teeth that one forgets what a weird noise that makes. "I hate you so much," Rita says, but it's in a tone of queasy defeat. Father Berislav is right. Petra isn't like the people that she kills. It's 'just' hate', mostly. Even Dr. Foid, in the end, she only throttled a little. Of course that fact makes Rita hate her more. Petra can't be decent enough to make herself killable. "Apologies aren't sincere if they can't change the past." "I'm sorry, Rita," Rita Ma says, "I guess 'sorry' would be a start." There it is. "Is that sincere or not?" Rita says, but she doesn't wait for an answer to her sharp little question. She half-turns away, looking more smolderingly wretched in Petra's direction than she's looked in a good six months. "Get out. At least go drag down people I don't like." Deep breath. Smooth pivot. It isn't easy for Rita to slip back into her straight-backed, polite demeanor as the tentacle re-weaves, but it's easier than it should be. "I'm sorry you had to see that," Rita says to the cannibal chef and the gangster who wants to hunt her. "Ms. Angela can't be picky with her employees. It'd make me really happy to speak to either of you, or Ms. Reverberation, another time." (Colors are always women, right? That sounds true.) "Good luck making the City more equal, okay?" Isn't she sweet!