Scene Listing

||

Scene Schedule

||

Scene Schedule RSS

Owner	Pose
Petra Soroka	Lulu's past week at Trideag Headquarters has been uncomfortably sedate. After having the Invitation confiscated for safekeeping, and with all the hubbub of her stomping through the doors dying down, there's really very little for her to do except wait. It takes very little time for Lulu to start pacing the perimeter of her makeshift 'cell' (really just an unused room where someone brings her food), gnawing at the bars and offering basically any help she can as 'community service' just to be doing something.     Predictably enough, if Lilian even bothers contacting them, no one at the Zwei Association even seems aware that they had an associated office by the name of Streelight. If she, for some reason, walked all the way to the District 22 Backstreets herself, to the address Lulu could've given her, she would've found an office room stripped empty and closed down, in the bureaucratic middle space between finding another set of occupants to be put inside. It's pretty fruitless, no matter what route is taken, to try and find assistance for Lulu and Mars by any means the City has available, besides Trideag themselves.     When it's time to go, with all of whoever Trideag's sending with her assembled, Lulu grips her pen tightly and glares down at the Invitation in front of her. "Just you wait, you bastard... I'm coming for you, y'hear?!"     When she signs her name, a door materializes from nowhere, made of black wood limned with golden light, and she grabs the door handle and pushes it open without hesitation. Past it, the location the Invitation takes you is within the area of the golden fog that enshrouds the Library, but not within the building itself. The sizeable chunk of the Nest and nearby Backstreets that the Library has overtaken has been transmogrified into haunted forest-like growth, buildings twisted into deep black wooden structures with leafless branches arching overhead like skeletal fingers. Warmly lit lanterns sprout out of buildings as if they're twigs on the same growth, with asphalt melted into dirt, wood, and moss underfoot, and even cleaner-smelling air than outside, that tingles in your lungs.     "Rrrr... this place gives me the creeps." Lulu looks warily around, as if something might jump out at the group. "There's s'posed to be rules, but it's really just a brawl when it comes down to it."     There's no respect at all given to the double doors on the front of the massive black pillar of the Library-- less, even, than she had for the Trideag lobby. Lulu plants the sole of her sneakers directly into the Library doors, leaving no mark at all when she brusquely kicks them open and draws her yellow and black striped bat off of her back. The opening lobby of the Library is an Escherian sprawl of massive staircases and bookshelves, high vaulted ceilings and pillars, with one single occupant to greet them, who-- CLANG.     Lulu's extended bat slams into the side of Angela's head to cut off her speech the moment it starts. It vibrates from the impact with solid metal enough to numb her hand. "Shut up, you despicable piece of junk. I'm here for Mars' book, and then I'll kill every monster here and blow your head clean off."
Angela	BEFORE TRIDEAG ARRIVES The soft jazz is still playing along as gently as ever. "To be honest," Roland says. "I wasn't expecting Trideag to actually show up as opponents for a while. Guess it's my fault for letting that girl get away." He rubs at his neck. "But it sounds like we'll have time to get ready at least. We can call back Gebura." Angela shakes her head. "No. Once we see these visions, it means the card is already signed. So get ready. I wasn't planning on sending Gebura against Lilian anyway. We simply have to accept this is our first uphill battle. It's as shrimple as that." Roland stares at Angela, particularly after the use of that pun. "Nervous?" He asks. He couldn't tell if those moments of silliness were because of anxiety or something else. "...No." Angela decides after a moment. "Even if we lose the book, it is a setback. That is all." Roland shakes his head. "That's not what I mean. Lilian is a hero to you, you've not been quiet about that. And that ''war'' you were all a part of, it feels like it took a lot out of you and your friends, aren't you worried it might take more?" He gestures with his hand. "Ah, I mean, I'll do what you want boss but are you sure this is what you want? We don't need to fight for ''this'' book right?" Angela considers it, then shakes her head. "No. If I backed down here instead of back then ... It'd be an insult. We will do it as we always do. She may even appreciate a challenge being put before her." NOW Angela meets everybody in the lobby along with Roland as usual and extends her hand to Lulu. "Welcome once again to the Library." Her gaze stares at Lulu. "This time, you--" The metal bat clangs against Angela. It doesn't seem to have an effect. "...This is my domain." Angela says. It might be despairing for Lulu to see her initial strike that hit direct on have no effect. That swing with all her heart has had the effect of interrupting Angela's greeting and, seemingly, nothing else. "But I promise you--"
Angela	FLOOR OF HISTORY Malkuth slides a book into its proper shelf and lets out a self satisfied little sigh. When she pulls her hand away, it comes away bloody and she lets out a little yelp, stumbling away from the suitcase and tripping and landing on her butt. She studies her hand carefully, soaked red, but can't see any particular cut or wound. Then she looks back up to the shelf and sees the origin of the bloodstain. The book she put in, actually a number of the books along the shelves, have started to bleed. "Ahh! Hod! Tiphereth!" She shouts. "Oh fine fucking Justin!! We need uh... bandaids?? A needle and thread? The books are gushing blood!!" LOBBY "--You will have your chance to..." A red splotch plops onto Angela's hand. She brings her hand up to her forehead, now oozing blood and places her hand to it. She stumbles back into Roland's arms, who moves to catch her before she falls to the ground and then eases her to the floor and then steps in front of her. "Alright, you made your point. We'll do this in Keter." Roland says. Angela sniffs at the blood on her hand and then opens up, on the floor there, and starts taking notes. "Smells the same. Taste..." She uses her tongue to lap off a little from her finger. "Mm... I don't actually have a frame of reference for this but..." She remembers the Reception and she snaps her fingers, her hair twisting into a pair of double drills and-- The space warps around Angela, the distance between her and Trideag enlongating while the space between Roland and Audrey along with Trideag and Lulu shortening. The Library shifts and twists up and around and over itself as the floor itself pushes and spirals as it 'guides' everyone (minus Angela) into the Keter battle arena (dome, pit). Angela runs her hand around her head, spreading the blood over her face. "Feels a bit like Bloodbath's... Ahh, it's even starting to hurt... Still muted, haha... but it hurts..." A tear spills out in her one eye. "So this is a little like what they must have felt when they were begging for help... Today .... Today is already productive." KETER ARENA The Floor of General Works' arena is a long black metal platform surrounded by books and by the time Roland drops down into the arena, he is already wearing a familiar outfit, at least to Lulu. A dark green-grey coat, grey slacks, brown shoes, and a large sword nearly as tall as Roland with a black orb embedded into it. Sleek silver encasings support the lower half of the blade. It's Mars's sword. Angela arrives in a viewing area shortly after, a bandage freshly placed on her wound and supported by Binah of all people. She opens her mouth and out from some hidden speakers near the arena... "In the commotion I had neglected to mention the rules. Win this battle and you may leave here with the book you've come here to find. Lose, and you in turn will become books yourselves. May you find your book in this place. "That ought to do it." Roland adds, "Let's get going."
Audrey Basque	EARLIER, GENERAL WORKS     Audrey (school uniform ver.) crashes onto a chair, head crumpling down onto her desk. The third draft of her final thesis, 'On The Interconnectivity Of Stars And Systems Of Fate, A Study Of The Consistent Infinite', is still scattered about, freshly printed last night and already full of her own red ink, footnotes and whole sections rewritten by hand or just scribbled out.     Her hand reaches to her left, disappearing into a mess of softly crackling mirror shards; somewhere else in the Library, a cup disappears off a shelf by her hand, is moved to the coffee machine, and then rewards her when her hand pulls out of the tear.     She sips the coffee, before sighing deeply.     At least it's Friday. SLIGHTLY LESS EARLIER, STAIRS     "?!?!?!"     Audrey (librarian uniform ver.) stares between Roland and Angela at the announcement that not only is there about to be a Reception (this is fine) but that it's Trideag (this is not fine).     She could just say no.     She could just have something else to be doing.     There's a million things, there's--     So, so, so many things she could just--     Roland can... Roland can handle it, right?     "... okay." NOW     Audrey (Sword Sharpened With Tears ver.) has been standing by Roland, to Angela's side (and slightly rear) the whole time. Stiff, checked out, lightless eyes that still haven't acknowledged where she is or what she's about to do.     It's static, between those ears. "Nothing that's ever been asked of me was normal. You're different from me because you have the choice to walk away at all. So don't get so caught up in whatever is going on that you forget you have it."     It's static, as Angela greets Lulu and everyone with her. "I'd advise you against putting too much stock in her abilities."     It's static, as Lulu strikes Angela. "How does it feel to spend your life studying a magic that's halfway obviated by Warpgates, by the way?"     It's static, as Angela suffers the delayed blow. "Even 'fresh' is perhaps giving too much credit."     It's static as the arena twists and spins and rises. "Anyone who is unable to return to the Timekeeper should be returning to General Einar, Commander White, or only in an absolute worst-case scenario, Basque, before the clock hits five minutes."     But then it's not, as everything stops at Keter. The floating arena, suspended over the void, surrounded by mountainous piles of books that twist and curve like dead trees without branches. Audrey's body goes from stiff as stone to primed to snap like a rubber band, the air, the distance, around her already twisting out of shape.     What is there left to do but stand her ground?     Audrey's eyes, still looking for their light, glance aside to Roland, and she tries to steel her expression. A skill she's all but lost.     "I'll be fine. This is just another one, right?"     It isn't just another one.     It's the one.     And, more than that, chance of death is extraordinarily high.     She's not ready for that. Not so soon again.     The Sword Sharpened With Tears forms in her right hand, and then again a few copies behind her, floating over her shoulders.     Her face rises to look at Lulu, to look at Trideag, to look at *Lilian*, but the voice gets stuck in her throat when she tries to speak to her, vocalizing half of her name before going quiet.     Why is it that the moment she fantasized about for over a year looks so little like what she pictured it?     And feels so little like it should.     There's nothing triumphant here. Not tonight.     But it was supposed to be.
Riku Asakura	Riku had to hear all of this from others who had been there for Lulu, about how someone important to them had been turned into a book by the Library, by Angela.  Guilt sets in because he had stood in defense of her instead of against her during the final of Labcorp.  Now she was turning people into books.  He can't help but feel responsible for this, for Lulu's pain.   Riku could only watch as they arrived.  Lulu strikes Angela across the head with her bat. Angela's delayed reaction as blood starts appearing. Roland moves to take matters into his hands, warping the group to the Ketter Arena.  It happens in slow motion for Riku, and he feels so powerless to stop any of it.   However, he breaks the fugue state he appears to be in.  "Standing around doing nothing won't get us anywhere..." he says to himself, a mantra to always keep walking forward.  He grabs the Fusion Riser and draws forth two of the capsules in his capsule holder.  "You go," he says and presses the button on one of the capsules, as the figure forms up beside him as Ultraman.  "I go," he presses it again, this time Ultraman Belilal appears next to him.   "Here we go!" he brings the Fusion Riser across both capsules.  He brings the Riser close to his heart, and continues with the words he has to say to transform, "Time to get ready!" He pulls the trigger on the Fusion Riser and shouts, "GEEEEEEEEEEED!" Ultraman Ultraman Belial Ultraman Geed Primitive! The two forms summoned by the capsules merge into Riku, as the man transforms into Ultraman Geed. He takes a smaller form today, given the constraints of the arena and the fact that they were in a building and not outdoors.  He takes an offensive posture, ready to face down the opponents in front of him.   Even as Roland makes the terms of the fight obvious.  Leaving means getting the book; losing means being turned into one.  He can't afford to become a book for any reason.  "So it's all true..." he says more to himself than at Roland.  He takes a breath and surges power along his body.  He can't afford to restrain himself today.
Lilian Rook	'Rrrr... this place gives me the creeps.'     "Really now? If it weren't for the fog, I'd think of it as a strict improvement."     Of course Lilian would say that. One of the backdrops she appreciates the absolute least is 'ugly urban sprawl', and one she appreciates most is 'spooky magic forest', so the conversion of one to the other is, if nothing else, a shift from her bottom five in the general direction of her top five. It doesn't put her at ease like a real supernatural wilderness typically does, but it doesn't even move the needle on the dread that she feels; that much is of a totally different variety anyways.     'There's s'posed to be rules, but it's really just a brawl when it comes down to it.'     "I'd assume as much even if I didn't already know." Lilian says, walking alongside Lulu with the sort of positioning that implies a defensive vanguard. Her Trídéag uniform appears to have been deemed sufficient, with the sole addition that she chooses to wear the chest plate carrier under her coat, but the weapon occupying her sheath is clearly Night Mist and not her Stigma-Nestor sword. "The City is choked with lawless violence, and someone is always painting a veneer of civility onto it in order to ease their threadbare conscience."     What she'd said to Angela wasn't so cynically toned, but it certainly served to caution her against falling into the same pattern. Whatever is going on between them isn't something she intends to explain to Lulu.     . . . . . . . .     'Welcome once again to the Library. This time, you--'     Even Lilian's eyes widen when Lulu just goes for it. She told her that she was going to, of course, but Lilian had taken it for nothing more than angry venting. Even if she's hitting Angela, she can't help but increment some sort of opinion meter in some way as a result.     'In the commotion I had neglected to mention the rules. Win this battle and you may leave here with the book you've come here to find. Lose, and you in turn will become books yourselves. May you find your book in this place.'     The same could be said for the fact that Angela, despite the situation, manages to stand on ceremony; presumably as always. Perhaps it's even a favour done to her that Lilian turns to Lulu says, "Are you certain that's 'the taboo'? That looks like human blood to me."     'That ought to do it. Let's get going.'     Roland's appearance is more or less as-expected. Lilian has no particular reason to feel threatened by a washed up Fixer, and holds no ill-will towards him, so the lack of Petra-- something she'd actively hoped for-- sets her more at ease than she was in the abandoned surroundings. Lilian paces towards one side of the warped arena in unhurried measure, taking a decided-upon position at a near-stroll, with one hand on her sword at her waist. "What a cordially light response. Are we feeling sympathetic towards our previous victim now?" she says to Roland, goading, but identifiably half-assed compared to her usual. "You won't catch me complaining at least. If you people are going to keep running this twisted little game, then I assume you're fully prepared for every reality that entails." Her eyes remain fixed on him even as she has to turn partially away. A hand gesture is all that's needed to convey the order to form a line to the Elites with her.     "Lulu. As part of this job, I will insist that you stay close to the rear, and do not attack without an opening created by Trídéag. It'll affect our reputation if you perish due to refusing to cooperate with our standard strategy." Lilian says. "I'm not averse to putting you out of comission to save your own life."
Lilian Rook	'I'll be fine. This is just another one, right?'     "Oh my god I forgot about you." Lilian half-laughs on the spot, blinking at Audrey's arrival. "Are you joking? You must be mad. Are you so starved after Petra left you that you're looking for any sword you can find to throw yourself on now?" she says, briefly forgetting to feign unfamiliarity. "Is that why you're volunteering at this human harvesting plant? Hoping to get hurt for your sick little thrills? Show the world that you're a delicate little flower after all and get excited roleplaying the doe-eyed girl next door who's in way over her head?"     "Get real, Basque. Give up right now and go back to where you belong. I've no interest in satisfying your fantasy. I've destroyed greater men for less."     She draws her blade into an extended longpoint stance with a lazy flourish, almost unguarded. The choice to face down Audrey has nothing to do with practicality. She is made away that Lilian's eyes are exclusively on her throat by now.     "You have four seconds."
Xion	Xion had taken a few Trideag operations here and there in the wake of the 'war' that recontextualized her relationship with the City. She felt guilty, and responsible, and empty, and the work that she did made her feel no closer to the light essence and clarity that let her hold the Kingdom Key as her own. She worked, and she performed labor, but for a time she did not feel well. She was not well, and had to search inside herself for why that was and treat it. For a time, she tried to rest. But, she knew, That brooding and turning inward had squandered her finest chance to fight a righteous war. That being less than present, a black shadow of her self, was a mistake. A wrong, against everyone-including-herself. Reckoning herself had been a long process, a work upon her patchwork heart, and a second mistake had become clear when she realized that she had spent that time alone and dissociated from the people she had helped and cared about her. Certainly, the Nobodies in Castle Oblivion cared about her in their ways but it was different in stages to retreat to nowhere at all to think alone, separated and disappeared from the world that had become real to her. Melancholy had fallen as winter upon Xion and she languished in ways that chocolate and lollipops couldn't help. The beating felt in throat and chest and soul was something strange and belligerent and borrowed-known, and to work on it so... She should have talked to someone. She should have talked to many people. Instead, she brooded, even though she knew it was wrong. Xion understood much more clearly her fellows who had no desire to attempt to regain a Heart. Deeply, truly, she understood that a Heart was a thing to cherish and resent in almost equal measure. The trick, as she came to process and realize, was that the Will could rein the Heart and guide it. And so, She worked. She held the keys that came to her - Starlight never left her, and the rest could be felt back to - and put herself back out into the world. She had stood for what she promised to do, and while she had emotions about being thrust into a situation, she fought for her word and what she believed in even if some greater utility value could have been felt. She had ceased to be the Hero of Everyone's Hearts, but, she could be her own, and she could be Binah's, and through assignment, Angela's. Mercenary heroine, now, Xion worked until she could feel right again. And then Lilian put out a call for the Fixers. Lilian could ask Xion to do anything and she would have done it, and so when Lilian asked for swords, well, Again, Xion donned black on black with a Trideag jacket over top instead of her usual long coat, and appeared on-site just before seeing. . . Library. The Library. She's here again, and this time with the wrong coat and a countermanding promise. It had to be the Library, didn't it? For the mercenary heroine of hearts, she picked her side by promise, and this time, she bore her swords into the house she had bled to save. At least, this time... It wouldn't be to the death. Right? 'Lose, and you in turn will become books yourselves.' Xion enters the Library summoning two swords to hand -- those familiar with her partner, Roxas, would know them as Oathkeeper and Oblivion, a white winged and angelic-style Keyblade and a black framed and gothic style Keyblade respectively -- shouldering Oblivion across her right shoulder and jogging with Oathkeeper forward. Without her usual hood, she can't hide or disguise the distant and blank look across her face, not a professional mask but a dull detachment. Some part of her doesn't want to be here, and she doesn't need to be 'on' to advance through shifting-updating terrain that lenses her into General Works. Audrey. Roland. The challenge.
Xion	Xion lowers Oathkeeper across her front low enough for tip to touch floor, stance still motional and not combative. "Sorry, Roland. We'll have to do the hide-and-seek lighting round. I've got a mission today..." Her eyes move to Audrey. There's much less to say. The blues of the noirette's eyes saccade-flick back to Roland as her right foot shifts with a soft 'skiff' against the floor to widen stance. Rather than take a posture, her motion forward is swallowed by her appearance through a deep and almost liquid-murky ripple of instant transmission. One instant she's in motion and the next that motion is completed, a mixture of raw physical speed and Corridor travel that barely opens before it closes and she's through. Smoke wafts at entry point, and at exit point, Xion drives her fist and the thick grip of Oathkeeper into Roland's gut, only to bring down right arm hard and pincer pommel strike him with Oblivion's awkward haft, abusing her big boxy cartoon keysword guards in the way they were meant to be used: as messed up melee enhancers! The follow through, after a moment, is a scissoring in of her swords, bringing white and black together and across before her arms fully cross and Roland has Reacted or Is In Trouble. "I'd say," Xion declares mid-strike. "You'll deserve my book if you can get it," The Nobody's eyes bore into Roland's. "But you won't be getting it."
Petra Soroka	Lulu doesn't react in the moment of hitting Angela to her actually being wounded, besides the expected vindication from her staggering backwards. She spits on the carpet and grimaces, slapping her bat against her palm. "I'll be back for you."     She's seen each part of a reception before, so she just braces herself for the warp without surprise, but once they're all up in General Works, Lulu peels her hand off of her bat and examines the splotch of red on it. "A machine that bleeds...? Ugh." Clenching her fist, she glares across the arena at Roland and Audrey. "C'mon, Lulu... focus on what's in front of you. These crummy shitheels're all that're standing between you and seein' the expression on mochi-ball's face when he gets saved by you." "Are you certain that's 'the taboo'? That looks like human blood to me."     Lulu shakes her head, unnerved more than uncertain. "Yeah. Didn't hit her last time, so I didn't know, but... that's a machine. You can see it, can'tcha? And that noise...." "I'll be fine. This is just another one, right?"     Lulu thwacks the tip of her bat against the arena floor, sparking it to ignite in a wreath of flames. Somehow, when she slings it back over her shoulder, it doesn't immediately catch her fluffy parka on fire. Her glare redoubles at Audrey, gritting her teeth in anger and stomping a step towards her.     "Oh, *you'll* be fine, huh?! *Bitch*! I bet you were goofin' off with tea and champagne after killing Mars! And now you don't even have anything to say...?!" "Let's get going."     Roland, at least, is just a City Guy doing a City Job. As angry as Lulu is, she's not really any *angrier* by simply waving the flag for 'go'. She widens her stance, batter-posture to prepare for the clash, but then... "As part of this job, I will insist that you stay close to the rear, and do not attack without an opening created by Trídéag."     Her stress escapes in a frustrated gasp, trembling in her bat, sounding exactly like a small overly aggressive chihuahua straining at her harness. "Au-- argh! C'mon! Let me at 'em! I'm not deadweight!"     But, then again, she's fighting alongside a Grade One, as a measly Grade Eight. "Khhh.... I'll try. But I'm not a slow and steady type!"     She's also not a speed-type, not when she's fighting alongside Xion comparatively. Her best efforts to dash in still leave her trailing behind the noirette, conveniently giving her the exact window that Lilian asked that she take advantage of when going in for a two-handed overhead swing of her bat after Roland's gut-punched by Oblivion.
Sarracenia	Sarracenia also thought the day Trideag finally attacked the Library was still far off. She knew it would happen eventually, though. Lilian's and Trideag's goals were too opposed to what Angela was doing. People being killed and turned into books doesn't help the city or its people.      Sarra had been quite vocal about her intent to obstruct Angela's method. So, she joins the party headed to the Library quite eagerly. She's stronger than the last time she fought in this place. Or at least, she thinks she is.      It may be a surprise to the Library staff when the princess arrives with her copper hair shining with its former glory, her skin (moderately) young and vibrant, and her specially tailored outfit reflecting proper Trideag colors. A white silk button-up blouse with ruffles down the front, a black velvet vest with golden buttons and green lapels, and a long and slightly airy black skirt with flowing green ivy-like embroidery. The skirt reaches just past her knees, where broad-striped black and green leggings can be seen before disappearing into pointed black boots with gold zippers along the insides.      Hanging from her back is a white knee-length cape where the Trideag insignia has been embroidered proudly as large as it can be, with gold trim along the edges of the cape.      Naturally, the princess still has on her crown, her Silver lotus hairpin, and her elegant eyepatch.      After stepping through the door with Lulu and the others, Sarra takes in the appearance of the transmogrified section of City.      'Rrrr... this place gives me the creeps.'      "I have to agree." Sarra says as they walk. "Why do the tree-buildings have no foliage? Beneath the golden glow it makes the land appear cursed instead of cleansed, which I thought was one of her goals." The cleaner air is noticed after. Living in a huge jungle Sarra is used to pretty clean air, and the City is rather putrid in comparison. "...still, I would have to agree that it is an improvement overall." she says after Lilian.      Xion is here! It has been forever since Sarracenia saw one of her favorite people! ...has it been since the war? Sarra gives Xion a hug if allowed and a grapefruit soda even if she has to stuff it into Xion's hands. "Xion! It is so good to see you! I was quite worried about you after the war! Are you alright? Let me know if you would like another soda!"      Lulu makes quite an entrance. Sarra lets out a slight haughty 'hmph' and smirks lightly as Lulu just kicks the doors in and bashes Angela in the head. "A solid blow." she compliments, then looks at Angela. "Hello Angela." she says before looking around. "Quite impressive, really. It is a shame you are using it in this way. Had you simply chosen a different method this could have been avoided." she says.      Only to blink in surprise as Angela actually bleeds and then collapses. She had almost accepted that Angela was indestructible. She doesn't get to say anything else as they are twisted and turned and warped to the arena. Sarra looks around, then frowns lightly. "Ah, I remember this." she says as she reaches to touch her Silver lotus. The morphmetal flows down over her arms, covering her long black gloves until they are silver. Then, she stretches Silver between her hands until a long staff has been formed. She grips it tightly, then twirls it rapidly as the head of her massive hammer forms at one end. She finishes her flourish and brings the haft down to send a resounding thud through the floor.
Sarracenia	'Are you joking? You must be mad. Are you so starved after Petra left you that you're looking for any sword you can find to throw yourself on now?'      Audrey appears, and Sarra blinks before raising an eyebrow then shaking her head. "Petra left -you-?" Sarra didn't know that. Sarra lets out a bit of a huff. "I was rather hoping it would be the other way around..." she says. Sarra listens to the rest of what Lilian says, and frowns. The implications are unpleasant. After Lilian gives Audrey four seconds, Sarra adds, "...if you need somewhere safe to stay..."      Then, she turns toward Roland. Her frown remains...or perhaps deepens. "Well...I hope you are ready, Mr. Roland. And I hope all of this is still worth it for you even if you might be booked again." The princess's tone and expression toward Roland are both cold anger. He has prodded her quite a bit on the radio, and has been doing these death challenges for who knows how many. "Were you the one who took this young lady's beloved from her?" Sarra asks as she pulls a Bullet Bill out of her purse. "All for what? A tiny speck of light that is of better use out there anyway?" she says as she tosses the Bullet Bill up and pulls another, then juggles them a moment. "What do you even get out of all this?"      She goes into a spin and with a thunderous rapport hammers both Bullet Bills at Roland. "Give him back!!" she screams, enraged for Lulu. She looks to Lulu after. "Stay close to me! I will give you as many openings as I can!! And take these!" Sarra gives Lulu at least one of every power-up the princess typically has with her. "Squeeze them and you will be endowed with powers! I am afraid I do not have time to explain them all, but you will know what to do with them after using one!"
Audrey Basque	"GEEEEEEEEEEED!"     Ah... Riku...     Audrey actually rather quite liked him.     But she can't just back down over it.     "... my apologies, Riku. I hope you won't think less of me."     Too late. "Oh, *you'll* be fine, huh?! *Bitch*! I bet you were goofin' off with tea and champagne after killing Mars! And now you don't even have anything to say...?!"     "I'm sorry. But the invitations are clear. You all knew the stakes. What do you want me to say?" Audrey doesn't look at Lulu, not because she's being cool, quite the opposite; she's not *had* to discuss with someone wronged by the Library before, with or without consent given. She really has nothing to say about it.     "But I wasn't celebrating, for what it's worth." "Are you joking? You must be mad. Are you so starved after Petra left you that you're looking for any sword you can find to throw yourself on now?"     This should kill her, right then and there!     It was always going to come out.     "This is my *job* here, if you'd forgotten," Audrey snaps. "Petra left -you-?" "...if you need somewhere safe to stay..."     "I have *a house*, Sarracenia. I have a dorm room. I have like, three other places. Don't get involved."     Despair dearest.     Of all the ways to have this go down. "Is that why you're volunteering at this human harvesting plant? Hoping to get hurt for your sick little thrills?"     She yanks another layer of space with her empty hand, crunching it around herself like another layer of distortion.     "I don't *want* to get hurt. I don't enjoy it, whatever else you might think. But I enjoy being here. I wonder if you can understand that. You always look so unhappy and displeased."     She really didn't enjoy the pain. She enjoyed the attention. "Show the world that you're a delicate little flower after all and get excited roleplaying the doe-eyed girl next door who's in way over her head?"     "... I'd sooner be that than whatever this place has made of you. You-- you're barely--" Light. Still none of it.     "Why aren't you..." "Get real, Basque. Give up right now and go back to where you belong. I've no interest in satisfying your fantasy. I've destroyed greater men for less."     The flourish, the stance...     "You're supposed to be..." "You have four seconds."     Audrey croaks on her words again.     "Okay.
Audrey Basque	Breathe.     And calculate everything.     She's *fast*, somehow.     She flickers, like Petra's odd frame-skipping. ". . . Well, the sort of spatial magic that White does isn't really within my family's portfolio; or rather, we don't have a method of finely controlling coordinates through the lower three dimensions."     It is NOT teleportation, or at least, not in the way Audrey understands it. Lilian seemed unaware that spatial manipulation is harder around her, which really cements it wasn't. "Nothing complex. I just observed your arcane signature while using magic at times, and then the absence when you teleported that way."     It may not even be magic.     It didn't feel like it, not to her, not to the Timekeeper.     She's incredibly dodgy about it, so it's a special trump card that even a public hero doesn't want exposed.     It also appears to exhaust her? No, that's-- conjecture, she was in a *fight*, of course she'd be exhausted, but... *magic* doesn't exhaust that way. Keep her running? This doesn't have to be about deathblows, it just has to be about running out her stamina.     ... her soldier-trained, knight-hero enhanced stamina.     Against Audrey's, who gets winded after too many steps.     Her left hand clenches, like it's squeezing around something impossible. Pearlescent white-blue cracks and motes of magic spread outward and the whole arena contorts. Spins. Like being inside a spinning cylinder. It doesn't stop.     It's oppressive. It's gravity weighing down at twice the usual rate. It's disorienting. And there's no telling where--     The ground under Lilian and Riku ruptures suddenly; it shoots up like a piston, crunching into an identical column mirroring above. Then another, and another, and another-- the arena's turning into a piston chamber, and the distance to Audrey seems unstable. Ten meters? It could be a hundred. It's fluctuating. It actually keeps changing.     How much magic is she burning so quickly?     It barely matters. Not to her. There's so many things wrong with her, so many deep problems, but... not her magic.     There's so much of it.
Angela	Roland is worried about Audrey but every time he pushes her on the matter she either closes up or says everything is fine. Hopefully she's the werewithal to be the same after today. He's anxious about Lilian as anybody from The City who watched either of the videos starring her would be, but at least she's a person and not some sort of monster. Dying to humans is something he's ben prepared for his whole life. It's easy to batten down the hatches and keep the anxiety of a fight enclosed in his heart, even with a face like his. ''What a cordially light response. Are we feeling sympathetic towards our previous victim now?'' "Well," Roland says. #-1 INVALID ANSI DEFINITION: 2q43 "Yeah. I'm not gonna insult her by bawling my eyes out or anything, but it'd be strange if I felt nothing at all." He's startled by something he sees on Xion's face. He looks at her face for a long moment. "...I understand. You've got oaths to keep, after all." And he has his objective. Whatever he feels about their pasts and their connections, this is this and that is that. Angela's gaze settles on Xion from the observation deck. Out of anyone here, she owes Xion the most. She suspects Roland will have his work cut out for him, but her presence is unexpected once again. No, she supposes she should anticipate Lilian calling on her connections to ensure she has the backup she needs to tilt battles in her favor. She's grown fond enough of Roland that she's not going to be rooting against him, but despite what she told Roland--she can't help but feel quietly anxious. ''Are you certain that's 'the taboo'? That looks like human blood to me.'' Angela allows herself a smile. As complicated as things have gotten, even as they stand against one another, she can't help but feel that longing pull towards Lilian. She still dreams one day of being able to work hand in hand with her in The City. And beyond. And she's closer today, isn't she? The blood staining her hand is proof. She was so excited she almost forgot about the Reception entirely in the moment. ''You'll deserve my book if you can get it.'' "I am glad her spirit's still strong." Binah says, smiling. Of course she has to watch too. ''If you need somewhere to stay.'' Angela's mood sours. "Roland, book Sarracenia first. I hope to have some visitors soon who might appreciate a pop up book." ''What do you even get out of this?'' "Ah, well, if I stop working for her I'll get in a lot of trouble." Roland brings up that cocky smirk of his. "As for the rest, that's not really any of your business is it?" Despite smirking he has nothing but cold hatred for Sarracenia, a hatred dwarfed only by emptiness. "I'll be professional about it, don't worry. A quick booking." Girls take initiative! Xion slams her fist into Roland's gut while he is distracted by the Smoke wafting in. He was bringing his free arm up to cover his nose and mouth--like an instinct--He lifts Mars' sword up to block the strike from Oblivion--he wasn't looking back behind him, did he feel the passage of the blade on the wind? He twists our of the scissoring strike before Xion can overpower his awkward block and he lets out a breath of air. "No kidding. But you shouldn't understimate me just because I'm Grade Nine."
Angela	Case in point, a rifle materializes in his free hand and he blasts off a shotgun blast at Xion rather than closing into melee, though the blast is slightly awry since Lulu is coming in quick with an overhead bat strike for Roland's head, forcing him to bring up Mars's blade to protect himself from her bat. He grimaces as his arm strains to resist the force of the strike. "Yeah this could be trouble..." He murmurs, more to himself than to Lulu. It's his turn to go for a punch while holding the sword, trying to knock Lulu away before Sarracenia starts flinging bullet bills and hammers. "Wings..." He mutters. It may be cartoon ass shit but they still hurt real bad. If they give back the book, he wonders, would they even be able to be turned back into people? He feints like he's going to backpedal before slamming his sword forward, wholly intent on stabbing Mars' sword into Sarracenia before flinging her away with the sword itself, even as hammers and bullet bills glance off his body when he can't quite evade them. The hate in his eyes when he stares at Sarracenia doesn't make any sense.
Riku Asakura	'... my apologies, Riku. I hope you won't think less of me.' "I won't, we both made our choices..." Geed says, with an implied frown in the tone of his voice.  Ultraman can't change his face plate, or rather, Riku is likely too young to be able to change his face in Ultraman form.  Regardless, he doesn't speak anymore.  They both had made their choices, and the ultimatum was on the field thanks to Lilian.   It seems Audrey won't take it.  The gravity forces down on Geed, who is hard-pressed to move out of the way.  Of what?  The ground is pumping like a piston back up at him.  Oh that.   It strikes him repeatedly, drawing sparks each time it strikes him.  Audrey wasn't playing around. Neither could Riku.  He starts growing, increasing the stress on his body, but also making himself larger to affect the battle arena more.  He comes down, closing the distance between himself and Audrey. Then he slams both hands down, trying to break through the pistoning earth and also shatter the ground beneath Audrey herself.  This will no doubt cause a shockwave to try to take her feet from under her.  "Dame Rook, I've got your back!" he says, making sure that his will on the matter is made apparent.
Lilian Rook	'But I wasn't celebrating, for what it's worth.'     "It's worth nothing you mealy-mouthed self-pitying cretin." says Lilian, as a single breath out. "You knew all the stakes, right? Being detested, despised by the people you trample on, running up against an enemy you can't beat, being a target of revenge; that's clearer than fine print."     'This is my *job* here, if you'd forgotten'     "No it's not you slimy piece of shit." Lilian sighs again, but raising her voice. "You're a student; and this isn't going on your fucking curriculum vitae now is it. You chose to be here."     'I don't *want* to get hurt. I don't enjoy it, whatever else you might think. But I enjoy being here. I wonder if you can understand that. You always look so unhappy and displeased.'     Again, louder than before, "What is there to enjoy you sick fuck? Entrapping and murdering people off the streets? Their screams and tears, like this? What about this situation right now gets you off?"     "Being unhappy about this City is normal. Everyone else is. What's wrong with you?"     Of course, Lilian's experience with Audrey is 'barely noticing her at school'. The idea that she fights anyone at all is still absurd to her, much less conceptualizing her as 'a combatant'. Deemed a threat too insignificant to research, her very first use of offensive magic in front of Lilian has the element of surprise; the column that rockets up under her is something she intends to simply ride up for a vertical advantage, but then finds unexpectedly heavy just as the upper twin strikes. Night Mist flicks up out of longpoint and swings back over Lilian's head on instinct faster than conscious thought; her footing follows suit and rocks her stance onto her back heel, stabilizing her against the impact that follows Night Mist embedding itself at a back-angle into the solid rock, and stopping it short of her head.     The doubled weight of the column itself takes her by surprise. Lilian rushes to brace her sword with her other hand when she feels her knees buckle and the hilt strike her own shoulder. Her footing slides wide, then stops short when she tenses up. A half-second after, Lilian breathes out, back in control, and some hair-raising primal impulse tells Audrey that she's in critical danger.     Lilian vanishes. Of course she doesn't notice the spatial anchoring around Audrey; she hopped down and walked there. The two columns slam together, thin air between them, and Audrey's vision is obscured with the trailing ends of Lilian's hair, ears occupied with the sharp sound of shrieking air and humming glass. The edge of Night Mist appears scarcely two feet away; the trajectory intersects Audrey's side just short of her spine, deliberately pathed through liver, kidney, and diaphragm at an angle practically chosen for sadism. The moment after, she can hear Lilian's heels behind her.
Petra Soroka	"A solid blow."     "Heh." Lulu scoffs, not quite proud but definitely pleased with herself for the thwack. Considering how patently obvious Sarracenia is making it that she has a prior relationship with Angela and Roland, while Lilian is trying to play it closer to her chest... well, Lulu still doesn't notice. She's just a little stupid. And she's focused! "Were you the one who took this young lady's beloved from her?"     But not focused enough to ignore *that*!!!! Lulu yelps and wheels around, sneakers squeaking on the arena floor as she frantically pivots and stomps her foot down, wide-stanced to protest. "HAHHHHHHHHHHH?!?!?!?!?!? 'Beloved'?!?!?!? That-- *him*?! *Me*?!?! Like *that*?!?!? That ugly smug face of his-- I don't even-- I'd *never*! Y'hear?! I just wanna see the expression on his face when he's gotta thank me for saving him!!! A-and I'll get to lord it over him forever, even when he becomes a great big Fixer, too!!"     She's not goofing off for too long, though. As much of an overenergetic low-Grade human sacrifice as she is, the determination that she had in Trideag wasn't just for show. She fortifies her stance against Audrey's increased gravity, jaw set and sparks spilling off of her bat and unnaturally falling straight to the floor.     "Right... that's right. He's *gonna* be a Grade One, just like his mom. He's gonna work hard, he's gonna rise up to the top of some Association somewhere, he's gonna crush Urban Plagues like this like it's no big deal, and before all that...!" "Yeah this could be trouble..."     Lulu takes the punch without dodging, exchanging the bruise for another chance to bring her bat around for a flame-trailing swipe at Roland's head. "Before that, he's gonna step outta that book you made him into...!"     Her bat clanging off the sword makes her recoil and double-take, staring at Roland's outfit and making a choked noise. "You...! That's *his* equipment! That's Mars' *sword*! You *monsters!"     Lulu isn't someone whose default set of combat behaviors includes 'retreating'. She's forced to, both because of Lilian's orders and because of Sarracenia's bombardment, but it's clumsy and inefficient like she's being magnetically dragged back by her anger. The only way she can sustain such a thing is by yelling at someone, which is what she proceeds to do. "You all knew the stakes. What do you want me to say?"     "I don't want you to say anything!" Says she, after having demanded that Audrey say something. "I want you to shut up! Shut up and go to hell!"     Lulu fumbles around with one of the power-ups Sarracenia gave her, a weirdly orange-white oversized flower. Mumbling to herself, "How th'hell does this thing work? A flower...? Some workshop gimmick...?"     When she squeezes it, she transforms into FIRE LULU with a flash, turning her parka orange with white fluff, and a big L on the chest. She holds out her hand, conjuring up a ball of fire that she bounces up and down in her palm. "Ohhh... so *that's* how. Well, how 'bout I take *my* turn now!"     Rather than throwing the fireball directly at Roland, she tosses it up into the air. Settling into a batter's stance, she waits for it to fall, and then swings, rocketing the explosive fireball at him as hard as she can. "That's for Mars, you piece of shit!"
Xion	Briefly, before... Xion seems a little surprised when Sarracenia appears, though she's aware of the princess before she turns, smiling over the shoulder bearing Oblivion. Sarra hugging her - boldly as she might - is accepted with letting her blades down, the noirette laughing faintly, more tired than amused. "I'm good for a fight, but I've been getting better. Thanks for asking. Trust me, I've got plenty of your soda left, Sarra, but," More honest, with the faintest note of guilt, Xion offers a single somber sentence: "I'll be counting on you, Sarra. So stick close." --- With Oathkeeper and Oblivion scissored in shallow on Mars' sword, Xion pushes with a tightening of her arms and widening of her eyes, then looks to Roland as her backswing brings her blades back into forward grips with quick flicks. "I've never thought about grades. You get hit or you don't. You hit, or you don't. In the end, that's really all that matters." Xion replies as she moves, chasing Roland with a full step and seeing his gun muzzle come up. Swinging Oblivion down at the ground and drawing up a loose collection of stone blocks captured in a geyser-blooming field of purple from the Keyblade-strike, an upswing of Oathkeeper sends the collected magic terrain into Roland's pressured blasting. Lulu's aggression up close as a second line attack keeps Xion's tempo up while she tries to close. Even so, it's a prudent strategy for Roland to sit back with a rifle and punish her for closing. Taking a second blast partially blocked as she jinks close, Xion's partial blade-block still causes a momentary 'unh' of pain and forces a brief and smoky retreat into nowhere for a beat. Wounded, Xion is forced from the front, to Roland's advantage. Like she went into falling animation and clipped through the floor she's just Gone for long enough for Lulu's offense to fade back and Sarracenia's to explosively press in. As the smoke barely clears from the assault Xion forces close combat again by dropping out of a wheeling slash with both Oathkeeper and Oblivion held in parallel, and pivoting in her forward flip into a hooking kick -- expecting boot to hit blade, knowing Roland's reaction speed and guessing at optimal placement for coverage - barely a guess, being centerline. She's late to save Sarracenia from the thrust, but relentless as she makes effort to add a balanced-on-blade stabbing with Oblivion down past guard. She only has time for one stab, backflipping back away over the baseball crack shot of Fire Lulu, having forced the opening for as long as she could. Landing, she tries to close again, knowing that if she sits at range Roland might have the better arsenal. "You're Angela's favorite Agent, now. I know you're special!" She adds, feinting close and circling to no doubt avoid several fireballs or explosions in a row.
Audrey Basque	"I won't, we both made our choices..."     "Yeah..."     What else is there to say?     How many times did Angela warn her, word for word, that sooner or later, and surely sooner than later, this sort of thing could happen? That the wrong people would take offense with the Library.     But this soon? When they've barely started ramping up?     When she's spent this entire time leaving the killing to Roland, and now she might have to...     Oh god.     Just wear them out. They'll run, surely.     But to pass on...     Nothing Riku said was meant to get in her head like this, but it did, enough that when the shockwave is so much stronger than she expects she yelps. She doesn't fall-- she's floating, the odd, distorted mess of crunched space shielding catching the broken floor's debris into Audrey's orbit.     But it's destabilizing. She's already flinched.     She really is 'fresh'.     And when her focus goes, her barrier visibly weakens.     A flurry of blades manifest; it's a reflex, where Audrey's right hand swings even as she floats back, away from Riku, conducting no orchestra at all with the blade she's holding. Instead, copies of the sword streak through the air, slicing through space to overwhelm the Ultraman from a dozen different angles. But compared to before... she's already losing steam?      "It's worth nothing you mealy-mouthed self-pitying cretin."     Lilian was right. Of course Lilian was right.     That's the pattern that lets her be like this.     "I--" "You're a student; and this isn't going on your fucking curriculum vitae now is it. You chose to be here."     And right again.     "It's still a job! It's still a responsibility!"      "What is there to enjoy you sick fuck?"     And again.     "I meant being out here! Mattering! Making a difference!" "Being unhappy about this City is. Everyone else is. What's wrong with you?"     And again.     "This is exactly why I'm doing this! This City is crawling with people who *need* to be reined in! Do you think we're just picking off the sick and the homeless?!" Well... "We've been--!" Lilian vanishes.     This is the closest to the real Night Mist Audrey will ever get, and it's *like this*. The first cut doesn't make it through her barrier, but gives all of its secrets away to Lilian on the spot. It's not just a shield, it's distance. It's slicing through a mile of nothing, it's lessening the force of the slash by exhausting it.     But it's more than that.     The second and third cuts hit their marks; Audrey bleeds, precise and near-instantaneous slashes adapted to her spatial distortion more than able to compensate, but diminished enough that she's not gutting the organs out like she might have hoped. Deeps cuts-- through the barrier, through the EGO gear.     There's no scream.     "This isn't... this wasn't..."     How she saw this.     How she dreamed this.     This... this...     "Would it kill you to see my talent? JUST ONCE? Would it kill you to admit I'm not like the others and I can *do this*?!"     Is that what this is about? This childish need to be...     Just once?     The distance between Lilian and Audrey is made null.     They're practically overlapping, and there's a *burst* of shredding force. The distance between points shrinking and growing irregularly, stretching, ripping, pushing and pulling all at once.     It's deeply unpleasant, hopefully debilitating and stunning, until Audrey slips backwards through a mirrored crack, drops of blood hitting the broken floor from far above giving away her new position.     And from above, she commands to flooring to snap shut like a flytrap around Lilian with all the crushing force she can put in.
Sarracenia	Briefly, before...      'I'll be counting on you, Sarra. So stick close.'      Sarra smiles brightly and nods. "Of course! I will be much more reliable than last time!"      Now      Sarra doesn't feel much more reliable than last time...      Sarra is naturally on the way to follow up her attack with a hammer strike, intent on giving Lulu plenty of openings.      But, in her haste to settle the score with Roland, Sarra fell for the feint and gave Roland quite an opening. And he did the same to her. Her hammer is raised when he lunges forward, and she cries out in surprise and pain as she finds herself impaled on a sword yet again in this place, and with perhaps even more hatred in the eyes of the one responsible as the last time.      Sarra really does not understand why Roland hates her, much less to this degree. It actually frightens her just a bit, but the fear gives way to rage quickly even as she is flung away. She slides across the floor, leaving a red smear in her wake, and lands in a curled up heap, shuddering in pain and anger. A green light flows over her, staunching the bleeding at the least. Stored up green mushrooms in action. But, a blow like that requires a bit more. Sarra coughs up a bit of blood before she downs another green. That one is finally enough to get her back on her feet.      'Lulu protests too much.'      Sarra actually smiles a bit. "Ah, my mistake." she says to Lulu, though it is fairly obvious Sarra doesn't believe it. She looks toward Roland and his hatred-filled face, and frowns deeply. "You know, most people that hate me I at least know the reason. But, I have no idea with you! Just what did I do to you?!"      'You...! That's *his* equipment! That's Mars' *sword*! You *monsters!'      Sarra's eyes widen, then her teeth clench. She's perhaps as angry as Lulu is about this! "Not only did you kill her beloved, but then you use HIS weapon to fight HER?! No wonder you work here! You are more monstrous than many of the -actual- monsters here!!"      Sarra is still working on catching her breath after that, but she still intends to give Lulu more openings. As Lulu gets fired up, Sarra decides to cool things off. She pulls out an ice flower and is soon in dazzling ice colors...other than the red down her white blouse. This is why she winds up spending so much on clothing!      Sarra starts tossing ice bolts at Roland, aiming mostly for his legs and feet to try and slow him down. "What is wrong, -Mister- Roland?" She says it like some people say princess at her. "You seemed quite willing to talk to the man you murdered the first time I saw this arena, even though he was not! Are you perhaps at a loss because you know just how despicable you are being right now?!" She starts adding Silver flechettes to the stream of projectiles, and just throws more and more and more.
Angela	Man, Roland thinks as Lulu protests the term 'beloved', did she have to be so... The grimace lingers on his face for a moment before he pushes it off his face. He takes a moment, seeing Fire Lulu. He's fought in the Mushroom Kingdom area before so he has some understanding of the powerups present. He hangs back when she sees what she's up to and readies Mars' sword like he's up to bat himself. This could become a ping pong projectile battle if he times his swing right. He brushes his foot across the ground and stares at Lulu as she tosses the fireball up into the air and... BGM INTERRUPT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgbPzKp12Cc The fireball is coming for Roland and he swings Mars's sword...! And the blade connects, sending the fireball flying right back to Lulu. Don't think about it, Roland tells himself. This is how the City is. You don't really expect to somehow be the one who gets to be different, do you? You have a mission. And you will complete it no matter what. That is why you are here. ''You get hit or you don't.'' "So that's why... If you're professional as that I might be in trouble." Roland murmurs like he's talking about baseball statistics. Maybe that fireball from Lulu has done a number on him. Or this is just how he approaches fights. " Lulu is a bit of a wild card. She's fightying harder than ever and has the most passion in this fight and Sarracenia's powerups are making her more dangerous as a result. Sarraceina he expects about what he usually sees from her and Xion, he hasn't seen her fight before so that makes her the most dangerous opponent here by default...but Sarracenia can keep them going strong for the full fight. ''Your Angela's favorite agent now.'' "About that-- and I'm assuming we're not counting Petra here--but I feel like she just clams up sometimes when thinking about a particular one--" Xion anticipates Roland's reaction speed as he brings his sword up to block the boot as expected, though something does feel a little off, like it was a milisecond off from last time, an imperceptable moment too early. Xion gets a good strike in his side and he stumbles back, unable to close in on Lulu. Roland grimaces and stumbles back, his retaliatory strike too slow to catch Xion.
Angela	''You are more monstrous than many of the -actual- monsters here!!'' "Well excuse me, Princess." Roland says in exactly that way. "But how the hell would you know anything about me? You're just stomping around here, blabbing about becoming a hero but you barely understand anything about this City. You're just here for the tourism. what is Lulu to you actually? You've known her for, what, a week? Ah, but you can feed off whatever feelings she's got towards Mars, you can leach off her story just a little so you can feel like the big hero. You're so excited you get to lecture me but I know the real reason you're so eager to call me a monster, but what exactly have you been responsible for in The City? You protected a Syndicate that will crush your skull if you scuff their boot." This isn't the real reason he hates her, but it's closer. "Maybe I am worse than any monster, but that's not why you're pissed at me. We both know why. You've been aching for this chance. For longer than Lulu." He steps forward but Sarracenia catches him with those ice bolts of her, pinning his legs to the floor. He twists and writhes but can't seem to pull himself free. "Everyone from this City knows there's...strings. There's strings that connect us all to everyone else. Some people get fancy and call this the River, but I'm not so poetic as that." Roland says, tugging on his leg. "I call it... 'This is this, and that is that'. Everyone has their reasons for doing what they do, everybody is coerced, and the only way to live in this City is to accept that everybody has a good reason for doing the monstrous evil thing they're doing ... And so do you. Whether it's because you need a payday, or if it's revenge because someone shot up your guys, or if it's because of that string tugging on your heart..." He hears the voice... And he accepts it. Roland's form changes, golden strings rising up off his body as he channels an EGO that hasn't been seen before, his body becoming more wooden, his jaw popping open like a nutcracker. The EGO are stronger than before, or perhaps just here, as he channels the power... of the Marionette EGO. The strings seem to guide him as a pair of tether chains lash out and around him wildly, unpredictably, at Xion and Sarracenia. "Get off your high horse or you're gonna lose to The City again."
Riku Asakura	What more needed to be said between the two?  Perhaps a lot, perhaps nothing... right now, though, they are using their actions to speak for themselves.  Whatever might be said, violence spoke for them now.  For Riku, it was protecting the people of The City with Trideag.  That's all, Riku, and by virtue of being the same person, Geed could hope for right now.   Swords stab down, and his larger mass is easier to hit.  Sparks rain from him, but instead of trying to dodge or evade, he keeps building up energy.  Red and black energy charges throughout his body, and he grows to be at least twice the size of a normal person.  He notices that Audrey is put off by the shockwave, even if her barrier protects her from the worst of it.   This gives Geed an idea, he holds a hand out and into his hand comes "GEED CLAW!" he calls the name of the weapon as it summons into his hands.  He sends the extra energy into the claw, and after a few moments, he fires a claw-shaped blast at Audrey and her barrier, trying to pierce through it and disable the barrier.   "Claw Cutting!" he calls out.
Lilian Rook	'It's still a job! It's still a responsibility!'     "You can leave at any time."     'I meant being out here! Mattering! Making a difference!'     "As another predator amongst thousands."     'This is exactly why I'm doing this! This City is crawling with people who *need* to be reined in!'     "Was Mars one of them?"     It was never going to be like arguing with Lilian on the radio. That much should be obvious to anyone. And it's been a long time since even that much was warranted anyways. But the difference, in the midst of combat, is something different than even night and day. These short, clipped, down-to-the-heart utterances, taken in perfect tempo with short yet even breaths, speak to how Lilian even has speaking in the heat of battle down to a science; a rhythmic tempo that has no impact on her performance, already thoughtless habit. She pauses, only briefly, somewhere in the near distance behind Audrey. Night Mist twists back and forth with her wrist, as if dialling-in to an unfamiliar angle. Lilian glances back over shoulder as Audrey reels; down at the rip in her EGO wear.     'Would it kill you to see my talent? JUST ONCE? Would it kill you to admit I'm not like the others and I can *do this*?!'     "Borrowed power and no conviction." Lilian says. Or 'concludes'. "My classmates stand out better in my memory than any of the hundreds of Elites that've come and gone since then." Her eyes wander down to her sword, thoughtfully tracing the point across the Library floor in a perfect quarter circle as she turns back again. "Not even the worst of them would reduce themselves to this. You'd have done better to keep pretending to be one of them." The second time, Lilian seems so ready for Audrey that it immediately provokes a sense of 'wrongness'. Something like 'an instantaneous adaptation' would come across more naturally; not like how Lilian curls her fingers the moment Audrey throws out a gesture, and swings her fist directly into Audrey's chin the same instant the space between them disappears; a short upper thrown out with timing like she already knew exactly what was coming. The knuckle guards sewn into the Association gloves concentrate the impact onto two knuckles against the jawbone.     Then her eyes flick to the blood dribbling from above, without lingering on the much more distracting spatial tear; as if she'd smelled it before she saw it. Taking a quick breath, Lilian's coat flares out as she snap-extends her sword from her side, and then leapt over the collapsing floor at some point; she must have. Her gaze hasn't left the trickle of blood despite the traversal; even accounting for its fallen shift.     Lilian exhales "Slais Gearradh Fola." and pivots herself in mid-air to split the blood-runoff before it hits the ground. The etchings pulse red along her blade on contact, and as the ripple reaches the point, a fraction of the same slash is sympathetically transposed on Audrey; beginning from the point the blood had been shed, rather than outside.     Before she can adjust, Lilian has Winter Crow at hand, firing a burst of searing alchemical gold at Audrey as she lazily falls back down. She catches the edge of the folded ground with her boot, and kicks herself away at ninety degrees with her ankle, turning and firing as she vanishes again.
Petra Soroka	After Lulu bats the fireball towards Roland, she waggles the baseball bat in front of her, turned to the side with her elbows tucked in like she's standing at home plate. Despite this clear inclination towards smacking balls with bats, she marvels with surprise that such a thing was possible at all. She's probably only ever used it to hit *people* before. "Damn, this combo's a hell of a weapon. Didn't ever think of hittin' a *projectile* with it before!"     She then proceeds to try and repeat the same method Roland used and riposte the fireball right back at at him-- and even though she connects with it mid-swing, the fireball's going way too fast. It explodes against her already-flaming bat, scorching her and sending her stumbling back with a grimace. "Khh--! This isn't a *game*, asshole!" "Not only did you kill her beloved, but then you use HIS weapon to fight HER?!"     Lulu, incensed enough by the presence of Mars' sword that she forgets to protest to the use of 'beloved' again, makes a strained noise in agreement with Sarracenia. "When I kill you, I'll pick that off your corpse and hand it right back to him...!" "What is Lulu to you actually? You've known her for, what, a week? Ah, but you can feed off whatever feelings she's got towards Mars, you can leach off her story just a little so you can feel like the big hero."     The entire content of Roland's speech goes in one of Lulu's ears and out the other. Maybe if she was paying attention, she'd wonder why this random person inside the Library has such a long connection with people at Trideag, and maybe she'd be suspicious of her new allies fighting on behalf of Syndicates or whatever else, but all of that is completely washed away in the tide of anger from something much simpler. Vision going red, Lulu shouts with frustration and pumps more fuel into her bat, escalating the flames even more.     "Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!! Don't put my name in your mouth like that! What, you've got so many words for her, and none for me?! I'll smash your damn teeth in!!!"     Lulu smacks one of the string tethers out of the air before it can hit her, bat throwing off sparks at the impact. "I don't give a damn, y'hear?! Not about your 'this is this', not about your 'that is that', not about your 'this is how it is', either!! Screw it all! I just know... that I'm not gonna shrug it off when Mars sacrifices himself for me and Sen! I won't say, 'he made his choice', or, 'I won't get close again'! I'll pick myself up, and I'll keep fighting! So whatever your reasons... I'll trample 'em!"     Not knowing that literally everyone here but her is already familiar with Abnormalities, Lulu takes it on as her duty to tensely exposit while looking for an opening. "That's one of the monsters they've got here. It's gotta be. Different one from last time, but... they transform into 'em somehow, and get a big power up. Assholes. Choke on your 'strings'."     Taking on another one of Sarra's powerups, this time Lulu grips a metal mushroom until it pops in her fist. Coated from head to toe in smooth steel, Lulu's heavy steps trundle towards Roland, and she grabs one of the flailing strings like an unruly snake. Muted-silent by the power-up, she holds her flaming bat to it like a match until it catches, fire trailing down it towards Roland, who's attached to it.
Sarracenia	'Well excuse me, Princess.'      Sarra listens to what Roland says...and lets out a derisive snort. "Hah! You say I know nothing about you or this city and then claim to know everything about me?! You know just as little about me! I am -here- because the City is a terrible place! I am here because with Trideag we have a real chance to improve it! What is Lulu to me?! She is someone who was wronged in the worst way and came to use for help! You think I -want- to lecture you?! I would much prefer if we were all working together to improve the City! I do not protect any Syndicate! I only stopped Merelisa because she would have destroyed the City and everyone in it to cleanse it! And what are you doing?! You are helping harm the people of the City, one at a time, to do what?! To help Angela 'be born'?! Or is it because you actually hate this City and everyone in it and -want- to help destroy it all?! By the way, where are those students that came to join the Library, or who came merely to seek the knowledge?! Did you turn them to books as well?!"      Sarra growls. "The only reason I hate you is because you hate me! You have been rude to me at nearly every opportunity! You..." Sarra gasps. "...is this because I accepted that you were not a hero?! I told you I understood why! Do you have to prove just how unheroic you are before you will be satisfied?!"      Roland makes his speech about the River, but it is a certain phrase that catches Sarra's attention. This is this, and that is that. It is the phrase that Lilian used as a reason why they could work together in Trideag even though they despise each other. "...this is this and that is that...?" she murmurs. Is this some kind of City saying she does not know about?      Roland transforms, and those chains lash at Sarracenia. She yelps with each hit, and staggers after the onslaught. "...there is no excuse for doing monstrous evil things. Trying to justify them is just coping. You -always- have a choice! To give up and become a monster of the bad kind, or to maintain hope and keep working toward something better! Get off my high horse?! Get out of your pity wagon and work for something worthwhile!!"      Sarra's ice flower is gone after the chain whipping, and she is doing her best to avoid more. "And now what?! You are giving yourself over to the Abnormal power?! Just to protect a soul collector?! Sending out those predatory invitations presenting people with fake hope so that you can claim their lives and give their souls as an offering?!" Sarra throws a Bob-omb or two as she shouts, then blinks as Metal Lulu appears. Which causes a large grin to appear on her face. "Yeah! Let him have it, Lulu!"
Audrey Basque	"You can leave at any time."     "Do you think I got here by quitting when it gets hard?!"     Actually, yes. "As another predator amongst thousands."     "Every criminal and murderer turned into a book is so many more lives saved! That's just-- isn't that obvious?!"     Reducing the problem to pure mathematics. "Was Mars one of them?"     Was Mars one of them?     "Most Fixers are! They're just muscle for hire! They'll do whatever they're told, it's all messed up!"     A child's comprehension of the subject at best. "Borrowed power and no conviction."     B-Borrowed?     Because of the--     Audrey throws her sword aside.     The ones still buzzing about fall inert, into the void.     "I don't need this! I-- I--"     Is Lilian *breaking* her? She was right about the conviction.      "Not even the worst of them would reduce themselves to this. You'd have done better to keep pretending to be one of them."     Or... almost right? There's a bit, suddenly.     "Pretending to be like them for what?! So I can happily join together with everyone else in the pulsing tumor that turns people into mindless drones? So I can be a slightly more relevant nobody in a sea of people who can't see they're not even *people*?!" Has she been... that's the Petra Kool-Aid, isn't it?     Lilian punches Audrey in the gap of the blender field. She went all-offense on that, she was wide open. It's *weird* punching through her field even this close, but it doesn't take away enough of the oomph, and Audrey has to rub her jaw when she manages to slip up.     We now cut back to Audrey, holding Riku's attack against her field. She's twisting the Cutting Claw, angling it at Lilian and...     "?!" Pain. Sharp, intense pain.     Audrey's focus shatters, the Cutting Claw flying off into the void of the Library. Her hand covers the wound that inexplicably gets worse; well, not inexplicably, clearly, but processing it is...     Difficult, when you're also being shot at.     The searing gold splashes against her layers of space and momentarily blinds Audrey. Without that focus, the second shot goes right though and catches one of her arms (and the whole side, broadly). It's painful! She can't rip it off, if she touches that--     One of her hand grabs at her coat and shreds it off. It turns back into pages of paper, revealing the General Works uniform in its stead. Shedding a layer of defense just to clear the gold.     She's still flying, at least. Her hands are free.     "Why... why... WHY? You of all people!"      "*Finals*, right. Since the only thing you've ever done that's important to you is giving up more of your soul than anyone else at that stupid school, and getting to be the top student. So, what? You want recognition from *them*? Some fucking braindead CEO or prince who glances through their fucking *breeding* options checking them against a rubric?" "I thought you wanted recognition from me. From *Lilian*."         "I just... I... I have to be... more than that."     She has to. But why?     "I have to!"     The arena spirals. She spins, making wide arcs with her arms, guiding movements of stretched solid matter and currents of broken floor like flowing water. A raging river of debris, books, stone and metal, that seems to originate from every direction all at once.     And crashes, with no discrimination, into Lilian and Riku both, over, and over, and over again, chasing them if they move, abruptly emerging from another direction if they move, rupturing space in its wake and making movements unpredictable, a messy field of tiles that arbitrarily cost more or less movement points to cross, as if further away or closer than the eyes would inform you.
Xion	Trading just a few quick words with Roland, the passing of breath and blades between clashes, Xion gets the steadying feeling that Roland is on a similar tier of experience or capability to her. The City in its great brutality created people who if they lived long enough had a particular experience with violence comparable with veteran combatants. She's unsurprised when she is hit as much as she hits Roland. But she is.     And so is he. Dashing into a purple-wave side-slide of wispy gravity magic that transitions into steps again while lobbing balls of pale-white light and black-roiling darkness off of the swung tips of Oathkeeper and Oblivion, Xion circles before closing, getting a particular direction of dangerous intent out of Roland just from posture and reaction towards Sarracenia and circles around. After three magic seekers, dark-light-dark - Xion feints throwing another light sphere and instead transforms into the sphere temporarily herself, once again using Roxas' tricks as her own. Bouncing forward suddenly to emerge X-slashing at Roland's side while he assaults Sarracenia again and is pinned to the ground struggling by ice, Xion hooks out with the tooth of Oblivion to round about Roland and pressure his flanks with the white length of Oathkeeper and falling crescents of residual light magic like claws or glass shards down her attack. "You really are a professional, aren't you?" Xion inquires, almost conversational and almost kiai, swinging into a followup as soon as Roland's lost his mobility and is lowering his weapons to deal with his trapped legs. His words are worse, though, and Xion fights through them as much as his efforts with Mars' weapons. "Everyone has their reasons, but if you can't take ownership of why you're present, you're not present." Xion states, pulling back and worried about the strings. She feels an incredible malice out of them, a terrible noose-like choking that wrapped like a lover's touch, and flicks eyes up before down on Roland again. She has to have faith, in Lulu, and Sarracenia. Golden strings rise off of Roland's body and Xion dips through inky-brief Corridor to avoid them, only to be chased, found, seized momentarily by tether chain shot out by the marionette and lashed somehow even through her portal-hopping. 'Not being there' wasn't quite good enough to escape the reach of the EGO's rhetoric-backed assault. So she's lashed, and so she falls, landing in a tumble and rolling tightly. Oathkeeper and Oblivion dematerialize, Xion scrambling for a second as she re-evaluates the fight. The battle with Binah extends before her eyes. How badly did she want to force a win? Did she need to press harder? The calculation is made easier by Sarracenia rallying first and shouting about choices, pressing on words that Xion half-hears and half runs towards. "You act like a puppet on strings, but you're not. You swing like a marionette, but, you're not!" Xion challenges, bare hands swinging back in pantomime of a heavy weapon couched in ready. When she swings in just a moment after, the 'grapefruit soda' she had promised she still had plenty of comes to bear - her Sarracenia themed trick greathammer pink as the interior of a grapefruit with pith white and rind near-orange trim highlighting parts. The back of it is a big thruster, as it 'shwonk's into grip to the woosh of a Bill-jet engine. Swinging up the weapon on booster Bill rocket, the overswing transitions it the entire two hundred and seventy degrees over from clash to behind her. So, Xion just flips the hammer over and stomps the end to let the Citrus Bill crack the nose of the hammer and launch up artillery style to pump arms and narrow eyes and aim down to explode right on the clash itself.
Xion	Xion, having let go of the Grapefruit Crush, still closes, summoning another power - and not from a pocket medallion. Instead, from right besides, she draws forth a weapon fresh and skips the whole medallion process, planting feet and taking one picture perfect major league crack of a swing with a second baseball bat in caution tape yellow and black, with a tape-charm-chain dangling down and swaying thickly. Atop Xion's head is a Mario red baseball cap with black brim and trim, and a flame effect at the edges of the brim and snapback, and her coat has been upgraded with one heck of a (slightly embering but never burning) white fringe frill, obviously a duplicate of Lulu's incredible jacket fringe. "You're just reaching for that as an excuse. You're getting something too, wanting this fight yourself. This isn't champions fighting for a cause - and you best believe I'll home run smack that page out of you - and this Cycle of Violence you've become more than a part of -- you're wearing it as armor!"
Angela	Angela's attention is more on Audrey's fight than Roland's but she hasn't been very chatty about it. Instead she's been thinking about what to say, or if she even should say anything. But after a moment, Angela says, "Audrey. Just to be clear. I am happy to employ you, if working here feels like it gives you something you can't get anywhere else. But it isn't necessary. If you want to quit, you may, all I'd ask for is your continued assistance in allowing me to leave this place. I won't consider it a mark against our friendship. After all, you've already helped me plenty." She pauses a moment before adding, "However, if you do work here, there is bound to be uncomfortable battles against Trideag. Fights where your ideals will be tested. Battles that may define your connections going forward as surely as those strings around Roland right now." She shakes her head. "There is no shame in testing your convictions and finding them wanting so long as you use that to forge stronger beliefs. But if you cannot hold onto weak convictions shrimply--sorry, simply--because you are afraid to change in a distinct way with intentionality... this Library will hurt you more than it helps, even as an employee." She's frowning. And as Audrey's mental state deteriorates, a certain something is starting to pay attention. ''You've got so many words for her, and none for me?!'' "Ah, sorry, I just really don't like her." Roland says like he just got caught yelling at someonme at the supermarket. "But there's nothing really left to be said between us, is there? I've my mission, and you've a book to retrieve." Of course, if Lulu ends up the first Fixer to retrieve a book from the Library, that might look good for Trideag--but Lulu certainly might rise up higher than Mars did. But-- ''I won't say he made his choice or I won't get close again. I'll pick myself up, and I'll keep fighting!!'' He wonders if that's the sort of mindset coming from the Light, it's certainly one that's new to him. He's used to the dry and dull professionalism of Fixers, maybe it's just because she's a Grade Eight. There's plenty of people with wild personalities, but when she declares the kind of person she's going to be, she doesn't really feel like a Grade Eight Fixer anymore. Or even a Fixer at all, but something some small part of him has been.. Lighting a string on fire incinerates it, the flame traveling up to Roland until it bursts across his arm. He stumbles back, the strings pulling him away from that flaming bat.
Angela	''The only reason I hate you is because you hate me!'' Roland seems to be done with talking to Sarracenia. Maybe talking at all. He is a man who prefers to fight in silence and there's only so much he can play the role of a chatting goober down on his luck guy. Frankly, it was an error being as honest as he was and it's better for Sarracenia to guess as to his reasons than to know even a teensy bit. Roland's chains bash away the Bob-Ombs but they explode and eradicate a couple more strings. Xion has his focus now. Despite Angela's order, he feels like Xion's the only one who is really reading him as a warrior, and increasingly as a person. ''But if you can't take ownership...'' "Distance is how you avoid a melty and die to something you could've avoided." Roland says. "I'm not complaining about you fighting to kill me. Do what you're here to do. ANd I'll do what I'm here to do. Like you said, I might not be a high grade, but I'm a professional." But that's a lie, isn't it? Roland's swings are sometimes too fast or too slow. His rhythm is being obscured--intentionally by him--and it's not just a matter of any warrior trying to hide their patterns. At times he's holding back. At others he's swinging with everything he's got. He seems to be always acutely aware that Angela's eyes are on him and thank god she's not a warrior. Roland hasn't figured out how to deflect explosions. He tries anyway and gets flung far from Xion by the resulting explosion, bouncing along the ground as the remaining threads snap and the EGO gear vanishes--he's hit hard enough he couldn't keep using it. Unlike the Agents of Lobotomy Corp, he's one of the most inexperienced at using EGO Gear here. Mars's sword vanishes and he summons Durandal into his hands. With Xion he's gonna have no choice. He'll have to hold it off, just enough. He darts in at Xion, starting with a swing at Durandal which immediately vanishes after his swing, being readily replaced with two daggers that he slams for Xion's arms--a pair of pistols soon replace the daggers and he fires a shot at Lulu and one at Sarracenia before twisting into a rifle blast for Xion. His rapid shifts between weapons make him more difficult to predict-- --but there is a small hesitation between each shift that gives an extra second than is strictly neccessary.
Riku Asakura	Geed leaves the talking to Lilian, who is doing an excellent job at cutting down her arguments.  However, there was one thing that bothered Geed after all of this.   'Most Fixers are! They're just muscle for hire! They'll do whatever they're told, it's all messed up!' "Does that mean I'm someone who just does as he's told?  That I am muscle for hire?  I'm a Fixer for Trideag, and I've joined hands with them to make the city a better place.  I put my trust in Lilian to make sure the mistakes of the past don't come forward again.  Can you be so certain about this path of booking people is the same?" Geed asks Audrey, sincere in his desire to hear her words.   The debris follows Geed as he tries to stay one step ahead of it.  This time, it was far harder to, because of the twisting paths of space that surround the arena.  However, he does manage to put up a barrier right as the worst of the debris comes to collide with him, causing only minor sparking this time around.   Jumping into the air, Geed spins with the Geed Claw down towards Audrey, the two combining into a singular force of energy for a moment.  Both red and black, the spinning force of energy aims to collide with Audrey and her defenses, trying to break them and shatter the barrier so that Lilian's blade can make a mark.
Lilian Rook	'Do you think I got here by quitting when it gets hard?!'     "Quit when it gets morally unconscionable. Loser."     'Every criminal and murderer turned into a book is so many more lives saved! That's just--'     "Loser."     'Most Fixers are! They're just muscle for hire!'     "Loser."     'I don't need this! I-- I--'     "Loser."     It seems like no matter what Audrey says, Lilian's wont change. No matter the heat of passion or the adrenaline of combat, she-- the Director of the Trídéag Association-- looks right through her as only yet another obstacle. Just Audrey's expression twisting up in pain is worthy of notice, and that notice is but dregs of contempt and a drop of satisfaction. Neither leave her even when Audrey tears away the EGO and rips the floor to pieces. Amidst the storm of closing debris, converging from every direction, Lilian turns up her chin by a few degrees.     'Why... why... WHY? You of all people!'      "'The invitations are clear.'"                 -----[stop]-----     Lilian's footsteps echo in the dead quiet. The floating debris around her splits every sharp click into a jumble of discordant notes that drift back into her in lagging dissonance. The tip of her sword presses lightly into a chunk of masonry, tilted at a wild angle, and sends it gently tumbling aside, grinding to a halt once again a few feet away. Hopping up onto it, then the next, like a set of stairs, her weight pushes none of them down, frozen solid beneath her feet.     "Attacking randomly in a panic. Pathetic, but mildly inconvenient. Or it would be, if you yourself weren't so pitiful." Lilian says to no one. "The only place I need stand is . . . Here." Again, the words never reach any ears but hers. Lilian circles around behind Audrey, or more precisely, directly opposite of her and Ultraman Geed's attack, where the glow of the Claw casts a long and stark shadow from Audrey's body. "Cleasa o'Skye--"                 -----[start]-----     "--Stailc Gearradh Sgàil."     Perfectly timed with Riku, Lilian's sword plunges into Audrey's shadow. Rather than hard stone, the sound is like splitting flesh. The sword strobes with magic, and it's Audrey's shadow that bleeds next.     "Was this supposed to impress me?"
Audrey Basque	"If you want to quit, you may,"     "NO!" It's visceral and instantaneous.     "This is fine! I'm fine! I'm-- I'm--!"     There will be more, provided she survives.     Other arguments. Other hard decisions to make.     Other cases of having to stand by the Library's kills.     Angela is right, it doesn't deter Audrey.     But she can't reply to any of that. Her attention is overwhelmed, she can't spare a conversation right now. Not with Angela - and not with whatever's noticed her.      "Does that mean I'm someone who just does as he's told?"     "Trideag is different! It's-- it's like the ONE ray of light and hope in this entire *City*! You know I'm right!"     Her view of the City is not great.     Trideag is the only thing here besides the Library worth anything, and really, it might just be because of Lilian.     Riku crashes into Audrey with the full force of his energy spin. This prompts her to take a deep breath, and to *pour* her magical reserves into her folded space. It's thunderingly loud, until the barrier starts cracking like glass.     Audrey has a lot of magic.     Quite a lot of it, especially for her age!     But not an infinite amount. Nor can she twist and weave space so fast as to keep up with that much force.     With the shank through Audrey's shadow, her guard and focus shuts down right then and there. The barrier breaks, but it breaks with consequence: the full force of Riku's blast is experienced by both parties, and Audrey tumbles and rockets to the ground, crashing into a section of floor that's miraculously mostly still there.     To her credit, she rises slowly.     "Why... why..." "Loser."     "I've been..." She hobbles, limps really, towards Lilian. "Loser."     "Working so hard, to not be...!"      "Loser."     "To..."     One arm won't respond at all. She's a bloodied mess from the crash, everything hurts, but, she still has one hand.     Squeeze. Just squeeze.     More, and more, and more.     A tiny dot of compressed space, not nearly so much as to be a black hole outright, but close enough. And she's holding onto it, pressing into it, pressing into it, pressing and approaching and... "Loser."     "I'm... not...!"     She has no delivery method. Her hand's occupied making the damn thing, her other one's... is her arm broken? She's not sure.     So she just tries to punch Lilian with the singularity.
Petra Soroka	"Ah, sorry, I just really don't like her."     "I don't give a shit who you like or don't!!! Huh?!" At last, Lulu hesitates with some confusion on *why* Roland wouldn't like Sarracenia, but it doesn't take long before that thought gets torched away in the heat of combat. "She's helping me fix something *you* broke! I'll like someone who fights for life a billion times more than someone who fights to kill us! *Especially* when it's Mars!"     Being thwacked by a thread knocks the metalness right out of her, but barely causes her to stumble because of it. She wipes her mouth with her sleeve, a little bit of blood coming away, but as she gets more tired she only gets more energized. This is longer than the Streetlight Office lasted in their reception, after all.     "You're right. I don't have anything to say to you." They should've named it gaslight office! "But just one last thing, scumbag. Any mission that leads to all this... go fuck yourself and fail. Fuck you and the rustbucket you hitched yourself to. Maybe when I knock you into a book, you can try dreaming of something brighter than just ashes, huh?!" "This isn't champions fighting for a cause - and you best believe I'll home run smack that page out of you - and this Cycle of Violence you've become more than a part of -- you're wearing it as armor!"     Lulu startles at Xion mimicking her own weapon, glancing over to where Mars' sword is being held (copied?) by Roland. But here, it's on her side, and for an ally to be wielding the instrument of her own determination as part of their mission....     "Yeah! Things're gonna change around here, y'know! I'm gonna make connections, work hard, rise up, with Mars and Sen with me! And we'll be the kinds of Fixers that everyone said the Red Mist one, y'know?! If it's difficult, if those chains try and make us do something like you're doing... I'll ask my friends for help!! That's the kind of world I'll see in the future!"     Lulu smacks aside string after string, flinging batted fireballs in Roland's direction, then when Roland's knocked out of his EGO, she tenses. Her gut wants to run in for the kill in that moment, hammer him into the ground with a satisfying THWACK, but........ she's not the strongest one here. Far from it. In this nightmare, the one that took Mars away, she wanted to just thrash around and cry, to complain about how unfair it is and recklessly batter it down until these burning feelings either blazed her path forwards or charred her away-- but that world, where she throws herself away out of anger and pride, isn't the one she wants to see anymore. Trideag alighted a different feeling in her, one that glows with hope, and if what she has to do to see Mars again is wait, then......     ..... Then what better way could she honor those boring days back at the Streelight Office, where she moaned with her closest friends about spending a lazy day with no contracts?     Teetering on the edge of her last reserves from the battering of chains and bullets, her moment comes when Sarracenia's last bomb-ombs' smoke clears away. With Roland distracted and the increased gravity lessening up as Audrey's pressed further back by Lilian and Riku, Lulu charges in with her bat low down enough that the tip scrapes the floor. Throwing up sparks, like a matchstick or a drifting car, the bat revvs with the building energy of the flames inside as Lulu's shout tears through her chest. The bat comes up behind Roland, and then down onto him just as oxygen gets its chance to rush through its vents, blossoming into a massive fiery explosion that just leaves a book behind.
Riku Asakura	During the spin, Riku's chest light starts to blink Red.  He's unable to answer Audrey's response, except with force.  It smashes into her shield, but there was more here than he expected.  He keeps driving himself into the shield, despite knowing how dangerous it is.  Feeling pain from accidentally being slammed into it before, he knows just how powerful Audrey can be.   The light blinks faster as he attempts to tear through the shield.  Eventually, there is a push.  But the cost of tearing through the shield is Riku falling out of being the giant of light and returning to being Riku.  He falls behind Audrey, rolling across the arena and landing in a pile.  He's unable to do anything as Audrey goes for Lilian.   But he's got faith in Lilian.
Sarracenia	'I'm not complaining about you fighting to kill me. Do what you're here to do. And I'll do what I'm here to do.'      Sarra isn't enough of a warrior to recognize if Roland is doing sloppy things. "I do not kill people! Not even you! Not even if you might deserve it now! Lives matter, and wasting or destroying them for such selfish reasons is terrible!"      Sarra proceeds to throw everything she has at EGO-powered Roland, continuing to cover for Lulu as best she can. She is not about to lose the target of their escort quest! The princess pulls out a chunk of her broken hammer and uses the power she has used dozens of times before. She becomes practically possessed by the hammer's power, smashing away at Roland until she just can't anymore. The threads batter her fiercely, and Sarra staggers back before falling over in what seems like defeat, only to shakily struggle back to her feet, breaths ragged from pain and exhaustion, her carefully crafted Trideag uniform shredded, and the flesh beneath fairing only slightly better.      "Never give up. Giving up is when the City, the Multiverse, actually beats you. That's the only time you actually, finally lose." That and being killed, but Sarra is still naive and idealistic enough to not include that one even after all that has happened. Not to mention Roland can apparently survive being killed by becoming a book.      Unable to rise from a kneeling position after a point, Sarra throws a few more bob-ombs before finally collapsing beneath the rain of threads. She's not fully out, but even her green mushrooms can't keep her going after trying to tank for Lulu. "W-was that...enough...Xion...Lulu?" Sarra pants out, her one uncovered eye looking toward them.
Xion	For a moment, specifically, and in general throughout the fight Xion gives Roland as much credit as she might give herself or Binah in terms of comparable power. She fights tightly, not showing off, not using flashy or fun powers, not extending outside her most comfortable abilities and tricks she knows how to leverage. Tempo. Consideration. A dance of blades, a conversation warrior to warrior and weapon to weapon, and... Xion believes in the EGO transformation the same way she'd believe in most formchanges such as it, more horrified drawing on the external force within the City as the 'Cycle of Violence' had. Roland had drawn that energy into himself so quickly, and so intentfully, that Xion believed the mask and reacted accordingly. That someone would draw down the power of that great violence into themselves and force the point of their strings drew appropriate fear and response. Stanced, moment to moment bouncing between leaping, standing, sliding into place, yet the chains seem . . . distant. Detached. 'This is This, and That is That' isn't how Roland channels his strongest power. The Cycle doesn't lash Xion for long. The noirette is pressured anyway, but relieved when the form fades after the first bombing. One-handing her echo of Lulu's baseball bat, Xion dips at knees and springs in, left hand on scorching hatbrim and right arm bringing Caution Zone along the ground in a trail of sparks and geysering of flames, swinging a tremendous matchstick flame upswing at Roland as the transformation fades. It is a draw, and Xion clashes against Durandal with her tape-wrapped keychain weapon, ramming her forearm into the back of the bat as she braces there. She presses there, aggressive, and the heat jumps off of her. There's a passion there - borrowed, but it lights the flame in her. "You don't believe that." She confirms, but the blade vanishes as she presses, and aborting her press into a swing comes short, and she's pincered by daggers. Dark blood spatters as her forearms take the hits, her uncertain interior biology still meat-filled enough to bleed. With her upper guard momentarily crumpled, Xion drops Caution Zone and the powerup baseball hat on her head (depicting a Fire Flower!) and her coat fringe flicker and dematerialize like run-out Sarracenia powerups while the weapon casts off into keychain form - a lighthouse on a length of crinkle-rolled black tape. Roland's pistols fire, and Xion all but tackles into Roland to foul his aim. The delays - part of the switch? Off tempo? A trap? Irrelevant - were something she had to take advantage of. Without choice, or room for deception, Xion chooses to press towards the gunbarrel because she has a mission. Xion had already run past the point of no return on committing completely to this fight in a clean way. Now this was dirty brawling and a slugging match, she had run down the reserves she could have spent, and played out too many moves to go over Roland. Now she had to force him. Now she had to fight to win, rather than not lose. Especially, now, with Sarra counting on her, rather than the other way around. The whole time, Lilian had been counting on her, and so had Lulu, and so even if she wasn't Everyone's hero... Rifle firing dead on, Starlight 'shwink!'s into Xion's grip held high and tip down, the round blade deflecting round into her side rather than stomach. Winged painfully and bleeding deeper, Trideag coat soiled and painted in darkly visceral colors and wetnesses, Xion reaches low and sweeps out a second sword in left hand from area of right hip, pulling up as if draw cutting and performing an upside-down X-slash with a fresh pair of keyblades - now simple brushed silver, a key with an empty star tooth and a dark blue guard, and a key with a crown tooth and a yellow guard, both with black grips. The former, Starlight, had never left her grip in truth, but the latter leaps brightly returned for a moment as there is an enkindled moment nearby - the Kingdom Key.
Xion	Xion seems faster, lighter for long beats after the bright-limned blade joins the flurry of slash and press and thrust, the noirette smashing in a determined offensive to meter out ever reaction, each second of effort, each wince of pain, each drop of blood. It's a little easier, a little lighter, when she does it this way, and her blows come down to force Roland to enter into a conversation with her over the motion of his blades. She winces on the contacts, silent but staring at him, clashing with any of the weapons he summons - 'his' weapons - and the Kingdom Key carves a solar path straight to sparking against Durandal again if it comes out. "This is a battle for the fate of a world! So I'm here again! To fight for someone's life! To fight for better than 'That is That'!" There's fervor in her voice, a rising press, as she raggedly pushes the last ounces and measures in. "Don't ask me to accept your logic, Roland! Your give-up screaming plan doesn't make any sense!" Screaming? Her arms ring in silence, with weight, with anguish, and not all of it is hers, but much of it bloody and violent. And Xion wasn't the only one in the fight. Lulu, as ordered, was just waiting for an opening. Just waiting for that moment, not to waste herself, but to prove herself. All Xion had to do was snap, clash, press, and force Roland to deal with her long enough for change to occur.
Lilian Rook	'Trideag is different! It's-- it's like the ONE ray of light and hope in this entire *City*! You know I'm right!'     "Then, as the terror fighting back against that very light and hope of ours, fall."     Uncomfortably-- no, terrifyingly close, Audrey gets to see from the front row what few other Elites have been unfortunate enough to brush up against before. Her own bloody reflection Lilian's unblinking gaze. The green saccades that divide her body into angles and ratios. The moment she draws breath with purpose and exhales killing intent without passion, perfectly timed to the contraction of Audrey's muscles.     As if choreographed, Lilian dips low under Audrey's outstretched fist, leaving her punch sailing through empty air like she may as well be trying to hit the moon, and from that crouching stance, Lilian lunges past Audrey while rising, like a ricochet from one point to another, and paints the dark gleam of her sword's reflection across Audrey's field of vision; a clean arc that intersects her outstretched arm at the elbow, snapping upward and through and smartly back into its scabbard with a cracking sound like a bullet. The three-point maneuver turns Lilian on her lead toe, gathering tremendous torque in a single spinning twist, and she delivers a high round kick to the base of Audrey's neck.     Lilian turns her hand, curls her fingers, and looks at the lightly steaming polish peeling off her nails. The next moment, she pushes back her hair, turns crisply in Riku's direction, and is offering him a hand off the floor, pulling him up with the ghost of a smile on her face, and the words "I see room for improvement, but you did well enough." in his ear before she lets go.     By the time she looks to Roland next, the coalition of Fixers is already playing the winning hand. Lilian's first few brisk steps towards their battle slow to nothing. The next expression she wears is one of surprise, blinked away into relief; a sigh that she didn't know she was holding onto.     "They have it well in hand, it seems. Perhaps this city has life still in it yet."
Audrey Basque	Lilian seizes the PRESS E TO EXECUTE prompt.     In the haze of all the pain and delirium, Audrey wouldn't know the difference between having an arm cut off or having it broken, if she couldn't see it fall in front of her.     The arm and its payload fall through the cracked and broken floor and detonate in the void below the arena, a display of crackling pearlescent white-blue magic with a pitch black core.     And then silence.     Lilian's one mercy is kicking the back of Audrey's neck and sending her forward and onto the floor, face-first, before she can so much as let off a scream. She doesn't make much more of a mess. Rather, she poofs into a cloud of Light and smoke, her body far beyond its limits.     Leaving the BOOK OF AUDREY on the floor.
Angela	That presence moves on from Audrey and foucses on Lulu. She had faced true despair. She had begged and pleaded and abandoned all pride when she went to Trideag. But now? Now she burns so brightly even without her having whispered at all. The Voice considers saying something but instead The Voice decides that all that's really needed, today, is some warmth. It settles along with Lulu. It is a warmth that Trideag gave her the opportunity to seize despite that burning bat. Roland doesn't answer Lulu, but--it's a good question. He knows the truth more or less of what happened, why is he still here? Why isn't he just killing Angela and leaving? He had an opportunity right here while Petra was gone and Audrey distracted and Angela wounded. So why didn't he? Is he still, somehow, hoping that it can be a little different than what The City demands? Why is he envying a Grade Eight Fixer right now? 'Never give up' washes over him like air, but Sarracenia is too wounded to move and he has his orders. Angela wants Sarracenia's book. He turns and rushes towards Sarracenia, faster than before. He slams his foot into Sarracenia's gut. That look of unexplained hatred hasn't faded in the slightest. If he doesn't tell her before he kills her, he supposes that's unfair, and now he has his chance. "Sure you killed people." Roland says, lowering his head to whisper something to Sarracenia and then he can book-- "Ah... Just realized, I can't. Sorry. I'll write it in the margins someday, how about that?#-1 FUNCTION (ASNI) NOT FOUND His murder attempt is aborted when Xion comes in after him. He twists his body to guard against Xion's assault. She's fast, but he seems to be a poor match for her--even holding back, he's proving to be a challenge for the noirette. But-- ''You don't believe that.'' Roland's eyes widen for a moment before going dull. "You're too sharp." He says, his voice too low for Angela. Xion tackles into Roland and knocks him away, his bullet goes into her shoulder rather than her neck. Roland's exhausted, but some instinct, some Fixer instinct keeps him going. Mars' borrowed uniform is covered in more red than Lulu's seen when Mars was wearing it himself. He swings Durandal up and blade clashes with the Kingdom Key, a dagger appearing in his offhand-- He thinks about Lulu's future. Why couldn't that have been his? Why did something so random and out of nowhere have to take his future away? Like Lulu, he beat down the doors to Trideag and made demands, but maybe he should've begged. If he had begged, maybe they could've made a miracle happen. Is that the answer, then? To beg elites and hope they can spare that morsel? Lulu comes in close. To her, it seems like he's struggling to lift that dagger to meet her bat head on. To Xion, it seems like he's resisting the urge to drive it into Lulu's gut. Either way, the bat obliterates his head. And Roland disolves into light.
Angela	Angela sighs as Roland dissipitates. His book doesn't tumble to the floor. Since it's the Library, she's sending it somewhere else. She doesn't like the fire on that bat. "I suppose expecting Roland to handle Xion was a bit much." She's not a warrior, Xion might realize, she doesn't know he's been holding back even if she doesn't really believe he's just a Grade Nine. She looks back to Audrey and sees her tumble to the ground in book form. Like Roland is, for now. She is a woman who respects privacy. "Alright." Angela says. "I'm a woman of my word." She extends out her hand, and pushes out a small tiny bit of the Light she had gathered. It's unfortunate, but a deal is a deal. If she wasn't fine with this, she wouldn't have allowed for losing to happen to begin with. And soon, there is a Book of Mars in her hands. She snaps her finger and is down in the battle arena, crouching down to pick Audrey's book up into her arm and then sending it away to hang out with Roland too. She seems like she's about to approach Lulu, then remembers her head injury. "Ah, on second thought. I'll keep my distance. Congratulations, Lulu. I know you threatened to tear down this Library, but I suggest you do not return now that you have your prize." She offers the book to Lilian Rook. "Thank you for your visit to the Library. I hope you found the book you are looking for. It was nice to see you again, as always." And then the Library shifts and rolls them back out of the Library, like before, returning them to where they had once been. This is a first, Angela thinks. Mhm. The Outsiders are the lever by which the River bends. Angela gives another small nod to herself before making her way back to her room. She's got a long night restoring Roland and Audrey ahead of her.
Lilian Rook	'Thank you for your visit to the Library. I hope you found the book you are looking for. It was nice to see you again, as always.'     Lilian is, somehow, surprised when Angela appears. Like she hadn't thought it through this far; past the violence. She blinks, looks at Angela, opens her mouth, then closes it again, and her expression clouds over in thought. She reaches out to accept the book automatically, but it takes a moment to decide what to say; or if she should speak at all.     "I don't intend to make a habit of it." Lilian says to Angela. Pausing a second longer, she adds. "But your people seem to have the wrong idea. So consider this a timely reminder."     "If you ignore the existence of embers in amongst the coals, you'll only suffer the same fate as those in charge one day."     Lilian squeezes the Book of Mars in her fingers. Turning stiffling on her heel, she fans out her hair behind her, smooths down her jacket, and says, "Lulu. Our contract is complete. You'll be returning with us; and then we have some things to discuss."
Petra Soroka	One book, and then two. The sound of the books hitting the floor is a jarring step back in time for Lulu, when she and San were running to the door to escape and hearing that 'thwack' echo through the hallway behind them. Lulu twists her hands around the grip of the bat, held down in front of her right where it collided with Roland to knock him down, and a shiver runs through her whole body. "I'm a woman of my word."     "You--...!"     Lulu wheels around with her bat out to shout at the mere sound of Angela's voice, but exhaustion causes it to rasp away into smoke and trailing sighs before she even gets through the single word. All her attention slips off of Angela the moment that the book is produced, a sharp intake of breath and wide eyes, the visible instant where 'revenge' is supplanted fully by the much stronger feeling of 'relief'. She makes a strangled sound, arms outstretched, when the book is handed to Lilian instead of herself, but she doesn't ill-advisedly cross the distance towards Angela before they're expelled from the Library.     Teleported back to the Trideag lower floors, Lulu pries the Book of Mars open the moment she can get her hands on it. Eyes frantically saccading back and forth to scan the lines, her reading gradually slows down along with her heartbeat and panting breath. Eventually, like she's talking to a voice no one else can hear, she murmurs, "Oh, all I need to do is...? Alright. Thanks."     The book evaporates into motes of light, and in its place is a white-haired man, slumped on the ground with a bemused expression. Bruised and bloody, with her jacket sliced open by bleeding bullet-grazes underneath, burned by her own bat, Lulu instantly drops to her knees and throws her arms around him. The stress and adrenaline culminates in an open-mouthed sob, before Mars can even process where or what he even is now.     "Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiidiot!!!!! Y-you s-stupid--! I-I-I was so worried-- y-you're really back! I th-thought... I'd never... d-dhon't ever... do that again! Y'hear?! You're b-banned from bravery! That's m-my job now, got it?! 'C-cause... cause..."     Mars finally wraps his arms back around Lulu, still looking confused and off-kilter. There's numerous wounds visible on him, shiny and raw as if they were rapidly healed recently, and he awkwardly pats Lulu on the back. With dawning comprehension, he says, "... You really came back for me, huh? You... really shouldn't have. You could've gotten yourself killed. But... thank you."     Fingers wrapped up in his jacket, muffled and phlegmy from having her face pressed right into his shoulder, Lulu burbles back almost deliriously. "O-of course I did. I-hic-iiiidiot. Idiot. Stupid annoying ugly blob-f-faced stuck-up st-stick in th-the mud idiot. H-how could I-I... not? I l-love you, you big dumb idiot."     "... Wait, what was that?"     "D-don't get the wrong idea! Shut up! You didn't hear anything! Y-you...! You--!!! You!!!!"     Less than ten minutes after his freedom from the Library, Mars has to shield himself with his arms as Lulu tearily swings her fists to beat on his head in frustration.
Sarracenia	Sarra is able to stagger back to her feet once they have been forced out of the Library. Her steps are unsteady for several minutes, and it takes a number of green mushrooms before she can walk reliably.      Back at Trideag, she looks uncertain as Lulu opens Mars's book. So far, Sarra hadn't seen a person restored after being turned to a book. She watches over Lulu's shoulder anxiously as Lulu reads. She blinks as Lulu speaks to someone, then lets out a quiet yelp as the book evaporates into motes of light. She watches with child-like wonder as the motes float away, then blinks a few times as she realizes there is a man here. She starts to say something when...      ...Lulu starts saying plenty of things instead. Sarra just watches with a soft smile, a slight giggle escaping her every now and then. She stifles a larger one as Lulu says the L-word. She doesn't want to embarrass her any more that necessary. As Lulu beats on him, Sarra just leaves a few green mushrooms for him and Lulu before she heads to get proper medical attention. Her mushrooms are good, but a hole through the gut takes more than mushrooms.