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Owner	Pose
Timekeeper	"If I can find the humans with the highest leadership power and the highest willingness to demand labor from Arcanists, I can have them swarm the Walden with demand. Force the Manus out into the open, out into the forest. Pressure them into running clinics for the ill! They'll have to lighten security, they'll lose the ability to detect intruders, maybe they might even *sincerely help*!"     This was the plan Flamel suggested upon finishing your meager meals in the Ainsworth office, and in the straits you're in now, no one had a better idea. The obvious point that the humans drawn for the promise of aid against the mysterious(?) illness sweeping the nation are being used as a smokescreen for the Foundation-allied Elites to get close to the Walden was brought up and... left at that.     Feebly, one could argue that the Manus Vindictae are genuinely the best resource for treating the Storm Syndrome and its gastrointestinal consequences, and that however many people manage to coerce them into helping is more than would otherwise be treated. Heartlessly, one could argue that they'll be dead by next nightfall anyways, and that combating the Manus Vindictae will save more lives in the future. Either way, every phone call is made knowing that the person on the other end of the line has mere hours to live whether they get help for their stomach pains and faintness or not.     And there are a lot of calls to make. Moissan has considerable knowledge of the local bureaucrats and the humanitarians who would brush shoulders with the Foundation and the Sothebys, and through either personal desperation or altruistic intentions, it's easy to get them on board. The state Chicago-- and the entire United States-- is in is one of ravenous panic, partly in the characteristically American need to be one rung luckier than the person beneath you, but the social vista of the city that comes through the telephone lines isn't so unilaterally bleak.     The Storm of 1929 is 'misattributed hunger'. The metaphor, the 'pernicious habit' that the proprietor of the Walden named, couldn't be more obvious. With the Storm timer ticking down, people become famished in a matter of hours, and stuff themselves with symbols of wealth rather than the basic necessity of life, both depriving themselves of the nutrients they need and causing internal wounds attributed to 'illness'. But for something that supposedly characterizes the entire spirit of the era, psychically amplified by the Storm, there's still plenty of people whose response to a measured invitation of aid is to organize transport for the weakest patients filling up the hospitals, rather than themselves.     The St. Pavlov Foundation Chicago branch, however, doesn't prove to be any more helpful than its two agents that are already here. When they're called on the switchboard, the Director of the branch and several upper level staff are already gone, off on an abrupt 'business trip' according to their fretful subordinates. Not informed about the Storm, they're dubious about the political position of the local Foundation branch officially endorsing arcanist criminals as a medical resource, and say they can't organize any efforts without higher authority than Moissan or Sonetto have. Unplugging the switchboard and taking off her headset after that call, Sonetto has to steady herself for a minute with slow breaths.
Timekeeper	While that's all been happening, Tamamo has had whatever time she's needed to engineer her talismans to sabotage the Walden's ward against the Storm. Hypothetically, the emotionally unstable human crowd begging for assistance will provide cover for the Elites as well as split the Manus Vindictae's attention away from the Walden, and then once their Storm immunity is sabotaged, it won't be worth the effort for them to keep fighting just to hold three hostages.     After all, Lilian's a human, Schneider's a traitor, and Vertin is barely capable of using arcanum at all; while they might be useful in the battle against the Foundation, none of them are worth risking being reversed for.     Or rather, that is the assumption the Elites are able to work on based on their last sighting of Vertin and Schneider struggling along with Lilian's body, until now. Coming up from the southern edge of the city towards the operators office, the opposite direction that most other cars head towards the Walden, is a vehicle that unabashedly screams its allegiance through its form.     A horse-drawn carriage, decades after those have been phased out in urban culture, trots down the ramshackle streets of the Ainsworth neighborhood drawn by skeletal horses draped in thick oily smears of black. Within it are three Manus Vindictae followers, those from the Walden with their elegant clothes and animalistic helmets, riding casually as if headed to a restaurant. When they're spotted, rather than gearing up to attack, the driver leans out and waves the white flag of truce.     "What...?" Sonetto warily eyes them, gripping her glasfeder. "What could they want? Is there a trick?"
Riku Asakura	Riku had opted to stay with Tamamo and guard her while she set up her ward to strip the Walden of its storm protections.  Riku operates with a nervous energy because he knows a lot rides on this.  It isn't just about their safety and getting out of the storm, but three of their comrades are trapped in an enemy stronghold, and who knows what they're doing to them. He's also fighting off the Storm Syndrome the best that he's able to, though the pitiful meal they ate is barely a buffer against the desire to shove some of the coins in his pocket into his mouth and start chewing.  It's nerve-racking to have your mind tell you that food is different now and you're starving. The horse-drawn carriage draws his eyes; he's only seen them in movies and TV shows, and maybe occasionally around this era as a sort of curiosity.  The skeletal horses are just bizarre.  Taking a breath, he grabs the Fusion Riser from his belt and stands forward, ready to start defending Tamamo... Until the flag of truce is pulled out.  He's as dumbfounded as Sonetto is.  "Is this some sort of trick?" he asks her, pausing, transforming into Ultraman Geed, because they ARE coming under a flag of truce rather than charging at them.   Still, this makes him nervous.  What is going on with the Walden? It wasn't very long ago that they were fighting their way out, and he caused property damage.  "Do you think that Vertin and Lilian have struck some sort of peace deal with the Manus?" he asks, hopelessly optimistic.  Definitely very naive, given the circumstances.
Holly Asturias	FREE VAMPIRE HEALTHCARE APPLY HERE!!     Holly, in the interest of not going insane in under the threat of both of the people she'd came here to help now being Unknowns, and Out Of Her Reach, had settled in a corner of the office and offered to patch people up. This came with copious displays of golden light, shining through her skin, from her heart to her hands, to wounds and scars and sores and burns and bruises and--     The point, of course, is that insofar as time allowed, Holly had spent as much of it as she could seeing to people's injuries, starting with anyone she'd injured herself in the Walden, alongside generous apologies and hugs.     It was a better use of time for her than anything else; she doesn't know Chicago, or the era, or most of everyone present for that matter. She had no plan, no tactical knowledge, and felt herself unstable and emotional from the position this put her in. 'Guns blazing' would be her style, left to her own devices, and it would end poorly for sure.     The stress also meant that the Storm Syndrome was getting to her just a bit. Luckily, gold and money don't particularly represent wealth where the Revenant is from. If there was any argument to me made, the wealthy are those with easiest access to blood, and with it, Ichor. Holly's eyes, between patients - sometimes, DURING treatment - make occasional stares at necks, at wounds, at bloodstains on clothing.     She'd fed bare moments ago, within the Walden. That she was hungry already was countless red flags even she could pick up on, and hopefully, keep on her toes to resist for longer. Manus Vindictae carriage.     It's convenient timing that Holly finishes with the last of the injured in time for the arrivals, and tot ake her mind off thirst or fretting. She turns to Sonetto, trying to clear her throat and put a brave face on. "... at the moment, they may still consider me an ally, though to see me here might swiftly change their mind. Still, I can stand upfront if you believe it'll help."     Flamel is no doubt much better suited to that though.
Veronica	While phone calls are sent out all across Chicago, Veronica nervously downs a second hot dog to quiet her own slowly-rising hunger. She has a lot of psychic support 'back home', enough to keep her from stripping the office bare of its sparse ornamentation, but the more physiological effects of the Storm must also be contended with - via a decidedly full stomach, in this case.     The carriage's appearance, heralded as it is by the sound of hooves on street-bricks, gets Veronica up from her seat against one wall. Peering out the window at the flag of truce, she scowls. "Oh, they want a truce now? Almost tore the Timekeeper to bits, tried to crush the rest of us underground, and now they're saying 'enough, enough' right before we swing back? That's now how this *works*." She makes for the door, knuckles cracking against her concrete palm.     "Do you think that Vertin and Lilian have struck some sort of peace deal with the Manus?"     Veronica hadn't considered the possibility that Vertin could find some leverage to bargain with. It takes Riku voicing his hope aloud for her to give the thought any room in her mind. She hesitates, looks back to see if anyone's following her. "Sonetto, think the Manus coulda found us here without Vertin telling them where to go?" She chuckles a little. "Maybe this is supposed to be our ride to the Walden, yeah." She sounds like she doesn't entirely believe it - but she's also not picking a fight, for the moment.
Regulus	Regulus looks ill at ease but those without better plans can only do so much against those with any plan at all. She doesn't like it, of course, and she wonders if the Foundation has maybe gotten as cold as she oftne perceives them by virtue of the inevitability of having to make these choices again and again rather than out of policy or malice. If only she was a little smarter, a little more clever, maybe she could have come up with something that doesn't churn in the pit of her stomach. She paces around,biting at the knuckle of her index finger--now that she's connected Moissan, there isn't really much else for her to do besides worry and as a loyal member of Team Timekeeper, she elects to give worrying her upmost effort. They could've hurt Vertin, or even killed her, and done even worse to Schneider. They could've even smashed that Suitcase to smithereens, damning everyone but Vertin. Maybe Lilian got them away. Or White found a way to return and rescue them and they're on their way. But that feels a little optimist compared to Regulus's experiences in the last twenty four and change hours. It's a bittersweet salve, knowing that even in a era of truly impressive greed, there's still a desire to help the weakest first out there. Even with a world gone mad, kindness endures. It may be the one thing that keeps Regulus going in this moment, even, but the medicine comes with the sting of knowing that all this effort is for naught. It has to still matter, how people face the end of an era--either knowingly or otherwise. Isn't that what they're working towards in the first place? "How..." Regulus begins, spinning to face Sonetto as she takes the headset off, and lamely finishes with a, "did it go." in a way that doesn't quite make it all the way to a question mark. Sonetto's breathing tells plenty of a story. Regulus's gut twists for reasons other than diet, hesitantly resting a hand on Sonetto's shoulder. Saying something like 'we'll get through this' doesn't feel quite right so she says, "Vertin's pretty convincing, got a silver tongue that's for sure and cuts right to the thick of things, I bet she's got half of them all wrapped around her finger by now." because being a little silly with it feels more helpful than well-meaning, but empty, platitudes. "Don't worry, we've got the power of rock on our side." ''Is this some sort of trick?'' ''What could they want? Is there a trick?'' Regulus, a firm believer of peace and love even between such diametrically opposed enemies, has an expression of disbelief writ upon her face before she shakes her head, allowing a smirk to flicker upon her face. "Now what did I say? Vertin's got 'em wrapped right around their finger." But it might be evidence that she doesn't actually trust this because she adds, "I'll check it out!" Before looking to Holly. "Dunno, they might be more mad at you than me 'cause you're a traitor and I've just been fighting 'em normally." And then she starts jogging on out to meet with the carriage, while clearly giving it plenty of space to keep on moving, drawing out her scarf and waving it in the air with a, "Yahoo! Boy am I glad that you're willing to give peace a chance. What brings you all the way out here?"
Tamamo	Tamamo has spent her time with suppressed fretfulness. Even though she can't imagine Lilian becoming unable to escape -- with Vertin and her suitcase, if with no one else -- seeing her unconscious makes usual worries feel much less irrational. She is, fortunately, an expert in certain arts that are presently useful, and able to use that fact to focus a good portion of her attention on something productive, letting her hands move with less than automatic dexterity, precisely crafting the talismans she'll be handing to those able to stay back and plant them.     The work, as she promised Achille, Cosimo, and Riku, is not mystically intensive. They only need to keep to a rough geometry. Breaking a hole in a wide barrier is simpler than building one, especially where it was designed to keep out an all-encompassing threat, rather than a focused one. If all goes according to plan, she can even deploy her own fighting area by draining power from her opponent's shelter.     She doesn't have time to think about food. That she's considering her own hunger at all is strange -- that it is a distraction is strange, and other talismans, wrapped around her arms, provide a constant source of nourishment far in excess of what should be necessary to entirely remove the feeling that strangely persists.     She did not expect an offer of truce. Not after that plant-speaker.     'What could they want? Is there a trick?'     "Most likely yes, but our goal was to have them leave their defensive advantage. It would not be a terribly effective tactic, based upon those abilities we have seen. They would risk providing some new avenue by which to attack." And yet, there must be a reason for it. Whether it could be an honest one...     Tamamo would like to say that that's unlikely, but she hasn't, truthfully, had enough experience with the Manus to suggest exactly how honest they are in practice, and in what circumstances. Taking hostages doesn't necessarily require subterfuge. Fresh worries flash to mind. If they claim to have new hostages, can she believe them?     "A wary approach is the most likely 'best' move in such circumstances as these. Come, my preparations are already complete. Those who can, attend."     'Still, I can stand upfront if you believe it'll help.'     Tamamo shakes her head. "There is no need to risk good standing on minor matters. It seems they wish to deliver a message, regardless of the recipient available, and will not need encouragement."
Holly Asturias	"Dunno, they might be more mad at you than me 'cause you're a traitor and I've just been fighting 'em normally."     "I have done no harm to any Manus asset, nor anything to the Walden save escape from it, in possible pursuit of you. But... well, point taken. I'm still willing to try to leverage that, if it'll get us closer." "There is no need to risk good standing on minor matters."     "That good standing may not survive the day, but I see your point too. I just..." Holly, weirdly helpless compared to her usual, frowns. "Perhaps I am just flailing for the means to be useful. How unsightly of me."
Tamamo	'Do you think that Vertin and Lilian have struck some sort of peace deal with the Manus?'     "What?" Tamamo blinks at Riku in uncharacteristically evident confusion. "After, from their perspective, betraying and attemping to divest them of their leverage, and from our own, after witnessing their multitude of murders? However could that happen?"     'Oh, they want a truce now?'     "For the space of a threat delivered, most likely. Do not assume a messenger to be an acknowledgement of weakness, nor any reason to alter our goals." Assessing the situation like this helps keep Tamamo focused.
Riku Asakura	'Maybe this is supposed to be our ride to the Walden, yeah.' "Maybe!" Riku states hopefully, but somewhat warily.  It is the Manus, a sort of Arcanist supremist group.  Nothing good ever comes from the word supremist, as he's learned over the years.  "Still, let's be careful, but optimistic." 'However could that happen?' "Maybe Lilian and Vertin made a deal with them?" It's all Riku has; it sounds silly to him now that it's been voiced.  "That's kinda silly, isn't it?  But I don't really know why else they'd fly out here under a truce."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel is working hard. This is all he has. The greatest concentration of the most vulnerable. Misattributed hunger, who could embody that? Who could manifest the idea of survival instinct, turned to nothing but rolls of bills and shavings of metals? He hasn't found candidates. He can't deep into Druvis, he can't access Forget-Me-Not, he can't...     He still chases this Storm. He still arrives at the Walden, invisible among the crowd and hopefully hidden from the forest by ten thousand stamping feet, and he still works, works as hard as he can to dive into minds and purge the effects with his limited counterpattern, supplementing Holly's clinic to the best of his ability. But he broke off, of course, when it was time to head to the Walden directly. Surely, someone inside will be the right candidate. It feels like the entire world is converging here.     When he flickers into visibility, his frown is more good-natured than sour. "Well, glad they're understanding!" He says. "I always prefer less violence over more. How do we approach this..." He flicks off visibility, moving to check the intentions of those approaching, but it's likely they'll pass his mental metal-detector wave of sorts.     "Hi there!" He pops into visibility, now seemingly chewing idly on a ten-dollar bill. "Flamel Parsons, agent of a vague and *dynamically-responsive* allegience. I'm hoping you can tell me about the status of Schneider Greco, there's a lot of people here who have some pretty major interest. Hey, are those animal-heads mentally protective, given the Storm and all? How much?" Astrally, a massive surge of psychic energy goes into a deep-memory expedition to extract as factual and true a report on Schneider's wellbeing as Flamel can get, which is sort of the social equivalent of asking someone for a smoke and then immediately rifling through their jacket pockets before they can reply.     Flamel's very hungry. He hasn't been saving any counterpattern for himself.
Tamiel Luxis	Tamiel had let herself sink into the background, while the fervor of everything rolled over them all. Shadowing the group--literally--she'd found herself unable to focus. Staring into space, out the window, haunted by the memory of being drawn into...Into...Arcana? She has trouble doing more than staring out the window, watching the rain fall down, the universe all gray fuzz and distant voices, shadow draped around her like a comfort blanket.     "Do you think that Vertin and Lilian have struck some sort of peace deal with the Manus?"     This gets Tamiel's attention, briefly, and her eyes sweep toward the carriage, tilted slightly to the side. "...No." She said, eventually. Her gaze coming into and out of focus. She shakes her head, rubs at her eyes, and squints at them.     Her wings flick, and she grabs at her throat, checking, to make certain no hands were closed around it. She rallies her shadow, and--     --the memory of being swallowed in her own darkness make Tamiel shudder to stillness.
Odette Raskins	Since arriving at the Ainsworth office, Odette's been counting things around and on her person on a regular basis to keep her head on straight and stymie the effects of the Storm. She's still got a fair number of little snacks to share around and stave off the hunger pangs, too, having munched on some trail mix and a self-heating hot dog herself. It helped keep her from thinking too hard about how easily she could fit a handful of coins into her mouth for dessert, especially in the middle of offering treatment alongside Holly. When that carriage arrives, Odette feels a mix of relief and anxiety washing over her all at once. On one hand, it means a potent distraction from the hunger, but also means the increased likelihood increased violence on a rapidly shrinking timetable to get everyone back together in time to escape certain death. The sight of the white flag has her staring at the carriage about as warily as Sonetto does. "If it's a trick, it's... It's a pretty good one. I-if they really are here for a truce or to get help, though, then having me and Doctor Asturias approach them might... Um. Relax their trigger fingers? Maybe?" She offers with audible uncertainty, closing up her medical case and furrowing her brow as Regulus and Tamamo issue their own counterpoints. "B-better you stay with the others here, Doctor Asturias." She pats Holly's elbow sympathetically, taking a slow breath to steady her nerves before starting towards the carriage. "Besides, in case anything happens? Um. You're probably... Definitely a bigger loss if anything happens compared to..." Following closely behind Regulus without finishing that self-inflicted blow to her self-esteem, the EMT makes sure her cap is on straight with its and her jacket's medical insignia plainly visible before raising her hand in a greeting towards the carriage. "Hello! A-are you here looking for medical aid? Or... Something else?"
Regulus	''I have done no harm to any Manus asset'' "Yeah, yeah, they just totally outmaneuvered all of us, though, so I just don't think they're dumb enough to buy that reasoning." She backwalked a few feet after snapping both fingers at Holly and fingergunning in her direction before getting to it. For the sake of peace and love she is willing to cooperate with Flamel on this. Of course, when she hears chewing and glances over she sees the glimpse of dollar bill and reaches out to wrestle the bill out of his mouth and pull it away from him. "Really? Come on, man. Aren't you supposed to be good at keeping tabs on this sort of thing?" She says, shaking the soggy bill around in the air briefly before quietly shoving it in a jacket pocket. "Just hang in there for a few more hours." KEY ITEM OBTAINED: Soggy, slightly chewed on ten dollar bill stolen back from the government! Yeah Regulus doesn't see a use for this yet either.
Schneider Greco	Cosimo and Achille have both been assigned as Tamamo's "gofers", in the former's words. Cosimo's got a wheelbarrow if she has any materials she wants them to be trucking around yet; Achille's got a rucksack; they've both got their submachine guns, for whatever that's worth, and a gnawing hungry look.      Whatever head-start their sanity got on the rest of Chicago's madness by spending a few hours in the shelter of the Walden, it's long expired by now.      Cosimo periodically wipes his mouth out with his handkerchief in restless disgust: even the slightest aftertastes of that hot dog he ate earlier are wretchedly metallic, now, on his tongue. Achille has started scraping his gold pocketwatch with his teeth; the gold is pure enough that his chewing can make a dent. "Can you-- can you stop that? It's not food. You know it isn't." "It's... I'm starving. Lay off me." "That's the Manus's bullshit talking." "It tastes like mama's sweet ricotta, alright?" "Mama's sweet ricotta doesn't tell time, Achille. You can hear it ticking." "But I'm hungry, Cosimo. Whole world's going crazy, now. I was even hearing it in the radio stations. If everything else is tilted, what's the point keeping my head on straight?" "... Give me a bite then." "Fuck you. Get your own."      The horse-drawn carriage pulling up draws both of them tense, in different tones. "Oh, shit?" "Ohh shit." "Think she--" "No."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel's a bit aghast at Regulus. "Hey, I was chewing that." He reconsiders. "Hm. I wasn't supposed to be doing that. *Man*, I am hungry." He doesn't have much money though, so he has to stop for now. But, in about ten minutes, he'll be chewing up the edge of his credit card.
James Bond	What could they want? Is there a trick?     "I doubt it," Bond says. "It would cost them a lot more than whatever they could accomplish. But I also wouldn't assume anything long-term just from this. A truce isn't a peace treaty."     He checks his watch--not so much to see the time, but to check on Schneider's position relative to here. It doesn't help in the immediate sense at all, but keeping track of pieces on the board is helpful in the abstract. Has it gone dark? But I don't really know why else they'd fly out here under a truce.     "They happen," Bond says, looking up from his watch, "And in most cases, they're not the prelude to anything else. They have something to lose, and know the other side does, too."
Timekeeper	Holly might not consider gold to be wealth, but everyone around her still does. The 'sunhat' of gold that she typically wears is on a whole other level to the copper and bills that would otherwise be tempting as food. The scent of it floods the room like cinnamon and rosewater, hypnotically intense and worse anytime she activates her Formae.     While Holly is going around healing, Sonetto has her hand clasped over her mouth, panting through her fingers. Despite the look on her face, her voice is perfectly even. "Doctor, would you please give me that. Or, put that away, rather. It seems that the presence of wealth increases the severity of the hallucinations that cause consuming normal food to be difficult." "How... did it go."     Sonetto presses her lips together uneasily. Out of both restlessness and an endless need to self-sacrifice, she elected to give up the stool at her place at the switchboard to someone else, so she stands through her many long phone calls. After that one to the Chicago branch, she actually *leans*. Her palms brace against the edge of the table, the short braid that frames her face hanging down.     "... With under half the expected time to prepare for the next Storm, it seems as though many typical precautions were not established. The Chicago branch has informed me," Phrased so generously that Regulus can imagine another one of those bell-medals materializing on her uniform as she speaks, "That there are no systems in place to provide on-site Storm Emergency support besides local Foundation personnel evacuations. That is all." "Is this some sort of trick?"     The Ainsworth district of Chicago has no buildings with gold embossments or lavish decor like downtown does. Consequently, most of the run-down facades look whole in comparison with the wealthier inner city, where before they were comparatively dilapidaded. By that same reason, there aren't many people left loitering around the streets-- after swallowing their jewelry, they've mostly either migrated to hunt for gold elsewhere, or gone to the hospital.     So the horses' hooves echo off the buildings and the street, along with the drip-dripping that rolls off of them with each step. Sonetto's eyes get caught in one of the horse's glowing stare, rolling the glasfeder wand between her fingers like she's trying to convince herself to attack despite the flag. "Do you think that Vertin and Lilian have struck some sort of peace deal with the Manus?"     "Timekeeper would not do that," Sonetto immediately says, as if they're being accused of something bad rather than helpful. "Or... their 'silver tongue'...? But the Manus Vindictae do not listen to reason." "Sonetto, think the Manus coulda found us here without Vertin telling them where to go?"     "... Ah?" Sonetto looks around, trying to gauge the cardinal relation of the Walden and the manor to here. "That's right. They were not aware of this location, and we removed every visible trace of the substance they could potentially have tracked us by."     If Vertin has somehow engineered a flawless plan that saves everyone even while isolated in enemy territory-- well, if anyone could, it'd be Vertin and Lilian. The idea of taking an offered invitation back to the Walden makes her stomach twist up anyways, thinking about Arcana's pervasive presence. "... If they are here to speak about anything besides the hostages, we will attack immediately. There is no need to hear them out about anything else."
Timekeeper	"A wary approach is the most likely 'best' move in such circumstances as these." "Yahoo! Boy am I glad that you're willing to give peace a chance."     Sonetto nods in agreement with Tamamo as the carriage comes to a stop. Before any wary approach can be made, Regulus trots off, and Sonetto makes a sharp gasp of sudden heart-pounding worry for *her* of all people. "Ah-!! Regulus!"     But the white flag wasn't just for show. The three helmeted Manus step out of the carriage doors, and within, everyone can see that there are four seats, certainly not enough to carry all of them back to the Walden like Veronica suggested. They're silent, as all the ones with the full-head masks are, but one of them grips the bottom 'jawbone' of her deer skull mask and rips it off with a gloved hand. Her mouth is still obscured by the steady spillage of black fluid, and there's no indication of it moving at all when her smooth voice comes out.     "Lord Forget Me Not sends his greetings."     They're not really willing to banter at all, actually. Nor do they seem to care about Holly, Flamel, or the two mobster traitors. Instead, like an uncanny answering machine, the deer-headed woman confirms what several of the Elites suspected. "We are to deliver a message."     Sonetto is hesitant, but the need to have anything at all about Vertin's well-being confirmed overrides her wariness. "Have you seen the Timekeeper? Do you know how the captives are?"     But after that initial announcement, the woman's attention narrows from the entire group, to just one member. One of the others, a faceless man in a suit and tailcoat, opens up the side door of the carriage and gestures to Tamamo as if to give her a polite hand up into the seat.     "Lady Rook has extended an invitation to her wife, Mizukume Rook, to join her under the protection of the Manus Vindictae for the imminent sifting. She assures you that you will be safe and treated well, and awaits you patiently within the Walden."     "What-?!" Sonetto recoils, shocked, but the woman continues before she gets in a word edgewise.     "Our second message is on behalf of the other new believer, Lady Vertin."     The third masked man circles around the back of the carriage and pops the trunk open. From within it, he lifts up a large coffin-like box, black ran through with blue, and carries it to the woman's side, before unceremoniously dropping it. "I'm hoping you can tell me about the status of Schneider Greco, there's a lot of people here who have some pretty major interest."     What Flamel gets in the playback of memory is a perfectly framed image of Vertin across from Schneider, gun raised and aimed towards her chest, and then the petal-like burst of blood out of her back. The top of the box pops open when it hits the brick road. Inside, the corpse of Schneider Greco is mangled and pale, dead from a shot that stains the left half of her dress with now-dried blood.
Flamel Parsons	The minute he reaches that area of the mind, Flamel Parsons' blood runs cold. His breathing stops. He goes pale. His easygoing, ever-optimistic, positive nature just... evaporates instantly. This is before the corpse is deposited. "V-Vertin--" He whispers. "She-- She shot--...!"     THUD.     Flamel rushes to the limp corpse. "NO!" He's calling out. "No, no, NO, NO, *NO*, *HOW*...!" He doesn't grasp at her, grab her in for a hug, anything like that. He falls to his knees next to the box, tears his sunglasses off, and just helplessly grabs at the side of the horrible container, his own cheeks, his face, wringing hands in the air aside him, throat and nose and eyes already filling up. "No, no, I was supposed to, I wasn't, I wasn't supposed to let, it wasn't, this, I, no... No... Nnnno...!"     His voice loses all sense of coherency, turning to a low-pitched whine or sob of grief, slowly, over time, as any sensible train of thought derails and any rationality just leaves completely. No dramatic trigger-pull, no sudden rush of heroic resolve, no revelation, nothing. Just a flood of grief and sadness and disappointment, the knowledge that the one time he was going to do this right has failed, coming off him in unbearable waves through his telepathy, his brain as choked as his throat.
Holly Asturias	"Doctor, would you please give me that. Or, put that away, rather."     "?"     Holly has to spend several moments with a confused look before understanding what Sonetto means. She ohs, scratches the back of her head, and nods, a bit reluctantly. Like a piece of herself being whisked away, for the good of everyone else present, she liquefies her countless golden accessories, her headdress, her hair clasp, even the ribcaged collar and corset that are part of her dress, reabsorbing the blood into herself with unpleasant noises.     After a short pause, she whines.     "I feel naked." Odette and Regulus.     "No. I will not hide," is a simple enough objection. "I have a responsibility to see through. Angry Manus or otherwise." "Lady Rook has extended an invitation to her wife,"     Holly squints. Moments ago Lilian was berating her for how quickly she would betray the Manus. Now this? What's her angle? She seems too principled for this not to be something else. Before Holly can overthink this... Inside, the corpse of Schneider Greco     "No..."     In a predictable rush, the doctor pushes anyone between her and the box aside, to immediately chain together every last Forma she knows that might help in diagnosis. How long ago? How much bloodloss? Is there the narrowest window where resuscitation might be possible? If she has to she'll get in there and lend blood and Ichor alike, personal cost be damned and accounted for later.     "Why would you not use the coin to call for me?"     She does not think to check if she even still has it.     The fact this is a message /from Vertin/ does not yet register.
Riku Asakura	'Timekeeper would not do that,' Riku raises his hands to Sonetto, as if in apology.  "I didn't mean anything bad by it, I just... have hope they could have managed to bridge a gap between them and us." Of course, it's soon to be revealed that his hopeful outlook is about to be smashed to pieces.   Especially because that carriage looks very tight for their party.   'We are to deliver a message.' Riku's face drops from potential hopefulness to a more neutral expression.  Obviously, they aren't here to bargain or to announce some sort of peace between them.  He takes in a breath, calming himself, and listens to what they have to say before sending them back. 'Lady Rook has extended an invitation to her wife, Mizukume Rook, to join her under the protection of the Manus Vindictae for the imminent sifting. She assures you that you will be safe and treated well, and awaits you patiently within the Walden.' Riku looks shaken by this. What does this mean exactly?  Why is Lilian sending for Tamamo?  No, something isn't right here; there is no way Lilian would leave them all to the storm.  Riku tries to hold himself together while he looks towards Tamamo herself.   Especially because that name is unfamiliar to him, 'Mizukume'.  He looks towards Tamamo, as if asking for an explanation.  Was it some sort of code?   The next thing that happens is a box being dropped unceremoniously on the ground.  "What... is in the box?" he asks.  It looks like a coffin, which is... well, something he can't overlook.  He takes a breath to steady himself before gripping the Fusion Riser tightly.   When the box opens, and Schneider's corpse is revealed, Riku's face twists into sadness; he's never seen death like this before.  He was afraid of Schneider because of her dangerousness, but when he found out she was doing it for family... Now she was dead.  His face twists into anger next.  "What the hell is this!" He says uncharacteristically.  He starts moving towards the messenger, until Flamel reveals that it was somehow Vertin who was responsible.  He breathes in, not believing it.   There is a change in Riku, his eyes glare with an anger he never knew he could house.  If Angela were here and could still monitor corruption, it might be spiking right now.  He could, right then and there, immediately turn into an Ultraman and fly his ass to the Walden.   "What did you do to her?!  What did you do to them!?" he demands.  Riku is /very/ angry now and unable to curb himself in the face of such a tragedy.
Tamamo	Parts of what happen are as Tamamo expected. A message delivered, with little otherwise given. No opportunity for argument or negotiation. In essence, it can only be a threat, whether or not it's given plainly. There can be no consideration for others when using masked pawns like this, and that lack carries through in the delivery.     What hits her, then, isn't the invitation itself. She'd been half-expecting something of the kind, some implication that Lilian and the rest had been caught. She wouldn't have to believe it, then.     'Mizukume.' Tamamo grinds her teeth, fingers fitfully touching the edge of her health talismans like there's an itching wound beneath them. Her breath catches, then proceeds too deeply, too quickly.     "Lilian is earnestly requesting my presence. There can be no mistake." It's difficult to take in everything, suddenly. Tamamo moves her gaze between each person present, trying to either impart an understanding, or to understand how they could take this, and right after she'd denied the possibility.     "We had not... yet made the decision to speak of it. She gave up a secret to ensure I would know this came from her." Or they've gotten into her mind, but that's both impossible and far more horrible. It wouldn't change what she has to do. Gripping her arm, she wonders why her jewelry now carries a faint scene of her own kitchen spices.     "The plan has changed." She can't attack from here, to draw them out, without knowing what will happen -- but knowing that Lilian wants her to go with these cursed messengers. "I need... I must go."     And for the rest? An answer doesn't come to her. There aren't enough seats. They aren't inviting everyone. Only--     "Ms. Sonetto, for you, at least... you should be by the Timekeeper's side, if only to ask her the meaning of this."
Veronica	"That's right. They were not aware of this location, and we removed every visible trace of the substance they could potentially have tracked us by."     "Well, shit," Veronica murmurs. "Maybe this *is* Vertin's doing."     The mention of a 'Mizukume Rook' gets a brief look of confusion from Veronica, before the 'wife' part registers and she catches on that it's an assigned-assumed name. A theory begins to form in her head: perhaps Lilian agreed to join the Manus of this era, in return for Vertin's safety. Veronica's not quick to trust the wealthy and politically powerful, but the title and funds of the Trídéag Association Director won't go nearly as far in Chicago of 1929 than it does in the City. Especially after seeing the vitriol with which Lilian fought through the Walden's crowd, Veronica's inclined to believe there's more going on than the Manus is telling them.     This theory is shattered when Flamel gives away what's in the box, doubly so when its contents are visible for all to see. Veronica wonders when she'll get used to seeing corpses. That has to be something Elites get used to eventually, right?     While several others rush forward to examine the body, confront the messengers, or in Flamel's case simply collapse in the street, Veronica looks aside, to Cosimo and Achille. There's a hell of a difference between small-town delinquents and big city mafia, but Veronica too has lost people after running in the same crew for years, and waits to see how the bereaved react before stepping in herself.
Regulus	''There are no systems in place to provide on-site Storm Emergency support besides local Foundation personnel evacuations.'' 'They couldn't even prepare just in case?!' Regulus complains in her brain but comes just short of actually voicing the comment. "Well shit," She said. "And I mean she's got a way of making people see sense, it's a good thing." Of course she thinks silver tongues are a good thing, she relies on her own--though wiht her success rate, maybe it's actually made of bronze. She is quiet at the idea of them having no way of knowing they'd be there, even if there was a spy in the Foundation there surely wouldn't be one in the Watch and the Foundation didn't know about this place. She has enough faith in Vertin and even Lilian that she's starting to wonder if her little goofy comment of Vertin winning them over somehow impossibly ended up the truth. Maybe Lilian told them off, using her power of making Regulus feel a little bit stupid sometimes for good. Good show if so, Lilian! ''Lady Rook has extended an invitation to her wife, Mizukume Rook--'' Regulus is stunned, but less so than she'd have expected if someone had told her in advance that Lilian apparently joined the ranks of Manus Vindictae. She needs to do whatever she can to make sure Tamamo gets out of this. It makes sense. But after thinking it over a bit longer, she wonders if it's just to get Tamamo to be her backup. That feels a little more likely after that initial impulse of shock and then acceptance. But Vertin... The message of Vertin joining Manus Vindictae is actually reassuring. Yes, she tells herself, she really is using her silver tongue, no her golden tongue to buy time, to figure something out. She's using herself much in the same way she sometimes uses herself with the Foundation. Regulus can't even entertain the idea that Vertin would abandon her and Sonetto or, really, anyone else here. "Well, guess that makes sense. You better hop and skip to it, uh, Mizukume, while the Manus are feeling charitable!" Regulus calls over to Tamamo before looking back to the Manus goons. "Well at least Vertin--Uh..." Her attempts to express chutzpah and guile is stymied when a coffin is dropped down before them. At first, she's dumbfounded, but soon enough she's getting an idea of what might be in there. They only mentioned two names. Any sense that this might be some kind of plan doesn't linger in her mind as the growing dread of what's in that coffin reaches her. And when it pops open...
Regulus	Regulus's eyebrows shoot up. "Odette! Odette hurry!" As she rushes over to the box. Oh god, she looks fucking dead, she absolutely looks dead. Maybe she's just knocked out. Maybe she just can't feel her breathing. She hears Flamel as memories flood into her head. She doesn't even think about how Schneider shot her once anymore, she thinks instead of how she helped when they were trapped in Flamel's scheme, how she cheekily quoted 'peace and love' right back at her, she thinks of vows she made to herself that she'd somehow get her through this, she thinks of a time when they could just talk together for a moment and make peace over Dr. Pepper and other tasty treats in a time that already feels forever ago. She hears the sorrow and anger rise up around her. If Flamel read her mind and read it deep, he'd hear the accusations. 'Look at what your so-great plan led to, you were so smart and now she's DEAD' but louder than that is an upswelling sorrow, something that despite everything they are presently sharing in common. Regulus clenches her fists impotently, resting her hands on the box as tears well up in her eyes. "You...You bastards. You utter crocks of shite! Did you have to be so cruel!? She helped you, and you do this to her?? For what, the crime of loving a family that was good to her? For keeping secrets??" Regulus shouts at the Manus. "You arseholes! Message received now fuck off and get out of here before I make you!" To Regulus, this isn't just a mockery of the very idea of peace in of itself, using the waving of a white flag to say 'In an existential conflict such as this, this is the only use for parley'. It is also a mockery of all her hope, her attempts to keep the spirits up of those around her, spitting her in the face and saying it amounted to nothing, idiot. She can smell it. Fuck. Her breathing quickens. "Odette do you need a--a cloth or something? Anything? It's not too late, right? Tell me it isn't too late... Please...!" Just for once, Regulus thinks, make me believe that she can truly truly rely on you and perform a miracle. She blubbers as she collapses to her knees. "Please, Odette..." She hiccups and sobs, helpfully. She's made so few new friends and she's already lost one.
Riku Asakura	'Lilian is earnestly requesting my presence. There can be no mistake.' So it was a code; there can be no mistake about it, but now Tamamo is leaving, with the murderers, to go be with Lilian.   'The plan has changed.' "How?" he says, on the borderline of a manic fit.  Everything in his body is screaming at him to make them pay, to fly at the Walden and do what his blood is telling him to do.  He'll recover from this later and probably feel pretty guilty about it.   "Please don't tell me you are going with these murderers.  We need to save Lilian and Vertin from them, not send people we need to them."
Tamamo	Tamamo's gaze goes from Cosimo and Achille and Riku -- already carrying their share of talismans made to disrupt the Walden, and over to Regulus and Sonetto -- part of the Timekeeper's 'crew,' in her own estimation -- over to Veronica's readiness to throw down just a moment prior, to Flamel's despair and Holly's worry, and finally... to Bond. James Bond, she hopes, and internally pleads, an oasis of reliability. Tamamo walks over to him with steps steadier than she feels.     "I do not know what will happen, here, but please, take this. The activation charm for the disruption array." Implicitly, this is something immediately dangerous to use. "Merely rip it apart, and speak, 'so lightning struck.'"     Quiet words that may not matter. She has to trust this hand to someone else, or else abandon her cards.
James Bond	Bond doesn't need to look to know--the watch confirms it. Damn it. Bile rises up in his throat. Part of him is upset that an advantage is lost. Another part of him is upset that he's upset about that, and not more upset--not furious--that someone clearly struggling and in need of help was just dumped, dead, unceremoniously as if in a ditch before him. What did you do to them!?     Bond's cautious distance from the carriage is thrown aside with the beginning of an urgent stride towards Riku, who's given him a productive angle to channel that frustration towards. Placing himself between Riku and the carriage, his hand finds the Riser--not seeking to take it from Riku, but to lower it with gentle, yet insistent pressure. "Stop. Listen to me. Listen." His other hand squeezes Riku's shoulder.     "I know you're angry. If we go running back there," he says, under his breath, "We're walking into a situation they control. We already did that once. Twice is suicidal. To say nothing of what would happen to Lilian or Vertin--or us, once all that energy spent starts to get to us as the Storm rolls in."     "We need information, we're tired and we're very short on time. Let those two go. Our people there know what they're doing, and if they need us to come and knock the place over, they'll say so. Quickly."      He removes his hand from the riser, turns, and faces Tamamo. "I suppose it's goodbye, then," he says, taking the charm. As far as the Manus in the carriage are concerned, it's the last time they'll see each other.
Odette Raskins	Cosimo and Achille talking about food makes the hunger pangs harder for Odette to ignore, especially when she's totally stealing occasional glances at them even without realizing they're talking about food at first. It's just a few here and there, at least, since the carriage is still her primary concern. "No. I will not hide," Part of Odette feels a lot more worried with Holly insisting on coming out, but the rest of her feels another wave of relief at knowing she'll be close at hand. "U-understood. Yeah... Yeah, I understand. Thanks, Doctor." "Lady Rook has extended an invitation to her wife, Mizukume Rook," "Our second message is on behalf of the other new believer, Lady Vertin." Now that she knows what the Manus are doing here, Odette continues to not be all that sure of what to do. She knows that she and everyone else need to get to her, Vertin, and Schneider of course, but the how and the details continue to elude her. Are they really expecting everyone to fit in that carriage? Does that invitation even extend to everyone here? There's also the matter of how close Lilian and Vertin suddenly seem to be, according to the messages being delivered. The genuine shock is apparent on Odette's face, but she makes no effort to hide or mute it once her mind starts reasoning through all that. Surely it's part of a ploy, but she can't let it be known that she knows that it might be one. It has to be some kind of way to get them all into the Walden, or to gather intel, and they must be trusting everyone else to get in there with their own abilities, right? Except Schneider looks incredibly dead in that coffin that's dropped right in front of the group, and Odette inhales sharply as she feels her stomach jumping right into her throat. She feels her arms shaking while reaching into her jacket, bringing out a one-eyed visor that she quickly affixes around her head to get a better look at Schneider's vitals. "Odette! Odette hurry!" "Coming! D.. Don't worry, Regulus. We'll take care of her." Another sharp inhale to remind herself that she's here to work and not think about that hungry pit in her chest, and then Odette gives Regulus a firm pat on the arm to try and... She's not sure why she did that, specifically. It just felt right while Regulus was shouting at the messengers. "We'll find out. If it's only been..." She trails off, trying to think of how many hours it could have been between the last time they saw Schneider and now. "Couldn't have been more than twelve hours, right? W... We can do this." She assures with a clenched jaw and shaky swallow while following Holly over to the box with rapidly shuffling footsteps. "Tools and blood are ready." She says, popping open her medical case while joining Holly in diagnosing Schneider's injuries and likely cause of death. "Wound sealing ready..." The blood packs come out sooner rather than later in addition to a whole pile of medicated bandages, ready to seal up wounds and get blood back in at Holly's direction in clear deference to the senior in this situation.
Riku Asakura	'Stop. Listen to me. Listen.' Riku's head snaps to Bond.  There is a wild look in his eyes.  It's not normal for the young man, but he does listen, and the Riser does lower, with some effort.   'Twice is suicidal.' Riku is close to saying he doesn't care, but he listens.  He takes some deep breaths, threatening to turn into sobs, but he listens.  Bond's words touch Riku, and the Riser eventually lowers until it's back on his belt.  The look in Riku's eyes has simmered into a less alien look and into something approaching embarrassment.   "R-right.." he states after a few moments.  He turns away once he's let go, and rebelts the Fusion Riser.  Tamamo is leaving; their chances of leaving this time without being erased by the storm are shrinking.   Worse, there was a dead girl here, caused by the Manus.  Riku, broken out of his trance, doesn't know what to do.  Their plan has been shattered.  Worse, it seems like those on the inside, in safety, have turned their backs on them.
Tamiel Luxis	Tamiel's shadow tries to shove a silver fork into her hand, and for a while she stares at it. Before, shuddering, she shoves it back. She looks, half-comprehending, as the Manus monsters drag forward and make their pronouncements. The coffin...     Coffin?     Pops open. And...     She's standing then, and then loping, and then flashing through the air in a black streak to fall by the side of the corpse. "No," she'd failed, she should have stayed behind, she should have made them take the Oath, she should have she should have... "She can't be dead," Tamiel insisted, her wings flaring to slow her dash to an abrupt stop. "No. She can't--That's--" She remembered those fleeting moments, in the ruins of the psychoportal project, the way that Schneider and Vertin had touched, had looked at each other. "She wouldn't. She WOULDN'T..."     And yet here Schneider was.     So small. So...still.     The angel joins Odette and Holly, a three person emergency triage, working to raise the dead. Her hands shook, as she clapped her hands together with a flash of energy. "Tell me where...!"     She couldn't raise the dead, but maybe, together...
Flamel Parsons	While the man himself is debilitated, something he left inside Tamiel's mind activates. Apparently, he chooses random telepathically-sensitive people to leave a fragmentary psychic construct in for just these occasions, a habit that has resulted in...     A short ping. A small, flickering pair of translucent sunglasses drifting nearby... "Emotional incapacitation event! Backup cognitive fragment online. Activating subsapient interpretations." A long pause. "Hi there! I'm Fragment Parsons, agentic subsapient pseudotulpa embedded in convenient nearby sapient. The information that has incapacitated my origin identity is: CLEAR VISUAL RECOLLECTION DATA OF TIMEKEEPER VERTIN SHOOTING SCHNEIDER GRECO THROUGH THE HEART." It moves to descend towards the box. "My origin identity will remain incapacitated by this information for: DURATION OF SOURCE EXPOSURE (CORPSE) PLUS APPROX. 1.3 HOURS. The verification level of this memory is CERTAIN."     Briefly, it's questioned. It tilts, like a confused dog. "Sorry, I don't contain the memory of this topic: 'MANUS VINDICTAE'. You have requested 'REASON TO BELIEVE I AM TELLING THE TRUTH'. Transmitting visual information now." And there it is: A pane of psychic glass of sorts, showing, on loop, memory 'video' footage of Vertin. She has her gun drawn, she is firing straight through Schneider's heart. She is shooting Flamel's deep attachment to all of this, dead, dead, dead without ambiguity.     The fragment has about the sapience level of two and a half portia spiders. It will be trivial for Tamiel to disrupt this. "Do you understand this situation? It needs to be fixed for my origin to stabilize emotionally." It whines, voice tinny and stilted. "Do you understand? Do you understand? It needs to be fixed. Do you understand..." It will loop repeatedly, until Tamiel's mental immune system gets rid of the fragment.     Flamel, kneeled over the box, just weeps, and sobs, incoherently.
Schneider Greco	"Schneider--?!"      "Madonna santa, it had to happen."      "Hey! Hey!! What's the point of all this, huh?! Parading her around, like a-- like some sick trophy?! Does that make you feel big, huh?? What's wrong with you, you sick pieces of shit??"      There's a small kerfluffle as Cosimo goes for his gun; Achille grabs his shoulder to calm him; Cosimo throws off Achille's hand, and for a second it looks like they might come to blows, before the shorter man deflates with a miserable hiss.      Achille shakes his head, and walks over to take a look with Holly.      It's even worse than it looks at first. Schneider's right arm is visibly broken-and-twisted below the elbow and her left leg is broken below the knee, the bruising looking as if a rope had constricted and crushed them. There are three gunshot wounds in her stomach half-hidden by her dress's red feathers, the one clean through her heart, and one in her 'good' left arm.      The way the blood mixes with the color of her dress makes it hard to tell how long it's been congealed. There's no rigor mortis yet, but her heart would have been destroyed- no resuscitating that. The red fluid is pooled in the coffin. Was she still bleeding and warm when they threw her in?      "Fucking hell," Achille breathes sick-reverently, with his hand on Flamel's shoulder. "... Sorry, boss. Piece of work, but..."      When Tamamo speaks, the taller gangster jolts to look at her: "Are you serious?! They fuckin'-- you know they'll kill you, right? Or worse, put one of those on you!" He gestures wildly at the messenger's drippy-black-deer-skull mask. He won't try to stop her- after a second, fumblingly and with his jaw slack, he takes the talisman and nods to the activation phrase- but he's still searching for words with face tense.      "Please. Tamamo. Missus Rook. If there's any way your wife might not really mean that... any way they could've gotten it outta her. You might be our best shot, and it sure looks like they're tryin' to take that shot away. Just--" BANG The first Manus messenger's helmet is clipped. Glancing shot. Achille's pistol, he jumps to realize, isn't at his waist. It's in the dead girl's quivering right hand; the couple fingers that aren't broken-twisted. BANG Second shot, half a second later. Through the messenger's throat. The dead girl is gripping Holly's hand with her wounded-but-unbroken one (cold; pale) and heaving herself halfway up. Her aim quivers with the pain of recoil-through-broken-bones, but without line-of-sight on the other Manus minions, there's no call for a third bullet.      Schneider opens her mouth to try to say something, probably to Tamamo or Odette, but when she does air rattles and bubbles through the chest-wound and she coughs up half-clotted red. Her eyes, still, are so miserably bright.
Tamamo	Schneider is dead -- and this being 'a message from Vertin' only registers properly in Tamamo's mind after Apple brings it up. What? That can't be... no, there isn't any obvious meaning to it, but there is a meaning. She's sure of that. It's hard to focus on this in-between--     There, Flamel wracked with the feeling of failure.     There, Regulus asking Odette for a miracle. If she's truly dead, that's beyond what even Tamamo's own miracles can perform, as she is now.     And there, James approaching Riku, speaking reason in the moment.     'I suppose it's goodbye, then.'     Tamamo gives a faint, sad smile. There's sincerity when she says, "It has been a quiet joy to walk this far with you."     Riku asked her a question, but she doesn't have an answer to it. She can't tell him -- or anyone -- how she truly feels in this moment. It's so much easier to say you'll risk 'the world' for the sake of one person when you aren't putting anyone else you care about at risk.     "Follow Mr. Bond's lead in this." It's a tactically sound decision, trusting in an experienced Paladin, and delivered confidently. It's also an excuse. It's a terrible thing to leave to others.     'They fuckin'-- you know they'll kill you, right? Or worse, put one of those on you!'     "They have not yet put one on her. I--" It's difficult to speak, for a moment. "I have to see her." There's no tone of voice that could outweigh how the words, themselves, sound.     "You will know, if there is violence there, by the lights in the sky." She seems about to say something more, but doesn't. An unnatural pause lengthens, right up until the sound of a gunshot.      BANG. "She--!"     Reflexively wary of a blind, dead, but mobile gunman, Tamamo moves only outside the firing arc, a practiced motion pulling healing talismans in between her fingers from her handbag, and then tossing them into the air. They fly as if pulled by wire to their destinations, over cheek and arm and heart. 'Mostly dead' is, by her standards, a completely different affair.
Tamiel Luxis	"My origin identity will remain incapacitated by this information for: DURATION OF SOURCE EXPOSURE (CORPSE) PLUS APPROX. 1.3 HOURS. The verification level of this memory is CERTAIN."     It's surprise, and shock, that gets Tamiel--she's in the middle of trying to find some spark of life to spread and feed into new flesh, when she pauses accosted by that voice that she had so grown to hate. "That can't...It CAN'T BE."     But the little tulpa she's been shouldered with contineud to blather on, and on, as Tamiel was knuckle deep in Schneider's (dead) body, she winced. But, habit and practiced kept her moving. "--Aah, I dont' want to see--" Everyone was screaming, distressed. It was hurting all of them.     Tamiel stopped. She looked to her side, and visualized a Psychonauts logo, with a pair of those infuriating glasses, floating in the air next to her. She built a bridge between in, and the little psuedotulpa broadcasting this...awful memory into everyone around them. And she reached her bloodied hand up, and...     Crushed it, cutting off the broadcast. "Shut UP." She hissed, "I'm WORKING." She turned back toward Schneider, ready to make another go, when--     Tamiel yelped, falling backward on the ground, as Schneider sat up in her coffin. She stared, openmouthed. "You--" She blinked at the wound. "But--" She tried to put everything together. "--Your heart?"
Regulus	Regulus says, "@emit Regulus looks like she's about to sock Flamel in the mouth but is distracted by a gunshot and, because she was pretty damn close to Schneider at the time, the intense ringing in her ear as a result of said gunshot. And then a second gunshot gets Regulus to shout "Fuck!" again. Regulus's gaze slants down to Schneider and sunglasses can't really hide her bewilderment because her mouth is hanging open. Did Odette and Holly and the power of jesus christ through Tamiel save Schneider? Regulus tries to say something profound or express honest amazement and celebrate a miracle but instead what comes out is.. "Z..zombie?! Zombie Schneider??" APPLe, now that Manus aren't directly a threat, floats over to Regulus and says, "Captain, look at her eyes, I believe she has simply somehow survived her wounds." Regulus looks at Schneider's eyes as she resists the urge to hug her because that would be a really bad idea right now. Her anger at flamel disipitates in an instant. A fucked up Schneider isn't exactly the best thing to celebrate in most circumstances except, of course, in cases where you were certain she was just totally dead. Hope fills Regulus's heart once more. "I don't bloody know what happened but Vertin's some sort of genius! I knew it! Always believe in Team Timekeeper, 100 percent success rate, always pulling through in the end, and I didn't even---" She sniffs snot back into her nose and rubs at her eyes underneath the shades. "Cry or anything! Come on, Odette--everyone! Hurry, use your 'Elite Nonsense Bag Of Tricks', she needs it quick! Flamel,. Activate Your Hope Neurons! The power of rock never left us after all!" She throws the horns into the sky in defiance or celebration? Defiabration."
Veronica	Flamel's meltdown and the graphic footage resulting, is enough to get Veronica to turn away, her stomach churning. Before the remains of two hot dogs can make a reappearance, however, she hears a gunshot, then another in less than a second. "Shit!" she exclaims, half jumping out of her skin as she whirls around. Somehow, impossibly, it's Schneider pulling the trigger.     In an instant, a presumed corpse becomes a distinctly live patient. Veronica's demeanor switches to all business, her pretensions of detached toughness left by the wayside. She can't match the supernatural healing practiced by Tamiel or Holly, but she can at least follow along with Odette's orders. In an instant she's standing by, digging through Odette's supply bag for the next tool or drug or blood pack as soon as the medic voices a need for it.     She tries not to crowd the others out of actually reaching Schneider - heaven knows she's had enough panicked 'helpers' on the power-plant floor to know where and when too many hands spoil the pot - instead acting as a go-between for Odette and her supplies.
Holly Asturias	Diagnosis.     A hurried array of Formae. Gunshots, broken bones, bloodloss-- and through the heart. "No, no, it's... there are no Formae potent enough to... if I had a lab, and a Revenant's heart, I could--"     Holly, angrily, considers Unethical Means.     She's disregarding Tamiel and Odette, not out of malice, but out of trying to keep her cool after failing one of her-- Gunshots.     Holly gasps. Right under her nose?!     "You--!"     Schneider receives a HUG.     She is going to a wonderful place.     Not for long, since Holly realizes without a reminder, scream, or bone crack, that she has a dying woman clinging to her.     "You!! You..."     Deep breaths.     Stress levels go down. Hunger goes back up.     Schneider is bloodsoaked.     "Please rest. Odette, Tamiel, with me!"     Ichor flows from Holly's heart to her hands, and then into Schneider. Regeneration to recover limbs, if there was a need to, and there practically is. The doctor pushes herself, visibly strains from a sudden, intense pain in her right arm, as a dim red glow breaches through her dress there in a way that is most unnatural and unhealthy.     'Dad... it hurts when I heal people... it's not getting better...'     '... I know, dear. You shouldn't push yourself like that. Leave the Sanatorium to me. Please.'     'But I want to be like mom!'     'Holly, your mother... wouldn't have wanted--'     'Shut up! You're always like this! I want to!!'     A deep breath.     Holly pours more of her Ichor into Schneider.     It's fine. It's *fine*.
James Bond	Schneider Greco has proven once before what she's capable of when Bond isn't armed. He'd thrown his gun aside--right now it's likely somewhere in the Walden--and she'd pulled the trigger, just to prove a point. It was an empty gesture, meant only to prove that point, not backed by any round in the chamber.     The point which she had intended is likely not the one he inferred--the one he inferred is 'don't trust me without leverage.'He has it, in the form of a Walther loaned to him by one of her own men. That pistol is pointed directly at Schneider. Always believe in Team Timekeeper, 100 percent success rate, always pulling through in the end, and I didn't even---     "This isn't a success until we know anything's been solved. Until or unless she can explain what exactly this was supposed to accomplish, it looks very much like the barest glimpse of an advantage was burned to buy us..." His eyes never leave Schneider, but it isn't until his next remark that he directly addresses her. "What, exactly? Two extra infiltrators? Intel from the other side that we can't use because your larynx is decorating the back of that goddamned box?"     Without lowering the gun, he takes a step away from the coffin, reaches into his coat pocket, and throws her a pen and notepad.
Flamel Parsons	A gun goes off near Flamel's head. His weeping doesn't stop, it doesn't even jolt him. He isn't affected by it, isn't affected by his little fragment being crushed into psionic dust, isn't affected by anything besides Schneider's motionless body. Motionless?     A gun went off.     ---     The Parsons institute is overrun. Blood-drenched feathers cover every surface. Corpses of workers, scientists, guards, are strewn throughout the halls, overrun by the outbreak. UPE-1929-B has breached containment completely and the outer containment systems have failed to hold it. An automated emergency PA voice warbles gently, incoherently.     Director Parsons watches camera after camera go dark from the depths of an emergency panic-room, while a blast door behind him thuds softly. He knows that the Institute will continue. Eventually the countermeasures will engage. The contingencies will activate. And rebuilding will get underway. And yet, he--     One of the cameras blinks back on. A woman staggers through the halls of the breached facility. Bleeding. And where she bleeds, the feathers retreat. It is hard to see her body, hard to see her face, through grayscale low-resolution analog camera displays. But the Director leans in closer, and recognizes one thing: There is a long-barrel modified wood-furnished M1911 in her hands. A weapon she raises, a weapon she slowly pulls the trigger on...     ---     The second gunshot. Flamel jolts back, shimmering psychic energy shaped like tears still streaked down his face as he watches everyone converge on what he was *sure* was a corpse. Confused, disoriented, still wracked by stress and grief, he slowly starts to comprehend what he's looking at, as he sees her body jolt, hears the soft rattle of her breath...
Tamiel Luxis	"Please rest. Odette, Tamiel, with me!"     Tamiel is shocked out of her stupor. "Right!" If there was life in her--even a spark--even a flicker--there was a shot. Her hands flickered with light, and then glowed. She laid her hands down on Schneider's shoulders and shut her eyes--     Cells flickered and died, life hung stubbornly at the cusp of existence by sheer stubbofrn will. Tamiel tried to remember the shape of a heart. Dying cells, she spurned, and fed, and encouraged. The bits of life that had fallen away, adapted to what came next, tried to move from 'Schneider' into 'something else,' she reminded of the light that they had once basked in.     The light...The light of...Tamiel only hit her stride when she realized, the light of Schneider's will to live. Unfathomable and bright-burning, desperate to seize the next down, bristling at the unfairness of a tomorrow never promised.     She deserved to live. She needed to live. She wouldn't ABIDE not living. "That's it," she breathed. That's who you are...that's who you want to be again...!     And she poured light in, and in, and in...and even with Holly's Ichor feeding the her vitality from the other end, Tammy's light flickered at the edge of her stamina, rapidly approaching the limits of her divinity, not sure she'd could mend the last pieces...
Timekeeper	The matter of Schneider's execution at the hands of the Manus Vindictae, for betraying them, was a simple case. Open and shut, the Manus Vindictae are evil, Schneider attempted to take advantage of them and then betray them for Vertin's shelter instead, and the karmic punishment that would befall her for that is death. It was wrong of her to join the Manus in the first place-- this brutal, inhumane treatment is their status quo.     ... Whatever the reasoning. The tragedy of it doesn't trump the basic facts of loyalty. It would take a god, or Vertin, to avert that fate.     And it's not like she owes anything to Schneider at all. She shot her, insulted her, worked against the Foundation on numerous occasions, and was a shameless criminal arcanist. She was a murderer, a thief, and a terrorist. Whatever relationship Vertin had with her, it was one that could only undermine their self-control and their hard-fought responsibility to their duty to the Foundation, as evidenced by Schneider being the reason that Vertin and Lilian are captives.     The word 'relationship' suddenly makes the world swim around that horrible box. More than the hug that followed, the bright, unadulterated relief on Vertin's face when Schneider appeared in the labyrinth to join them is sharp in Sonetto's memory. If not for that expression, that felt like it could knock Sonetto off her feet in shame, she would never have let Vertin out of her sight then. Cosimo, Achille, Marian, Schneider's mother whose name Sonetto will never know; the city of Chicago makes such vibrant expressions at Schneider, as if the world itself loves her.     Like a broken bird in a shoebox. Like a little green frog, reached for through a fence only to dissolve before her fingers brush against it. The love of the world can be seen through the window and no farther. She doesn't realize there are tears in her eyes until Flamel's recorded projections of the scene of Vertin shooting Schneider through the heart blasts into her mind, and they shake loose when she furiously snaps her head to the side and almost strikes him with an incantation.     "Stop! Don't! I don't want to see that! I don't want to know what th-they told you to say!" "You arseholes! Message received now fuck off and get out of here before I make you!"     In wordless agreement with Regulus, the arcanum that glows in Sonetto's wand finds its place sloppily scrawling out a spell in the direction of the messenger. It's only Tamamo that makes her stop the incantation before it completes, with the ribbon of light floating in stasis.
Timekeeper	"Lilian is earnestly requesting my presence. There can be no mistake."     "Wh-what? The Manus Vindictae cannot be trusted. They..." Sonetto's wand hangs in the air, and the cursive words trailing from its tip fizzle with unfocused light. She looks towards Tamamo helplessly.     Looking to someone trustworthy rather than at the corpse helps her set her mind in order rapidly, actually. It's unlike Sonetto to react to the death of what should be an enemy at all, much less emotionally. Her breathing is heavy and the teartracks stay etched on her face, but her eyes steadily lock on Tamamo.     "... She is? Then... she must have a plan, right? And Timekeeper as well. But going with the Manus Vindictae seems far too dangerous. They could have employed torture, or alchemical compulsions, or they could have made false promises in order to separate us." "Ms. Sonetto, for you, at least... you should be by the Timekeeper's side, if only to ask her the meaning of this."     "But Timekeeper is..." Her attention falls without moving her face from Tamamo's. Diagonally down, like an anchor in her mind, the 'message' on the ground. In a shrinking voice, her question is both rhetorical, and strikingly not, as her eyes flicker over to the deer-maked woman. "How can I be by her side?"     The Manus Vindictae don't show any particular animosity towards the group even as several of them rev up to attack them. The trunk is closed again, apathetically leaving the box on the ground in the middle of the street. The other masked man repeats his gesture for Tamamo's hand, and the woman shifts like she's just about ready to leave.     Then, Lady Tamamo, you are awaited in the Walden. Lord Forget Me Not has prepared a welcome--" BANG     "Ah?!" Sonetto is taken by surprise by the first shot, but before the second rings out, and before she's even consciously registered that it's Schneider shooting, she's completing the incantation she left off earlier to blast one of the other minions with a ray of light. "If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide / By self-example mayst thou be denied!"     Then, "What? Schneider! You're...!"     Sonetto's heart leaps, and then stutters hectically. Healing arcanum interferes with other healing arcanum unless managed properly, so she has no magic to contribute, and instead what bursts out of her mouth is, "Timekeeper! How are they?!"
Odette Raskins	Seeing so many more wounds on Schneider than Odette expected isn't in itself horrifying, but even her training isn't enough to keep the bile from starting to bubble up in the back of her throat. Could Vertin have really done all this? The Fragment Parsons did show the one shot through the heart, but what of these other wounds? Burping quietly despite herself, she turns her head briefly before shaking her head and spitting off to the side. "Details later... Need to close up the wounds first, I think. If-" While Odette is distracted with assessing the bullet wounds, she doesn't even notice that Schneider's already grabbed Achille's pistol. It's only when the shots start ringing out that her eyes go wide, both in surprise in seeing a supposed corpse moving, and at realizing she's been approaching this the wrong way entirely. Rather than a corpse, they're working with a live patient now. "How doesn't matter. If she's a zombie, she'd have bitten us already!" She answers Tamiel and Regulus in quick succession, not ready to give herself time to relax once things start piecing together in her head again. Schneider's alive, so she must be in pain. She's gurgling, so there might be fluid in her lungs. How much time do they still have to get to the Walden and regroup with everyone? "Odette, Tamiel, with me!" "Right! Okay, let's get... Yeah, here. Easy now, Miss Greco." The treatment continues at a rapid clip, moving along faster with Odette knowing that Holly and Tamiel are handling the parts that she can't do nearly as quickly as they can. That leaves her free to focus on treating the bullet wounds and extracting the most dire fragments of bone and shrapnel that might have broken off inside of Schneider, sped along with the power of Veronica acting as her dedicated  supply-mover. "White patch." "Blood bag." "Lumpy vial." "Gray patch." "Big gauze." She chugs the contents of lumpy vial and spits the vial out on the ground a moment later, resisting the urge to bite right into it. The rest of the things she calls out for are easy enough for Veronica to get from her bag even though none of them are labeled. Aside from one vial that she calls for mistakenly getting set aside, all of it is in service of replacing Schneider's lost blood, closing up the gunshot wounds to prevent further excessive bleeding, and providing Schneider with a steady trickle of painkillers to help her gun-shooting arms function at least a little less painfully. "Timekeeper! How are they?!" Odette opens her mouth reflexively, like she's about to try and get Sonetto to slow down before reminding herself that everyone here is on a tight timetable. More importantly, it looks like the medical team really did just pull off a miracle, just like Regulus wanted. Odette manages a shaky grin at Holly, Tamiel, and Veronica, then at Regulus before turning back to Schneider. "M-Miss Vertin's got to be alive. They wouldn't have called her their newest member if not for that... Right?" She looks to Schneider for confirmation of that, half-hoping that she's spot on after that footage from Flamel moments ago.
Riku Asakura	'Follow Mr. Bond's lead in this.' Riku looks at Tamamo for a long moment, and then just... Turns his head to the side to look away.  What are they going to do?  They don't have the time, so forming another plan is whittling down the time they have left, and more than that, she's going to those murderers.  He's unable to speak because right now things are looking quite at their darkest, and she's going straight to the lion's den. 'Then, Lady Tamamo, you are awaited in the Walden. Lord Forget Me Not has prepared a welcome--' BANG Riku is struck by surprise when Schneider shoots one of the Manus with her borrowed gun, too surprised to move.  He can't believe his eyes for a moment, despite the death of the Manus woman.  He's seeing death too much lately, and it's starting to get to him.   <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Might someone please try to remove the messengers before she shoots any more of them?" <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "They are not likely to be a threat." Riku isn't sure if he should do anything.  However, a familiar phrase comes to mind.  "Standing around doing nothing won't get us anywhere..." he breathes.  He moves to the Manus who is left and just carries him to the carriage and tosses him inside.   "If you're going to do something, then... good luck, I guess," he finally says to Tamamo.  It's not easy to say this; time is running out.  There is no way out except with the Timekeeper.
Tamamo	'How can I be by her side?'     Tamamo does not turn her head toward the four seats in the carriage. She only holds a moment of silence. Then, "I could make sure of it." This time, she doesn't have to feel guilty saying it. The confidence doesn't require faking. In the worst case, more grief will arrive, but it won't be for anything she did, nor for the lack of it.     She doesn't want to betray her trust, but that goes for many people.     And then, everything happens quickly. <J-IC-Scene> James Bond says, "She's not a zombie. I can tell because the first thing she did after getting back up was to needlessly complicate things, which she loved to do when she was alive."     Reasoning that it would be easier to ask the targets be moved than to ask Schneider to stop shooting them, Tamamo makes her request, and Riku carries through, while the talismans she threw are given time to work. Unlike Odette's work, her magic draws on existing sources of energy in the body to accelerate healing, controlled to distinguish helpful and unhelpful growth by the details of the design and supplemented by what she pours into the inking, which happens to turn out meaning that there's little chance of cross-purpose effort... though the same may not be true with others.     Now left in a moment of limbo, Tamamo can only wait on the answer to Sonetto's question. Part of her wants to just head in, regardless. A large part of her. Matters of zombies and firearm-related miracles don't change that Lilian is waiting for her.
Regulus	''Timekeeper! How are they?!'' "Ah, Sonetto! I'm sure once her wounds are treated she can tell us!" APPLe warns her, worried about--of course--people crowding a patient who is still very much not in good shape. ''This isn't a success until we know anything's been solved.'' Regulus looks to James Bond. "Hey this is the first time we've got one up over them all day, it's a sign!" She assures James Bond as if she somehow thinks this is going to convince him. She sniffs again. "My friend's alive..." and hiccups again. It's true that they don't have time to fuck around but she doesn't think trying to rush this is gonna help at all. Schneider has a unique power, the power to shoot people in the face, and--notably--that's where the Manus Vindictae masks go! She can't let Bond remind her of the unfortunate reality when she has so much worth hoping for right now! ''I could make sure of it.'' "You could say you took Sonetto prisoner, maybe?" Regulus thinks it over. "Oh! Actually, I mean, you could even just uh--say your loyalty is to Vertin first and insist to be by her side. Vertin and Tamamo could vouch for you." She hesitates and then adds, "Uh but wouldn't they be suspicious of you, Tamamo, if you're not...going in with Manus Vindictae guards?" She looks hesitantly over to the bodies. "...Do we have to put that stuff on? Maybe we should make sure Schneider's okay first, she probably knows what the actual plan is so even if it slows us down, we really gotta wait for her to get on her feet. At least she can tell us what's going on." She looks back to Tamamo. "What do you think? Could we fool 'em to think your escort didn't get got? I guess you could say we took 'em out in anger though instead."
Schneider Greco	"What the fffh--?! ... Hahh... don't ever scare me like that again, boss." "Madonna." "You're thinkin' of Jesus." "Stow it you sycophant. Schneider... how are you alive?" "Hey, say sorry for doubting--" "Hey hey hey, what the fuck! We just got her back! Where do you think you're aiming that?!" Achille is, at least, wise enough not to try to tackle Bond when he's got a gun aimed at Schneider; but already unslinging his submachine gun to fight the Manus along with Cosimo, he takes a step back and menaces Bond with it in turn instead.      The body that the name 'Schneider Greco' wears is, as Bond surmises, among the living. She's breathing, if with gurgling difficulty; she is cold, but not quite the cold of death; there's a pulse in her wrist and in her neck...      But not in her chest?      Glaring aside at Bond's gun, she tries to push herself upright with the pistol against the coffin's floor. She stumbles once, because its barrel is shorter than she's used to. On the second try, half a second later she gets nearly to standing; then something crunches in her twisted leg again, and she drops. Third try...      Ah, no. She's being hugged, now. The way she delirious-wetly coughs at soft pressure being applied to several wounds, however understandable the impulse, sounds fondly aggrieved.      As the scuffle dies down, she eases back into the casket, but she insists on sitting up (hunched forward like a sick dog) rather than lying down. Her jaw works to try to answer questions; then she weakly bats away Bond's notebook-and-pen with the back of her hand, and covers the bubbling hole in her ribcage to speak. It's not her first sucking chest wound.      "Ghhh... hahhh... sorry... for the mess," she says, especially to those healing her, but really to everyone but Bond.      "Ah... alive," she says to Sonetto and Odette. That's the most succinctly she can put the Timekeeper's state. Not 'fine'.      "Your wife... hhhh, hah... is quite an actor, my-la-dy," she says to Tamamo.      Her eyes reluctantly shut for a few seconds. She doesn't object to Odette's needles. Her head, for a little while, rests against Holly's shoulder. "... Thank you." Once her strength has come back a little, she crudely re-locates some fingers on her right hand by squeezing them with her left; once it's come back more, she gingerly touches her leg, seeing if that needs to be 'straightened' by force too.      While tending her, one might finally locate her heartbeat... on the right of her chest, flipped from the bullet-wound. One in ten thousand. A miracle, or a plan. It does seem like the only way one leaves the Manus is in a coffin.      "My-lord, it al-most seems like you are not glad to see me?" she purrs at Bond. Then she cough-coughs up a bit of residual fluid from her lungs, covering her face, before clinging to Holly and trying to stand again. The group can muster a lot of healing, but it takes very little of it before Schneider- regardless of what Odette might be trying to bandage or inject- is again determined to be on her feet.      "Don't," she breathes to Regulus and Tamamo leaned against Holly, "go to the Walden. Lord Vertin, Lady Rook... they will-not be there. I know where." She shakes her head slowly. A rueful small smile is slowly starting to return to that pale girl's lips.
Regulus	Regulus has the werewithal to not hug someone covered in wounds but she is pretty much just barely holding back her impulse here. ''Sorry... for the mess.'' Speaking to Schneider almost like how she spoke to Arcana, Regulus bows her head. "Do not worry. I, the great Regulus, forgive you. Jesus, when I saw that coffin my heart jumped all the way up to my throat." She takes a breath and then turns on Odette, barely listening to her as she gives her a ginormous hug in lieue of being able to hug Schneider, lifting her feet off the ground by like an inch in the process. "Thanks Odette." She breathes. ''I know where.'' Regulus beams and takes Schneider standing as a sign. "Okay careful hug, caaareful hug..." She gently wraps her arms around Schneider, for a moment, then pulls back. "Okay, uh. ....lead the way?"
Timekeeper	"Ah, Sonetto! I'm sure once her wounds are treated she can tell us!"     Suddenly firm, Sonetto responds to APPLe with much less sentimentality than was in her voice a second ago. "We do not have the luxury of time. The Storm will arrive in a matter of hours. Schneider is not someone who languishes in her injuries." "Ah... alive,"     Oh thank goodness. Even though it didn't seem like Vertin had been killed before, the confirmation that she and Lilian are both alive and just acting!! at joining the Manus Vindictae still relieves the crushing worry that's followed her since Vertin left her sight. Sonetto breathes out slowly, settling down her tear-clogged throat and galloping heart.     "... Yes. Good. But they are still captured. Schneider, was there anything else you learned?"     The last Manus Vindictae follower actually is not super cool with being picked up and carried while his companions are killed in front of him. He struggles with Geed's grip, making a low muted groaning noise of frustration, exerting his strength but seemingly forbidden from drawing a weapon.     Compared to the masked humanoids, the skeletal horses somehow come across as more intelligent. Their glowing violet eyes glance at each other and one of them gurglingly whinnies, and the carriage rocks back and forth as the horses start trying to back away from the brief conflict towards the Walden. Hopping in the carriage now would still bring Tamamo back, probably, but the messengers are very conspicuously dead. "I could make sure of it." "Actually, I mean, you could even just uh--say your loyalty is to Vertin first and insist to be by her side. Vertin and Tamamo could vouch for you."     Sonetto makes an expression like she's had a bowl of spaghetti dumped in her bare hands. She forces her way through the sentence, "... I am loyal to the St. Pavlov Foundation. Vowing to join the Manus Vindictae is not a small thing, even for the purposes of subterfuge, assuming the Manus did not kill me on the spot for being a field agent captain." "Lord Vertin, Lady Rook... they will-not be there. I know where."     "That is what you were sent for?" The puppydog-like hope in Sonetto's expression says it all. Now that Schneider isn't dead, that means that this was just all part of the grand design, and that means that Vertin has a plan, which is basically like Vertin being here to make all of this make sense.     "Please elaborate. We have several capabilities to divert the Manus's attention in large distractions, but we will need your intel in order to capitalize on it."
Holly Asturias	No help will be denied. To heal this much this quickly means Holly is scarring herself, but that's how it is sometimes. That's the price. It isn't fair, but she pays it happily. Tamiel and Odette make it that much less taxing, and it's appreciated.     Once Schneider can talk, is whole, and mobile, Holly does her best to be a warm cushion and a reassuring presence. Once Schneider wants to stand, Holly frets, but offers what support the smaller woman is willing to accept. An arm or a leg, or her hip. Whatever works.     But the arguments, the debates, the desperation to act, it means she can't rest on this little victory just yet. Her nose scrunches a bit, at Schneider's smell, at Odette's bags of blood, at freshly spilled blood from the Manus goons. The only thing keeping the building hunger in check is her duty, and that's not going to last much longer now that she's pushed it.     And she's not done pushing it. As long as Schneider is willing to remain in her care and proximity, she'll keep channeling Ichor through her. Muscles and bone'll mend, in time, or at least enough that Schneider can mind herself for now. She seems on good terms with pain.     "Don't thank me yet. The Storm is imminent, isn't it? We aren't safe." She looks at Tamamo and Sonetto, briefly, wondering what their next move HAS to be. Or if they should consider splitting up.     "Abandoning Lilian and Vertin to the Manus leaves a foul taste on the tongue, even if I presume they can handle themselves. At least we know wherever they are should shelter us too, if we can get in."     Schneider knows where. And Schneider will surely insist on going.     Holly decides it's pointless to insist Schneider rest more.     "I can continue treatment from the inside, and the assimilation should help you move and fight if you need to. Will that be acceptable, Schneider? As your physician I should press the fact it's that, or rest."     It should slow down the Syndrome a bit, too.     Or the hunger, at least.
Riku Asakura	Riku, not Geed, is strong enough to handle a single person.  He, by human standards, is freakishly strong.  "If you don't want to die, stop struggling and go back to where you came from," he says, with a tightness to his voice.  He's not a fan of the Manus, but he's not about killing either.  If he breaks out of his grip, then... well, Jesus take the wheel at that point. Cuz, well, Schneider will likely kill him. Riku steps away from the carriage.  Schneider also knows where they are heading next, which is good.  She's incredibly injured, which is less good.  However, she's got four healers on her, so that's good.   He also looks at Tamamo.  "If you go, then the plans for the plan to strip them of their storm protection go with it," he says, with a look towards Tamamo.   He looks towards Schneider; she's got the info they need.  With that, they have the hope of a plan again.
Flamel Parsons	It takes a while for Flamel to get back on his feet. To rub his face clear of snot and tears and to get his head back on straight. And you know what? As predicted, he won't be fit for fighting for another hour and change. But this is a million times better than Schneider being dead. "Lead-- lead the way. Wow. Oh, that was awful. Lead the way. Or guide the way, you need to rest, but--" He manages to figure out how to speak a bit. "But, thank you for living."     "Thank you for living!"     Alright. Hurry up and get the hell out of here. Schneider knows the way and for once Flamel isn't in the right state of mind to go just plundering information out of someone's brain. God only knows what he'd do if Schneider actually died.
Regulus	''We do not have the luxury of time. ... Schneider is not someone who languishes in her injuries.'' "Ah--is that so?" APPLe looks to REgulus. "Wow, Sonetto! you know her so well!" Regulus makes the mistake of winking behind her sunglasses again but her lip and cheeks shift a bit that it might be noticed all the same. But otherwise, Regulus does give Sonetto space to do interrogation, not quite at the point where she can smugly cross her arms and add 'yeah' and 'tell it' while standing behind and slightly to the right of her. But she naturally winces a little when she indicates that it's not exactly free to even lie about joining the Manus. Not just because, well, that is a very Sonetto rejection of the idea--like--obviously TWO PEOPLE she likes did just pretend to join the Manus Vindictae. Maybe nobody has to tell them, Regulus thinks to herself, then remembers what Sonetto said about how accustomed she is to Vertin being unable to tell her certain things and she grimaces. Okay, well, maybe if they survive this and bring back some intel they'll just slap Vertin's wrist. Uggggh. But the hope in Sonetto's eyes is a relief in of itself and it helps push away dark thoughts about the future. ''I can continue treatment from the inside.'' "Whaaat." Regulus then shakes her head as she realizes she doesn't have time or energy to be weirded out by whatever the fuck THAT means. It's fine. A vampire can ride inside Schneider or something. Better than being dead, a zombie, or worst of all: LATE. ''Please elaborate.'' "Yeah, I bet you're as ready for some payback as the rest of us." Regulus dramatically punches her fist into her palm. ...And then winces and shakes out her hand. "Owwie..."
Tamamo	'... I am loyal to the St. Pavlov Foundation.'     "Of course. That has never been in doubt."     'That is what you were sent for?'     'Optimistically,' Tamamo doesn't say, just as she says nothing relating Flamel gratitude to anyone else's just-past situation.     'If you go, then the plans for the plan to strip them of their storm protection go with it.'     "I have prepared everything necessary, and shown the patterns, but that plan was for the Walden, and we know naught whether there shall be a chance, elsewhere. That is the greater trouble." With the prep done, she can hand out the capability, but that doesn't mean it's going to be useful. They only need to draw out Druvis if it's in another forest, though that does feel likely. <J-IC-Scene> Schneider Greco says, "... It is good to see you again. Mmmh, I'm glad half of you have smiles for me. The others..." <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "I shall need more than to catch my breath to find reason to smile, regretfully."     'We do not have the luxury of time.'     'Don't thank me yet. The Storm is imminent, isn't it?'     Those aren't the only reasons Tamamo's pulse won't settle down, but it's all related. She's come close to scratching the talismans off her arms, layered like bandages. Once again, she stills her fingers by will, and ignores the scents of gold. With this intel, knowing the destination...     In fact... Does this change anything, at all?     Everyone can proceed together on a new plan of attack, to fight the Manus Vindictae, in the scant hours remaining, now following Schneider Greco's recollection of their safehouses, and also hear of its defenses so as to break in, while within await Vertin and Lilian, pretending as if they'd joined the Manus, and now needing to... what? How will they be expected to respond, during an attack? What will Lilian think, after risking so much, only to...     He struggled while being thrown, but didn't draw a weapon. They could have done so. They are ever under orders.     "Well!" Tamamo claps her hands, once. "This is all very good, and will allow all of us to enter the new -- or, old, perhaps -- safehouse. And there they will know we are coming, for their messengers have not returned, and we have since determined that the masks carry with them some manner of communicative ability." She doesn't know that for sure. There's been nothing to say it's two-way.     "And so, there is no advantage lost in accepting the invitation." Tamamo leaps up without waiting for additional argument, unable to settle the minute trembling in her hands the moment she isn't moving. Taking the footman's position, she also takes the reins, and gives the suspiciously intelligent horses a tap. "I shall see you there."     She has, technically, already said goodbye to Bond, and left her instructions with Riku. It's to another, then, that she adds, "Be sure to heed Mr. Bond, as well, Ms. Sonetto. He has some experience in these matters."     Could someone catch up to her? Probably.     It wouldn't be wise.
Schneider Greco	Schneider is hip-to-hip and head-to-side against Holly. She peels her coat off- her chest is spattered-red and her legs are trickled-red, and the inside of the once-black coat is red too, leaving her skin with a wet noise. There are four holes through its back and one through its sleeve.      "It would be nice if there were time to wash it... ahh. Never-mind about the mending," she sighs. "Cosimo. Your coat?" "... Boss, I'm glad to have you back, but there's limits, alright?" "I could stick you up for it, you know."      For Flamel, her eyes twinkle a little; she puts a hand on his shoulder gently, trying to nudge him up. "I would-not be so cruel to you, my-lord, as to waste your kindness. You've done your best for me, right? Some-times, good work has fruit. Some-times."      And sometimes, when the big things are a lot, you just try to focus on the little things. She tests whether her leg hurts a little or a lot, judges it to be 'not too much', and slowly straightens her posture while picking at the healing talismans.      She's still a canvas of splattered red and bruised purple, but this will do. "Mmmh, if I have the forgiveness of the great Lady Regulus, what can go wrong for me, right?"      But Holly and Sonetto are all business. Even as she is, Schneider knows better than to waste time. Clucking her tongue softly at 'what you were sent for': "I sent myself to save my skin, you know. It is your good luck that I also know things."      ". . . The Weyerhauser Forest, they are having the governors call it a 'disaster relief camp'. Food, medicine, the money-sick from the Storm, all will go there as the Manus make it a safe-house. And the Storm will make it theft. It is the per-fect crime, right? Keep the bodies and the goods; ev-ery-thing else, let it be washed away..."      Ah, but there's something else relevant. Flapping out her coat, with her bullet-holes, reminds her.      "Ah, right... the Lady Arcana, she seized Lord Vertin's mind a moment. It was done when she seemed to hes-i-tate to 'kill' me; done with-out a mask, and without incantation. The Lady Rook, I think, she was care-ful to seem obedient to not have Arcana grip her the same. I hope they will meet us still in their right minds, my-lords... but around the Lady Arcana, be care-ful."      Tamamo hops up on the coach. Schneider's eyebrows lift. She does a little divinatory palm-droplet-splash; it's crude, but only takes a second.      (Her own life, the divination-drop tells her, doesn't hinge on whether or not Tamamo goes. That's usually all her arcanum can say.)      "... My-la-dy. I be-lieve the Manus will-not kill you; but there is no saying if they will let you see your Lady Rook before the Storm. Should they keep you a-part..." There's an uneasy tilt to her head.      Could the Manus use 'your wife is in a different safehouse' as leverage to turn Lilian against the rest of them? ... Schneider is convinced she'll live; so either the answer is no, or it will work out somehow. The rest is Tamamo's choice to make. She shakes her head, still uneasy; never-mind.      Schneider doesn't intend to let any of the Manus messengers leave, but horses tell no tales.
Riku Asakura	'. . . The Weyerhauser Forest, they are having the governors call it a 'disaster relief camp'.' "It's also a place where that druid can use her powers to their advantage..." Riku pipes in.  He looks up from his spot and towards Schneider.  "So it means it's going to be on their terms again..." he takes a breath.  Not relishing this turn of events, at least it wasn't the Walden again. 'Ah, right... the Lady Arcana, she seized Lord Vertin's mind a moment.' Riku looks aghast at that, "She can control others' minds?  That's dangerous..." he says.  He can't imagine turning his powers on his friends, but if they could control Vertin, what could he do?  Maybe there is a distance component to it, so Riku considers only trying to deal with Arcana at range.   'The Lady Rook, I think, she was care-ful to seem obedient to not have Arcana grip her the same.' "At least we know she's not being controlled. I'd be more than a little afraid to confront Lilian," he means that Lilian is frightening when she's fighting.